#but that is some epic love story shit if i’ve ever seen it

[prettydjarinsoloinspires]

anyway the person Loki went back to ultimately ask what he should do was Mobius.

the person who couldn’t continue the job they’d been doing for eons because it was too painful without Loki was Mobius.

the person who stood alone in the second to last shot was Mobius.

the person who’s voice Loki heard at the end of time was Mobius.

if you don’t think that’s winning i don’t know what to tell you.

give me painful, bittersweet, star-crossed lovers over nothing at all any day.

[electricneonvalkyrie]

Abby notices when you’re depressed. Let’s talk about how she handles that as your partner.

These are modern Abby headcanons. The list was much longer, but I cut it down considerably to keep it from getting too long-winded. I do have a piece written for WLF Abby. If it's something you want to see, let me know.

Thanks for reading. I'm glad you're here.

• Maybe it’s a slow descent this time… little by little, losing interest in your favourite pastimes and finding it hard to discover meaning in daily life. In the midst of trying to survive, there is suddenly no room left for indulging in your hobbies.

Abby, with every random blanket and sheet she owns, constructs a blanket fort in the living room, offering a pressure-free zone where you can do nothing but feel completely safe and loved.

Super cozy, not too busy, and mega peaceful against the demands of a world that is asking far too much of you in this moment.

Does she deep-dive Youtube tutorials on how to build epic forts that probably belong in a magazine? I mean, yeah. Give her a break, alright? Complete dedication is the way this girl operates, and I’ll die on that hill. Also, Abby is a tall, sturdy girlie, and she needs to fit inside it with you. If you’re going to live in this fort together for the foreseeable future, she needs it to be good for you.

Now, if you want an enormous blanket hanging precariously off the side of the couch with a half-dead flashlight and crinkled comics shoved underneath some pillows, date Ellie. Still cute, still the thought that counts, but she’s no Abigail it’s my mission to save you Anderson.

• Abby stocks up on all your go-to snacks because she gets that it's hard to think about the basics when you're too bone-tired to move… nevermind prioritizing measly things like providing yourself sustenance. She’s got you covered.

• She refuses to let you marinate in the feeling of being a burden. She shuts that shit down fast.

“You’re my person, okay? I’m not going anywhere. End of story.”

• Abby grew up around doctors, so she'll for sure be the one to look up therapists and leave the info pinned to the fridge beneath a small magnet that is, of course, a laminated photo of the two of you on your first date. She describes it as the most important day of her life and brings it up regularly.

“You know, I’ve seen this picture a hundred times, but every time I look at it, it hits me all over again—how much that day meant to me.” Her voice dips low as she confesses something so immensely sacred to her. “The day I realized you weren’t just someone I wanted in my life. I’d been waiting for you without even knowing it. I thought I had it all figured out before you. Fuck, was I ever wrong.”

(Just know there's no rush to decide anything big when it comes to choosing a method of healing, but it's there when you're ready.)

• On your hardest days, she stays close, but she doesn’t push. She’ll busy herself with repairs around the home or folding the mountain of laundry shoved up against the wall in your bedroom.

• Abby loves to buy those cute nightlights with little animals on them or the ones that change colours, and she scatters them around the house. When you’re lost in the darkness, right?

• She serves you warm drinks in your favourite mug and nothing else. She’ll handwash it a million times a day if she must.

• Abby's phone chirps with little alarms throughout the day, reminding her to do something special for you. This is all the time, not just when you’re depressed, to be certain.

• Weighted blankets everywhere. Vehicles included.

• I don’t care what anyone says, Abby is soft as a motherfucker, okay? Is she rough around the edges? Maybe. Yes. 100%. Fine, she’s a hot mess, but will she read you poetry aloud, until her voice is hoarse, and her lips go dry? Without a doubt. There are sticks and jars of lip ointment all over the place wherever Abby resides.

Fun fact: Abby hates when her lips feel dry, even slightly. She is constantly reaching for ChapStick and all its cousins. Whenever someone tells her she should stop using her precious lip stuff because it will improve the sensory nightmare in the long run, she’ll immediately do that pouty, nose crinkle thing at them and ignore the advice without a breath.

• Abby lets you wear all her sweaters. That’s a given. But when you’re depressed, she tends to reach for yours as well. It helps her feel close to you when she’s dealing with her own inner turmoil.

• She doesn’t fuck around when she senses you’re starting to spiral. Her routines are extremely important to her, but she will put them on pause to be there for you.

Now, does she gently, lovingly, force your ass to go on walks with her to get some fresh air somewhere you feel comfortable? Yeah, she does. This might be annoying at times when you’re really struggling, and she knows it. She’ll still encourage movement in a way that is manageable for you if leaving the house is too daunting.

If that means you’re standing on her feet, arms wrapped around her neck while she sways side to side with you, so be it.

• She'll binge-watch your favorite shows and movies with you until she drains all the power in the entire city.

• Abby won't make you feel awkward if you cry. She'll just start crying, too, even if she tries so hard not to. She gets better at keeping it to a little glossy eyed moment, but sometimes your pain is her pain, and the dam just… breaks.

• Abby is an actions over words type of human. She’s a doer. Also, timing doesn’t matter much to her. She is desperate to give you a future to believe in because she is so certain that what the two of you share is everlasting.

Abby proposes to you when your hair is a mess, and you’ve been in the same pajamas for days. Fuzzy teeth? Fear not. She isn’t afraid of the hard times. Her love is an anchor. A constant.

She wants to remind you that you’ll never have to face your dark times alone.

Shadows dance on the tapestry walls of the blanket fort, illuminated by the warm, flickering lights hanging inside. Across from you, Abby lounges with her legs stretched out and her back propped against a pile of soft pillows. She’s quiet for a moment, fiddling with something in her hands.

“You know,” she begins, her voice gentle and husky, like gravel smoothed by unrelenting water. “When I was little, I used to make forts like this with my dad. We’d sit in the middle of all the chaos and just… talk about random shit. Nothing outside could touch us.”

As she glances at you, there is a small, almost shy smile playing on her lips.

“That’s what this feels like—being with you. Even when everything else seems like it’s falling apart, you’re my safe place.”

Abby leans forward, her knees brushing yours, and you realize she’s holding a small velvet box. Her confidence wavers, revealing a hint of vulnerability you rarely see.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while. About us—what we mean to each other.” Her voice cracks a little, causing her to pause and clear her throat before she continues.

“I know you’ve been feeling lost. And I know I can’t fix it, even when it kills me—even when all I want to do is make the hurting go away. But I can promise you this...”

She opens the box, the ring glimmering in the soft light, her affectionate, earnest gaze meeting yours.

"I promise you'll always have someone by your side to help you through it. No matter how dark it gets, I’ll be right here with you. For the tough days, the good ones, everything the world throws at us. Because you’re it for me. You always have been."

With each word, her voice grows softer, filled with an unmistakable tremor of emotion.

“Let me be your person forever. Let me love you, fight for you. Let me build you giant blanket forts until we’re way too fucking old to do it by ourselves—and then let me find new ways to take care of you. Because it’s all I want in this lifetime. You’re all I see. Will you marry me?”

[a-bottle-of-tyelenol]

people are, of course, allowed to have their opinions and dislike whatever they please but a lot of criticism I see about epic not being a good adaptation boils down to people not realizing that 1) it’s a retelling BASED on the odyssey and was never actually meant to be an adaption, let alone a faithful one

and 2) even if it was, that’s just the nature of how adaptions and retellings work. there will NEVER be a totally good and faithful adaption or retelling of the odyssey (movie, musical, ect) because there will ALWAYS be constraints of some kind.

so much shit happens in the odyssey and there isn’t a valid musical length that could go over it all. Jay cut out a lot and he STILL has issues with time (that’s why you see so many people criticizing the fact that we don’t spend enough time with the crew before they die or calypso before odysseus leaves). Jay has spoken at length about all the things he TRIED to include but couldn’t because there wasn’t time to do them or because it didn’t narratively feel satisfying (the laestrygonians, for example, originally had a much bigger part, as did the lotus eaters).

which leads to my next point— Jay prioritizes a satisfying and clear cut narrative over one that is authentic to the original story (which again is how MOST retellings go about it especially when their goal is to share the story with a wider audience!). Like I’m sorry I love the odyssey and the Iliad but they aren’t a satisfying story/conclusion to me. and that doesn’t make them bad or worse; it makes sense that they feel this way considering they’re PARTS of an overarching story that we’re missing crucial pieces of and, more importantly, ITS NOT A MODERN STORY AND THEREFORE IS NOT HELD UNDER THE WAY MODERN PEOPLE VIEW SATISFYING ARCS AND NARRATIVES!!! The odyssey is fantastic but it would literally never work as a modern musical and epic wouldn’t be enjoyable at all if Jay tried to be as accurate as possible.

Jay was inspired to tell a story about grief and what it means to be human interacting with that grief. obviously he’d have odysseus reveal his name to the cyclops because he’s angry and grieving instead of being prideful. obviously he’d have it so odysseus had to choose who died to zeus immediately after the cow was slain. obviously he’d make it so odysseus’ primary motivations surround his survivor’s guilt and missing his home over the more complicated and harder to express themes and motivations of odyssey!odysseus.

like I do understand the frustration of never getting an “authentic adaptation” but if you want something authentic then… read the odyssey? you will never get something that is 100% authentic or scene to scene otherwise. you might get close, I’ll definitely give you that, but SOMETHING has to give. a perfect adaptation to you will be missing something crucial to someone else and that will always be how it is.

life is so much more fun when you’re willing to enjoy art that has “based on” disclaimers literally everywhere as something separate (or you are just willing to enjoy adaptations/retellings separately to the source material in general). epic was NEVER intended on being seen as an accurate portrayal of odysseus and Jay never claimed it was. It really does feel like y’all are setting it up for failure by seeing it as something it was never meant to be and then getting upset that it isn’t accurate when no one ever said it would be.

maybe it’s just a me thing because I’ve never had any issue separating media from their adaptions/retellings, even my favorite ones, but idk it just sucks seeing people say they have a ton of issues with epic and their issues are all just,,, it’s not accurate enough.

Idk if this makes sense or not but I’m just rambling. like what you like, dislike what you dislike. I’m not saying anyone is wrong or anything in how they feel or their preferences. I just think we should all be more open minded about these things idk

[yourlocalartsonist]

MONTHLY MFIP UPDATE✨✨

9/24 | Month 2 | Next Month | Month 1

Hey folks 🦐 I finally got the chance to make this month’s MFIP Update cuz god damn life was kicking my ass. College is fine for the most part tbh, just a lot of reading and writing cuz of the specific classes I chose. HOWEVER I have 💥FUCKING PMDD💥 so um skill issue on my part but it’s why I’ve been kinda exhausted as shit this week and was late with the update so my bad folks! (Also for more info on PMDD, click here! I don’t wanna spend this post yapping about it but wanted to leave a resource to spread awareness just in case :3). Also, Imma be tagging some of y'all who have been reading/supporting MFIP consistently just for this post, so yk you guys actually know these updates exist. I was gonna do that for the first ever update but as with many things, I forgor, so I'm doing it now! They’re supposed to come out on the 18th of every month, but yk sometimes life happens and I’m a lil late. It won’t be any earlier than the 18th tho so look out for these once it hits that date! Anywho, cheers to this month’s update!

Alrighty folks we be starting with the Art~!

Alrighty so obvious new thing, WE GOT RAPH’S REF SHEEEEEEEET TEEHEEEEEEE

BRO IM SO HYPE ABOUT IT! It turned out so genuinely amazing and I’m ridiculously proud of it! Especially cuz I honestly thought Raph was gonna be a harder design to figure out yk? I’m not used to drawing his body type, I wasn’t as familiar with his outfit, and even tho I’ve sketched him a few times before, I was just a bit nervous with Raph. Funfact, he’s also been the hardest to figure out how to write back when I was first starting MFIP. I genuinely don’t know why, but I got there eventually (I actually really love writing him now—) and same thing happened with his design!

Since MFIP’s taking place a few months after the Krang invasion, i’m able to take creative liberties and update the boys’ designs more! For some clarification btw, in my story’s lore, the invasion took place in September 2020, and MFIP starts on March 2021. Anywhizzle, my ideas for the boys’ designs is to combine their movie look with their show look, cuz while I do LOVE the black on them, it doesn’t feel right to me to not make them still unique in their own ways. These guys are all about authenticity, so why make their gear exactly the same, ya get me? I basically recolored his show gear to be black and red (and added a lil asymmetry on his legs) cuz I think it makes Raph feel older and more sure about himself, just feels right for him! I also just think the red fade on the black is hella cool! Fun lil color theory i think application, the black is more of a really dark, inky blue, so it makes the red pop out even more! I decided to make a bow out of his mask tails, too! I don’t wanna spoil the entire lore reasoning for it yet (it’ll pop up in the story), but I can indeed say it’s intentional that it looks a little like a lunamoth with damaged tails :3 I also took a BUNCH of creative liberties with his sais’ handles, since we haven’t really seen it much so like idk gaslight yourselves into thinking it’s always been this epic✨✨

Also I gave him his shorts back because FUCK YOU I LIKED THE RED TRIMMMM—

OH I ALMOST FORGOT yes he has longer eyelashes! I saw he grows to have really pretty eyelashes in the future cuz of his turtle species, and I wanted to lean into that by showing they’re starting to grow now :3

Bullshit Gag Because Yes‼️‼️

There ain’t shit to say about this, I just pulled a silly. I saw the fact Donnie was supposed to have a “Doctor Donatello” persona in the deleted episode where Dale turns into a werewolf. I’m really heavily on the train of Leo being the team medic and into medicine in general. I don’t think it makes sense for Donnie to be the medic judging by his sensory issues and this mf being as much of a germaphobe as my mom, and in my opinion it felt too stereotypical anyway to have Donnie be the medic. Ofc, to each their own, and this is just my interpretation of it, but I thought it’d be funny if Donnie still had this persona and was passionate about it, but was like horrifically bad at being a doctor. I made this dumbass sketch that I’ll finish sometime in the future (it’s gonna be a chapter in Arc 3 probably) and I just wanted to share it with yall~

THEY’RE HUMAN NOW⁉️

My ass wanted to show off cuz I’m sketching out some ideas of what my human designs for the boys culd be. I already did Leo’s like ages ago so he’s not on here but I’m realizing as I’m typing this my dumbass forgor to post it so um my bad I will do that in a few days—

But I wanted to design (or more accurately, redesign cuz I did draw em once a while back but I’m not satisfied with them) and I think I ate so far so uh yea. There isn’t any logic to sharing this, I just thought it was cool😭

And actually, imma share them here too just so y’all can see my boy ;w;

(A lil outdated cuz I didn’t give him lips at the time)

Okay there we go~

As you can see, I want all the boys to look kinda etherial and like they'd turn heads, and I think I am SUCCEEDING SO HARD SO FAR CUZ DAMNNNN THEY'RE ALL PRETTY AS SHIIIIIIIT TEEHEE✨ Also am tryna make sure they actually look Blasian since that's what the canon of my story says they are. I'll talk about them more another time when I have all of them on here~

But yea that's all for art this time folks :> ONTO THE NEXT THINGGG

Chapter Progress Time Whoop Whoooop‼️‼️

I didn’t make much progress on anything this month due to college—again, it’s fine, but there’s a shit ton of time management going on in my part to just manage everything and make sure I’m on track—BUT I am indeed still working on chapter 10. We’re up to 20 pages now which is only two more pages written from last month, but it’s kinda cool writing Donnie and I feel like I’m getting a better understanding of him! One thing I’ve been tryna do is understand autism better as a condition cuz I do wanna acknowledge and show bro’s autism instead of just ignoring it due to a lack of understanding. Donnie ain’t Donnie without it, ya know? I don’t know everything and tbh I would say I still have A LOT to learn on the subject matter, but I’m tryna expand my knowledge every opportunity I get and experimenting with how to better show it! This is to say tho, I’M NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, NOR AN EXPERT ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM. This is what I’m finding and comprehending via my own research, and can tbh end up being wrong so please don’t quote me as a reliable source, I’m still learning ;v;

I remember one of the things I kept hearing about was autism leading people to struggle with empathy. The best way I heard it being described was someone bringing the example of when their friend was upset. That person can’t truly feel their friend’s emotions because they’re not the one experiencing it, so can’t properly understand how it’s making their friend feel. But they can see that their friend is communicating their sadness, and they still try to comfort them and make sure their friend knows they’re there for support. I understood it as bringing logic to emotions in a sense; collecting data and figuring out how to handle the situation based on the data rather than using intuition alone.

I’ve been using that to figure out how Donnie might handle more emotionally subtle situations, where he might try to rationally work through what’s happening and kinda substitute it in place of natural empathy. Like the little tidbit I gave above! Instead of just automatically being able to get vibes that the other person is upset, I felt maybe Donnie would instead notice the fact their tone is kinda different from before; it’s basically a data point. With that data point in mind, he could connect it to past experiences where a tone change could indicate a mood change, and as a result he might conclude that Salena’s tone change means she’s upset. I comprehend it as manually working through empathy rather than it being second nature, if that makes sense. Obviously and thankfully Donnie isn’t gonna spend the entire chapter playing a guessing game or anything with Salena’s emotions, it’s just one lil moment that I thought was cool challenge to myself with when writing him! I really love putting myself in the characters’ shoes when I’m writing them or their dialogue. I highly recommend it as a tool too, since it's helped me a lot with staying in character!

Last Lil Segment Y'all

Aight so, I wanted to try doing something cool if y'all are up for it. I really love rambling about my story and lore and characters blah blah blah, but I don't really know how to do so tbh. I'm not that familiar with how social medias work cuz I just never took it seriously, and I don't wanna just keep being like HEYYYYY ASK BOX IS OPENNNNN like I'm screaming from the top of the hill either. Sooooo insteaddddd

I think it'd be fun to do Q&As here! Or at least something similar. I'll open my ask box again and feel free to send any questions you want; it can be about the story, past lore, design questions, getting to know the characters, absolutely anything! Then when I'm gonna do my update for the month, I'll compile all y'all's asks, (prolly will have to tag to make sure you guys know I answered it, or if you ask anon then uh idk look out for the monthly update) and then answer them during the monthly update as the last section! I think it'll be a cool way to make this feel more interactive, and gives me an excuse to ramble. Don't be afraid to ask potentially spoilery questions either! If it's something I can't spoil yet or even give hints or vague answers about, I'll just say so in the update!

Anywhizzle, That's All Folks~!

I'm glad there was so much to talk about this month! I actually deadass thought it would be short but I should know better with my yapping' ass💀✨ But yeah, thanks for reading everyone! I hope y'all enjoy the rest of your days, and I shall see you next month~ Bye :D

Tageroonies:

@yosajaeofficial @chaoticspeedrun @ramblehour @randomcerealbrand @goldanrabbit @m1sf0rtun3 @foundthethief @ackalice @jellyfishheartsss @dollyrin @harukonene @iieieiw @mwantstossleep @zipzaizen @hypocriticaltypwriter @lordfreg @rainbowpr1sm @idioticsky @oleander-nin @cheeselord-official @skittlesqueen101

By the way, if you guys think you’d like to be tagged whenever an MFIP chapter is posted, lmk in a reblog or comment (no asks or dms plz, too inconvenient) and I’ll be sure to tag so it’s more reliable than tumblr notifs :3🫶

ROTTMNT: Moths Fly In Packs

[not-she-which-burns-in-it]

Ok, my fixation on the Magnus Archives isn’t going away any time soon, and I don’t want to jump into Protocol yet because I’m not ready to say goodbye to Jon and Martin. And I don’t want resent some fabulous new characters just because they’re not my boys.

Instead, I played one of my favorite games. Turn on an album and use my theater brain to figure out how I would stage it. I had a 3 hour drive for an out of town gig, so I listened The Mechanisms all the way there and back.

Each album got 2 listens in a row, one for vibes and appreciation, and one to dissect and take notes.

I think I like The Bifrost Incident the best. The songs are so good. A train set would be totally reasonable to build. Utterly destroying it a little bit harder, but I was thinking of a large scale regional production (something like Papermill, ART, La Jolla) where automation/projection/special effects aren’t an issue - so we could explode a train.

The problem is that it’s a train … In Space!

Outer Space and Theater feels so deeply incompatible. Not that people haven’t tried, I’m just not sure I’ve ever seen someone do it successfully (sorry Jonathan Larson) But that’s fine. This is a reimagining, it doesn’t have to be an outer space train, it can just be a train traveling through the BiFrost.

Ok, then I started thinking of design, maybe more of a steampunk aesthetic to go with the train. But hey, wait a minute, a pantheon of gods, in a tragic story about a doomed train, singing a little jazzy-folky, cabaret tunes.

Oh. Fuck. We’ve just invented Hadestown. 

And every design and staging idea, I’ve been mulling over for the past hour drive vanishes in a puff of smoke. Nah, I can’t do a big intricate metal spiral staircase. That’s too fucking close to Hadestown.

It’s even got the narrator that pretends to be neutral, but is actually deeply emotionally invested in the story. And while I like Jonny’s vocals very very much it’s just mean, - for any performer - to allow the audience to draw a direct comparison to Andre DeShields.

So it’s with a heavy heart I put The Bifrost incident down and try the Snow White/Rose Red album Once Upon a Time (In Space). And unfortunately, I think we’ve hit market saturation of gritty warlike retellings of Grimm’s fairytales. I’m sure this absolutely fucking slapped in 2012, but in 2024 Disney’s Once Upon A Time has ruined the possibility for everyone. I tried so hard to imagine a design, but all I could see was either that or the new generation of Disney live action remix. Or even that one Huntsman movie with Kristen Stewart as Battle!Snow White.

I kind of love, weird, obscure shit, though, I could totally see this, finding a home in fringe circuit. Unfortunately, you need those institutional dollars if you want highly stylized, long wigs and battle armor and spaceships. It’s the intrepid black box theater troupe that gets a show that looks like this:

But with less tailoring.

So with a great sadness, I put Once Upon A Time In Space on the reject pile for my fantasy new musical development workshop.

The next time I have a long drive I’ll try out Ulysses Dies at Dawn but unfortunately, that would be a race against time since there are about four different odyssey themed musicals in development right now. One of which, epic, is getting a lot of traction online. And another will be coming to one of the LORT theaters I mentioned earlier. (Fucking call me back [Redacted] am I working on [redacted] or not UGH)

So, I’m about three years too late to win that game. [inset joke about Gatsby vs Gatbsy here].

All this is just fantasy of course, even if I did strike gold I would still need to convince actual-human Jonathan Sims to engage in a years long, time consuming, deeply frustrating development process, on the wrong continent. So for the absolutely microscopic overlap of my followers, who are both invested in The Magnus Archives/ The Mechanisms and also Musical Theater, I’m sorry to disappoint.

But it is nice to think about New Ideas tm for theater while making my yearly sacrifice to the gods of freelance employment and do another year of The Nutcracker. Oh well at least I’m not Christmas Caroling this year.



[voltadream]

Hi I’m here to bother your inbox:

Favorite (non SP) fandom and why?

OOO shit, I’ve only ever been in the SP fandom to be honest, like it’s the only one I’ve really been involved in. 🫣 I wouldn’t count my music era from when I was 14-15 HOWEVER, I do interact with different fandoms of my interests but it’s mainly surface level 😭🙏

To name a few:

Invincible: I fucking love this show, it doesn’t have much of a fandom but I love the fanart I have seen and I love watching videos analysing the characters. It’s one of my favourite shows honestly and I’m so hyped for season three coming out in a week and a half now shshsh.

Arcane - I LOVED ARCANE SO MUCH!! It’s become one of my favourite TV shows, for its amazing writing and I love how nuanced the characters are (I’m honestly mad it exists bc nothing will ever come close to its story telling lol) I love all of the fanart and memes from the fandom, like it’s always GODSEND.

Epic the Musical: I LOVE LOVE LOVE this fandom!! I love watching the animatics and everyone reciting different sources from the Iliad/Odyssey and weaving it into Epic fanart, it’s really cool. I also just love the songs and I can’t wait for the day it becomes a movie or is on the stage.

Merlin - I’ve read a couple of fics from the Merlin fandom actually !! I love the show (I never finished it but shhhh) and I loved the characters so much - especially Gwyn and Merlin so I love seeing fanart of it. I also love the edits I’ve seen.

Winx - I HAVENT WATCHED THE SHOW IN YEARS BUT I LOVE THE FANDOM!! I love the ocs, the edits, the fanart. All of it, Winx was my whole childhood and the songs all slapped. My favourites will always be Aisha and Flora. (I’m also basing Wendy’s design of Tecna in my fic !!)

ATLA - It’s similar to how I interact with the Winx fandom, except I may rewatch it one of these days <3

Teen Titans - also the same as the other two except I’m also dying to rewatch this one as well.

Some other media/fandoms I like are: Moral Orel, Mouthwashing, The Princess and the Frog, Anastasia, Hercules, Treasure Planet, Road to El Dorado, Prince of Egypt, The Hunger Games, Wicked and Hamilton !!

For extra lore: The first fandom I was technically in was Sally Face!! My first ever fic was a Sally Face one which I wrote when I was 11 or 12. And no, no one may know about it, don’t worry about it LMAO.

WHAT WERE YOURS OMG ??? I’m curious now

[mothlady-garden]

Hey. Here are some more of my thoughts about Trigun Maximum Volumes 1 to 3.

Have a good Christmas💖🎄🎄

She really should wear her hair longer; it suits her. Her eyes are also so pretty.

There’s something so captivating about her. She’s serious when it matters, but underneath it all, there’s this warm humor that just shines through.

Overview! Overview! Justin, we’ve got a full-on overview!

Vash is looking so fresh and stylish in that shirt. Honestly, it’s a whole vibe.

And then there’s Mr. Hitman, rocking those classic leather shoes like he just raided my dad’s old wardrobe. Total throwback energy. ( I know that he probably has a name but for me it’s Hitman lol)

Wait, so he knocks, and then some hidden mechanism just tosses the gun right into his hand? That’s wild.

Of course, he had to spin the rifle first, didn’t he? What’s a dramatic moment without a good weapon spin?

And then suddenly, this massive machine gun flies straight into his hand. Does this guy have magnets in his palms or something? I need answers.

Milly to the rescue, as always! That’s our girl!

Is she seriously flexing her muscles right now? Yep, she totally is, and it’s the most adorable thing ever.

Ohhh, that’s Tabasco sauce! I always thought he smacked him with the bottle. What a mental image, lol.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this little kid with the military hat somewhere in the 98 anime. Could be my imagination, though.

Ahh, okay, now I remember—he’s in the Sand Steamer! How could I forget that?

I’ve really much missed this dynamic. Vash and Wolfwood together are just great. This made me chuckle, before the horrors begin. (Their scene before Vash enters the steamer -the one where he starts to sing in the end)

Aggressive realoding!!!!

Aggressive reloading at its finest! The intensity is off the charts, and I am living for it. XD

This panel. Seriously, it deserves a whole moment of appreciation. I love that the author gave him such an outfit it’s so beautiful to see the movements of the individual pieces. And that throughout the entire story, amazing. Give him something to wear that moves in the wind/with Vash and make it almost always windy->la me happy

Wolfwood enjoying a cig.

Is that puppet Leonardo’s using at the start some kind of nod to Ghost in the Shell? It has that vibe, right?

Aaaa, his poor earlobes! Boomerang guy is really going through it. (Not for long)

Even though he knew the risks, he still tried to warn them. That kind of selflessness hits so hard, especially as a “villain��.

Also, can we take a second to admire how pretty this scene is? It's my all time favourite coat design.

Look at Rai-Dai with those sharp shoes! Always staying true to his style and the theme of their apocalyptic death cult.

Blinded by lust guided by his sense of right and wrong. Trapped inside his own cage.

And here it is, one of the most powerful lines in the entire manga: “No matter what you do, you give up hope so easily.” That one just cuts deep every time.

Toma chicken! Also, can we talk about how epic Meryl’s cape is? It really grew on me

And here it comes—the legendary bloody hands dream sequence whuuu

This chapter is packed with so many memorable moments.

Hey Needles finally found something older than himself (the tree) in the Biodome of ship 3. Lol. They can do ✨photosynthesis✨ together.

Wolfwood definitely needs a chiropractor ASAP. The man’s carrying more than just emotional baggage.

That is a very creepy hand

This whole section is terrifying in the best way. It’s so emotionally raw and intense. Absolute chills.

This shot is so…

Holy fucking shit.

Incredible character design work here

Going from more or less “I want to die” to “I’m gonna kill this guy with my bare hands” is something I wasn’t ready for -at least not yet. Damn.

Pianos are cooool. Right?!

I have forgotten so much of this lol.

[corpsentry]

SORRY i keep coming here to yell !! you got me thinking about cdramas (& t dramas) i enjoyed and then forgot about :"] i watched 如果奔跑是我的人生 earlier this year and the ending lost me, but i was quite captivated by its 20+ episodes before. it centres around parental relationships (asian) and, i don't know much about dance at all but a main character is a dancer and her story made me feel things. the performances were sick, in my unprofessional opinion! I'm Fine is a gorgeous ost track. btw.... i've started rewatching 不良执念清除师 again and i CANNOT RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ENOUGH. i've been thinking about it (on ep 5 LOL) and i actually don't think the ending dropped the thread or ball or 链子 or however that saying goes (im fever SORRY.... i think it was cathartic and beautiful in the way a galaxy is— i just could not get enough of those guys T__T 不良执念清除师 is about sulky teen (??) guys moving through the world with so much heart. it's about LOVE and ART and how the living go on after tragedy, it's about how. how (PARDON ME....) we get to keep everything we've ever loved for even a fraction of a moment & what we are doing is worthwhile even if it is very small !!!!! it is a show that is, in Voice from IMBD's words, an outstanding Taiwanese drama that excels in every aspect, because it was made with so much care and love...(meta!) also, gay people

first of all No Apology thank you for coming to yell!!! you have a big heart full of love for the world and it moves me!!!! i went down this rabbit hole on m*dramalist after watching 我们的少女时代/our times (2015)-

(tangent incoming) this movie Shook the secondary 2 scene in singapore when it came out everyone and their dog was sobbing about it and i listened to 小幸运 Religiously despite never seeing it myself. Having Seen It Now, it is a sweet little thing and it makes me feel desperately old. it also made me CRY, what can i say i’m a sucker for distances and ships passing in the night and i was soooo happy when liudehua appeared and then adult xutaiyu showed up and he Fuck Ass Hair. my lord, his hair looked like SHIT. PICKLED SEAWEED……… i couldn’t cry after that because i was so busy clenching my asscheeks out of sheer despair FUCK HAIR AND. AND!!! A TOO SHORT BLACK BLAZER ON SKINNY JEANS??? I MEAN REALLY??? I KNOW 2015 WAS NINE YEARS AGO but i don’t recall fuckass hair being the in thing then…. this memory i do not have…. you have to understand how emotionally devastating this was to me…… (tangent end)

(tangent part 2) (please look at the way they styled this poor man’s fuck ass hair. i don’t care how earth shatteringly sweet they were in high school if my first love turned up ten years later and he looked like this i would simply walk away)

(tangent end)

the point is, that i then went through vivian sung’s acting history to see what else she’d been in bc she was soooooo lovely and realized that 不良执念清除师 was in said history and then remembered this ask! and your heartfelt words about its story! and i was like Oghey, i watch—

just finished the first episode and mein gott yiyong is such a Teenager…… man i look at 18 year olds and i’m like i don’t remember being like that but i Know i must’ve been, once upon a time. but the range of emotions the script wrung out of him in one episode was kind of insane and his actor is kind of vibey as hell (perhaps this is my sign from god to finally watch your name engraved herein…) and vivian sung is still epic as hell and sooo goofy and i’m excited! i think of u in my head for some reason as the epic tight as hell short chinese dramas anon, i Trust your eyes. they’re good eyes. i’ve also locked down the first 20+ episodes of the other drama you mention here, especially because yang chao yue is in it and she was Breathtaking in the double T T T thank you for the recs! where do you find all of these? i don’t know but you must be doing good out in the world. be well anon. meet a chicken

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

I’ve seen you post a lot about Titans, and I was wondering if you could give a premise of the plot. I need new found family stuff to watch. 😂

Thanks! 🌻

Okay I'll try my best with the summary hahaha just a few fun facts before I get to it: this was my #1 show for the past 4 years, until tlou rolled around, we are on our last stretch of episodes before saying goodbye (my heart is broken) and a word of warning: if you get into it, you will love it as much as you will hate it. This stupid beloved show of mine can be a real pain in the ass sometimes 😂

Okay, time for a summary. Or, in other words, let me paint you a picture of this found family without giving away any plot 😂

So at the beginning we have these four lovely people who all find each other just when they need it the most when their lives are at their lowest. They are DC superheroes (some on their way to becoming them) but the most important thing the show had always put focus on (more or less sometimes but we lived through it) is that team is family. The team grows over time and they learn how to be a team and fight evil together and all that but these four are the core of it.

So, on the left you have the kids: Gar Logan and Rachel Roth. If you're familiar with DC Comics in any capacity, you might know them as Beast Boy and Raven. Gar can shift into animals and Rachel is a daughter of a demon. Fun times with these two!

Then we have the parents: Dick Grayson and Kory Anders. Known as Robin, then Nightwing and Starfire.

Dick is a master detective with some sick martial art skills (trained by Batman himself) and Kory is an alien powerhouse Queen!

Leaders of the team. Heads of the family. Father and Mother who will do absolutely everything to protect their children.

They also have an epic love story going on, just so you know. Season 4 is really taking them places.

Now, when I started this show, I came here for some superhero fun. But I stayed because the pilot episode served me one of the best father-daughter duos I have ever seen. Think of Joel and Ellie's "if you're lost in the darkness, search for the light" but here it's almost LITERAL sometimes. Dick has metaphorical darkness in him and Rachel is the one who brings out the light for the first time. But Rachel has the literal darkness in her and Dick is the first person in her life who isn't afraid of it and helps her accept it as a part of her.

She has a dream about him before they even meet and when they do, she immediately knows. And he's scared shitless of this new attachment, he's dark, violent, has issues and he can't do family but here is this orphaned girl who knows things about him that she shouldn't and hell if his heart isn't beating a little faster.

This scene here, it has a grip on my throat since 2019 and isn't planning to let go. This is where it all begins.

As for the plot, each season is a different thing. Season 1 is protecting Rachel from her father, season 2 is trying to settle down as a team but ghosts of the past are making it difficult, season 3 is about sibling rivalry and how that can fuck up a family and a bit of generational trauma, and season 4 is all over the place with a giant prophecy, some big and small returns, magic and shit, but season 4 is when the family is finally the strongest!

I hope you enjoy it! You can find it on HBO MAX in the US and on Netflix everywhere else (though international Netflix is one season behind). If you get to watching it, I'd love to here your thoughts!

Come join us in Titansland! Let me welcome you to the Graysonfam!

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #118 (Year 3/Week 14):

My 3rd re-watch of Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean’s magnificent, all-male epic and the movie that Steven Spielberg had seen more than any other film. It’s so grand that the nearly 4 hours spectacle opens with 4+ minutes of orchestral music prelude on a dark screen and includes an ‘intermission’.

It got me to realize that most all movies (maybe because of the economics of movie-financing) always show deference to authority; The influences they represent, whether government, military, religion, civil powers, or simply ‘the big man’, the rulers are always accepted as masters.

🍿  

The Garden of Words, my second anime ever, and coincidentally also my second by Makoto Shinkai (After ‘Your name’). A melancholy and poetic story about a 15-year-old aspiring shoe-maker student who keeps meeting a woman skipping work on a park bench at the beautiful Shinjuku Gyo-en gardens during the raining season. Gorgeous visuals of nature and rain.

The Wikipedia page for this film is nearly as long as the one for Obama!

🍿

3 more terrific debut films by young female directors:

🍿 For some unclear reasons, I’ve seen a large number of Parisian high school dramas recently. Spring blossom is one of the best. A gentle drama of a shy 16 year old girl who falls in love with a 35 man she sees outside a local theater.

And like Quinn Shephard’s ‘Blame’, it’s twice as impressive, because it was written by the talented Suzanne Lindon when she was only 15, and she directed it and starred in it before she was 20. Je l'adore! 8/10.

🍿 The Hive, my first film from Kosovo. Another on my growing list of “Debut films directed by female filmmakers”. The “first film in Sundance Festival history to win all three main awards – the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and the Directing Award – in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition”. Based on a true story, it tells simply but touchingly about a war widow who started a small business, making homemade Ajvar and empowering the women in her village. Highly recommended. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. And of course, reminiscent of the Macedonian documentary ‘Honeyland’. 8/10.

🍿 Rye Lane, a cute new rom-com about two young black South London strangers who meet at random and spend the day getting to know each other. Fresh and original.

🍿  

My 7th by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki. Every time I watch another of his movies, I get elated. There is nobody who make movies like him, he’s one of a kind. The man without a past, the second of his “Losers” trilogy, opens with a cinematic gut pinch and doesn’t let go until the end. My favorite of all his films so far?...

The trailer. 9/10.

🍿    

The Hollywood Reporter Critics put out a new list of their ‘50 best films of the first 21 years of the 21st century’, and I decided to go through the ones I haven’t seen yet.

First was Far from Heaven, my 4th tragedy by Todd Haynes. A precursor to his masterful ‘Carol’, this is another Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama of oppression and unrequited desire in middle class America of the mid 50′s. Drenched in luminous colors over all (except of the scenes of illicit dangers, in the gay bar and black cafe), and accompanied by another expansive score, it’s a devastating tale of the price of conformity. The husband who can’t control his homosexual urges, and the wife who falls for a black gardener are doomed, and their lives will be shattered. The poor players had simply nowhere to go. 8/10.

🍿 

‘Today I learned’ about ‘Elite Panic’ describing the “behavior of members of the elite during disaster events, typically characterized by a fear of civil disorder” and the shifting of focus away from disaster relief towards implementing measures of "command and control".

New order, my third memorable film by Mexican auteur Michel Franco (after the terrific ‘Sundown’ and the disturbing ‘April’s daughter’) describes a society collapsing, the exact moment when the shit finally hits the fan, when the riots on the TV screen cross over and knock on your door. It’s a brutal and unforgiving story, ugly, violent and without any sentimental sympathy. Shocking anarchy escalates quickly when the pressure gets too much.

When the revolution comes down, it will bring some serious bloodshed. No wonder the greatest boogieman the ruling class warns us all about is “Class Warfare”. The most distressing film of the week - 9/10!

🍿  

To catch a thief, Hitchock’s romantic thriller. The Good: Grace Kelly on the French Riviera, the ultimate glamour of the lifestyles of the rich and famous at Cannes and Nice, Hitchcock’s first (?) use of helicopter shots and modern car chases. The Bad: The genre roles & sexual politics of the husband-seeking unmarried young woman would not fly today.

I watched it solely because of this clip.

🍿 

2 with Brigitte Fossey (of ‘Jeux interdits’):

🍿 “...The square is mine!...”

I forgot that she played the grown-up Elena in Cinema Paradiso, one of Ennio Morricone’s most popular movies. And yes, without his magnificent score, the 3-hour long nostalgic trip to the heart of cinema, would not be half as enjoyable.

The question that was not well-answered was: Why did he not bother to visit his mother for 30 year? (Re-watch).

🍿 The happy road, a mediocre 1957 children comedy about 10 year old American boy and French girl, who escape from a Swiss boarding school, and hitchhike to Paris. Directed by and starring Gene Kelly, falling for the girl’s mother. 3/10.

🍿    

Inside, the new Willem Defoe survival thriller. He’s an art thief who breaks into a hi-end NYC penthouse of a wealthy art collector, intending to steal 3 paintings by Egon Schiele. But the security system traps him inside, and he’s unable to escape for many months. Captivating hi-concept and one-trick film, but a bit too long. 6/10.

🍿    

...”Never forget how much he loved you, Kubo”...

After being seriously obsessed with everything ‘Coraline’ all of last year, Adora moved on to Laika Studio’s next stop-motion animated story Kubo and the two strings. A Japanese-inspired action story about a one-eyed Samurai son who creates magical origami figures from his 3-stringed shamisen. But it was as if all the pretty parts were combined by an AI-engine. 4/10.

I will introduce her next to ‘The Iron Giant’, and ‘Isle of dogs’.

🍿    

First watch: The green room, one of the last few François Truffaut films I haven’t seen yet. In it, he plays a somber 1920′s journalist obsessed with death who builds a shrine to everybody he had lost. I love his human directing style, but this was a confusing mess. 2/10

🍿    

RIP, Ryuichi Sakamoto X 2:

🍿 In remembrance of his passing I started re-watching Bertolucci’s ‘The Last Emperor’, but to be honest, I got bored after 30 minutes; I blame the less than HD version of my pirated copy. So maybe I’ll try it another time.

Instead, I went back to my of favorite ‘Black Mirror' episodes, and the only one he composed the score for, Smithereens. It was directed by the same man who did my other cherished story ‘Hated in the nation’, and was also about online media frenzy that spirals out of control. This ‘Tyranny of the Screens’ parable received mixed reviews, because it wasn’t futuristic enough, but for my money it is a tense thriller on par with the best of them. 10/10.

Sakamoto’s dark score is subtle and minimal. You have to strain to notice it. Perfect!

...”This is my last day!”...

🍿 Psychedelic Afternoon, a 2013 animated short, featuring David Byrne, and released to raise money for children who survived the 2011 tsunami.

🍿  

‘Mad men’ is one of the few TV-shows I've seen, and I’ve seen it 3 or 4 times (including once last year). “Hazel” of YouTube ‘Dream Dimension Productions’ analyzes one “Perfect Scene” from Season 3 finale “Shut the door, have a seat”.

A terrific breakdown, which got me to watch it again, together with a few more.

Extra: Her ‘Netflix has a content problem’, which I also agree with, as I was attempting to avoid 90% of all their content.  

🍿   Talk to her, my 3rd unsatisfying film by Pedro Almodóvar (after ‘All about my mother’ and ‘The human voice’). A twisted story about two unappealing men who befriend each other at a clinic where they both care for comatose women. His editing choices and scattered direction, constantly focusing on unrelated detail in every scene turned me off. Some artistic perversions (like a silent film clip of a tiny man entering a giant vagina) notwithstanding. I guess I’m not a fan. 4/10.

🍿   2 more by Noah Baumbach (both with Adam Driver):

🍿 The last film I saw this week was also the best one:

I started watching the new Adam Driver dinosaur fantasy ‘65′. but it felt so stupid the moment Adam Driver opened his mouth, that I had to switch it off within 5 minutes. Instead, I turn to Marriage Story again. An absolute masterpiece, so painful and so true, for all divorced couples and parents of children of divorce. (That 10 minutes long scene at the apartment was raw! - Screenshot Above). 10/10 deservedly and without any reservations. 

(And now I must see ‘Two for the road’!)

🍿 (Actually, I ended up with his uneven While we’re young, which didn’t measure up to that. The milieu of hipster millennial poseurs and Brooklyn wannabe documentary filmmakers was uninteresting, and I also can’t stand Ben Stiller.)

Still I will look for the rest of his movies I had missed.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

[girl4music]

Hi, @100percentshipper

I actually have no idea where Renee said that but it’s mentioned here at the 1.20 mark by Sharon Delaney; host of the Creation Conventions and President of the Xena Fan Club so she obviously said it at some point.

But Renee says crazy shit like this all the time about the nature of Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship. She’s an avid shipper of them as a romantic ship but not necessarily a sexual one which I find so interesting because I kind of regard them and their love in that way too even though I do believe they were sexually involved and a committed couple eventually. But I find it’s the friendship between them that is the most profound thing about their WLW love story. I have written an entire character study thesis talking about how their relationship went way beyond just romance and that in itself makes them so much more of an epic love story than any other WLW ship that I’ve ever seen.

Renee goes really depth in her expressions about how all-encompassing their relationship really is. As do I. She definitely seems like someone who would highly resonate with my character study thesis that basically states that Xena and Gabrielle became that of one person or being in the end because they were one soul in two bodies all throughout and would be that for eternity. So they sort of come full circle in that they originally started out as one physical entity as per The Soulmates Story Gabrielle relays to a dying Iolas in ‘Prometheus’ and they return to that nondual physical nature as one soul in one body by the end of the show.

If you happen to find the source of where Renee said what Sharon said she said, please let me know. ☺️

“When I first started playing Gabrielle I wanted to find a way to relate to Lucy and I’d never played with a woman who was the hero. There was obviously the maternal connection. But I remember playing the lover affection for a person with her. In my mind that’s how I started to relate Gabrielle to Xena: I was falling in love with this woman.” — Renee O’Connor

[nerdyenby]

netflix live action atla reaction

Ep 1

I don’t feel like the opening sequence actually added anything to the story. I mean, it gave the other nations some more agency I guess, but it doesn’t actually accomplish anything, at least not at first glance

Kyoshi voicing the opening is so random what the

I’ve heard criticism about the show starting with Aang and I agree, but I also think that the point of remakes is to give us different perspectives on the same story. I’m not a huge fan but I don’t hate it either

The bending looks so weird, not necessarily bad, just off

Idk how I feel about the southern water tribe seeming so much more built up, it kinda diminishes the first impression of what the war has done to them

Other people have already talked about them butchering Katara’s character so I’ll just say yeah and move on. Hopefully she’ll grow into herself and become more confident and proactive, but I guess we’ll see

Iroh don’t feel like Iroh tbh

Gran Gran reciting the og intro is painful, we already got this info three times in the past twenty minutes queen

Katara, kindly never liken your loss to Aang’s. You just met this kid who just found out everyone he’s ever known is dead, you don’t know him and you don’t know what he’s going through. You can empathize with his grief, but don’t act like it’s the same please

So far my expectation of “mid” has been holding true but the scenery is beautiful and the establishing shots are absolutely stunning

“Protect those who can’t protect themselves” ZANE NINJAGO?!????

Ayo Zuko kinda in character?!??? Who wudda thunk

“Let’s go save that weird kid” Yeah!!!! Sokka!!!!!!

Kick their ass Aang!!!!!

Ok but we’ve seen him fly without the glider several times now, why does he need it?

Ok, yeah, I’d kill for Sokka/Aang bromance

Ep 2

Iron’s saintly patience makes it’s debut lol

MOMO!!!! He’s so ugly I love him

If Gran Gran had the scroll the whole time, why did she only just now tell Katara about it? Her letter just says that it’s dangerous but the fire nation hasn’t come to their village in years

“But most importantly, you must have- sticky rice!” “Uncle, we don’t have time for this” oh, now we’re getting somewhere!!

This show is so stupid, I love it

Suki best character after four lines of dialogue real not clickbait????

Shirtless guy per episode: 2/2

Katara’s outfit is so pretty!!! My irl watched the show before me and said the costumes are good but feel like costumes and I second that but it’s fun seeing how they interpret the og outfits

Suki is playing with him and having too much fun with it, as am I

Aang being afraid of himself is such a good decision, really reminiscent of his reaction to burning Katara in original

Ewwww romance /hj

Obsessed with the discussion of what it’s like being a nonbender and the extra steps you have to take

Yeah ok, they’ve already done Suki better than the original

Kyoshi boutta throw hands with a twelve year old fr

Women win these

Dang, Sukka kinda cute

The cgi is decent but Momo not having a shadow is so distracting

Ep 3

That’s… that’s Azula…

A resistance??? Epic!! I’m sure everything will work out just fine for these kids

I’m so excited to see what they do with Azula

Don’t love Aang teaching Katara instead of the other way around

“What makes you think we’re outsiders?” *Katara and Sokka look pointedly at their bright blue clothes*

Teo my love!!!!!

The inventor’s actor looks so much like him, I didn’t realize he didn’t have a name in the original lol

Ewww stop hitting on her Jet istg

Ok stop, you’ve fundamentally misunderstood Jet as a character. He does not think he’s cool, he doesn’t give a shit. He thinks he’s right. He’s too angry to care about charming people. He’s a boy hardened by loss and war, he’s not a fuckboy for pete’s sake

I really like this take on Sokka: he’s smart as a whip but was born and raised to fight, he’s never had the opportunity to take himself or his ideas seriously

“We don’t need to be afraid of our pain, we just need to decide what we’re going to do with it” that’s the good stuff right there

However, it is not escaping my notice that Katara only improves when guys give her advice

The blasting jelly looks so stupid

Ep 4

Bumi time!!!! I really do wish Aang mentioned him earlier

It’s giving season 2 finale and I’m here for it

Ok I’m kinda into this, the way it’s folding aspects of different episodes of the original together is really making it a distinct story. Still against live action remakes on principle, but it’s at least doing something interesting.

Bumi my love!!!! He’s so silly and unhinged, I would die for him

Katara popping off!!!!!! Love her taking ownership of her power

I really like Bumi getting into how he’s seen all the devastation of the past century and that Aang doesn’t know what that’s like, his rage and pain is so important to me

Oma and Shu lesbians?!????? /vpos

I am so glad their getting into Iroh’s actions as a general, it hurts but it’s something I missed in the original

DAMN lil zuko deserves the world, man

THE ‘LEAVES FROM THE VINE’ MOTIF GOT TEARS IN MY EYES INSTANTLY, WHAT THE HELL???? Atla has me in a chokehold and always will tbh

I really like that we’re getting Sokka and Katara bonding in the cave of two lovers. Romance is OUT family is IN!!

Zuko is kinda crushing it

Platonic love for the win!!!!!

Katara is so quick with it!!!

Bumi getting the emotional confrontation he always deserved my beloved

Aang’s lil “is that really so bad?” I love him so much. The only way the world can heal is childlike hope and an unwillingness to sit back and accept tragedy

“Home? Everything I need is on this boat” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ep 5

Sokka is a mess this episode, good for him

Heibai my beloved

This whole episode is so fascinating, I’m just along for the ride lol

Ep 6

Roku is so silly goofy and for what

June girlbossin’

Ew why she up in Iroh’s face???

Blue Spirit time baby!!!!!!

Zuko and Aang actual conversation time?????

The boys are bonding!!!!

What the fuck?! They made his scar less severe???? Zuko has a vision impairment, how dare you take that away

Zuko’s crew being the division he refused to sacrifice is everything, actually

Bro I thought there were only six episodes, if it ended there I would’ve lost it

Ep 7

Zhao SUCKS, man gleefully tried to murder a child

I knew the wolf was Yue

Making Yue a spiritual leader is a move I respect, idk how I feel about her being a waterbender now

I don’t know how I feel about Yue’s characterization, her personality feels weirdly unnatural

No one told Kuruk that friendship is magic ig

Kill that man Katara, you can and you should

Rare Aang L

“So no plan?” “… I’m working on it, uncle” love them

Sokka popping off!!

“Go kick his ass” how did I know he was gonna say that lmao

Did her hair fall down lol, that was so forced

Ep 8

I saw it coming but I like the other waterbending women getting a role

General Katara my beloved, I don’t see people putting her in leadership positions post-war very often but she deserves it, she’s a great leader

Don’t think I like the moon and ocean spirits only visiting, feels like an odd and unnecessary change to make

THEY KILLED MOMO?!!??!!? WHAT THE FUCK?!????!??!!!!

Nvm he’s fine

Aang telling Katara to go easy on Zuko!!!!

We’re really ending the season without Aang waterbending a single time lol

Conclusion

It was enjoyable!! Not great but pretty good!!! It starts slow but once it gets going it does some really interesting stuff. I’m not a fan of all the changes they made, but a few of them are ones I’m very glad are there. The effects are decent but whoever is doing the fake beards needs to be fired. Definitely some choices made that I don’t like regarding some of the characters (specifically Katara and Iroh) but it overall is distinct enough from the original to be a worthwhile watch and also pretty fun

[mytalemyworld]

Some thoughts about Love Like The Galaxy

I was a bit reluctant to start this show. Because A) Chinese period dramas can be very heavy and I wasn't in a mood to watch something so serious B) It was like yesterday I watched the male lead in Nirvana in Fire and I thought I would have a hard time to accept him as a general.

It turned out I was wrong in the both aspects. Because A) The drama balances the heavy moments with the light hearted ones and B) I was sold out to the show after watching him in a couple of the scenes. He may be like a Terminator and a little too cold for my taste (he has reasons for being this way ofc) but oh my in action he is really something else.

It has been ages since I was deeply invested in a serious period chinese drama. I literally can't wait for the new episode and I wanted to explain why this is a great drama and recommend it if you're looking for a cdrama to watch. Even if you haven't watched any period cdrama before.

Usually I can tell if I will be hooked on a tv show after watching the first 30 minutes of it and this show wasn’t an exception either. Because the world building and the characters in this 30 minutes length are so good.

First of all you don’t get bombarded with lots of background information or confusing flashbacks. You start learning everything step by step.

Second of all, the leads were immediately shown under interesting circumstances and the writers put some flesh on the bones even in this limited time.

And the first meeting of OTP. 

Intriguing and making you crave to see more because you could already tell they would be one hell of a couple (and later epic!) I may write a post only about them later but from the very start the show made a clever choice and built up a huge anticipation for them to meet again while giving delicious otp scenes when they weren't even in the same frame.

About the light hearted moments...

When we were given these scenes...I was like yeah clearly a big budget show and it would be epic but then the show made a slight turn and you found yourself watching the female lead's family shenanigans. I was a bit confused about what the show would be about but later you came to understand why this choice had been made.

Because this is kind of coming of age story for the female lead and you MUST see whom she had dealt with throughout her whole life and what kind of person she turned into. Secondly, it is also a smart move to know the main characters, all relationships and kinships before telling the big events.

For example the show first revolves around a military embezzlement which then turns out to be there is more to this issue than meets the eye. And while showing this, we can see some critical morality choices of the main characters and little otp moments.

Also there is one thing seriously makes the show much more light hearted which is the emperor himself. Probably this is the first time I've ever seen in a show that the emperor ships OTP very hard. Usually the emperor or someone from the imperial family goes against this relationship but in this show he is like their fairy godmother. I mean...even though I think this is refreshing I still find the whole general-emperor relationship weird. Because sometimes the male lead even answers back to the emperor in front of the strangers... For example:

The Emperor: *being intimidating and scaring her* Meanwhile Zhisheng:

She and her father: *gasp* The Emperor: YOU. LITTLE. SHIT.

Well, I know he dotes on Zhisheng but come on, there is too much fiction going on here.

The pros of the show for me, this show is not about imperial mind games or cruel power games. Yes, of course there is enmity, jealousy and dangerous power dynamics but none of these make this show darker. The show is about the choices and consequences of them, the darker elements are mostly about these consequences which sometimes lead to a war, or a huge massacre or cause a child to feel worthless.

Also there are some scenes contain too much blood and violence which I don't find gruesome but some may, but still this is not unnecessary violence, I can assure you.

This removing arrow scene got all my attention for example, I watched the entire scene without blinking, even though it lasted long like a damn lifetime.

What can I say, romance at all costs.

But this one particularly gave me goosebumps.

So in conclusion, I can certainly recommend this show even though it hasn’t ended yet. I know it can be difficult to wait for the new episode, but this one is worth it, I think.

[halveablock]

maki

i just wanted to properly verbalize exactly why i love maki so much. in particular, the way her character development is shown through her design. i suppose this is a bit of character design rambling. contains manga spoilers up to chapter 149.

to be quite honest, maki didn’t catch my eye that much when i first read jujutsu kaisen. she felt awkward actually; design-wise, it felt like gege couldn’t commit to a type of feeling. her style felt just vaguely unkempt and bit feminine, but had no real identity. part of that is the characters are all in dark uniforms, but they can be customized to give off a certain feeling. yuji, for example, wears hoodies not because he’s a hoodie guy but because he can be indecisive (volume extra).

but this all changed once i saw this infamous chapter cover:

i immediately went: shit, i wish maki actually looked like that. she didn’t really have this masc energy until this chapter cover. (and then upon rereads, maki really captured my heart...) there, i saw what maki could be, so i was wondering why her pre-shibuya design felt so dissonant to this image, which felt perfect for her.

i think gege decided on her “aesthetic,” so to speak, once he designed toji. not that toji wasn’t designed or concepted before, but it’s possible that gege hadn’t thought to push the toji-maki parallels that early until his design was finalized, since this is just 2 chapters before his appearance. and she has gotten only closer and closer to him in aesthetic until in chapter 149, gege blatantly draws a side by side comparison to make sure you really saw it, in case you hadn’t realized it yet.

it’s interesting then that with ogi’s appearance, maki’s previous ponytail had some meaning.

the way the ponytail is drawn is virtually identical; it’s as if maki was striving to be her father, in a way. i imagine the image of strength she had in her head was ogi before she saw toji on the beach: there, she saw what she could become. (btw, i don’t think it’s a coincidence that she meets toji on the beach as her old self, and then says good-bye to mai on another beach as her new self)

gege most likely designed maki first then ogi, so i think giving him a ponytail was definitely intentional to indicate the shift in maki’s understanding of what she could be.

at any rate, post-shibuya, i think gege had fully embraced the masc style for maki, while keeping up with his high waist fashion obsession for the ladies. he may have also felt creatively limited by jujutsu tech uniforms, so he probably wanted to break some rules around that. the cape gives her a strong leadership look as indicated by her role among the students and a distinct silhouette so i think maki will keep it despite not having it on at the end of ch149.

maki’s new hair has the double function of getting closer to toji while making her look even more identical with mai. a crossroads of sorts: she could either become like toji, or stay in the bottom with mai. we all know what happened at that, albeit it wasn’t really her choice. in another sense though, she became both, gege deliberately putting both maki and mai in their sleeveless outfits (remember maki still had her cape on after waking up, before shedding it in the epic spread) in the beach scene to convey this merging even more.

as for her writing itself: on the surface, she’s a “strong” female character: stubborn, sassy, ambitious. an action girl, if you may. but the recent chapters showed that she’s actually filled with doubts and that a lot of this attitude is airs she put on to live as a self-affirmed human being since her family could never give her that affirmation. her choices, too, were driven by her fierce love for her sister, something she couldn’t openly express for fear of her sister facing even more prejudice.

and just in the meta sense, she’s everything i’ve ever wanted out of a female character in a shonen manga. i’ve seen her type of character for sure, but not really in a shonen: her abused history, insane family drama including a complicated relationship with her sibling, these two chapters becoming her tragic origin story, the way her trauma is carved into her skin with the burns and the eye scar, the way her trauma is reflected in her characterization without her succumbing to it. the way she constantly echoes an existing feral, violent male character, suggesting that she will embody similar traits. the way her goals were centered around her ambitions, but underneath that, her sister as her core motivation; the way the plot actually impacts her goals, and how they are now changed to destroying everything, including the family, the system that refused to acknowledge her.

in short: i love you with my entire heart maki, and i can’t wait to see where you go next.

[parks-and-get-wrekt]

Very few people have probably seen or put much thought into the Theatre Batkids Discourse but as a stage manager myself I have OPINIONS and this is my little soap box from which I shall scream them to the heavens

Alfred is the root of all of their drama and theatre origins, he’s a Shakespeare nerd who was definitely in a number of shows. He read baby Bruce epic stories at bedtime. He did voices and everything. 100/10 A+ theatre dad I love him

Bruce is the most dramatic goth bitch I’ve ever had the pleasure/horror to lay eyes upon. He wears a floor length cape with a tastefully tattered edge. He’s in it for the drama. Not to mention he was a VERY angsty teen, he’s the emo kid that sulks in the corner and judges people. He’s the best to have bitch sessions with though

Dick is also very dramatic. Boy is the embodiment of the “google earth always taking pictures” meme. He can’t even fall off of buildings normal. He lands in a graceful sprawl, like an actress on an old fashioned fainting couch. He was the MC in Cabaret once and it was a stunning performance. But he won’t shut up about it either. He has fallen off of a set piece and broken his wrist before

Barbra has definitely been in the spotlight a few times, but found her true calling in stage management. She’s the only one with the strength of character and fortitude it demands. She has those actors on a short leash and if you touch props that aren’t yours you will die

Jason is our wonderful nerd, he’s gotten leading roles, directors either love him or hate him no in between. He takes theatre superstitions very seriously, do not say Macbeth around him, he might deck you. He has gotten mono before a big performance from messing with the prop cigarettes. This is a very specific take and no I will not explain it.

Tim is not an actor. Baby boy probably had stage fright as a kid and now he’s just not in touch enough with any emotion but tired. He is a techie. He works the booth. He has that “sold my soul for tech week” energy. Besides, overly caffeinated is a character trope for tech people.

Cass is a stealth theatre nerd, you don’t expect it but Steph indoctrinated her with Hamilton (her favorite is Hadestown though). She doesn’t love the spotlight so she doesn’t really try out for leading roles, but she knows her shit and comes prepared. She has her blocking memorized to a T but she never remembers to bring a script. She’s the best at stage makeup

Do you even have to ask about Stephanie? Girl loves musical theatre. She really prefers them to regular plays, she rocks the choreography, and she knows all the words to every song from every show, you know the type. But she’s not obnoxious about it so we’ll let it slide. Her favorite is Candy store. She marks up her script with very bright highlighters

Damian is as much of a drama queen as his father. This was only encouraged by Alfred and the others. He named his dog after Titus Andronicus people!! He thinks he’s hot shit but he is actually good. He will be mean to you, he will be wearing a black turtleneck, the insults will be devastating. He has corrected the director to their face, it was awesome and terrifying

Duke is new to all of this, he’s sweet and he’s still working through some of the nerves. He has a great singing voice though, and it’s impossible not to love him. He’ll get a leading role in senior year and ROCK it. He’s gotten yelled at for sneaking food into the theatre before. He was hungry ok? It was just a granola bar!

[ghoste-catte]

I was curious what advice would you give to someone new to writing fics? I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't seriously written something since high school. I hope this isn't an annoying question or anything!

Not an annoying question at all! I'm just a little worried that I won't have terribly good or useful advice. To be honest, I also sort of stopped writing in earnest right as I finished high school, and didn't pick it back up until my late 20s. It's certainly an adjustment! But I think the few things that really helped me get back into writing fic as a hobby and something I spend quite a bit of time on would be:

Write for yourself first, then find your other motivations. My original inspiration in getting back into fic writing was that there just were not that many fics I liked for my favorite pairing, and I wanted more of them, and I especially wanted more with the tropes and characterizations I wanted to see. I think at the very core of anything you need that internal spark that drives you. At the same time, for me at least, if I just relied on my own drive, I would not get much done; I need some external guardrails. So having people send prompts, or writing for particular events, or writing stuff for friends really helps me to get my ass in gear and finish stuff. That may not be the perfect motivator for you, and that's fine! You just gotta figure out what is.

Be open to inspiration. Anything and everything can be spun out into a story with the right tweaking. Obviously stuff like music is a classic inspiration source, but I've also pulled ideas from poetry, from memes, from Reddit threads, from YouTube videos, from rambling conversations on Discord and from real life to make fics out of. So many times, someone will post a silly Twitter screencap, and I'll think, There's a fic in this. And a lot of the time, there is! Research is a wonderful thing, but so is serendipity. If you're out there actively looking for ideas, eventually one that you like will stumble past you.

Find your community. I can genuinely say I never would have finished more than one fic if I didn't have fandom friends to talk to about even stupid headcanons, to bounce ideas off of, and to encourage me (and to encourage them in turn!). Discord has been a godsend, and some of my closest online friends are people I met in the GaaLee discord server. As I've gotten more comfortable as a writer, I've also joined general writing servers and Reddit communities and have found them immensely helpful on both a motivational level (bingos, sprints, owe-me challenges) and on a craft level (plot workshopping and writing ethics and live grammar help). It's a lot easier to think about fic ideas and hash through problem moments when I have a constant stream of fandom-related chatter coming from the little people who live in my phone! Ao3 is an amazing website, and it's great as, well, an archive, but it isn't social media by design. If you want conversation and human connection and cheerleading, you've gotta forge out and find it.

Make it a habit ... If you want to produce anything longer than a couple hundred words, you really have to set aside time for it. And writing is just like knitting or dirt biking or painting little model figurines: the more you do it, the more easily it comes. When I was first getting back into the proper swing of things, I committed myself to 30 minutes of writing per week. Just 30 minutes. I didn't even hit that goal every week, but there were tons of weeks I got on a roll and went over that amount, and by the end of the year I'd written over 200,000 words. I used to spend an hour laboriously tip-tapping out 200 words, but now I can easily blow through 1k in a 50 minute sprint. It's all about training that muscle.

... But don't make it a chore. With fanfic, you aren't doing this as a job, and you aren't ultimately doing it for anyone other than you. That means you can take breaks when you need them, you can set deadlines and then fail to meet them, you can write stuff and then decide to never post it. When you start getting burnt out, when the practice loses the joy and energy, stop. There's no 'hustle' here. In our capitalist society we're so trained to push past our limits and keep going even when it hurts us, but the hobby you do for connection and relaxation and whatever else shouldn't be like that.

Ignore metrics. Sometimes stuff isn't gonna get hits, or kudos, or comments. There are some basic 'rules' as to the stuff that does and doesn't get traction, but every time you post something it's a roll of the dice. If you're focused on watching that kudos counter tick up, you will get bummed out fast. And any writer will tell you that the stuff you think is your best work will never be the stuff that gets the most accolades. So you have to find something else to give you a sense of success. For me, it's watching my wordcount go up in my stats and those occasional comments where someone has a lot to say and that one person who always leaves me a <3 emoji (and, shout out to @egregiousderp, having someone to have long one-on-one conversations with about the stuff that never made it to page).

Don't strive for perfection. It's really easy to want your first ever fic to be a complete showstopper, the best fic fandom has ever seen, hitting all the tropes and the ideas and the characterization that you just know fandom is missing and would be everyone's top favorite if only it was written. This is a trap. No one fic can be all things. Most people who want to write an epic as their very first venture will not see the end of that epic, because they haven't put in the practice hours to make something on that scale work. That's not to say you can't start out with a big, sprawling multichap, just don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're just starting out, and be okay with abandoning it for greener pastures if you get to that point. Think of the first time someone makes a vase out of clay or bakes a loaf of bread. That's never their best vase or their best bread. If they keep up with it, they'll make more and better vases and loaves. Likewise, your first fic is probably not gonna be your best fic. See it for what it is: your launchpad.

You can't edit an empty page, but you can over-edit a full one. This kind of spins off of #7, but if the words aren't there, you can't fix them. Daydreams and headcanons are fantastic (and god, how many times have I wished for a speech-to-text engine that projected my falling asleep thoughts onto a Google doc for later perusal), but they aren't fic. If you want to write fic, you've gotta get comfortable with the idea of sloppy outlines and rough first drafts. You can't build a house without a frame and you can't build a man without a skeleton (I mean, you can, I guess, but he'd be one floppy man). The nice thing about fic is that it doesn't matter if that frame is structurally unsound or the skeleton has 18 too many bones, you can clean that up in the editing process. But you can't start hanging curtains and arranging furniture in something that doesn't even have walls. That's the process. But! Also know when to set down the editor's pen and say, "Okay, this is good enough for government work", and call it done. ("Done" doesn't have to mean "posted", but it does mean, "I'm done picking at this for now, and I'm gonna go write some more stuff".) Over-editing can make stuff seem laborious and forced, and it prevents you from actually improving. To continue belaboring the house metaphor, you can spend your whole life rearranging furniture in just one room, but the end result of that is a pretty narrow existence and a room with a lot of footprints and tracks in the carpet.

Write shit down. When you have ideas, jot them down--in a notebook, in a Google Doc, in the Notes app of your phone, in pen on the back of your hand. You think you will remember that brilliant line of dialogue or sparkling snippet of narration or genius plot that came to you in a dream, but you Will Not. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down! There have been so many times when a fic was completely saved by past!me having written down my shower thoughts about what happens next in the fic, that present!me had completely forgotten about and was floundering over.

Have fun with it! Try different stuff. Try stupid stuff. Try experimental stuff. Do stuff you've never done before that you aren't sure will work. It's important to get comfortable with your niche (for example, I know I'm never going to be the sort of person who writes intricate plots of intrigue or super long 100k epics or detailed battles), but you can't find that niche unless you explore lots of different niches! Figure out what you love and what you absolutely hate, and then keep doing the stuff you love.

Okay, so that was actually TEN things, but ... I hope you still found this helpful. Feel free to send another ask if any of this was confusing or unclear. Good luck with your fic writing and, if you want, send me a link to what you've written once you've written it! I'd love to read it.