#i also like the scene from fogg's asylum

[mostlyblues]

In honour of his birthday, I'm going to rant about some of my favourite roles of the global treasure (yes, I'm promoting him from the ‘national’ status), David Tennant. Feel free to add your own.💙

Fourteen Doctor: This might seem like an odd choice to start with when there are popular choices like the Tenth Doctor and Crowley, but this character holds a very special place in my heart. I've been a fan of DT for about 6 years now and it started with Doctor Who. I love Ten but Fourteen is just more dear to me. Mostly because he made me excited again for one of my favourite TV shows. As a character, he has all the trademark qualities of the Doctor - the genius level intellect, endless compassion, and love for new adventures. But he is somehow more mature and softer, and I loved this development. Also, that blue coat and that (1) button - you know what I'm talking about.

Phileas Fogg: Such an underrated TV show. The chemistry of the trio, the adventures, the title sequence music - there's so much to love about this. And Fogg is such a real character. So far from perfect, this man will often appear as aloof, vain, self-absorbed and even a coward. But I think Phileas is one of the best roles ever played by Tennant. Yes, he's flawed but he's also intelligent, so incredibly kind, and yes, even brave. If you haven't watched this show, I highly recommend it.

Alec Hardy: So different from most other charming roles of DT, Hardy is a sad wet cat. He's grumpy, not nice, and just really tired of the world (who can't relate though?). His reluctant friendship with Ellie is one of the best parts of the grim show. And the fanfic lover in me can't stop screaming about how whumpable he is.

Crowley: I was going for the top three kind of ranking but the thin dark duke slithered his way over. And how can you not love Anthony J. Crowley? From this pure delightful joy while creating stars and nebulae (I can't get over David's face and the happy noises he makes in this scene) to his reluctant and vast love for his Angel and the earth, Crowley is very easy to fall in love with (take notes, Aziraphale. I know you love him but please use your words. Crowley, at least, tried). 

I wanted to add more characters, especially the Shakespearean ones (I love Hamlet, but Benedick has my heart), but the list won't simply ever end then. So, I'm just going to say name all the ones I love and end it here - Simon Yates (There She Goes), Dave Tyler (Single Father), Campbell Bain (Takin' over the Asylum), Harry Watling aka The Sexy Vicar (Inside Man, this show was so freaking stressful but I loved David's character), every single Shakespearean character he ever played (even the ones I haven't or probably won't ever get the chance to see - cries in Macbeth), and, of course, Scrooge McDuck (DuckTales).

So, thank you DT for gifting the world with some of the best, most adorable, wholesome, gender-enviable characters to ever exist. (Except for the creeps, freaks, and ruthless murderers, which we kind of love as well). Happy Birthday! 💙

[whumpy-wyrms]

I SPOT A STARKID REFERENCE

And I will now use this as a chance to give more musical whump recommendations.

Obviously you've seen TGWDLM and assuredly many other starkid shows, so I shall skip those. The next musical whump I will recommend to you is Sweeney Todd, most specifically the scene at Foggs Asylum (I got to play Mr. Fogg in a community theatre production of Sweeney Todd, I have some great production photos a can share if you like, with faces blurred out). Fogg is basically a giant creepy whumper who sells his insane asylum patients hair and is a giant fkn creeper about it, weilds a pair of scissors, and calls all the patients his "children".

NEXT I recommend the song "Court of Miracles" from Hunchback of Notredame, specifically the musical version of it, not the Disney movie. This musical is so very whumpy, Id recomend you watch the entire thing bc Frollo is SOMETHING ELSE but that song is. MMMM. It has the King of the [Romani] singing at the main characters about how he's going to kill them in a silly little whumper way, it's amazing.

And thus, I retreat from your askbox and leave these recs on your doorstep like a lil rat. Have fun, I may be back eventually with more, and I would be MORE THAN HAPPY to talk with you more about these scenes or other recs :)

YEAHHHH I LOVE STARKID!!! and thanks for the recommendations!!!! i watched those scenes and they were AMAZINGGG. i’ve ever heard of sweeney todd until now and it seems super cool :D wow i really do need to watch more musicals so feel free to send more recs if u want! 🐀🐀🐀

also fun fact about me: i played the role of larry the lobster in the spongebob musical my school was doing last november and it was SOOO fun. it was the first (and only) musical i’ve ever been in and was one of the best things i’ve ever experienced like woooow i wish i had joined more musicals before then. anyway i loooove musicals now especially starkid and the hatchetfield ones :) nerdy prudes must die is my favorite but i love black friday and tgwdlm just as much!!

[dudeshusband]

i like it so much when anthony isn't wearing his scarf because then i get to see where his shirt goes up his neck on the sides and opens down to his chest. hhhhhh

[brucewaynesturtleneck]

I’m sorry for bothering you but can we agree that Strange Birds by Birdy is nygmobblepot’s anthem?

Hello dear, you’re not a bother at all! You likely weren’t expecting a very long response to your question, but I’m a writer so that’s sort of my thing. I think “Strange Birds” fits them nicely enough, so to answer your question directly, yes.

I will say, however, when I think of Oswald and Ed and their off and on insanity, I think of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Here’s why: 

C*nnibalism comes up twice in Gotham, both times in the presence of Oswald.

Ed changes his name (from Edward Nashton to Edward Nygma/Nigma, with his alternate personality deemed “The Riddler”) just like Sweeney (Benjamin Barker to Sweeney Todd) does after his imprisonment for insanity at Fogg’s Asylum (an equivalent to Arkham Asylum). 

In the musical, Ms. Lovett has a competing meat shop business with a woman named Mrs. Mooney. Ms. Lovett learns from Mrs. Mooney’s strategy of using cats in her meat pies and decides to improve upon that idea by… well, you know how the story goes. This resembles how Oswald learned all that he knows about the underworld from Fish Mooney but has surpassed what she was able to accomplish.

Ms. Lovett lies to Sweeney about his wife being dead because she wants him to fall in love with her. This reminds me a lot of how Oswald had Isabella killed in order to get Ed to only fall for him.

Sweeney pretends to confess his love to Ms. Lovett before throwing her into the furnace after learning the truth about his wife. This is similar to Ed baiting Oswald into a confession when Barbara had told him that Oswald loved him and thus had Isabella killed. Sweeney shoving Ms. Lovett into the furnace is just like Ed shooting Oswald and letting his body fall into the water.

Because of these similarities, I love listening to the Sweeney Todd soundtrack while writing for Ed and Oswald’s characters. “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” perfectly describes Oswald while he’s in Arkham or even while he’s in prison. It’s a song about how Johanna is being held captive and feels like she’s a bird who is trapped in a cage; she’s watching birds sing and fly all around her, but she has no wings of her own to flee her captivity and it’s taking a toll on her sanity. There’s also a scene in Sweeney in which Ms. Lovett proposes to Sweeney a plan about how to acquire more meat for her meat pies. In this scene, Sweeney gets extremely excited about the prospect of a dual purpose for his barber shop. Sweeney then pulls Ms. Lovett into a waltz (in most adaptations of the show) while they sing “A Little Priest” as a visual representation of their ever-growing insanity. The two feed off of each other’s madness and it’s a lot like watching the Penguin and the Riddler construct a plan together. Anyway, I see Ed as Sweeney and Oswald as the perfect mix of Johanna (a lost soul who only wants love and freedom) and Ms. Lovett (a manipulator who will go to extreme lengths to get the man of her dreams to return her affections).

Now, with all of that said, if I were asked plainly what song goes best with Ed and Oswald individually, I would jokingly tell you “Man In The Mirror” by Michael Jackson and “Umbrella” by Rihanna, respectively.

[someplace-that-is-else]

“Shaking It Off...?’: Is the Magicians Surviving Post-Quentin in Season Five?

 Editor’s Note: Spoilers for the current season of The Magicians lie ahead. Read at your own risk.

 I still can’t listen to it.

 Every time I was at work, the radio loved to drop in Taylor Swift. I admit it. I love Taylor Swift. It was earned respect so I won’t knocked it. However, when I heard ‘Shake It Off,’ I changed the station. Why? Because I was reminded every time.

 The Magicians Episode 4, Season 1…Quentin Coldwater in the mind asylum. Him singing it. It was a turn left moment in a somewhat serious scene that was hilarious.

 But I was always reminded when I heard the song. Now…

 Quentin Coldwater was dead.

 In case you missed it, the fourth season of The Magicians went out with a bang. In order to save the world and his friends, Quentin Coldwater sacrificed himself. It was a heartbreaking moment and yes, there were tears at the gang’s tribute to him with a cover of ‘Take on Me.’ It was also shocking because who would have thought a show would kill off their main character, the character that viewers are brought into the show by. Even ballsier? Leaving the main character dead, confirmed immediately after the episode aired that night by way of internet interviews from the producers.

 That was the world viewers were coming into walking into Season Five.  Unlike Supergirl which I dropped in Season Four due to the on-the-nose political writing, I was curious to see how the writers would play the death of their main character.

 So how was it?

 Did Someone Order an Apocalypse?: Raising the Stakes in Season Five

 After a season where magic was rationed out, this season was different. Now there was too much magic. How much? So much that people were exploding for crying out loud.

 As a result, there were plot threads being introduced. You had Penny being made a professor at Brakebills and dealing with the presence of a signal that one of his Traveler students was hearing. You had Kady struggling with being the leader of the hedgewitches while being in the middle of a mystery involving the disappearance of a book depository. Most importantly, there was a Pig running around, encountering Julia and saying an apocalypse was coming.

 Hm…the end of everything. While the Magicians has had moments that were life and death, I do not think it has actually dealt with an apocalypse. It sounded so Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And it was during one of these moments of too much magic that the apocalypse was supposed to happen.

 And this was all in light of the fact that Quentin was only dead a month. Alice, Julia, and Elliot were the ones who were hit the hardest by his passing. Julia was Quentin’s best friend. Alice was Quentin’s girlfriend. Elliot was his woulda, coulda, shoulda. But as usual, the world as they knew it needed saving.

 And there were casualties on the way to the apocalypse. Penny lost his ability to control his Traveler abilities so much so that he could accidentally kill himself now. Dean Fogg was lost to a whole dimension in Kady’s pursuit of the book depository. In the gang’s attempt to stop the apocalypse, they succeeded. But there was a BUT.

 WRONG apocalypse.

 All that struggle. Encountering goddesses with agendas. The return of evil hedge witch Marina who was behind the depository mystery. Kady almost was killed by an assassin. Elliot and Margo got stuck in a time loop.

 It was all for the wrong apocalypse. You see the Pig was talking about a whole other apocalypse that was coming. One that appeared to be tied into another plot thread from last season involving Elliot and Margo being trapped at one point in the Narniasque land of Fillory 300 years in the future and its future ruler the Dark King.

 Oops.

 The Power of Three: Character Development in Season Five

 Magic comes from pain.

 Eliot said that to Quentin in the first season. Over the course of the seasons, that has truly held up quite well. Going into Season Five, there was still plenty of it. And that brought me to the character development for Julia, Alice, and Eliot specifically. Their pain. Their grief over Quentin’s death.

 I loved Julia’s Season Four arc. The ‘is she or isn’t she still a goddess?’ arc. She had been practically redeemed in Season Three. She had sacrificed her being on a higher plane for her friends. And where did she go from here? From here led to a new relationship with Penny, getting to get close with her best friend Quentin again, and have a chance to be a full goddess again. However, that was snatched away from her by the Monster and so was Quentin. She was human again with no magic…until her pain over Quentin’s death, bringing her magic back to the surface.

 And that miracle was what was driving Julia this season. She was determined to not have Quentin’s death be in vain. She was going to stop those apocalypses. She was so determined that it was revealing cracks in her relationship with Penny. In fact, they broke up…just in time to find out that Julia was pregnant. So would Julia keep focusing on stopping apocalypses to honor Quentin’s memory, or would she focus on herself and her future which may or may not include Penny?  Oh, the dilemma…

 And then we had Alice…

 Honestly, I haven’t liked Alice since Season 2. She was cute. She was brainy. She wore glasses. And Niffin experience, while a great plot twist for those of us who hadn’t read the books, really tainted her. And any sympathy she got for her pain was destroyed by betraying the gang by helping the Library at the end of Season Three. I enjoyed everyone giving her the business in Season Four. 

So I was saddened to see Quentin take her back. Especially with someone better hanging in the wings.  

That said…the pain that Alice felt for Quentin dying. The staying in her room. Her wearing his clothes. Her trying to resurrect him. That felt real. And for the first time, Alice felt like a person again. She felt like Alice. And as the current season has progressed, a new persona has taken over: old Alice. The last few episodes had brought back the brainy, the problem solving, and dare I say it the cute Alice from the early seasons. From the darkness, she had come back into the light.

 And finally, there was Eliot. Eliot spent the majority of Season Four possessed by an ancient Monster. A Monster who was on a mission to resurrect his even more dangerous sister. In the process of Eliot trying to find a way to contact Quentin, Margo, and the gang, it was revealed that there was a scene not revealed to the audience. Back during the Season 3, Episode 5 episode “A Day in the Life,” Quentin and Eliot were trapped in a time loop of sorts and lived a whole life together. Fell in love. Had a child together. Died. In the end, quick thinking brought them back. And it was over…right?

 Wrong.

 It turned out that Quentin and Eliot had had a talk. Proof of concept. Most people took a chance when they got into a relationship. Here they had a whole lifetime and saw they worked together. So…Quentin wanted to make it real. The debatably straight character wanted to give it a go…but Eliot pulled away. Being trapped in a Monster gave Eliot that push. The push he needed to get free and tell Quentin that he was ready to give it a go.

  So of course…Quentin died.

 And just like that…they became Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Tara and Willow. They became like The 100’s Clarke and Lexa. What did I mean? I meant that the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope struck again. You know, the trope in literature and tv where two people of the same sex cannot be happy and if they found happiness it usually ended in tragedy. And the fact that Quentin got some form of closure with Alice in terms of their relationship while he did not with Eliot was quite the tragedy for fans.

 While I personally would have liked to see some closure for those two (called Queliot by their fans) due to the relatability of their situation (which happened more in real life than people thought), I was pleased to see that in the latest season that Eliot was definitely dealing with his unsolved feelings about Quentin. Not only did he find some closure to it, he even got to some closure with Alice as well since they had quite a bit to deal with between each other. Bonus, Eliot had been bantering with the Dark King, this season’s potential Big Bad who happened to be flirting with Eliot.

 A happy ending for our resident gay man? This is The Magicians. So…iffy. LOL!!! Especially after that reveal in Episode 9.  So time would tell how the relationship between Eliot and Sebastian the Dark King would resolve itself.

 Speaking of…

 Pieces of a Puzzle: Using Plot Threads that Work Well in Season Five

 While a lot of the seasonal plot arc had to do with the gang dealing with apocalypses, there was also the arc having to do with the Dark King who usurped Margo’s rule of Fillory. Fans got to meet him in a clever introduction during Alice’s and Eliot’s quest to give closure to Quentin. Thus, the tension between Sebastian the Dark King and Eliot began.

 In another blog I did ( https://someplace-that-is-else.tumblr.com/post/183733192088/well-fuck-how-i-fell-into-syfys-the ), I mentioned that protagonists were only as good as their antagonists. The more complex the antagonist, the better. And if the Dark King was to be the main villain this season, the writers did him right. On one hand, there was the burgeoning relationship between him and Eliot and the fact that Fillory worshipped him for his ability to push back the invading Takers. On the other hand, it was revealed HE was behind the Takers being in Fillory in the first place and was immortal to being killed. Add on to that the reveal in Episode 9:  Sebastian was one of the Chatwin siblings, brother to the Beast…

...still the best villain in this series. His goal:  to resurrect his lost love. Given the gang was dealing with the aftermath of Quentin’s death, how could they not relate? How could we? Things were more murky.

 Meanwhile, there was the mystery of the signal. As mentioned earlier, the increase in magic meant there were a lot of new traveler magicians coming into their abilities with no one to guide/teach them. Enter Penny the only Traveler alive to tell the tale. At first Penny was reluctant, but he attempted to. That was how he met Plum, one of his students who was hearing the mysterious signal. In the process of hearing the signal, Penny lost his abilities. And to add on to the mystery…Plum...

... was ALSO a Chatwin. Whom daughter…Jane, the Beast aka Martin or Sebastian…remained to be seem.

 And then there were two.

 Finally, there was the world seed. I had greatly enjoyed seeing Alice morph back into her brainy persona that I remembered from the first two seasons. At the same time, she had started a bantering friendship with another magician who was some expert in possibilities. And from some notes left around by Quentin, Alice and this student had been creating a world seed. The belief…that it could create a whole new world. Leave it to Quentin to be gone, but NOT forgotten.

 How that would come into play with Plum, the Dark King’s plans, and the Fillory apocalypse was too early to know. It was recently announced by the SyFy Channel that they had cancelled The Magicians. Insert eyeroll here given my colorful history with SyFy. However, the producers of The Magicians have always mentioned that they wanted to adapted the last book in the series The Magicians’s Land for one of their seasons. And all signs of what I knew to happen in the book revealed this current season was loosely based on that book (in the book Quentin was still alive for example). So it would be interesting to see how it all ended for everyone.

 With a bang…or a whimper?

  #themagicians #syfychannel #syfy #whoorderedanapocalypse #buffythevampireslayer #buffyreference #glory #seasonfive #taylorswift #quentincoldwater #shakeitoff #aha #takeonme #apocalypse #supergirl #raisingthestakes #plotthreads #characterdevelopment #grief #queliot #writing #narnia #darkking #magic #buryyourgays #powerofthree #puzzlepieces #signal #seed #withabang #withawhimper

[tearosesarts]

Hello there, I hope you have a great day! Also what are you thoughts about Tim Burton - Sweeney Todd’s movie adaptation? (Sorry thats pretty nowhere I just really appreciate u & Sweeney Todd very much 🥺💖)

Aww, thanks! Now, as for the 2007 Sweeney Todd... I hope I don’t get a lot of hate over this, but I had a lot of problems with this movie. I’ll try to go through this in organized chunks. I’ll put it under the cut, this is going to get long.

First off: the casting. We have to address the fact that, besides the actress playing Lucy, none of the cast really had any musical theatre experience, and it showed. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it weren’t for the fact that this was Sondheim music, which is insanely difficult, even for well-experienced musical theatre actors. Thus, we ended up with Sweeney awkwardly singing from his throat (sounding more like a pirate than Jack Sparrow) and frail, shrill vocals from Mrs. Lovett, Johanna, and Anthony. One justification that I’ve seen people use is “Well, Tim Burton was making a film, not a musical,” but in that case, why even include the music? Why not simply make a non-musical movie adaptation using those characters? Sweeney Todd has existed for far longer than the musical; the musical itself is based off of a play adaptation by Christopher Bond. It could have very easily been a movie adaptation of that play, instead. Moving past the singing, while this film did have a lot of really good actors, it wasn’t really any of their best works. I don’t know if it’s because of Tim Burton’s “style” or what, but a lot of the actors’ performances felt nearly lifeless compared to when they were in other movies (although Timothy Spall’s facial expressions as the Beadle were great!). Particularly, Helena Bonham Carter’s Lovett felt very flat and static. I feel bad for saying so, since this was apparently a dreamrole of hers (plus it was just her birthday yesterday!), but something about it just didn’t work. It seemed like she was torn between playing a doe-eyed damsel in distress, a jaded, sarcastic woman, and a suave, devious temptress (and being motherly for one scene, and the combination made for a bland and inconsistent performance. The inconsistency especially stands out during and after Epiphany, where she goes from looking quite terrified of Sweeney at the beginning to nonchalantly delivering the “That’s all very well...” line, even though the song got more scary towards the end, not less.

Now for what probably bugged me even more: some of the things that were cut. The film seems like it’s trying to be more edgy and gritty than the stage musical by cutting out some of the humor, but it also cuts out some of the darkest parts of the show. I can understand getting rid of the Greek chorus for the different Ballads of Sweeney Todd, but they really could have and should have included the ensemble bits for God, That’s Good. We can see the townspeople enjoying the pies, but it isn’t enough to see them simply enjoying the pies, we need them to be obsessed, screaming for “more hot pies.” Then there’s Toby, who doesn’t get his crazy part at the end. I understand cutting that bit short since we don’t have the final Ballad to end it (and therefore ending with the shot of Sweeney bleeding over his dead wife), but he could still do the creepy “pat-a-cake” stuff before slitting Sweeney’s throat and scuttling away. Besides creeping out the audience, this bit shows how everything has affected Toby and taken a toll on him.

And then there’s Johanna. Johanna, what did they do to you? Sometimes movie adaptations of musicals add some depth to some of the less-developed characters. Here, they seemed to do the opposite. She sings Green Finch and Linnet Bird, looks at Anthony, and after that only exists because the plot calls for her. Kiss Me is cut, which also cuts an entire plot point. She doesn’t even sing in the Johanna Reprise. It’s called the Johanna Quartet on the OBC album for a reason, guys! They not only reduced her to a prop who sings about her emotions once and no more, but her relationship with Anthony was also less developed. The two of them never really meet, they just look at each other once. That’s barely an interaction. It’s a wonder that she even recognizes him when he rescues her from the asylum. Speaking of, next came the thing that bothered me the most: she isn’t even the one to shoot Fogg (or whatever they named the asylum warden in this). In the musical, this was her moment of finally holding her own against one of the older male oppressors in her life. This was her breaking point, her loss of innocence she may not have even had in the first place. Changing this just felt wrong.

Alright, I’ve done enough ranting. There were a few things that I thought the film did pretty well, actually. Firstly, the cinematography. Tim Burton has a very specific aesthetic to his films, and this was no different. Some people like, it, others don’t, but the dark, muted aesthetic did work, in a way that may not have worked if another director did it. The opening sequence with an instrumental of the Ballad of Sweeney Todd playing looked really cool. I also especially liked the visuals during Epiphany, when Sweeney is outside having a mental breakdown as the crowds of townsfolk are completely unaware of his presence. While I didn’t care for his singing, Johnny Depp’s acting was pretty solid here. Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli was fun. The kid playing Toby had a good performance. I’m not usually a huge fan of children singing, but he handled the score well. Another thing I liked was the addition of the scene between Anthony and Turpin. It added an extra layer of vicious cruelty to the Judge that was more than just “creepy old guy preying after a teenage girl” (and the “You gandered at her” line was great, especially with Alan Rickman’s delivery).

All in all, I wasn’t really a fan of this adaptation, but there were some parts I did enjoy, and I appreciate that it did expose more people to Sondheim’s music and musicals in general.