#but the POINT IS

[pseudophan]

💍

[isogenderskitty]

underneath all that denial and being flippant about it steph is Definitely a hopeless romantic and no one can tell me otherwise. this girl can and will spend all day talking about how she definitely does not want to kiss some dweeb in suspenders & then will start giggling twirling her hair and kicking her feet because he bought her a coffee or held a door open for her or some shit. she talks like her heart is made of steel but it’s made of fucking porridge

[python-nebula]

[triptychofvoids]

hiiii doctorrrr :3

its me again and i dint really have a question i just wanna say YAY!!!!! cause im also aroace and it makes me super happy seeing an aroace person in a relationship cause some folk seem to think aromanticism/asexuality is a strict monolith (or something like that) when its a huge spectrum

anyways yeah have a great day doc [ALSO I HOPE YOU DONT MIND ME SPAM-LIKING!!! WHOOPS…]

aha yes, unfortunately being aroace is something that tends to be very heavily stereotyped in many cases. not that other identities dont have stereotypes of course, they do, but i do think both asexuality and aromanticism can be very unknown and misunderstood to a lot of people (among other things, even within the aroace community itself in some specific cases) which also often leads to a lot of generalization about what these things are and what they can mean for each person.

regardless, all of that said, yes i am aroace and very happily in a relationship! even though that is not something every aro and/or ace person will want or even entertain the idea of, it is something that is possible!

[shouts-into-the-void]

Rewatching Lockwood & Co. and Netflix really tried to convince us the canon ship was another straight couple and then made them both go absolutely insane when George got mesmerized by the Bone Glass like I wasn't going to immediately ship Poly Co.

[paperglader]

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🕯️ Imodna love 🕯️

Confession

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Help me power this shit up for this thursday pls

[ineffable-endearments]

So what I'm wondering is if the Fall is going to be "You are free to go" writ large, with violence.

Basically, the Fall as Heaven being unwilling to accept any questioning and choosing to kick its people out instead of reasoning with them.

That also works in a metaphorical sense if you want to change the celestial order of things. If Aziraphale and Crowley are an eventual microcosm of Heaven and Hell, then their reconciliation of their philosophical differences could lead straight to the reconciliation of Heaven and Hell.

Obviously, if you're going to draw these massive parallels and then imply that things are different this time around, you need to demonstrate the differences, too. Like, OK, Heaven split into Heaven and Hell during the first Great War, so what's different this time? Why is reconciliation possible now?

And I think the difference is gonna come down to love. Specifically: messy, unhierarchical, free-will human-style love. Did humans "invent" it per se? Probably not; it seems like all beings are capable of feeling affection and concern for each other on equal terms. But it's a way of life here on Earth, and it survives here on Earth in a way that it simply could not in Heaven or Hell. This counts close friendships and familial relationships, too!

There will be other differences, too: Aziraphale, possibly Heaven's symbol, will have to learn to listen, REALLY listen, to Crowley, and everyone he considers "beneath" him in the hierarchy, and will have to learn to accept criticism and disagreement instead of stonewalling it.

BUT. I think his motivation for learning these things is going to be love. Love as the catalyst.

People say "love isn't enough" a lot about S2E6, and in one sense, that's absolutely true. Mere strength of emotion wasn't enough to keep them together at the end of Season 2. But maybe the point of love isn't always to stay together. Maybe love is a success in some way when it makes you grow or teaches you something or pushes your story forward. Maybe it's a kind of success if you're making a big decision and you remember your love for someone and how it's changed things. I'm literally desperate for Aziraphale and Crowley to end up together, and I think they will. But the time they're apart is a part of their relationship, too. Love isn't any more black and white than good and evil are; just because it doesn't always work as glue doesn't mean it isn't working in some other way.

[kumamooko]

prussia would do really good in a zombie apocalypse, he was waiting for that time to come because then he can make himself useful post-retirement

[armenelols]

By the way. Buying jeans in stores is impossible if you are shorter than average and they are gonna drag behind you like a veil. Have fun tripping on them (It's me. I am short)

[huustlecat]

i'm a simple girl... i see steely dan and i hit reblog

[margridarnauds]

Adaptations are not even overwhelming pro-DracMina tbh. 🤷🏼‍♀️If you look at screen adaptations aka biggest widespread media type of adaptations most recent adaptation 2020 Netflix/BBC by Mofftiss had no DracMina at all. Also TV adaptations like 2002 and BBC 2006 ones had no DracMina as in both these adaptations Mina didn’t have any real genuine interest in Dracula and was his victim. 2012 movie by Argento had no DracMina either cause Drac’s interest in Mina was also completely one-sided and Mina wasn’t into him at all. The only recent example of DracMina was 2013 TV series - so 11 years ago. Before that both DracMina movies are 1979 and 1992 ones respectively- so 45 and 32 years ago.

Like, can we even say that adaptations are extremely pro-DracMina if within 1922–2024 we got only 3 screen DracMina adaptations, and two of them are ancient and most likely older than people who complain about DracMina shippers? Even if we want to count non-screen stuff then Wildhorn’s musical is also 20 years old as it premiered and flopped on Broadway in 2004. So, like 🤷🏼‍♀️

Agreed in the sense that I think that people really, really just....don't think about adaptations besides Coppola's, which gives a VERY slanted view. To my knowledge, we have:

Love at First Bite (1979), which is (1) a parody and (2) set in the modern day, with the modern character as Mina's reincarnation. Notable for being one of the earlier adaptations, but it's barely, *barely* Dracmina.

Drakula - The Hungarian musical, which...I can guarantee that unless the people complaining about this know about Hungarian musical theatre, they're unlikely to know about.

Dracula: The Musical (2010, not the other one) - Replace "Hungarian" with "Swedish."

Lovers of the Night, see above, but "was never released to mass distribution" next to "Swedish."

Dracula, l'amour plus fort que la mort - Replace the above for "French musical flop."

Dracula, el Musical - Replace the above with "Argentinian."

Wildhorn

The 2013 adaptation that most people watch for Katie McGrath as Lucy.

*Loosely* again counting the 1979 movie, because Lucy is taking the role of Mina there.

Bram Stoker's Dracula which....okay, yeah. That's the one most people know.

Fine, for books, I'm including Dracula: The Undead though I don't think any of us actually claim it because it's the "authorized" sequel. (Dacre Stoker when I catch you...)

Since I included Dracula: The Undead, I'm also going to have to include The Dracula Tapes. (1975.)

Dracula 3D - Fine, I'm adding it in.

Dracula: A Love Tale (2025), which looks like it's going to do this. And you know what? The vampirefuckers have earned this, please let it be less sexist about it than Coppola. I hope that it's every bit of pulpy, overly romanticized goodness that I love. I hope they fuck on screen.

Nosferatu - From the script leaks, which. Again. What I'm seeing is very much up my alley, including the terms "horrific union." Peter Eggers, the man that you are. The icon.

Dracula - Entre L'Amour et la Mort - Mixed, but she chooses Jonathan in the end and Drac commits suicide.

Dracula: A Chamber Musical - See above, she chooses Jonathan (again, WHY?) (I'm not commenting on Jonathan in the novel, I'm commenting on the fact that most of these Jonathans have the consistency of bland milk.)

Dracula Untold - In the loosest possible way because there is a woman named "Mina" at the very, very, very end in the modern day. Though it only barely qualifies as a Dracula adaptation.

Meanwhile, for adaptations that haven't (trying to include adaptations that at least very loosely adapt the book, or that have familiar characters/plot arcs, even if that is just "area warlord loses his wife and gets really really mad about it for several centuries", so no Hotel Translyvania...which also isn't Dracmina):

As you said, the 2020.

Dracula (Czech musical) -- This musical was doing many, many things, but this was not one of them.

Last Voyage of the Demeter - I mean. Obviously.

Renfield - See above.

Count Dracula (1977) - Nope

Nosferatu - Nope.

1930s Dracula - Also no.

1958 - He preys on her, but nope. Decidedly not mutual.

Dracula A.D. 1972 - Nope.

Dracula 2006 - Nope.

Dracula 2002 miniseries - He tries to seduce her, sure, and then she shanks him. This is not a doe-eyed Mina swooning over a bad boy.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974) - Nope, and makes LUCY the reincarnation of his wife.

Blacula - ...no. The reincarnated love plot is given to Mamuwalde, whose wife Dracula killed. Decidedly unromanticized.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Nope. (I'd prefer it to whatever the fuck was going on with Tom Sawyer.)

Count Dracula (1970) - No (even though I don't understand when Dracula is being played by CHRISTOPHER LEE--who was saying that? It wasn't me, I didn't say anything.)

Count Dracula's Great Love - With a name like that, it HAS to be Dracmina, right, because who else could it be--an OC. They...had an OC. (Arguably Mina is an OC in some of the above as well, but the point stands: not Dracmina.)

The one "West End" Dracula concept album from 2006 that never made it to the West End.

Penny Dreadful - I mean, she gets vamped, but it's hardly a star crossed epic romance.

Dracula: Mina's Reckoning (2023)- Nope. She literally says "I do not exist tae serve onybiddy. I winted whit you had. I’d rather gie up my life than be like you."

Dracula 2000 - Insofar as Mary loosely resembles Mina...no.

Hellsing - No. He might have desired her, but it clearly wasn't more than that and I think the general consensus is he coerced her.

Mina and the Count - Given that Mina is seven and they're best friends NO. They did the 1980s spinoff animated series trend of making villains and heroes friends.

Drakula İstanbul'da - He has some kind of fixation on her, but nope.

And then there's Dracula: The Dark Prince where....yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And--

What I'll point out is that while it looks like I have a lot listed for "Dracmina", a lot of these are pieces of media that are INCREDIBLY obscure to an Anglo-American audience, so most of the people complaining about Dracmina would not be aware of them. They are, likewise, also musicals, because (1) that's my area of expertise and (2) I think musicals lend themselves very well to the kind of heightened gothic romantic atmosphere that people are looking for with a Dracmina bent on Dracula. All told, when we strike off non-English media AND musicals save for the Wildhorn, which can stay, the lack of Dracmina in most widely available Dracula adaptations is notable (especially when you ALSO factor in the various Hammer Horror films where Dracula appears and Mina doesn't.) I'll ALSO point out that actually...most of the films that do it come from *the 1970s* (aka "contrary to popular belief, Coppola wasn't the first", or even the first to do the dead wife plot), whereas post-2013, most Dracula adaptations we've gotten in the Anglosphere have revolved around monstrous vampires. (The Invitation, Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, etc.), perhaps as a reaction against Twilight and its subsequent oversaturation of the vampire market. (Though, it's intriguing because I don't think that Twilight...actually DID impact the number of Dracula or Dracmina adaptations, even in its heydey when people were trying to cash in.)

[seiwas]

do u think suguru’s the type to fuck around

[etoilesombre]

A real conversation in my home this morning:

Song Lyrics: "...it's not a happy ending..." [Halsey if you're wondering] My 7-year-old: Well how do they KNOW? It's their song can't they just change it? Me: Well, sometimes you know the outcome of things. I mean, if you make stories long enough, eventually everybody dies. But even without that, what if you already know what happens later? Like, if they made a prequel of Frozen about Anna and Elsa's parents, you'd sorta know what has to happen to them right? 7: Well that would make the movie not very fun. Me: I don't know. Sometimes it's interesting to see how things happen, and sometimes you're surprised still. So, the pirate show I'm really into, it's a Treasure Island prequel. So I really like Flint, and I know he isn't really going to get a happy ending and that makes me sad, but I'm still interested. 7: But that's different, he's evil. Me: Oh. Ok, good talk. Nice knowing you for seven years. Get the fuck out of my house.

[flock-of-cassowaries]

I was so still during my MRI last week that it was over in about 25 minutes, instead of the estimated 45; and on my way out, I had the following intrusive thought:

“Given a few silica gel packets, I could probably have sex with a Roman Roy.”

So anyway; I thought I would post that to tumblr, so now it can be your problem, too.

ENJOY!

[lediz-watches]

Mom Can't Cook: A DCOM Podcast

It's a podcast. You don't 'watch' a podcast. I appreciate that. I'm still going to rant about it because I just finished another listen-through and, much like the hosts themselves, simply must talk about how I have spent many hours of my life recently.

So if you have never heard of Mom Can't Cook, the short version is two grown-ass men watching and recapping Disney Channel Original Movies from the late 90s-mid 00s.

But what it really is, is this:

Friends, there will be a time in your life as a consumer of media in which you start consuming a media that you KNOW is going to be bad. Maybe you loved it when you were younger, maybe you couldn't be bothered reaching for the remote, maybe you're just that bored, maybe a friend or a family member or a child you're babysitting is making you sit through it, but the point is, you consume the media. And it's as bad as you thought it would be. It annoys you. You hate it. You want to throw things at it. But you keep sitting through it. You can't stop. You must continue to consume it until there is nothing more to consume. You are, you realise with dawning horror, a little bit in love with this thing. You have spent hundreds of hours and possibly actual money on a thing that you knew, objectively and academically, was absolutely terrible. And yet. And yet.

You enjoyed yourself.

And you must confess your sins.

That's what this podcast is about.

It's actually Luke Westaway and Andy Farrant, two British internet personalities ostensibly employed in games journalism, recapping Disney Channel Original Movies from the late 90s-mid-00s. During lockdown, they spent Friday nights watching these movies together (I suspect in lieu of going to the pub), and now they simply have to talk about them because DCOMs are the kind of insane fever dream you simply must talk about and they are slaves to the grind internet personalities who try to make content out of everything.

I love it for a number of reasons:

Luke and Andy are very fun to listen to in general. They are very good at playing off each other, building on each other's ideas, getting increasingly ridiculous and yet somehow never managing to reach the heights of a Disney Channel Original Movie from the late 90s-mid 00s. At least, they haven't yet (Ninji from Oxtra Mario Golf came close, but that was technically Mike's fault). I think they consider it a challenge.

Andy in particular has these beautiful turns of phrase that perfectly encapsulate the feeling of an adult watching the kind of insanity that seems perfectly reasonable to a kid watching a kids' movie but, twenty years later and as the wrong audience, can only be described as mildly traumatising.

Luke is wonderful at just... embodying the part of you that gets swept up in the madness, knows you're getting swept up in the madness, tries desperately to hold on to sanity, and then can only take solace in the fact that maybe it won't be so bad to go insane because hey, it's kind of fun here...

By the time the Disney Channel reached my country, I was too old (/too young) to be watching most of it, so while I may have seen ads for them, I never saw these movies. And now, I'm too infected with Cultural Studies to get through them without dissecting their context and what they're saying and why and ugh... Listening to the recaps allow me to experience them without actually having to watch them.

Regardless of how they actually feel about it, Mom Can't Cook always feels to me like a bit of a love letter to a guilty pleasure. The DCOMs are bad, and Luke and Andy will go into detail about how bad they are, but it had this thread of affection to it that I adore. Maybe it was lockdown, maybe it was just time spent with friends, who knows, but they got something very important out of these terrible movies, and they're passing that on to their listeners (Honestly we should be compensated for this trauma). But jokes aside, this podcast is actually representative of why I love fandom, and being online, despite what a terrible place I find it most of the time. It's representative of why I occasionally post to this blog. I love talking about the things I consume. Whether they're good or bad, they speak to something in me, and I want to talk back! So it's... indulgent and wonderful, and I love it. And I love this podcast for speaking to that part of me.

I intended to write short reviews on spotify, but I listen on my laptop and spotify doesn't have that functionality on PC for some reason. And by the time I was confident enough to rant like this I couldn't remember individual episodes well enough to go back and do it on my phone. So it will be a next-time thing.

But in the meantime, I must share the lines that now live rent-free in my head:

"With the unearned confidence of a Marnie". I desperately need this down the leg of some workout leggings, and yet for some reason it isn't even Tshirt merch. No one will understand why, but I need it on workout gear specifically.

"But why did they give up their hands?" I bought this shirt, and I'm going to buy it again because I bought two sizes too big for reasons that I swear made sense at the time. It makes me grin every time I look at it.

"But there was simply no time/budget." I think this is more about Luke's delivery whenever he says it, but I love it. As a person who works in projects and actually does need to live with the consequences of terrible compromises fairly often, it also speaks to my soul.

"And I hate him." Again, it's in the delivery. Mom's got a date with a vampire remains one of my favourite episodes at least partly because of this one (two? Three? I don't remember how often it got said) line.

"Because [insert noun here] is good, actually." Whether sarcastic or not. It's just a turn of phrase that now exists in my head.

I just... I don't know what the hosts intended, but what I hear is the incredible affection for this waste of their Friday nights. For stupid, terrible, insane entertainment that we watch and consume and struggle to comprehend and yet which entertains us. And I love that so much.

Because entertainment is so important, and so wonderful, even when it's objectively terrible or just plain nonsensical, because it - ack. I'm just getting way too philosophical about what entertainment is and how we respond to it, so I'm just gonna leave this one here.

Mom Can't Cook is a good podcast. I'm so happy it exists.