#but if the strike goes past october | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cbrownjc · 7 months ago

Note

Hello :) I was wondering if we ever got confirmation about which books Rolin is interested in focusing this adaptation on? I know that they'll probably take elements from most (if not all) VC books, but if they're aiming at 7-8 seasons with some books taking multiple seasons to adapt, they're going to have to pick and choose which books to really dig into.

I was also thinking about production. I've seen people talk about how we'll need to wait another 1.5-2 years between seasons and I kinda doubt that? I feel like we'll start speeding things up and getting a new season every year, mostly because I just can't see them go for 12+ years of production on this show. Very few shows nowadays go more than 10 years, and if they really want to do 7-8 seasons I can't see how they'll manage that with 1.5 to 2 years in between each season. I understand they're in for the long haul with the Immortal Universe but...that's very long in the modern drama landscape.

Honestly I am mostly just hoping to get new seasons more frequently and also be able to see their full vision realized because the longer it goes on the higher the chance they'll run into issues like actor availability, leadership changes that could impact renewals, budget restrictions, etc. What do you think?

Hello!

Okay, first to answer the production question. Now, while many shows rarely go past 10 years wrt production of them, that is really dependent on their Season count. Game of Thrones, for example, only ran for 8 Seasons, and production only lasted 8 years as well.

The Walking Dead ran for 11 Seasons and was produced over 12 years.

AMC has said in the past (or, at least, Rolin Jones has said that AMC has said) that they wanted 10 Seasons for IWTV. RJ, however, has been consistent in saying he has an 8 Season plan.

So whether the show continues on for at least 2 more years after Rolin's 8 Season plan is up in the air right now and we should just focus on, at most, getting 8 Seasons, Which yes, I think will take over the course of 8-9 years to film.

Because I think starting with Season 3, the wait and production times will decrease over time. Remember, the strikes threw a bit of a wrench into things. But what also did regarding Season 2 was that it's clear that Rolin and the writing staff didn't start actually writing Season 2 until AMC had officially greenlit Season 2 back in September of 2022. That is why shooting for Season 2 couldn't start in the fall of 2022, there were no scripts broken, let alone written yet!

And then, once the scripts were done, they still had to start pre-production stuff, such as location scouting, figuring out which sets needed to be built, etc.

So shooting for Season 2 could only start shooting when it did because it was the earliest they could get all that done once they were given a renewal notice.

I think things are very different when it comes to Season 3 because I think, even if the show hadn't already been quietly renewed for Season 3 before it was officially announced, RJ and the other writers were already breaking and writing the scripts for Season 3 starting either just before or while Season 2 was airing. And so given that writing time, plus the fact that they probably don't have to do as much location scouting (since many of those locations were already found in Season 2) pre-production will likely take less time.

I think filming will begin in late October, meaning we'd get an October 2025 release date. Which I think will be the standard release window going forward with each new season and why the wait will be another long one again, but that will also give the production staff and actors breathing room after they are done filming a season before going into the next one.

So for that reason, I can see production of the show lasting 9-10 years, but that is because of the extra 1/2 year gaps between the filming and airing of Season 2 and the one I feel we are going to get for Season 3.

As well as the fact that I think when they get to Queen of the Damned, that will be a true split-season like the one Breaking Bad got for its final season. That show had Season 5, Part 1, and Season 5, Part 2. Because even though this past season was called "Season 2" externally, you can see by the episode numbers that internally, what this really was was "Season 1, Part 2."

Anyway, as to the books being adapted -- and not just having elements taken from them -- Rolin has said for sure we are getting IWTV (which we just finished), The Vampire Lestat (Season 3), Queen of the Damned (which is where he spoke about it being so epic and grand a story that they will probably have to split the season in order to tell it all) and Tale of the Body Theif (which he confirmed after Season 2 was finished that they were beginning to already set up for). He also mentioned at Comic-Con in 2022 that Prince Lestat would be adapted.

Also, while RJ talked about the book The Vampire Armand being important, he's never said it would get its own separate adaptation, which honestly makes sense. Because of the way that book is told, you can just interweave elements of it when you want to focus on Armand's backstory, or even just do a stand-alone episode here and there dedicated to parts of it. It really isn't the kind of book you do a full season on IMO.

So yeah. The books that we know for sure are getting their own, full adaptations per RJ so far are IWTV, TVL, QotD, TotBT, and PL.

I can see them throwing elements of books like Memnoch, TVA, and Blood and Gold into it all, but I don't know if they'll get their own full-season adaptations. As I said, I don't think TVA will. And I don't think B&G will either, as I see it just like TVA -- you adapt elements of it during a season, maybe even full sections of it for a flashback episode or so during a season, but it doesn't get its own full stand-alone season.

The same goes for Merrick, since they already did Louis' suicide attempt and Louis seems to be moving forward from his despair and grief regarding Claudia -- so that even if Lestat did fall into his post-Memnoch coma in the show, I'm not sure this Louis would attempt to end his life again over that loss. (Even more so after this Louis also got that letter from Lestat in the past, telling Louis to please live on in the event of his death.)

I have no idea if they are seriously going to ever do Blackwood Farm or Blood Canticle. Neither book has ever been mentioned, even in passing. Plus, they kind of depend on what and where Mayfair Witches is at or has going on at the time and well, that show . . . 😅

Oh! And they might be looking to adapt the whole Prince Lestat trilogy, but I don't remember if RJ has talked about adapting the whole trilogy -- meaning the entirety of each book -- or just the full first book and then elements from the other two. (Because I do think it's clear that, if anything, we'll get the Loustat ballroom dance from Blood Communion in the final season of the show).

So yeah, I think that this is what we're looking at for the next few years, book adaptation-wise.

73 notes · View notes

aethon-recs · 1 year ago

Note

Love the blog!

Wondering if you have any Tomarry/Harrymort case-fic/mystery recs?

Thanks so much for the ask! I also can’t get enough of the casefic/mystery genre.

Usually I throw together a mix of both WIPs (why WIPs?) and complete fics, but for this set of 15 recs, I selected for fics which are either complete or still actively updating, so as not to leave you on a cliffhanger on a mystery fic! A few of these fics are outright casefics, and a few of these have a mystery component where the big reveal comes to light as the story unfolds. Hope you enjoy!

Tomarrymort Mystery Recs

aurora polaris by @aglassroseneverfades (E, 153k, WIP)

Harry wakes up one day with no memory of his past, upon which he’s greeted by a handsome, doting older man named Gaunt who claims that he and Harry have been in a relationship together for years.

Blood in the wine by @girl-with-goats (E, 31k, complete)

Tom Riddle achieves immortality by the means of vampirism. Enter young copper Harry Potter, fresh recruit from Scotland Yard, sent to investigate the mysterious disappearances of all the young men who uncannily look like him.

Corpse Party: Hogwarts Edition by @robinegberts (E, 67k, complete)

Harry, Hermione, and Ron skip the Halloween feast, only to wake up to a world where the castle isn’t right. It’s cold, empty, quiet. The layers of dust suggest it’s been abandoned for years. And outside the classroom lies the corpse of a girl who went missing years ago. As they wander the halls of this strange alternate version of Hogwarts, they encounter corpse after corpse, warnings left behind by the dead, and for some reason Harry feels they’re being followed.

Dead Leaves on a Wet October Day by @trelloreads (T, 29k, complete)

Harry is a ghost hunter. Riddle Manor is his strangest case yet.

Everything We Dream Can Be Real by @vdoshu (E, 52k, complete)

Harry had a life after Voldemort. He had a family. He had a career. And then one day it was all ripped away when he woke up at Number 4 Privet Drive. Or: Where Harry doesn’t exactly get that chance to do it over again. And things are Not Okay.

Keepsake by IceLynx (M, 5k, complete)

“I am Lord Voldemort, and I have not kidnapped you.” “That's... I should have known that.” Because Voldemort's words ring true, deep in Harry's heart. Harry tries to remember, but the thoughts won't come to him. The more he forces it, the more obvious the gaps in his memories become. “Why didn't I know that?”

Let's Cross Over by @whisprchrysalis (M, 251k, complete)

A hundred years after the end of the Second War, Harry Potter, Master of Death, unwittingly helps the last fragment of Lord Voldemort’s soul escape Limbo. Now, bound to Tom Riddle for the next five years, Harry has to coexist with the man he feared the most. Or: Auror MOD Harry and Tom Riddle strike an uneasy truce and solve crimes together, and Harry has to decide if his capacity to save everyone includes everyone, really.

love seeping from their guns by @purplemineralwater (E, 41k, complete)

Detective Harry Potter is just trying to enjoy his holiday when the tranquility of the lovely cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Theodore Nott has been shot. He was young, rich and beautiful, a boy that had everything – until he lost his life. Or: Harry investigates some murder, Tom tries to help, everyone has many, many secrets.

No Body, No Crime by @duplicitywrites (M, 20k, complete)

Harry works as a car mechanic in a small town. He and Ginny are best friends, their close bond the product of a traumatic event that scarred them both as children. One day, Ginny confides in Harry that she thinks her husband—the charming, enigmatic Tom Riddle—is cheating on her. A day later, Ginny goes missing. Harry is convinced that Tom is behind her disappearance, and becomes determined to exact justice by any means necessary.

One Year In Every Ten by @saintsenara (E, 165k, WIP)

A decade after the final battle, just when the wizarding world thinks itself safe, a serial killer emerges, leaving a trail of dead women in his wake. Each of the bodies bears a gruesome message for the Aurors. A message which claims the Dark Lord has risen again. All Harry wants is something to distract him from a marriage falling apart at the seams. Maybe his latest plan to save the world, requiring Lord Voldemort to agree to turn his talents in the realm of wrongdoing to solving the case, will be just the thing…

Personal Assistant by @phantomato (E, 10k, complete)

Harry receives a mysterious package. Inside is a ring. A weird, ugly, old one made of gold and some kind of black stone.

Reconciling with Death by Madame_Psychosis (M, 27k, complete)

Featuring a dead girl in a forest, little-soldier-boys, some tenuous grasps on reality, straw mothers, a ghost in a bathroom and, slowly and sadly, kindness from a boy who’s just passing through time.

The Matchmaker by @eris-dawn (M, 44k, complete)

The Matchmaker is a serial abductor whose modus operandi consists of pairing two same-sex individuals together in a coffin, six feet underground - buried alive. He isn't a killer. He's a kidnapper with morals, and Detective Chief Inspector Tom Riddle finds himself obsessed with solving the case. Unfortunately for Tom, the Matchmaker is just as intent on knowing him.

Tom Riddle and the Quest for Vulnerability by lejf (E, 16k, complete)

They found him in an old house, under the stairs. His face was pale and instantly recognisable. aka: Auror Harry Potter has eighteen-year-old Tom Riddle bent over the table barely a day after he becomes his ward.

Wings of Ash by IceLynx (M, 31k, complete)

If eight people going missing isn't cause enough for panic, one of them being found dead might do it. The Ministry of Magic has no choice but accept all the help on offer, including that of former Auror Harry Potter. For Harry, it might be a chance to get his job back, if he can only crack the case first. Surely Harry can be forgiven if he too takes all the help that's offered. Including that of his pet snake, the former Dark Lord Voldemort.

#tomarrymort #tomarry #harrymort #aethon recs #tomarry recs #tomarrymort recs #harrymort recs #hp fic recs #ao3 recs #fanfic recs #tom riddle #voldemort #mystery #casefic #casefic recs

234 notes · View notes

zapreportsblog · 1 year ago

Note

omg I love it. I can see them having an outside wedding. Green themed wedding where Alice, Roselie and Bella are part of the bridal party. Seth is defiantly the ring bearer and walks the little girl down the aisle.

Twilight

Garrett x Lahote reader

The reader is the older sister of Paul. She wears all black and loves Halloween. She is the complete opposite of Paul where she does not hate the Cullens. She understands that they are grown ass people whose lives were taken from them, and they had no choice in the matter especially since it was beyond their control. She is best friends with Rosalie. She was once engaged but the wedding broke off because she caught her fiancé sleeping with her best friend. Later on, Garrett asks the reader on a date. They run into the ex and her former best friend who tries to persuade her to rekindle the relationship, but the reader stands her ground and goes off both of them.

Feel free to add anything else

❝the past needs to stay in the past❞

✭ pairing : garrett x reader

✭ fandom : twilight

✭ summary : Garrett finds himself becoming curious with the older lahote sibling

✭ twilight masterlist

In the small, tight-knit community of La Push, (Y/N) Lahote was known as the enigmatic older sister of Paul Lahote, one of the fiery Quileute wolf shifters. While her brother and his pack held deep-seated animosity toward the Cullens, (Y/N) was a striking contrast. She was the town's resident witch, a practitioner of the ancient arts of Wicca, and she had a perspective on the Cullens that set her apart.

With her jet-black attire and an affinity for all things Halloween, (Y/N) was a constant source of fascination and intrigue for the residents of La Push. She was a solitary figure who found solace in the mystical and the unknown, and she wore her unique interests like a badge of honor.

It was a chilly evening as (Y/N) sat in her dimly lit room, surrounded by flickering candles and ancient tomes of magic. Her knowledge of the arcane arts was vast, and she used her abilities not for dark purposes, but to connect with the world around her in a way that few could understand.

Unlike her brother Paul and his pack, (Y/N) harbored no ill will toward the Cullens. She saw them not as monsters but as individuals whose lives had been irrevocably altered by circumstances beyond their control. She understood that their existence was a result of a fate they had no say in, a fate that had taken away their humanity.

As (Y/N) delved deeper into her studies of Wicca, she often contemplated the complexity of the supernatural world that surrounded her. She believed that magic and mysticism were not confined to one realm or another but existed in a delicate balance that spanned both the mortal and immortal worlds.

One chilly October night, as the veil between the living and the dead felt especially thin, (Y/N) found herself drawn to the forest surrounding La Push. The moon cast an eerie glow on the landscape, and the whispers of the trees seemed to beckon her deeper into the woods.

Unbeknownst to her, her brother Paul and his pack were on patrol, vigilant for any signs of the Cullens. They had detected a scent near the forest, and their instincts had led them toward the same clearing where (Y/N) now stood.

As (Y/N) raised her arms to the moon, calling upon the ancient energies of Wicca, she sensed the presence of the wolves nearby. The tension in the air was palpable, but she held no fear. Instead, she continued her ritual, her incantations blending seamlessly with the rustling of leaves and the distant howling of wolves.

Paul, his wolf form concealed by the darkness, watched in astonishment as his sister practiced her craft. He had always been protective of her, but this was a side of (Y/N) he had rarely seen. He couldn't deny the power and beauty of her magic, and for a brief moment, his animosity toward the Cullens faded into the background.

As (Y/N) completed her ritual and the mystical energies ebbed away, she turned toward the hidden wolves, her eyes locking onto Paul's. There was a moment of understanding between them, a shared acknowledgement of the mysteries that surrounded their lives.

One evening, (y/n) decides to go and pay her friend a visit. Gathering her things she sought out the familiar path to the Cullens house, and upon arriving (Y/N) knocked on the door another friend of hers, Alice answered the door.

“I was just about to head out but Rosalie is inside waiting for you.” Alice says.

(Y/n) made her way into the house but not before thanking Alice. The familiar blonde haired Cullen greeted her and the two woman took their places on the couch.

As they chatted about recent events, Rosalie couldn't shake the question that had been nagging at her for a while. She leaned in slightly, her golden eyes filled with curiosity.

"Hey, (Y/N)," Rosalie began, her tone gentle, "I've been wondering... Why haven't you ever dated anyone?"

(Y/N) sighed softly, her gaze momentarily shifting to the large window overlooking the lush Cullen estate. She had known this conversation might come up eventually, and she decided it was time to share her story with her best friend.

"Well," she began, her voice carrying the weight of past pain, "there was a time when I was engaged to be married."

Rosalie's perfectly arched eyebrows lifted in surprise. "You were engaged? Why didn't you ever mention it before?"

(Y/N) nodded slowly, her expression distant as she recollected the painful memories. "It's not something I talk about often. The engagement... didn't end well."

As she spoke, (Y/N) recounted the story of her past love and betrayal. She had been deeply in love with her fiancé, fully believing that they were destined to share their lives together. But then, the devastating truth had come to light - he had betrayed her, sleeping with her closest friend.

The betrayal had left (Y/N) emotionally shattered, and she had withdrawn from the world of dating ever since, unable to trust anyone with her heart again.

Listening intently, Rosalie's face softened with empathy. She had her own share of heartbreak and pain in her immortal life, and she knew the depth of the wounds that betrayal could inflict.

"I'm so sorry, (Y/N)," Rosalie said, her voice filled with sympathy. "No one should have to endure something like that."

(Y/N) managed a small, grateful smile. "Thank you, Rose. It's been a long journey, but I've focused on healing and being there for my friends."

Rosalie nodded in understanding. "You're incredibly strong, (Y/N). I'm glad you have friends who care about you. And just remember, when you're ready, love can find its way back into your life. You deserve all the happiness in the world."

As the afternoon sun bathed the room in a warm glow, (Y/N) and Rosalie continued to share stories, laughter, and the enduring bond of their friendship. (Y/N) knew that she had a friend who genuinely cared about her well-being, and that was a treasure she would always hold dear.

One sunny afternoon, as (Y/N) and Rosalie were enjoying each other's company in the elegant Cullen living room, the front door swung open to reveal Garrett, the adventurous nomad vampire. His arrival was met with a warm welcome from Rosalie, who had always been fond of her fellow wanderer.

Garrett's eyes quickly fell on (Y/N), and he couldn't help but be captivated by her presence. She exuded an air of mystery and confidence that piqued his curiosity. He decided that he wanted to get to know her better.

As the afternoon turned into evening, Garrett found himself subtly observing (Y/N). He joined in on the conversation, sharing stories and laughter with the two friends. Yet, his eyes frequently wandered to (Y/N), his curiosity about her growing stronger with each passing moment.

Rosalie, ever perceptive, noticed Garrett's interest in her friend. She decided to take a break from their conversation, leaving Garrett and (Y/N) alone in the room. She winked at (Y/N) playfully before making her exit, knowing that her friend could use a little nudge in the right direction.

With a sly smile, Garrett seized the opportunity. "So, (Y/N)," he began, his voice carrying a hint of flirtation, "I can't help but wonder why such a captivating woman like yourself is single. Care to enlighten me?"

(Y/N) raised an eyebrow, a playful glint in her eyes. "Oh, you're curious about me, are you?"

Garrett grinned, his charming demeanor shining through. "Indeed, I am. And I must say, I find your mysterious aura quite intriguing."

(Y/N) feigned nonchalance, suppressing a smile. "Well, Garrett, I'm not one to reveal all my secrets so easily."

Undeterred, Garrett leaned closer, his golden eyes locked onto (Y/N)'s. "How about this, then? Would you do me the honor of joining me for dinner tomorrow night? I promise to be on my best behavior."

(Y/N) hesitated for a moment, enjoying the playful dance of flirtation. She knew that Garrett was genuinely interested, and his charm was hard to resist.

After a brief pause, she finally relented with a grin. "Dinner tomorrow night sounds lovely, Garrett."

Garrett's smile widened, his excitement evident. "Excellent. I'll make sure to pick a place worthy of your company."

As the evening continued, (Y/N) and Garrett shared stories and laughter, their connection deepening with each passing moment. Rosalie watched from a distance, satisfied that her matchmaking had worked its magic.

In the Cullen home, surrounded by friends and the promise of a new beginning, (Y/N) and Garrett's budding romance began to unfold, a testament to the enduring power of connection and the thrill of the unknown.

The night of the dinner arrived, and Garrett and (Y/N) found themselves at a charming restaurant in a nearby town. The atmosphere was intimate, the soft glow of candlelight casting a warm ambiance over their table.

As they enjoyed their meal and engaged in animated conversation, Garrett couldn't help but be captivated by (Y/N)'s presence. He found himself drawn to her intellect, her wit, and the strength that she exuded.

However, their pleasant evening took an unexpected turn when (Y/N)'s ex-fiancé, Ryan, and her former best friend, Jessica, walked into the same restaurant. The sight of them sent a pang of discomfort through (Y/N)'s heart, but she steeled herself, determined to stand her ground.

Ryan approached their table, a hopeful smile on his face. "Hey, (Y/N), long time no see. How have you been?"

Jessica chimed in, her voice laced with false sweetness. "We've missed you, (Y/N). We were hoping we could catch up."

(Y/N) took a deep breath, her eyes locking onto Garrett's reassuring gaze. She knew that this moment had the potential to be challenging, but she was no longer willing to let her past dictate her choices.

"Ryan, Jessica," she began, her voice steady, "I've moved on with my life, and I've found someone who respects and values me for who I am. This is Garrett, and we're on a date."

Garrett nodded in greeting, his demeanor polite but firm. "Nice to meet you both."

Ryan's expression shifted from hopefulness to frustration, and Jessica's smile faltered. They had expected a different reaction from (Y/N).

Ryan tried to reason with her. "But (Y/N), we had something special. Can't we at least talk about it?"

(Y/N) shook her head, her resolve unwavering. "Ryan, what we had was destroyed by betrayal. I won't go back to a relationship that's built on lies and deceit."

Jessica's eyes welled up with tears as she tried to plead her case. "I'm so sorry, (Y/N). I made a mistake. Can't we be friends again?"

(Y/N) looked at Jessica with a mixture of sadness and disappointment. "You were supposed to be my best friend, Jessica. Friends don't betray each other like you did."

Garrett placed a reassuring hand on (Y/N)'s, offering his unwavering support. "We appreciate your concern, but (Y/N) and I are focused on our future together."

With that, (Y/N) and Garrett turned their attention back to each other, leaving Ryan and Jessica to contemplate their actions. The past had shaped (Y/N)'s resilience, and she was determined to move forward with someone who valued and cherished her for who she truly was.

As (Y/N) and Garrett continued their evening at the restaurant, the lingering encounter with her ex-fiancé and former best friend weighed on her mind. She couldn't help but be curious about Garrett's earlier statement when he said they were "focused on their future together."

With a thoughtful expression, (Y/N) turned her attention back to Garrett. "Garrett, earlier you mentioned that we're focused on our future together. What did you mean by that?"

Garrett met her gaze, his eyes filled with a mixture of sincerity and determination. "I meant exactly that, (Y/N). I see something special between us, something worth pursuing."

(Y/N)'s heart skipped a beat, and a smile played at the corners of her lips. "You do?"

Garrett nodded, his enthusiasm evident. "Absolutely. You're an incredible person, (Y/N), with a strength and resilience that I admire. I want to be a part of your future, to build something meaningful together."

(Y/N) felt a warmth spread through her as she listened to Garrett's words. His sincerity touched her deeply, and she realized that she felt the same way. "I feel the same, Garrett. I want to see where this journey takes us."

Their connection deepened as they continued their conversation, each sharing their hopes, dreams, and aspirations for the future. The encounter with (Y/N)'s ex and former friend had served as a reminder of the strength of their bond and the importance of moving forward together.

As they enjoyed the rest of their dinner, (Y/N) and Garrett felt a sense of excitement and anticipation for the future they were now building together, one filled with trust, support, and the promise of new beginnings.

#x reader #x reader one shot #x reader oneshot #twilight imagine #twilight imagines #twilight x reader #twilight #garrett twilight #garrett imagine #garrett x reader #garrett x you #garrett x y/n #garrett imagines #twilight masterlist #twilight alice #twilight scenario #twilight rosalie #paul lahote #x reader requests

105 notes · View notes

geekcavepodcast · 4 months ago

Text

"Detective Comics" Gets New Creative Team and New Villain

DC Comics has announced a new creative team for Detective Comics as part of the "All In" initiative. Starting with Detective Comics #1090, the creative team will be writer Tom Taylor, artist Mikel Janín, and letterer Wes Abbott. The team will begin with a new storyline "Mercy of the Father," which will also introduce a new villain.

"Long ago, the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne changed Gotham forever. But there is something you never knew about the Dark Knight’s tragic origin—something that has been lying in wait to strike at Batman ever since that fateful night in Crime Alley. And now, all these years later, this ghost of Gotham’s past begins to reveal itself. The streets of Gotham will run red with blood until the World’s Greatest Detective solves one of his most earth-shattering cases yet." (DC Comics)

Detective Comics #1090 goes on sale on October 23, 2024. The issue features a main cover by Mikel Janín, variant covers by Dan Panosian, Bruno Redondo, Tony Harris, and Ashley Wood, and an "All In" foil variant cover by Daniel Sampere.

(Image via DC Comics - Mikel Janín's Cover of Detective Comics #1090)

#detective comics #batman #bruce wayne #tom taylor #mikel janin #wes abbott #dc comics #dc all in #TGCLiz

8 notes · View notes

jeonjungkookenthusiast1997 · 1 year ago

Text

Echoes of the Past (1) - Whispers of Darkness

Summary: When a night of drinking with friends unearths a dusty book long forgotten about Y/N's friends decide to try their hands at demon summoning. Disappointed it seems to not have worked they all go home leaving Y/N alone with someone lurking in the shadows. What will happen when a childhood friend, who's also an incubus, turns up looking for answers. Slight slow burn with smut to be added in future chapters.

Demon Bang Chan x Witch Female Reader.

This is my own work not a reblog! Please do not repost or translate.

Series Masterlist Navigation

Content Warnings- cursing, demonic rituals, mentions of consuming alcohol

Word Count: 1,733

As Halloween night nears and the spooky season is in full swing Y/N and her friends decide to get together for a night of drinks and fun. Y/N goes into her kitchen to root around for more alcohol, she's sure she has some hidden somewhere around her, her beautiful friend Lisa shouts to get her attention asking her to come back into the living room.

Giving up momentarily on her quest for alcohol she shrugs and rejoins her friends, stopping mid step as Jennie holds up a book you'd thought was lost when you moved house a few years ago "what are you doing with that old thing?" She asks with her nose scrunched up in mock disgust "does this shit work?" Jennie asks excitedly almost vibrating in her spot on the floor "fuck no" she laughs as she shakes her head "got given it as a birthday present one year when I was young, it's a load of shit" Y/N goes to reach for the book feeling a sudden need to protect it but stumbles having to catch herself mid air, a feat considering how buzzed she was, when Lisa snatches the book away unexpectedly "what the hell?" Y/N groans throwing herself onto her sofa "sorry honey but I need to look through this thing" she laughs as her nimble fingers flick through the dusty and brittle pages.

As the night continued Y/N had almost drifted off to sleep when a shriek made her jolt upright "who died?" She mumbles making the girls laugh, "nobody, Jennie found some hottie in that book of yours apparently" Alexa giggles as she points to the two girls drooling over what looks like a sketch of a young looking man with striking blonde locks. Y/N's eyes blink a few times as a sense of foreboding and nostalgia settle in her tummy when she looks at the ink "who is this Y/N you gotta tell me!" Jennie giggles drunkenly making her laugh "uhh a lust demon or something if I'm remembering right, haven't read that thing in a long ass time" an excited gasp shoots out of the girls perfectly glossed lips "if he's a demon that means we can summon him right?" She smirks as she wiggles the book in the grasp, the notion of doing something so spiritual in mid October makes all the other girls in the room scream happily.

That dark sense of foreboding returns to her tummy and squeezes at her chest "I… don't think that's a good idea guys'' the girls in the room start moving furniture to make space for the summoning circle they need to draw "why not?" Lisa asks as the two other girls grab supplies such as candles and chalk from around the house "you said yourself the books a load of shit" Y/N's eyebrows crease as she watches the hurried movements suddenly feeling herself start to sober up "worst case scenario nothing happens and it's a bust, best case scenario we get to order around a hot demon" she wiggles her eyebrows at the uneasy girl "who says he'll listen to we say?" Y/N asks "no duh it says so in your book" Jennie nods while pointing to the book in Lisa's hands.

Once everything is ready the girls each sit at a point around the circle and Lisa holds the book out to Y/N "what? I have to read the spell?" She asks with a frown "I don't even wanna do this" she whines "it's your book honey so you get the honours" Alexa smiles as the girls join hands "lucky me" she grumbles but places the book in her lap and holds the hands of the girls to her sides, she recites the spell as best she can from the book and they all wait with baited breath. A few moments roll by but seemingly nothing is happening "what a bust" Lisa moans as the girls all share looks of disappointment "don't look at me, I tried to warn you guys" Y/N shrugs as a long yawn escapes her body, she rolls her shoulders and stands "I think that's me done for the night sorry girls" she smiles sheepishly, they all give her a hug and thank her hosting them.

Once everyone has gone Y/N flops herself down onto her sofa in exhaustion and groans when her eyes fall onto the book abandoned on the floor. Deciding to place the book back on her bookcase where it belongs she turns to get up off the soft surface and picks up the book gently, she rubs her thumbs over the cover and smiles thinking back to her childhood and all the times she thought she was a witch who would summon demons to be her friend when she was lonely. One of the demons she remembers being especially drawn to, he even conjured her a sparkling blue rose once after she'd been bullied at the playground. She tries to remember the names she'd made up for her demonic friends but her thoughts are fuzzy like she's trying to remember a dream of a memory rather than her own actual memories.

The sound of a man clearing his throat suddenly breaks the silence making her physically jump into the air almost dropping the book when she recovers from the shock she looks to find where the noise came from and her eyes almost fall out of the sockets as she can't believe what she's looking at "Been a long time since I was last summoned by you, what a nice surprise" the voice greets her making the blood in her veins run cold "w-what do you mean since I last summoned you? I've never summoned anything in my life" she squeaks in fear "you don't remember me?" he asks, looking almost offended as he makes a move to walk towards her "I know it's been a long time Y/N but-" he's cut off when she points to him with a shaky finger making his eyebrow raise "h-how do you know my name? what's going on?" She steps back from him which makes the demon stop in his tracks as he holds his hands up looking completely confused "you truly don't remember me? at all?" he asks slowly with a look of pain painted across his beautiful face.

She shakes her head "no… the spell worked? How did the spell work?" he takes a deep breath before speaking again "yes...it did work..." he says trying to diffuse the tension in the room "it worked the same way it always has, because you're a witch" he looks deep into her eyes as he waits for his words to sink in "a… a witch? I can't be- I don't u-understand" she tries to slow her breathing as her eyes flit to the summoning circle "why didn't you appear when the girls were here?" She asks confused as he walks towards her making him sigh deeply "how could you have forgotten" he whispers looking so hurt it makes her heart clench.

He clears his throat before continuing "you used to summon me all the time when we were children, we'd play together in this very house, you even summoned my younger brothers a few times" he gestures to the room around him as if to make his point "you were able to summon me then and still can now because you have witches blood coursing through your veins, all the woman of your maternal family line have been practising witches except your mother. She turned her back on the craft a long time ago" his words are making her head spin as she tries to take in everything he's telling her "and finally, I didn't appear before because you were with other humans, of course I heard you call and felt your magic and I wanted to race up to you as soon as I could but once I sensed you weren't alone I waited in the shadows until they left" he sighs trying to help fill the gaps in her memory.

She picks up the spell book as she flicks through the pages hoping it'll help her remember something… anything "I don't remember anything you've said" she frown as his eyes drop to the floor dejectedly "I do remember playing with this book and pretending I could conjure up magical children to play with when I felt lonely but that's all it was right? Just my overactive imagination" he simply looks at her with a small smirk on his face "maybe my presence is helping you remember, that boy you remember playing with… was me. You didn't make it all up, I was real… I AM real Y/N" he thinks for a moment before holding out his hand, a small blue spark shoots from his palm and a beautiful blue rose suddenly appears in its place.

As soon as she sees the rose she gasps, holding her hand over her mouth as she looks up "Chan…? You were real all this time?" A single stray tear rolls down her cheek as he smiles widely and suddenly wraps his arms around her pulling her into a tight hug. They stay like that for a few moments before she pulls back with a confused look on her face "how could I have forgotten you? It's not everyday you just forget you can summon demons out of a magical book" the demon standing before her hums as he thinks while pacing around the room "it's possible that because this all happened when you were a child your mother told you it was all in your head and it's as simple as that or your mother could have used her magical connection to get a warlock to tamper with your memories" a sound of shock leaves her throat "warlocks exist too?" He simply nods his head "how would we know which version happened?" Bang Chan bites his lip as he weighs up his options "I could use my magic to look through your memories but it's an uncomfortable process and it requires immense trust on both parties" Y/N's brow creases as the room becomes eerily silent, the air around them filling with unspoken tension "I'll do it" she resolves as she looks up at his enchanting eyes.

46 notes · View notes

x-dot-com · 14 days ago

Text

Haiii people in my phone!!!1!!!1!

Soooo, my name is X or Xavier, either one works and I’m ok with other nicknames!!! I’m 15 years and 3 months old, my b-day is in the spooky month of October! I’m a goofy guy who goes by he/they/any pronouns but she/her!! This is my first social media account cuz I’ve never really wanted to be online a lot, so please don’t judge my intro thxxx!!! :333

Everyone is welcome unless you’re here to spread hate, this includes anybody who is racist, transphobic, homophobic, or bigoted!

I’m in a handful of fandoms lol, some of them include;

• Minecraft SMP’s

•Realm SMP(Still ongoing, hosted by Tubbo)

•ASMP(Is over, hosted by AimseyTV)

•QSMP(Is over, hosted by Quackity)

•DSMP(is over, I do NOT support the problematic creators on it)

• Webcomics!! The ones I really like are:

I’m the Grim Reaper

Dead But Not Gone

LUMINE

It Strikes a Chord

Paperteeth

Confetti Cookies

High Class Homos

The Moth Prince

1HP Club

Watermelon

School Bus Graveyard

Clinic of Horrors

• GENERATION LOSS!!!!1!1!!1!!!! Also known as Gen Loss!!

The Social Experiments(TSE)

The Founders Cut(or The Lounders Cut, have you seen his signature?? The F looks like an L, like, get better writing man smh 🙄)

The Founders Game(In it is Afterschool Slash, RIP Ben 😭)

ITS MY WHOLE LIFE, AND HAS BEEN FOR THE PAST ALMOST TWO YEARS LOL (AND HAVE YOU SEEN THE FOUNDER?? LIKE SMAAAA-)

• FNAF(I am STILL trying to comprehend the lore like WHAT DO YOU MEAN theres new things????😭)

• Gravity Falls (I fricking love it so much, it reminds me that it’s ok to be myself <3)

• Jurassic Park Camp Cretaceous/Chaos Theory(What did they do to Ben in Chaos Theory??? He looks like my weed smoking lesbian son 😭 I fr love him tho lol)

I have a whole bunch of interests, including but not limited to; D&D, Magic The Gathering, drawing(or any sort of art), Kandi making, learning French, writing, HIGHLAND COWS(omg I love these animals so so much), choir, band, computer coding, acting, Monster Energy(I’m unhealthily addicted lol), collecting bones, exploring, escape rooms, eyeballs(like, googly eyes or any type of eye thing, no clue why XD), cosplaying, The MissClick Duo(I love doomed gay lovers lol), reading, and a whole lot more!!!1!!!1!!1!!

My music taste and most things about me are alternative, so I might be a little weird/cringy, but I don’t care! I’m just here to have fun! My taste in music is mostly hyperpop, breakcore, and nightcore, but consists of a little bit of a lot of things! My favorite artists are(in no particular order):

• Femtanyl

• FEM&M

•LuLuYam

•Sparkbird

• Lemon Demon

•CG5

• MAILPUP

• BRN1NG BRAIN SOUND INDUSTRIES

• Rabbitology

• Penelope Scott

• Hatsune Miku

• Set It Off

• Mother Mother

• Bo Burnham

• I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

• STOMACH BOOK

And my favorite songs(as of now and in no particular order) are:

• Confessions of a Rotten Girl-SAWTOWNE

• NEVER MET!-CMTEN, Glitch Gum

• PARAGON-LuLuYam

• Part of the Show-Pecantheoof

• FOREVERMORE-Mika Hammy

• ITS TIME-Femtanyl

• Girl Hell 1999-Femtanyl

• MURDER EVERY 1 U KNOW-Femtanyl

• Redesign Your Logo(Bonus Track)-Lemon Demon(this one especially gives off so much Gen Loss vibes like AHHH!!!!)

I’m also super proud of my little OC’s so ima list them offfff!!!1!1!!!!(main ones are the top 4 :P)

• Xiero(Zie-roh)

• Pomme(Pom)

• Fazer(Fay-zur)

• Diesel Baby(dont ask about him…)

• Saturn and Pluto(Older sister, younger brother)

• Ozera(Oh-zur-a)

• [REDACTED](Just a funky dude)

• Cyder(Guess what they were based off of… cheese)

• Marmalade(She’s uhmmm… I don’t have much on her yet lol)

• Atlas(Xiero and Vix’s youngest brother)

•Vix(Xiero’s younger brother and Atlas’s older sibling)

•Smolzer(I’m a D&D DM but this is my character when I play :D)

Anyways, that’s me for now!!!1!!1!! Have a wonderful day/night!!1!1!!!!Yippieee!!!1!!1!!

5 notes · View notes

lieutenant-teach · 9 months ago

Text

Loki season 2 review (critical)

As usually, I’m late to the party, but the thoughts about the 2nd season have been bugging me since October 2023. Finally I organize my impressions that kept my brain working during cooking my breakfast almost every morning.

Plot

Frankly, too much quasi-sciency BS. Smth smth time loop smth smth. I just let all ‘explanations’ and ‘theoretical basis’ past my ears. Grasped the main events, not going deep into everything Ouroboros was explaining on screen. Getting my brain broken again trying to understand the logic of smth the creatives themselves didn’t bother to clear up in the writers’ room? No, thank you. Been there during ‘Avengers Endgame’, didn’t like it.

Loki

Loki becomes the main character in his own series! At last! /s Seriously, how low the fucking bar should be that the fans are glorifying the series for an absolutely natural thing – the title character, promoted everywhere as the main character, actually being the main character. And sometimes he even looked and sounded as OG Loki! Wow! \s Again, how low our expectations were so that a lot of us are happy to see these crumbs. The stupid beige suit is still on. My comments about his new costume in the finale are here.

Loki torturing Brad who’s being in the same position as he was only little time ago, and doing it with no qualms whatsoever… insisting he uses his number instead of a name… Using numbers instead of names washes away personalities, it’s a famous fascistic instrument to not see a group \ groups of people as humans. I immediately compared this situation with ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ series. All good guys use names that the clones picked up for themselves (like ‘Cody’ instead of ‘CC-2224’ or ‘Rex’ instead of ‘CT-7567). Those who insist on calling them designated numbers are villains of the story. It’s obvious and natural. What’s wrong with the ‘Loki’ series creatives?

And, of course, no happy ending for Loki! Alone forever on a throne he never wanted. Actually, I didn’t understand if he could move from there. I read fans saying ‘he can travel through all time and space now’, but I didn’t find any creators’ comments about it, and the series never confirm so either.

Sylvie

How fucking annoying she was!

Seriously, this season changed my perception of Sylvie to the worse. When I watched the 1st season, I had no feelings about her. She didn’t strike me as a very interesting character, and the romance was awkward and not touching (I’m not even diving into idiotic ‘self-love’ metaphor and overall incestuous vibe).

But since s.2 ep.3 she was grating on my nerves everytime she appeared on screen. She’s absolutely incapable of realizing and owning her mistakes, pushing the blame on everyone around her. For example, in ep.3 she changes her mind about murdering Timely, but immediately says to Loki ‘Don’t make me regret this’. Lady, it was your decision! Yours and yours alone! Seriously, how did the creatives imagine her train of thoughts? ‘I do smth, but there’s Loki in the room, so if anything goes bad because of my decision, I’ll blame it on him’? Ah, yes, it did work in s.1 ep.6, when everyone in- and out-of-universe started to blame Loki on the freeing of the Multiverse.

She’s portrayed as an insolent selfish and self-centered brat. But what is worse, the creators thought they were writing her as being actually right! Like, when she and Loki talk in the bar in ep.5, she blames Loki for being selfish. I suffered rewatching this moment. Yes, he wants his friends back. But she – she is willing to go on heads of countless people to get what she wants, as she did in s.1 ep.6, the most vivid example. Destroying the Multiverse for her personal revenge (don’t get fooled by her non-existent ‘crusade for freedom’, as the creatives started to backpedal in interviews)? Why not! Does Loki want to keep his friends at this cost? She acts all selfish – but she is right in her selfishness, and Loki is wrong?

Generally, I’d say she isn’t needed in season 2. You remove her, and nothing would change. No her own arc – we had smth akin to the beginning of it in ep.3, but next episode it was forgotten.

Mobius

At last I see Mobius as he was intended to be in regards to Loki! There’s a huge dissonance between his behavior towards Loki in season 1 and season 2. Now he actually acts as if he likes Loki, as he was always promoted to do. My general feeling was much more positive. If we forget everything that happened in season 1, I’d say ‘yes, they are friends’.

I’m not diving into nature of fascism that is represented by Mobius and the TVA, more was said by other fans.

Ouroboros

I liked him most. At least he’s funny and doesn’t mistreat Loki – and that’s a lot for this series. But what I enjoyed most – fan theories about him. When he was announced first, I read wonderful ideas that he could be a Loki variant. Ouroboros as a snake biting its tail takes its roots in Norse mythology where Jormungandr, Loki’s son, is a huge snake encircling the Earth. Ouroboros as a Loki variant or a Loki’s son from another timeline would be a real homage to the myths and a really cool and unexpected decision opening up lots of plot and character development possibilities.

But of course, the creatives had no idea about this connection. I doubt they know who Jormungandr is at all, much less any symbolism derived from that.

Casey and B-15

Frankly, I don’t understand why Casey is paid that much attention. I only remember him appearing in s.1 ep.1 not knowing what ‘fish’ was and Loki threatening him. Suddenly he’s Loki’s friend and even given a backstory.

B-15 is Verity Willis. Fuck the comics, apparently. No truth powers, not Loki’s best friend. What’s the point, then? Ah, silly me, a cool Easter egg, of course. Again, just as in case with Mobius, a huge shift of personality between seasons. What bothered me is that she continues using her number instead of her actual name in the end of ep.6. At least the creatives could’ve given her a new name if in-universe she couldn’t associate herself with ‘Verity’ anymore. As in ‘TCW’ we have ‘Fives’ who derived his name from his number ‘CT-5555’, B-15 could be ‘Beenie’ or ‘Bea’ or smth.

In conclusion

A skin-crawling beige swamp of intriguing details to pick apart, some great philosophical ideas that could’ve been explored, and mess in the writers’ heads, with some hummocks of disdain to Loki and stumps of slaughtered worldbuilding.

But I don’t care much, sitting on a cozy beach of good Loki fanfiction and sipping ‘good Loki characterization’ plots in the warmth of ficwriters’ love for him.

#mcu #loki #anti loki series #anti loki show #loki series negativity #anti sylvie #loki season 2 #loki season two #star wars tcw #tcw

10 notes · View notes

theia-eos · 11 months ago

Note

Hi!

I read your Prince Daein Soren AU a while ago and I loved it! I was curious on whether you were planning or not to continue it in RD

Hi! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Yes, I am. I had the direction planned out before I posted The Prince of Shadowed Winds.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out if I'm happy with it and that's what I want to go with. I also want to get a substantial way through writing it before I start posting, and that requires figuring out what I want to keep and what I don't feel is necessary to have in the written story and what I need to add that isn't there already. That requires figuring out what I want to do with the narrative (who should be the main POV characters, what genre do I want to style it after, if any [probably not doing it inspired by a romance trope again]) and if I want all of RD to be one story or a few different ones.

I know I had promised to start posting some stuff happening after Prince of Shadowed Winds this month when I posted the final chapter back in September, but I overestimated myself, honestly.

I'm very glad you enjoyed the first story enough to inquire about the rest of it. Thank you for asking, earnestly.

To pull back the curtain a little bit as I know I alluded to it previously, I've been dealing with a phase of something like depression since like August of last year, but it really got bad in October. My therapist and I have a few ideas but none of them really fit. Trying to write for the past several months has been downright impossible. There was nothing in my mind about what I wanted to do, and trying to force myself to write or even edit just made me experience something I can only describe as pins and needles in my brain.

I've dealt with this happening before, and it always goes away in time (and always comes back, which is the main reason why I usually wait to finish an entire story before posting it because I don't know when it will strike). I was just hoping it would go away faster than it has. I'm just now able to write here and there without any issues.

With that in mind, I'm hoping I'll be able to start sharing some of the one shots I have for what happens in the three years I between the AU POR story and AU RD story in the next couple of months. They were nearly done before I posted the last chapter of Prince of Shadowed Winds, so it shouldn't take too much more work to finish those up and get them posted.

#theia answers #Writing #Idfk

8 notes · View notes

maximumwobblerbanditdonut · 1 year ago

Text

The Strike Is Over! SAG-AFTRA & Studios Reach Deal On New Three-Year Contract

Dominic Patten And Anthony D'Alessandro

November 8, 2023 4:39PM PST

After 118 days of the actors guild being out on strike, SAG-AFTRA and the studios have reached a tentative deal on a new contract that could see Hollywood up and running again within weeks.

The strike will be over as of 12:01 am PT November 9, we hear. Culminating a very dramatic day of studio earnings results and deadlines, the actors guild’s 17-member negotiating committee unanimously voted to recommend a tentative agreement to the SAG-AFTRA board.

Coming just less than a month after Writers Guild members overwhelmingly ratified their own agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, SAG-AFTRA’s deal is the culmination of the latest round of renewed negotiations that began October 24. Indicating the seriousness and stakes of the negotiations, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav frequently directly participated in the talks.

The tentative agreement follows the studios responding on November 3 to the guild’s last comprehensive counter with a self-described “historic” package. That was succeeded less than 24 hours later by an expanded group of studio leaders — including execs from Paramount, Amazon, Apple and more — joining the Gang of Four to brief SAG-AFTRA on the AMPTP’s new offer, which was said to include big gains in wages and bonuses as well as sweeping AI protections.

We didn’t just come toward you, we came all the way to you,” Sarandos told guild leaders Saturday before SAG-AFTRA brass began digging into the fine print. Further talks between the two sides began earlier this week as the guild poured over the studios’ latest set of proposals.

Now, if all goes as planned and the board signs off on the deal, eligible members of the 160,000-strong actors guild will vote soon to ratify the new agreement. Also, with SAG-AFTRA pulling the plug on the strike just after midnight and before the ratification vote is completed, people could be back to work soon and production restarted quickly.

Exposing many of the shifts and divisions in the industry over the past decade, today’s tentative agreement comes at the end of a long road filled with diversions and potholes.

Overall, the six months of Hollywood strikes is estimated to have cost the Southern California economy more than $6.5 billion and 45,000 entertainment industry jobs after production ground to a halt with the WGA hitting the picket lines in early May and SAG-AFTRA following in mid-July. On an individual level, the labor action garnered passionate unity among guild members. At the same time, a fact not lost on the studios and their strategy, many guild members have suffered crippling financial hardship, as have below-the-line workers, going months without work.

After calling the strike July 14, it took the guild and the studio CEOs’ Gang of Four around 80 days before their first official face-to-face talks at SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard. For all the optimism and momentum coming out of the completed WGA deal, those new deliberations between SAG-AFTRA and the studios that began October 2 blew apart on October 11, with the AMPTP leaving negotiations early after the guild tabled an alternative to its contentious revenue-sharing proposal. A few hours later, expecting more scheduled talks the next day, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland received a call saying deliberations were “suspended.”

“Last night, they introduced a levy on subscribers on top of [other] areas,” Sarandos said the next day at an industry conference, calling the proposal a “bridge too far” and blaming the guild for the talks ending. Later, SAG-AFTRA accused the studios of “bully tactics” and using the “same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA.”

On October 18, after Netflix stated in its Q3 earnings report that talks were “ongoing” and Sarandos said the guild “really broke our momentum” towards a deal, Crabtree-Ireland called BS. “The best way to reach a deal and end this strike is for him and the other CEOs to end their walkout from the bargaining table and resume negotiations,” the SAG-AFTRA national director and chief negotiator told Deadline. “We have been and remain ready to continue talks – every day.”

After an appreciated but DOA bid by George Clooney and other A-listers to intervene in getting talks restarted, it looked like the actors strike would pass the 100-day milestone with no end in sight. Then, on October 21 , after Drescher hit out at the “AMPTPs strategy of non-negotiation” and “a blatant propaganda attempt to discredit union leadership and divide our solidarity,” Bob Iger made a call to Crabtree-Ireland and asked to start a new round of talks.

At 3 p.m. PT on the strike’s 100th day, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP put out a joint statement that they were heading back to the bargaining table on October 24 at the guild’s headquarters. That first day of negotiations between the parties was “not great,” according to a well-positioned source. As the studios put forth a new offer they hoped would end the stalemate over “success-based compensation,” the guild proved unmoved, but also open to further discussion.

Although the parties had agreed to meet on October 25, the guild asked that morning to take the day to go over the studios’ proposal of increased bonuses based on the success of streaming shows and movies and a further rise in minimum rates. “It’s a step in the right direction and the negotiating committee is taking the time to do a deep review,” a guild source told Deadline.

The two sides sat down again face-to-face around noon on October 26 with Crabtree-Ireland telling Deadline he was “cautiously optimistic” about deliberations with the studios. The guild slide across the table a self-described “comprehensive counter” that attempted to move the two sides closer together, sources said. As open letters from both supportive and impatient guild members flew around town, the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee were back in active talks on October 27. With both sides taking October 30 to be “working independently,” virtual deliberations bled into the weekend with the parties trying to bridge their differences.

On Halloween and in the early days of November, the parties met again. As the parties got “closer and closer,” as a guild source told Deadline, on issues, Crabtree-Ireland and Lombardini continued conferring directly, with breakout groups of lawyers and other specialists huddled in search of a deal – successfully we now know. Followed by two days of consultation by the guild, the November 3 delivery of the studios’ response to the guild’s latest counter and SAG-AFTRA’s November 6 counter response saw the two sides find an AI compromise and began moving things into what we now know was the final phase.

It took an unexpected strike by actors guild (who many studios execs thought were bluffing despite an overwhelming strike authorization mandate), a lot of moving pieces, guild solidarity, and some hard negotiating sessions to get there.

The actors union joined the WGA on the picket lines when it went on strike July 14, creating Hollywood’s first joint strike in more than 60 years. There were a lot of hot summer days when the labor battle remained at a stalemate.

But things shifted after Labor Day. The WGA reached a deal with the AMPTP on September 24 after five months on the picket lines and a final five intense days of deliberations that included the CEO Gang of Four for most of those last sessions. The WGA leadership approved the tentative agreement and ended the strike at 12:01 a.m. PT on September 27. WGA members ratified the deal by a wide margin October 9.

As exclusively reported by Deadline on September 26, the studios and SAG-AFTRA intended to ride the wave of the WGA deal to set meetings within a week or so on their own talks. However, as the goodwill of the WGA’s successful negotiations faded into bitter public call-outs from leaders on both sides, many feared, even with a new round of talks, the actors strike could last well into the holidays, ruining any chance at a partial broadcast networks season and hobbling the 2024 movie slate.

That catastrophe seems to have been averted now.

12 notes · View notes

elliehopaunt · 1 year ago

Text

By Matt Grobar

EXCLUSIVE: Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary), Timothy V. Murphy (Appaloosa) and Bruce Greenwood (The Fall of the House of Usher) have boarded The Fabulous Four, a new comedy from Bleecker Street, which has entered production in Georgia under an Interim Agreement from SAG-AFTRA.

The actors join an ensemble that also includes Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, and Megan Mullally, as previously announced. Ralph takes over the role of Sissy Spacek, who was attached as of last fall but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Bleecker Street nabbed North American rights to the pic last October and will release the film in U.S. theaters in 2024. UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and brokered the deal for U.S. rights, with Sierra/Affinity repping international sales.

Written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, the Cannes prize-winner best known for her Kate Winslet pic The Dressmaker, the film follows three life-long friends (Sarandon, Mullally, and Ralph) who travel to Key West, Florida to be bridesmaids in a surprise wedding of their college girlfriend Marilyn (Midler). Once there, sisterhoods are rekindled, the past rises up again in all its glory, and there are enough sparks, drinks and romance to change all their lives in ways they never expected.

Richard Barton Lewis’ Southpaw Entertainment is producing alongside Lauren Hantz of Hantz Motion Pictures.

An icon of stage and screen, Ralph has won an Emmy and numerous other accolades for her portrayal of kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary, the ABC mockumentary that has emerged as one the most popular scripted series on linear. The show, created by and starring Quinta Brunson, was renewed for a third season in January but only recently returned to the writers’ room, following the conclusion of the WGA strike. Otherwise perhaps best known for her Tony-nominated turn as Deena Jones in Broadway’s Dreamgirls, Ralph has also been seen in Mistress with Robert de Niro, To Sleep with Anger with Danny Glover, The Distinguished Gentlemen with Eddie Murphy, and Sister Act 2 with Whoopi Goldberg, along with such series as Moesha and Ray Donovan.

Most recently recurring on Law & Order: Organized Crime and ABC’s The Company You Keep, Murphy previously reprised his role in Uni’s comedy MacGruber on the same-name Peacock series. Other recent credits for the actor on the TV side include S.W.A.T., Snowpiercer, Westworld, and True Detective, to name just a few. Additional feature credits include In Full Bloom, The Lone Ranger, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

Greenwood puts in a stellar turn as Fortunato Pharmaceuticals CEO Roderick Usher in Netflix’s Edgar Allen Poe-inspired miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher from Mike Flanagan, which bowed on the platform earlier this month. He also recently starred in the Fox medical drama The Resident, which ran for six seasons, and will soon appear in fantasy pic The Invisibles with Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol, among other projects.

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, Bleecker Street nabbed U.S. rights to James Hawes’ One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins, and the starry British comedy Fackham Hall, which goes into production next year. The company also locked down UK rights, alongside Elysian Film Group and Anonymous Content, to Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. Upcoming releases include the Meg Ryan-helmed rom-com What Happens Later, coming to theaters November 3, which she leads with David Duchovny, and Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s Waitress: The Musical, out December 7 with Fathom Events.

#sheryl lee ralph #bruce greenwood #bette midler #susan sarandon #megan mullally #the fabulous four

13 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 1 year ago

Text

Villagers in southern Lebanon have been heading north, fearing all-out war. Most schools are closed. Israel has ordered its citizens to vacate 28 towns along the border with Lebanon. The Israeli army has exchanged fire with Hezbollah—Lebanon’s Shia political and paramilitary group—every day since October 7, resulting in casualties on both sides. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said, “We must respond to what is happening in Gaza”; its foreign minister, Amir Abdollahian, warned of a preemptive strike by Iran’s allies against Israel.

And yet, 12 days after the Hamas attack on Israel, the man who holds some of the cards and usually sets the tone, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, is still silent—no speeches, no interviews. For someone who loves to give fiery addresses to his followers and does so regularly, Nasrallah’s reticence is notable and can mean only one thing.

Hezbollah is keeping its powder (mostly) dry while Iran weighs its options and their possible outcomes. Israel has called up 300,000 reservists, the United States has sent two carrier strike groups to the Mediterranean, and President Joe Biden headed to the region with one word for Hezbollah: “Don’t.” For Tehran, regime survival trumps all considerations—and it requires the survival of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Islamic Republic’s most valuable asset and a key line of its defense. Every Israeli strike on Gaza, every mass-casualty event, will factor into the calculation as both Iran and Hezbollah assess their next moves.

Washington has said it has no evidence directly linking Tehran to the Hamas attack, but a long-standing, though not always easy, relationship binds the Palestinian group to the Iranian regime. Tehran supplies weapons and money to Hamas, and Hezbollah is reported to have provided training. Over the past year, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force, General Esmail Ghaani, worked to coordinate Iran’s proxies, and Nasrallah has spoken often this year of the unification of fronts. The order to initiate the attack may not have come from Tehran, but Hamas could have had a sort of blanket approval for efforts to launch such an operation. Tehran may have little understood what the attack would unleash. Despite Abdollahian’s bombast, the so-called axis of resistance appears somewhat stunned by its own horrifying success, which was in part made possible by Israel’s slow response on the day of the attacks.

“We were expecting to get a smaller number of hostages and return, but the army collapsed in front of us, what were we to do?” was how the Beirut-based Hamas leader Ali Barakeh put it to The Washington Post on Monday.

The unexpectedly high Israeli death toll may be one reason Nasrallah has kept silent—he is hedging, watching to see when and how far the Israeli army will go into Gaza, and whether Hamas will face an existential threat that requires Hezbollah’s response. Even then, Iran would likely prefer to sacrifice Hamas rather than waste Hezbollah, unless Iran itself comes under threat.

By keeping Israel on edge on its northern border, Hezbollah is in effect already helping Hamas, but doing so within the rules of engagement established after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Both sides understand that script, although the risk of a miscalculation is great. For now, Israeli officials are making clear that they don’t want a war with Lebanon—and simultaneously threatening to destroy the country if Hezbollah goes too far. Hezbollah has put out stern statements saying that it’s responding to enemy fire while, at the same time, having its spokesperson claim that the “skirmishes” are only a “warning.”

Hezbollah learned a hard lesson in 2006 about intervening in a war to back up Hamas. In early June of that year, Israel carried out the targeted killing of a Palestinian leader, and Hamas kidnapped an Israeli conscript, Gilad Shalit. By June 28, Hamas and Israel were at war, and the Israeli army had entered northern Gaza. The war would last for weeks. On July 12, as a show of support for the Palestinians, Hezbollah carried out a cross-border raid into northern Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Three soldiers were killed during the ambush.

The Israeli response to the kidnappings was devastating for Lebanon, involving not only a ground invasion but massive air strikes, which killed an estimated 1,200 civilians; flattened large parts of the capital’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah operates; and caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure across the country. On August 27, shortly after a cease-fire was declared, Nasrallah made a startling admission in a television interview. “We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture [of two Israeli soldiers] would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 … that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not.”

Much has changed since the 2006 war, for all the parties involved. With Iran’s help, Hezbollah’s capabilities have increased considerably in the past 17 years. The group now has an estimated 60,000 fighters and a stockpile of missiles that went from 14,000 to 150,000 and includes precision guided missiles, according to experts. If Israel can level large parts of Beirut or other areas of Lebanon in the event of an escalation, Hezbollah is now also able to inflict devastating damage deep into Israel. This capability will be factored into Israel’s planning for a ground war in Gaza: How far can Israel go before Hezbollah unleashes a barrage of rockets? One possible scenario is that even an escalation would remain scripted, with both sides opting for precision strikes rather than a barrage of fire.

In parallel with Iran’s expansionist agenda, Hezbollah’s role in the region has grown since 2006. A local Lebanese Shia militia and a political party has now become a regional paramilitary group with a presence in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, much to the dismay of other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia. Since 2013, Hezbollah has been assisting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to brutally put down what had started as a peaceful uprising in 2011. Israel has conducted regular air strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian assets in Syria. Over the weekend, Israel struck the Damascus and Aleppo airports, raising the possibility of a Syrian front against Israel rather than one in Lebanon. Hezbollah would still be involved and play a key role, but Israeli retaliation would target Syria, a country that’s still at war and that has a president who owes his survival to Tehran and will have little say as to whether or how he will participate.

Most concerning for Hezbollah is its domestic and regional standing. In 2006, Nasrallah was seen as an icon who stood up to Israel for 34 days and emerged alive, denying the mighty Israeli army a victory—though at great cost to Lebanon. Israel had wrongly assumed that many Lebanese would blame Hezbollah for attracting Israel’s wrath. But after initial outrage that Hezbollah had dragged the country to war, the Lebanese directed their fury at Israel for destroying Lebanon’s infrastructure and for the high casualty toll. For a few years afterward, according to one poll, Nasrallah was the most popular leader in the Arab world (although he won only 26 percent of the vote).

Today is not 2006, however. Hezbollah has lost its shine in the eyes of much of the Arab world. Lebanon has been exhausted by a three-year economic crisis, and it is still recovering from the massive explosion at the Beirut port in 2020. Many Lebanese assign Hezbollah a portion of the blame for both of these calamities. Over the past two years, Lebanon’s Christian, Druze, and Sunni communities have each had an altercation or a violent clash with Hezbollah. On Friday, Hamas called for demonstrations across the region in support of its cause. Several thousand of Hezbollah’s core supporters answered that call across Lebanon, but the response was overall tepid and performative.

Still, the mood can easily turn, even if not in support of war, toward more vociferous expressions of support for the Palestinians or anger at the United States. In the hours after the al-Ahli hospital was hit in Gaza, several hundred protesters on mopeds drove from the southern suburbs to the U.S. embassy on the northern outskirts of Beirut, setting a nearby building on fire.

Tehran may well have been surprised by the extent of Hamas’s operation, but it is adept at recalibrating. It will capitalize on the global sympathy for Palestinians that the devastating pictures out of Gaza inspire, as well as on the fact that Israeli-Saudi normalization talks are on ice and the U.S. president is being shunned by Arab countries. But despite its bombast and rhetoric, the regime in Iran is not suicidal and will not seek to take a last stand and go down in flames. Whatever Tehran does now, together with Hezbollah, will be carefully calculated to ensure the survival of the regime and a smooth transition for the succession of the 84-year-old Khamenei.

Under pressure at home from an agitated, young population and economic sanctions, surrounded by countries cozying up to his archenemy, Israel, Khamenei has been working to improve Iran’s hand thanks to ties with China and Russia and the use of proxy militias. He also bought some breathing space and legitimacy with the rapprochement with Saudi Arabia in March. He is now using the Palestinian cause to re-burnish his regional credentials.

Diplomacy is only now kicking in, with a sputter. Biden’s meetings with Arab leaders have been canceled in protest at the ongoing Israeli military campaign against Gaza and Washington’s refusal to call for a cease-fire. A political opening may be possible at a much later stage of the conflict, and at that time, Tehran may want a part in regional diplomacy.

In 1990, Iran was still exhausted by the Iran-Iraq war, and its pragmatic president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, wanted his country to be readmitted into the international community. He condemned Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and reconciled with Saudi Arabia after a break of several years. In an effort to further garner the goodwill of the United States, Rafsanjani pushed Iran’s proxies in Lebanon to release the Western hostages that they had been holding since the mid-’80s. But when the 1991 Arab-Israeli peace conference was held in Madrid, Iran was excluded, in a slight it never forgot. Today’s Iran is much different; its president is no Rafsanjani, but the country again has domestic and economic problems that could drive it to seek inclusion or guarantees.

If the current outbreak of violence leads to an opening for a wider settlement, Iran seems unlikely to get a seat at the table. But stranger things have happened in the Middle East—and Iran’s proxies will have made sure that Tehran has been heard and its price has been set.

8 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 1 year ago

Text

September Striketacular! (Last Exit To Springfield, Canada on Strike, Lucky Strike and Blue Collar Scrooge Reviews( Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy union supporters and welcome to a very special event for this labor day weekend in honor of those brave souls in the WGA and SAG who are striking right now to create a better future for media: The SEPTEMBER STRIKETACULAR!

For those of you somehow out of the loop, Back in May the WGA went on strike for the understandable asks of better wages, better residuals for their work in the streaming era, and limits on AI to prevent Studios from using them as half assed replacements. Naturally this being Hollywood, the CEOS all bellowed no from their stygian towers and it was strike o clock.

Things esclated in July when SAG-AFTRA, already fully supporting the strike since it started and having similar needs, went on strike. Since then it's been mostly a stalemate. AMPTP has gone to the bargining tables a few times, but mostly with offers that don't even attempt compromise and attempted to shame them into accepting said offers. They've also flat out said they want to drag it out till "People start loosing their apartments and houses"

Thankfully unlike the previous writers strike, this one.. is working. While AMPTP is digging their heels in like the spoiled chlidren they are, support seems to be pretty much unanimously in favor of the striking workers. Not only that SAG has gone out of it's way to encourage it's wealthier members to donate to the strike fund to allow the members living on a more paycheck to paycheck basis to not "loose their houses and apartments" with The Rock giving a 7 figure statment. The AMPTP tried a counter narrative of it being wealthy elites.. and it seems to have utterly failed. All the blame on any delays in production and any possible content droughts.. is on the AMPTP.

So with AMPTP not seeming to give up the ghost any time soon, Kev had the brillliant idea to look at a bunch of episodes centering around strikes, letting me do most of the choosing while he made with the money. So I choose ones that fit the themes of this strike. So join me as I go thorugh some classic episodes of Simpsons, Ducktales, and Daria and a classic-ish episode of South Park to disect this strike, why i'ts important while also spotlighting some good episodes. And honestly while october is mostly full and november is getting that way, if this goes on i'll defintley be doing this again. Probably not as well made but frankly if AMPTP drags this shit out past halloween as they plan, they deserve the mockery. Four fresh and full reviews under the cut!

Last Exit to Springfield (The Simpsons) Last Exit To Springfield is an episode that for the longest time.. I never wanted to rewatch. See as a kid my little brain focused mostly on the braces part of it, and thus Lisa being forced into clunky awful braces, tormented by her doctor and told by a camera man "there is no god" and was likely a depressing slog. I foollishly assumed for YEARS chlid me was right and avoided it when possible.

So what changed? Simple, another critic. A few months ago I got introduced to simpsons youtuber TheRealJims via one of fellow youtuber ToonrificTariqs videos. Once I checked him out I was hooked on the guys positve nature, great takes and deep dives into simpsons, from showing the history of characters, to digging into weird questions like "who REALLY shot mr burns" and "what's up with Kearny's age?", to just reviewing episodes.

I mostly either agreed with his takes or could at least respect them... until we got to season 4 with one that puzzled me due to my childhood biases: he ranked Last Exit #1, citing it's rapid fire humor..a nd also revealing da lot of simpsons bits I truly loved, including one of my all time faviorites:

youtube

Just this two minute scene alone from HOmer's confused tone, to him repeating it despite it being pretty clear from context what a hired goon is, the guy straightining his tie and of course burn's justification of "I prefer the hands on touch you only get with hired goons". So with this new info I decided to at least give it one more try. And as you can probably guess by the fact it's in this collection, I did a full 180, crazy, thinkin bout the way I was.. and more importantly the years I wasted not watching this episode multiple times a year. Last Exit went from one of my most hated episodes to one of my personal faviorites.

Does this mean the dentist stuff played better to a 30 year old me versus baby boy me?

I got a few laughs this time: I love how all the dentists tools are horribly named and how casual he was about it, the laughting gas thing is fun and the book of british smiles is stupid enough to wrap around to being funny. I also absolutely loved the refrence to the burton batman film. So great.

But the stuff with LIsa herself.. still didn't work for the most part. Or marge, as the guy shouting LIAR to the nicest character in the show because she.. lied about her baby using a pacifier, isn't QUITE funny enough to make the bit work. Likewise his projection of lisa's teeth if she dosen't wear braces is needlessly mean. One of the co writers REALLY hated his orthdontist and it finally made all of this make sense. It's just not very good.

I will share some fun trivia I got from this episodes oral history though: they approached two diffrent guest stars for it: the first was Clint eastwood whose exact response was "Hell No". I half assume they brought up Paint Your Wagon years later out of spite. Or because they love gay polyamorus cowboy icons, Whose to say?

The other is more intresting and was more game, Psycho's Anthony Perkins. He was totally on board, but his failing health sadly meant he died before they could get it all worked out.

The thing is though while Lisa needing braces sets off the plot and gives homer a reason to get involved at all, it's not a huge part of the episode. We get a photographer responding to her smile with "There is no god" later, which I gotta admit has grown on me for the deliver and lisa joining in the protest sans braces, but it's mostly there for setup and to give the episode some emotoinal weight: We care about the strike because we care about lisa. It's why the episode needs it's weakest part: because nothing else would work as well without geninely weight behind homer's fight.

The real meat is the core conflict: the head of the union has mysteriously been buried in a football field somewhere, so Burns, being what your standard greedy ceo acts like when no one's looking, wants to gut their benifits starting with the dental plan.... just as homer needs it. So Homer, after taking a bit to put "Dental plan!" "Lisa needs braces' "dental plan" "Lisa needs braces' "Dental Plan" "Lisan needs braces" together into the right conclusion, ends up becoming head of the union despite it paying nothing.. unless your crooked (Woo-hoo!)

Really from the moment Burns enters musing on a childhood where his grandfather could have a boy taken away for stealing "atoms", and with said boy having warned him about uninons ("If only we'd listend to that boy instead of walling him up in the abandoned coke oven") , this episode pivots from depressing story of lisa getting braces, to one of the series finest farces. It's really a looney tune if bugs bunny was too stupid to notice anything happening to him.

As a result the episode is DENSELY packed with jokes. We have classics such as "Now do classical gas!" , "first thing tomorrow I'm gonna punch lenny in the back of the head!", "The blurst of times?!", "Where's my Burrito?!" (A personal faviorite), "it was the style at the time", along with less noted gems like Homer's weird Godfather fantasy sequence ("Mmmm organized crime"), Marge's hair getting chopped off by burns hellicotper, burns really needing to stop ending with the basement, homer being so clueless he assumes Burns trying to butter him up is Burns hitting on him, and what' sbecome my faviorite joke of the episode...

youtube

Every second of this is gold and it's hard to decide if homer screaming and then cheering or burns getting an "opneing tirade" nad his casual response of "yes thank you kent.

And this bit also underlines how well the episode gets labor disputes. It has some rough edges, the frequent mob allusions, the idea that most uninons are crooked, a lot of that is horribly out dated. But the core of it works: Burns isn't cutting benefits for any practical reason, he's cutting them to save them an extra penny; this whole strike, the money lost, burns various backfiring attempts to stop it, is simply because, like the current strike, someone wants to greedily horde money and the workers simply want want's fair. Burns tries most common strike tactics: breaking it up, sending goons to break it up, trying to make threats to the public at large. And while this being the social media age the former two aren't really in the AMPTP's book , Paramount at least trimmed a tree to take away shade from the strikers, while the "starve them out" tactic is just as petty. It also gives us even MORE great gags from Burns hose mishap, to him and smithers having a dandy time togehter as they run the plant, to the afformentiond abe simpson rant of legend. Burns is potrayed as cartoonishly evil.. but it speaks to the episodes strength that none of it is out of the bounds of reality for a change. Even trying to replace them with "loyal robot workers" is exactly the kind of threat the AMPTP is striking against. So yeah Last Exit is both a fantastic episode in it's own right.. and a great episode on unions that's held up well. Now for one that hasn't exactly held up so good.

Canada on Strike (South Park)

Canada On Strike is an intresting one as it's the only one of today's episodes directly about a previous strike.. and said strike is one that's vitally important to the ongoing one. COS was Matt and Trey's commentary the 07-08 writer's guild strike, the predecessor to the current one. And while South Park has had episodes that's incise takes were AHEAD of their time (the brittnay spears episode), or who despite the direct subject still have plenty of relevance (The bar), Canada on Strike falls into the category of "Has aged aabout as well as hot cheese on a glacier being set adrift because it's not your friend guy". It's not "Reinforcing harmful myths about trans women using a randy savage parody" bad mind but it's a reminder that while Matt and Trey sometimes hit an issue right on the head and do it perfectly like any person they can really, really fuck up. Also not remotely fun fact: i wasn't kidding that really is the episode.

In this case Matt and Trey , while sympathetic to the writers involved.. were not at all on board with the 07-08 writers strike, and outright said their concerns were overblown, particularly wanting residuals for internet content... after having just made a large deal for future streaming residuals for THEMSELVES long before streaming was viable, which still pays off to this day.

Creators were aware the internet wasn't FULLY monitizeable yet, but with itunes and amazon starting the digtial episode market, they could see it was the future. And given we now live in a world with about 80 streaming platforms and where family collectively subscribes to NINE as of this article, not to mention countless free ones and on demand services like Vudu, they were right on the target. As said in a speech by writer Harold Gould.

Soon, when computers and your TV are connected, that's how we're all going to watch. Okay? Those residuals are going to go from what they are towards zero if we don't make a stand now. ...

And you know what THEY DID. I know part of this is hindsight, but the fact remains they knew exactly what they were fighting for... and had to fight for it again. And even then they were also fighting for DVD residuals which were a bigger industry then and still exist enough to have been worth fighting for now. Matt and Trey were talking.. straight out of their ass thinking this was a fight over nothing.

Instead they portray the rest of the strikers (here as candains) as people caught along on the tides who just want to get back to work instead of people fighting so they can get paid fairly for work, and the leadership as a cluless asshat , steve abootman who has no idea who he's fighting for. The ONLY thing they get right is that the amptp, as one scene has the World's Natoins wondering if they can make otowa into an amusement park once everyone's dead from exaustion and hunger. Matt and Trey aren't REMOTELY sympathetic to them.. but their not to the strike itself either, just the people involved.

The other part of the plot.. is just horribly dated. The boys do a viral video based on a real viral video, aforementioned what what in my asshole, to get money only to get nothing. A bunch of dated at the time and even more dated now memes figh tto the death, our heroes get nothing, and matt and trey don't understand that montization from films and shows that were being SOLD online is diffrent from monetization of free content, which didn't exist yet and weirdly lump them together. The more I think about this episode the worse it gets and that's NEVER a good sign. I can only hope that like they've done in the past with Manbearpig, they make an episode that's an apology for this one.. and that transphobia shit. Seriously

This episode is an important cautionary tale though: because I watched it as a teen and didn't know that creators could be *gasp* wrong about things, I assumed they were right and the wga strike failed on it's own merits. It's a dangerous thing to put an idea out there when you know young people are watching and might belivie it. Just saying. IT's worth it if you can do it right.. but you have to or you'll just end up hurting people in the future.

Lucky Strike (Daria) And now we've gone from an episode I used to hate and absolutely love, to an episode I used to like but now hate.. to an episode I loved before and was reminded why I loved it so much.

Fun Fact: This was one of the first episodes of daria I ever saw See I got into the show via finding the first movie and the thing I keep missing the chance ot cover most, Daria: Is it Fall Yet?, which had two bonus episodes that helpfully set up the film and it's sequel Daria: Is it College Yet? that one ALSO had two bonuses, if a bit looser linked. Lucky Strike was one of them.

Why is this important? WHy didn't I just watch the seris in full? Well ti's simple: I couldn't. I didn't know you could find stuff like this online, and the dvds hadn't come out yet. I know because I got the complete series with some of my high school graduation money. I still own it. SO all I had were recaps online and these 4 episodes and 2 films.

And honestly while Lucky Strikes work even better with 4 seasons wroth of build up to it's conclusion.. it was a great early episode to watch on it's own and is one of Daria's best. Hands down. Rewatching it reminded me of so many great jokes.

Loudspeaker: Attention Lawndale Students! Jane: Is that the voice that tells me to kill and kill again? Daria: No. Satan's voice is lower and has a british accent.

The episode itself follows a teachers strike and shows it off really well. IT's probably the best teacher's strike i've seen in a cartoon and most strike episodes are teacher's strikes. It's a high bar. It points out how those in charge can deny a fair proposal.. simply because they don't want to. Ms. Li, the school's principal and money hungry tyrant, tries to bribe the teachers with a new coffee machine instead of a fair 5% raise. What helps the episode is like Mr Burns.. Mrs. Li is portrayred realistically for a company head despite being over the top petty for comedy purposes. If you haven't seen Daria, Mrs. Li is a horribly greedy person whose worried more about avoiding a lawsuit or getting the school, and herself, money than actually FUNDING said school or helping the students. Highlights of her dickery include: Punishing Daria for NOT selling Choclate to a woman who had severe health issues, forcing Mr. DiMartino, lawndales super stressed teacher and as we learn here union rep, to go on a casnio night the school was having despite having a gambling problem and him TELLING her this, selling the school out to a soft drink company, and finally at the top of season 2 censoring Daria and Jane's piece on anorexia then trying to punish them both for breaking in and vandalizing it. I saved that one for last as while ti's one of the earliest.. it also has one of Ms. Li's bigger compuances and one of the series finest moments.

youtube

So the episode both does a good job from context (the coffee machine dosen't even seem that fancY), and from history telling us "yeah she has the money she just won't pay it" just like the AMPTP, and just like them tries to villanize the striking teachers for darring to.. want actual money for having to deal with the kind of students who go to lawndale. It's a fair request. Ms. Li just won't pony up. It also heavily focuses on something the other episodes don't: scabs. South Park has a one off gag about scandivanivans I honestly forgot and simpsons just has smithers and burns do it in an entirely wholesome and hilarous montage. Here we see the scabs effect on the school.. and it isn't really good for the most part. Daria's class gets an elderly woman who calls her Darlene instead because Daria "Sounds like a hippie name" and seems to think she's teaching kindergarten, and is so out of it she FORGETS Darlene isn't daria's actual name when Daria leaves when called on the loud speaker ("I'm going to get daria"). I do love how she calls kevin QB thanks to his catchphrase though. Admitely I was worried this character would grate.. but forgot she's really only in about 2-3 minutes of episode total so she's there JUST long enough to work.

The other teacher... is just plain creepy and pathetic. We have Ken for Quinn's class. Ken is a pedophile. Him trying to groom tiffany is played as a joke. That said.. I do like that it , intetnionally or not, serves as a deconstruction for this kind of character in teen shows like this: in many , as iv'e found out via various retrospectives and watching them with my own eyes in some cases, have the pedophile teacher as a cool guy talking about game stop who woos one of the characters and is treated sympathetically.

Here Ken TRIES to be that.. but the fashion club don't take to it: Sandy is annoyed, Quinn dosen't get what's happening and Tiffany, who he's directly trying to groom.. is Tiffany, so dense no light can get through to her and thankfully no pedophiles. The scene itself is INTENDED to be funny but is just uncomfortable. While ti's mildly played for laughs that just don't work anymore, I can still respect that they throughly treat ken as a creep, treating his pedophila as

The next scene however is comedy gold. The Morgendorfers have dinner and Daria's Mom helen is doing what she tends to do when Quinn talks about her day unless i'ts plot relevant: Just kinda goes mhmmm. What makes the scene work though is as Daria hears the story she gets up... so that by the time we get to "Ken" stroking Tiffany's hair and Helen FINALLY getting the memo that "OH SHIT MY DAUGHTER'S BEING TAUGHT BY A PEDOPHILE AND HER FRIEND COULD BE GROOMED AND ASSAULTED" she ask sfor the phone.. and daria has it at the ready. It's just such a nice visual gag I tried to do it justice but can't. It also just works because Helen.. takes it super seriously and it shows how all too easily a parent can miss the signs of grooming. It also shows how this shit should be handled: the fucker needs to be sacked and Ms. Li does.. then goes further down the moral sewer as she not only clearly only did it for a lawsuit.. but tries to BLAME helen for doing it. "We wouldn't be in this fix if it wern't for your mother" "Yeah. Hire one pedophile and she gets all bent out of shape"

This leads to what the episodes REALLY about and what the strike was really for: Ms. Li asks daria to be a scab teacher for Quinn's class. She refuses at first, as anyone should.. but eventually buckles because it'd make Quinn miserable. She's still sympathetic though: she gives the class her best despite having every reason not to and she's 17 at this point. OF course she'd priortize bugging her sister over striking and it's nice that none of her teachers really seem to hold it against daria. Plus frankly if Daria refused Mrs. Li woul dlikely of found some way to try and railroad her into it anyway. As you heard when Helen evicerated her Daria undeerstandably wanting to withdraw her work was met with a hell no.

The result is pure comedy gold. Helen and Jake don't really object: Helen is happy Quinn now has access to her teacher 24/7 and Jake, my boy and sharer of the name and the stress and anger issues, is happy to have model train time. God bless this trainwreck of a human being. We also get Daria adressing her as "Class" at breakfast just to piss quinn off and threanting to fail her for funsies.

That said Daria DOES take the job seriously.. or as seriously as Daria can at this point in her life. THat is to say we still get even more comic gold with my faviorite being who she refers to Jamie, Joey and Jeffy, three meatheaded jocks who take turns dating quinn and fighting over quinn, as "Jamie, Joey or Jeffy" no matter which one she speaks to. Which

I can't either. I could look it up but they only LOOK diffrent. They don't act diffrent. We also get some nice bits here and there like one of the j's actually impressing her with his interpretation mercutio was into romeo ("Even if your thoguhts on keeping him out of the shower were a little close minded) and figuring out their talking romeo and juliet in the first place because he describes Romeo as a stalker. The real meat character wise though is with Quinn, daria's sister. For those less familiar with the show, from the first episdoe to this point, Quinn has always come up with some excuse for who daria is: her cousin, foreign exchange student, etc. Sandy, her main rival and head of the fashion club, thehir shared clique, saw through it pretty quickly, and tends to hold it over her head when possible without spilling the tea.

Here's where that reaches a breaking point: Sandy wants Quinn to tell Daria to give them all good grades, and as usual implies she'll drop the hammer if she dosen't. Daria naturally. has no intention of doing this when Quinn asks that night. Also Tom her boyfriend is here for a scene. Hi tom. I'll get to you again someday. What's telling though in how far both characters have come.. is how Daria responds "Why are you defendign the stupid quinn, your not one of them?" Quinn assumes she's going to do bad too.. but when talking to Jake, finds she actually knows this stuff.. and the confidence to just try her hardest herself , come what may. While she didn't get the message at first... she realizes Daria ACTAULLY belivies in her. She wouldn't say it directly.. but the setiment is there and it shows how far both have come: Daria can actually compliment her sister easily, if roundaboutly and Quinn has the confidence to try being smart without doing so just for attention.

So naturally Sandy fails, and Quinn finally admits Daria is her sister. And what happens with her other friends, the aformentioned Tiffany and Stacey, who gets a LOT of development this season but is weridly out of focus this episode and I should probably do a special on at some point in herself.. take it fine. They also saw though it and were just being polite to Quinn, who clearly didn't WANT to admit Daria was her sister and Sandy, who they assumed didn't know. It's a perfect payoff to the series biggest running gag and a nice moment of character growth.

As for the actual strike stuff we're here for what's neat is that it isn't just.. thrown away. It becomes the b-plot once Daria becomes a teacher, halfway in no less... but it's not forgotten: We get some fun bits with Jane and Trent, jane's slacker brother as Trent gets asked by cheery sunshiny mr. o'neil to help make a protest song, while Jane gets roped by the art teacher (and the only teacher she reallly likes and who supports her) int ohelping with signs (And has "the scab) sign her a note to get out of class. ).

The main attraction here though is Mr. Demartino. I mean it usually is, he's the best, but after apparently botching the last time they struck, he refuses to give up when the teachers get worn down a bit and spends an ENTIRE NIGHT negotating and not backing down. The best bit is easily:

Ms. Li: Don't think you can intimiate—intermolate—don't think you can scare me with your threat to picket naked!

Mr. DeMartino: You think I'm bluffing?! This is Goodwill polyester I've been sweating in all night. I want to picket naked!

Ms. Li: All right! A two percent raise and a space heater for the teacher's lounge.

Mr. DeMartino: (tugs on collar) Boy! It's getting hot in here!

That last line lives rent free in my head. The delivery is so good. And... Mr. D gets a RARE victory. I mean he still has his shitty job but he actually WINS the strike and gets ms li to sign in her delrium. Granted his confidence boost dies the moment he has to teach kevin again but still it's a nice little victory for a guy who life is determined to kick in the crotch till he has an ulcer and dies.

Lucky Strike is excellent: if you haven't watched daria it's a good episode to try it out and if you have it' sworth a rewatch. It's hilarious, gets striking down well, and has a lot of great character stuff. As I said one of the series best.

Blue Collar Scrooge (Ducktales0 This one came late in the process as we WERE going to do Squid on Strike.. but remembering this existed, it fit the themes of this strike better and was another half hour show so we went with it. It's also the only episode in this special I hadn't seen before.. and while I'm the one who brought it up.. I was also dreading it

See this episode centers around amnesia and i'm not a fan of amnesia episodes most of the time: they usually go thorugh the same beats of the person acting diffrent, being diffrent and ocsasionaly being tricked into thinknig their completely diffrent. It just gets old after a while. There are exceptions, such as bloom county's take on it

Usually though I hate these kinds of episodes.. so it was an utterly plesant suprise to see Ducktales 87, a show I've mostly thoguht of as "okay"... do a REALLY intresting take on it that also handles the plight of the working person with tact for the most part.

What makes it truly work.. is rooting it in character: Scrooge is doing his usual thing making a suprise interaction on his skateboard factory

And I love the joke of his employees just.. humoring him as they alwasy know when it's happening. This episode is REALLY funny and it's something that suprised me as outside of .. a certain moment

youtube

I never think of DuckTales 87 of being a paticuarlly funny show but this episode man. Lots of nice gags. The owner gives the boys one on the house which they sneak back after Scrooge says "they have enough toys". And somehow he's STILL the better guardian than donald

God I missed these ducks. Anyways Scrooge gets conked on the head with it a ways from home and ends up with Amensia. And weirdly.. it's not even as much of a stretch as it should be that no one finds him and he goes unoticed. Scrooge dosen't have his top hat, cane, pocket full of miracles or nifty specs. He just has his coat, and thus looks like any other old man and thanks to his amensia defaults to alan young's regular voice. Also alan young is southeren apparently

Yup. And we get some actually good amnesia gags: Scrooge calling his usual accent silly, having no luck with money and in a bit that's both kind of funny but also sad looking for himeslf on milk cartons.. and getting thrown out because the guy thinks he's teling a joke despite having been dead serious.

Anyways he finds his way to fenton's mom's garbage. Fenton.. dosen't go home because he's looking for scrooge. Okay that one's a bit more of a leap in logic as you think he'd at least go home to tell his mom he wont' be or call, but hey everything else checks out: scrooge is lost in a big city without anything ot idefnity him other than his neat sideburns. It stands to reason that unless the nephews, mrs. b, Fenton or Webby if she was in this episode saw him face to face, it woudln't be that easy for someone else to and as Fenton later poitns out they can't exactly tell the police or anyone who'd wrap this up as it could sink his buisnesses till he's found. And given how this episode ephasies he owns most of Duckburg that's a LOT of people who end up out of a job.

Anyways she's worried at first because EWWWW HOMELESS.. god the 90's were shitty to homeless people. and the 2000's. and the 2010's and present day. At least media is nicer? A little? Anyways, he compliments her dinner and we get another great bit as she makes sure he's single and asks if he has a pulse.. and him checking it is just great. It'd be the best pulse checking joke of all time if this didn't exist

And is it mildly creepy Fenton's mom is hitting on any avaliable man? Yes. Is Fenton's mom the best character here? No. Is it mildly classit to use tv dinners as a symbol of the working class. A little.

But weirdly.. their romance works fo rme. Scrooge with his amnesia is sweet to her and Mrs. C , while clearly into him because again he has a pulse, geninley tries to help, is touched when he later uses his days wages to take her out for dinner as thanks, and helps him when he has a hard day working at the skate board factory as he can only remember skateboards and his boss just.. takes the guy in because why not. It shows how some workplaces will just take every body they can get..a nd then abuse them as lunch break is literally just a minute. Which if employers coudl do that they would. It's why we need strikes and unions.. as this special has shown if an employer CAN get away with something they will. Scrooge plans to sell his factory, putting everyone in it out of work for a profit before his skateboard to the head. and to Mr. Trumpcard. I mean if you can sell your workplace to trump you truly are without a soul.

Scrooge's does show as this scrooge. .is an intresting what if: He's Scrooge if he never got his big break with the goose egg nugget. He has all the work ethic, gumption and desire for money as the regular scrooge but without the greed, cynisim and selfishness he picked up along the way. He's a kinder gentler scrooge whose happy to splurge on a pizza to make someone who was nice to him happy and who ends up leading a strike at work after Scrooge's own secretary leaks the sale to the one at the skateboard plant. He's got the fire, as he ironically grows to hate himself even before the strike, it's just better directed without any prodding or a loved one in danger.

This gets the attention of ... Fenton who dresses up as scrooge to keep the deal going and then has to go attend to the factory and get sso lost in the role he thinks he IS scrooge leading to a hilarious and engaging showdown.. and Scrooge getting his momeroy back and stealing his clothes off fenton

What I like though is the symbolism here> It's about as subtle as a brick, but it works: Scrooge literallys ees himself an dhow he was acting... and through his amensia learned what it was like. They never overly focus on that last part and that's why it works: thorugh his time not knowing who he was, Scrooge got in touch with his routes and stopped being AS corrupt an asshole. It's a true problem in labor disputes: the people at the top lack emptathy and just want money, and it was easy to put scrooge and someone who thought he was scrooge breifly in the villian roll as those are two of his biggest flaws. Even once he snaps out of it he has to be glarred into giving them a dollar an hour raise.

He dosen't even abandon Mrs. Crackshell which is nice. She assumes he will.. but he still has his soaps and the two walk off together. Does this go anywhere? No. But should it if the show comes back. And do I want to think about this relationship beyond how cute it is because it'll lead me to some very dark and horrifying places? NOPE.

Bluecollar Scrooge restored my faith in 87 ducktales after the mini series burned me out on it. It's funny, has a good message, is well animated and while a bit of a stretch, it's just far enough to work without being frustrating. So all in all a good crop of episodes and one dud. Not bad at all. Support the strikers, fuck the AMPTP and thanks for reading.

PS: I almost didn't metnion the greatest scene in comedy history. Behold.