#how would the cast react if they're there at the scene?

[loulovingho]

Here is the thing:

This season has been very weirdly written. Not only with rushed storylines, but also with the way they are writing their characters and dynamics, and also the way the found family sentiment almost feels gone.

It lowkey feels like, for some reason, they’ve stopped knowing how to write these characters and these dynamics. They react to things in ways they wouldn’t have before (and without habits an experience that makes it so now this is their response), they’ve seemed to have regressed, they don’t care about things they would’ve before.

And again, I know we all focused on the BuckTommy of it all (because you’re telling me that Buck, who was spewing bee facts in 801, hasn’t done research on queer history or queer rights after discovering he’s bi??) , but this can be applied to everyone else as well. They’ve stopped having scenes of the characters actually interacting and talking about their issues, we don’t see the firefam outside of emergencies… everything feels so messy.

I think that’s why, overall, this season feels very weak and disappointing.

I think you've got it! It almost reads like a show where half the cast doesn't get along with the other half. I am NOT saying that's what's happening, by the way! I know they always talk about how much they get along and love each other. All I'm saying is, the way the writers are writing it, feels like they're separating things too much. Instead of giving us a big storyline where everyone works together, they're shoving like 5 different storylines in where you're jumped from one spot to another every 2-3 minutes.

You can't get invested in any of it. The second you start to feel something, you're shoved onto the next thing.

I still think about how pointless Gerrard was. He was not the asshole we saw back in season 2. It would have been a great moment for Buck's bi arc. Recognizing homophobia for the first time. Seeing what it's like to be on the receiving end and having to deal with it. Or having an actual fallout to Gerrard taking Buck under his wing.

Everything has been stunted... except for fucking Brad who won't fucking go away!

[letcaleslack]

Sooo ...

Kim Rok Soo was buff, right? A real expert at excercising. Knew all the best tricks, stretching excercises and post workout routines.

But as Cale he keeps quiet about it. Doesn't breath a word of it. His friends don't need the advice, they're plenty strong.

Now imagine: What if one day he came across a poor fellow making a big exercising mistake. The kind where the harm they're doing to their muscles is greater than any good they'd get from the excercise.

And Cale can't keep quiet. He tells them what they're doing wrong and how to do it right.

And the fellow is just standing there with huge question marks and thinking "What does that walking stick know about excercising? He looks a light breeze could knock him over. Young master never lifted anything heavier than a teacup in his life." Cue nasty comment a la "How dare you?! Young mistress is wrong and shouldn't talk about things she doesn't know. I'm obVioUsly right". Cue Raon obliterating him. Cue Cale obliterating his remains.

Or if the fellow knows who Cale is: "Commander Cale, famous for his disgust for exercising, is giving me advice???!" Just total confusion. Like "Young master silver shield knows that you need to stretch after exercising?". Completely disbelieving. Then: "He probably learned in an effort to help his companions. He is so kInD/GRaCioUS/HeROiC. To force himself to learn about something he hates for the sake of his friends/the Country/the CONtinent/the WORLD." ... And the hero worship for Cale grows along with a new rumour being born.

[randomnameless]

I have a hunch that the reason Treehouse went with the direction they did wrt the Supreme Leader lolcalization is because they didn't want the female lord to be a villain. I mean let's face it, if they didn't make those changes, what do you think the reception of the game would've been like from the west, especially if they decided not to make a route where you side with SL?

Eh...

I think it's reveals more, if this is the reason why Supreme Leader was whitewashed, about the lolcalisation's backwards views about women ?

Sure the base game also had the cheap uwu moments and the alone b4u nonsense, but beyond the uwu and need to sell tea, it was clear Supreme Leader was a red emperor, and shared some of Ashnard's skewed tendencies.

Just like women can fart too, they can also be imperialists, don't give any fucks randoms being diced or think people from another race ruin the world.

I was wondering why Araki meant when he said he wanted jolyne cujoh to be a real character and not what everyone does when they write a "female character", but after reading her arc, I'm disappointed in how much Araki was... Sort of right ?

At times you have the feeling the writing for some character restraints itself because this character happens to be a woman.

For Supreme Leader, it already happened bcs uwu and "in luf with u" means she put her conquest in hold for 5 years bcs, more or less "alone b4u ", and no one ever holds her accountable for Flamey's sidekicks or the "pointy ears are not human thus shouldn't rule over humans"-

But trying to remove the vilain angle (that no one in the verse even cares about !) ? Because she's a woman ? What kind of benevolent sexism "women can't be bad" is this shit ? Would anyone really seriously think "women can be bad !" would cause a controversy in the west ?

[sharonaparadox]

[Images: fanart of Audrey and Jane from Disney’s Descendants. Audrey is wearing a casual white crop top with a pink and orange tie-dye pattern over denim shorts with colorful flower designs as well as a blue bird necklace and pink sunglasses that she is pushing up on top of her head. Jane has shoulder-length split black and white hair with red streaks near the front, her eyebrows similarly split with one black and white. She is lying down in a shopping cart that Audrey is pushing and wearing a baggy teal sweater with a paw print design with a small pink heart and text reading “Good Girl” over ripped white jeans. Both are turning to look at the viewer with smiles as if taking a photograph, a parking lot in the background.

The next two images are made to look like text message conversations, the time at 12:05 PM and the WiFi set to “RoyalNet” for both.

The first is a conversation between Jane and Lonnie. Lonnie asks, “Where r u?” before continuing, “Jane, FG is freaking out” and then repeating, in all capital letters, “Where R U?”

Jane responds with one word, “skipping” and then adds, “ttyl”

Lonnie reacts with “😶” (Face Without Mouth emoji) and follows up with “I’m calling Ben” before concluding with “🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬” (five enraged Face With Symbols On Mouth emojis).

The second is a conversation between Audrey and Ben, the latter with “👑” (a crown emoji) beside his name in Audrey’s contacts. Ben asks, “Hey is Jane with you?” Audrey replies, “Yep. Skipping class w us” Ben responds, “Come back now FG is 😡” (Enraged Face emoji).

Audrey says, “Cover? 🤫 (Shushing Face emoji) will be back b4 cerfew”

Ben replies, “No come back now” before sending, “Audrey?” He then sends her name in all capital letters with no punctuation before ending with “😡😡😡🤬😡🤬” (three Enraged Face emojis, one Face With Symbols On Mouth emoji, another Enraged Face emoji, and one final Face With Symbols On Mouth emoji).

The last image is made to look like an Instagram post by “royal_kingchad” with a profile picture that looks like a photograph of the actors, the location set to “Arcadia, USA” as the picture in the post is the art from the first image. Chad’s caption reads, “Summer skipping 📚 (Pile of Books emoji) ☀️ (Sun emoji) with @/royal_queenaudrey and @/thereal_janeyg! nobody tell FG 🤐 (Zipper-Mouth Face emoji)”

The post, which was made 1 hour ago, has 1,526 likes and 25 comments. Two comments are visible from Ben and Lonnie.

A comment by “mrkingbeast” reads, “FG is 😡😡😡 (three Enraged Face emojis) come back now!”

A comment by “sword_thirstieLL” reads, “Yo no invite? Come save me from ROAR practice 🥲 (Smiling Face with Tear emoji)”

End description.]

Summer Skipping

There are a lot of reasons Auradon seniors have to be in summer school. For Audrey and Chad, they are taking Remedial Goodness classes with FG under Ben’s royal order. For Jane, her perfect academic record collapsed after losing Carlos, leading to a report card full of failures and missing credits that kept her from graduating on time.

With better things to do and a beautiful day before them, Audrey makes the executive decision to skip (just this once), taking Jane along for the ride. And, after so much heartbreak and grief, maybe Audrey’s touch of bad influence is just what she needs to begin healing.

The first stop? RoyalMart for some much needed snacks and picnic supplies. Chad is behind the camera snapping this pic of his Princess and her best friend, you know, for Instagram.

[twilightprince101]

Let's be careful before labeling Wally or Home as "The Villain" of Welcome Home

Or anyone for that matter imo

Listen, I can completely understand why people would go to that conclusion. "So Below" and the eerie vibe that Wally gives off in his obsession don't exactly give either a flattering light (I know there are also the art pieces on Clown's personal blog, but I'm not counting anything that hasn't been officially released yet)

But whenever someone labels a character who is acting weird as "the villain," it puts a bad taste in my mouth. At the end of the day, characters in fiction are real people with motivations, so labeling one as "evil" or "the villain" can sometimes erase that complexity. And after the most recent update, we know that Wally has A Lot of very, very complicated feelings about the situation.

Before I get into that though, I wanna point out something that Clown himself has said describes the brand of horror that "Welcome Home" gives off to themselves personally. Click here for the link to the post.

Before I get into that though, I wanna point out something that Clown himself has said describes the brand of horror that "Welcome Home" gives off to themselves personally. Click here for the link to the post.

"My home doesn't feel like home anymore."

That line sticks to me pretty hard. There's a pervasive feeling of unfamiliarity, unreality, that exists in the core of the story itself.

I think we see, firsthand, Wally experiencing this in the latest updates. In all of the hidden Bug/Answer secret videos, we see a familiar pattern. We get some sort of scene of two other characters talking, a scene in whatever universe they call home, until at the very end one of the characters addresses Wally (who was apparently there the whole time) and the video glitches out.

A key part that not a lot of people seem to realize though is that these videos are from Wally's perspective. See the above picture with Wally's hands. In every scene, Wally is present and was supposedly taking part in an activity (in the above one, helping Poppy with knitting), before the video started playing.

Whenever I saw these videos I had that same feeling that something felt. Different. The interactions felt like scenes you would see in the animated/cartoony aesthetic we'd see from the various art pieces, it doesn't feel like it's "on set/TV" to me. They're moreso just intimate glimpses into their lives. But they're shot in the real world, and that feels. Wrong.

This is very likely the same feeling that Wally's having in that moment. "My home doesn't FEEL like home." It's like he's disassociating, having a brief episode of that unreality feeling. Those bouts of strangeness don't go away until, like clockwork, someone says his name and the video ends, snapping him out of it.

Do other people in the neighborhood also feel the same way? Maybe, but we don't know. What we do know is that Wally, whether or not he tries to explain this to others, feels isolated by this sensation. "My neighbors are only neighborly until they know I'm different in a way they can see."

The only other person he likely shares this feeling with? I'd take a guess that it's Home. Nearly every time Home has been featured, Wally has been there, close. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only physical puppets/props we’ve seen of the cast are Wally and Home.

According to this post by @eldritchravens, Home is the only other person who talks directly to Us, the viewers. That's probably why they're so close, because they're the only ones who can truly confide in each other about this.

"So does that mean Home is manipulating Wally?"

Again, I really don't think that's the case. I don't wanna call people villains quite yet. Besides, we see (or well, hear) Home and Barnaby have a conversation together, and from how Barnaby reacts it's fairly casual.

This shared feeling is likely why Wally is so obsessed with us, including the Restoration Employee. They seem to be sharing a similar sensation to Wally's bouts of unreality, in the fact that it seems they're the ONLY one who doesn't remember Welcome Home being a thing. They seem to be one of the few things that Wally (and maybe even Home) consider to be "Real." Hence their obsession with "seeing" us.

"Isn't this Wally or Home manipulating the Employee though?"

Maybe, I don't know. We don't really know much of what's going on right now, we're only getting glimpses. For all we know this could be a side-effect of Wally/Home trying to reach out. For the time being though, I want to keep my own expectations in check. I'm choosing not to label Wally, Home, The Restoration Team or anyone as a "villain" until something definitive comes up.

It is very, very likely that Wally is going to be doing something more dangerous later down the line (or maybe even is doing so now). But if he's doing anything, I get the feeling it's more out of desperation. He wants something to quell this feeling inside of him, this pervasive sense of unreality, and to connect with something he feels is "real." And, for better or for worse, that thing is us.

This whole thing isn't to bash on people for speculation or theorycrafting, I personally think speculation is very healthy! But it's still important to remember what the core of this story is going to be. We're only seeing the very start of the story right now, and we don't know what'll happen down the line. It's useful to keep that core idea at the center of our speculation so we can have reasonable expectations going forward.

As for me? This doesn't feel like a story with villains. I don't think he'll pull a Monika from DDLC and start gaining a kill count, but if something does happen to the rest of the cast, my money is that it'll happen completely by accident, and he'll regret it. Hard.

[redacteddoesstuff]

Inanimate Insanity S2Episode 16 Spoilers (again)

So, I have an theory that the contests aren't gone gone. Most devices store deleted files in the trash, where they're in a state that can't be accessed but can be recovered.

This scene with Mic and Soap is practically begging you to draw that parallel.

That's probably how Mephone will get them back. Also, I refuse to believe that they're just dead forver.

Speaking of death I wonder how dough and bow fit into this. I can probably excuse dough as he was brought into the show midgame, but that still leaves bow. Because if she was created by mephone then that means that Mephone not only has the ability to create living people but also souls (or at least the closest alternative).

Also, is Mephone even aware that he can do that. Because that leaves two alternatives, 1 Mephone does know what he's doing and just didn't tell anyone or 2 he doesn't know and was doing it subconsciously. I personally am leaning towards the latter.

If we go off of what Cobs says here and how Mephone reacts then we can assume that he doesn't know. Just look at Cobs' face when Mephone says "what". Like he's genuinely surprised that Mephone didn't know what he was talking about.

Plus, Walkie talkie says some interesting things at the end of s3. When Mephone says that he knows who sent her we can guess that he means cobs, but Walkie Talkie shuts that down immediately. Watching this scene after ep16 shines a whole new blue light on everything. Especially that last line.

"Whether it's the one's YOU'VE built." She literally says in this line that Mephone created her, how did I not realize sooner. And the "we're all for you." She's being literal again, they contests are FOR him, for his show.

Also him not knowing explains why he assumed that Cobs created and sent her here. It also makes sense why his partnership with springy and why he was so intent on giving Mephone a "better" cast. "One that won't leave him" in his own words. Sure he wanted to make profit, but why would a company be so intent on fulfilling Mephones wishes.

I think that Mephone created springy and Walkie Talkie from his desire to continue the season.

My final theory for this post is that the egg was used to create Mephone. I also think that extends to Mephone4s as Mephone still has all the same abilities while in 4s' body. I don't have much evidence for that other then it explaining how he's able to do all that.

But you know, that's just a theory, an II theory! (Sorry, I need to say that)

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Korea drops my favorite cameo ever & gives KISSES

Entirely subjective yadda yadda. Organized sorta by favs in each category.

Sept 2023 Wk 1

Ongoing Series - Thai

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 4 of 12 - Well that’s one way to find out if he’s gay, see how he reacts to reading a het sex scene out loud. Yai is flirting so hard it’s like he knows everything. 

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 4 of 12 - Oh no! I love them. Also cohabitation trope! Also ALL the other ones: hair dry, meet in childhood... GMMTV going no frills with this one.

Hidden Agenda (Sun YT) ep 9 of 12 - Zo’s drama over Pat helping Joke flirt seems awfully manufactured. I’m losing faith in this show. Could GMMTV PLEASE hand JoongDunk a decent script? 

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 5 of 10 - Sand & Ray are the only interesting couple, and I’m pretty much only watching for them. They gonna go south fast, tho, and they're already ruined by persistent singing. Ooo. When Sand said Top "stole his ex" did he mean Boston? How gay. 

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 2 of 8 - The pronoun conversation had a bonkers translation but I enjoyed the actuality of it. The reasons for Yi's trickery are very convoluted soap opera. But I suppose that is the amnesia trope for you. 

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 10 of 12 - Boys. We discussed this already. No sex in onsens! I found this one dull, until the end when LLS showed up. Happy to just have him in everything. Thank you Thailand. Looks like it is a classic ep 11 DOOM next week. Who cares? 

Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 1-2 of 10 eps - The usual Thai pulp claptrap this time a reunion romances in and around a convenience store between a boy who recently quit his job and his former bestie who is now a doctor. Mostly not great acting, plot, or production but the sound is okay and no bad effects or singing (so far), so that’s something. The gay brothers have a fun relationship. It’s vampy and campy but fun. I like it but not sure anyone else would.

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 4 of 10 - The date was cute but I still don’t like the lead or the premise (we moved into Cyrano de Bergerac territory). It’s moving slowly but it seems like we might be over the crush/stalker part of the narrative, so that’s a relief. 

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I just can’t. The sound is too weird. With punch down humor and other issues incoming I may DNF this. You’ve been warned. This ep we got to see LLS with his shirt off. Did anything else happen? 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Jun & Jun (Korea Thur Viki) ep 8fin - No wonder he is everyone’s favorite hyung, boy can read the room like no one else. I love that we got to see exactly how clingy and demanding Choi Jun was always going to be. Only Lee Jun is easy-going enough to put up with him. Also I’ve never watched a KBL with more innuendo. For Korea this was… raunchy. I gotta say had Laws of Attraction not come along, Simon might have been my favorite character of 2023.

Final thoughts on Jun and Jun:

A delightful office romance about an ex-idol who joins cubical life only to find his new boss is his first love. Others boys are sniffing around too. Operative word being "sniffing" as much of this romance involves smell. With a snappy script, enjoyable sides, a pretty as peaches cast, and descent chemistry this show made up for in style what it lacked in substance. I like fluff. I loved this. I smiled every moment I was watching. With tons of rewatch potential (especially the last few eps), my only caution is this is for fans of the BL genre only, I don’t think it’ll work for anyone else. A solid 9/10 from me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I like that Korea is trying high heat, but Taiwan and Thailand are leaps and bounds better at it.

Love Class Season 2 (Korea Fri Viki) eps 9-10fin -

Omg they so cute as flirty bf. Eeeeeeee! CAMEO!!!!! My fav guest couple ever! So exciting!!!! I love that they intersected with MY Strongberry couple (Private Lessons). I’m not used to this but Holy innuendo Korea, what with Jun & Jun and now this show? It’s a bit much for my gay little heart. The final episode was entirely unnecessary, but it was fun to see them being all domestic and stuff. Maru with his dumb lettuce leaves was hilarious. I feel like I need to rewatch this one to really understand it properly, so I will likely do that soon.

Summary of Love Class 2:

3 couples form within a semester of university: 1. a hyung romance reunion of exes, one of whom has a dangerous past, 2. a friends to lovers romance, and 3. a mature student and TA one night stand + complexities (many aspects of which had me laughing). I enjoyed the characters and dialogue of this show immensely. It was a little bit more breezy and friendly than I was expecting after the first installment, Love Class. I’m not entirely sure Korea can handle multiple couples like this because it definitely felt disjointed, especially the 3rd more mature couple (also my favorite) who probably should’ve had their own series. But it was definitely fun and something different from Korea. 8/10 RECOMMENDED

Also, Korea tried to give us higher heat... that was... interesting. I mean, you tried hon...?

Kisseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 4 of 13(?) - Everyone is a sad sack this ep. Ooooo. Teach/student my favorite. We never get this one. It’s messy. I’m not sure if there is a plot. I’m not sure they’re sure if there is a plot. But I am still enjoying it.

Why R U? (Korea Wed iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - Why is the Fighter character always so frustrating regardless of name or country? Ji Oh stalking his crush via IG is so relatable. He’s very first crush awkward, unsure, and sweet. They also gave a nice kiss - I love the backpack drop (kiss version of a mic drop?) I still hold that if you haven’t seen the original this might not make much sense. But I am enjoying it. 

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 4 of 8 - Oh goody, another JBL where we have to pay attention solely to what they do and not what they say. 

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) ep 9 of 12 - Big fat sigh. 

It's Airing But...

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) ep 3 of 24 eps - I couldn't get hold of it and I'm not mad. I'm putting it on hold until distribution gets sorted, or icky get their shizz in order (like that'll happen).

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting

9/15 You Are Mine (Taiwan Gaga) Secretary has to deal with grumpy boss.

9/15 Bump Up Business AKA Bump Up Project (Korea movie) suspected cinema release? I don't know much about what's going on. Last status update. Love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency. Kpop boy group OnlyOneOf has signed up to star in this idol-based BL (based on a webtoon). They’ve been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV series in this post. It’s from Idol Romance who will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You).

Still To Come In September

9/26 I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan ????) - Adapted from the manga, childhood best friends: The cool, smart one who’s good at everything, and his average, dorky friend who struggles. Always by the other’s side, but not together in the way they truly want to be. No matter how hard they try, their hearts cannot reach each other.

9/27 Absolute Zero (Thai iQIYI) - from 2021, Studio Wabi Sabi and New Siwaj finally bring us this “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance. We don’t always get HEAs from them, so I'm on my guard.

9/27 Bon Appetit (Korea iQIYI) - from 2022, 8 eps from GoGo Studio, romance between an office worker who lives off junk food and the man next door who cooks well.

9/? Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam YouTube?)

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I love him. And I love his version of this character better than Jimmy's.

I also love it when a show gets meta. (Both Why R U? Korea) Why they didn't just go for YRU? the world may never know.)

(Last week) 

[space-blue]

Prometheus as a TV series

Firstly, I want to specify that I only saw Alien, Alien Romulus, and the prequels. I'm due to watch Aliens this weekend. I've not read ANY comic or novel.

From my POV, Prometheus and Covenant are extremely weird because they are clearly excellent premises for TV series.

This was originally written in reply to someone who thought the Prequels undermined the cosmic horror by leaning too much into sci-fi and genomics around the Engineers. I argued that none of the prequels' content goes against horror and that the films are simply in the wrong format!

They're both currently terrible because people are forced into dumb exposition to cram information on the screen and dumb actions in order to make a monster movie happen inside what is otherwise an ambitious and philosophical sci-fi premise.

There's large casts of very skilled people. Fuck, in Prometheus there's one of the richest and most influential people in the human galaxy secretly aboard the ship. You'd think this would be absolutely great stuff to explore. Perfect opportunity to see how warped someone like Peter Weyland is, and also the sort of bonkers power he wields.

His relationship to his children (his daughter and his android "son") was very intriguing to me in the film, and considering how vital David 8 is to the prequels as a whole, this would have been great drama to explore further.

Focusing on Prometheus here:

A TV series would have given us a smart, not hectic Holloway. His turn to despondency could be more gradual. His difference in reaction to Shaw could, given time, explore different ways people of faith react to having that faith shaken. I think he's the main source of idiotic scenes throughout, and making him less of a wanker and more of a driven and soft spoken nerd would go a very long way.

Our extra time could also give us time to flesh out Shaw. She could reveal her infertility in a more reasonable environment, like while testing prior to the original cryo-sleep.

Starting on Earth and staying there longer would also help build the Engineers and the act of going after them as something spookier.

In general, the prequels massively sanitize space. It's also the case in Romulus. Space is treated as this negative area that is a source of hard vacuum and zero G. It's not treated as something inherently scary, but we all know that's perfectly doable.

Going to look after the "Engineers" sounds silly in the film because the team is honest to goodness just following cave paintings. They would benefit from following a lead, like perhaps finding the star system and studying it, only to detect strange emissions from it.

(Just in case you forgot, looking at a star is looking at how it was in the past. You look at a star 30,000 light years away and see how it was 30,000 years ago, when those photons left it. Which means we could reasonably pick up sus stuff that motivates a visit, but also means Holloway would understand the concept of being late to the fucking party lmao).

This entire idea, going on a very distant trip to an unknown system, could use time to have anxiety built around it. People could push with serious argument, highlight in universe disasters that happened during similar blind trips, etc. The emptiness and harshness of space are very easy to capitalise on, and going to an unknown system without sending probes first could help frame this as a risky venture, having us on edge and also showing the depth of faith of Shaw and Holloway. BUT ALSO the depth of wicked corporate slavery Weyland can go to, with the rest of the crew hired without any information that would let them make an informed choice on this job.

The arrival around the planet could be spent scanning and being professional. If we spend actual time scanning the surface and following reasonable protocols, the audience won't be poking fun at your show/film for showcasing scientists doing unsafe/idiotic stuff, and also have time to get attached to the red shirts! So it'll hurt when they begin dying!

I think the fans of alien would also appreciate a show that takes its time with the alien world discovery aspect? I feel like these films have neither the time nor the inclination to lean into the science and discovery aspect. Like it happens, but it's not indulged in or treated seriously. Yet aren't we also fans of Arrival? Of Annihilation? Or JC's Avatar?

There are scifi films out there that expect us to be invested in the discovery process, and we are! But Alien isn't one of those franchises. Every film I've seen so far has the science kept secret (Ash), already ruined (Romulus), aborted or discarded in the face of action, but also entirely handwaved or ignored (Prometheus and Covenant)

Like honest to god, you have an Android who is the only one paying attention to ALIEN WRITING and immediately knows HOW TO USE IT and nobody gives a shit, asks about it, is curious about annotating it or even learning it. It's never even mentioned? Like What the Actual Fuck? And in a film where the main goal is to find the aliens in question to have a chat to them, nobody is interested in decrypting the language??

Going back to our timeline, since we have time for the exploration process, we can begin ramping up the anxiety. We can make up some fun new stuff, like this:

What if we were blocked from communications? We could have the characters make incredible discoveries (that the buildings are made by real aliens would be exciting enough, but writing on the walls??) and promptly our crew realises that all communications are being jammed. Not between them, but between the main ship and anywhere else in the galaxy. Maybe the entire system is shrouded somehow and they have literally no idea how. Can't figure the tech behind it or its source. You can start having the one security/military guy announce they should retreat. After all, the planet is there, the buildings have been there for a very long time, they should go and come back later. It'd be more secure to figure out the range of this jamming and maybe call in reinforcement.

We can start dividing the crew! With all the scientists basically too over the moon to mind, and Weyland a silent driving force who doesn't give a shit!!

I think that Holloway sticking to protocol and not removing his helmet at all would help making the confusion and angst greater if he started showing symptoms like his wormy eyes. When did it happen? Was bringing the head aboard a mistake? Was that all it took? ((David grinning in the background))

We could then enjoy an entire episode of mounting paranoia and terror as the show splits between the geologist and biologist stranded in the building and the Prometheus crew growing paranoid and further divided: what if the team was split between the science crew and the ship crew? The scientists are containing Holloway and getting absolutely horrified by what they see happening to him, while the workers are being kept in the dark and told nothing.

A downtrodden and disrespected Wey-yu worker POV wouldn't hurt!

I personally think that Holloway basically morphing/dissolving/losing himself in front of the scientists while they all fail to understand what's happening to him and are completely incapable of stabilising him would be far more horrifying than his suicide by immolation at the hands of a neurotic billionaire. It would also make David's jab about Shaw's dad dying of Ebola more impactful. Rewatched the movie recently and was like "what, her dad died burnt alive before her too??? Oh..."

By the time David finds an Engineer alive, tensions could be high enough that the ship would be on the cusp of mutiny. A good writer could make us really feel 50-50 on "value of answers from a live engineer" vs. "getting the fuck away from this planet".

Also "the engineers are us, we have the same DNA" bit is flat out stupid and leaves a million more questions than it answers, and zero mystery besides. This concept could be much better explored for angst. There are so many directions we could go!

Their DNA could contain every human genome and then more. It could change while it's observed. It could be related to us without being a perfect match. Better yet: it could refuse observation, making every machine bug out and return invalid results. Just stuff to keep us on our toes while David does his parallel observations on the black goo.

Even if we go in depth in the genomics, explaining the thing doesn't have to destroy the appeal of the thing.

I think in particular that we could explain the engineers themselves as our creators and users of the goo, only to thicken the plot as we realise they have no fucking clue what they're doing with it and we're a stray experiment left to run wild in a forgotten petri dish. The idea that the engineers used but did not understand the goo, that it was a tool they inherited themselves from fucking around darker, deeper corners of the galaxy, would be cool.

WORSE yet, it would be interesting to discover they themselves were made by some other culture/force/entity/creation process, and we are like... a by-product. What if we are the David 8 of the engineers, who are the David 8's of something else yet? Or that the Engineers aren't even "made in the image of" their creators? Maybe the whole likeness (between them, us, and our androids) is just a recent tendency we're showing, but not something the Engineers have to share with their own creators.

We could come seeking answers, and realise the Engineers didn't even have any themselves. We could be left to realise we are just the mold on the rind of a cheese, far from understanding the intricacies of 5-star dining. That's how far removed we are from understanding the forces at play.

This would be plenty cosmic horror.

God is a well polished concept, but we have a very narrow and human centric understanding of it, and it may be meaningless. Imagine if you saw Shaw lose faith only to regain it with a streak of madness? Imagine if we had the time to explore what a cosmic horror on the scale of "At the mountains of madness" would do to a religious modern person who has come searching answers and found more than she could take?

If Shaw were a Lovecraft protag, she'd say stuff like the black goo being the blood of the gods that made the Engineers, all bled dry now. Weird poetic shit should come back xD

Also. Close your eyes for a second and imagine the scene of David speaking to the Engineer. And for the lolz, let's say that the Engineer speaks back, and David adjusts, and they end up having what looks like a meaningful exchange of a few words.

Then the Engineer pats his head and wrenches him apart, and the ending comes around, only for David to staunchly refuse to ever elaborate on what the Engineer told him. Certainly another great reason to keep him around...

I hope I've made my point. If more than 50 people lose their shit on this post, I'll make a Covenant TV show post too, though it's more of a fixer-upper.

Bonus for reaching the end, a happy David:

The ultimate argument, of course, is that given 16-18 episodes of great Prometheus TV, we would have had so much more David...

[bloofinntoona]

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, how do you think Sebastian would react to finding out that MC was good at hand to hand combat? Think they’ve been disarmed and rather than look around for their wand, they instead charge at their assailant and sock them in the face

Thanks for the ask! ❤｡◕‿ ◕｡

LMAOO I can imagine his dumbfounded face as MC decked someone. Honestly, they should've taught combat in DADA anyways.

Themes: funny, action, f!reader, fluff, didn't proofread this I'm ready for the trenches

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

Cold autumn breeze cut deep into your skin and bones, causing a massive quiver. You huddled close to the auburn-haired boy, begging for just a bit of warmth. To be fair, it was partially your fault for dropping your assignments to meet him in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, asking if you can help him retrieve a potion ingredient from a cave. Hiding behind a massive boulder, the two overlooked a small group of poachers -- two trackers and one animagus.

You glared at your companion, whispering, "You didn't say there will be poachers!"

"How would I know? They're everywhere these days!" he whispered back, "Let's just dispose of them and go."

"We can use the disillusionment charm and--" Before you could finish, the boy leaped and casted "Levioso!" on one of the men, sending him floating about. The other poachers immediately casted sorts of protection spells around them.

You mentally face palmed as you jumped into the battle scene, casting sorts of charms, pushing and pulling the enemies. Red lights from the basic casts flew everywhere, some even burned through your robe.

Sebastian and you did make a great team, taking turns casting Stupefy and hitting the enemies while they were down. Especially with your ancient magic, you and Sebastian already got the upper hand.

As you just finished taking down the animagus (the wolf form was particularly annoying), you noticed the tracker next to you pointed his wand to Sebastian. You quickly registered that Sebastian's wand was charging, sparks emitting from the stick.

Without any hesitation, you pulled your arm, balled your fist, and punched the poacher right in the middle of his face. You swore you heard a crack, obviously breaking his nose. Sebastian eyes widen in shock, mouth agape. You casted "Depulso!" pushing the enemy against the tree, rendering him unconcious.

"What was that?!" Sebastian shouted as he jogged closer to you. He grimaced at the sight of blood gushing from the poacher's nose. Sebastian scoffed, " You surely do pack a punch!"

"Why? Scared I would deck you too, Sallow?" you playfully do punching gestures aimed to the Slytherin boy.

"Hold on there, miss," he laughed, blocking your jabs with his hands, "I wouldn't expect this from a lady, but you are one-of-a-kind." He took the hand that you used to hit the man, gently stroking the red patch on your knuckles -- most likely swelling from the impact. Sebastian lowered his face and planted a soft kiss on the back of your hand, causing you to blush.

"I'll be better at dueling so you don't have to do that again." He smirked.

"You just wanted an excuse to duel!" You both laugh and continued the journey.

[ravi-is-my-beloved]

I can't believe the new Ryan interview dropped while I was showering. Always when I leave to do something, smh.

Anyways, onto my thoughts on this interview! (NOTE: I wrote this as I read the interview.)

So here's where the "he kind of falls in line" quote comes from, but then three sentences after it says that this is "not what Eddie "wants" for his team."

Which dispels any notion that Eddie will be completely fine with what's happening and that makes sense with Eddie's character. And honestly, I'd be really mad if the writers made him be completely fine with Gerrard because that's not how I think any of the main characters would react with him in the captaincy based on how they reacted to the news of his captaincy in the season 7 finale.

An interesting thing that Ryan says is "So it doesn't really affect him as much as some of the other characters who happen to be a little bit more emotional or erratic in their behavior.”

And to me is reminiscent of what Tim said in his interview where he said Buck be the one who wouldn't be used to dealing with someone like Gerrard. (That was me paraphrasing what Tim said, btw.) It's really interesting to me that, if that's the case, they're drawing parallels between Buck's reaction to Gerrard and Eddie's reaction Gerrard. I'm super curious for that.

Ryan said that Eddie's journey this season is about loving himself. I'm very excited for that, very excited on this journey with him. (I know this was short, but to be fair, he only talked briefly talked about it in the interview.)

I find it interesting that when it comes to Buck and Eddie, Ryan (according to the writer, so take that as you will) said that "the duo are still "going strong," noting that Eddie will be a source of comfort for Buck when Gerrard makes things difficult on the job." And the next thing that's in quotations (which are his words) are about how both Buck and Eddie will lean on each other.

Even without taking this in a romantic light, I'm assuming it means that they'll have a lot of scenes together like they did last season. Which I'm personally not mad about because I just love Buck and Eddie's dynamic even if I'm not thinking about it with shipper goggles.

And there are more things after that, but since this post is already long and I've deemed those other things as not really pertaining to be about the storyline for Eddie this season. So this is where my conclusion is coming in.

What I've taken away from this interview is that there are two things that are prevalent in Eddie's storyline in 8A: his journey of self-love and his way of dealing with Gerrard being captain. I do think it's worth noting that by the sounds of it, Buck seems to be intertwined with Eddie's storyline in a way that the others aren't.

I keep saying this, but I truly am excited for this season. I can't wait to see how everyone's storylines pan out. I'm hoping that we get interviews from the other cast members that we haven't seen, because it seems like the storylines this season are really interesting.

[eisforeidolon]

The thing with doing 'so and so consumes x media' content? Is that you have to consistently bring something to the table that is more interesting to your audience than them just revisiting the media themselves. It can be something like BTS insider information, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that big of a something. Just enthusiasm and surprise as a new viewer can do it. In-depth media critique can do it. Snark can do it in the right circumstances (though that doesn't really apply with a podcast you're selling to fans). Etc.

I haven't and am not going to listen to the Now & Then podcast, but from the people who've talked about trying it that I've seen, I get the impression Rob & Rich don't really understand that. Or they mistakenly think that listening to two middle-aged dudes who appeared in a bare handful of episodes yammer at each other is in and of itself a draw. Uh, guys? Tuning in for you specifically as opposed to deciding to see you at a convention they're already at are very different things.

I feel like they tried to bill the podcast as being an insider take, but they themselves aren't insider enough to do that so they're intermittently hosting some guests from cast and crew who were. Except they fill time between the guests with them doing a first time react to the show. Which could work ... except it sounds like they're doing it badly. They don't actually seem to like the show, but are trying to sell it to SPN fans who are, you know, fans. They frequently miss or fail to understand major moments, themes, and plot points. In short, they fail to make it consistently entertaining to the general audience they were presumably trying to pull. So most of the fans that actually love the show and were tuning in hoping to enjoy them watching it as a way of revisiting it? Have tuned back out. Which leaves who to give them money for continuing to do it? Oh, right, the weirdos who would happily throw money at studio janitor #5 or random non-speaking extra #207 if they told them D/C was real and canon. R2 haven't 'seen D/C is real, OMG!'. They've seen that they can continue to make money off having been on SPN without even bothering to rewatch the show and pretend to enjoy it! All they have to do is go down a checklist of 'D/C moments' and hint they can see how shippers would be into it and hellers will happily throw money at them. They'd already lost most of the fans who tuned in hoping they actually had interesting things to say, so why not?

All that is dumb enough, but Insisting this means that if Jensen rewatched the show he would totally [understand D/C was canon/make it canon] is an impressive level up in absolute batshit stupidity. Jensen isn't some rando who was in a handful of scenes in 10-20 episodes across 15 seasons, only trying to pretend he cares about the show for money. No he hasn't watched the entire show back over, but he's read every script, talked to the writers and directors, and every fucking thing (bar a few flashbacks/de-agings) Dean Winchester ever did on screen did it through Jensen acting out what he saw as Dean's motivations. Despite their constant self-delusion on this point, the GA and most of the fandom did not watch the show and think there was any kind of romance between those two characters. So insisting Jensen himself would entirely change his mind on who Dean was and what he felt despite his prominent role in determining exactly those things by watching the show back as a whole?

It's the same old fixated obsession with their own fanfic and denial of rationality that has lead them to make these same stupid predictions queerbaiting themselves over and over and over and over and over and over and over and ...

[nyx-thedragon]

okay, here's the post about my thoughts on Newsies 1992 that I promised, because I just remembered that I was gonna do that.

First of all, I didn't realize that Kenny Ortega directed the movie until the credits (I did like, zero research on the cast or crew, I just knew that Christian Bale played Jack Kelly) and I think that explains why it was so fucking good (and why Jack and Davey were so gay lmao)

Number 2: this one is just a thought about the story of Newsies in general, but I do not see the need for a romance subplot at all. especially in the movie, because Jack and Sarah barely interact with each other, and the "oooh they like each other he he he" little subplot start the first time they meet ? at least in the musical, Jack and Katherine interact a lot and they're friends before the romance stuff starts. idk. it just kind of irks me when media has a romance subplot for no reason.

Number 2.5: following up on the romance subplot; it could be completely taken out and the story would be exactly the same. "but what about at the end when Jack decides to stay in New York because of his love interest?" you may be asking. simple: he realizes that he has a family already in New York with the newsies and he doesn't want to leave them and be alone. this ending emphasizes the importance of familial and platonic relationships and bonds, which I think we just need more of in general.

Number 3: I love how the movie has the time and means to go more in-depth with Davey and how he reacts to Jack's betrayal and how he keeps the strike going without Jack and everything. I know that the live version is a musical, and therefore has more music, but still they kind of glossed over all that if I'm remembering correctly (I haven't watched livesies in a while and may be misremembering things oops)

Number 4: the scene where the rest of the workers join the crowd for the children's crusade is so much more powerful in the movie, because they were able to have a ton of extra people, as it is a movie and not a stage production with a smaller cast. I genuinely got some chills when I watched that scene it was awesome.

Number 5: all of these guys have beautiful voices. I didn't know that Christian Bale could sing (if it is him singing and not someone else because I know sometimes movies do that; have someone else sing for a character instead of their actor or voice actor). The songs are different than what I'm used to with the musical soundtrack, but I enjoyed them a lot. and the choreography was great too.

Number 6: I like Denton. he's awesome. it's great that the newsies have an actual adult that helps them instead of someone who is assumed to be close to Jack's age (Katherine).

Number 7: the scene in Medda's theater when Snyder and the police showed up was so- I don't even know, I just really like it. I was on the edge of my seat watching it. also, Davey kicking Snyder in the face on the swing was so badass. I love you movie Davey you're so cool

Number 8: there was way more romantic tension between Jack and Davey than between Jack and Sarah. I'm just saying. the scene where Jack was being carried away by the police after getting punched by Snyder, when Davey reaches for him and tries to get the police to let go of him? oh he wants that cookie so effing bad. Davey going after Jack by himself when he was taken to Pulitzer's from the Refuge? Gay. (also how did no one see him??) the alley scene? they should've kissed. Davey confronting Jack after he sold out to Pulitzer? they should've angry-kissed there. the scene at the end after Jack comes back on the governor's carriage and the way they stare at each other?? my homo-alarm was going off so loud. idk they just had so much tension and I thank Kenny Ortega for that, because I know damn well that he had everything to do with that.

Number 9: THE FUCKING HARMONIES HELLO. I feel the same way about the harmonies in livesies, but the ones in 92sies are different from those, which I'm used to, and it was just so fun listening to them. god, I love music, can you tell?

Number 10: Spot Conlon. that's it, really. I like him, he's funny, "on the grounds of Brooklyn, your honor". I just love him. so much.

Number 10.5: Racetrack Higgins. he does so much more in the movie than in the stage production, and I love that. he's also very funny and has incredibly witty lines and I love it.

Number 11: I love getting to see more of the other newsies, and especially Davey's interactions with them. I don't remember getting to see much of that in livesies, and I think it really helps the viewer to connect with the characters and story more.

ummm, I think that's all I can think of that I wanted to share. if I think of more things, I will come back to share them. I think I'm probably gonna watch it like ten more times in the coming week and try to get my younger brother to watch it cause he's only seen the stage production so far (my town's high school is doing Newsies for their musical this year and he's gonna audition !!!!).

alrighty chat, that'll wrap up this tumblr post. have a great day and keep being cool :3

[violetlunette]

Actually, Yuu can make use of little trips outside of school (i.e. in events) in which Lilia does not show up to woo Silver ethically 😂 Glorious Masquerade? Dude, they're going to a school that has a magical resounding bell, isn't that their perfect wedding chime? And they both (ignoring virtually everyone else) have to fight a teenage arsonist? Legendary "how your fathers fall in love" story to tell the kids. They might even have danced together, you know, which totally makes it a Phillip and Aurora moment.

And Deuce's hometown? They're preparing a clock to wake Silver up for their domestic life, isn't this the loveliest idea of a honeymoon? And Silver's wearing bunny suit? Yuu could just pass out for how cute Silver looks. The first-years are rightfully concerned and Silver is blissfully unaware. What a perfect opportunity to get close to his Moonshine-

(At this rate Lilia might as well just tag along to stop Yuu. Being attacked mid-confession by a colony of bats is definitely not on Yuu's checklist 🦇🦇🦇)

(part of this series)

I love the idea of Yuu reacting the scene from The Birds with bats, lol. Anyway, Yuu and you underestimate Lilia (and Yuu's bad luck).

Masquerade; Yuu: Yes! God has smiled upon me at last as I go to the city of love-- Grim: I thought it was something to do with Flowers? Yuu—to the city of LOVE without Batman to get in the way! Yuu: Now, just t slide over and— Sebek; Cockblocker: HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, HUMAN. Yuu: Gahh! The barking puppy! What do you want! Sebek: To keep you in line! Master Lilia ordered me to watch you and make sure you don’t do anything untoward towards Silver! Yuu: But everything I want to do is towards Silver! Sebek: You know what I mean! ~*~ Yuu: Ha! The Puppy’s no longer here. Now’s my chance to cast my spell of love. *Tries to dance over with a flower in his mouth* Moonshi—aiie! Trien: *Grabbing Yuu by the collar* Don’t wander off! And don’t distract the students while they’re working! Yuu: Oh, come on! ~*~ Yuu: Okay. Puppy’s arguing with randos, Trien’s drinking, now’s my chance! I can ask for a dance and we can fall in love! Silver will you-- Rollo: *Unleashes hellfire plan* Yuu: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! ~*~ Yuu: Okay, okay! The bell’s been rung, the party’s back on and no one I care about is dead. So maybe now-- Malleus: Yuu. Yuu: Oh, hey Hornton. Malleus, holding out a hand: Would you like to dance? *Totally innocent and sincere offer* Yuu: *GUILT* Sure! I’d love to.

Bunnyfest: Yuu: YES! Fate has smiled upon me once more! And this time there is no one to get in my way! Silver: *Steps out in adorable costume with a bunny tail* How do I look? ~Hours Later~ Yuu: *Wakes up* Gah! What happened?! Ortho: You saw Silver in his outfit and had a heart attack from how cute he looked. Yuu: Dammit!

[slotumn]

Twist on a 3H golden route where Byleth does succeed in getting the lords to cooperate in implementing reforms and defeating Agarthans, but ultimately ends up backstabbed by them for political reasons.

Namely, they're way too popular/influential/capable, and this does not bode well for the rulers of the three nations.

Byleth being powerful isn't as much of a problem in the standard 3H routes, because one way or another, the continent becomes unified and Byleth is on the side of the unifier. But in a situation where all three regimes still exist and there's this prominent figure who helped fix so much of the continent's problems and has religious/ideological significance transcending the three nations' borders? Like it or not, they're political competition and threat for the lords. Whether they're archbishop or "just" a general/advisor, they are too damn competent and/or popular. And it doesn't even matter whether Byleth intends to become a politician themselves— just by existing, the lords are going to get compared to them.

Even if Byleth tries to stay behind the scenes as much as possible, realistically there would be other personnel who worked with Byleth alongside the lords in various endeavors, and they're going to have opinions. Said personnel are probably important figures in each nation's military/government, too. And again, like it or not, Byleth is risking showing up the lords in front of their own guys. Even if they're close personally, in terms of politics, it's that much harder to maintain authority when there's someone who seems stronger than you right in the vicinity!

Claude stepping down as leader of Leicester and going over to Almyra doesn't solve this either, because in a situation where Adrestia and Faerghus still exist, Byleth can't just take over Leicester. Considering the significance of their power, Byleth directly ruling over one of the three nations will definitely look biased and stroke tensions.

So, what are the options? Just have Byleth hang around and vibe? Either as the archbishop or an advisor who floats around between the three nations? This influential, popular figure simply being allowed to exist in vicinity of the three regimes without pledging alliance to any of them? That's going to work out real well (not). The most idealistic scenario is Byleth agreeing to disappear after everything (driving out Agarthans + implementing reforms) is over, but realistically? The regimes wouldn't wanna wait that long. If they let Byleth hang around until that's all done, it's too late, this commoner ex-merc already has stolen too much thunder.

This is the irony about overwhelming power; in times of great turmoil, it saves, but otherwise, it's a threat, a disruptor to the balance, even if it's wielded by someone benevolent.

Anyway, the situation is: the lords all have good reasons to want to solidify their own authority over their respective nations as they get rid of Agarthans and reform things, and it's obvious as all fuck who's (unintentionally) undermining said authority. Yeah maybe Byleth is their beloved mentor, but now, they're leaders of their nations before they're their teacher's students. Maybe they feel bad about doing this, but whatever their personal sentiments are, that doesn't change their next political move.

The lords betray and kill Byleth for power— just like how the Agarthans they'd teamed up to defeat killed Sothis for power.

I think all the ways Byleth could react to this are very sexy. Genuinely caught off guard and dies casting a curse on the ungrateful fools of Fódlan? Sexy. Expected it and doesn't stop it because they know this is what it takes to bring peace? Sexy. Too sad and tired and heartbroken to fight back? Sexy.

Tl;dr local teacher literally too powerful to be allowed to exist in a golden route, gets killed by their students

[nalyra-dreaming]

Do you think part of the difference between Loustat and Loumand is due to the actors? Like, I do think they never meant to let go of Loustat, they're the main pairing. And they're all insanely talented, no doubts about that. I also do think Jacob and Assad have chemistry and the whole cast has a great relationship, but from what I've seen Jacob and Sam are closer and they seem to have that kind of partnership where everything just clicks and comes to life when they're filming? Like, sometimes I think they're just reacting instead of acting lol. Not to mention they're such fans of the books, so I'm assuming they really connect to their characters, their relationship and the story in a way that must be difficult to replicate with other scene partners, as amazing as they are too. Like, I do think some stuff are totally the scripts/directions they get, but sometimes I I think that maybe if it it was Jacob and Sam, they would've accidentally broken the script and gone deeper. Not even with romantic and intimate scenes, but like when Armand shared his backstory, for example. I think maybe Jacob would've looked moved, yk? I do think he was following the script, but it was easier to do it with a different scene partner yk. But Assad was AMAZING, I'm obsessed with him and Armand is the hightlight of the season for me, I'm just wondering lol. Anyway, hope the rambling made sense hehe.

It made sense, but I do not agree.

We have a level of cast that is outstanding. They would not let personal friendships influence their work.

Jacob has stated a while ago that what he and Assad did was very deliberately not recreate what Lestat and Louis had. They shaped that relationship very differently on purpose.

Given that we now know ... how different they went with with Loumand as opposed with Loustat... that makes a lot of sense, too.

[henrysfox]

ooo i'd love to hear more about the casting day announcement from your pov if that's ok! like how did people react? did you think they looked the part but wasn't keen on their past acting work? did everyone freak out lmao

HELLO!!! i love talking about it!! let's gooo

so the day of the casting announcement for me was also the day i found out they were making rwrb into a movie, idk how it was for other people, but before that day i hadn't realized we would get a movie

so i was just SO HYPED about getting a film at all, you know?

then we got this announcement:

and i looked at them and IMMEDIATELY went to taylor's instagram and i was like "is that the dude from the kissing booth?" (i have never seen the kissing booth before that, but i have seen people on youtube doing some of those commentaries where they make fun of every single movie under the sun for views - the person i was friends with at the time loved watching those, so i have seen a few)

and i IMMEDIATELY became obsessed with him because i thought he was the most beautiful man i've ever seen. height aside, he was pretty much what i imagined alex to look like. back then, i'm pretty sure he hasn't been in many things so i watched tkb2 & 3 for him (or mostly his and joey's scenes because i didn't like jac*b el*rdi) and i watched minx, where he was AMAZING.

meanwhile nick creeped up on me much slower - but he did have many more movies out so i also watched all of those. at the begining he hadn't been dyed blonde yet so it was a bit harder to imagine him as henry, but the second they made him blonde i thought he was spot on as well. the filming was in progress around the same time purple hearts came out so i waited for the premiere with him and the rest of the cast, because they were all SO excited for nick - they even had a watch party and they all watched it together when it came out, and on the day of the premiere they decorated nick's trailer with tiny handmade purple hearts which was super sweet and he was adorably blushy about it.

okay back to the casting announcement day.

we got the announcement and immediately EVERYONE was negative. and i'm not exaggerating. everyone said they looked nothing like the characters, they said taylor is too pretty to play alex, that neither of the boys deserves to play these characters bc they're both straight and "sTrAiGhT acToRs sHoULdn'T pLAy quEEr cHaRaCteRs." it was just CONSTANT negativity. if someone was excited they were made fun of. people would go into nick and taylor's comments on insta and say pretty bad things.

the fandom for the movie on tumblr was nonexistant tbh. there were a few people who were fans of the book and were very vocal about how awful the movie will be with those awful actors. see, people had fancasts for alex and henry and they weren't willing to let those go. even if the guy they had in mind for alex wasn't even mexican and the guy they had in mind for henry wasn't even an actor.

i was still patiently waiting for any news to come out and for tumblr to get on with the program. at the same time first updates accounts on the movie, firstprince and nick & tay started appearing on instagram so i was mostly there, having thought that tumblr will just hate this film forever. i reread the book then and having many feelings about it i went into the tumblr tag again - there wasn't much change, but there were a few people who seemed to be just as excited as i was and i would have blocked all the negative people back then.

one of the people i saw being excited about the movie and the boys was @sincenewyorks so after some time and after gathering some courage i messaged them and we talked. there were also a few other people who were being positive by then, but all in all the fandom was pretty small and people still negative especially when they found out that june and rafael luna won't be in the movie - that brought a whole new wave of hate. some hardcore book fans have already decided the film would be awful.

i was just happy to follow the boys and the rest of the cast through the filming process, a little bit here, but mostly on instagram and in private messages with like-minded people here.

fun fact: the nick and taylor tags on tumblr were practically empty by then - taylor's had a few gifs of his naked scenes from minx and a few gifs from the kissing booth. nick's tag was almost completely empty.

flash forward to the day we got the trailer. this is the day EVERYTHING changed, because the trailer came out and suddenly? all the haters went silent. (take into account the fact that i had blocked some of them already so that might also be why lol) and the movie started reaching more and more people. overnight there were a lot of gifs from the trailer and people started posting about the movie more.

in the following weeks, more and more people were talking about the movie and nick and taylor and the bad comments were mostly kept to minimum. we could all see how excited taylor and nick, but especially taylor were about the film.

the the strikes started and we were all heartbroken that the movie wouldn't get the premiere it deserved and secretly hoping the strikes would be done by the time the movie was supposed to come out, but that didn't happen, unfortunately.

then the movie came out and some people really loved it, some others said it was disappointing, there were a few really weird takes, but mostly people REALLY loved it. the fandom has already grown bigger at that point and there were many more people willing to freak out and talk about it. then people started watching nick's and taylor's previous movies as well and their tags filled out and the rest is history, i guess.

sorry that it got SO LONG omg. some people were annoying about the casting announcement, and there was a lot of negativity at first but to be honest? i still had so much fun and the whole experience will always remain in my heart as a positive one <3

if you have any other questions, please do ask me, i can always talk about it more, i love trips down the memory lane lol