#excellent show and really got the tone of the books imo

[southofeerie]

my thoughts on the lockwood and co show

I LOVE the expansion of lucy's backstory!!! It added so much to the world. I agree with the posts like "book lucy with her super intense internalized misogny could never" but the references to the memorial and the rows of ghost-locked kids added so much to the horror of it all. Also love the little bit abt George's backstory! my boy gets a past!

I think the timeskip between books 1 and 2 was needed, and I think they should've added it in show. Yeah, it might've begun a little exposition-y, but the time passage allowed the bonds to feel a little more grounded.

dang... no "i cant see, my glasses are broken" moment :( I'm sure the skull looking through will come up later but it was such an iconic book moment

morven christie, who is playing Fittes, is doing incredible. maybe it's just bc im gay but she is so charismatic, and I would totally fall for her (lies).

all the acting is incredible, but another standout is george karim's actor ali hadij-heshmati who is playing george EXACTLY how i pictured him in the books. not a whole lot of emotion, very deadpan, love it!

while there should've been more time spent in the fairfax house (the "this is the real screaming staircase" moment didn't land for me) i LOVED the monk chanting part. VERY eerie.

another sad part is that lucy and lockwood didn't get to pretend to be tourists :( .

the house design was spot-on, esp the thinking cloth. loved the reveal for when george had been drawing the spirals. excellent bit.

i REALLY hope there's a season 2, holly is one of my favorites and i want to see how she meshes with this gang so bad!

[weclassybouquetfun]

I have a passing knowledge of Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle from the character's appearance on SMALLVILLE, BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and these panels.

Milagro, you are so real for this.

And this is where my true knowledge about Blue Beetle comes from - Ted Kord's Blue Beetle and his friendship with Booster Gold.

Blue & Gold Forever.

So with only knowing the bare minimum about Jaime I was able to watch BLUE BEETLE with no expectations. It's an incredibly vibrant, fun and heartfelt film. I'm concerned at its low box-office showing, but films with bigger leads and bigger budgets have also failed at the box office, or at the very least, didn't recoup it's budget and marketing. There has never been anything that was a guaranteed box office success. I would rather it tried to get eyes in theaters than get lost on HBO Max where it was originally slated for release. Here's hoping National Cinema Day on Aug 27th (where theaters are selling tickets for $4 for all formats) will bring more people to the tent.

Too true.

My thoughts on BLUE BEETLE

Nothing but SPOILERS.

THE GOOD

Xolo Maridueña (COBRA KAI) is a great Jaime. If you have seen Maridueña across these five seasons of COBRA KAI, it's not surprising. He has shown consistently that he can play humour, dutifulness, vulnerable and excel at action.

Big up to COBRA KAI's annual blow-out fight sequence.

Oddly enough, at the end of the film I didn't think we got to know Jaime beyond a cursory level, but I'm sure if they did a deep dive on him I would complain about that too as my issue with origin story films is that so much real estate is given to building up the history of the character, that the plot and action seems relegated to the final act. But I guess BLUE BEETLE gave us all we need to know about Jaime.

Good egg, duty bound, gets hard from hugs (and kudos to this film for actually having a character who gets horny. Comic book films are nearly always a sexless thing, but my guy Jaime pulling his shirt down to cover his crotch after Jenny's (Bruna Marquezine) tale of woe was refreshing.)

-Really liked Jenny Kord. She wasn't the typical damsel in distress. She's formidable in her own right. She and Jaime doesn't feel rushed or shoehorned in. I especially loved the fact that they didn't just make her the love interest,

Though she and Xolo are great together,

but also gave her - in the Reyes - a new family. If she and Jaime were to go pear-shaped we can just know that Jenny still has a place within the Reyes clan.

-We have not one, but two new members to the Legion of Great DCEU Family Members. Joining the mom and dad of SHAZAM, AQUAMAN's dad, THE FLASH's mom is BLUE BEETLE's Alberto Reyes (Damián Alcázar) and Nana Reyes (the Oscar nominated Adriana Barraza).

Still waters run deep and Nana proved that. She's not just up in her room sewing and watching reruns of "María la del Barrio". She is sitting back waiting to showcase her experiene while fighting in the revolution.

And Alberto Reyes! He was this film's King T'Chaka. Always with a wise word, strong, caring. I hate that he had to die and I think it's a worn out trope that a hero has to suffer loss in order to come into their greatness, but it worked. Long Live Alberto Reyes!

Just enough George Lopez to not be annoying. He's funny, but only in small doses IMO so he was just good enough and used well enough that it wasn't eye-rolling. I really loved that he wasn't just there for the obvious comic relief, instead Uncle Rudy is a brain.

The opening along had me hyped. It set the tone and it lent to idea of the scarab being from space, but the inclusion of a classic Blue Beetle comic sketch just ::chef's kiss:

-Director Ángel Manuel Soto listed which stories he pulled from for this film,

but I see a lot of BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD episode "Fall of the Blue Beetle" in the bits where they go to Ted Kord's home/lab.

-The way they took OMAC/Kevin Kho backstory and merged it with Carapex's. In the comics OMAC was a Cambodian child of war, in this film Ignacio/Carapex was left an orphan and trained by the School of the Americas (rebranded Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) whose training manuals advocated tortuing and blackmailing civilians. Using Kord Industries as not just a amorphous shady big tech corp, BLUE BEETLE's writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer and Soto tied Kord Industries to the realties of what big corporations are doing globally.

This ties into another thing I loved about the film - it had a strong cultural identity. From Nana using Vivaporú (Vicks Vapor Rub) as smelling salts to rouse Jamie, to El Chapulín Colorado(!!!).

The idea of gentrification that affects people across colour lines and specifically targets people of lower income.

The full integration of Jaime and Khaji-Da being exemplified by Khaji-Da (voiced by singer/actor Becky G) speaking Spanish.

THE BAD

-Is there someone with less screen prescence than Susan Sarandon? I don't know how she was ever a thing. I guess they needed a "name" but there several other actors like Anjelica Huston or Sigourney Weaver who would have done something more with that role. Carla Gugino. Anyone else!

-The establishing CGI of Kord Entrerprises was basura. There was a tangible change in F/X as if mid way through post-production they found out WB-Discovery was moving it to theatrical release and they effects crew got a cash infusion.

-While I came around on the character towards the end, I wasn't a fan of Milagro. Glad they aged her up but she fell into the trope of annoying movie sibling and it grated.

THE REST

-Harvey Guillen's character died in the film (good!) and he appears to be dead again on HARLEY QUINN (not good. There is no way Nightwing's death sticks).

-Soto and James Gunn says that Jaime has a future in the DCU. While an interview snippet is making the rounds where Soto says he would like Jason Sudeikis (TED LASSO) to play Ted Kord, I don't really believe that is true as the source is from an online site I'm not familiar with and people lie for clicks.

Yes, Buster. All. The. Time.

-While comics! Jaime lives in El Paso, Texas, film! Jaime lives in Palmera City - on El Paso St. - which was created for the film (and appeared in the comics months ahead in a tie-in). Soto found inspiration in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico. But I wonder what Palmera City's real-world city will be when James Gunn finishes the DC Map that he say is being redone. Maybe because over the years Metropolis has been Chicago/Delaware/New York.

Metropolis is not in Delaware, GTFOH.

[freddiecorleone]

@occasionalmaven replied to your post “the dresden files tv show will have you tearing...”:

As someone who’s never read the books or seen the show… do you recommend waiting to watch the show until I’ve read some of the books? 

hi! ​as someone who was in the same boat at the start of the year, and has since watched the entire show and read two of the books: not at all, you can jump into the show straight away if you want to! Dresden took the basic premise of the books and directly adapted a couple of them into episodes, but it mostly does its own thing with the characters and world.

personally I read Storm Front, the first book in the series, in parallel with the show. imo it was valuable in terms of adding depth to the worldbuilding (especially the magic system and its limitations) that the show couldn't fully explore within its 45 minute time slot. the tv version of Storm Front is a bit weird anyway, as it was cobbled together from the pilot episode and isn't representative of the show's final direction at all. I was actually advised to skip it entirely on my first run-through of the show - it doesn't fit tonally and interferes with the flow of the overall narrative. so I was able to safely take in both the book and show in parallel as I knew that the show wouldn't spoil the book's ending for me! it was a convoluted but cool way to enter the Dresdenverse 😭👍

but it's absolutely not necessary to read the books, especially as the show alters most things and introduces new overarching plots that are really unexpectedly good. it also expands upon certain book characters so drastically and so well that it's hard to believe that the version in the show is basically a tv original. Bob the Skull is kind of Dresden tv's version of the Cleonic Dynasty haha, a lot of people who don't like the show still think tv!Bob was a great idea. honestly the whole adaptation style is similar to Foundation - it's cool to have the extra context of the book, but it veers so far from the original stories so often that it's not as much of a help as you'd expect.

but yes please give this show a try! I compare it a lot to mid-2000s Doctor Who for a reason - it can be kinda goofy in tone and the CGI was made on a budget of approximately $3, but it's got so much heart and goes from "wacky supernatural romp" to "unexpectedly emotional character study" when you least expect. it's also very pretty to look at - it's shot and lit shockingly well for the budget, and everyone involved including the set dressers and cinematographers are clearly giving it everything. it's 12 episodes in a monster-of-the-week format so it's very zippy, and the acting is also fantastic across the board. obviously I'm biased as hell and think the Paul Blackthorne - Terrence Mann shared braincell double act is the best thing ever and only gets better as the series progresses. but even the actors who show up for a single episode are excellent! the one-off characters in episodes 3, 9 and 10 are among my favourites :3

[who-am-i-no-one]

Emma. (2020)

I watched this movie in late January. After multiple viewings and re-reading the book, I have a lot of thoughts about this adaptation.

It seems rather strange, given that Emma is part of my holy trinity of Austen novels, that I didn't watched the most recent adaptation earlier. I think it was mostly due to my initial impression that Anya Taylor-Joy's otherworldly looks didn't quite match what I had in mind for the titular character. I decided to give this version a try after watching Queen's Gambit. Not sure that Anya's looks will ever grow on me, but she did impress me as a young actress who seemed to have a maturity beyond her years.

Long story short: really wished I had seen this movie earlier! It is absurd and heartfelt at the same time, imo, the version that best imbues Austen's humor. It is now my favorite adaption, with the possible exception of Clueless, and I'm not quite sure how much of that is just nostalgia.

From the casting to the direction to the script to the costumes to the set to the soundtrack, I could tell the creative team really put a lot of love into this project. It's always a joy to watch something that's made with love and made well.

Direction

Autumn de Wilde's directing is quite good. I would never have thought this was her first feature. She certainly has a unique and colorful style, which is probably to be expected for such a famous photographer.

Funnily, while watching the movie I kept thinking it reminded me of early Hollywood romantic comedies like Bringing Up Baby (incidentally one of my favorites) or The Philadelphia Story, and then reading interviews and seeing that she had tried to bring in some of that style of humor made me feel rather validated. Also the servants' reactions were awesome!

Absolutely loved the fact that they decided to show that Knightley and Emma were in love with each other very early on in the story, with Knightley more aware of it. I've read some people complaining about the surprise of Emma's being in love being ruined. But come on, did anyone reading two chapters into the book think it wasn't going to be the two of them together in the end?

Loved how much of Knightley's point of view we got in this movie. This is one repressed pinning man. I can totally see this Knightley riding ventre a terre from London in the rain because he thought Emma was heartbroken.

The only gripe I had was the lack of Frank and Jane's subplot. As it seems they shot some scenes for that, I assume it was the director's discretion to take them out. I remember thinking while watching the movie that they must have expected the audience to be familiar with the story because some things just didn't really get explained or extrapolated on a lot. If you hadn't read the book it'd be 30 minutes or more into the movie before you put two and two together and figured out why Mr. Knightley is always at Hartfield.

Script

The script takes most of the dialogue directly from the book, which is awesome. I love Austen's writing because there is a certain musicality to it and retaining that in large part for the movie really made it better for me. The deftness with which Eleanor Catton moved dialogue from one scene in the book to a totally different one in the movie was quite brilliant. Everything flowed so well.

The scenes that differed from the book were also excellent - namely, I really loved the Jane/Knightley duet, the infamous nosebleed and first kiss scenes. 💖 I thought the screenwriter used those changes to quickly establish plot points and character arcs well.

Costume/Hair

Not a Recency expert so can't say much about the costumes and hair as far as period correctness but from reading other reviews it seemed like they were very true to the period. Obviously appreciated them taking the time to show the audience how men got dressed in that time (purely for research purposes obviously 😜).

Emma's dresses were all quite beautiful. I especially loved the black evening dress, the pink one with the roses and the proposal dress. Also loved the little pop of red shoes that went with the proposal dress. As someone who wore red shoes with her wedding gown I heartily approve.

Absolutely loved how Emma's curls unwound as her life unravels. Similarly think they must have done the same for Knightley to a lesser extent. His hair during the card playing scene at the Westons was quite terrible.

Set

I! Loved! Hartfield! It looked just like a doll house. Really most of the sets looked good enough to eat. So much pastel. Reminded me of French macarons.

I liked how everything in Donwell Abbey was shrouded in Holland covers. Makes a good point that Knightley barely lives there at all, that his home has been with the Woodhouses for quite a while now. Which, of course, makes his sacrifice at the end just a little bit less of a sacrifice?

Soundtrack

Isabella Waller-Bridge's music really meshed well with the tone of the entire film. The male and female opera singers, sometimes sounding as if they are bickering with each other and other times seeming to be in duet, was a brilliant touch. The folk music was a little jarring at first but really grew on me.

Johnny Flynn's end credits song "Queen Bee" is amazing. I love that we get Knightley's perspective at the end with a song written and sung by Knightley. It's a lovely coda to the movie. And now, if the next Austen hero doesn't write one for his SO I'm going to think him a very poor sort of lover.

Cast

Anya's Emma was really great. I'm glad they allowed Emma to be her bitchy self. Lol. I haven't watched the 1996 and 2009 versions in a while but I distinctly remember them making Emma too nice. I recall writing after watching the Garai version that Emma was actually mean and they should have let her be mean! If she's not a brat in the beginning, how will we see her change for the better later on? I love what a snob and how manipulative this Emma was and so assured of her place in her little society but still had the vulnerability of almost an imposter's syndrome which I feel most people can relate to.

Her chemistry with Johnny Flynn's Knightley was off the charts. Pretty much every scene they had together I half expected them to reenact the library scene from Atonement lol.

Mia Goth was a wonderful Harriet. She really captured Harriet's inexperience, naivete and diffidence. The orgasmic sounds she was making during the gypsies attack scene were awesome. Although, I could probably have forgone a few of Harriet's scenes for more Frank and Jane.

Not sure why they made Mia go brunette since the book specifically mentioned Harriet was fair? Perhaps having all three leads as blondes was just a bit too much. I'm also not sure if I liked Harriet's ending as I really don't think Emma, even in her most contrite mood, would invite further friendship from a tradesman's daughter and soon-to-be her husband's tenant farmer's wife. This seems a piece of modern day wishful thinking on the part of the creative team.

Bill Nighy was so good as Mr. Woodhouse. He made it so believable why everyone would do everything in their power to accommodate his whims. The gag with the screens was too funny. He was able to sketch out a lonely quirky old man who is afraid to lose those close to him in very limited screen time. Absolutely loved the scene where Emma was heaping blame on herself and he just sat with her in sympathetic silence.

Miranda Hart's Miss Bates was excellent as well. She has long been one of my favorite British comedic actresses but she can also do drama well. Her reaction to Emma's teasing on Box Hill and her forgiveness of Emma later brought me to tears.

Josh O'Connor's Mr. Elton was deliciously creepy. The carriage proposal scene was at once a little scary and hilarious. I actually liked the portrait scenes a little less because I found the acting there slightly affected and veering into 1995 Mr. Collins territory. But as Austen described Elton as having "a sort of parade in his speeches", this was much more forgivable. Really loved Mr. Elton's determination to eat cake during the Eltons' visit to Hartfield.

Tanya Reynolds was an excellent Mrs. Elton and in very little screen time was able to bring to life this meddlesome nouveau riche. Adored her little shimmy during the ball.

Amber Anderson's Jane really looked as if she were in a decline. Callum Turner did a good job as a slightly restless, mischievous and immature Frank Churchill. I did feel his looks were a bit too modern but that's just my personal view.

Given how many scenes they had I thought they used the time they had pretty well with furtive glances and sly smiles at each other to establish the relationship.

Connor Swindells was such a love sick puppy as Robert Martin. Did this role ever get cast in other adaptations? I don't seem to recall at all.

Special shoutout to Oliver Chris's John Knightley. Absolutely had me in stitches.

And last but never the least, Johnny Flynn's Mr. Knightley:

To preface, I will never not fall for Mr. Knightley in any version that I watch. And really, get yourself a good looking enough actor with good enough chemistry with Emma and good enough acting chops and you should have a fairly successful Knightley.

I judge all my Knightleys by the Box Hill scene. And up to that point in the movie, I really liked Johnny Flynn's Knightley. He was playful and sexy and jealous and slightly bitchy as well. The duet scene was lovely because I always appreciate a man who can play instruments and sing well. The sexiness and chemistry of the dance scene was off the charts. That's all well and good. And like I said before, given any well cast actor, I probably would have liked them in those scenes as well, just as I've liked Northam's and Miller's Knightleys.

But, the Box Hill scene absolutely blew me away. To make sure I was not just biased towards the last Knightley I saw on screen, I did go back and compare each version's Box Hill scene and I am, actually, even more blown away. Some of it is a credit to the directing and script, but a large part of it is Johnny Flynn's acting in that scene.

As far a script and directing, the set up to the fight scene was fantastic. Loved Anya's expression changes after she makes the joke. Loved Miranda Hart's Miss Bates as she realizes what Emma meant. The silence that followed. Knightley's shocked face and how sympathetic he was to Miss Bates. Can probably write a whole thing just about this scene alone.

I loved the fact that Knightley had an internal struggle as to whether or not to approach Emma and reproach her for her behavior. I know the book has him tell Emma about his struggle but that just doesn't work as well for me on screen.

During the scene you can just tell how frustrated and disappointed in her he is even though he tries to keep his voice low. But the way he reprimands her does not at all feel lecture-y and I feel like part of it is because it seems like he starts to lose control a little bit as well. His voice starts to crescendo as she stubbornly refuses to admit she was in the wrong and culminates in "badly done, indeed!" with actual fingerpointing. Yikes.

Then he losses steam and looked regretful, almost devastatingly so, at his own outburst and perhaps felt that he was losing her by giving this speech and looked as if he would have said something more - an apology or some words of comfort to soften the blow? - but didn't.

This remorse and the struggle at the beginning really bookended the scene for me.

Absolutely loved his Knightley, and, really, him as an actor after that.

The proposal scene as well was very good. His delivery was just really good. The way he said "If I loved you less then I might be able to talk about it more." with some regret and then closing his eyes as if he can't believe what he just said. Soooo good. Also, he cries very pretty, lol.

The delivery of the three "yes" during the kiss scene as Emma asked for confirmation that he really was ok with giving up his house to come live with them was also brilliant. It just kept getting softer and softer but he never breaks eye contact. Absolute chef's kiss. His closed eyed little smile of content after Emma kisses him just made me melt into a puddle.

Yup, overall I'd say I rather liked his interpretation of Mr. George Knightley. 😜

I did wish they hadn't giving him such sideburns but after watching some Emma interviews I can totally understand. If he didn't have the sideburns there'd be more complaints about how young this Knightley was. He's got such a baby face.

...I seemed to have written an entire essay on this movie...yeah, I just have a lot of feelings and thoughts about this version...

[sometimes-love-is-enough]

I MEAN IT GAVE ME CHILLS IN A GOOD WAY. and also it would be hilarious to write imo; just these 6 dudes that all look the same and just made up A Guy.

“Thomas,” Roman announces quite suddenly, with a triumphant gesture that manages to inadvertently sweep half of the script drafts off the couch in the process.

“I still can not believe we’re doing this,” Virgil says.

“Oh, you’d better believe it, Way Down Gay-destown, ‘cause I just got the perfect name for him. Thomas. That’s his name – Thomas Sanders.” Roman pauses, and wiggles his fingers a bit. “Thoughts?”

Remus perks up. “Oh, our fictional character has thots now?”

“Crawling all over him like weevils,” Virgil nods.

“I thought we were calling ourselves ‘Sides’,” says Janus.  

“Guys, please,” Roman begs.

“Thomas sounds good to me,” is Patton’s opinion. “It’s nice and friendly, and also it has two syllables, like the rest of us! It kind of fits in like that.”

“It is a surprisingly apt name, especially when you take into consideration that Roman most likely did not know of the linguistic root when picking it,” Logan muses.

Remus waves a hand lazily from where he’s draped backwards over the couch, writing Transformers inflation porn on the notes app of his shitty phone. “Uh, noparoni, falsehood, all that jazz. I was watching. He went on babynames dot com and everything for this.”

“...What he said, yeah.”

“Ah, yes, babynames dot com, the internet’s premier and leading source for all accurate name derivations,” comes the dry response.

“Thomas means twin,” Roman says. “It means twin, and it’s funny because we all look identical! It’s like another layer of meaning! A fun little injoke, just for us.”

“Yes,” says Virgil, “you’re right. We need many, many deep layers of meaning and in-jokes woven into the shared identity we’re crafting as part of Roman and Remus’s wild, spur-of-the-moment internet scam.”

“How dare you,” Roman objects loudly, flailing so suddenly that he nearly falls off the couch. “This is polar opposite of a scam, we’re – we are merely taking advantage of our uncanny shared appearance to... share joy amongst the humble Youtube vlogging community! And perhaps show off. Just a little. But to say that it’s a scam – ”

“No, this is definitely a scam,” Janus says. “I mean, look at us. We’re inventing an entire person for internet clout.”

Patton looks like he’s having second thoughts about this whole thing. “I’m having second thoughts,” he says. “Like, on an ethical, moral sort of level, is any of this... really a good idea?”

“People invent other people for shittier reasons all the time, I think we’re fine,” Virgil says. “I mean, look at internet catfishes. Or every male fiction writer with a very obvious and creepy fetish. Or J.K. Rowling.”

“J.K. Rowling doesn’t exist?” Janus says. “Excellent. We won, boys.”

Roman grabs a pen and scribbles it into the notebook, next to a hasty little stickman doodle of an average-looking guy and a list of qualities and attributes and skills. “Well, all that aside, nobody seems to have an objection to this, so Thomas it is! Thomas Sanders. Thomas I’ve-Just-Realized-He-Needs-A-Middle-Name Sanders.”

“Thomas F Sanders,” Remus suggests.

“The F stands for ‘Fucking’, doesn’t it,” sighs Patton.

“Well, yeah.”

“Way to go for the low-hanging fruit, dude,” Virgil says. “Okay, put a pin in the middle name for now. Our collective brainchild has a name, so... that’s something. I guess.” He grabs the notebook from Roman and squints down at the short-ish list they have so far. “Any more character traits we wanna give this guy?”

“Intense love of Disney films,” Roman says.

“We’ve already got that; you suggested it about five times already.”

“Maybe he can play the ukulele!” Patton suggests.

Virgil nods, and starts to write it down before stopping abruptly. “Wait. Can any of us play the ukulele?”

Silence.

“He can only have traits that we already have,” Virgil reminds them. “That’s the whole idea. We’re derivatives of him.”

“Well, I’ll work on the ukulele thing,” Roman says decisively. “Put it down anyway. Anyone else?”

“He can’t cook to save his life,” Janus says.

“Catholic guilt,” Logan provides, with a little wince and a slight adjustment of his glasses. “It provides a good base for many of the plotlines we wish to include in this, I believe.”

“Give him a huge dick,” Remus says.

“Remus,” Roman growls.

“Just a humungous badonker of a penis. He beats his meat and the entire earth rumbles.”

“Remus,” Patton groans.

Remus grins. "He’s packing some real chunky meat down there. As in, his drill is a five star excavator. A proper manmade wonder. It's the kind of meal you get a prize for finishing. A bridge between two warring nations. And the girth! God had to resize the Earth so the radii wouldn't match. You can use his cast iron pelvic greatsword as a radiation shield in Chernobyl. His – "

“Remus, weren’t you listening? We’re only giving him traits that we already have,” Virgil says, looking Remus dead in the eyes. “I’m not going to let you misrepresent yourself like this.”

The room almost immediately erupts into a loud chorus of enthusiastic oohs. Quite a few people throw things at Virgil, who lets out a snort of amusement and ducks to avoid getting nailed in the eye by a stray television remote control. Remus just cackles.

“We’re going to have to tone back the dick jokes, probably,” says Janus with some regret, once everybody calms down a bit. “Don’t want to get demonetized within the first few weeks.”

“Well, Remus already broke the Youtube demonetization speedrun last week, so at least we know what not to do,” Patton says absently. “The real question is, though – who’s going to actually play this Thomas person?

“Don’t look at me,” says Janus. “I’m looking forward to getting the play the villain for once.”

Patton points at him, mock-glaring. “Hey, don’t think you’re missing out on a redemption arc just because you like the evil aesthetic!”

Janus lets out a little affronted hissing noise at that, but doesn’t actually object.

“Well, I’m not shaving my moustache for any of you fuckers, no matter how much internet clout we’re gonna get for it,” Remus declares.

A quick, meaningful glance is exchanged between the four remaining people in the room.  

“Leave me out of it,” Virgil decides.

“I don’t really mind, either way,” Patton says.

“In that case, I shall arm-wrestle you for the honor of portraying our glorious, talented and entirely fictional centre of being on our upcoming Grammy-award-winning sixty-part webseries,” Roman declares, flexing dramatically.

“Which may or may not be a scam,” Logan says.

“...Look, are we doing this or what?”

“Absolutely.” Logan places down his book, and shrugs off his jacket. “I should warn you, however – I am what I believe is colloquially referred to as ‘absolutely fucking ripped’.” He breaks out into a surprisingly wicked smile. “Roman, let me be clear. I am going to be the one to portray Thomas Fucking Sanders, our beloved nonexistent media superstar culmination-of-our-collective-selves. And I am about to flat-out destroy you. Let’s go.”

There’s a beat of silence as everybody stares at Logan. The stares range from impressed to terrified to obviously horny. All of these are equally valid emotions to be feeling, because Logan is ripped, and somehow none of them have ever realized this before.

“Well, before we do that, give me five minutes to make popcorn,” says Janus. “Because I have a feeling we’re going to need it.”

[aylinaliens]

I am officially caught up on Oxygen and I started it yesterday, so that’s a new record. I’m so freaking obsessed! And, I’d love some recs because I need more to watch. My first step into the world of Bls came from My Engineer which was brilliant and frustrating, but I loved it. Now, I’m just looking for more and more and more, and this started in July 😂. I’d love some recs and to pop in randomly to chat about the bls if you’d be up for it because they all kill me ~♉️

Sorry for the delayed response but I wanted to take some time to compile a list of recs for you. I tried to mainly rec ones that are mainly available on YouTube, Viki, Line TV, and Netflix but if you need help finding links to watch them let me know!

I highly recommend these (based on the previous ones you’ve seen or ones that I personally loved):

Cherry Magic: This is a Japanese BL that’s currently airing but it’s so good and easily my favorite of the year. It has a wacky premise but it’s very heartwarming, realistic, and soft.

Like In The Movies (aka Gaya Sa Pelikula): This recently ended like a week ago but it was a masterpiece. GSP accurately depicts the struggle of being the LGBTQ+ community and is just generally really well made in terms of the script, cinematography, and OST. There were quite a few BL’s from Philippines released this year but IMO this was the best.

He’s Coming to Me: Incredibly underrated which sucks because it’s really good. The premise is very unique and it’s another accurate depiction of the struggles that LGBTQ+ individuals have to go through. This is pretty angsty but hilarious/heartwarming/adorable at the same time.

Theory of Love: People either absolutely adore TOL or absolutely despise TOL. I personally adored it because I’m a big fan of angst, flawed characters (oh boy were they flawed), and OffGun so it’s one of my favorites. But fair warning the characters are frustrating. So frustrating that you’ll probably want to reach through the screen to smack them but if you hang on till the end it’s worth it. Plus they just released a special episode like a month ago and it really improved any issues I had with TOL.

The Untamed: this is technically labeled as being a ‘bromance’ because of China’s censorship laws but like...it’s extremely obvious that the two ML’s are more than just platonic bros. In the book it’s based on they were together romantically and the drama does a good job of expressing the love they share with subtle (and not so subtle) looks, dialogue, cinematography, touches, and music. The Untamed is very long and at times confusing but 100% worth it.

History 3 Trapped: This was my first introduction to BL and it spoiled all other ones for me. It’s about a gangster and a police officer who go from enemies to lovers. The plot is messy but the chemistry between the leads + second leads makes up for that.

Where Your Eyes Linger: This is a Korean BL and almost everyone I talked to ended up loving this. Sadly this is really short (only 8 episodes that are 10 minutes long) but it’s worth it. It’s about two childhood friends—one of them is the son of a wealthy family and the other is his bodyguard. It handles the friends to lovers excellently and plus the leads have a ton of chemistry.

Mr. Heart: Another Korean BL that was produced by the same company that did WYEL. It’s also short but it’s fluffy and adorable which is a big shift tone from WYEL but I loved both equally.

Life Love On The Line: Another Japanese BL! It came out this year and I feel like it’s really underrated. It’s based on a short manga so the length of the series isn’t that long (4 ep that are 20-30 min long) but it still manages to effectively tell a beautiful love story.

Kinou Nani Tabeta? (What Did You Eat Yesterday): I’m only on episode 1 but...woah. People need to stop sleeping on this. It’s a slice of life drama centered around two men in their forties who are already together. It’s wholesome, soft, and makes me feel all warm inside. Please give this a chance okay?

I Told Sunset About You: I haven’t finished this yet but it’s honestly a masterpiece. The cinematography...the OST...the acting...the script...I’m in complete awe of the whole thing.

Gameboys: Another wonderful PINOY BL! It’s set during this year when the pandemic is going on and it was really good—so good that it got a GL spin off (Pearl Next Door, I highly rec this too even if it’s not BL) and a season 2 which comes out next year.

Hello Stranger: Honestly the Philippines are thriving this year because this was another stellar BL! It’s kind of like Gameboys in how almost the whole drama is filmed over video chat/social media but it was very cute. I believe Hello Stranger is also releasing a movie next year.

Ingredients: This is literally just a very long supermarket ad that’s been going on for 8 months now but it’s adorable. It’s a very low stakes fluffy BL where nothing happens plot wise yet you can’t put it down. Plus...they were roommates ;)

Sotus/Sotus S: not one of my favorites but it’s one of the OG bl’s for a reason. So many people loved the first season but didn’t care for the second (but it was the complete opposite for me). This is kind of the one of the most quintessential Thai BLs out there so feel free to give it a try.

History 2 Right or Wrong: Bls rarely center around mature individuals let alone parents so when I found out the premise of this I was sold. Its only 4 episodes so it’s not the most fleshed out thing ever made but it was incredibly adorable, fluffy, and as honest as they can to address LGBTQ+ parenting. Basically it’s about this college student who ends up as a babysitter for his professor (yeah okay that premise is not for everyone so just be aware if you don’t like that kind of thing) and they fall in love. The whole thing is so fluffy and heartwarming!

Ossan’s Love: This is a Japanese BL about this thirty year old office worker who finds himself in a weird love triangle between his married boss and roommate. I know it sounds like a mess and trust me it definitely is but it’s hilarious. It was a wild ride start to finish but I loved (and hated) every second of it.

Diary of Tootsies: Okay this isn’t a typical BL I guess but it’s about three gay men + their lesbian best friend so you know what? I’m including it on this list. It’s hilariously dumb yet also addresses serious topics like homophobia/sexually transmitted diseases. It’s underrated and I’m so sad about it because it’s genuinely a delight to watch.

YYY the Series: do you know those crack videos on YouTube full of memes and references? Yeah. That’s basically YYY summed up. The whole thing makes zero sense because of how chaotic it is but despite how it’s constantly makes everyone ???? it also has a TON of heart. It’s so dumb but it had me reflecting on my life all the time. I really rec this not just because of how hilarious it is but also because it breaks the mold of other BLs! Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t have a comedic show and talk about consent and how important healthy communication is in relationships because YYY does it perfectly and so much more.

Dark Blue Kiss: I didn’t love this but you might. It’s a sequel/spin off to like two other series (Kiss Me & Kiss Me Again) but you don’t have to watch the others to understand this. Just know that the leads have been dating awhile before the start of the series.

Great Men Academy: People debate if this is a real BL because the main character is a girl who can transform into a boy but I think it still counts. I really enjoyed this and thought the whole cast had a ton of chemistry between them—it was sweet, funny, and had the right amount of angst.

HIS: this is a Japanese movie (I know you said dramas but I enjoyed this so I figured I would include it too). It’s beautiful, angsty, and sweet. There’s a prequel series this is based on but you don’t have to watch it to understand what’s going on.

I have way more recommendations but I figured I would stop there. Hopefully if you give these a go you enjoy this and my asks are always open if you ever want to talk about BL :)

[sparklegemstone]

Taking a break from work so time to write up more of my Loki trailer thoughts since all the cool cats around here seem to be doing it :-D.

In chronological order:

1) Personally I was 'meh' about the trailer starting with the Endgame scene just because I think the Russos did a terrible job matching the tone of that scene with the tone of the original Avengers film's conclusion and I want the Loki series to feel like a continuation of Avengers.  Alas, the Endgame scene grates on me as feeling inauthentic to the story it's supposed to take place in.  But I certainly understand the practicality of needing to put it in to give the audience the context for when/how this new story with Loki is taking place.

2) But five seconds later on the other side of the wormhole…yay, Kate Herron fixed the tone!  This feels much closer in tone to when Thor and Lok depart for Asgard at the end of Avengers.  Excellent job Kate.

3) Was so pleasantly surprised by Owen Wilson's portrayal!  Very different than any of the comedic characters I strongly associate the actor's acting style with.  I like his character a lot with what we've been given so far.  It's instructive reflecting back on the potential concerns I had and that were being discussed in the fandom when we were working with scraps and rumors that we now know don't have merit: things like 'Hiddleston is only there to narrate the series' and 'How comedic in tone is this going to be if Waldron from Rick and Morty is hiring Owen Wilson?'.  Ah the good old days of baseless speculation.

 4) I mentioned the frequently low camera position in another post -- it does a poor job of conveying how Loki carries himself, tall and straight and elegant.  It makes him seem more ordinary, but maybe that's the point -- equalizing him with Mobius rather than it being an Asgardian in a non-Asgardian's presence.

5) The way Loki goes from locked down and not letting any sense of what's going on his head slip to Mobius (what I feel is in-character for Loki) to suddenly being a lot more open with what he's actually feeling and having less guarded, more friendly/casual attitude toward Mobius is weird to me.  I think it's a cut just for the trailer and hopefully it will make more sense in context, but Hiddleston's acting here and the way he has no qualms about being physically guided out of the elevator by Mobius is one of the points where it felt more like Hiddleston playing a different character than playing Loki to me (and lacking Loki's costuming doesn't help that perception certainly).  Which I know is nitpicky, but I was just curious to see to what degree this would actually feel like 'fresh off of Avengers' Loki and so I'm paying close attention to what feels in and out of character for me.  Does Mobius say something to really throw Loki for a loop that would cause him to drop his guard like that?

6) "Glorious" -> YAASSSS that's the Loki I wanted to recognize.  He's back!  I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around how blessed I am, but we've got him back for more screen time.  Also, with him back in Stark Tower and the later image of post-apocalyptic Manhattan, I am super intrigued by the possibility of Loki (and me too!) experiencing different ways things could have played out on Earth, if he'd succeeded in his conquest for example.

7) Loki's going to learn about what happened in the main timeline and the choices he made in the future?!  That's huge!  Should be a fascinating character moment.  This bit of Loki turning away from the projector gives me a lot of hope that the writing in the show is actually going to explore, honor, and authentically run with where Loki was as a character at the end of Avengers and the context of what he experienced rather than Marvel just plopping the "general" character of Loki into a genre-fied crime thriller show basically disconnected from the events of Thor and Avengers so they can say they made a Loki show.

8) Do I like Loki in the beige detective jacket?  Nah, not really.  But I do appreciate that even with the earth costume they kept Loki's style of being completely covered up.  Also creates contrast with him not being in control when he's in the TVA prisoner jumpsuit that has short sleeves.

9) Thought that was Nat on Voromir at first because of the purple environment.  Been reading some thoughts on how that's probably not Nat, and while the theories make sense, if that's true, why would Marvel put in a shot of a character that looks so much like Nat that it would cause confusion and maybe get her fans' hopes up?

10) I agree with @delyth88​ on the D.B. Cooper scene.  Didn't think I'd want Loki looking like Hiddleston, but I don't mind it / it's not taking me out of the scene as I might have expected.

11) The fight choreo and edit into the twirling -- I already discussed this before, but the physicality of it is giving me human-strength!Loki vibes.  If instead the guy he's fighting is also super strong, wouldn't the plastic or metal disc thing between them break upon impact?  Also the fact that it seems implied that Loki would get hurt by jumping out of the plane w/o Heimdall’s help to catch him.

12) The twirling -- is Loki legitimately, celebratorily, uninhibitedly happy?  I feel like we've never seen him like that since the Thor cut scene before they all made that fateful trip to Jotunheim.  I read a theory that the roman numerals on the building in this frame might mean he is in Pompeii the year the volcano erupts, which is interesting.

13) Loki saying "Brother”,  “Heimdall", coordinating with at least Heimdall, traveling on the Bifrost -- HOPE!  BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, HOPE!  I was honestly expecting the show to make no mention of anything connected to Asgard, except maybe segueing into Thor 4 at the very end, so the fact that Loki is (indirectly) interacting with Heimdall -- calling Thor "Brother" (even if not to Thor) !!!!!!!!!!!! -- interesting!  

14) The idea of him being D.B. Cooper is very fun! (though I didn't know who that was in advance).  It's very easy to pretend that Loki is real and has been an unidentified part of our history all along.

15) I do not like the last scene with comics!Loki suddenly being brought to life.  In fact I had a very kneejerk dislike of it the first couple times I watched the trailer (so many watches ago :-P) because it presses a very personal button of mine, which is how the MCU is moving toward becoming more spectacle-driven and comic-book-y and therefore away from the grounded, character driven storytelling that I enjoy about the MCU.  I'm here for the character of Loki that I love as he is already established in the MCU, not the comics versions of the character.  Also, IMO the acting is out of character for MCU Loki and more goofy.

That said, I'm hopeful context will help a whole bunch here as @iamanartichoke​ has said.  Given all the timey-wimey multiverse shenanigans, it's probably not even Avengers!Loki anyway, and I'm certainly not going to begrudge the many fans who are excited to see comics references on screen.

Overall impression?  Very excited, very hopeful.  Would I selfishly want a story that's just a direct continuation of the Avengers and hyper focused on the exact context of the character of Loki as he was in Avengers, fleshing out the off-screen bits and up-until-now only implied emotional impact of what Loki experienced between the end of Thor and the start of Avengers, digging into his relationships with the Black Order, and family, reconciling with his heritage?  Uh…duh ;-).  

But you have to give an audience what they need as opposed to what they think they want, and from a craft perspective, this has to be its own story.  The Thor and Avengers stories are their own stories, they're told, they're done, even if certain emotional threads were left hanging / implied / off-screen that we as very detail-oriented Loki fans would like to see dealt with explicitly.

But given that this was always going to be its own story, I'm very hopeful that the series has an explicit creative goal of telling a story that also does a great job with emotional continuity and exploring the fallout of Thor and Avengers and what that means for Loki's character; of honoring, picking up from, and running with Loki as a character in the context of who he was when he surrendered to the Avengers and where he goes from there.

The Marvel Studios executives could have easily decided to make an isolated story featuring Loki that general MCU fans that don't think overly deeply about the character would have been very happy with and probably it would be very successful, and I would have gladly taken that over nothing.  But I'm optimistic that that isn't what we're getting and that they chose to ground their story in the specific context of Loki's character.  We'll see!

[purgatoryandme]

Hey! I can't seem to find the post you made with all the books references in Illuminate Me and the reason behind it? Is it deleted?

I know that there is an incomplete one floating around in my reply tag, and it should be in the Illuminate Me tag, but tumblr’s search features are so bad that I went back to the original word doc of the complete list, so prepare for that particular storm lol.  Quoted/Referenced Reading List (In Order of Appearance) Shakespeare: Macbeth I opened on a Macbeth quote (‘When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lighting, or in rain’) because I wanted to start with something immediately relatable. Most readers were introduced to more ‘dramatic’ plays through Macbeth. Beyond that, they were introduced to the concept of pathetic fallacy, which I think plays nicely with Tony as a character (a man who is CONSTANTLY imparting emotion onto inanimate objects…and then actually giving them their own emotions) and with one of the core problems in IM, which is deciding the emotions of others for them. I was hoping to get the ‘feel’ of that without having to lean too far into the actual concept. 

Bonus: I picked this quote in particular because of the importance of threes in Tony’s life (his core group of friends, iterations of the reactor, number of times reborn, his bot children VS his AI children, the number of lovers or almost lovers he has in the fic, etc). Milton: Paradise Lost ‘What is dark within me, illuminate!’ is a modernization of the original Milton quote ‘what is dark within me, illumine’ for readability. I actually feel a bit bad about changing this considering how many people think this is the original quote now. This wound up being a central (and title) quote somewhat by accident. I’m fond of it because of how much I liked a different one that I had originally wanted for Tony’s thoughts of the reactor: ‘yet from those flames, no light, but rather darkness visible’. I had originally wanted to start off on a sadder note, one that showed how much Tony hated losing his humanity, and so the flames of Hell and their physics-bending concept seemed thematically appropriate. I had always intended to eventually invert the imagery – instead of Extremis being (to Tony) flames capable of extinguishing light, the reactor would become a water-like blue light that couldn’t be choked or recreated by any of the shadows that pursued Tony in his life. I picked Milton SPECIFICALLY for the imagery of light and shadows. 

But, man, listen. Darkness visible is a great concept, but it’s also tired. It has, as you’ve noted, been discussed to death. So as I was reading ‘Milton’s darkness visible and Aeneid 7’ to refamiliarize myself with some of the broader themes attached to that particular piece of imagery, I wound up thinking about how to invert the darkness itself instead of the overall concept. The flames of Hell extinguish light instead of having to exist away from it. It is a bad that cannot be penetrated by good. 

Instead of chasing away shadows, which would be implied by shining a light ON them, the request Tony makes here is to actually invert the darkness - to have it illuminate in and of itself. It’s becoming something better instead of being removed or forgotten. On the flip side of that, the darkness within isn’t growing as light weakens, but rather under its own force. Two forces equal in nature and origin in a person. It’s a different take on lighting than the one most critics hammer home. Long ramble is long, but this was the basis for using that quote. It grew from there to have many different meanings, however the core has always remained. All in all I’m pleased with it.

EM Forster: A Room with a View Very forgiving even in its satirical takes on human nature. A lot of passages are very therapy-quotable in their urging to accept the inevitability of causing some harm in life. It plays on a lot of the same concepts with light being obvious metaphor for good and evil that Paradise Lost does, but softens them into more realistic shades of human existence. Isaac Asimov: Foundation Continuing on with themes of rigid morality vs the flexibility and romanticism of humanity, we have Asimov, master of machines and the three rules of robotics! There are lots of quotable epigrams in this beast. The quote pulled from this has two readings depending on what you assume of the man who has said it. If you see him as manipulative, there’s an insidious underpinning of killing off your own morals. If you see him as a kind man, then you could read it as foregoing morals in place of empathy. Tony’s therapist loves a very specific brand of double speak that lets Tony work through the conversation purely through interpretation. Tolstoy: Anna Karenina Tolstoy’s prose is lengthy...so so lengthy, but Anna Karenina is worth the read as long as you relate to at least one of its major characters. Frankly, I think you can choose to read a single character’s plot arc and leave it at that. It’s mostly a novel that is interesting, not because of its plot, but because of its study of relationship dynamics. Tolstoy was really invested in picking apart the idea of what makes a ‘family’ and, beyond that, what makes a class. It’s refreshing to see so much of the critique occurring within the lived experience of the characters instead of through a narrator or outside punishing moral forces. Baudelaire: Windows and Benediction I cannot recommend enough reading multiple translations of Baudelaire poems (fleursdumal.org has a wonderful array available). Benediction is a personal favourite. I love me some malevolence wrapped up in religion. Dante: The Divine Comedy There’s a lot of bleak humor in Dante if you look for it. Several interpretations insist of making each piece excessively grim dark, but faithful translations tend to have a hint of humor in them. It works well for engraving War Machine’s spine - a benediction and a mockery of human limitations. I try to pick quotes that not only fit the scene, but would still fit into the context of the grander themes from whence they came...unless I hate the author. Tennyson: The Lady of Shallot “I am sick of shadows” vs “I am half-sick of shadows”. Tony’s expressing more frustration here with being alone and his passive involvement in that loneliness. Another quote I feel vaguely bad about changing, haha. The Lady of Shallot is a very nice classical piece that I’m sad isn’t taught in schools alongside Hamlet. There are some nice Ophelia parallels here. I wanted a feminine influence on Tony’s loneliness and one that is somewhat youthful despite his age. Yeats: Vacillation I fucking hate Yeats as a person. That said, the man can write. The man can REALLY write. His pieces are almost always layered to the point of absurdity and he’s perfect to swiping quotes with multiple meanings. Definitely Tony’s kind of author. Goethe: Faust Speaks for itself and in the author’s notes on its reference.  Dostoyevsky: The Brothers Karamasov IMO a book that deserves all the acclaim of Anna Karenina and then some. Very VERY Russian in its ethical debates of, as always, religious morality vs free will. Also dips into familial struggles and patricide, because it wouldn’t be a Russian classic if it didn’t contain some deeply buried bitter resentment towards paternalism. I’m going off-script here, but this is a fucking excellent book. I don’t really have words for how much I enjoy how Dostoyevsky explores the concepts that he does. Shakespeare: Julius Ceasar Shakespeare: Twelfth Night Twelfth Night deserves more credit for its development and maintenance of an enigma. Twelfth Night has charisma in spades both because of and in spite of the exceedingly petty actions of some of its characters. It is also a refreshingly simple take on love for the sake of it. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Stephen King: Lisey’s Story I consider Lisey’s Story to be the best of King’s work. The man has his obvious writing ticks and his even more obvious issues as an author. Lisey’s Story contains many of them, but navigates them far better than any of his other work. The monster here is all in the mind and is too vast to truly see or understand. It’s perfectly representative of a creeping sense of inescapable horror. It was fun to flip it on its head with a reference here – Tony isn’t terrified of dying, but he is terrified of his inescapable enjoyment of Bucky’s company. Maria’s family saying is inspired by Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass Armitage: The Death of King Arthur A genuinely fantastic classic tale of heroism, filled with all the drama, tragedy, and sacrifice that you’d expect with strongly feminine undertones. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. TS Eliot: The Wasteland Excellent piece of poetry with many layered meanings and dual interpretations. I can’t really articulate my thoughts on The Wasteland, but I reference an essay at the end of this list that does that for me. Oedipus Rex Rupert Brooke: Safety Not directly quoted but obscurely referenced through Bucky and Tony’s war conversations + Bucky’s conversation about, you got it, being ‘safe’ with his therapist. His poetry is about WWI and is, largely, idealistic. Safety is…not quite an exception to that. His other poetry contains a certain sense of honour and duty, whereas safety, maintaining a seemingly light tone, has nothing of the sort. It is safety in the soul – something untouchable by the horrors of war or death. It treats that as a ‘house’, which leant itself to the article Tony send Bucky. Armine Wodehouse: Before Ginchy Not directly quoted but obscurely referenced through Bucky and Tony’s war conversations + Bucky’s conversations with his therapist. This is also WWI poetry, though far darker than Brooke’s work. It discusses the parts of the heart and soul soldiers lose. It is an extremely good piece AND references Dante’s Inferno. I had to work it in somewhere even if I didn’t want to directly quote it. Meyer and Brysac: Tournament of Shadows Referenced several times over in discussion of war, the great game, and British military history. Beautifully self-aware account of Britain’s insistence on rewriting history after the fact and the tiny hilariously embarrassing moving pieces that shaped what is often considered the heyday of espionage. Murakami: Kafka on the Shore I love Murakami’s response to questions about understanding the novel as a whole. There are no solutions, only riddles presented, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes place. It’s a great lens through which to view the book and individual passages taken out of it. Reminds me of The Wasteland having to be read in totality before you can begin picking it apart, after which each individual piece can be read of its own. Kafka on the Shore, with its musings on the uncertainty of fate and redemption, was the perfect book to outline Tony’s horrifying realization, which he is desperately suppressing, that he might be coming to accept Bucky’s feelings. This quote in particular, while I would’ve used it anyway, is also a great callback to the first chapter and its storms. Chapter 29 is a turning point. Beyond it there are some intentional quote contrasts that are probably more easter eggs than they are anything else. Yeats: A Dialogue of Self and Soul Great contrast with Vacillation. Some parts of self and soul are used in that poem and thematically they are connected and contrasted - self and heart vs self and soul. The symbolism and imagery in Vacillation is really on point and layered, but Self and Soul is peak Yeats for its reversal of the typical ‘the soul is pure and bluntly honest and the body is tainted and bad’ in Christian works. Also Self and Soul’s broader context is scrumptious considering the debate poems history of relying on divine forgiveness and lack thereof instead of on forgiveness of the self. 

It was fun to give this poem a double meaning in IM as both hugely ominous and ultimately pointing to the later forgiveness Tony receives from himself through the divine (if the soul stone can be called that) in the heavens (space!). There’s also another fun twist to ‘who can distinguish darkness from the soul’ in its contrast with ‘what is dark within me, illuminate’. To take that a step further, Vacillation was the beginning of the path of forgiveness for Bucky (understanding Tony’s heart…somewhat literally as he slowly gets closer and closer to the reactor itself), while Self and Soul is a final step (re: Bucky being presented the final hurdle of Tony deciding to move forward alone). Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha Hesse is wonderfully blunt at times. I gotta admit I love German takes on spiritual self-discovery because they always seem to tend towards much more straightforward answers than other countries. Hesse’s relationship with Buddhism in literature vs his lived experience is also really intriguing. Anyway, Siddhartha, in its humanizing of Gods, is wonderful contrast to the consistent imagery of the untouchable and unknowable forces of good and evil in previously quoted works. It has stopped bringing humanity to the divine and has started placing the divine within humanity. Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey One of the ultimate poetic epics. Now that we are nearing the end, I’m going overtime with making the grander themes of this whole piece hit home. A lot of IM was built on a foundation of poetic epics, of heroism, and a bit of Greek tragedy. The Odyssey embodies all of those things beautifully. It also suited Thor too well to pass up. Yeats: An Irish Airman Forsees His Death Ah, Yeats. Very blatant foreshadowing here that is keeping with the foreshadowing from Self and Soul. Fate has, up till this point, been a bit of a question. It has been ‘when will it come to me’ and ‘how will I avoid or overcome it’. Now fate is a set point. It is knowable and present. ‘I know I shall meet my fate, somewhere among the clouds above’. This goes for the true onset of Infinity War and for Tony’s feelings towards Bucky – when he had no one, he allowed Bucky in after essentially promising himself he wouldn’t. If that’s not an accidental admittance of love, nothing is. Henley: Invictus Absolutely fantastic poem. Continuing with the heavy fate themes coming into this climax. Now that Tony knows his fate, truly knows it, he is choosing to take it on directly. Agamemnon (Anne Carson’s Traslation if you prefer a more modern language approach, Lattimore is you prefer a classic) Agamemnon is forgotten all too often in the world of poetic epics and it’s a damn shame. I cannot say enough good things about it. I always wanted to use lines from Agamemnon in a Tony fic because the Cassandra parallels were too perfect to resist. The chorus in this play was also a perfect narrative device for interacting with something of a hive mind. Yeats: The Wanderings of Oisin Another poetic epic. Nice contrast with The Odyssey, The Death of King Arthur, and Agamemnon. Here the dialogue is between an aged hero and a saint looking into the hero’s past. It has the kind of reflective and aged mood necessary for this stage of the story, but is actually a poem I sortof hate. The line ‘And a softness came from the starlight, and filled me full to the bone’ is absolutely gorgeous, though. Some final inspiration pieces:

The Penelopiad 

The Iliad 

House of Leaves (for surrealism in the final chapters) 

Dante at Verona (used in an author’s note as an intentional jab at the dull uninspired nature of the this particular take on Dante. Repurposed quote, essentially) 

a broke machine just blowin’ steam by themikeymonster (great character study of Bucky) 

Frank Kermode’s essay “Eliot and the Shudder” (inspiration behind Tony’s entire interaction with literature)

[hamliet]

Girls Don’t Want Boys, Girls Want Monsters: Netflix’s The Witcher Review

Finally, the show we deserve. 

Men get all their superhero power fantasies of kicking villain ass. Finally there’s  a story that has that and includes women’s emotional power fantasies about falling in love with monsters who change. It doesn’t treat either as ridiculous or limited by gender, either, since Geralt falls for a monster too and women get to kick ass as well. 

Essentially, it’s a story about defeating monsters: often through integration with the shadow, sometimes involving love and connection, sometimes violence, but the violence is never glorified. It’s good. 

NB: I’m in the middle of reading the books (in the middle of Blood of Elves so far). I haven’t played the game since video games aren’t really a medium I enjoy. So I’ll make some comparisons since the show covered the two books I’ve read thus far, but please don’t put spoilers for the books below!

Let’s talk my favorite aspect of every story: characters. 

Renfri. 

Her story was somewhat sanitized from the books (it’s a lot more brutal what happened to Renfri) but well adapted. Both versions--the book and show--depict sincere empathy for our deconstructed Snow White. I loved her dialogue with Geralt, in which Geralt praises her for escaping the huntsman her stepmother hired to kill her, and she laughs and says that she didn’t. He let her go, but not before raping and robbing her. The story never directly answers if the prophecy was true or not; Geralt doesn’t believe it, but a lot of things Geralt doubts turn out to be true. Renfri was supposedly attacking animals as a child; however, the person reporting that is highly unlikely to be unbiased (Stregobor) so is this even true? Did Renfri become a killer because she was horribly abused and left with no other option? (That’s the option that I think seems most likely.) 

We can’t know. The Witcher isn’t interested in giving its audience palatable answers. It’s interested in provoking questions. The show gives more answers than do the books, again likely due to the medium, but it still lets these questions linger. 

Renfri’s story is not the first one in the books, but it is the first one the show adapts, and that’s a good decision imo. Her story embodies The Witcher’s themes and questions:

By acting the monster, we make monsters out of others. 

To defeat monsters, you must be a monster. 

What, then, can heal, especially in a world so broken?

Ciri.

Our deconstructed Rapunzel (yes, there are a lot of fairy tale references). As far as her story goes in its adaptation, the addition of Dara was well done. Sadly, no, Dara is not in the books, but his addition gave Ciri an arc beyond merely running in this story. 

That said, Ciri in the books is much younger than she is in the show. Which is okay, because Ciri is somewhat emblematic of the future: there’s a lot unknown about her powers, she needs to be protected from everyone trying to grab her and use her powers for themselves. She is Geralt’s destiny, and she is the future of the world of The Witcher. 

NB: I can’t discuss Ciri without shouting out to the casting director for casting Pavetta: how did they find an actress who looks so much like Ciri’s actress? It’s almost eerie. 

The episode where Geralt finds out about the Law of Surprise and his reaction to Pavetta’s pregnancy is perhaps the only story that I felt was better in the show than in the books (again, this isn’t inherently a quality thing but a medium preference). It added some much-needed hilarity (Geralt’s perfectly-timed “destiny can go f--” *Pavetta vomits* and all he can say is, “fuck”) and gave Geralt an arc. 

Geralt.

Mm. 

I liked how they handled his character and his struggles with what it means to be a Witcher and/or human. His struggles to understand himself are relatable, and fairly well set-up for future exploration. He’s a foil of Ciri, Yennefer, Jaskier, and Cahir so far, and I’m particularly intrigued by the monster theme and the foiling that is already set up thus with all of the above except Jaskier (who is no monster). Geralt was skeptical about saving the striga for her father, but managed to succeed, and I wonder if he will somehow be able to save himself from his own inner fears/monster by being a father. (Basically, I am curious as to how being Ciri’s de factor dad is going to challenge him.)

Jaskier.

Or, Dandelion, as he’s known in the books. The bard adds some much needed levity to the tale, and as @aspoonofsugar​ says, he’s pretty much Donkey from Shrek. But he is used fairly well within the story: he shows Geralt even before Ciri and Yennefer enter his life that he has a purpose beyond being a killing machine. In that sense he’s the foil of Renfri (Renfri accomplishes the same, but through violence) in that Geralt saves him and he clearly thinks highly of the Witcher. Jaskier is in some ways humanity in all its paradoxes and foibles, annoying and stupid, kind and clever, funny and truthful, deceptive and respectful. 

Cahir.

I’m a sucker for ravens as part of an aesthetic, as well as pretty, tormented bad boys. Yes, I know he’s a character I’m sure will arouse much handwringing and puritanical policing a la his other archetype brothers (Loki, Kylo Ren, Snape, etc). I don’t care. I do think the show made him much darker when compared to the books, but I still expect his arc to go in the same direction as the books. He’s a complicated, conflicted, complex character, and I’m not sorry for feeling empathy for him. 

But I am curious about his foiling with Geralt. Both are characters seeking Ciri to fulfill... something, and monstrous in a way (Cahir more for what he does, but there’s a humanity to him as well).

Yennefer.

Finally, my favorite, my baby murder daughter. 

Yennefer’s character was fascinating. I appreciated that she’s allowed to want deeply, her own wants, instead of attaching her wants to be whatever the male character desires. She wants to have children. She wants love. She wants to be beautiful. Her desires are traditionally feminine, and the show doesn’t put this down. And she also kicks ass and takes names, she fails, she’s allowed to be angry, to be mean often, to want to learn and to want to be the best. 

The show doesn’t punish Yennefer for her ambition. Neither do the books. She experiences consequences, both positive and negative, for her every choice. The show reveals her backstory right away, whereas the books don’t, but again that’s a medium thing. I think both do excellently in setting up Yennefer for our empathy. It doesn’t apologize for her or her wants or actions; it lets her arc and the story itself do the talking. 

Yennefer’s not here to be your cautionary tale or your role model. She’s just there to be her and to live. 

That is, to an extent, perhaps the best kind of role model. 

That doesn’t mean the show did everything in Yennefer’s story justice. I wasn’t thrilled with the adaptation of her first meeting with Geralt--the orgy in the background isn’t in the books and is a very bizarre decision given context. While, I loved Tissaia’s character and her foiling with Yennefer: they are too alike to ever get along, I really didn’t understand the point of Tissaia turning the other girls into slugs in episode 2. It was unsettling and not in the books. It was a heavy-handed metaphor not explained until episode 7 (about treating people as expendable slugs) that didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know about how the world and Dark!Hogwarts worked. If anything it made the school seem foolishly cackling-mustache evil instead of the true current of darkness within it: manipulation and utilitarianism. As part of effort to control things, that control itself can lead to chaos. 

I think the rest of the series set this precise dilemma of a precarious balance between self-control and manipulation/utilitarianism quite well, though (it goes hand-in-hand with the theme of a “lesser evil” to quote Renfri’s story). I’m excited to see this explored more. 

Other comments:

When comparing the show to the books as I’ve read so far, I think the show made some smart changes for adapting to a visual medium. For example, Foltest and Adda’s story was adapted as a mystery: what is the monster? Who is the father? Who is the curser? Can the monster be saved? Whereas the book doesn’t do that: you know immediately that the monster is a striga, Foltest is the father, and he wants the striga saved. The answer to who cursed Adda is never clear in the written story either, whereas the show declares it was Ostrit (the book leaves it very much up in the air as to whether it was Ostrit or Adda’s mother). However, the way this particular episode weaves Adda’s story of rebirth with Yennefer’s rebirth was beautifully done. (Foltest is a good dad. We need more good dads in stories; of course, if we had more good dads, we’d have far less stories.) (I’m jesting.) 

The dialogue is at times... well it’s not like it’s The Rise of Skywalker levels of “who wrote this???” but it’s not always stellar. Actually, I’d say the quality tends to swing wildly about between clever (episode 4) and just confusing (episode 5). But in general, I think the dialogue issue is representative of the show’s largest issue: it struggles to know when to trust its audience. When should it give details? When should it trust them? When is it spoonfeeding, and when is it just confusing? It tries to walk a fine line and stumbles a bit. It succeeds, however, with the characters as I mentioned earlier with Yennefer, Geralt, and Ciri. 

My advice for the show going forward (not that they should definitely listen to me) is to forget Game of Thrones. It’s pretty obvious that this show is a passion project made by people who love The Witcher. I really hope they lean into that aspect instead of into the GoT-replacement aspect (because there are definitely aspects of that, particularly in the mood/aesthetic, tone, and gratuitous nudity--which is not exploitative or disturbing, but it also wasn’t necessary, isn’t in the books, and so felt like pandering). 

However, the sheer love for the material still really shines  through. They made me care for the characters, they interested me in the world, and they have me hooked for season 2. The showrunners’ excitement for the story and adoration of its characters is contagious, and I hope the show lets this excitement spread. 

[teatimeatwinterpalace]

'"I made her promise faithfully to keep this knowledge to herself, and never to let a word of it pass her lips.’" - I wonder what all this could possibly mean? It sounds like it's going beyond a reference to Wilhelm's feelings for Ella and is actually referring to something that was happening between them. Do you have any certain impressions? (part 3/end - sorry! :))

Hey, first of all : I apologize for my late reply! For anyone wondering, few months ago we were talking about the so called “new letters” between Wilhelm and Ella that Queen_Missy has found and shared on the Alexander Palace forum.

I do have John Rohl’s book (which is really good). I agree that Fritz’s letter is particularly intriguing. When he mentioned “the previous event in Darmstadt” + “I made her promise faithfully to keep this knowledge to herself, and never to let a word of it pass her lips” it is as if something outrageous had happened. However, if it had been the case I’m sure John Rohl would have delve into it and wrote about it.

As far as I know, Rohl is the only historian who have written “extensively” on Wilhelm and Ella. I tried to find other sources in the books I own but not much came out. For instance, in Hannah Pakula’s excellent bio on Vicky there is no mention of a particular incident between the two. In the correspondence volume of Queen Victoria and Vicky 1878-1885, there is just one letter from Queen Victoria dating from October 2, 1878, it mentions a “rift” between Alice and Vicky, because of this affair but nothing indicates that something scandalous happened. Here is the letter :

“I will say viz: that I never told Alice you had complained bitterly to me - and that you had never asked me to write - for how could I? I only warned you what I had gathered and I have told you and Herr v. Liebenau (what I am thoroughly certain of) that Alice never wished to catch Willie, for I know she did not. It is a distressing misunderstanding which I trust is no cleared up and which I shall be too happy to aid in smoothing down if required. I think others (unintentionally) have talked and made messes, which is very annoying. Herr v. Liebenau thinks (as I do) Willie should not be pressed to marry too early.”

There is a footnote : “Most of the letters on this subject have been destroyed”. I’m not sure we should read too much into this. That is not really surprinsing and it wasn’t unusual to burn letters back then, especially the ones dealing with delicate family matters. It doesn’t necessary mean that they tried to hide a big secret. Besides, not all letters have disappeared.

Fritz and Vicky were obviously worried about the rumours about Wilhelm and Ella. He was the heir to the throne and she was still quite young. I think all this fuss came down to the fact that there were this strict moral victorian etiquette when it came to social interaction, especially between the sexes.. Vicky wrote to Wilhelm : “you had better for her sake & for yours, be a little scarcer in your visits, or else those reports will get into the newspaper, & it will be very disagreeable for Auntie Alice & for you.” A strict guidelines governed social interaction between men and women. However, these guidelines were ever evolving and most of the time were frowned upon by the “old” generation. The correspondance between Vicky and her mother Queen Victoria is quite enlightening in that aspect (quite funny too). In 1877, Vicky’s eldest daughter, Charlotte, got engaged to Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen. Vicky wrote to her mother :

“How differently the younger generation expects to be treated from what we were. […] Fancy that Charlotte never tells me when she writes to Bernard or when he writes to her… They resent the slightest restraint put upon them & Bernard thinks they ought to do just as they like.” 

Queen Victoria replied :

“I think there is a great want of propriety & delicacy… in at once treating your bridegroom as though (except on one point) he were your husband… Here now they have lost all modesty for not only do they fo about driving, walking & visiting - everywhere alone, they also now taken to go out everywhere together in society… & make a regular show of themselves… In short young people are getting very American, I fear in their views and ways.” 

So for obvious reasons, Vicky and Fritz didn’t want gossips and stories involving the heir of the throne and a hessian princess, spreading across Europe. They also knew very well who their son was and how volatile he could be. Vicky hoped that with some time this infatuation for Ella would falter because she knew that her niece could have carried the hemophilia gene. However, the letters between Vicky and her sister Helena show that during the summer of 1878, Vicky was unfortunately convinced that “a nuptial link between Wilhelm and Ella was both imminent and ineluctable”. Does that mean that Ella was also interested in Wihelm? That’s a possibility and I wouldn’t be that surprised if it was the case. Unfortunately we don’t have access to Ella’s letters. Nevertheless, she was fourteen at the time. Queen_Missy with her “new letters” suggests that Ella got pregnant. It is too far fetched imo. It seems that she got carried away while fantasming a bit too much around the supposed tragic love story between Wilhelm and Ella.

Later on, Wilhelm loved to say that his parents were against the match so he had “obeyed the severe command of duty” and married Dona of Holstein. However, according to John Rohl, Wilhelm’s change of heart was his decision : “Most of those involved, in particular his father and grandparents (not to mention Ella herself) [Did Rohl had access to some of Ella’s letters or did he just assum?], were unpleasantly surprised by this unexpected turn of events. The switch was not only sudden, it was total : in May 1879 Wilhelm flatly denied ever having even contemplated an amorous relationship with any of the Darmstadt princesses. […] “I had always loved them much more than any other cousins, just like sisters, but never did I earnestly want to have one, nor did I ever breathe a words of it to Aunt.”” Is it a testimony of Wilhelm’s inconsistent character? perhaps ahaha or if we are being fair here, he was just a young man (yet a young man who suddenly forgot all the letters he had written mentioning his desire to marry Ella, anyway).

Can we just take a moment to appreciate Fritz’s letter to his wife after he read the pompous, lovesick letter that Wilhelm had written to his aunt Helena about Dona. (Helena forwarded a copy of the letter to Vicky, then Vicky forwarded it to Fritz lmao)  : 

“Quite apart from his bombast & absurd expression [the letter was] worrying given that it was penned by an inexperienced boy. For how is a young girl of 20 years supposed to wait for years in the uncertain hope that when Wilhelm reaches maturity he will continue to enthuse for her in the way he does with this adolescent-starry-eyed enthusiasm!! Moreover, I find that his sudden changing of the saddle from the one for whom he had already declared himself to the other, who is now the “only one he has ever loved”, has occurred with outrageous rapidity.“

Fritz’s letter from 1879 can be seen as intriguing especially if you think that the new letters from Ella and Wilhelm by Queen_Missy are real (which imo aren’t). The incident that Fritz mentioned could have been Wilhelm asking Ella to marry him or telling her how he felt about her but it is just an assumption. The archives can still hide some crazy gems, who knows?!  But I really don’t think there is some shattering secret lurking in Fritz’s words. If it was the case, the tone of the family letters that we still have, would have been much more different. And concerning Ella, well we can’t say much with the few materials that we have, but if we follow John Rohl + the letters of Vicky, Helena, Fritz… then we can suggest that Wilhelm’s infatuation wasn’t as unrequited as most historians like to think it was.

For anyone interested in John Rohl’s books you can find online the first volume of his extensive research on Wilhelm II here. (sharing the link because unfortunately his books are expensive)

[gideonthefirst]

Thank you @oddsynchronicity for enabling me to make this post lmao. Here it is: my thoughts on NADDPOD Episode 80: Your Own Personal Hell

First of all, broadly speaking, all of the flashback sequences were perfectly chosen. There are a lot of things they could each have been, but @frogndtoad and I were just talking about it and, to quote her, they got “right to the emotional heart of the show.” By which I mean, each flashback sequence forced us to reexamine how we looked at the characters, while also staying fundamentally true to how they’ve been fleshed out and developed over the past eighty episodes. And they were perfectly designed to hit the emotional beats that each player is best at playing to. tl;dr Murph is a very very good DM and storyteller and also I want him to write a book

Second of all, still just in general, the choice to split them up was very bold and also an incredible flex on Murph’s part. One of the greatest strengths of the show is the party dynamic and how much they all care for each other - to split them up for half of an episode, and likely most of next episode as well, is…well, it’s a choice, and imo it worked because it hit HARD. The only other times they’ve been split up for any extended period of time, Hardwon almost died on an airship + Bev and Moonshine ran out of spells and were down to 1 hp, Gemma died, and Beverly got offered a deal by Akarot. Like, unless I’m missing some because it’s late and I’m sick, those are the three. So by separating them it triggers an immediate fear that is much different from the usual fear at seeing an enemy, and you can hear it in the immediate tone shift. They went from harassing Ilsed in the group chat to being completely focused on their scenes and each other’s scenes and it was a different feeling than we’ve gotten since…I don’t know, Queen Ezra? Marabelle? I don’t know if it even happened then.

Okay, individual stuff! Hardwon! Murph talked about it in the Short Rest a bit, but the choice to give Hardwon something to justify his caring so deeply about the dwarves and Irondeep? Inspired. Perfect. Devastating. He’s been in the bodies of two different races, but deep down, he still sees himself as a dwarf and always has, and King MacGannis was the first one to ever acknowledge him as such. It’s such a trans narrative, first of all, but it also is uhhh sure something when taken in conjunction with Moonshine’s flashback. But anyway, Hardwon went from being someone who was always excluded but still cared about the dwarves and Irondeep for some reason to being someone who was still always excluded but had something deep inside to hold onto and someone to look up to. And then he GOT the Kingshammer and now that whole scene is so much more specific and important and. Hardwon never had a home but now we know he always had the aspiration/idea of a home and that fundamentally changes his character. “Looks like a dwarf to me” are you KIDDING me?

Miscellaneous Hardwon thoughts: Playing Kingshammer under that scene was a direct attack. And Hardwon saying “yes, sir” to MacGannis in exactly the same way that Bev said “yes, sir” to his dad in the first Galaderon episodes is something that definitely wasn’t intentional but I am going to cry about.

Moonshine! Man, how do I even…how do I even start. Moonshine is the genuine love of my life she’s so deeply, genuinely good. Bringing Marabelle in was an incredibly low blow, and also possibly a hate crime? Investigations are ongoing. However. Moonshine immediately deciding to welcome the spores into her own network and then her fungal form morphing into something closer to Marabelle’s…Marabelle was known as She Who Has No Hospitality. Moonshine welcomed in her spores without once doubting their intentions in possibly the greatest gesture of hospitality ever known. Even in death, even as barely an imitation of Marabelle, those spores are going to get to be part of a family and a network and have what Marabelle ended up losing because of Ilsed because Ilsed put them in Moonshine’s way.

The scene with Jolene and Paw Paw is adorable, but also I’m having approximately nineteen different emotions about it. First of all, the line “things that don’t belong find a way of belonging when you’re around” was such a perfect summary of Moonshine, and also hit especially hard directly after Hardwon’s scene; Hardwon has never belonged anywhere (even where he so desperately wanted to) until he found Moonshine and the same, honestly, is kind of true with Bev (more on that later). Second of all, this scene fully switched the framing of the Moonshine/Marabelle/Jolene dichotomy (trichotomy?). Up until this point, it’s essentially been framed as Marabelle is who Moonshine could become, but Jolene is who she is. But the ways Moonshine and Jolene deal with Paw Paw are reflective of a much deeper difference - Jolene, even though she is the Crick, is lawful, and does kind of want to control people and the things around her, whereas Moonshine just…is not. And then, with Moonshine literally now having part of Marabelle as part of her, Moonshine isn’t either Jolene or Marabelle; she’s both, and more Marabelle than Jolene. She’s Marabelle if she hadn’t been corrupted, and if her loved ones had stood by her, like Bev and Hardwon always have.

Miscellaneous Moonshine thoughts: Playing Sumpin’s A Mess Out West at the beginning of this was a Choice but at least it wasn’t Mee Maw’s Burden. Also I always pictured Moonshine as having gotten Paw Paw when she was very young, and it’s adorable that she was already a full adult when she adopted him. Love that, it’s so much more perfectly Moonshine than what I had thought

Beverly. Do y’all ever…cry. This was the culmination of his arc. I mean, I’m sure it’ll go other places, and I trust Caldwell and Murph to keep him interesting and growing, and he has growth to do, but…his entire story has been building to this. “A child has a duty to his father, but a hero has a duty to the world” is the final sign that Bev isn’t a kid anymore, and hasn’t been able to be for a long time. But also, for the first time, he gets to make a choice about it: does he want to be a kid, or does he want to be a hero? And he chooses hero. He chooses hero even though he’s sixteen and may have to kill his own father, because that same father has been teaching him that he has a duty since before he was even old enough to start high school.

The flashback scene also very much emphasized how deeply alone he’s kind of always been - which is something we’ve literally never seen before. We’ve gotten very brief jokes about him being bullied in school, but that’s never been explored, and we also know for a fact that he was an excellent Green Teen and also the son of the captain of the Green Knights. But this was…he’s the only Green Teen there. Erlin, Derlin, Cran, they don’t see the execution - the execution brunch is likely their first, and Erlin isn’t even there (we do know Erlin’s parents are dead at this point, but that is a very different thing than watching your father execute someone in front of you without showing any emotion, and not being allowed to look away). All he has is Egwene, who is also completely alone, and it’s not like they’re really friends after this. They share one moment, and that’s all there is, and then it’s back to Bev being alone and doing everything he can to make his father proud of him. And then, when he finally succeeds in making his dad proud, his dad gets ripped away to another dimension, ages 20 years, and signs a deal with the devil. So once again we come back to “things that don’t belong find a way of belonging when you’re around”, and Bev only really belonging somewhere once he finds the Boobs.

Finally, like…Bev’s introduction was “according to his mother, a very good boy”. He’s a Green Teen because that’s what his father was, and his father before him, and his father before that, and he’s the fifth of his name and the best of the Green Teens and all he wants to do is impress his mom and dad and be good enough, and here he’s given a chance to be with his dad again and do what he says - which is all he’s ever known how to do - and he has to make the choice not to. And the only reason he’s able to make that choice is, once again, Moonshine. Reaching out to his friends, to the family he chose, to the family who lets him be a kid and loves him unconditionally, to the family who says “I’ll love you whatever you choose” but trusts in him to make the right choice.

Miscellaneous Bev thoughts: Pulling in the main theme at the end there was the best editing choice Murph has ever made. I started crying fully in public and also got chills and also my jaw dropped. “I look at him like I did that day: with a mixture of hate and love.” The level to which Caldwell has perfectly captured the gay teen experience and translated it over to a high fantasy d&d podcast and the metaphor of his dad selling his soul to the devil sure is a lot to handle. Also, uhh, I don’t want Bev to die, like, ever, but if he does next episode, what an incredibly beautiful story.

Miscellaneous final thoughts: This show is about found family. Even when forcibly separated to different levels of Hell, they save each other and come back to each other. I can’t fucking handle it. Music choice in general this episode? Fantastic, good job Emily and Murph. And then, I can’t wait to see how they handle them being separated for what’s probably an entire episode - a week is WAY to long to wait

[wyattvsmusic]

Logic - No Pressure ALBUM REVIEW

Logic receives an unnecessary amount of hate. You simply can’t deny his ability to rap his ass off. I do understand certain criticisms about him but most of the time it’s people saying he’s always talking about being biracial which was literally just a few songs one album and referencing that album on other songs.  Although I’m a huge fan, Logic’s recent releases haven’t really gone over too well with me. Aside from a few songs, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind was a major dud and I hated the Supermarket soundtrack but I didn’t read the book that it’s connected to so my criticisms of that album aren’t really valid. The last Logic album I loved was YSIV which was definitely a return to form from some of the wack stuff that was on Bobby Tarantino II. I respect Logic for trying to do different things but most of the time, it didn’t end up working that well. When I saw the title and cover for No Pressure, I felt both excited and worried. I was excited to see Logic working with No ID again who executive produced his first album, Under Pressure. Seeing song titles like Growing Pains 4 and Soul Food II also excited me. I was worried because if this is indeed his last album, I did’t want Logic to end on a bad note, which he definitely doesn’t because this album is excellent. The intro did a great job setting the tone for the project where Logic is just spitting. I love Hit My Line a lot, especially the production. That drum break is the same one that Tyler, The Creator used for IGOR’S THEME. This leads me to one of the criticisms I see about Logic where people claim he’s a biter. I have seen some similarities in the production of Logic songs that sound like other people’s songs but Hip Hop is a genre where people constantly use the same samples as other artists and every artist puts their own spin on them. Logic definitely shows us who his influences are as Under Pressure was heavily influenced by Kendrick Lamar and you can hear the Kanye West influence in his production style. Logic doesn’t necessarily have a signature sound but he does have a signature rap style that has influenced a lot of younger rappers. It’s weird to me that when a rapper like Kendrick shows how well he can try doing other artists’ sounds like with DAMN., he gets praised but when Logic does something similar, he gets shat on. I do understand it because DAMN. is miles above the Bobby Tarantinos but the criticism shouldn’t just apply to Logic. Speaking of sampling, you can hear the samples of OutKast’s Elevators and SpottieOttie as well as Tarika Blue’s Dreamflower which is most known for being sampled on Erykah Badu’s Didn’t Cha Know. I also saw this as an homage to J. Cole who is one of Logic’s favorites as Cole used the same sample for Too Deep For The Intro. I’ve said this in many of my other reviews but the only criticism I have about this album is that I don’t love it when artists use such a legendary sample and don’t do enough to it to make it your own. It’s not that big of an issue though because GP4 and man i is are great songs and Logic got his start by rapping over old school hip hop beats and making them sound new again on the Young Sinatra mixtapes so I thought it was similar to that. Logic’s rap style has always consisted of great flows but on this album, we get some of the best and most creative punchlines that he’s ever come up with. On Soul Food II, Logic returns to the slightly reworked beat of Soul Food from Under Pressue to give us some sick bars while also showing us how his outlook on the rap game has changed so much since part 1. One of my favorites lines on the song is “feeling close to the cliff, like Rick Dalton in the booth,” which references Once Upon A Time In Hollywood directed by Tarantino, who is one of Logic’s biggest inspirations. Another great scheme was when he said “livin' my life backward like Tariq on Undun / And now they wonder how I got over son (Do you want more?)” Super clever because it ties in three album titles from The Roots, specifically Undun which brilliantly tells a story in reverse order (classic imo). One thing I also love about this song is that it recaps, reveals and clarifies more information about the story of Thomas and Kai from The Incredible True Story and what happened in the story since that album has dropped. DadBod is one of my favorite songs on the album because it’s a more mature Logic and shows his current life instead of reflecting on his past one and also explains his reason for retiring. The hook is so laidback and doesn’t sound forced at all. I also love the Pac Div shoutout. On this song, he talks about his married life and fatherhood and the line he had where he said “I love my wife like I am Chance” made me laugh out loud. The third verse of this song stands out for multiple reasons. He raps, “They say that that boy done changed / He don't rap about his everyday life, he ain't the same / Goddamn, already had a hard life once / Am I supposed to recreate it every album for you cunts?” I love it when rappers show growth and progression and don’t talk about the same things over and over unless they choose to of course which is also fine with me but I also loved how he was basically like you want my everyday life? Here you go, here’s my day where I feed my son and shop at Target and then says “Is this want you wanted, everyday life material? / I'm not a kid anymore and be sure shit's boring.” I love the song 5 Hooks. The chopped up Toro y Moi sample was fantastic and he started it off with “It's what you all been waitin' for, ain't it? / This No Pressure shit kinda got us reacquainted” which is so true because this is the album that the day one Logic fans have been waiting for and this is the album we wanted. The line where he said “No I.D. my mentor, but it's time for the story’s end" as opposed to “let the story begin” really hit me too. The beat switch was hard and I loved his verse and the way he was flowing on there too. Dark Place was an interesting change of pace and it also explained his other reasons for retirement which is that he was depressed and lost his confidence in himself. Being scrutinized all the time for no reason takes a toll on a person. He also talked about how the criticism affected his love for making music and why he doesn’t go on social media. He talked about this on the Confessions title track but it brought me back to a line on Aquarius III where he said “Off the internet, that's when I'm at my happiest / Scrolling so much, my thumb fucked up / We call that carpal tunnel vision.” I have never found rhyming letters impressive unless you find a really creative way to do it and that’s what he did with A2Z. I was not disappointed at all. Logic is not the first rapper to use the entire alphabet in a song but he may have done it the best. Both Heard Em Say and Amen made for an amazing send off if it is indeed the end of Logic’s rap career (I sincerely doubt it). One thing that was super interesting to me about Amen and Obediently Yours is that it’s supposed to be Ultra 85 which Logic had been teasing as his final album for many years. These two songs being Ultra 85 or Ultra 85 being the end to Thomas and Kai’s story as well as Logic’s rap career makes perfect sense to me. No Pressure is everything I wanted Logic’s final album to be, especially because it’s called No Pressure. It’s definitely one of his best albums to date and made for a worthy sequel and final album. 

Fav Tracks: Hit My Line, Celebration, Soul Food II, DadBod, 5 Hooks, Amen

[dreaminterlude]

i want to know what ur qualms are with their styling for blue flame 👀

first of all dear rae, thank u so much for ur patience i know this is kind of belated but im finally sitting down at my computer so we can dissect this in detail and this is going to be way longer than it has to be so here we goooooooooo

OVERVIEW

i’d like to say that most of astro looks great with their styling, in both the book and story versions. i really love the juxtaposition of both concepts, and i think the tones work really really well for the vibe they’re going for, which, as i’ve stated, is this mature vibe we’ve been seeing more and more of, with that magical astro charm that makes them so special. the warmth of the book version combined with the coolness of the story version is really really nice and i love the idea of it

BOOK VERSION

i think literally all of them except for eunwoo look fantastic. eunwoo….looks alright here but i am not a fan of this wet dog look that people have been calling a baby mullet. this is especially distressing given how much i love him but i just feel like….he’s not really hard to style and they could have done something simultaneously interesting and elegant like they did with the rest of the boys and they just didn’t. mj? STUNNING. jinjin looks so freaking handsome i love his look. binnie looks like an angel. rocky. god rocky has stolen this comeback he’s probably been my fave. sanha also looks like he’s suddenly grown into this handsome intellectual and i’m like but where’s baby?

again, 10/10 for the 5/6 members here. where’s the loml? first of all why is he holding the scarlet letter. fine let’s ignore that i don’t even care honestly. it’s the hair rae, it’s the hair that kills me. maybe they could have styled a mullet better on him, but it could also be a camera angle thing bc he looks really good here and honestly i really dig it but maybe it’s the model in him coming out MAYBE

wow i’m staring at this photo again and honestly it’s so simple and he looks so good but maybe it’s also bc u can’t really see the mullet i’m so annoying

ladies n gentlemen we are getting to the crème de la crème am i annoying you yet haha!!! again each and every boy looks unbelievably stunning which then begs the question, maryam why are you being so fucking annoying and rude and unfair about this comeback — well i’m not done yet!!!! and maybe i am MAYBE — but eunwoo first of all why put something on him that is NOT his size at all so it makes him look like a bag while attempting to make him look sexy (?????????????), why is he crouching lower and what is up with his HAIR i will not get over the hair i am upset about it

but the rest of them. my god look at rocky and mj???????? this is the superior look on him by far compared to the story version but we’ll talk about that in a SEC

they all look good and dandy here. i have no real qualms here. jinjin looks like he’s coming to SMASH my house and i’m about to let him. i love these boys.

STORY VERSION

they all look good here, overall, seem to match the themes with each other. i think jinjin/mj were superior in the book version as far as these photocard pics go. i have no idea why eunwoo is making that face it’s so annoying to me. he’s done sexy so many times and i just don’t think this is it not that he even has to be sexy he could have done anything really but i’m not a fan. it’s cool in the sense that he looks like a vampire i guess but it’s not a look that i personally gravitate towards (this is, and i cannot emphasize this enough) so subjective and obviously just how i feel about these things). rocky. my god. stunning. academy award. sanha has announced to the world that he has grown up and he is an adult damnit so treat him like one!!! i will not but nice try. bin’s face just makes me miss him even more :(

ok the top half of mj, i’m really digging. the hair is working (i wish his hair was longer for these pics, the whole universe knows that mullet mj is superior) but his pants make his torso look smaller and i hate the boots but maybe he’s coming back from gardening the now DEAD flowers from all light era idK. rocky (i’m sobbing now). eunwoo………….obviously the hair is better imo but the angle that this is taken…i’m not a fan. is the back cut meant to be sexy? idk i’m not feeling anything really?

and this here is the issue i have with what they’re trying to do with him, i think: they’re trying really hard to make him sexy, like they always do, but it doesn’t necessarily always suit him bc i don’t know if he necessarily wants to be sexy. like there are definitely moments that he does look that, like some of the kswiss shoots or even his magazine shoots where he really kills the game, but it doesn’t seem like…….it’s being forced on you really? idk for some reason, for ME, this comeback has kind of been shaping him into something that he might……not be. idk. i think with this pic tho they could have shot it at a better angle. i think for me it’s not only the stylists but also the photographer. maybe i’m not being fair, idk. i think the looks have grown on me more and more, but they didn’t make me necessarily happy or excited

all excellent except that i really hate what they did with mj’s outfit bc they just make him look a bit stockier which is annoying because he’s really willowy and dainty and elegant and they could have brought that out and they didn’t. eunwoo looks good here. i really like his outfit here. jinjin’s pants are too long…..i think a lot of it could have been fixed if they sized them appropriately? maybe i’m over analyzing. rae if you’re still reading this……..

i think this is the one photo where they all look good to me. i think mj’s pants here don’t stand out as much because they get cut off at the bottom and the picture is angled so his torso is accentuated more. i LOVE eunwoo’s oufit, and i really think it has to do with the fact that it’s fit to his body and they taper his waist which does wonders for him. i hate when they drown them with oversized clothes!! jinjin looks like he’s waiting for me to come home so he can discuss the report card that came in the mail and the call he got from my teacher when he was at work

CONCLUSION / TL;DR

i think from the m/v teaser they all look good and really cool, which is an indication that they don’t look necessarily the same as their photoshoot. i think…..also it’s nice to see their updates on twitter so we get to see the “real” them, and see how different that is from this very staged thing, which is, again, a very cool concept, but i think i’m gonna need a bit more convincing (and i know they’ll deliver) from their m/v + music show stages. i think my main problem was eunwoo’s hair/”sexiness” factor and the way they tried styling myungjun in the story version. maybe i’m being overly critical…..but since eunwoo is like….my ult, i feel like personally attached to this. but at the end of the day, it’s not that deep and i know my perception will probably change when the album/music video drops, and honestly……..they really can almost pull of anything. like maybe eunwoo CAN MAYBE pull off a mullet if his stylist actually did it justice. idk. but i’m not team cha mullet.

[ask-art-student-prussia]

You’re one of the only Hetalia art blogs still active that I absolutely love! Do you know any more of them?

Actually!!! I spent the past week sitting on this question, but im finally able to compile (most of) i have a bad memory and theres just so many, you see) the hetalia artists ive admired. ill write up a little blurb on each so you can know what to expect

warning, this is super long

I’m going to list my fav Prussia focused artists first:

@theknoflook is SO SO SO good at capturing the worn/rough-round-the-edges Prussia and they’re 100% the BEST at drawing the aged feel of him. They draw a lot of characters with human imperfections, it’s just such a RAW emotion I feel from each drawing.

@maplevogel I’ve admired since I was like,,, 13. You have no idea how much I want to be able to draw like them. Their watercolour illustrations are KICKASS!! They have such a sense of mystical-ness to each piece, everything is so unreal in what they draw it gives me such a sense of calm-ness. Constantly they’re using watercolour to it’s full extent, im EXTREMELY floored and always have been.

@mieudiary is another person ive admired since i was a absolute baby. Their art teeters on anime-realism and their use of lighting, shading and blending is SOOOO GOOD. They’re able to make their characters so real yet overly gorgeous lol. They’ve got the best damn detail in form/muscles (flesh) ive ever seen.

@kisamesfacioplegia is LITERALLY DRAWING RENAISSANCE PAINTINGS OKAY. Their art is always refined and carries the same aura as those huge paintings you find in museums, with extremely good storytelling and illustrations. Best historical prussia and germany on this site imo.

@carnagekiid (i dont know if they do aph anymore but their recent work is JUST AS GOOD) has the cutest modern interpretation of gil and is my fav. i personally am not a fan of like,,, the “ideal” canon prussia, and the way they draw emotion/use of colours (for all their work) with prussia has that like,,, UMMF of character, yknow what i mean??? they focus on ruspru i think but idk lol

Okay those are just the best prussia’s ive seen, heres some more general hetalia artists that focus on other characters

@payadraws is quite possibly my FAVOURITE HETALIA ARTIST???? IF NOT AT LEAST IN THE TOP 3 BC THEIR STUFF IS SO GOOD AND STYLIZED PERFECTLY. their linework is stunning, and colouring has that tone over all of it that harmonizes the whole piece. The way their utilize their style in everything is PERFECt, idk how to use words for it, just take a look. Their austria/switzerland is deadass on-the-money.

@tomato-bird Literally how does one even manage to do this. theyre professional and it fucking SHOWS. Each composition, each stroke of their pen, it shows dude. Their art has like,,, the emotions, the feeling, is really well executed and they have so much attention to detail it blows my fucking mind. like ,,, this gives of hard renaissance level mastery vibes

@paperdrawsshit is SO GOOD at using that like,,,, the form/silhouette of characters. like,, the shapes they use, the flow of each pose, the hands, ALL OF IT SCREAMS PERFECTION. Each drawing has such flow and structure at the same time, and each character has such a pretty fashion sense. Excellent use of lighting and i strive to be as good as them in drawing people

@jackce THIS ARTIST HAS LIKE.,, SUCH A CLEAN CUT ART STYLE ITS GORGEOUS. Each drawing has the smoothest lines and the characters have distinct features. Their prussia, italy and germany styles stand out so much because of the way they draw the noses, jaw, features etc. Like they look like screenshots out of a professional 2d animated feature. Seriously.

@starstray (not sure if they draw hetalia anymore but i need to tell yall about them anyway) has such gorgeous like,,, composition. like if you dug through a collection of paintings from the renaissance you’ll find a few of theirs scattered in their. The use of like,,, linework paired with the way they colour is so perfectly executed. its so balanced im shaking

@amazing-prussia has the cutest, quirkiest style with what they draw. the hair/clothes are so stylized and fluid and i love them so much!! Each drawing looks so quick and perfected, every time I see one of their pruaus doodles i fucking DIE.

@glass-soda has such gorgeous illustrative style. It’s so unique and the way they colour and draw people have this wonderful POP to it. The colours are so balanced and bright, its so SO!!!!!! LOVELY. LIKE,, IDK HOW TO KEEP FROM RAMBLING ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE THEM JUST LOOK.

@ask-risorgimento-italy (ack, dont know their main sorry) Their illustrations are so well done, you can see the thought and practice in each character!! and i love the “realistic” feel to it. I say that about characters who dont have like,,, idk “anime hair”?? but not only the hair, the clothes, the form, the ENVIRONMENT. THIS ARTIST KICKS ASS WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENT BUILDING. LOTS OF DEPTH. ABSOLUTE LEGEND.

@hetapolis !!!!! THEIR ART IS SO CLEAN AND SKETCHY AND BEAUTIFUL. OKAY. Shading/colouring is GORGEOUS. and the way they draw each character to be distinct and have unique features ITS SUPER PROFESH AND LOOKS AMAZIGN!! I admire their style so much yall got no idea

@thedisappointedidealist12 has REALLY GOOD LINEWORK/STORYTELLING. LIKE WOW. Every time i see something theyve drawn im shaking bc the pacing and execution is AMAZING. Everything about the way their art looks is super balanced and you can see the exact emotion each character is expressing.

@captainjellyroll OKAY. THIS PERSON. LEMME TELL U BOUT THIS. FIRST OF ALL. THIS IS ONE OF MY FAV ANIMATORS. THEYVE BEEN MY IDOL SINCE I WAS 11. Their work has so much energy, colour, and you can see the thought in each composition. I love them so much,,, each drawing has its own burst of energy!!! i want to be able to be like them when im older and live with like 5 cats.

@tea-artblog (they dont draw hetalia much anymore but their recent art is 100% worth looking at) OKAY. YALL. This is one of the people who’s art i looked at constantly when i first joined!! Their art is so like,,,, balanced and has just enough contrast and the colours???? EVERYTHING WORKS SO WELL. The eyes/expressions are SUPER CUTE.

@sully-s ANOTHER ARTIST WHOS STYLE IS ONE OF MY FAVS. It’s super fluid and the colours are perfect!! Each character has their own uniqueness I cant express my love of how perfect their lighting/colouring is. Their illustrations are straight out of a movie art book, its so GORGEOUS. and the environment REALLY has depth!!

@ask-victorian-austrian (dont know their main ack sorry!!), THE LINEWORK IS SO DETAILED AND CLEAN. I love the way they draw clothes/fashion, its all so detailed and gorgeous and you can feel the weight of the cloth and the lace and everything okay???? Seriously I love all their blogs, they have a bunch, and you should check out all of them!

@amoxesyoew HAS SUCH CUTE DRAWINGS!! The style in their characters’ hair is so flowy and the way they draw faces and eyes have this adorable quality to it!! the pureness of the emotions they draw are really prominent and i constantly just DIE because of it! I love love LOVE the gercan they draw too

@arschbiene THE WAY THEY DRAW FACES??? SPOT ON. The colours are SO spot on and i love the POP they give. The shading?/? SPECTACULAR. And each doodle is super cute and like,,,, when people say each drawing has a story behind it?? I FEEL THAT WITH THEIR ART OKAY. HIGHKEY.

@ekinoksin ???? HELLO??? THIS RENAISSANCE VAN GOGH MICHAELANGELO MASTERMIND OF AN ARTIST IS LIKE THE SAME AGE AS ME>????? I just foudn that out. BUT the way their art has so much depth!!!! THE BACKGROUNDS??? THE ENVIRONMENT?? ITs ALL EXTREMELY WELL DONE. And they have this texture to their art that makes it look just like historical paintings its so good!!! Im SHOOK.

@alfredtalia WORM. THeir characters all have structure and expression and everything about it has such like!!! UMFF. The way they draw certain things,, theres minor details!! and you may not notice them!! but they ADD SO MUCH!! Everything feels like it has attention to it, and it is so well balanced!!

@avlerie (again, not sure if they still draw hetalia but their art is really pretty) the way they add texture/detail to their art is SPECTACULAR. The hair???? the bodies??? It seems so structured and well drawn!! THE EYES THO. THE WAY THEY DRAW EYES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL I CANT GET ENOUGH

@elhuesoardiente DUDE IDK HOW THEY COLOUR/DO THEIR SHADING. BUT ITS SO UNIQUE AND GIVES THEIR ART THIS EXTRA LAYER OF DEPTH. The art is so gorgeous with the way they do their lighting, and everything about it has balance and harmony im just shook

@ask-2p-uk no idea how someone can even pull off art like they do. the lines/colours ARE REALLY WELL INCORPORATED to EACH DRAWING. The way they draw expressions?? is so unique??? like i love the hair too, it has this flowy-ness to it!! EVERYTHING about their style is so colourful and pretty and unique i just ghhghghg dont know how to explain it, just LOOK AT IT.

@lucerna-lunam the way their shading is,,, the “mystical”-ness of their art??? ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. IDK How they manage to draw stuff with such like,,,, sparkle to it. But their lighting is really well done, the EYES are so gorgeous! even the way each drawing is textured!! It comes together so perfectly!!

@suckmyicelandick THE WAY THEIR HAIR IS DRAWN??? SUPER SHINY AND GORGEOUS. I love the way their draw their characters, the hands/face/hair is so stylized the second you see their art you just KNOW its drawn by them. The eyes are super detailed and its so pretty im just sobbing i love their style

@aph-lithuania OKAY one of the first hetalia artists ive ever seen when i was new. THEIR ART IS SUPER PRETTY. The colours are really smooth and THE WAY???THEY DRAW BODIES?? THE FIGURES ARE SO WELL PROPORTIONED????!!! Everything about it is so cute!!!

@ask-mr-luxembourg BRUH??? HELLO?? COLOURING, LINEWORK, PROPORTIONS, EVERYTHING IS 10/10. Seriously they way they draw hair has such texture, and the way the bodies are drawn are so good. everything about them!! and the eyes?? DEADASS KILLED ME. Their art has seriously so much detail and i just DIE every time

@ellmovy HOW DOES ONE EVEN MANAGE TO DRAW CHARACTERS AS WELL AS THEM?? Each character has distinct features and like,,, the hair is always stylized and it looks SO GOOD????!!! The amount of detail they put into drawing small things like eyebrows and freckles add so much to the overall piece like WOW

@haeko9page THIS ARTIST. HAS THE CUTEST ART EVER. Their comic strips are seriously so adorable and has really good pacing! Each time they draw comic strips, the frames are so varied and it comes together SUPER WELL. Idk how to explain this, but like,,, the “camera angles” and the way they draw expressions/character interactions go together like peanut butter and jelly!

@kyotemeru-arts (they dont draw hetalia much but i love their art so much) dude the flow?? of the poses their characters have?? the flow of the characters themselves?? SUPER WELL DONE LIKE WOW. Also the way they shade and highlight things  ?? like using more than one colour?? THAT REALLY MAKES THEIR ART POP. I LOVE THE WAY THEY CAN PERFECTLY DRAW FLUIDITY IN THEIR ART.

@frukmerunning GOLLY GEE DO I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY BOUT THEM. Just the way they draw faces, eyes and like,,,, bodies in general,, ITS ALL SO PERFECTLY BALANCED. The way they manage to make sketches look incredibly refined and capture the movement in each drawing???? LIKE IVE ADMIRED THEIR ART FOR SUCH A LONG TIME ITS BEEN 300 YEARS

@miss-ostrich-art BRUH how does one manage to draw ???? like them??? the way their characters’ forms and muscles can be seen but like not overly detailed??? they have the PERFECT amount of detail in each drawing, and the expressions!! the way they draw noses and facial structure and *italian hand gesture* PERFECT.

@maryluis THEIR EXPRESSIONS ARE SUPER DYNAMIC!!! AND THE POSES HAVE SUCH FLOW. Also did i mention the amount of detail they put into minor things?? like WOW. Seriously i think out of this list i like the way they draw expressions the best. Also this might be a weird thing to focus on, but the way theyre able to draw the interior/background/angles of things are INCREDIBLE.

@cioccolatodorima YOOOOOOO THIS IS LIKE THE FIRST ARTIST I SAW WHEN GETTING INTO THE FANDOM. ONE OF THEM AT LEAST. Their non-hetalia work is actually my fav and i want to do just what they do when im older! I love their illustrations, and their way of drawing characters/character design (ginjinka of mr.kitkat are my favs). The way their lighting looks, is SO pretty and the linework is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. their art blog (not just hetalia) is @rainbow-taishi

@ask-badlydrawnseborga lemme tell yall about a thing. i love how funny their art is, and like,,,,, i know its “badly drawn seborga” but the way the hair flows and the proportions,, everything about it is SO nffhhklahjdj polished. LIKE IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN IT BC THEYRE SUCH A MEMELORD BUT I GENUINELY HAVE SO MUCH LOVE FOR THEIR SKILLL

@sabrow3 NOT ONLY IS THEIR ILLUSTRATIONS SUPER CUTE, IT HAS GREAT PROPORTIONS AND DEPTH. I love their attention to detail in clothing and historical things, and like,, the line work is AMAZING. Seriously, I want to be able to draw as well as them, its incredible how the amount of work and effort is shown in each drawing.

@buruzaitama !! The way they draw characters has like,,, this level of realism and the way they do their lighting just pushes that to the next level. I don’t know how people can pull off drawing realism yet still make it so unique that i can instantly tell that a piece is drawn by them, but this artist IS SO GOOD AT THAT. LIKE WOW

@inkodoodles Okay their “1 hour drawing challenges”? IM FLOORED ANYONE CAN DRAW THAT IN ONE HOUR. The have such detail and flow and movement in each drawing! And the lighting they have is so soft and calming, it lends itself to each piece REALLY WELL. Whatever emotion each drawing is supposed to give is conveyed to a tee

@heyheyartman BRO the style??? is so fucking UNIQUE AND ICONIC?? And the way they manage to pace comics and storytell is sO GOOD. Like,,, the way they can use shapes for each of their characters is so refined and stylized i love it. Their use of colour seriously KICKS ASS and im floored every time i see their work.

@merasgar their art is so detailed!! and the backgrounds/environments are so soft and gorgeous to look at! I have like,,,, no idea how you can pull off such beautiful hair and eyes in each drawing!! They draw a lot of rochu and like,, the features look so PERFECT for the characters ghhghghg

@yosb ALRIGHT LISTEN UP THIS ARTIST SERIOUSLY HAS ONE OF MY FAV STYLES. It’s so refined and you can see the distinct features of each character. The style isnt realism but the characters FEEL REAL. They have such a perfect way of paying attention to details and putting in proportions/facial features to each character im so amazed and love their work so much

and of course i want to include @paachubelle though theyre working on their own project ( @the-otwya-project ) now, they’re one of my like,,,, friends that i made on this blog through hetalia ask blogs and i figured id like to include them on this list. Idk how people can draw in pencil with such detail and everything but they do it EXPERTLY. The line work is always so clean and the shading is always so well done!!

of course, im very clumsy and forgetful so i know i forgot some names but i cant remember things!! Either way, these are some of my all time favourite iconic hetalia (and non-hetalia) artists!! I want to be able to draw as well as them one day!

[sirikyu]

Sun and Moon and character dynamics - a.k.a Ash’s unbelievably many varied types of friendships in this series like holy s

sit down friend, i am about to ramble on about sun & moon’s brilliance in its character writing. i center this mostly around ash because he’s my fave. i love all of them but i have biases from my childhood and i tend to gravitate towards main charact- i mean anyway here we go. (warning: gettin a bit personal but not in a negative way)

one of my many fave things about sun and moon are the characters. the entire main crew of classmates are all different and fun in the own individual ways and they all manage to hold an episode very well, even though they rarely have to do that (and that’s good, because it’s a story about friends and support and family!! never put them alone to deal with a new, scary situation tbh, that’s too dark for me). everyone in the main cast have all managed as the emotional core of the episode, not necessarily because they are all very likeable, which definitely isn’t necessary for good storytelling, but i’d argue that it’s valuable especially in children’s tv, showing good people making mistakes and showing how far a supportive environment goes to help them over that. every individual dynamic between ash and another member of the sumo team is so unique to each other. ash isn’t at the forefront of everything, he’s not “the” main protagonist, and he isn’t what makes this series compelling, but he IS an excellent tether between this group of friends to me, personally, and i think this show has a lot of new ash content i haven’t gotten in many, many series run (ash is great, alright? you guys are just mean.)

im especially glad of sophocles’ and ash’s friendship because their complementary differences are in such a good balance, and i have such a soft spot for sophocles. sophocles is smart and not-sporty, but he isn’t a know-it-all stereotype. i was afraid there would inevitably be a fat joke or nerdy joke, but i don’t remember seeing anything too demeaning or harmful in the light tone they handle sophocles’ nerdiness and roundness. i still remember watching the very early episode where ash and sophocles are still getting to know each other and they get stuck in the mall. even before all the fun character beats as they scramble in the dark (and get short with each other) in that episode, i remember with GREAT fondness when sophocles was very hesitant to admit he’s in the mall to indulge in ice cream. he’s shy about his sweet tooth! i found the excecution very delicate and sweet (pardon the pun), because i don’t think i’ve related in that specific way to a character before in a show? because being fat means that there is an awkwardness and hyperawareness whenever you so much as think about stepping into the candy aisle, and sophocles not wanting to admit to his new classmate-soon-to-be-friend that he’s indulging was, deliberately written that way or not, very real. (not to be a sophocles stan, but he’s a good kid and deserves everything good since episode 1).

but i digress. sophocles steps in to teach his classmates sometimes because he loves learning. he rarely acts condescending to his friends. be the everyman in some crazy situations ash and others get into sometimes (that shrinking episode?? it’s still one of my favourites mostly because of the group of characters they chose for the main conflict. the daredevil pokemon loving duo that is lillie and ash vs. sophocles’ anxiety about the hectic and kinda perilous situation!! it was hilarious). sophocles, to me, seems to value ash’s friendship for similiar reasons clemont used to, in XY. it seems more warm and mutual in this series, thanks to ash’s characterisation. sophocles saves ash in several occasions, which, just! hello!! is the best thing and i love that all these kids are heroes and worthy of admiration. they also remain good. theyre all good. all rangers are equally important. they’re all amazing. okay? alright.

its heartwarming and supportive. they also are like, bonded through their main pokemon being electric mice. isn’t that the cutest?

ash and kiawe on the other hand, they’re a powerhouse couple that egg each other on. they push each other forward and have similiar sense of drive towards pokemon and battles. ever since kiawe gave hint that he battles he found common ground with ash. also he’s such a goofball who gets SUPER emotional about so many things (his sister!! mountains!! determined people!! so many things! he cries openly!) even though he comes across as serious at first, which kind of gives us a character with some similiar traits to ash but who couldn’t ever be mistaken for ash’s personality. they both get fired up in tandem about competing, but they also come from very different lives and backgrounds. I don’t ever think to compare their dynamic to anything else, they’re really unique! they are also mutually supportive, but it has a distinct flavor compared to sophocles and ash. maybe kiawe is a little bit more relatable to ash because of their similiar interest in battling and competing?

ash and lillie are super lovely and i like that lillie has her own story that ash is driven to help her with. and they are similiar in their excitement about pokemon (and yet, in a wholly different way than ash and kiawe are?? lillie has great drive in wanting to help pokemon with knowledge and books, because a hands-on approah wasn’t possible to her in so long, but i think when sophocles learns about stuff, it’s his studious nature and interest in tiny details.) and self-sacrificing hero-type stuff. we got to see lillie fulfill her potential after she figured out her way through her trauma, and we could see that out of her shell, lillie and ash are super similiar, AGAIN in a different way from the others, but never in a less important way. lillie is just a ray of sunshine. she also knows he limitations and works toward overcoming them. her and ash’s frienship comes from going through some very important and life-changing things together. i think ash really wanted lillie to be able to touch pokemon because it’s important to him and it clearly used to be to lillie, which he realises when he sees her old photos.

ash and mallow have this very sweet and family-oriented sibling relationship. they’re not often paired up but i think the times they are, they remind me of my sister and me, which is such a big part of my love for mallow, even if she doesn’t get imo enough spotlight in the big plots. on the other hand, her personal journeys within her own family are so good i cannot be mad at anything. she guides, she’s patient, she’s enhusiastic in a similiar way to ash, but has a more level head. but she also eggs her friends on with her boundless energy. the more i think about her, the more i love her. mallow is awesome!! not least of all, she has such good relationships toward her female classmates. she’s nosy and protective, but not in a smothering way. she’s very supportive and very good at it. (the episode with the mom? killed me.) the way she takes care of her peers in the school is amazing.

ash and lana are both adventurous, i think they really like to get in trouble together lol. lana is also strong and they both ooze main character material with the way they have with pokemon in the wild. it’s awesome. i kind of feel like these two could use a more emotional episode together, but i think i’ll have plenty to be emotional about when this crew parts ways :(((

i made myself sad, but i can confidently say that this show has the most unique and varied and developed set of characters and character dynamics of all pokemon, in a cast this size. the fact that they’re good friends and have none of that bordering-on-mean banter from any of the previous seasons is in fact, a big bonus for me. i love this class, i wish i could hang out in alola indefinitely.

[greenapricot]

morseverse fandom meme thing

I couldn’t bring myself to do the voice thing (it’s too much like talking on the phone which my introvert heart is very much against) so here are text answers to the questions.

Tagged by: @jameshathaways​ URL: greenapricot, you can call me Pri for short. Age: Likely older than most everyone else (I didn’t even properly get into online fandom until I was 26 and that was 15 years ago). Where are you from? The northeastern US.

How did you get into Endeavour/Morseverse? How long ago? Have you watched any Lewis or Inspector Morse and/or read any of the Inspector Morse books? If you’ve watched multiple Morse shows, do you have a favorite?:

My first Morseverse show was Lewis, which I started watching on the recommendation of my chiropractor’s wife (who has impeccable taste), sometime in 2011 (I think after s5 aired in the UK, based on the earliest Lewis fic tag in my pinboard). I quickly devoured all the episodes up to that point and then watched series 6-9 as they aired.

At the end of series 7, when it looked like Lewis wasn’t going to continue, I started watching Endeavour. I watched the whole first series as it aired, but I was in full-on Lewis withdrawal and felt like Endeavour was just kind of okay (mostly just because it wasn’t Lewis). But I liked it enough to watch series 2 when that came out, realized it was an excellent show in its own right, and have been anxiously awaiting each new episode ever since.

I’ve also watched some Inspector Morse here and there but I’ve not gotten as into it as the other two. It suffers a bit from the time period in which it was filmed imo.

Lewis is definitely my favorite Morseverse show, though I think Endeavour is objectively a better show.

And this got super long so I’m sticking the rest under here:

What’s your favorite episode, or one of your faves, and why? Do you have a favorite quote from it? It has to be Fugue and Canticle (I am on board for all the angst and I can’t decide).

Not a quote, but the entire scene on the rooftop at the end of Fugue is just so fantastic. The acting, the dialogue, the roofscape of Oxford behind them (oh how I long to take photos from that roof). It just may be the most beautiful scene in all of television. I also really love the atmospheric shots of Morse walking around in Canticle in the hot sun, looking overheated and a bit sunburnt, and the play of light in the trees. So gorgeous. There seem to be more and more of those lovely atmospheric shots as the show goes on and I’m so there for them.

Favorite relationship(s) on the show? Romantic or not, canon or not. Most favorite, Thursday and Morse (but that seems like kind of a cop out because of course it’s my favorite, it’s the focus of the show). So, less obvious favorite, Morse and Dorothea Frazil. I am very invested in their friendship. Very. I want more of her and more of the two of them together, especially like in Harvest when she gets him into the plant as Snappy Jenkins.

Favorite character? An under-appreciated/under-utilized character you love? Favorite character: Morse. Obvious, maybe, but he ticks all my buttons: too smart for his own good, awkward, complete lack of self-preservation, feels so deeply he totally can’t deal, smart ass, prone to melancholy especially accompanied by drinking and listening to moody music (see also James Hathaway my most favorite Morseverse character).

Underappreciated: I think Dorothea Frazil is plenty appreciated by fandom, but I would dearly love more of her in the show.

If you could hang out with a character for a day, who would you pick? I probably have the most in common with Dorothea Frazil and Max DeBryn, we can drink whisky and grumble about the state of the world.

Say the following episode titles: Arcadia, Canticle, Lazaretto, Cartouche, Icarus. Not doing the voice thing, but I don’t say any of these any differently from any of the voice posts I’ve listened to from native English speakers. So, there is that.

Cheese and pickle: yes or no? Discuss. I was going to say yes to this, I am a fan of both cheese and pickles, but from listening to posts by Brits it seems that pickle is something like a chutney not like a dill pickle, so I think I’m going to have to go with no. (Though, I would be down with cheddar cheese and proper crunchy fresh dill pickles on sourdough.)

Fic recs, blog recs, favorite fandom friends, best thing about Morseverse fandom, mustache opinions or anything else you want to share! Quick and dirty fic recs in the form of my pinboard tags for Endeavour and Lewis.

Morseverse fandom is lovely because everyone in it is lovely. I’ve never been in a fandom so free of wank. It’s just lovely. So, lovely I’ll say lovely again. I assume this is because it is relatively small, but, though I’d like more fic I think that loveliness is worth it. My first thought when I saw the mustache was to wonder if it’s there because Shaun Evans is too damn attractive and keeps getting more so and they were trying to tone it down a bit. I am not a fan of mustaches in general and my feelings about the Morsetache are the same. Except that Shaun Evans is so attractive he almost pulls it off anyway. I hope it goes the way of John’s mustache in Sherlock.

Who are you tagging? I think pretty much everyone who wants to do this has been tagged, but if you haven’t been and you want to do it consider this me tagging you.