#don't make me start with the west end production

[maxwell-grant]

I think it’s interesting, considering how most live-action superhero adaptations kill off the villains after their debut, that both The Batman and The Penguin end with the villains not just living, but set up to return and somehow cause Even Bigger Problems down the line. Is this just because it’s the first Batman film adaptation that’s a capital-F Franchise, so the writers need the villains to stick around long-term, or is something else going on?

Almost entirely comes down to the fact that The Batman was not meant to be Batman's origin story - by Reeves' own admission, it was the origin story of the Rogues Gallery. They got the Cloverfield and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes guy and he did a story about the boots-on-the-ground gritty perspective on larger-than-life terrors emerging from the ruins and failings of human civilization, taking the struggles and wars and laborious processes that others shy away from and putting them front in center. It's just this time, instead of kaijus and parasites attacking and destroying the city, instead of apes emerging as the Mad Max warlords rising from the ashes to fight over the world, we have Batman villains in that role instead.

To me, that was actually the conception - if we weren't going to do a Batman origin story, but we were going to do it in the early years, I thought well, in the comics, the rogues gallery characters often are creating their alter egos in response to the fact that a masked vigilante shows up in Gotham called the Batman.

And so I thought, oh well, what we could do is see all of the rogue's gallery characters in their origins, like Selina Kyle before she's Catwoman, and that we could go into, as we're looking for a suspect, we could go to a nightclub, a nightclub could be the Iceberg Lounge and we could see a pre-kingpin Oz, and we could see, you know, a Riddler who is declaring himself the Riddler sort of because there's a Batman. And so all of that was sort of built into the conception. - Matt Reeves

It's far from the first Batman film adaptation to be a capital-F Franchise, even if that aspect was there - Reeves initially pitched the movie as an HBO series, and throughout production pitched additional show ideas such as an Arkham show or a Gotham PD show, The Penguin being the only one that survived as far as we know. This pulls off an origin from the Rogues Gallery better than every other Batman media ever made, and there's a couple of reasons why it does so and why the villains get to take center stage here:

Part of the difference between the way Nolan tackled realistic Batman, and the way Reeves tackles realistic Batman, is that Nolan needs realism to explain Batman, and Reeves needs realism entirely in the service of making Batman weirder. Pattison Batman is the weirdest Bruce ever put on film almost entirely because he lives in our world while still being Batman in every way that counts - Keaton Bats slept upside down in a cave, but he lived in a Tim Burton world. Adam West Bats is weird, but everybody is like that or even weirder than he is, he is the comedic straightman to everyone else. And where as Nolan needs Batman to be the thing that makes sense, Reeves needs Batman to be the thing that doesn’t make sense.

Nolan wanted weird difficult irreducible villains opposite a logical pragmatically sensible Batman, and Reeves wants exactly the opposite. For Nolan, even besides the Joker who was defined entirely around the lack of a real explanation for him, you have his take on Two-Face, Bane, the Al Ghuls, characters that don't demand that much reasoning or explanation because they can act and exist in ways that defy logic, while Batman's the guy who has to hold the center of logic and reason. Where as here, Pattison Batman is the most interesting and complicated and larger-than-life figure this world is dealing with in much the same way that Ledger Joker was for his movie, and everyone else is in the position of starting out and having to deal with Batman and the paradigm shift he brings - nobody else in the movie is quite the character they were supposed to be, that's something they're all growing into in response to their nightmare city and what this titanic freak in armor represents to them.

Even The Riddler is ultimately explainable, human, reducible to his tantrums and vulnerabilities, even without you knowing in-depth his character and backstory that would be elaborated for Dano's Year One. Even The Penguin - he may be larger-than-life, he may be unexplainable on some level, but we know all too well all of his failings and feelings and life story and all the cracks in his persona that he killed Victor to try and bury. But Batman? Next to everyone else, he is still an anomaly, he is just Like That, even to his own detriment and that of the city, and he learns that he must apply being Like That to something better.

Reeves is not interested in doing "Batman vs [X]" movies, the movies are going to be focused on Batman's arc first and foremost, which means the villains will never really take them over the way they've usually done - this is a world where it's the villains who react to Batman, not the other way around. This frees them from the burden of having to exist in direct relation to how much they can directly menace Batman, and it makes it so that these are characters that can carry their own spin-offs, which is probably a lot easier for WB to work with because these are spin-offs that they don't really have to get Pattison to show up for, but they can construct in ways that don't even need Batman to be physically there. Even after The Penguin, they might not have to do that Smallville/Gotham song-and-dance of teasing a main character who'll never get to be here, there are a lot of other things happening in Reeves' Gotham besides the existence of Batman, even if the existence of Batman has changed all of them. So structurally speaking this series has a ton of room for reocurring villains, and building it has been one of their top priorities. In fact, this ONLY gets to do so because the movie already laid out the entire groundwork for them and how it all ties together.

See, the way Batman stories do the rise of a Rogues Gallery and how it affects the city and therefore Batman always follows a sort of a 7-step program:

Gotham City is ruled by crime, crime that takes away the Waynes (Falcone / Carl Grissom (89) / Falcone backed by the League (Nolan) / the Falcone-Hill-Wayne triumvirate (Telltale) / Gotham S1 and first-half of S2)

Crime begats Batman, who beats Crime

Crime + Batman = Weird Crime (Jack Napier becomes Joker after an encounter with Batman (89) / "we still haven't picked up Crane and those other Arkham inmates btw check out this weird card" (Nolan) / Black Mask and the international assassins + Joker's rise (Arkham) / Children of Arkham (Telltale) / the Indian Hill experiments and patients (Gotham)

Weird Crime Replaces Crime (The Long Halloween / Joker takes over the mob (89) / the mob is so impressed by the pencil trick they give Joker all the money (Nolan) / Joker literally replaces Black Mask in the process of becoming Batman's main enemy (Arkham) / Penguin assassinates Mayor Hill and the Children enter a war with Mayor Dent (Telltale) / Indian Hill breakout and Maniax cult and etc (Gotham)

Weird Crime is a Rogues Gallery now (Penguin and Catwoman and Max Shreck in the sequel (Burton) / Joker and Two-Face become separate problems, Bane + Talia + Crane + Catwoman in the sequel (Nolan) / after Origins a whole asylum full of them (Arkham) / Riddler + The Pact and John becoming Joker proper (Telltale) / Gotham S3 with Tetch and Riddler and the Legion of Horribles

The city is changed by the new paradigm

Batman responds / expands or retracts in response to this change

(4 and 5 don't necessarily always happen one before the other, mind you, frequently you do have a Weird Crime Rogues Gallery before Weird Crime replaces Crime at the head of the table)

And you can apply this to most other Batman stories that don't automatically start and stay at level 5. But where as all of these have to stretch the process across sequels and continuations, The Batman is the first Batman work that gets to do all 7 of them in one row. It gets 1 and 2 done offscreen before the opening act and shown to us how they happened throughout the movie's reveals, 3-4-5-6 comprise the Riddler's plot + the other United Underworld members roped into it, and it ends with 7. Even the Batmanless spin-offs follow the process: The Riddler: Year One covers Eddie's perspective on 1-2 as he enters stage 3 and prepares it for the movie, and The Penguin covers 4-5-6, leaving us waiting for Bruce's response back to stage 7 where The Batman ended.

And up until The Batman, the process behind the creation of a Rogues Gallery had never really been much of a process - comics that go into the transition like Long Halloween/Dark Victory just show the fall of Carmine Falcone -> the freaks waiting in the wings causing it or happening immediately after. Gotham tries to work that escalation gradually and it starts relatively "normal", but it's always dancing around the premise and the central black hole and the building blocks don't have anything to do with each other - the gang wars and Penguin have nothing to do with Bruce investigating a conspiracy, which has little to do with Gordon and Bullock investigating weird serial killers who keep escalating, and then eventually we get that Hugo Strange was building freaks in his basement at the orders of the Court/Ra's the whole time until they all just escape. You can piece together how Batman works that aren't about this transition ultimately touch on most of those 7 stages and have their own version of it as soon as they introduce Gotham City in a pre-Batman/pre-villain state, but the connections are always rather tenuous and not necessarily connected to each other (and it's fine, y'know, not everything in a story always has to come from the same source).

But everything in The Batman follows a long chain of dominos that had to happen for this system to become the way it needs to be for Batman villains to emerge. Everything started in that one night Thomas Waynes saved Carmine Falcone, everything started from that ensuing connection and Thomas' failures leading to a city ruled by mobsters for 20 years and the sheer level of rot and corruption and human misery that creates and justifies the existence of Batman, and thus The Riddler in his example. Everything we get in The Penguin is the result of this paradigm shift and total civic collapse, showing the destruction of Carmine's empire as well as his legacies torched and mutated by Sofia and Oz respectively. Everything is still connected. The United Underworld guys featured in the movie live and dwell in entirely separate spaces and represent entirely different things, and they're still all connected in the same chain of dominoes, which allows them to expand and cover entirely separate narrative real estate while still giving it all cohesion.

The movie never has to specifically establish a system full of supervillains or made for them, it has to establish a system so utterly fucked and dominated by Falcone, so utterly failed by every institution and body of government and system imaginable, that it creates Batman, and the minute Batman arrives and survives long enough to be a third power / a fifth state, people in his wake trying to respond to him or do the same things he does, as a response to the same afflictions he faced and to his example or influence, are the only logical thing. Without needing to literally show the other rogues waiting in the wings, The Batman established an entire world of possibility just by very smartly using the 4 big ones + Carmine and showing why and how this regular American city becomes a place where supervillains bombing city blocks and running for political office can become a facet of daily life. Joker, Penguin, Catwoman and Riddler - positioned as separate from each other as possible to show the ways in which this is, and maybe always has been, spreading fast out of Batman's control.

And now with The Penguin, reinforcing the chokehold of crime in the city in it's old ways as well as the corrupt mutated new ones brought on by our boy, as well as a new Batman Villain (possibly two, if Eve Karlo ever gets her hands on suspicious make-up) arriving from Penguin's side of things so that it's not just Batman who has a Rogues Gallery to deal with, not just Batman who has terrific enemies waiting in the wings for a chance to enact their own forms of justice and revenge, no, that's just what life is like in Gotham now, forever.

[maidragoste]

Things I think Jacaerys Velaryon would do if he were your boyfriend

This whole week I was thinking about Jacaerys so I ended up writing this

Reblogs, likes and comments are always appreciated. I hope you like it 🥰🥰💕💕

Disclaimer: English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes.

•Let me tell you that if English is not your first language then Jacaerys LOVES it when you speak in your native language. He is always very curious about the difference between their languages, he asks you if some words have a different meaning in your country. I see him going to the supermarket with you and at some point he starts asking you what they call a certain product in your country.

•Jace would work hard to learn your native language. Most of the time his pronunciation is clumsy but every time you hear him speaking in your native language you feel like you fall in love with him ten thousand times more.

The word he knows how to say best is "I love you" because he never stops saying it to you.

•If you are vegetarian or vegan I can see Jace searching the internet for good places to go eat together. He loves trying new food with you.

Plus his house is always stocked with a couple of vegan products. One time he got mad at Luke because when you came to see him there were no more of your vegan cookies left because his brother ate them and didn't tell him.

•Sometimes when you feel like painting your nails but you're in lazy mode Jace ends up being the one to do it for you. The two of you talk nonsense while he carefully runs the polish over your nails.

•Every time he sees a tik tok from a series or a book that he knows you like, he sends it to you.

•Whenever you're too caught up in studying, Jace reminds you to hydrate and eat something. Most of the time he orders something from your favorite fast food place to give you a pamper after so many hours of studying.

•I see Jacaerys as someone very touchy. Every time you go out together he can't be without holding your hand or his hand around your waist or at least hugging you by the shoulders. He needs to have you close.

•After seeing your reaction to letting his hair long. Jacaerys stopped wearing it short. He loves seeing how nervous you get every time he catches you staring at him. He always teases you by making you pout and he loves kissing you.I only know that Jacaerys pretends to forget his clothes at your house but in reality, he does it on purpose because he loves to see you later wearing his clothes.

•My man has two playlists about you. One with all your favorite songs and another with the songs that make him think of you. In the latter there are these songs:

"You can hear it in the silence, silence, you

You can feel it on the way home, way home, you

You can see it with the lights out, lights out

You are in love, true love" — You Are in Love, Taylor Swift.

"Cause all of the small things that you do

Are what remind me why I fell for you

And when we're apart, and I'm missing you

I close my eyes and all I see is you

And the small things you do" — Those Eyes, New West.

"I wanna be your vacuum cleaner

Breathing in your dust

I wanna be your Ford Cortina

I will never rust

If you like your coffee hot

Let me be your coffee pot

You call the shots, babe

I just wanna be yours" — I Wanna Be Yours, Arctic Monkeys.

I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you

(I can never look away)

I don't wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you— Daylight, Taylor Swift.

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[staytinyville]

OUTLAW (32)

ATEEZ poly!ot8 x Reader

Cowboy AU / Wild West

Series Masterlist

Warning: smut(MDNI for you safety and mine), piv, fingering, cum play if you squint,

A/N BETA READ (@mariana-mmtz). HEHEHE. We love smut

Your mother was sobbing into your shoulder as you had her in a tight hug. Your sister was wiping at her own tears while trying to pull a crying brother from Wooyoung. It was officially the end of the day, which meant you were going to be leaving with the boys. For good now. 

You weren’t going to come back home for a long while and sleep in your bed again. Your sister was going to have her own room now, which you tried to bribe her with. Even if she laughed and said she was turning your side of the room into a crafting part, she still held you tightly and wished you well. 

“Please stay safe.” Your mother pulled back. “Make sure to always clean your face after you wake up. And don't use too much cleaning products on the floor or else it will mess up the floorboards-”

“I know mom.” You laughed. “I grew up with you.” Tears welled in your eyes once more. “Thank you for teaching me everything.”

“I love you so much.” She cried again, hugging you.

“I love you too.” You tightly pulled her to you, wanting to make it last just a bit more.

It wasn’t going to be the last time you would ever see your mother, however this was much different now. You were a wife now and were going to start your own life outside the only family you knew. 

With one last smile and a wave over your shoulder, you hopped onto Yeosang’s horse. The boy gave a bright smile and waved goodbye, chasing after the boys. As the wind hit your face on the ride, you snuggled into Yeosang’s back, rubbing your cheek against him. You could feel him chuckling at your affection, but he knew that you were just trying to feel better about leaving your family. 

Once at the camp, the boys let go of their facades and quickly huddled closer to you. 

“You're officially ours, Sweetheart!” Wooyoung pulled you down from the horse, causing you to laugh from how he twirled you around. 

“Too late to back out now!” As Wooyoung put you down, Seonghwa grabbed onto your chin and pulled you into a kiss. 

You let out a loud squeak, not expecting him to do that. “Seonghwa!” You blushed, looking away from the boys. 

“I couldn't wait!” He grinned, hugging you from behind. 

“Enough, let the married couple rest.” Hongjoong teased. “They deserve their first night together alone.”

“Awe, and I was gonna ask to join.” Yunho laughed. 

All the boys began to playfully punch at the tall man, causing a loud laugh to fall from your lips. Things were going to be much different now. But you knew no matter what they weren’t going to change how they felt about each other. 

“Come on, Honey.” Yeosang pulled you along. 

The boys all gave you a goodnight, whistling as Yeosang took you to his tent. He shared it with Yunho, but since the boy had been staying in the hotel, he had it to himself. As you walked in, you began to take off your things slowly, wanting to give your mother back her dress later. 

“Would you like some help?” He asked, having already taken off his clothes and stood in his undershirt. 

“Sure.” You smiled, turning so he could unbutton the dress. As his fingers uncovered more of your skin, you felt a delicate touch going down your back. You smiled in bliss, allowing yourself to feel free for a moment.  

“Thank you.” You breathed out, turning around to face him. 

“No problem.” He smiled, moving about the room. 

You held the front of the dress to your chest, picking up some sleep wear your mother had gifted you for the wedding. You took in a breath when you noticed how short it was going to be on you. With your back turned to him, you pulled on the clothing, allowing it to flow down. 

“Come lay with me.” He spoke up, looking at you as he leaned back on his arms. 

As you bounded over with a smile, you made yourself comfortable at his side, the man laying down fully so that he could hold you better. You snuggled closer to his side, letting him pull you over his naked chest. He had laid back with an arm behind his head, staring up at the tent’s roof. 

You felt your cheeks grow warm at the soft skin, probably heating the both of you up. But still you allowed yourself to move on instinct, pulling your arm around his chest to the other side. Your leg moved on its own accord, lifting to place itself across his waist. 

“I've never done this before.” You quietly spoke. 

“Cuddles?” He chuckled. 

“Slept with a man.” You answered truthfully. “Well, not until you guys; but this is different.” You told him. 

“How so?” He asked you.

The first time you had slept in the arms of a man had been with Wooyoung and San. You hadn’t really put much thought into it because you had just gotten into a fight with your parents and needed the comfort of someone hugging you. 

Now, though, all you could think about was Yeosang pressing you tightly to him and letting his hand run down your head. Not only that, but he was also naked–you could feel his skin touching yours, and it left you dizzy. 

However, you weren’t questioning that part. You were thinking about how you weren’t just with Yeosang. They hadn’t explicitly told you what you all were, but it was clear that they all thought of you the same way. If it was anything to go by, with the kiss Seonghwa had given you earlier.

You weren’t just Yeosang’s wife–even if on paper it said you were. You had no idea what to call yourself. What to call the entire thing. 

“What are we?” You turned to look up at him, hand splayed out on his chest. 

“A husband and wife.” He answered you, a teasing smile on his face. When he saw your questioning look he sighed, knowing you weren’t just talking about him. “Whatever you want to be. No one is asking you to put labels on them.” He gave your arm a soothing rub. 

You kept your eyes on him. He had gone back to laying his head on his hand, closing his eyes. You realized that you hadn’t spoken to Yeosang about the whole thing. You knew your own feelings over it, and so did they. But Yeosang had been the one to suggest marriage, and you assumed it was because he just wanted to get you out of that situation. You haven’t asked him what he truly felt over the whole thing. 

“I haven't heard your thoughts about everything.” You told him. 

“What do you mean?’ He asked you.

“You married me, but I haven't heard you say what you wanted.” You leaned up, turning on your stomach to face him better. “Did you really want to get married, or is it just a heat of the moment thing you said to protect me?”

You felt him sigh, fingers moving to trace patterns on his collarbone to soothe him. He moved his arm away from you, placing both of them behind his head. It took him a bit to gather his thoughts, which worried you that he didn’t really want to tell you the reason behind his motive.

“I always felt like a bird in a large cage.” He started, eyes opening back up. “Free enough to fly, but still caught between their hands.”

You frowned as you thought about whom he could have meant. 

“But then I met the others and my life opened up in new ways.” A smile grew on his face. “I was free to be my own person. I was free to explore my own versions of music.” 

You remembered how Seonghwa had told you about Yeosang’s ability to play the violin. You were going to have to ask him about it later. 

“My family always forced me to do things they wanted. I was never able to do my own things outside their jurisdiction.” He suddenly began to frown again. “That also involved marrying who they wanted.”

He shook his head, looking over at you. “I had such a negative connotation around marriage because I knew since I was a teen they would force me with some rich girl. When we ran away from our old lives, my family had arranged for me to get married. I escaped them before meeting her.” He ended. 

“I'm sorry your family thought that way.” You whispered. 

“It led me to you, didn't it?” He leaned up on his elbow, brushing his fingers through your hair.  “To be honest, marriage was probably the last thing on my mind, but if I had to fake marry someone, I'm glad it's you.” He smiled. 

“The certificate says otherwise.” You teased. 

“That means you're now (Y/N) Kang.” He rolled on top of you, turning you on your back.  “What a name!” He beamed, keeping his weight on his arm to hover near you. 

“You're right.” You laughed, looking up at him. “I can say I belong to you now.”

“To all of us.” Yeosang leaned down, rubbing his nose against yours. “You're part of ATEEZ now.”

Your lip wobbled from the emotions you were feeling, trying to pull it off with a smile. “I like that.”

You moved a hand up to Yeosang’s cheek to pull him down for a kiss. It was as soft as you would think Yeosang would kiss. However, he still put in effort to make you feel his emotions. He was soft but dominating. Just enough to have you breathless. 

You pushed up from the bed, leaning on your elbow as you shoved Yeosang lightly on his back. With the feel of his skin on yours and his dizzying kisses, you made the effort to climb on top of him, having a shiver go down your legs at the feel of your thighs touching his. 

“Hey, we don't have to do anything-” He pulled back when he noticed you moving over him. 

“I'm not experienced, my first kiss was literally a week ago, I got no clue when this adrenaline will wear off, but I've been edged so many times I'm ready to get things going.” You told him, sitting up straight. Your chest was rising and falling quickly, eyes wide as you tried not to think too much about the technicalities. 

“So please, Yeosang—can you be my first?” You asked him. 

He quickly sat up, pulling an arm around your waist. He held your cheek in his palm softly, rubbing his thumb across it. “I'd be honored.”

He lips touched yours again, this time pressing harder against you. You felt his nose bumped against your cheek, his teeth clashing against yours. He had suddenly become much more aggressive with his kiss, however he still somehow found a way to be soft. 

He wasn’t being careful with how his touch affected you, he allowed himself to feel the desire pooling in both of your bodies. His arms wrapped themselves completely around your back, pushing you up towards his hips. You flinched when you felt something rubbed between your thighs. 

It brushed up against you, making you moan, pulling back as your eyes rolled to the back of your head. Yeosang took the moment you dropped your head back to kiss at your skin. His lips softly brushed over your neck, making you shiver from the touch. 

With each movement you made, it rubbed up against Yeosang’s bulge, causing him to grip onto your hips to stop your movements. He pulled back from your neck, breath coming out harsh as he dropped his head onto your chest. 

“Are you okay?” You asked him, trying to pull his head up to look at you.

“I’m fine, Honey.” He grinned up at you, eyes hooded. “Just trying to hold back.”

“Why are you?” You asked him.

“Because this is your first time. I’m not about to make you go through that.” He answered. 

You furrowed your eyebrows, pulling on his cheeks to make him look at you. “Yeosang, I don’t want you to treat me like glass.” You told me. You sighed, looking away and feeling flustered. “I’ll tell you when you should slow down.”

Yeosang shivered, hands tightening into the fat of your hips. With one last breath out, he slotted his lips back onto your, harshly pulling you up on his lap. You squeaked out, trying to keep up with his kisses. 

A gasp fell from your lips when he suddenly got up on his knees and wrapped your legs around him, turning you on your back. You were going to plant your feet back onto the mat, but Yeosang scooted up on his knees, causing your legs to hook around him.

He was leaned over, still attached to your lips as his arms hooked under your knees, causing a burning sensation over your cheeks. His hips began to move in a very subtle motion, rubbing up against your core. You dropped your head down, panting over the stimulation. Your legs twitched, wanting to close to relieve the ache that was building up. 

“Ah…” You panted, trying to catch your breath. Your fingers moved to the blanket, gripping them. Your back arched into the bulge between you and Yeosang find yourself seeking out more movement. 

“Patient, Honey.” He whispered to you, shuffling back and causing you to whine.

He dropped your thighs onto the floor, moving them so the rest of your legs were over his shoulders as he moved further down. Your knees knocked together and thighs began to rub together, feeling the hot heat soak between them. Yeosang however pulled your knees apart again, sticking his head over and onto your stomach. 

His fingers began to move your underwear band, digging themselves into the skin of your hip bone as more was revealed to him. Your chest was thundering from the feeling of his hands moving up and down your thighs. It was something you had never felt before and you were starting to feel embarrassed from how you chased after Yeosang’s hands every time they would move too far away from you. 

You shut your legs once more and sat up with a gasp as he pulled your underwear to your knees. Yeosang got caught in the fabric of your underwear when you had pulled him away from your core. You would have laughed if it wasn’t for the blistering heat you felt on your face. Your hands flew to your private area, covering it up.

“What are you doing?” You asked, shifting around causing your underwear to fall to your ankles. 

“I’m prepping you?” Yeosang questioned, tilting his head to the side. 

“But like–you’re not supposed to be looking.” You shyly told him. 

“What do you know about sex?” Yeosang asks you, curious about what you were thinking. 

“Well the women usually say it does feel good but that their husbands are almost always on top. And-And sometimes they go down on them.” You stutter out, wanting to curl up into a ball having to explain it to him. 

He laughed loudly. “You can do that, yes. But just like you can go down on me, I can go down on you.”

“How?” You whispered. 

“I’ll show you.” He whispered, leaning over to lightly touch his lips with yours. He moved your knees apart again, slotting himself between your thighs. One of your legs pulled out from your underwear, causing it to hand off one ankle. 

You shivered at the air that was exposed to your pussy, but you still moved your hips to get some sort of friction. Yeosang placed a hand on your knee, slowly pulling it down as his lips ghosted across your skin. 

“Trust me.” He whispered before dipping down. 

You fell onto your back, allowing him to skim his lips over your covered chest. Your back arched again as he continued his way further down again. This time though, he had pulled your night shift up and under your breasts. His skin would brush against your inner thighs as he moved down, which made you want to clamp them shut again.

However, Yeosang was quick to lay down on his stomach, head resting on your lower tummy. His shoulders passed your thighs, digging themselves into the back of your skin. When he raised his head off you, you shut your eyes tightly as he looked down. 

You couldn’t look him in the eyes as he stared down at your sex. So you opted to look up at the tent. However, the moment something gently touched your folds, you flinched and your back arched. You gasped out, laying back down and looking down. 

Yeosang was watching your reactions, eyes wide as he took you in. His fingers were hovering over your core, twitching to feel more. You dropped your head down, gulping. 

“Please.” You quietly pleaded, wanting to feel more. 

He didn’t bother to go slow this time, his fingers full on touching you instead of just the tips. He allowed his hand to explore, trying to find out where you could feel the most pleasure. Your gasps and quiet moans had him panting. You kept moving your hips up, bringing him down to your hole. While he was trying to search for something, the way your sex would swallow the tip of the finger every time you moved upwards left him mesmerized. 

He found out by the way you kept moving his hand to that same spot, it was where you wanted him. So with slow movements, he allowed his finger to sink in. This caused you to gasp loudly. He looked up, trying to determine if you were okay with it. 

You were shaking, which made him grip your thigh tightly with his free hand. Your hands were shaking, knuckles white from the grip you had on the sheets. As your hips kept moving over his finger, he decided to add another one. You squeaked out more, eyes shut tightly and gasps coming out sounding like cries almost. 

Yeosang had to clench his hand tightly to keep from just moving his hand too fast. He allowed you to move at your own pace, feel used to the intrusion. As you arched your back and his fingers went in deeper, he touched the rough patch inside of you. 

Your vision went black as your core pulsed. You didn’t know if you had screamed, but you knew you pulled away from Yeosang’s fingers to keep from being overstimulated. Your legs shook and tightened, trying to get the feeling to calm down. 

Yeosang sat back on his calves, palming at his bulge as he watched you continue to cum untouched. His mouth was wide open, watching your sex twitch. He pulled out his shaft, moving to take off his underwear. He crawled back over to you, kissing your cheeks to bring you back to him. 

“One more?” He asked you.

“One more?” You questioned him, panting. 

“One more.” He told you, looking down at his cock. 

Your eyes followed his gaze before immediately looking back up at him, flushed. Your hands moved up to grip onto his shoulders, wanting to stabilize yourself as you tried not to think too hard about it. 

“I’ll go slow.” Yeosang whispered, kissing your lips softly. “I promise.”

You nodded, closing your eyes for a moment. One of his hands reached down between you two, touching your hot core again. You squeaked, flinching from the feeling. He took some of your slick and covered himself in it, holding his shaft at the base. 

“Relax.” He whispered, kissing around your face. 

You smiled softly at how he kissed your eyes and your nose. He moved his lips to your cheeks, when he began to press himself into you. You hummed in discomfort but tried not to flinch as he pushed in deeper. He kissed you the moment he saw your pain. 

The moment you felt a pop and Yeosang slip the rest of the way in, you let out a scream, trying to pull away. But Yeosang kept you close to him, dropping down to press his chest with yours. 

“It’s okay.” He whispered to you, panting into your ear. “I’m not going to move until you tell me to.” He spoke soothing words to you, trying to get you to think of something else. 

While the stretch was painful at first, you found yourself succumbing to liking the pain. Your cries turned into pants and your hands began to roam around Yeosang’s back. When he felt you loosen up, he slowly lifted himself. He felt you twitching around him, causing him to shut his eyes tightly to keep from thrusting when you weren’t ready. You were wrapped tightly around him to the point where he could feel himself pulse. 

“Good girl.” He praised when you started to unclench around him so tightly. 

However, his eyes quickly went wide when he felt you clench him for a moment at the praise. He looked down at you, trying to keep from smiling at the notion. “Hey, you’re doing amazing. You feel absolutely perfect, Honey.” 

You almost frowned at his game. But his words were shooting straight down to the bubble building up. “God, I can’t wait to move. You’d feel nothing but pleasure if I can help it. All I want is for you to feel good.” His voice was deep and husky, and it had you feeling stimulated. 

“Move.” You whispered, hips barely moving. “Please.”

He nodded, but only moved his legs apart to get you a little more used to him. “Yeosang.” You cried, moving your hips more aggressively now. 

“Anything for you, Honey.” You saw stars when he began to thrust his hips forward. 

Every time Yeosang would thrust forward, your breath would leave your body. It was getting hard to breathe, even if he was going slow. It was an experience you had never felt before and you were crying over it. 

Yeosang’s pants and little moans had your stomach tightening. You would cry out every time you heard his whines. His hands were placed by the side of your head, forehead pressed to yours. Sweat had formed between the two of you and your slick was dripping out of you, but you didn’t care about the mess. 

Yeosang pulled back, sitting up just enough to look down where you had been connected. He didn’t realize he had slipped and allowed a partially harsh thrust to hit you. You cried out, scratching at his shoulders. He quickly looked up, eyes wide in worry. 

“I’m fine.” You breathed out. “Please. I’m almost there.” Tears were slipping down your cheeks, your throat dry from all the panting. 

With your words in mind, Yeosang began to move faster, trying to get you to reach your high just as his was approaching. He tried to think of other things as he waited for you to say something. When he felt your legs clench around him, he quickly looked down, seeing the ring of white forming at the base of his cock. 

“Let go for me.” He whispered breathlessly to you. 

He basically let out a roar as your core clenched around him tightly, hips stuttering as he approached his high. As you cried out and pushed him away, it gave him the good moment to pull out and stroke himself over your stomach. 

Your legs twitched as your orgasm hit you again, this time a bit harder. Your pussy throbbed and clenched over nothing, making you sigh and fall numb almost. Yeosang came with a groan, his warm seed hitting your thighs. 

You looked down at yourself, watching as it came out of him. Your fingers moved to touch the substance, rubbing it into your skin. 

“No. No.” He panted out, wiping at the sweat on his face. He grabbed your wrist, taking it away from his cum. He couldn’t stand to watch you play with it. 

Yeosang looked around his tent, trying to find something to clean you up with. He ultimately used a dirty shirt to clean you up, gently cleaning between your legs as well. You moaned out from the overstimulation, trying to run from it. But Yeosang cooed at you, telling you how good of a wife you had been. 

It made you stop squirming, flushing from the praise. 

As he finally settled down, he pulled you back into his chest, making sure your legs were fine. You were going to be sore later, but at the moment you honestly enjoyed it. A lot. 

Series Masterlist

[glass--beach]

hi do you like ok computer (1997)

because i really just don't get it (especially as the second-best album of all time) but i reeeally want to & i respect your opinion on that a lot

yea that album kinda changed the course of my life lol. wall of text incoming

first - don’t let rym or aoty or whatever tell you what’s good and what isn’t, everybody’s got their own taste & criticisms that go against the grain are very important!! i will say anything that’s that consistently highly rated across different websites & publications is probably undeniably significant and worth listening to. whether listening feels like discovering a new favorite or sitting through a history lesson is where taste comes in. it’s important to interrogate the canon too as there is an enormous amount of implicit bias in what even gets in front of critics and in the metrics they grade music by. review aggregate sites have democratized this process a bit & all the good and bad of democracy has come with that lol.

so, the album gets praised for a couple of reasons - its innovative production, its commentary on the historical zeitgeist, and the pop appeal of much of the songwriting.

production - the album makes heavy use of cutting edge effects units, digital editing, computer trackers, sampling, and even features little bits of voice synthesis. most of it is stuff that had existed in music before radiohead, artists like aphex twin (and much of the rest of warp records’ 90s catalog) and bjork were ahead of the curve in a lot of the aesthetic aspects of okc and had influenced radiohead a lot, which is even more evident on their followup kid a. radiohead was not breaking new ground in using these sounds, but they were among the first to put it all in a rock context, taking cues from the weirder cuts on the beatles’ white album, the experimental “krautrock” band can, and miles davis’ classic jazz fusion album bitches brew.

context - radiohead had grown up during the decline of much of the social democratic programs that had helped to facilitate the education and performing careers of much of their early influences such as joy division and the smiths. by the time okc was being written they had lived through the austerity of the thatcher era, the fall of the soviet union, and now were watching the labour party turn increasingly neoliberal under tony blair. there was a general sentiment in the west that the progress of history had slowed or even stopped in favor of the neoliberal order. at the same time, tech was booming and computers were starting to find their way into more aspects of daily life. the album imagines a boring dystopia, where machines are rabidly advancing but humans are stuck in stasis. a major connecting theme is infrastructure - the airbag through which thom yorke is “born again,” the “cracks in the pavement,” the family politics that separate romeo and juliet in exit music, the mechanical voice of fitter happier giving contradictory directions for maintaining the status quo. even the escapist fantasy of no surprises comes in the form of carbon monoxide. and then, the record ends with the “ding” of an appliance that has completed its task.

songwriting - the band’s previous album the bends really is a pop masterpiece. i recommend it to anybody who wants to get into radiohead but doesn’t vibe with their later work. okc expands that compositional style through, for one thing, the more apparent influence of classical music on tracks like paranoid android or the Chopin homage exit music; let down even features polymetric layering characteristic of Steve Reich. it also features some songs that are too good to even need to push the envelope much, like karma police or one of my favorites, no surprises, which seems to reference the beach boys’ wouldn’t it be nice or the velvet underground’s sunday morning.

to be honest, i like okc mostly because it really spoke to me at a formative time in my life, when i was like 15 and felt heavily disconnected from the world around me. the album deals with those feelings in a very different context but it’s a feeling many people can relate to for many different reasons - i was closeted in a conservative culture, not a depressed british rock star lol. it also was an excellent gateway into many of the bands’ influences, who are also favorites of mine now. most people who love the album don’t really go as deep as i like to with understanding it, but maybe what i said here will give you something else to listen for, idk. maybe you just gave me an excuse to infodump about an album i love lol :)

[certifiedalbedoenthusiast]

I have crafted 2000 Woodland Dreams.

Around the time of Albedo's first rerun in 2021, I began a quest in Genshin: to craft the maximum possible quantity of his special dish, the Woodland Dream. Today, I finally hit 2000.

This has been around 2.5 years of daily fishing, milk and salt purchasing, butter crafting, and small lamp grass collecting. Never mind artifact grinding, this is the grind I had on my mind.

I was inspired by Youtuber Memorii, who crafted 1000 of Noelle's special dish for her birthday back in 2021. At first I thought I would just craft a hundred Woodland Dreams, which I figured was an impressive but manageable number. But, as I hit 100, I just wasn't satisfied. Why stop at 100 when the item limit is 2000? And so here we are today, 2.5 years later, with a full inventory of Woodland Dreams.

Fun stats, musing about optimised Woodland Dream production, and my attempt at cooking Woodland Dream in real life below the cut:

The Sunshine Sprat recipe uses 3 butter, 3 fish, 1 salt and 1 small lamp grass. Like any 3-star special dish, you have a 15% chance of crafting a Woodland Dream whenever you cook a Sunshine Sprat with Albedo. I was cooking Sunshine Sprats at a rate of around 100 per week, and while I didn't keep any exact records, we can use these facts to make some estimates.

I would have crafted roughly 13k Sunshine Sprats in total, over the course of around 133 weeks. 85% of those (around 11k) would have just turned out as regular Sunshine Sprat. Of course regular Sunshine Sprat has an item limit of 2000 too, which means I would have had to discard (consume) about 9k Sunshine Sprats in the process.

Crafting 13k Sunshine Sprats takes approximately:

40k butter

40k fish

13k salt, and

13k small lamp grass

I exclusively crafted butter from milk, as it was easier and cheaper to buy in bulk than directly buying butter. This means I would have bought around 80k milk, which cost me 7.2 million mora.

Fish can be gathered from the wild as well as purchased from various merchants around Teyvat. In the early days, I was very diligent about collecting fish in the wild, but towards the end I got a bit lazy and started buying fish more. Overall I bought roughly 10k fish, which is around 75 fish per week, and cost me around 2.2 million mora.

(Sidenote: I was using mora gained from expeditions exclusively for this Woodland Dream quest. This gives me a decent estimate of how much I spent on fish, since I can calculate how much mora I received from expeditions over 133 weeks, and my estimates for milk and salt costs are a bit more concrete.)

The other 30k fish were gathered from the wild. With the assistance of Kuki Shinobu and Yelan, who I discovered were very, very good at killing fish efficiently (helpful when you have high ping like me), the fish populations around Yujing Terrace, the western shore of Mingyun Village, and the Dawn Winery shoreline were absolutely decimated. There are many places to gather fish in Teyvat, and I didn't limit myself to these 3 spots, but these I found were the most convenient places.

(Klee, I found, was surprisingly not that good at killing fish. Her bombs are not very easy to aim properly, and the explosion AoE isn't that great.)

Salt cost me around 670k in total. Nothing more really to say about salt.

And finally, small lamp grass. I had an intensive teapot farm going, and grew nearly 2.5k small lamp grass. But the teapot farm could only give me 8 lamp grass every 3 days, so the bulk of lamp grass, the remaining 10.5k, was harvested from the wild. Whispering Woods and Wolvendom are good sources of lamp grass (17 and 19 lamp grasses respectively), and there are 4 west of Dawn Winery, which were also convenient to collect while I was fishing. Nahida was a blessing for easy lamp grass collection.

In total, I spent around 10.1 million mora on this quest. I don't want to try to calculate the actual number of hours I spent gathering fish and small lamp grass because that will make me cry.

This screen makes it totally worth it though.

I did take this quest at a pretty leisurely pace, admittedly, so just for fun, I thought I'd calculate how long it would take to craft 2000 Woodland Dreams at the most optimised pace. I'd say there are two cases, one where you have unlimited access to resources in co-op worlds, and one where you only have access to your world.

For the first case, you can assume unlimited fish and small lamp grass since these can be gathered from as many co-op worlds as necessary. The limiting factor ends up being butter. It takes 5 minutes to craft butter from milk, which means 288 butter can be crafted every day. (This takes 576 milk per day, which is not a problem, as 600 milk can be purchased daily across Teyvat as of version 4.2.) Additionally, 40 butter can be purchased weekly. Thus you can craft 96 Sunshine Sprats every day, plus an additional 13⅓ each week. This comes to about 685 Sunshine Sprats per week, and on average, 102.75 Woodland Dreams per week. Thus, it would take just over 19 weeks to craft 2000 Woodland Dreams at the most optimised pace possible, about 7x faster than it took me.

If you only have access to your own world, the limiting factor becomes small lamp grass. 77 lamp grass can be collected from the wild every 48 hours. Also, every 3 days, 8 lamp grass can be harvested from the teapot, and 5 bought from Flora. Thus, every 6 days, you can collect 257 lamp grass, and thus can craft 257 Sunshine Sprats every 6 days. On average, this gives you 38.55 Woodland Dreams every 6 days. Thus it would take you just over 44 weeks in total to craft 2000 Woodland Dreams at the most optimised pace when you only have access to your own world. This is about 3x faster than it took me.

But I was already getting quite tired of spending the measly few minutes needed every day to catch fish towards the end. I had no interest in doing it "more optimally" - it was a marathon rather than a sprint, to use a cliche.

Anyway to celebrate this historic moment, I cooked some Woodland Dream in real life. I followed the recipe in this video.

The fish used is barramundi fillet (which was the best size and shape out of all the fish at the local supermarket). I had just as much trouble drawing with the sauce as the guy in the video. But tastewise the dish turned out pretty good! The sauce especially was very nice (I slathered a lot more sauce on when I started eating). This is a dish I'd definitely make again, but I don't think I'd bother making it look fancy like this. So basically, I'd make regular old Sunshine Sprat in the future instead, which I suppose is fitting.

I shall now proclaim myself #1 Albedo Fan (culinary division) 🥇🎣

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Why should I strive to accurately reflect your argument when you've refused to do the same with climate change? Ignoring all evidence of humans being capable of affecting their environment and dismissively referring to it as "controlling the weather" which is not close to anyone's argument. The problem isn't me not repeating your argument the problem is you don't like people treating you the same way as you treat others.

Except you guys think that you can literally control the weather if we just tax enough billionaires, regulate enough energy industries, and give up enough freedoms. If the goal is to reduce global carbon emissions, not a single proposed plan to "fight climate change" would do that because they all ignore China and India, which are by far the largest producers of artificial carbon in the world. Even if the west turned off every coal plant and banned carbon production tomorrow, China and India would still be putting out way more carbon than we reduced, to the point where reducing our "carbon footprint" is meaningless. What these plans do accomplish, though, is restricting our freedoms and granting government greater control over the lives of individuals and what's left of the free market. None of the people pushing this climate narrative seem very interested in actually fighting the supposed source of "climate change", so why should I take them seriously?

Humans do affect the environment. I never said otherwise. That's your strawman. My argument is that, if the climate is changing, then human activity is not the main cause. And that's a pretty big if, since your side loves to claim that any weather is evidence of "climate change". One hurricane goes farther north than most hurricanes do? Climate change! Normal amount of hurricanes during hurricane season? Climate change! Indian summer? Climate change! Blizzard in winter? Climate change! Forest fires in a dry, brush covered forest that was started by a human? Climate change! Christ, you people even blame civil wars and riots on climate change. Combine all that with the fact that literally every single climate apocalypse that has ever been predicted, many using the same climate models "scientists" rely on today for their predictions, has never come true, and yeah, I don't believe "the experts" or their manipulated data when they say "No, this time we're totally right you guys. Climate apocalypse is right around the corner!" Climate cultists, because you people do act like a cult, are doing their own supposed cause no favors by acting like hysterical children who keep saying the sky is gonna fall any day now.

I'll make the same deal with you that I've made with other climate weirdos. You live your life like the world is going to end any year now, and I'll live my life like it's not. In 50 years, we can meet up and see which one of us was right and which one of us enjoyed their life more. Maybe on one of the coasts that won't be even remotely close to being underwater.

[mask131]

So you want to know about Oz! (4)

Now that we got the topic of the Oz books out of the way, let's talk about... The MGM musical! The 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz"!

Or rather, let's NOT talk about it. Let's talk about... its alternate continuity.

"Alternate continuity" or "alternate Oz" are terms cherished by Oz fans and scholars, because they allow one to navigate through the maze of Oz adaptations.

I don't want to talk here about the MGM movie per se, because A) there's way too much to say and B) everybody knows it or saw it, so I don't need to explain what it is as thoroughly. But I want to insist on a specific and given point... The 1939 musical COMPLETELY changed the game.

It is an adaptation of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", yes. And it is the most famous and acclaimed Oz adaptations that ever was - to the point it is a landmark of American cinema, and a key part of American popular culture. But, and here's the important part: it is also not at all a faithful adaptation of Baum's novel. It is a very loose adaptation that omitted, reinvented and added MANY, many things - and the problem is that, since the movie is much more famous and well-known than the original novel, it created its own "alternate continuity" of Oz works, completely dissociated from the original novels by Baum (and other authors). These are two different worlds, that start from the same story-point but diverge in many, many ways.

In this post, I want to look at all the works, movies and adaptations that present themselves as prequel or sequels to the MGM movie, and that build together this "alternate Oz continuity" that is the 1939 continuity.

How do you recognize these works, and separate them from the ones more aligned with the old novels? Simple! All you need is to look out for key details that were introduced by the MGM musical!

The Wicked Witch of the West is considered the supreme evil of Oz, and is depicted as having a green skin and being clad in black.

There is only one Good Witch, Glinda Good Witch of the North.

The magical slippers are Ruby Slippers, not Silver Slippers.

Insistence on Oz being a "dream lord" paralleling the real-world

The Wicked Witches are sisters, and not just unrelated allies in wickedness

And other details of the sort. Alright! Ready? Let's go!

Let me begin with something a bit obscure... The 1990 cartoon "The Wizard of Oz".

In 1990, a Wizard of Oz cartoon started airing on television. This animated series proposed itself as the direct sequel to the MGM movie. Dorothy, still with the ruby slippers, returned to the Land of Oz, called by Glinda due to new troubles brewing in Oz: the Wicked Witch of the West was resurrected. The series is mostly about the group of heroes travelling through Oz, encoutering various Oz folks (purely invented for the series) and defeating the various schemes of the Wicked Witch, while trying to catch up with the Wizard of Oz, whose hot air balloon is tormented by the West Wind...

Unfortunately, due to poor ratings, the series was never renewed beyond its first season. Even worse, it just... kind of stopped mid-season. 13 episodes were created (I am not even sure all were aired?) and... the show just stops. No conclusion, no ending, it just stops. Sometimes, the two-part opening episode "The Rescue of the Emerald City" is edited as one short animated movie.

Much more famous: the Disney movie "Return to Oz", from 1985. One of thes "obscure Disney movies", one of those "weird fantasy sequels", one of those "dark 80s children movies"... There's multiple reasons why this piece became a cult-classic today.

It is most notably one of the many instances of Disney trying to create an Oz product in line with the MGM movie, despite not having the rights to do so, and thus playing around with the public domain of the Oz novels. This movie presents itself as a sort-of-sequel to the MGM movie (sort-of because, since they couldn't make an actual sequel, they have things that do not match - like Dorothy's new appearance - and things that do match - the slippers are ruby). In terms of inspiration, it is mostly a retelling of the third Oz novel, "Ozma of Oz", but with various elements taken from the second Oz novel "The Marvelous Land of Oz". For example, one of the villains of the movie is Mombi, the witch from "The Marvelous Land of Oz", but her behavior and appearance are those of Princess Langwidere, a secondary antagonist of "Ozma of Oz".

Another famous attempt by Disney at gaining their ground on the MGM-Oz domain is this movie:

2013's "Oz: The Great and Powerful". Meant to be a prequel to the MGM Wizard of Oz (but stll placing itself in its own continuity, since it couldn't be an ACTUAL prequel), it tells the story of how Oscar (the Wizard) arrived in Oz, and how the power-struggle between the three Ozian witches put itself in place. And it was... it was not a great success. In term of Oz adaptations it is recognized today to be between "mid" and "failure". (It is still VERY pretty though)

Speaking of Oz failures...

Do you remember THIS movie? "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return"? Oh that's one messy story...

"Dorothy's Return" (2013) was an animated movie adapting one of the novels written by Roger S. Baum, L. Frank Baum's great-grandson, called "Dorothy of Oz" (1989). And it did... VERY poorly, despite the huge amount of money and advertisement put in it. But you know what's even funnier? Why does the movie has such a long title? Because "Legends of Oz" was actually a HUGE franchise project. There was this plan to create a big line of animated movies and derived products, of which "Dorothy's Return" would have been just the first step. The movie came out, did poorly... and the entire franchise was canceled. But not without a lawsuit being opened for the shady practices and financial ruins behind this project... Yeah it is QUITE a story!

Still within the domain of modern Oz movies people do not particularly like...

The Tom and Jerry Oz movies!

These animated pieces are part of the modern trend of putting Tom and Jerry in famous movies (there is also the very unfamous Tom and Jerry + Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie). The first movie, "Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz" was basically just Tom and Jerry being present during the MGM movie. And... that was it. Oh yes, they did include the Jitterbug deleted scene but you know. It was just that.

Less known is this movie's direct sequel, "Tom and Jerry Back to Oz". It was less talked about than the first one, despite being at least more original! It is notably a loose adaptation of the third Oz novel, "Ozma of Oz".

More successful and beloved: 2017's "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz".

Just like the 1990s series, it is a children cartoon presenting itself as a direct sequel to the MGM movie, but unlike the 1990s series it was HUGELY successful. It aired for three full seasons, and while it is placed within the MGM continuity, it notably modifies several details so kids could be able to get into the story more (Dorothy is a little girl, the Wicked Witch is replaced by her daughter), and sprinkles several elements from the novels (Ozma, queen of Oz, is a recurring character). It is mostly a... I'll say "slice-of-life" type of show, about Dorothy and her friends just... living in Oz, solving problems if they are, avoiding the various schemes of the Wicked Witch's daughter.

Now that we looked at all the most "recent" incarnations, let's take a look at an older classic: 1972's Journey Back to Oz.

This animated movie is a loose adaptation of the second Oz novel, "The Marvelous Land of Oz", but presented as a sequel to the MGM movie. Tip is replaced by an MGM-looking Dorothy as the protagonist, Mombi is depicted as a green-skinned witch and the cousin of the deceased Wicked Witches of The Wizard of Oz, and Dorothy's voice is provided by Liza Minnelli, the daughter of Judy Garland.

And to conclude it all a movie that... nobody seems to have noticed upon its release?

2000's Lion of Oz. An animated musical movie for children, adapted from Roger S. Baum's novel (yes, still him) "The Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage" (1995) ; but still placing itself, by the characters' design, under the legacy of the MGM movie.

This movie presents the backstory of the Cowardly Lion, who, as it turns out, was a lion Oscar Diggs brought with him to Oz, and who, before meeting Dorothy, underwent a quest to fight the nefarious plans of the Wicked Witch of the East...

[elbiotipo]

Someone in the notes on your post about food in fantasy mentioned connection between at least early modern production of sugar and colonialism and slavery, and while I 100% agree that it's something that should be known, I think that if you want to have lighthearted fantasy setting there are definitely ways to work around this.

Like sugar is also produced from sugar beet. I don't know could it be done without modern equipment (production started at the very end of 18th century so while industrial equipment was primitive it was), but like you may do something with it, like some wizards developing production technology.

In the same vein, crop exchange in the Old World was mostly peaceful, or at least it wasn't due to slavery. Like rice was already grown in Egypt in 1000 BCE and made its way to Spain by 7th century CE. Bananas were grown in Turkey by 15th century CE. And tons of agricultural goods come from West Asia both ways. What I am trying to say is that if your world has equivalent of Americas your Europeans* could have just acquired potatoes and corn without colonization (because they were more ethical than irl or because they didn't have resources for conquest or because American nations were strong enough to stop them). Like potatoes and such are just crops, sailors could have picked them as a supplies and then someone decided to grow them at home.

This is like a suggestion specifically if you want to have a world for costume drama without dealing with heavy themes. I would suggest describing it specifically to point that out, and I can't say that it's very politically aware but definitely not worse than "they just have it" or "yes there are overseas colonies but pay it no mind".

*Because that's usually the case in examples that are discussed, from what I heard East Asian fantasy set in East Asia also suffers from this for the same reason, but I didn't read enough of it to say

Let me say you make real good points and I broadly agree with you. I do think the history of colonialism and where our foods came from is important (I do research that so no doubt). And I also agree that sometimes, those themes are too difficult to board properly, especially in a lighthearted story.

However, in fiction, it's not so much that I want people to do more "clean" ways of getting those crops. Many people told me "well, what if they get it through trade, or what if they got it through magical portals and such" my point is not that you find a "colonialist free" way to have potatoes in your setting, my point is that every crop in real life has a history behind them, and when you place them in your setting, I think you should consider that. Not only because you will learn about real life and its history, but also because of the storytelling potential.

I mean, I do have "worldbuilding fundamentalist" in my bio, and I think even if you don't sketch the entire world, you should at least know where your heroes are. Much of modern fantasy loves to adopt the "medieval" aesthetic, while in fact presenting a world with widespread trade, urbanization, a growing artisan class, etc. (I've done a longer rant about it here). Those things aren't just aesthetic choices, they are different societies that have different dynamics and they do affect the kind of plots and characters you might make on them.

I don't think fantasy should shy away from exploring themes such as imperialism and colonialism, trade and politics, intercultural contact and social change. One reason why I'm so insistent with the theme of crops and trade is that it's because it's emblematic of those issues. Sure, you don't want to explain the potatoes or chocolate in your setting, whatever. Don't you WANT to, though? Don't you want to explore beyond the pseudo-medieval aesthetic, and explore what an American or African -inspired setting might look like? Of course, you could and should also make your own new settings, but exploring actual history, geography, biology (at the broadest term, natural history) will make you a better worldbuilder and a better writer, AND also let you learn more about the world.

Sorry if this rant is a bit unfocused, just woke up from a nap after some wine, but this is why I'm so insistent with the stories that can arise just by considering the crops in your setting. Imagine what else can you write.

[kristinamae093]

Ghosted

Ghosted - I Finally See (Chapter Six)

Series Summary - Prince Liam fell for Riley Brooks hard and fast. A marriage filled with love and devotion was within his reach. But everything changed when she vanished just before the end of the social season. As everyone voices their concerns regarding her scandalous departure, a confession from an unlikely source turns Liam's world upside down and makes him question everything around him.

Book/Pairing - TRR - Liam x MC (Riley Brooks)

A/N1 - This AU starts right before the beginning of the engagement tour. There is a two-month lapse between the coronation and where we pick up, but we will stray from canon. Please excuse any errors found.

A/N2 - Huuuuuuugest of shout outs to @ao719, who helped me tweak this mood board a little bit (twice 🤣🥹😘)

Characters belong to Pixelberry

Rhonda led the three of them along the path to the west grounds. At one point, that is where all major events were held in Applewood. However, over the years, the Royal family decided it was best to move all festivities to the front of the estate, as it was bigger in acres and much closer to the main building.  

The area was then practically forgotten about. There was housing for some of the staff, a couple of sheds, and a few stray apple trees, but nothing else. Liam hadn't been on the west grounds specifically since he was a child and would play hide and seek with Leo out there. He always found the best spots to hide, Leo practically never found him. 

They followed until Rhonda stopped at an older, weathered shed toward the edge of the estate property. It appeared to be practically abandoned; the paint was chipping off the sides and the roof missed several shingles. It looked like a scene from a horror movie, and Liam felt his skin turn cold and raise with goosebumps as they approached the structure. 

Rhonda turned to face them. "This is the one..."

"Don't you dare go anywhere? Do you understand me?" Liam growled. 

Rhonda didn't say a word but nodded her head rapidly. She took a few steps away but stood where they could see her even after they entered the structure. 

Olivia glanced down and saw a padlock securing the doors closed. She reached out and grabbed it. "A lock? Seems like someone doesn't want us to find what's in there." 

"How are we gonna get it open?" Drake asked. 

Olivia laughed before she responded, "Oh, don’t you worry about that, you simpleton." and pulled a small dagger out of her sleeve. She leaned forward and started working the blade into the keyhole.

After a couple of minutes, Drake grew restless. "I know this may come as a surprise to you, but not everything is solved with knives." He huffed. 

Just as the words left his mouth, Olivia stood and turned to face him with a smirk on her face, lock in hand. "You were saying?" Drake shook his head and muttered a few obscenities under his breath. 

The trio stood and stared at the doors for what felt like an eternity; nobody wanted to make that first move. After so long with so many unanswered questions, the anxiety of what could lie ahead was felt heavily by all three. 

Finally, Olivia reached for the door and swung it open. They were indeed looking at all of Riley's stuff; all her clothes, hygiene products, knick-knacks, everything was piled directly in front of them. Olivia entered first and started searching for anything of relevance. Drake followed close behind, but Liam remained cemented in place with his mouth agape. 

Liam convinced himself that Riley intentionally left because she took all of her belongings with her. To him, that meant her departure was premeditated; she had to have thought enough in advance to have her things packed so she could make her escape. 

But as Liam stood in front of the open shed, he confirmed the gut feeling he had been ignoring all along was validated. Any and every bit of resolve he had left crumpled as he took those first steps into the structure before him. 

Liam entered slowly and looked around. He stopped when he saw Riley’s ceramic cardinal and picked it up. She said it reminded her of her grandfather who had passed away, so having it meant he was exploring new horizons with her. She had the trinket in her pocket during the Regatta, Liam recalled her telling him her grandfather had a love of boats, so she had to bring it with her for the day. He held it in his hands for a moment before he gently squeezed it, and placed it back where he found it. 

Liam continued his search and stumbled upon her tortilla blanket; he smiled as he picked it up and held it to his nose to inhale a deep breath. He hadn’t understood why Riley had such a random item, but he didn’t dare question her. The one time he saw her wrapped up in it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. 

Liam went to her door early one morning to escort her to breakfast, however, Riley wasn't expecting him. He knew it wasn't proper, but he couldn't help himself; he wanted to spend any and every spare second he had with her. 

When Riley answered the door, she was wrapped in her blanket with her glasses sliding down her nose; her hair sat piled on the top of her head in a messy bun, although it appeared to have shifted more to the side during her slumber. The smile she gave as her cheeks flushed completely stunned Liam where he stood. She looked immaculate in all the ball gowns with her makeup and hair perfectly done, but she had never been more beautiful to him than at that moment.

Liam shook his head in an attempt to steady himself but could feel his eyes burn with unshed tears. He quickly put the blanket down where he found it and continued. 

As Liam resumed his trek, he stumbled upon a book or binder of some sort. The front and back surfaces were completely covered in different multicolored stickers. He opened it and realized it was not a binder, but a photo album. 

Liam looked through the pictures with trembling hands. He saw photos of Riley as a baby with her parents, holidays, birthdays, sports, prom; practically her entire life in images. Toward the end, he found laminated funeral programs for family members Riley had lost. 

Liam closed the album and wiped the tears from his cheeks that had unwillingly fallen. He knew Riley was a very sentimental person and would not have left this stuff behind purposefully. These things meant the world to Riley; her most cherished possessions, the things she was most proud of. It was one of the things that made Liam fall in love with her; in his world, all everyone cared about was power and prestige, but she cared about moments and making memories. He knew without a shadow of a doubt, she would not have left these things behind of her own volition. 

Liam began to feel insurmountable rage, but couldn't ignore the all-consuming guilt that engulfed his conscience for turning a blind eye; especially knowing she could have been hurt before she left, or, that could have been why she left. More than that, he hadn't believed in Riley the way his friends did. He needed to be convinced to believe in her. 

Drake had been observing Liam look through the photo album. In their many years together, he thought he had seen Liam at his lowest, but the man Drake was looking at now was unrecognizable; the defeat and guilt he felt were clear as day. When Drake saw him wipe his cheeks, his heart broke even more for his friend than it had been the past two months. 

Drake approached Liam and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Liam…" He softly spoke. 

Liam sniffed. "What for? I should be thanking you. Without your persistence, I never would have opened my eyes…" He trailed off and shook his head as more tears unwillingly fell. 

"Don't do that, Liam." Liam looked at Drake with a confused expression. "I can see it written all over your face. You're feeling guilty. You can't do that to yourself, man. I know it's hard, but you have to look forward. Don't dwell on what's already happened."

Liam scoffed. "That's easy for you to say. You didn't need to be convinced to believe in her. You didn't turn your back on her like I did..."

"If I was in your shoes I probably would have reacted the same way. You thought she abandoned you! I'd be devastated too! Then to see her in the tabloids two days later, I'd've been fucking livid! You might be a King, but first and foremost you're a man. You are allowed to make mistakes!" Drake emphasized. 

"But this isn't just any mistake! This is the love of my life, and I didn't see through this sooner?"

Drake sighed. "When me and Olivia told Max, she had to bring us back because we were doing the same shit you're doing right now." He shook his head. "I know it's hard, but you can't dwell on what you did or didn't do back then. We won't get anything solved that way. We gotta focus on what we do now."

Liam shook his head. "I just can't believe this is happening…"

"I know. It's a lot to take in. But I'm glad you're with us now." Drake smiled. 

"I swear to you, I will not rest until I find the truth. Someone is going to answer for this," Liam responded with a determined expression. 

Drake embraced Liam, "I know." and patted him on the back. 

"Thank you for being a great friend, Drake. I’d like to apologize for losing my temper with you earlier." Liam said as he returned the embrace. 

"Don't worry 'bout it. I'm just so fuckin' happy you're finally listening to yourself." Drake spoke as he stepped away. 

“Guys?” Olivia’s voice rang out from the other side of the shed, where they had not ventured to yet. 

Drake and Liam approached her and noticed her troubled expression. She was crouched on the ground as she searched through a tote that was filled with Riley's things. Olivia stood and held a black trash bag in her hands. She reached in and pulled out a balled-up piece of fabric, carefully unfolded it, and spread it open wide for Liam and Drake to see. 

Liam took the fabric from her hands. He realized he was holding a dress, but it was ripped and torn in multiple places. Some portions dangled, others completely detached. He knew he recognized it, but couldn't precisely place where he had seen it. 

The dress was white with a pink flower pattern, about mid-thigh length. It had ruffles at the bottom and a silky heart neckline at the top, which is where the tears appeared to be more prominent as well as the fabric being noticeably stretched out. The midsection had a brown leather belt sewn into its design, but portions of that had been shredded as well. 

Olivia noticed a specific area of the dress that was stuck together. She tentatively reached her hand out and grabbed the fabric and pulled, which separated the garment and revealed a large reddish-brown stain. It covered a portion of the back just above the ribs, and small spots on other areas of the dress. She reached out and lightly ran her finger over the large spot and felt that the surface was dry and hardened.

She grabbed the dress from Liam’s hands and spun it around to show him and Drake, both of their eyes widening within seconds. 

As Liam stood and stared at the back of what was left of the dress, his heart suddenly plummeted to the depths of his stomach as he realized where he recognized it from. “That’s…” He swallowed thickly. “that’s the dress she was wearing… at the jamboree…” He whispered. 

Drake bent down and picked up the bag. He opened it and saw other small pieces of the dress and even the stockings she had worn with it that night. He closed the bag and handed it to Liam with a heartbroken expression. 

Liam took the bag from Drake’s hands and peeked inside. He already knew what was in there, but looking confirmed it. Although they were unsure as to whose blood was on the dress, they could only conclude it was Riley's. 

Liam suddenly realized the maid who led them there, Rhonda, was still outside. He snatched the dress from Olivia’s hands and threw it into the bag. He turned and strode with deadly intent to where she stood outside the shed. 

Liam practically threw the bag at Rhonda, “Have you ever seen this?” He growled. 

She looked into the bag with wide eyes, “I– I– ” she stammered.

“ANSWER ME!" Liam yelled as he once again stood over the much smaller woman. 

"I– I found it on the floor. I don't know where it came from! All I did was throw it into the bag!" 

"So you find a bloodied dress, and instead of immediately reporting it to someone, anyone, you just throw it into a bag like it's nothing?!" 

Rhonda frantically shook her head. "I didn't know-" 

"BULLSHIT! It's blood! Do you really need a fucking technical course to tell you to use your brain?!" Liam yelled. 

Bastien heard Liam from his position a little ways away, and quickly rounded the corner and approached him with a curious expression. "Is there a problem here, sir?" 

"YES, there's a problem here! Look inside there, do you see that?!" Liam hollered without once breaking his attention away from the woman in front of him.  

Bastien glanced past Drake to the shed behind him. He briefly met eyes with Olivia, who remained inside searching. She arched her brow as she met his gaze, but he quickly turned back to Liam.  "What would you like me to do, sir?"

"She knows something…" Liam growled as he stalked toward the woman little by little. 

Liam stood to his entire height and squared his shoulders. He looked down at Rhonda over his nose; he puffed his chest out, only slightly, but enough to project his dominance over her. “I am giving you one last opportunity to tell me the truth. Failure to do so will result in you being placed in the custody of the Cordonian Royal Guard until you feel it’s acceptable to tell your King the truth.” He demanded in an authoritative voice.

Rhonda audibly inhaled a sharp breath, almost as if she had been hit in the gut. Her eyes welled with tears as she held her trembling hands together. “Your Majesty I swear to you on my children’s lives I know nothing else!” She dropped to her knees in front of him. “Please don’t take me from my kids! Please! I’ve told you everything I know! I'm so sorry I never said anything! P–please!” She cried as she lost herself in a fit of hysterics. 

Liam stood over Rhonda while she sobbed, his mind reeling. He wanted to believe she knew more, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized whoever did this didn't let this lowly maid in on their master scheme; she was only a pawn. The likelihood of her knowing more than she had already told them was low, and she had given them the biggest lead yet in showing them where all of Riley's things were. 

Even though he remained enraged, Liam crouched down in front of the woman and spoke in the softest tone he could force. "I will not take you from your children. I apologize for making barbaric threats to you. However, I need to make sure there's nothing else that you could tell us about that night."

Rhonda sniffed. "N–no, sir. I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner but I was worried about getting in trouble for snooping because I need this job to support my kids and–"

Liam held up his hand to stop her rambling. "For future reference, if you believe a guest could have been injured you are to call my office immediately and report it to me. Am I clear?"

"Y–yes sir." 

"This is a delicate situation, and your utmost discretion is required. You can not tell anyone we were here, or searching Lady Riley's things. Do you understand?" Rhonda quickly nodded her head. Liam stood from his crouched position and reached down and extended a hand to help her stand. "You are free to go, but please, if you remember anything else or see something suspicious, call my office."

"Shall I escort her back to the estate, sir? I'd like to ask her a few questions as well." Bastien asked, his eyes never once leaving the maid.

"Of course, Bastien. Thank you."

As Bastien led Rhonda away, Olivia reemerged from the shed. She found something that piqued her interest; it was a long shot, but she hoped perhaps her sudden hunch could poke yet another hole in the ordeal. 

Olivia approached Liam, who stood beside Drake with his hands balled at his sides watching Bastien and the maid fade away. She cleared her throat and the two turned to face her; she handed Liam a blank envelope and said nothing. 

He opened it and quickly scammed its contents; it was a letter from Riley to her grandma. She had told Liam about her letters home because her grandma wasn't smart with technology and didn't have a cell phone, but Riley wanted to stay in contact. There was no date, although it had been signed at the end. The text held no relevant information, aside from Riley retelling certain portions of her time in Cordonia, the last being their trip to the ancient ruins. 

As he reached the bottom paragraph, he felt like his already dismembered heart was ripped from the confines of his chest and tossed onto the ground in front of him, leaving it for anyone and everyone to openly stomp on.

I really don't know if I would make a good Queen, but I know I can do anything with Liam by my side. He’s the most amazing person I've ever met and makes me feel like I could do anything, and I would do anything to be with him. It might seem fast, but I can feel it in the depths of my soul; he is my forever. 

Liam took a deep, shaky breath to keep himself calm. The guilt was piling up, but he refused to let that dam open, not now. Their next move had to be calculated and precise, and he was more determined than ever to find her and ensure her safety. "Why are you showing me this?" He quietly asked Olivia.  

"I can't confirm, because I didn't see the note that was left in her room, but I know both of you did. So I just wanted to ask, does the handwriting match?" 

Liam took another good look at the paper; the one left in her room was short, so there was hardly anything to compare. Looking at this script in his hands, a few things did stand out. 

"The s's are different, and the r's as well." Liam pointed to the paper. "On this, every single one has some kind of a swirl on it, not to mention its continuous cursive. The one left in her room was just plain print writing."

"And this one is signed Riley instead of R," Drake added.

"Do you still have that original letter?" Olivia asked. 

"I… don't." Liam looked away from them and rubbed the back of his neck. "I, uh… I couldn't stand to have it anymore. I told Bastien to dispose of it…."

Olivia arched her brow. "I take it you did the same with her phone?" Once again, Liam avoided eye contact but subtly nodded his head. She felt her irritation rise at Liam's stupid decisions while in his state of denial, but opted to keep her comments within; even though he was fighting to keep it hidden, Olivia could tell he was already feeling the effects of his refusal to see the truth. "Well, we should at least check with him and see if he still has them; we can compare the letters and see if there's a chance they match." She sighed.  "Other than that, what's our plan?" 

Liam was quiet for a long moment. His mind raced as he tried desperately to figure out where to go from here. They didn't have a lead as to who could have been responsible or any information regarding the scandal. The most evident thing to be found was the chilling revelation that someone hurt Riley in some way and a potentially falsified letter, otherwise, they had no solid leads. 

Liam ran his hand down his face before he responded, "To start, I'll ask Bastien if he happened to keep those things. Otherwise, we need to begin a search for Tariq and Riley. Since the person in that photo you showed me can't be identified, they're the only two who know what actually happened. I'll have Bastien begin at once."

"The time I spent investigating by myself I tried to locate Tariq to question him, but he's gone." 

"I'll have Bastien double-check, just to make sure he hasn't gotten sloppy and left a trace somewhere."

"Are you thinking Tariq did all this?" Drake asked. 

"At this moment, no. We've known Tariq most of our lives and we all know he's not smart enough to do this." Drake and Olivia nodded their heads in agreement. “I have a feeling he could have been used in achieving someone else’s agenda, but as to who could be responsible, I don’t have a clue.” 

"What do you think their ultimate plan was?"

Olivia snickered. "I shouldn’t be surprised you can't figure it out, considering your brain is the size of a walnut." 

"Oh yeah? Enlighten us."

"Gladly," Olivia smirked. "Liam clearly wanted to pick Riley, that was no secret. Since Liam and I have been friends since we were children, I was obviously the second choice." She rolled her eyes but continued. "So whoever this person is formulated a plan to eliminate the two of us, leaving only Madeleine."

"There were other suitors." Drake retorted. 

"Oh, please." Olivia scoffed.  "Madeleine was technically the most prepared beforehand, the others weren't even in the contest." 

"But why go through all this, though?" Drake motioned to the shed. 

"I don't actually have any idea why her things are stored here, yet. Otherwise, I can only assume they wanted to push the idea that Riley left to be with Tariq. First, remove her from the situation. Next, let Liam sit and stew for a few days contemplating why she left. Lastly, release a scandal; let everyone assume she was a harlot being swept away by another."

"And I played right into it, just like they knew I would," Liam growled as he shook his head. "It was important they cemented the theory because whoever did this knew I would continue looking for her without the scandal. They needed to give me a reason to abandon that search, despite all the signs, and I did…"  Liam looked away and forcefully tensed his jaw. 

"I could be wrong, Liam… We really don't know much, yet." Olivia said in a surprisingly tender voice. 

Liam sighed. "For now perhaps it's best if we lock this back up and reconvene after the Apple Banquet. That will give Bastien a day or so to start the search; we can see where we stand then?" 

Drake and Olivia nodded, but Drake needed to ask Liam a question that had popped into his mind whilst they searched the shed and wouldn't leave. "Hey, Li?" 

"Hm?" 

"...What about the tour?" 

Liam remained silent for a moment before he quietly answered. "I know it may not make sense to either of you, but the tour has to continue. First, I feel it will make investigating this easier. Clearly, something happened that night, but everything must go on as planned to avoid raising suspicion. Second…" He trailed off and looked away from Drake's curious gaze. "If we can't prove someone plotted to get Madeleine on the throne, I will have to go through with the wedding. There is nothing I can do about that, aside from abdicating." 

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Olivia howled with laughter, which earned her a steely glare from Liam and a curious one from Drake. "Liam, you're the fucking King. You act as if you answer to all these people, but they answer to you. You're the one calling the shots, not them! If you don't want to marry her, then don't."

"I wish it were that simple, Olivia, but it's not. I have to take a Queen! Stability, above all–"

"Oh, my God!" Olivia exclaimed. "Am I talking to fucking Constantine or Liam?" 

Liam could only stare at her with a stunned expression. Drake, however, had to hide his laugh with a cough; he had thought that same exact thing every time he heard Liam utter that statement.

Olivia continued. "I'm not trying to be insensitive, because I understand you want to do what's best for the country. But marrying Madeleine is not what's best for you or Cordonia." 

Liam remained silent. Drake stepped forward after a moment and placed a hand on Liam’s shoulder. "You don't have to decide right now, just think about it, okay?" 

Liam could only nod his head, as his mind refused to form a coherent sentence. After everything that had revealed itself that day, nothing made sense. He quickly dipped back inside the shed and grabbed Riley's blanket, cardinal, and photo album. Drake and Olivia gave him a curious glance as he emerged from the shed with the items, but he didn't care; he wanted to take these things with him so he could feel close to her again, and hopefully return them if he could ever find her. 

Olivia placed the bag with the dress back inside the tote where she found it and secured the lock back in place; she slipped Riley's letter into her pocket for safekeeping, hoping and praying Bastien kept the one left in her room to compare.

The trio made their way back to the main estate as the sun was setting on the horizon. All three's minds were overflowing with questions, assumptions, accusations, and a wide variety of scenarios, all of which revolved around one thing: what happened to Riley Brooks? 

Tags (If you'd like to be removed or added, just let me know): @choicesficwriterscreations @ao719 @txemrn @imashybish @queenrileyrose @emkay512 @kingliam2019 @riseandshinelittleblossom @dcbbw @tessa-liam @twinkleallnight  @amandablink @cordonia-gothqueen @sfb123 @jared2612 @harleybeaumont  @bebepac @charlotteg234 @busywoman  @malblk21 @angelasscribbles  @bascmve01 @iaminlovewithtrr @hopelessromanticmonie  @mysticalfangirl @umccall71  @fuckitweball0000 @differenttyphoonwerewolf  @lovingchoices14 @emersyn-in-cordonia  @aussiegurl1234 @karahalloway

[genericpuff]

Hey, I've worked a bit in animation and just wanted to point out that shows very often get pitched and bought out, and can sit in the back burner for a really long time depending on the market! Seems like with all the strikes and post covid lag, and a market thats already saturated with greek mythology atm (think percy jackson live action coming soon, youtube series, other webcomics, etc.), lore olympus is probably floating in the air atm until the time is right. These kinds of things can take years to happen, even 10+ years! Some of the most popular animated shows were pitched years before they were picked up and sent into production. Hoping in the time its on hold, they get some really good writers to clean up the story. I don't mean to disregard your post, but just a lil bit of info on how that nature works in animation. I love lore rekindled too, keep it up!

Oh hey thanks for your input! So I do actually have a diploma in animation (though I never ended up working in the larger industry) so I know a bit about how things like that can happen. Nimona's a great recent example, it was bought in 2015 by 20th Century Fox but never made it through development because of Disney purchasing them and bringing the project to a crawl due to it being LGBTQ+, then they shut down Blue Sky and that kept the project in limbo until it got picked up by a new studio and brought to Netflix. So it took well over 10 years for that one to finally hit the screen.

That said, most of that post is addressing the fact that if LO is going to get a TV show (I'm really strongly believing it isn't at this point, esp not with JHC but that's me) then stalling it out for 10 years or however long probably won't be the best move. Especially not with how things are going with animation at large.

While LO is the biggest on the WT platform, the platform itself still isn't as prestigious here in the west as say, DC or Marvel. Its platform and its comics just don't have that sort of longevity out here. LO is also undoubtedly nearing the end of its run and it's struggling to stay relevant as it is - so to make a show years down the road when it's long gone out of everyone's minds (which it will be as soon as it ends and WT starts shilling the next big thing) just sounds like a missed opportunity. It could rejuvenate interest, sure, but it could just as easily flop due to its fanbase having moved on/lost interest/etc. LO is pretty much reliant on WT's advertising at this point, it's not a good sign that WT has to keep putting notifications to read LO everywhere on the app. WT loooves the "strike while the iron is hot" methodology and now with the show they just drag it out? It feels less like striking the iron while it's hot and more like trying to get a fire going, period.

Like, when Nimona got its movie, it was like "omg Nimona's finally getting a movie!!!" but I can't help get the sense that if LO goes through that same treatment, the response is gonna be, "that gross comic with the underage girl and old man billionaire is still getting a TV show??" Maybe that's a mean assumption to make but if LO is struggling to stay relevant and in a positive light now, god knows what that's going to be like years from now if and when they do release a show.

Especially when it comes to comics like LO which generate so much criticism, I feel like it's going to go through the same thing Twilight did, where people adored it during the peak of its run but as soon as the series was over and the hype left everyone's brains it gave people room to actually reflect on it and realize how icky it was LOL (and if it goes the full way of Twilight, people will read it as a joke over how bad it is).

There are also theories in the community that a lot of what WT is doing with LO rn (paying for Rachel to be in the top billing spot at NYCC, getting her a second Eisner, etc.) could very well be them trying to "shop it around" for investors or a new network, by putting Rachel in the spotlight and going "see! look at how successful this comic is! buy it!" That's just a theory of course, but it really isn't a good look when LO wins awards and people ask why. It feels like WT's is trying to throw money at a problem without realizing what's causing the problem in the first place. It winning an Eisner or being hinted at a TV show or getting a top billing spot at NYCC won't give it legitimacy because the comic they're advertising is still garbage, they're trying to convince people it has merit when it doesn't. If anything, it'll make LO and WT lose even more credibility because it makes people wonder why the fuck a comic like LO is winning those awards and why it's being given more attention and opportunities over other comics on the platform that are far more deserving.

Anyways, this post is kinda all over the place, but that's my two cents, my point really is that if there is a show happening, it's definitely not happening soon (in spite of Rachel saying "yeah it's happening!") because there's no clear timeline or progress that's been made or even team in charge of it at this point - and if it happens down the road, its only chance of doing well will be if it gets a major overhaul in its writing IMO because the comic is way too much of a mess rn for television LOL

That said, I'd love to genuinely believe that the show will happen someday, but I feel like the best time for it to happen has passed, especially with the comic losing the quality and prestige it was sold to JHC for since then. That's just me though.

[lonelyroommp3]

☕️ Musical from the last 5 years (lol) that i should listen to

my god *i* don't even really listen to many musicals from the last five years because i sort of stopped paying attention after like 2019 when the MT fandom on here died down considerably. yes i work in musical theatre. don't look at me

okay here are some of my suggestions in no particular order based on shows i've actually managed to listen to and enjoy

sing street - one of the great theatrical casualties of covid - the cast literally moved into the theatre on the day the broadway shutdown started and the subsequently postponed bway transfer has just never materialised. they did have an out of town production in 2022 though :)) anyway, love this album, one of the few MT cast recordings that makes it onto my general listening playlists because several of the songs also work really well as standalone pop tunes

& juliet - if you just want to have a silly fun time listening to a jukebox musical this is thee one. bonkers little plot but it's packed with bangers throughout and repurposes its pop soundtrack into a musical theatre context in ways that range from unexpectedly genius (turning britney's "i'm not a girl, not yet a woman" into a nonbinary anthem) to really stupid in the funniest way possible (an entire character is named just to set up a *NSYNC joke)

kimberley akimbo - 2023 best musical winner, a solid example of the typical contemporary musical theatre sound which handily fulfills both the niche of "i enjoy shows like dear evan hansen and want another emotional teen story" and "i want more good meaty lead roles for older actresses"

a strange loop - 2022 best musical winner, a meta show about a fat black queer man who works as a theatre usher and is writing a musical about a fat black queer man writing a musical. filled with commentary about race and sexuality, definitely one for if you want your musicals to be thought & discussion provoking

shows i've not personally listened to for whatever reason but i've heard good things

operation mincemeat - i've heard nothing but hype about this show to the point where it's actually put me off seeing it. so of course i am perpetuating the cycle by recommending it to you without ever having listened to it

standing at the sky's edge - another west end show that i have heard so many good things about and not got around to seeing. so here you go. blind rec. fuck it

octet - i kind of went off dave malloy entirely around 2018 through zero fault of his own, god bless him, just because many of his fans were still being so annoying about the 2017 tonys. but i've heard good things about this show and maybe i need to actually get over myself and give it a listen

message for the masses if i didn't include your fave show or included something i hate it's because it's 10pm and i wanted to answer this quickly so i just skimmed wikipedia for musicals from 2019-2024 and thought oh yeah i know enough about that one to talk about it. i will have forgotten things. don't @ me please i beg you

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

Top 10 Favorite Performances of "Music of the Night"

Honorable Mentions: Laird Mackintosh

I have an affinity for Laird that I can't quite explain. I love an understudy/alt/swing who's been with the production and just lingers for years and years (this is borne out in the rest of the list, as you'll see), I love that he started out in ballet, and I love how energetic he is. Though he falls short on the high notes, he plays the reaction to Christine fainting very well

Honorable Mentions: Dave Willetts

He's so smooth and creeping, and he's one of the especially good Phantoms who catches Christine before she falls (I'm a sucker for that, as will also be borne out in the rest of the list). He's been accused of "Copying" Michael Crawford, and I do see where that criticism is valid, but I think it's understandable given that he took up the mantle very early in the West End run.

Honorable Mentions: Cris Groenendaal

Cris is a really underrated Phantom. Another Alt/Understudy (who, like Laird, spent a lot of time in the role of M. Andre), I think he's got a wonderful power in his voice. His MotN is melodic and seductive. His pitfall is that he does tend to get a little bit nasal for my tastes.

Honorable Mentions: Ramin Karimloo

Honestly I think Ramin lands in most people's top tens. Certainly the 25th Anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall has made him on of the most ubiquitous Phantoms out there. Now, frankly, Ramin has taken a while to grow on me, and while my viewing of the 25th was the thing that pushed me to include him on this list, that performance is not the one that I chose to include here. Instead I went back, to his West End run. While I think Ramin's performance is a bit broad whenever he's actually in character, I do see what people mean about his emphasis on Erik's vulnerability. He does (with slightly less refinement) what I will later in this list praise Earl Carpenter for (and that's high praise from me, as you'll see). Still while I like Ramin's Erik a lot more now than I did, say, four months ago when all this brain-rot started, he's just not one that feels personal to me, which is why I hesitated to put him in the top ten proper.

10. Paul Stanley

I mean of course I'm fascinated by Paul Stanley's whole Phantom saga, so of course he's in here. He's far from the most technically proficient, he struggles with the high notes, but he really does a good job otherwise, and I have to admire his moxy.

09. Brent Barrett

Emphatic and sexy with compelling body language. So underrated.

08. Howard McGillin

Spectral, Resonant and controlled; a legend.

07. Hugh Panaro

Hugh is one of those that I feel like is a pre-requisite in a top ten list. My favorite thing is how he plays heavily on the phantom's fascination with Christine, and not solely on making her fascinated by him

06. Michael Crawford

Another prerequisite. He's ghostly, coaxing; the OG OG. The man who said, "No I want them to be able to see how lustfully he's touching her in the back row. I need to show more skin: make my sleeves shorter." This man understood the assignment and he set the tone and God bless him for it.

05. Anthony Warlow

The original Sydney Phantom, another beautifully strong, clear vocal quality. He has a very old-fashioned style of singing, I think which has a particular charm. If I had to name a fault it would be that he is quite theatrical, which I don't mind, though I tend to prefer an understated phantom. He never undersells a single line. I think his phantom is one of the most "hopeless romantic" interpretations. A particular standout for me is how he conveys that Christine's reluctance tries his patience, but he holds it together and his "touch me, trust me" is beautifully reassuring, while many phantoms choose to portray lust or longing in this moment, his is an appeal for understanding which is very attractive in its own way.

04. Ben Lewis

The power! The gravitas! Ben Lewis is truly one of the greatest blessings in PotO history and his high note? Off the charts. Also, since this is the whole first lair, I just want to say that this is one of my favorite versions of "Stranger than You Dreamt It" I've ever heard.

03. Ted Keegan

Refreshingly sharp and clean. I just love how powerful he is without being overpowering. He's strong, sensual and smooth. *sigh* ~,~ If only he caught her...

02. Earl Carpenter

So pleading, so gentle--holy hell I love Earl so much. Watch him show Erik's inner struggle with his desire for contact and his fear of his deformity throughout this entire scene! Watch him think to himself "Yes, let her touch you! Why shouldn't you?" And then lose his nerve at the last moment! I could go on for hours. Find me a sweeter Phantom. Go ahead.

01. John Owen-Jones

Without a doubt in my mind THE strongest vocal performer in this role. I just love to hear him booming out in his great, Welsh way. He strikes an exquisite balance between his acting and his singing. His vibe in general is amazing, like he really leans into the idea that he's been Christine's teacher as much as her muse. He has guided her through music and he wishes to be her guide into romance as well, and that manifests in every aspect of his performance. Such as the fact that he doesn't walk away from Christine for the second verse, so he's leaning close when he sings "Let your spirit start to soar" and almost always gestures with his hand over her diaphragm. If I'm completely honest, he's the only Phantom (except perhaps Michael Crawford or Gerard Butler) that I can actually imagine giving Christine singing lessons. So few actually inhabit this music obsessed weirdo like JOJ does.

He, perhaps the ultimate gentleman phantom, also catches and carries Christine before she falls. (Special shout out to my girl Gina Beck for also REALLY leaning in to the romanticism of the moment; she looks just so utterly in ecstasy through this whole sequence and that's exactly how I would want to play Christine).

I need to tack a caveat onto the end here:

Gerard Butler's Music of the Night is my actual, number one favorite rendition.

But I wanted this list to be stage versions only.

I think I can put my feelings on this most succinctly like this:

I love JOJ's confidence, his command and his sensuality

I love Earl's gentleness and vulnerability

I love Anthony's patience

I love Ted's crispness

I love Paul's humanity

I love Ben's power

Gerard Butler somehow manages to crystallize ALL of those elements and ramp them every one of them up to 11 with an added element of wholly smitten wonder at Christine that makes me so weak.

[silviakundera]

silvia's drama watching queue for 2024: a somewhat random assortment of stuff that was rec'd and for some reason feels it might scratch an itch

in progress - started & I swear I'm gonna finish

* Empresses in the Palace - I'M DOING IT BABYYYYY. 9 episodes down. Yes, the emperor looks like your grandpa and so far has the personality of stale toast. But as long as I don't imagine him naked (no, grandpa, no! it's time for your nap!) then it has this vibe of those Masterpiece Theatre productions I watched as a preteen and I already am recognizing tons of famous tropes (some elements of Job of Imperial Concubine already 3x funnier). Also I appreciate a horror story with a high body count and we have 3 victims already 👌

* Derailment - Modern cdrama that I know is great. I'm 3 ep in, just gotta be in the right mood

* Legend of Fei - Wuxia; got distracted halfway through last year but love the 2 lead actors. Not their best work but still.

* Fireworks of my Heart - what if china did a modern Persuasion adaption but he's a fireman and she's a nurse, basically. kinda. idk man, it has those same vibes for me. I like both lead actors (yes I'm on the YY Can Act Sometimes, When He Feels Like It defense squad. fight me). I'm like 1/3 of the way thru, need to be in that melancholy romantic wallow mood. But mmm I do love second chance + pining.

* Secret Romantic Guesthouse - a wild kdrama appears! Historical drama about saving your inn from debtors by finding a missing royal & turning him over to be murdered. you know, just girlboss things. 💁 Some mystery, some romance. I like the FL. Not much slapstick humor or people screaming at each other so far, which will make me tap out. 4 episodes in and it's quite watchable. I'll probably finish.

not started

* The Left Ear because why not? teens being realistically messy 👌

* Go Ahead - so this may sound strange but I've been holding back on this one a long time, until my work hours were less insane & I can focus. Universally beloved, one of the top cdramas. I'll sink my teeth into this Modern in 2024.

* The Blessed Girl cause it sounds like my jam

* Fake It Till You Make It - modern romance that I've seen rave reviews for. Pretty confident I'll love it.

* Gone with the Rain cause dangermousie's posts seduced me. Costume drama.

* West out of Yeman/Parallel World - multi-verse modern with a lil sci fi? I love multiverse and time travel \o/

* Wonderland of Love - historical romance with generals and some court intrigue, a happy ending. On paper, my kind of stuff. But will I make it thru 40 ep depends on how much I vibe with the otp

Maybe

Choice Husband (12 eps romantic comedy, then turns into blood and manipulation? sounds intriguing)

Moonlight - modern workplace drama, editor/author. Reviews are mixed but I have affection for how cdrama scriptwriters will obsessively research a topic in the style of an AO3 fic writer. I expect to learn more than I ever wanted to know about the toils of being an editor.

Marry My Husband - I don't watch many kdramas but I turn up for tropey reborn every time. If they deliver on the promise of a ridiculous but entertaining romance revenge then I'm there.

[neon-green-reagent]

50 Underrated Horror Films: Part 4

What in absolute hell. We made it to part 4? Well, here we go then! Oh, also, links to the other parts: One : Two : Three

Undead : Starting off with an absolute banger. This is an Australian zombie apocalypse film. If you're familiar with Ozploitation cinema, then you know how nutso it can get, and this is a perfect example of just that. The action sequences are wild crowd pleasers, and the plot twists until it nearly breaks off.

Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory : I realize that sounds like porn. Just stay with me. It's a giallo! With a werewolf! For me, this was like finding the holy grail. Best of both worlds, truly. With... not the best looking werewolf, but this is an older movie, so cut it a little slack. It turns into a fun mystery with that special Italian flavor to it.

The Outwaters : Everyone was talking about Skinamarink. No one was talking about this. It has a similar conceit. To make a horror film that defies the idea of plot. It starts like your average found footage, then becomes a drug trip straight to the depths. It really does feel like witnessing a cosmic horror story where the horrors are, indeed, impossible to describe.

Tomie : This is the first of me cheating and actually recommending way more than one film. The Tomie film franchise is a series of loose adaptations of Junji Ito's manga of the same name, and there are nine at the moment. They get wild and weird, and they explore parts of Tomie that even the manga doesn't cover. Female monster! You need these in your life.

Murdercise : Low budget silliness trying to be throwback 80s and mostly just being hilarious and noticeably cheap. I love that. It's stupid and seems like the kind of movie that was a blast to make. I definitely felt like I was laughing with them and not at them, which made it feel really charming. A great one for a dumb movie night.

Zombie Death House : Zombies in jail! Directed by John Saxon who strangely didn't case himself in the lead like some vanity project. Rather he plays a character I have dubbed "Colonel Herbert West" if that sounds at all appealing. I mean, it clearly was to me.

Dead Birds : There aren't a ton of horror films that crossover with westerns, so this is a rare gem. A bunch of outlaws take refuge in a deeply disturbed location, and things get super dark.

Satan's Princess : A neo-noir detective story with supernatural evil at its core. Imagine if Angel Heart was dumber and way cheaper looking. With Robert Forster giving a really fun performance and an ending that had me laughing out loud.

Werewolf Bitches from Outer Space : Do you love Troma movies? Do you wish they were worse? Do I have the film for you! With scenes that were clearly filmed without permits. Random bystanders interfering with the production. Terrible werewolf masks. And pizza sex? It's a laugh riot.

Butterfly Kisses : A genuinely upsetting found footage movie that understands exactly how to use the urban legend format. There's a beastie out there that, if you stare at it, it will imprint on you like a baby duck. Then if you blink, it gets a little closer. Try to imagine how long you can go without blinking.

To Die For : Wanna watch a really shitty, late 80s Dracula? Here you go! It's dumber than a box of rocks. No one's motivations make any sense. Dracula seems like kind of a jerk despite being a romantic figure. But most of the actors are hotties and know the silly movie they're in, so it comes out fun in the end. Oh, and no one can agree when it came out. But rest assured I don't mean the one with Nicole Kidman.

Home for the Holidays : Made for TV Christmas slasher! Starring Sally Field. With a whole lot of family drama, which makes it feel authentically connected to the holiday. Merry Christmas! It's March. Ahem.

Welcome to Hell : Heavy metal horror strikes again. This time, a black metal band impregnates and kidnaps a groupie for their dark ritual. She escapes, but they're hot on her trail. The ending is nothing short of a religious experience. WINK.

Isolation : If Alien took place on a farm. With mutant cow fetuses. I swear, there is science that makes some sense of that. And it's not a comedy, I swear! It's actually very nasty with some wonderful body horror.

Dr. Crippen : Based on a real crime of passion and clearly cashing in on the Psycho craze. It's a strange one to recommend, because it's based on a true event, and the movie leans pretty hard in the bad doctor's favor. But it's worth it if you're a fan of Donald Pleasence. He gets to be his strange, little self and also be the star for once.

Tamara : What a mid-2000s romp this is. A good girl gets treated like garbage and goes bad in a witchy-demon-spell kinda way. Jenna Dewan as Tamara is perfect in every way. Gives me the gay.

Dark Harvest : Don't be like "oh, I've heard of that, didn't that just come out last year?" Yep, and everyone ignored it. When it was pretty fucking great. Set in a cursed town that openly sacrifices their kids to a fantastic monster by the name of Sawtooth Jack. His head is full of candy. Like. Go watch it.

Night Screams : Regional 80s slasher where a guy dies getting his face grilled. I'm pretty sure that shouldn't have killed him. And there are like three killers by the end? Did it before Scream, just saying. Enjoy the vibes on this one.

The Third Saturday in October Part Five and Part One : Speaking of slashers. These low budget gems came out last year, and there was a cute, little gimmick to it. You're supposed to watch five, then one. It simulates growing up pre-internet. You walk into the video store, and all they have is part five. You decide to rent it, even though you've never seen the first one. Then a week later, you find one. This really worked for me. Gave me nostalgic feelings. Please, if you watch them, try it this way.

The Vampire Doll : What if Japan made a Hammer film? Well, here it is. With one of my favorite tropes: a super cute couple investigates the horrors!

Night Feeder : Genuinely the best shot-on-video horror film I've ever seen. It actually fooled me. I thought I was watching a bad VHS rip, but no, this was not shot on film. It's stylish, clearly better than you'd expect, weird, dark, and has a really bad rock band in it.

Older Gods : Low budget and full of heart and also Lovecraftian horrors. If you're reading this and care, to me it felt as if someone wrote an original story around Azathoth. Which is cool, because no one ever uses him in anything. Also, if you're like, "so what does that mean?" It means that reality is up for debate in this one.

Cheerleader Camp : One of those that people clamor for when you talk about movies that still need a proper physical media release. I see why. It's extremely fun with its tongue lodged in its cheek. It uses every slasher trope and laughs hysterically while doing so.

Below : I love my underwater horror, and this delivers wonderfully. Haunted submarine, dude. But honestly, that wasn't the scariest part. The plot was cool, and I enjoyed the mystery, yeah yeah. But more to the point, everything that can go wrong... does. Imagine being trapped at the bottom of the ocean in a giant, metal coffin. BRR!

The Werewolf and the Yeti : How many werewolf movies are on this list? Uh, shut up. As I was saying, this is great. Paul Naschy brings a massively enjoyable werewolf flick our way again. With all his swashbuckling charm. By the time the yeti shows up, so much awesome shit had happened that I forgot he was supposed to fight a yeti. I mean...

Subspecies : And how many vampire movies are on this list? SHUT UP I SAID. Anyway. Another where I mean the whole series. All of them. Radu, the main villain, is a joy. Michelle's story arc is super dramatic and full of that Interview with the Vampire angst. Special mention to the second film, which goes all out with the gore effects.

The Hills Run Red : A horror movie about horror movies. A lost film has gained a cult following, and a bunch of dumb college kids decide to track it down. You can guess how that goes. William Sadler steals the entire movie when he shows up. Babyface also has iconic slasher energy.

Abby : This one's underrated because the filmmakers got sued by the guys that made The Exorcist and lost. This is essentially the black version of The Exorcist, and it's so good that I'm depressed we'll never get a great release of it. Carol Speed is amazing as Abby. William Marshall, Blacula himself, is in it. Track this down and get mad about it with me.

The Appointment : What the hell is this. Even I'm not sure. Edward Woodward crashes his car. I mean, I don't know what else to say about it. The film ramps up the tension and dread until a ridiculously Rube Goldberg thing happens, and you have to experience it.

Frostbiter : Another of those movies made with ten cents and a lot of gumption. A bunch of people wanted to make Evil Dead II, and so they did that. They even put an Evil Dead II poster in the cabin they filmed in, so that you wouldn't even wonder about what inspired it. Also, special mention to the chili song.

Hell's Highway : Have you ever seen a movie that was really cheap and goofy, but you could see EXACTLY how it would've looked if they'd just had the money? This is that movie. Every special effect fails. Everything's so awkward and odd. But you can tell what they MEANT for it to be. So bad it's good and then some.

Dance of the Damned : Vampire. Sorry. So this one is about a vampire who wishes he could stop living eternally, because it sucks to live that long and be so alone. He finds a sex worker who is also feeling like she wishes things would just end, and they share their pain with each other. Way better than it has any right to be, mullet and all.

The Werewolf of Washington : Werewolf. I really am sorry. Dean Stockwell plays a truly adorable werewolf. And nothing about it is meant to be taken seriously at all. Gives An American Werewolf in London a run for its money in the goober department.

The Curse of Kazuo Umezu : From the man who brought you The Drifting Classroom comes... this! It's a pair of strange tales. One about a vampire, fuck, I'm sorry. And one about a haunted house that even the narrator can't figure out what's going on. Horror anime!

Lo : A young man has recently lost his love. She was dragged to hell. That old chestnut. So he summons a demon named Lo to try to get her back. With a twist that'll make you go, wait, I thought this was a comedy?

The Spider Labyrinth : This one recently got a really nice release, and I'm so glad, because it's bonkers. A young fella is sent to Budapest to find a lost professor. Instead he finds a cult. Uh oh.

End of the Line : Apocalypse horror that turns your brain inside out just a bit. A religious cult has decided it's the end of the world, and they start executing innocents so they'll "go to heaven." Are they brainwashed or is the world actually ending? You decide!

Off Balance AKA Phantom of Death : Just barely a Phantom of the Opera riff. A pianist discovers he has a rare genetic disorder that threatens to cut his career short. Also, he's kinda losing it. Starring Michael York, Donald Pleasence, Edwige Fenech, directed by Ruggero Deodato, oh my GOD!

The Lure : Killer mermaids. Well, sirens. Kind of a mix. It's also a musical. And about how awful the entertainment industry is for young women. It's also super gory, and they eat people. Truly little else out there is like this.

Redneck Zombies : What do you want me to say? It's a Troma film. It's called... that. I'm pointing. I'm pointing at the title. That's the movie. Just... Right? Yeah?

The Killer Reserved Nine Seats : Another of those gialli that is really just And Then There Were None. But the nice part is that Italy likes to get more sexual, violent, and fucking awful than Agatha Christie ever dreamed. This one also takes place in an old theater, so the vibes are choice.

Mary Reilly : I always include at least one entry in these lists that begs the question, "how did this become underrated?" And obscure, that too. When it's a Jekyll and Hyde retelling with an emphasis on the gothic and lush, starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich? By the way, I heard people hated it because of Roberts' terrible Irish accent. Damn, dude, I've heard way worse, fake accents than that. Anyway, this is fantastic. Watch it.

The Forest : One of those slashers where I thought I understood what I was getting into, but I did not. There's a man living in the woods who went postal on his cheating wife one day. The ghosts of his family are also haunting the woods. And he's a cannibal who feeds a guy his own girlfriend. I need other people to watch this so that I can be assured it was real.

Autopsy (2008) : I put a year, because there are around 800 horror films with that title. To further narrow it down, it's the one where Robert Patrick plays basically Herbert West fused with Mr. Freeze, and Jenette Goldstein is his nurse, and they chase a bunch of college kids around for science. Kind of a pitch black comedy with torture porn aspects, and I loved it.

Glorious : A guy gets trapped in a public restroom, which is horrifying enough. Then a cosmic horror god starts talking to him from a bathroom stall. He gives him the assignment of helping to stop the end of the world. The god is J.K. Simmons, and the whole thing is a delightful bottle movie.

Nightmare Detective : From the director that brought you Tetsuo: The Iron Man... Do I have your attention? Comes the Japanese Nightmare on Elm Street! That's oversimplifying, but that is my elevator pitch. It involves all sorts of dream powers and psychic battles that will blow your socks off.

House of Lost Souls : Directed by Umberto Lenzi, which means it feels as doobery as Ghosthouse. It's about a hotel desperate to decapitate you, and it has the silliest dialogue and acting known to man. Special mention to psychic powers being cited as a "rational explanation."

The Cleansing Hour : A priest who livestreams fake exorcisms has to rumble with a real demon. Super fun character piece where a conman has to look his sins dead in the eye. Truly obsessed with this one. Also, super fun demon effects. With Kyle Gallner, everyone's favorite scream king.

Deathrow Gameshow : What if Airplane was super violent? Or The Running Man was a dumb comedy? This hits the sweetest spot, where the humor is idiotic and the violence is cartoonishly nasty. This will speak to the sort of person, like myself, who wants their comedy to be indigestible for most audience goers.

Double Blind : This is a very recent release. A diverse group take part in a double blind drug test. Things go so extremely bad. I won't give anything away, because part of the fun is the unfolding chaos.

I can't believe I managed to do that again. Enjoy! I hope you find some new favorites from this list.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Doesn't Frankenstein deliberately build his creature to be beautiful? Dude's already doing eugenics by selecting the most aesthetic cadaver parts.

Well yes he did and it ended up the opposite despite his best efforts but to be honest the creature is described with black hair in conjunction with the line about making him beautiful so I would say that he's building a man to his aesthetic tastes rather then attempting to make a perfect Aryan or something. Which I suppose is a kind of eugenics technically maybe depending on how you define eugenics. But I don't think it's useful to our understanding of eugenics or to our understanding of the novel to apply that lense to it. Aesthetic choices need to be made in Victor Frankenstein's build a bitch laboratory. While he might be somewhat limited in skin color by being in Germany, he can pick more or less any hair or eye color he likes any bone structure he likes and so on. The monster is by necessity intentionally designed in a way that human beings are not. So any aesthetic choices made being made differently would result in the same moral outcome. It's less selective breeding for particular traits and more like basing the face mold of your android based off somebody's porn viewing habits like in that movie ex machina with Oscar Isaac.

All that being said he was designing a monster to impress German and Swiss scientists in the 17th century of course there were eugenics involved in his reasoning on the features. But the loosely implied eugenics are not even the most racist thing about the book either. It takes time out of its day to be orientalist as fuck. When Clerval comes to school he's taking fucking oriental studies which lumps together Arab Indian and Chinese philosophy, when the monster is living in the out house of the peasants an Arab woman named Safie arrives and her whole motive for being there is that she is trying to marry Felix because in the west women are allowed to have a station in society(citation needed) and if she went back to those barbaric Muslim countries she would be forced to join a harem. And then Clerval decides his calling is to quote "aid in the European colonization of India" and that line is just glossed over, he's a completely sympathetic character, and he dies at Adam's hands before he can do it. But I don't particularly blame Mary Shelley for any of that because who was gonna tell her that that's racist? It's the background radiation on society at the time. I hope if I ever get published people reading my book in 200 years will think of me as a pioneering trans author in my genre who was low key racist because it will mean society got better on the race issue.

Anyway tl;dr maybe, but reading the creature as a stand in for marginalized people is reading way against text (I think if you're reading it as a trans allegory the against text reading could work but a racial minority reading falls apart very quickly). The book contains orientalism that is jarring to a modern audience so let's not put the cart before the horse. It like most novels written in a year that starts with a 1, is a product of its time and requires that you read it with that in mind. it's part of how you read a book

[oscarwetnwilde]

The Stage - Thursday 01 December 1994

In Jimmy Nail's Crocodile Shoes James Wilby plays a music business Machiavelli, but his own rock'n'roll fantasies are played out well away from the public eye. Wilby, who plays Adrian Lynn in the seven part series, says that he is a passionate piano player and loves all music "from opera to rap."

But he would never dream of imposing on a wider audience the music that he and a group of friends belt out when they get together. "I play the piano and I have a friend I met at university who plays a guitar. We get together with some others as often as we can, four or five of us," he explains.

"It's not a band, we just play for ourselves. It's one of the most enjoyable things you can do, to play music with other people. But it has never occurred to me to do anything else, and even when I was younger I never wanted to be a rock'n'roll star."

As he prepared for his role as music manager Lynn, Wilby was given even more cause to maintain music as nothing more than a hobby. He immersed himself in the real life music industry spending time with record producers and A&R talent scouts in a bid to understand Lynn's world.

"I researched A&R men. One of the problems in the music industry over the last few years has been that everything is so short lived. There is a new little phase or fad every few weeks," he says.

"It changes very quickly. I think it's a tougher industry than mine, I think we can afford the odd failure. It does seem to discard so many people. I could really sense the pressure the A&R man I met was under."

His role in Crocodile Shoes is a departure for the actor whose best known roles have been far removed from gritty realism. In 1987 he won international recognition when he starred as Maurice in the Merchant Ivory adaptation of E M Forster's story about a Cambridge homosexual.

The film also starred Hugh Grant, Denholm Elliott and Billie Whitelaw. A year later he starred in another production of an English literary classic, A Handful of Dust alongside Angelica Huston, Alec Guinness and Rupert Graves and the Oscar winning Howard's End followed in 1992.

On television too he has been associated with a number of costume dramas including A Tale of Two Cities, Adam Bede and Lady Chatterley. So Wilby sees Crocodile Shoes as a perfect opportunity to broaden his repertoire of roles and change people's perception of him as an actor permanently in period dress.

"I like what I have done but as an actor I want to have the biggest possible range. I have done quite a lot of modern, middle class men like You Me and It for the BBC, but the big hits have been period films and people remember those," he says. "You need-in this profession to be in a good high profile film or series to change your image. That's what I'm hoping this will do. The profession does not like to make risky casting too often. There's a thin line between inspired casting and bad casting. And we've got a lot of good actors in this country."

He says that he enjoyed working with Jimmy Nail, not only in terms of acting but also because Nail wrote the series. "I've never worked with someone who has actually written something. It means that you cannot start changing things left, right and centre not that I wanted to, I don't think I changed anything my character said," he says.

"I'm very choosy about what I do and one of the things that appealed to me about this was the writing. I thought Jimmy was absolutely spot on with the words that Adrian Lynn had."

Crocodile Shoes' central characters travelled to America and Nashville to pursue their dreams but Wilby has yet to fall for the temptation of heading west to Hollywood in pursuit of the bigger roles.

"I will go there when I am invited but I am not going there to sit around for three or four months," he says, adding that he will wait "with interest" to see whether Crocodile Shoes wins him any new admirers.