#go go (co) connect!!

[nenoname]

still love how the book starts out with stan beating up the statue and taking ford's discarded one dollar bills and then ends with stan completely destroying bill and ripping up money just to spite him

[soulmvtes]

sitting at the window of a beautiful sunlit cafe drinking yorkshire tea in front of a tree whose leaves are turning brown and orange after a long week... i am soo back

[intuitive-revelations]

It's one thing adding Classic Who (!!!) and the other spin-offs given all of New Who is already on iPlayer, but adding audio descriptions and sign language to apparently everything is wild!

I assume this implies the same things are going to be on Disney+ internationally too? Would make sense to apply the same work on both platforms.

(Although assuming they brought all the features on there too, I assume they'd do sign language again, for both BSL and ASL? I've never used Disney+ so no idea what accessibility options look like on there.)

[slavhew]

best part about watching a movie is making an au with your (and friend's) ocs

reference imagesssss

[themalhambird]

Um.

Golden Cage AU, more Elrond Illness Edition. Elrond's fever reaches its peak, forsight mixes itself up with dreams of the past, and Galadriel believes he is going to die. He isn't, he very explicitly gets through the fever and starts to get better, but It's Alot. Tbh, I'm not really sure where this came from and also, I made myself cry writing it.

@malkaleh tagging because this is your sandbox I'm thriving in but please don't feel obligated to read.

Content warning for Near Character Death, serious illness, fever induced disorientation and lack of lucidity, and a character who gets glimpses of the future warning of danger/implied potential violence.

"Galadriel?"

For a moment, her name on Elrond's lips gives her hope- but the next words from him, as he struggles to sit up in the tangle of sweat-soaked sheets are "Does the King look for me?"

She shakes her head. "No. No, Elrond- it's alright, you cam rest. Lie back-"

"The King looks for me!" Elrond insists, throwing the sheets to the side, trying to get up. Galadriel grabs his shoulders to keep him from standing; he clutches, with surprising strength, at her forearms. "The King looks for me!" He insists, hissing through clenched teeth and staring with feverish eyes that seem, suddenly, deeper and more vast than the night sky. "The King in the woods, and the King beneath the mountain- they look for me, for all of us and the nine kings that would have been are to be drowned in flame and burned in water and- he will know. Celebrimbor- Celebrimbor must not be with him when he learns of it- he is going to be so angry, Galadriel and I- I...." he blinks, shuddering, and the energy all seems to drain out of him. He sinks. Galadriel smooths the curls back from his forehead, and her heart leaps to her mouth at how warm he is. "I have to go," he mutters. "I -I have to go to Elros. But the High King's speeches are yet to be written, I don't- " he blinks rapidly, his eyes desperately scanning her face until finally a spark of recognition seems to return. "Galadriel." he says, reaching and clutching at her skirt. "I haven't finished the speeches. But I need- Elros is calling-"

The tears come, then. She has tried- she has fought so hard not to give into despair, but this...

She takes his hand in her own, and kisses the back of it. "If you wish to go to Elros, dear one, you must go to him," she whispers. "Do not worry about the speeches. The King will not be angry-he is- he-" her voice hitches, breaks. "He is very proud of you," she says. "He told me so, and wished to tell you himself, but if you must go to Elros, now, it can wait. Go. We will miss you, but you will go with all our love."

She watches, in complete and utter terror, as his expression eases, his eyes close, his body goes slack, and his breathing....

His breathing...

Eases. It eases, it eases- she calls, for Adar and Celeborn both, to tell her she is not imagining it-

"He is cooler," Celeborn says; Adar concurrs-

Every hour, Elrond improves- and every moment of it, Galadriel clings to his hand. She is no healer. But she pictures the light of the Eldar within herself, and she imagines it passing from her palm to his, a loan of her strength to carry him through...

As dusk approaches, there is a flurry of birds chirping. Elrond Peredhel wrinkles his nose and, without opening his eyes, grumbles with rasping irritation: "Why is my hair so wet?"

Galadriel does not stop laughing for a full five minutes.

[raiiny-bay]

before & after :-)

[nenoname]

Seeing that criticism directed on NMM:

Tbh an idea at the back of my mind to rework that Mabel subplot is... Actually substitute it by readapting the Wendy+Stan B-plot, by having them break into the NW Manor. Then perhaps the plot would be the girls trying to cover up for Wendy and Stan and not be tossed out or accused for inviting them in. And it could also tie in neatly between Wendy and her ancestor

On the other hand tho, NMM is already very tight with a very big revelation of the Northwest crimes and other crazy things going on. So I guess thats why the writers went with a rather basic B plot for the girls.

unfortunately i think the writers were set on having this be the last regular ep before nwhs, with an excuse to have the kids out of the house and for stan not to have a subplot... until mcgucket shows up at the last minute and it drops that "oh. this is actually the first time stan hasn't shown up at all. it's all happening next episode."

but yeah honestly that idea would've been soooo sweet cos wendy also missing that tie to her ancestor really does bug me! can't believe she had to be excluded from the ep for encouraging more violence kahsdkjhsak

i wouldn't mind a lighter b plot but the fact that they had to resort to the girls bickering over some guy (especially when they know we're tired as hell of mabel's crush of the week plots!!!!!)..... and sure it's like "yay grenda gets to be the focus and have a 'win'" but urgh does it really have to be at this cost......

(people also pointing out that it's a bummer that mabel isn't part of the last regular ep's main plot and we only get the stanchurian candidate to have the mystery twins properly working together in a non-apocalyptic situation after this and that's them just mind-controlling stan all ep 😭)

[lord-squiggletits]

I'm not normally a "fuck canon" kind of person but it's still wild to me that JRO said via word of god that Pharma's red rust plague wasn't designed for Tarn. Like what the fuck. Tarn trapped Pharma into a blackmail deal to give him free tcogs for his transformation addiction and Pharma designs a plague that activates on transformation and you're gonna try to tell me that Tarn wasn't in Pharma's mind when he made it like that? How can you NOT write that into your plot when the connection is so obviously there? I guess it would've meant writing Pharma as more of a vengeful mech seeking punishment for his captor and not as an insane selfish doctor, and I guess that just wasn't what we were after.

[on-leatheredwings]

society if someone could simply just write for me

[rinmemesuoka]

Kabru's Tormentous Nightmare has been keeping me entertained for days tbh. Wow it's such a positive change for your stifling helicopter mom to be making connections and building relationships with people her own age, maybe now she--hm? huh? what do you mean it's captain mithrun.

[jq37]

Please let us know if you solve this mystery!

OK! It’s the end of the year so let me compile everything I was able to come up with (with the help of everyone I dragged into this–you know who you are and thank you and I’m sorry). 

To anyone who’s just seeing this and doesn’t have context, in November, right before the movie Wish came out, I made a longish post questioning who Allison Moore was (which, incidentally, is the first post that comes up when you Google “Allison Moore Disney”).

The reason I was curious about who this random writer is is because she’s credited as one of the co-writers of Wish, Disney’s 100th Anniversary Feature Film BUT she has no obvious experience writing for animation, children, or fantasy when everyone else on the main team has credits on stuff like Frozen and Encanto. I thought it was bizarre that there would be someone so green on a project so big so I went digging. 

Here’s what I learned:

(1) Moore wasn’t originally announced as being attached to the project. Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Fawn Veersunthorn were all mentioned when the project was officially announced in Sept 2022 (for example). Moore was not. And you’d think they’d mention the *co-writer*, right? You don’t start to see her name until a year later in Sept 2023 when the trailer dropped (for example). So it seems like she was brought onto the project later. Of course, this could just be a normal quirk of the industry or something I’m misinterpreting, but I think it’s worth mentioning. 

(2) Moore seems to have a lot more credits in stage writing than she does in screenwriting. I wasn’t able to 100% confirm it until recently (I’ll get to that in a second) but she’s written a bunch of plays and it seems like this is where she has most of her bona fides. 

“Allison is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships, two McKnight Advancement Grants and the Bush Artist Fellowship.”

That sounds fancy. But it still doesn’t say “Top Choice for Disney Anniversary Movie” to me. That’s not a statement on writing quality. I haven’t read/seen any of her plays. It’s about the subject matter. Look at some of these synopses:

None of that really screams Disney. Which isn’t to say people can’t have range. George Miller wrote all the Mad Maxes but also Babe and both Happy Feet. But if I was hiring someone for a really big project, I wouldn’t want that project to be their first attempt at expanding into that genre. 

(3) This isn’t actually inherently important but she was on an episode of Nailed it. That’s where this picture comes from:

She won the first round and the game ended in a three way tie for the first time in the show’s history. 

The only reason this is noteworthy in the larger scale of things is that, until very recently, this was one of only two places online you could see Allison Moore talking. The other is this very short interview on the red carpet during the premiere. 

There’s nothing in that interview that explains anything. It’s mainly her talking about how it was fun working on the movie and how good the movie is. 

Honestly, good for her for not being Extremely Online, but it really felt like I could get a bit of a handle on everyone else who’d worked on this project in a high profile way but not her. Which is part of why I started down this rabbit hole to begin with. There was nothing to show where she might have had a connection or an interest or anything that would connect the dots. 

For reference, Fawn (who was one of the Directors and story writers) has the kind of resume that I was expecting Moore to have when I initially Googled her:

Smaller jobs on other kids/animated movies (Hop, The Lorax, Despicable Me 2), some storyboard or art work on other Disney stuff (Frozen, Moana, Zootopia, Ralph), and then a big break (Raya and Wish). Based on my understanding of the industry (and I know a fair bit because it’s one I’m interested in professionally) that’s a very typical track to get to the writing side of animation.  

A couple of people speculated that Moore got onto the project in a mentorship capacity. Now, I’m a Black woman who writes fiction professionally when I’m not on this hellsite (affectionate) with the rest of y’all. That means I have firsthand experience with what mentorship looks like in writing–both official Diversity and Inclusion type mentorship and more organic “Let me take you under my wing” type mentorship. I have *never* seen anyone get a job this high profile at the jump just due to mentorship alone. Going from zero to Disney’s 100th anniversary is kinda insane. This wasn’t some B project or something. It was a Big Deal Project. And this is Disney so they could have hired basically anyone they wanted. So you have to assume this was an active decision someone made and not just a thing that happened for lack of options. But in all my searching, Moore wasn’t mentioned except to just say she wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Lee. It was just the baking show and the Youtube clip.

Until today.

(4) I’m going to preface this by saying this doesn’t actually answer the question in a big AHA! way, but it is the only interview I’ve seen about Wish from Moore besides the red carpet clip.

On December 15th, Moore gave this interview with the San Antonio Current.

I stumbled across it while searching for a different piece of information and eagerly clicked to see what she had to say after three weeks of silence after the movie dropped on November 22.

Here are some highlights:

-In high school she was a theater kid and thought she wanted to pursue acting. 

-I college she did playwriting and eventually she got her MFA from Iowa (which has a weirdly great MFA program btw, and also, this interview is how I confirmed she was the playwright Allison).

-When she started on the theater track at her college, she told them she was a playwright so she could study that too even though she’d never written a play before. So it sounds like Wish isn’t the first time she’s just jumped into a new thing without experience. You have to respect the hustle.

But this is the most important line in the interview because it’s like, an answer and a non-answer all in one. She’s asked, “How did you go from writing plays to writing for TV and film?”

And her answer is, “I had a whole career writing for theater, and then when my son was born, I realized I needed to make more money, so I started pitching for TV. I worked in television for about a decade. In the midst of working in TV, I continued playwriting. That's how I got on the radar at Disney.”

Which kind of sidesteps the most intriguing part of the question? Like, first of all, it’s not 100% clear if she means her playwriting or her TV writing caught Disney’s attention. I’m guessing playwriting, but I could be wrong. Secondly, who is “Disney” in this situation? A Disney recruiter? A Disney director? Did Jennifer Lee see a production of Slasher: A Horrifying comedy while passing through Texas and think, “Her. I want her to be my co-writer on this children’s film.” And what did she do to impress them so much that they right away put her on the the *Anniversary Project*? Like, I know I keep harping on this but I can’t stress enough how big of a deal this is. It’s hard enough to write for just your average sitcom or little movie. To just jump on something this big is baffling. I obviously don’t expect Disney to be justifying their every hiring decision publicly but, usually, when someone is doing something like this, it’s very obvious why they were chosen and, even with this sliver of explanation, it’s still frustratingly opaque. And with the strange post hoc timing of the interview (seriously, doesn’t promotion usually happen PRE movie release?) It almost reads like an interview that exists because someone realized the lack of any online presence was weird. 

(5) When she was a kid, Allison Moore had a crush on Fox Robin Hood. That’s not at all important to the mystery, that’s just information she volunteered during the interview and that I’m now sharing with you. So when you search her name now, the top results are me wondering who she is, her IMDB, and her talking about how she liked Fox Robin Hood's little hat. Which isn't a LOT of information, but it’s more than we had before and that’s something.  

[charmac]

Hi! Do you have any thoughts on Mac and Mrs. Mac’s relationship? I find the whole McDonald family dynamic so interesting, but especially after season 16/frank shoots every member of the gang I’ve been fascinated by those two. You always have such impressive, well thought out answers!

Thank you!

I do have a lot of of thoughts regarding Mac's upbringing, especially in terms of his relationships with his family and how they clearly affect his current-day relationships and misconceptions of love, but I'm not sure I've really fleshed that out so, great question.

First of all, I have a gripe with Frank Shoots Every Member of the Gang, as it really insanely retcons Luther's age. Mac Kills His Dad established that he was 59 at the time, which would have made him a teen when he had Mac. Shoots establishes that Luther's dad served in WWII and wrote him letters during that time, which means he had to have been born before 1945, and would have been at youngest in his 30s when Mac was born. It's not like it's a huge issue, but it does change some previously-thought dynamics. (Though, the fact that they weren't younger-cast in A Sunny Christmas does better-align with the idea that they were in their 30s when they had Mac.)

There was/is always kind of the vibe that when they were together, pre-Luther going to jail, Ms. Mac did really love Luther and vice-versa, and Mac was more kind of like a by-product of unprotected sex more than he was a part of the family. (I mean, they named him after the Hamburger Clown). Luther clearly love(d) him as the idea of having a son, someone who could carry on his bidding and his name, but doesn't love him as the child he actually has. I think Ms. Mac didn't love him as the idea of a son and doesn't love him as the child she has, and never did. BUT she did love Luther, and Mac observed that as a young kid, his parents loving each other but neglecting him. Looking at Christmas, we can kind of assume the order of anything in Mac's childhood home was Ms. Mac > Luther > Mac. So for his early development he was kind of sidelined, saw no love from his parents toward him, but did see love between his parents (in a definitely not healthy way, as it goes).

We know in the deleted scenes of Sunny Christmas that Mac's dad is going to prison probably right after the events of the video tape... I honestly think it's reasonable to assume that Mac's screaming that woke up the residents of the house they were robbing might have been probably was what led to Luther being arrested (with whatever warrants he had hanging over him catching up with him once he had been detained). So, does Ms. Mac blame her son for her husband being locked up for the next 25 years? Probably. She didn't even want him, didn't care for him, and then his obnoxious behaviour was their downfall.

Back to Shoots, I did really like it for what it gave us in terms of (Char)Mac childhood lore. I think it definitely wasn't a shock for them to drop the cigarette lighter line, but it was a hit to the chest for me. Everything I kind of assumed before, re: didn't want or care about having a child equated to strictly-neglectful, Mac clawing for the love he saw his mom give his dad, now with his dad gone even more-so, and being brushed off, now escalated to retaliation in response to Mac failing to be brushed off. Sometimes the dismissive, grunting and not moving from your chair approach just doesn't work on a hyperactive little bastard like Mac, sometimes you have to make him shut up by giving him something else to fuss over. I think Ms. Mac probably hoped that would be what breaks through his skin, makes him realise she doesn't love him, but Mac only sees it as a warning, a pause, a try-again-later, mom's just in a bad mood.

Presently, what we see of Ms. Mac is almost always the same: completely indifferent. Shrug, cough, I don't care at all about you. Mac's a serial killer? Yeah. Mac's dead? Ok. You're gay? Meh. She'll fuck with him though, sure: your dad is actually Dutch. You wanted these letters that meant something to your father? I needed toilet paper. Who cares. She doesn't love him, never has, never will, and Mac has no ability to understand that.

Based on his upbringing and the past 20 years, I think he has a complete misunderstanding (and at this point inability) to recognise and understand what love is, mostly because of his mother. Because she just, doesn't love him, never did, but Mac thinks that parents have to love their children, that's a fact in his mind. If he has a mom and a dad they do love him, they have to, especially when he was a little boy, right? His dad loves him, he's just in jail so he can't show it, but his mom is here. And mom did love dad, he remembers that, he saw it, so he just has to make himself known, she can love him too because she's capable of it and she's his mom. He loves her, he says it over and over, she never says it, but she just doesn't see him because she's busy, working, or making a home for him, or just for some reason she's not paying attention... So love for Mac is fighting neglect, love is refusing to be ignored, love is pestering over and over because if you can get away with your bombardment without a finger being raised, without being scored by a cigarette lighter, they must really want you to continue... they must be waiting for you to really prove yourself before they show or admit their love for you. There are people in his life who have to love him, it's like a law, so they'll admit it as long as you keep asking, keep making yourself known, keep trying to prove yourself... and if it comes to the point where you're getting burned, stop for a minute, take a step back, and reevaluate how (or when) you can try again...

[uku-lelevillain]

when lockwood and co

meets ghost files

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

2, 4, 14, and 19 for disorder if it’s not too late!!

Ty Romeo! its never to late to ask about my ocs! for this ask game, and about this new batch of ocs! Disorder<33

2. What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

Disorder dresses like a black and white riddler, and while that has certain connotations [eccentric] i think people really do underestimate her intelligence. While she is very booksmart, and certainly sounds like it, she has enough skills at genuinely chasing trails and making links to not only find out about Passiones lighter test and when one would happen, but found out enough that they hunted her down to make sure she couldn't escape them. [Tesoro has his eye on Disorder, and shes the one to watch in case she pulls a Dina [secretly letting people go/coping files and hoarding information to bring Passione down at a later date] because of how smart she is and how good at finding information]

idk. i feel like people see her and think she has an overinflated view of her intelligence or is just crazy and so underestimate both her book smarts and very good investigative and deductive skills

4. When scared, does your OC fight, flee, freeze or fawn?

Freeze. She will get overwhelmed as she tries to figure out what to do, especially if its in a combat situation [and this is where Harumi leaps out of the shadows to punch someone]

14. How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

She wants to be seen as cool and intelligent and elegant, especially bc shes the oldest but alas she is a nerd who gets overstimulated really easy and will have hours long arguments about petty semantics and goes through peoples trash to find out more about them. She also dislikes being seen as immoral, but her curiosity has lead her down a dark path and its the assess to the underworld of Napule and its information that is really what keeps her tied to Passione, she could walk away but she wouldnt get to know

19. How does your OC behave when enraged?

She shuts down emotionally, tenses up, retreats into her head, then once the situation is over she walks away with a clenched fist and then calmly and quietly ruins that persons life. When she was younger she would have meltdowns and get really angry but she was punished for it so much she learned to internalize it, but when its the group and someone has been bugging her she will sometimes explode and its not great but its good for her to get it out sometimes [she isnt often in combat, but the few times she ends up in a fight, well shes got some anger to let out even if her form is a bit shoddy]

[dioynsus]

i have no idea what my life is gonna look like when my lease is up at the end of june…scary

[beyonddeathnote]

Seeking advice-

I've seen people who have been in in-system relationships for years, which gives me hope that it can work out. Lately, I've been struggling a lot with the fact that I'm unable to share physical space with him. It limits so many activities, and despite cofronting & internal visualization, I'm so touch-starved. Any activities we do together, even just taking a walk, requires concentration and effort, and don't feel as solid or prominent as they do with external friends/partners.

Are there ways that other systems navigate this? Is it something I'll just get used to with time?

-Aliferous