#i've seen this clip before and it's very fun seeing it in context

[nugulover69]

Based and chad pilled Sisko

[catboygirljoker]

[video transcript: a scene from the 358/2 Days movie. Roxas: Hey, what happens when Heartless are destroyed? Xigbar: The hearts remain. And then those hearts gather together to form the great Kingdom Hearts. Roxas: Then, can you tell me what remains if a Nobody is destroyed? Xigbar: What's there to leave behind? We're not even supposed to "be" in the first place. Roxas: And the members at Castle Oblivion, where'd they go? Xigbar: Nothing's left of them. Roxas: In which case, I'll never see them again? Xigbar: That's right. You coming? Roxas: Huh? Oh, yeah. end transcript.]

this scene is so funny to me because if you watch it by itself you assume xigbar is being a total asshole for no reason. just random unmotivated callousness and cruelty. but the DS version of this scene comes at the end of a whole mission, and with that context, you can see that xigbar actually has a reason for...being an asshole.

(transcripts below are fetched from this text of ancient times, a GameFAQ so old that it mistakenly describes xigbar as seeing roxas when he sees xion with ventus's face.)

Xigbar: What's wrong? Dazzled by the new scenery? Roxas: Do you think it's true—about the members stationed at Castle Oblivion? Xigbar: Ha ha, is that seriously what's eating you? Roxas: We might have lost a comrade. Maybe multiple comrades. That doesn't bother you at all? Xigbar: As if. Look, the faster we get this mission done, the sooner you can RTC and get your answers.

Xigbar: Still with me there? I've seen you spaced out before, but this is ridiculous. Roxas: What? I'm fine. I'm fine... Xigbar: Let me guess. Castle Oblivion? Like I said: the longer we take here, the longer you're gonna have to stay in the dark.

Roxas: Good, then we can go home? Xigbar: Why, Roxas? Did you leave the toaster plugged in? Roxas: You know why. Xigbar: Heh heh. C'mon, let's RTC.

then the scene from the above clip plays. like, xigbar is absolutely being a jerk, privately making fun of roxas for thinking his best friend is dead (when it seems pretty clear to me from the above transcripts that xigbar at the very least knows axel is fine, and i think probably knows that a nobody getting defeated just turns them back into a human).

but he tries, repeatedly! to get roxas to not jump to conclusions. this is an issue he tries to help him out with on another occasion as well, in a later mission in halloweentown, and takes a similar "tough love" kind of approach where he doesn't correct roxas (though worth mentioning that he also goes out of his way to save roxas's hide in that situation).

in the end he tells roxas that axel's totally dead, gone forever, nothing left. still pretty callous and mean. but with the context of the mission, it's less "xigbar can obviously tell roxas is upset and doesnt give a shit" and more "xigbar has put up with roxas's moping for this whole mission and TRIED to hint that maybe he's jumping the gun, but at this point the kid can think whatever he wants, no skin off xigbar's back"

Bonus Xigbar Fact: tte hanashi spotted! if you watch xigbar's mouth at the end of the line "And then those hearts gather together to form the great Kingdom Hearts," you may be able to see him saying the phrase "tte hanashi"!

[pardonmydelays]

clancy tour (watching a livestream) essay 🙏

anon, this question made me so unbelievably happy omg. i just can't get around to the eras tour essay, however, i do feel the need to write, so we're doing this instead.

for the context: i woke up at 5:30 today to watch the livestream of clancy LA show. no, i wasn't there in person. but mentally i was.

please, listen to this incredible playlist while you read my essay (no one's gonna read, it mark my words):

i have decided we will just go through the entire setlist. i don't want to make this too long but i wanna talk about EVERY. SINGLE. SONG. let's fucking go.

OVERCOMPENSATE

so this is when i started crying. who the fuck cries on overcompensate, you would ask... well, me, apparently. i honestly think this is the best opener for both, an album and a show. this song gives me so much serotonin i can't even explain it. i'm always worried about tyler tho because his entrance looks dangerous (the jump, the jump, I AM TALKING ABOUT THE JUMP!). nothing bad happened tho, thankfully. i also noticed he was wearing the other version of clancy jacket today, the one with the hood. not that it's important, but it kinda is. for me at least.

HOLDING ON TO YOU

ok, so if you know me you probably know this is my ultimate favourite twenty one pilots song. and the live performance is even better with the crowd stand at the beginning (i swear to god, it's so incredible to me how much trust tyler has for the clique), clancy mask and lightbulb mic (you can tell tyler has a lot of fun with it), and my favourite part - josh's piano backflip during the bridge of the song. fucking iconic. what's not to love.

VIGNETTE

first thing i want to talk about is the insane transition from holding on to you to vignette. honestly, all transitions are so fucking amazing on clancy tour, it's impressive. now, tyler's little dance during this song is one of the most adorable things i've ever seen (he is such a cat omg) and and and! NEIL BANGING OUT THE TUNES!!! i'll be honest with you, because of this part vignette became one of my favourite songs from clancy and definitely one of my faves from this tour.

CAR RADIO

another one of my favourites. car radio will always hold a very special place in my heart, it's so relatable to me. it makes me so happy that we have a chance to see it being performed in clancy costume (and clancy mask!!!). and when tyler teleports at the end! (also i think he's wearing a totally different jacket in this clip which probably means he has three different clancy jackets, i have no proof tho so i'm just gonna shut up. the video is from LA night one tho. not my show). here's another clip, you can see how he teleported here.

THE JUDGE

ok, so for those who don't know, right before every show the fans in their incredible outfits are being filmed while singing the judge together and every night they show a different video of them singing first verse + chorus and then after that tyler comes out with his ukulele to finish the song. it makes me cry for no reason at all. yes, i cried today too (it just makes me so happy to see all the clikkies singing together and they all look so beautiful always). so what happened today? content warning glitch happened during fan video, you can watch it here, then blurryface tweeted this:

i am losing my goddamn mind over this, people on the livestream were losing their shit when this happened, I STARTED CRYING LIKE A GODDAMN FOOL BECAUSE I'M SO FUCKING EMOTIONAL ABOUT EVERYTHING THIS BAND IS DOING. ugh. i was so right to watch today's livestream. something's gonna happen soon guys. they are warning us.

(i added CUT MY LIP to the playlist but technically it's the judge/cut my lip mashup so there's really not much to say about it)

THE CRAVING + TEAR IN MY HEART

the transition. the goddamn transition!!! it's honestly so fucking cool and probably one of my favourite parts of the tour. i absolutely love all jenna's songs and everyone who says they should not be on the setlist, fuck you forever. in this house we stan all jenna's songs. i usually cry on the craving and tyler is being so silly during tear in my heart - this is my favourite thing in the world. plus, do you really hate the sound of ukulele???

BACKSLIDE

ok, i actually started crying as soon as i realized we're singing backslide now. i love this song so goddamn much, it means the world to me. at one point it was my favourite song from clancy. the chorus breaks my poor little heart every single time and live performance of this song is so emotional... especially at the end when tyler is on his knees (the video is not from tonight's show but it's my favourite one from backslide, please watch it, his vocals here are INSANE). it's like crying for help. i wanna kill myself now. i relate to this song so much. also, backslide is the reason i decided to buy clancy tour tickets, so there's that.

SHY AWAY

oh, thank god this one is on the setlist. you know how much i love scaled and icy and i think out of all the songs from this album shy away is the best one to put on the setlist because the live performance is always so fun!!! don't you shy aWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! the scream is absolutely fucking everything oh my god. actually, i just love when tyler screams. but don't we all.

HEATHENS + NEXT SEMESTER

ok, now don't hate me, please, but i was never the biggest fan of heathens (i don't hate the song, i like it, just not as much as the others. i probably wouldn't cry if it wasn't on the setlist). however, the transition (again!!!) from heathens to next semester is the best goddamn thing in the entire world and i am losing my mind every single time i come across any clip of this moment. please, watch it, this is everything!!! one question tho: i know tyler was playing bass on the platform for next semester and he didn't do that today, did he just stop doing this recently or is it because of what happened yesterday during the show? (not during this song tho, or at least i know nothing about it, but it seems like LA fans absolutely cannot behave and he was definitely being more careful today, more about it later tho).

ROUTINES IN THE NIGHT

oh boy, this is my vigilante shit for real. remember vigilante shit performance from the eras tour and how everyone was losing their shit when they saw taylor doing the choreography with this motherfucking chair? yes. it's basically that except tyler is fully dressed. which is even worse maybe (y'all know how i feel about his clothes for some reason). one of my favourite songs from the album, but after seeing the live performance for the first time i became absolutely obsessed with the song. i was genuinely scared today because this is basically what happened last night in LA (i swear to god people are acting like fucking animals) and i noticed that tyler was being much more careful this time: he wasn't coming so close to people, and honestly good for him. he didn't even let them touch him during this part. i can't blame him. i feel so bad for what happened. hope he's ok.

ADDICT WITH A PEN + MIGRAINE + FOREST + FALL AWAY

my favourite mashup in the entire fucking world. but before we get into it, please this is so fucking funny and adorable. so basically, before playing the mashup, tyler sat by the piano and he said "currently i'm temperature hot. so i would want to take my jacket off, i promise not to turn on all the dads tonight" and then this happened. poor guy didn't know what to do LMAO. he's such a cutie, please watch the video, he's so adorable i can't. he's also the funniest person on earth. back to the topic, the mashup... i am such a slut for their old songs and this mashup is absolutely fucking insane. the song i love the most out of those is, of course, forest. according to tyler, this song is so old it basically doesn't exist. fuck you, tyler joseph. i can't believe i'm going to hear it live tho, holy shit. i will be fucking SOBBING during this part, i just know that.

MULBERRY STREET

this is such a fun song to play live and one of my favourite moments. you can tell how much fun tyler has each time they play it, also this! this is everything!!! he's always so happy when this happens, he trained us well hahaha. it's so fun omg. can't wait to be a part of it. this has always been one of my favourite songs from scaled and icy so i'm glad they decided to keep it on the setlist.

NAVIGATING

get in, losers. we are entering the lore now. ok, honestly, this part of the tour is absolutely everything to me. torchbearer with his torch? and clancy jacket?? coming to pick him up so they can perform while dema is burning??? AAAAAAAAAAAAAA. oh my GODD. also, navigating is so special to me (i picked this url for a reason) and live performance of this song is fucking fire. watch it. watch the clip. just watch the goddamn clip, will you? we all know this song is on the setlist because of josh, so everybody say thank you josh. also you can tell tyler is very emotional about this song and i just wanna give him a hug. oh my god. i can't wait to hear it live. this will fix me (it will probably make me worse).

NICO AND THE NINERS + HEAVYDIRTYSOUL

the MOTHERFUCKING transition!!! i know i say this a lot but i am such a slut for all the transitions on this tour, oh my god. they are so good. also i absolutely fucking love how we're still in the lore and also, the visuals are absolutely incredible, and also, nico and the niners is one of my favourite songs (the one that got me into their music actually) and also heavydirtysoul live is INSANE and also-

MY BLOOD

ok, i'm sorry, i keep forgetting that this song is on the setlist. it's not one of my favourites (don't fucking hate me, i like it, it's just not my fave). i will be very much singing it at the concert tho cause it's so good live. not much to say about it tho.

OLDIES STATION

boy, here we go. so i started crying at the very beginning of the song and honestly i have no idea how i'm going to handle this live. i am so very normal about this song. it means everything to me. the worst part of it tho was when during the song tyler said "thank you so much for using our music. you've saved us in ways you'll never know". OH MY GOD. i started weeping even more. it's like... their music saved US but we also saved THEM and i need 3-5 business days to recover after that. good lord. listen, i love slowtown and i'm sad that it's not part of the setlist anymore, but i love oldies station a hundred times more and that was a good change me thinks.

FAKE YOU OUT + GUNS FOR HANDS

putting those two together just because i can and i will. vessel is such a great album and it makes me so happy that those two are on the setlist. screaming "our brains are sick but that's okay" with the entire arena is going to fix me, for sure. also, here's the clip of tyler messing up the lyrics (he basically went kjbufbfkkjejkebfkjk after that lmao). can't blame him. the rap part is so fast. i died tho. he's so funny, please.

LAVISH

i can't even begin to explain how happy i am to have this one on the setlist. it's the funniest moment on tour and i love watching them being stupid on stage. also, jOsH iS sHiRtLeSs. the walk, THE WALK LMAO. the best choreography you've ever seen. i just love seeing them so silly and happy and this is everything. i paid a lot of money to see this live. i'm definitely not gonna regret this.

RIDE

so the thing i love about this tour is that every single night while performing this song tyler brings a different kid to sing the chorus with him (it's the equivalent of giving the hat during 22 on the eras tour i would say). tonight we had an adorable girl named callie (if i'm correct). she did so well! also i was giggling so much when tyler said she's cute (he was giggling too hdshfbhekj). i just love watching him with kids, it's so sweet!!! also she had a great beanie with band's logo, i want one too. please watch the clip of them singing together!

PALADIN STRAIT

i was crying. i was crying so much, i love this song and the live performance is so emotional. i put the song bandito on the playlist, because there's this moment in the song where tyler is singing the bridge of paladin strait and josh is singing bandito at the same time and OH MY GOD. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR THE LORE??? THIS IS SO CLEVER AND I AM LOSING MY GODDAMN MIND EVERY SINGLE TIME I THINK ABOUT IT. please, watch. this is sick as fuck. you don't understand. do you even understand? OR AM I THE ONLY ONE I KNOW???? i'm sorry i just can't i can't i am defeated i am absolutely insane about this part. also, the ending when they are showing the clip of paladin strait music video combined with other clips which looks like a flashback from clancy's life and his never ending battle with nico? the fuck??? and then we go straight to...

JUMPSUIT

the motherfucking coat. not gonna say anything else. just. the coat. oh dear lord. now i am temperature hot.

MIDWEST INDIGO

now my favourite part of midwest indigo is tyler taking off his coat very slowly. because he fucking knows what he's doing. but also, this song is so special to me. i know he wrote it as a love letter to ohio and i'm not even american but somehow this song always makes me think about my hometown. the live performance is so great. the beginning with the bass! he's adorable!

STRESSED OUT

"i don't want stressed out on the setlist it's so overplayed" kill yourself. i love stressed out because i have good taste. it's fun. it's a great song with great lyrics and you fuckers hate it only because it's popular. just shut up. shut the fuck up. in this house we actually enjoy listening to good songs. i personally want it to be on every setlist. if stressed out has no fans it means i killed myself. i'm dead. i'm gone. stressed out defender forever and always. also clancy tour version is incredible. just watch it and shut the fuck up.

TREES

again, i was so scared about my boys because of what happened yesterday in LA. people are fucking animals. i'm so glad, because tyler actually decided to call them out for this and seems like it was much better today. but still. guys please, behave, cause if you're not gonna start acting responsible they are going to stop performing like this. it's still insane compared to the opening night of clancy tour where people didn't even come closer until tyler told them to. i also just noticed now that tyler's t-shirt had black font today (the previous one had red font) for the first time. i think i was just too tired to notice this before. there's not much i can tell you about trees, because you just simply have to be there to understand. it's a perfect song to end the show (for those who don't know: they always close their shows with this one), it's something i experienced live once before and i can't even compare it to anything. i wasn't even crying. my soul literally just left my body. trust me, there's absolutely nothing like trees live. i can show you thousands of clips and it will never be enough. nobody does it like them. seriously. this is the moment. the moment of all moments. i am in fact crying now...

TO SUM IT UP:

great show. 10/10. would recommend. i'm going to see them live in 223 days. this is the thing that makes me want to stay alive. yes. i need to stay alive for this. whoever sent me this ask, thank you. it means the world to me. i need to talk about them because it's the only joy in my life now. they are the reason i want to push on through. also, if you made it this far, thank you. i love you. and i'm sorry.

[agentjazzy]

oh wow, it looks like Disney's Primos is coming out - I thought they shelved it!

I showed my parents the trailer, and they immediately said that the main character looks just like I did when I was little lmao, because it's true

Because, like, 1)I'm Chicane, and we have the exact same coloring, 2)I had short hair and braces from ages 9-11, 3)I had many many pairs of jean shorts, 4)glasses, lol, and 5)my mom shaved my unibrow every month when I was little

And then, of course, the premise - when I was 8 I had to live with my cousins for Summer (+ one month of school) before we moved in with my grandparents bc *~*technically we were homeless for several years*~*

How many cousins? Well, first with only 3, but then there were problems, so then we moved in with a different tía, who, at the time, had 7 kids.

(if anyone's curious, I have 20 cousins total, with 1 more on the way)

Being in single 3 bedroom house (with 2 makeship rooms in the garage) with 7 cousins, 4 adults, and my little brother was. Um. An experience.

But anyway, after I showed my parents the trailer, I told them this show was supposed to premiere a year ago but had controversies after the theme song dropped, then I showed them the original theme song to see if anything caught their attention.

And sure enough, absolutely nothing. My mom questioned the nickname Nachos, bc it can sound kinda iffy, but nothing else caught their attention.

(and oh, for context, they both grew up in LA, both growing up translating for their parents)

I showed them some clips of why people hated it, and yeah, they were confused bc they would say "oye primos," not "oigan primos." I guess my grandparents weren't concerned with teaching exact grammar at home, more concerned with making sure that my parents were learning english at school

everyone being mad at "terremoto heights" was um. weird. because we're constantly making earthquake jokes, because we're waiting for The Big One, which we know will inevitably screw us over and possible strand us without water and home if/when it comes. but we still joke about it, you know? my whole class made earthquake jokes, and my parents made earthquake jokes when they were in school and they lived through the LA quakes

it makes me wonder if Animaniacs released their "A Quake" song today, would people have been up in arms as much as they have for Primos?

but I guess changing it is fair, if Disney wants to have an international release. even if making earthquake jokes is part of SoCal culture.

they were really surprised about the nickname controversies, because here in SoCal, those nicknames are like. pretty common. yes, even the one that they ended up changing. it's almost as if words have different connotations in different places..........

ANYWAY the biggest thing is that they agreed that the voice actress was out of line (although they think it's obvious that the "shithole" comment was poking fun at trump and that that was being taken out of context in bad faith) but - and this is an inside joke I'm not gonna elaborate on - makes sense considering her name

(IF YOU'RE A MUTUAL OR A TRUSTED FOLLOWER, if you're curious about the joke, I WILL dm you to explain if you ask)

but yeah. it's obvious that this is Disney's answer to The Loud House and The Casagrandes - that being said, all the vitriol towards this shows seems very unfounded. this show just seems very Chicano, moreso than other things I've seen.

and like, as I've explained here, this show is very, heavily relatable to me specifically. none of my white friends understood the pains of living with a bunch of your wild cousins - but multiple of my Chicana friends did. at different schools districts even.

it's just... a lot of the things people are shouting is "bad representation" is literally just... my life. And, apparently, the creator's life, considering it's based on her childhood.

I think it's nice that she made a show about Chicano culture. It does suck that apparently no one knows or even seem to want to know what Chicano culture is.

I just can't help but to wonder if I ever make something about my life, my lived experience... will people call me bad representation? idk.

anyway, I'll probably check the first few episodes out. I'm not sure I'll watch the whole series, since, lately, Disney's shows have been kinda a miss for me. but maybe I'll be surprised. I'm willing to give it a shot

[thecoolerliauditore]

It might be a point of priviledge on my part, but I haven't really noticed the colorism.... situation? Does it qualify as a problem? Before. Like. C!Scar is very much white to me but he's just tan like a surfer dude to me. He's a california dude and spends a lot of time in the sun. Maybe he has a hispanic grandpa, who knows.

I guess it is a good thing to stay mindful about. Even if it does scare me away a little from drawing poc characters because I as a white cracker don't wanna misrepresent ethnicities

So this ask is interesting to me and I want to make it very clear here that I'm not trying to make fun of anon, as much as point out some things here that I find worth pulling apart:

(it might help to read this reblog)

One is that while this may not be a direct response to my post, I remember making doubly sure when I made it that I made it as clear as possible I didn't want to frame it as a "fandom issue" as much as a consequence of colorism that I've noticed pop up in a fandom context.

I think culturally we're so fixated on making ourselves perfectly inoffensive, that pointing out any implication of any "-ism" in our art comes with an expectation that it's always going to be followed up with a rallying for "fixing" it or a shaming for it existing in the first place, that it may be having the opposite effect where people no longer want to discuss or interact with these things in the long run at all. As you have mentioned with the discouragement of drawing non-white characters.

This is an attitude that I find. A little troubling of recent, one of the few times I blocked someone over a fandom take was when I found a very passive aggressively worded post telling beginner artists to not share their Bigb art if they don't know how to draw black people well enough. That is ludicrous to me, how good is good enough? How will you ever get feedback if your art never sees the light of day? Why are you actively discouraging people from celebrating a black creator? etc.

It's interesting to me that every other hallmark of beginner artists are seen as endearing if not a little "cringe" but struggling with certain ethnic features that have been historically left out of or portrayed offensively in media for years is seen as some sort of moral failing on the artist's part.

So to answer your question of "does it qualify as a problem?" I answer: that's up for you to decide. I'm simply pointing out a trend I've noticed and hinting at its roots in colorism.

Second is the description of Scar, specifically "maybe he has a hispanic grandpa" because I'm not sure if you're aware, anon, but that is more or less Bdubs' genetic makeup if we believe what he says in that one stream clip and his Assyrian roots are the entire reason people take Bdubs whitewashing much more seriously than Joel/Skizz/Scar whitewashing.

It's partially what I hinted at in the original post as well, that Skizz for example is White by modern standards (probably. afaik) but his skintone is visibly more olive irl, hence why I believe the language we use for race is flawed in general.

So the questions I'm proposing are: why is it offensive to whitewash Bdubs, but not Skizz, when the only big difference between the two is 1. a pfp and 2. OUR views on what "counts" as white (not theirs, as demonstrated by Bdubs himself and his mid-stream race crisis)? Does whiteness make one immune to the effects of colorism? What is "whiteness", how do we define it? Does that definition change when it comes to interpreting characters?

These are all questions that I believe are unnecessary, but good to ponder.

For those uninitiated though, I think it might be better for now to simply draw as you see fit and look into the concept of white guilt, as well as its counter-productivity when it comes to working towards racial harmony. And please, for the love of god, keep making imperfect art.

[cilogram]

Sparks Japan Tour 2023 Recap

(silly personal edition; unfortunately the only kind I'm capable of)

Saturday July 22nd, Tokyo

(Duo Music Exchange)

This is the standing venue I've mentioned before as being crazy for having massive pillars in line of sight of the stage. It was a sold out show, so unfortunately some people had to be back there...

I was unbelievably lucky with my ticket numbers and my friend and I got to stand in the front row, keyboard siiiiiide. I don't think I can express how happy I was to be there. The show was phenomenal and being in the front able to jump around and dance and experience the music Up Close was just... something else.

I really enjoyed the film score soundtrack to our waiting time before Sparks came on, too. So atmospheric.

Obligatory pre-show keyboard photo number one:

Over the loudspeakers before the band came on, the venue announced that photos and videos wouldn't be allowed during the performance, and there was a hilarious, audible reaction from the crowd as ~600 people quietly reacted like, 'whaaat?!'

(I see there were some rule-breakers in the house, though, so there are some clips and pictures on instagram and elsewhere for those who want to see!)

The stage was really shallow with the band set up and Russell could barely fit behind the keyboard to reach that side, but it was so nice that he made the effort to come and sing to those people up close, and somehow without knocking Ron over.

Also we definitely witnessed the escalator dance!

And oh man, Russell did so many dramatic leaps into the air, it was (as they say) rad.

Out of all the songs we heard that night, I think it brought me the most joy to hear Angst, and The Toughest Girl In Town. I love Interior Design and it's the album I usually put on when I'm coming home from the city at night, so hearing a song from it IN that city at night was just the best. But every song was done incredibly. Particularly Beaver O'Lindy which of course I'd never heard live before (I am sadly not a 21x21 veteran)!

And I love when a song ends and Ron does some little pose when he lifts his hands off the keyboard :')

The crowd was absolutely on fire, in SUCH good spirits! Everyone I saw was just smiling through every moment, or singing along looking elated to be there and lost in the music.

And as I'm sure we've all seen by now, encore Ron wore an Air Jordan hoodie with JAPAN written on it. Extremely appreciated.

Oh, and retrospectively I think I have to conclude that the Shopping Mall Of Love 'yeah's from this night included the hottest 'yeah' of the three tour dates. I don't make the rules, I merely observe them.

This show was everything I could have hoped for and more.

(To my friend I went with: if you're reading this, ugh, what a cherished memory it is to have seen them front row together ;_;)

Monday July 24th, Osaka

(Namba Hatch)

I went up very high to take this photo and the venue is sadly not in it, but please look at Osaka anyway just for some ~mood context~.

(And yes, person trying to see if you could peel one of the Sparks posters off the wall of the venue to take home, I saw you and I support you and I'm sorry you didn't manage to succeed!)

By the way, this venue has an impressive plethora of escalators...

Obligatory pre-show keyboard photo number 2:

You can tell how early I was by the unoccupied seats.

This was my first seated show but 99% of people were on their feet from the moment the band came on and for the entire duration of the show. Absolutely became a standing gig... I was so relieved!

I brought a non-Sparks-fan to this show and it couldn't have been a better introduction. It was just so incredibly well performed and so fun, we had such a great time.

Russell's voice was possibly somehow even better than on Saturday; I don't know, but especially his high notes had so much POWER and he looked super happy with the performances after each song :D

And omdhfhdgdg there was just so much energy from the crowd.

Being a much bigger venue than Saturday, the applause and cheering was incredible :') The audience participation in general was just brilliant!

I really like a lot of the live arrangements of the songs, too, they're so much more powerful than usual. I know with some other bands, live shows are a muddier, albeit wilder but much less listenable rendition of the album tracks, but Sparks really elevate their songs when done live.

Russell also used a few words of the local Osaka dialect when talking to the crowd which was very cute and got big cheers.

The previous venue was too small for the lighting setup I've seen in other 2023 tour photos, so this night was when we finally got to see that in action. As is Sparks' way, it was really well thought-out, so I'm very glad I got to see this more visually dramatic version of the set. I especially loved the rainbow lighting and French flag lighting moments.

This was also our first time hearing A Love Story in Japan. So fun live!

Encore Ron came out wearing a pair of novelty Osaka dialect sunglasses (which he had to lift up to see the keyboard settings 'cause they were obviously too dark, and the crowd giggled at that and so did Ron, it was... fucking cuuute.

Of course there was also a brief glimpse of no-glasses Ron when he swapped them for his normal pair later. Those of you who know me will observe my restraint in the mentioning of this)

When they were saying their final goodbyes to us, someone at the front handed Russell an art piece they'd made (it looked like a standee of him and Ron) and he did a little pose like 'I will cherish this' and then put it on the keyboard, and Ron picked it up and did a little pose with it like 'ooooh'

So cute. So lovely.

Such a stellar show! I wish I could thank everyone else in the crowd for making it so special. I'd never seen so many hands in the air.

Tuesday July 25th, Tokyo

(Line Cube)

(The second brand-related renaming of Shibuya Public Hall has given it the above amusing name. It used to be called CC Lemon Hall and I don't know which is funnier)

It's really nice inside, very modern and spacious and the seats were SO comfortable,

but this time EVERYONE immediately stood up. I didn't detect an ass in a seat for the whole show. It was beautiful. Wonderful. Unbelievably good!

(Unrelated, but in front of me was a maybe-11-year-old boy in subtle russell cosplay; wearing an exact replica of his 'having fun around Japan' outfit from the documentary (complete with the right length of trousers and legit marimekko bag in red))

Obligatory pre-show keyboard photo number 3:

Just before the 2nd or 3rd song there were some technical difficulties, during which Russell tried stalling but then obviously didn't want to stall alone for the whole time and forcibly handed Ron the mic

and Ron said,

"... the voltage in Amurica is 120, and in Japan it's 100... so sometimes things like this happen. We apologize. ^w^"

(yes he did make the face of this emoji)

(and yes I did... phonetically spell out the way Ron says America because it's just... so endearing)

The rest of the show went smoothly though! It was so, so

so

so good.

I could get into some of the moments in the songs that really move me, but I am easily embarrassed.

Okay, I will try (look, I am being so brave)

-When I'm With You: there's a beautifully-held note or two or three in this song that I'm sure all Sparks fans die at when hearing it live. That, and the 'I almost feel normal' line, really get to me.

-It Doesn't Have To Be That Way: I think we all know how rare it is for Sparks to make a song specifically in order to express a message, and I'm really glad they doubled down on that and did this one live. It hurts but it's also so simply triumphant. I love how Russell almost laughs on certain lines because it really is both absurd and exactly what artists have to deal with.

-Number One Song In Heaven. This is just one of the first Sparks songs I ever heard and it blew me into another dimension. It's ominous, it's ethereal, it's weird and perfect, and it's incredible to hear live every single time.

At the end of the show, Russell said how sad it was for them to be ending the tour

but how happy they were to have the last one be here ;__; 'we genuinely really love your country'

Awww Russell ;_;

I left the show so much better off than when I came in, by which I just mean there's something about seeing a band that means so much to you, where it just turns up the metaphorical dial on the enrichment of your life. Thank you Sparks and thank you other Sparks enjoyers!

Well, that was my rambling show report complete with absolutely none of the information anyone usually wants to hear about a gig.

I'd like to thank @adreamofroses for finding me and saying hi, and I'm sorry we didn't get to talk much!

I'll leave you all with a photo of the official merch I got, including some by the art team Tectecs whose adorable art was irresistible. They've got a gallery show going on with all their Sparks work at the moment, too.

and one last photo because I saw my bag looking like this when I stopped to do something, and laughed:

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 09/11/2023

Remember when this song was the one related to toilets?

Season 7 Featured on: PROTONOMICON ~ The Cult of Proto Collection

Ripped by DonnieTheGuy

Unfortunately, due to both real-life circumstances and managing this blog, I haven't been able to keep too up to date with this year's halloween event, The Cult of Proto storyline. Althesame, a new album is a new album, and immediately on release I downloaded it to see what fun stuff I'd missed out on. I had seen some stuff from it here and there already, like Bloody Freddy - which, fun fact, recently became the first rip on the blog to have its tentative name changed to an official one thanks to this album release! But Remember when this song was the one related to toilets? was REALLY the one that got me in going through the album, an endeavor so perfect yet one I never could've foreseen.

Okay, so, where to start with the backstory for this...there's a very particular YouTube series going around by voice actor and animator RainingKetchup, which voice acts, animates, and generally spoofs/pokes fun at the Omori Boy webcomic series - the predecessor to hit indie RPG Omori. One thing led to another, and suddenly a segment in one of these videos - of Mr Omoriboy himself singing a mocking Redditor anthem along with an army of wojaks (dont worry about it) - took off en masse in certain circles on Twitter. It was a perfect shitposting storm, from the pure absurdity of the clip out of context, to making fun of redditor/incel culture, to the endearingly sketchy animation-style - and, on top of it all, being a genuinely really fun tune to listen to with stupidly well-done vocals.

It's the kind of clip that I immediately expected to blow up in terms of getting edits, much like the recent influx of Jay Eazy Mega Man shitposts, yet its been bizarrely...low on output. Part of that, as I understand it, is that the song was simply pretty hard to work with before its stems were released (at which point the meme was unfortunately on its way out). But another part of it, at least to me, seemed to be that the concept for edits almost "plateaued" immediately, with the debut of OMORIBOY the PIRATE!!!☠️☠️☠️ - a YTPMV of a song from the Baby Felix Halloween Game Boy Color game, that has somehow reached HALF A MILLION views, almost doubling the video its source comes from. Its creator is UUN4, a frequent SiIvaGunner contributor behind rips such as Plains of Des-passing-to, and Baby Felix Halloween (and Felix the Cat in general) were already long-cemeted parts of SiIvaGunner history. With all that said, it's no wonder the meme ended up taking refuge under SiIvaGunner - though often times, like with Remember when this song was the one related to toilets?, it's entirely disconnected from its original spike in popularity as an Omoriboy YTPMV.

With ALL that backstor out of the way...the rip's just fuckin' funny. I've made no secret that I hold very dear affection for Paralyzer as a meme, and basically dedicated the entire post of YACKER TOILET just toward gushing over its place as a relic of old-internet and as a genuinely distinct and fun piece of music on its own. Remember when this song was the one related to toilets? is as straightforward of a concept as you get - it's a YTPMV of Paralyzer into the tune of the aforementioned Baby Felix Halloween song, Pirate Island, made to quite clearly evoke the spirit of OMORIBOY the PIRATE!!!☠️☠️☠️. Through that, it sort of calls back to the past and present internet age all at once, althewhile being genuinely very funny. I think its the vocals that sell it - sentence mixed almost exactly like the vocals in OMORIBOY the PIRATE!!!☠️☠️☠️ whilst still containing most of the words in Paralyzer's chorus.

Simple, effective, yet required two paragraphs of lore-dumping on the origins and spread of OMORIBOY the PIRATE!!!☠️☠️☠️ - and even then I didn't even get into Felix the Cat's notoriety on SiIvaGunner since way back in 2016. It's funny how much there can be to these immensely silly rips sometimes, huh?

[iviarellereads]

The Plan, Such As It Is

tl;dr: System Collapse finishes the Murderbot series on Christmas. Last week of the year is a break, and then it's the Wheel of Time with likely between-book breaks for one-offs or shorter series, and someday maybe Alecto the Ninth.

I had a great time watching Desert Bus, and helping with the VST documenting and editing and uploading clips of the process of raising over a million dollars (over ten million in the lifetime of the event!) for a good cause. A most excellent week of "restoring my faith in humanity". But that's a little beside the point of this post.

I also got my hands on System Collapse, but because of how my brain works, I won't be reading it ahead, so we're going to have lots of fun as I read it for the first time in the format of the blog. Let's see if my style changes, if my predictions are well on or off the mark. (I have seen a few posts that spoiled a few moments and character bits, but I'm not concerned about those. I rarely feel like learning things that happen "ruins" anything about an experience anyway. If the story's well told, it's still fun to experience for myself.)

After System Collapse, well, that's the end of Murderbot to-date. And, I haven't run any polls for covering other things. That's because I'm pretty well set on rereading the Wheel of Time series, and revising my previous notes to this format.

It's something I could keep putting off, but the show has gotten so good, and it reminds me of all the things about the books that I loved so much (and how the show is fixing some things I didn't love). I'll also be very excited to do full-series spoiler posts again, Murderbot didn't have a lot that I felt needed commenting on, but the Wheel? Oh, buddy.

But, the caveat here is that the Wheel of Time has, well, fifteen very large books. Eleven thousand pages, over four million words. Coverage would take about three years if I didn't take breaks for other books in between, and I definitely will, so we're gonna be here for a while. I've said before that I was hesitant to cover Discworld for this, and I still am. Discworld has over forty books just in the main series besides the spinoffs, with a comparable total wordcount to WoT. Several of those, I have negative interest in ever rereading. Even if they're largely shorter than WoT bricks, they're also trickier to split, and I won't have as much context to share about them that isn't available elsewhere already. Whereas, the Wheel of Time lacks a lot of spoiler-free resources in print, despite the series being almost 35 years old. There was a huge influx of podcast coverage once the show publicity ramped up, but not so much blog style content. The few prologues and chapters that do need splitting, I've already calculated out from the first time I took the notes.

Mind you, I will be finding time for Alecto the Ninth coverage when Tamsyn Muir finally graces us with her presence, I'll just take a break between whichever WoT books I'm up to by then. And if something else strikes my fancy, I might alternate books. Like, making it through the Eye of the World might scratch the itch well enough, and make me want to dig into the Princess Bride as I threatened to once before, or perhaps when I reach my least favourite sequence of books in the middle, I'll alternate them with the His Dark Materials trilogy, though probably not its supplementary later materials because I'm still refusing to read the Book of Dust.

I totally understand if folks who followed me for other stuff want to jump ship when my WoT coverage starts. I love and can recommend it with some massive content notes and caveats which will be in my intro post for it, but it's not for everyone and treating it like a universal joy is nonsense. But, especially if you can get a library borrow of the first book, whether you get it in print or ebook or either of the incredible audiobook narrations (the full series by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, or the first three are now available narrated by Rosamund Pike, who plays the character of Moiraine Sedai on the show), I hope you'll give it a try with me, and my analysis and commentary might help pull you into a series that's otherwise quite intimidating.

So, System Collapse will finish posting on Christmas, I think I'll take the last week of the year as a breather, and the Wheel of Time will kick off my 2024. I hope you'll consider sticking around and reading with me, especially my Locked Tomb girlies because I've said it before and I'll say it again, these two stories have SO much in common, hashtag Women's Wrongs and unreliable narrators. And, I am gonna try to break it up every so often since these are LONG books, most of them have 40+ chapters so will be two months apiece. But either way, if I'm gonna follow my heart, it's gotta be next.

[shytulipghost]

Did anyone see this play as a kid?

I thought it would be fun to share what first introduced me to Jekyll and Hyde, since I haven't seen anyone talk about it and there's not much content about it online.

This is a play made by a company called The Performers and it's aimed at children who are learning English (Spanish is my first language). I saw it in 2013 with my class, when we were in fifth grade.

For this post, I tried to look for video clips of the 2013 show (called "Jekyll and Hyde") on the group's Facebook page, but I could only find videos from the 2018 show (they changed the name to "Crazy Jekyll"). From what I've seen, everything is mostly the same, so I'll be using those videos to complement the plot summary and add a few comments. But first, let me give you some information about the company, so you have some context.

About the company:

"THE PERFORMERS is an International Theatre Company which produces plays in English to serve the educational needs of English language teaching institutions." (from The Performers' Twitter profile)

Their plays are aimed at three age groups: kindergarten students, children aged 9-12 and teenagers (they have different plays for each group). The ones made for the first two groups are original musicals and they have a moral at the end. I don't know much about the ones made for teenagers, but from what I've seen on their social media, they seem to adapt Shakespeare's plays.

Before the pandemic, they used to perform every year in local theaters across Latin America, mainly in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Panama and Mexico. Nowadays, their plays are on digital format, but you need to sign up on their website to watch them.

My school was familiar with the company as we had seen two previous plays from them: one in kindergarten, which was about colours, and the other one in fourth grade, which was about Mycroft Holmes pretending to be his brother. The play I'm about to talk about is the last one my school took us to see (we saw it with the students from fourth and sixth grade).

What I remember of the plot:

The first thing that you need to know is that this isn’t a theatrical adaptation of the novella, it just has Dr. Jekyll as the main character. All the other characters are original and the whole show takes place in the lab. 

NOTE: The summary will be in normal colour and my comments will be in orange, in case you want to read them later.

Okay, I’ll start summarizing the plot now:

So in this version, Jekyll has an assistant called Doris and, together, they make the potion, which they refer to as the “dual-personality formula” (yeah, they go for the pop culture interpretation). Why do they make the potion? I don’t remember, but I think it’s never explained. Let’s just say they do it for science. 

Anyway, Jekyll tells Doris to leave for a moment and, once he’s alone, he drinks the potion and turns into Mr. Hyde, but not for too long. Since this is a musical for kids, he doesn’t do anything horrible; he just says “I’m evil!” (figuratively) and that’s it. Let me just say that 10-year-old me found the first transformation scene very uncomfortable:

(Sorry it had to be Facebook posts. There are no clips on YouTube. Luckily, you don't need an account to watch them.)

Warning: flashing lights

Personally, I think the 2013 actor did a better job showing that the transformation is supposed to be painful, but still, in the video you can see that I'm not exaggerating. Some children may find this scene uncomfortable or, in the case of the audience shown in the clip and this other one, absolutely terrifying.

I also think the 2013 version had a more serious tone because I remember the lights stayed red when Hyde was talking, he had a deeper voice and there was ominous music in the background (not the same as the one in the video). Instead of saying "I feel powerful!" and all that stuff, he introduced himself as he walked slowly on the stage (he spoke like this: "I'm... Mister... Hyde...). I wish there was a video from 2013 so I could make an actual comparison and analyze it critically.

Worried about the potential dangers, Jekyll puts the potion in a box and tells Doris to hide it somewhere and not tell him where it is. However, he changes his mind later and asks her to bring him back the box. He drinks the potion again, Hyde says evil stuff (seriously, he doesn't do anything), turns back into Jekyll and the cycle repeats two or three times. Sorry for not going into more detail, I only remember the most important plot events.

Occasionally, throughout the play, a man shows up on the TV screen and checks up on the other characters (I think he's supposed to be Jekyll's boss or supervisor). He doesn't contribute much to the plot; he is just the comic relief character. There's this running gag that he always has problems with the webcam and, before leaving, he asks the others if they can see him and the object he is holding. The dialogue goes like this:

TV man: Can you see me?

Characters on stage: No.

TV man: Can you see this X? (for example, hamburger, Barbie doll, etc.)

Characters on stage: No.

[TV man leaves]

Moving on with the story, it is revealed that Doris has a crush on Jekyll, but she hasn't told him yet. Soon after this, she meets Hyde and starts to also have feelings for him because of his good looks (it seems like they took more inspiration from The Nutty Professor, where the Hyde character is supposed to be handsome). Jekyll, who is love with Doris as well, starts to drink more and more, so that she gets to spend more time with his "evil", but charming self. Every time he transformed into Hyde, I was like “No, not again” (I didn’t like how he moaned in pain). 

At some point, there is a love duet and this is where the video is different from what I remember:

This part is weird because I remember the song was slower and the assistant sang with Hyde, not with Jekyll. Mandela effect, perhaps? Also, I'm glad they kept the funniest part in the video (1:11). The TV man was my favourite character.

Okay, I need to explain the following so you can understand the ending:

By the time the fifth or sixth transformation occurs, Hyde decides to hide (oh my God...) the potion in his vest pocket so that he never turns back into Jekyll again and nobody else finds the formula. It is at this point that the play treats the potion as if it were his heart or something similar. Keep the last part in mind.

Later in the story, two rival scientists arrive and they plan to steal Jekyll's potion so they can become famous. They sing a catchy song about it:

After that, they meet the other two characters and ask where the potion is. Hyde says something like "I don't know what you're talking about" and they argue for a while before being interrupted by the TV man, who does his gag one more time.

I'll be honest: I don't remember if anything relevant happens afterwards. I saw this almost ten years ago, so sorry for not having a perfect memory. Let's just skip to the ending...

Eventually, the other characters realize that Hyde has the potion and needs it to "survive", so the rival's assistant runs up to him, takes the potion out of his pocket and throws it to the ground. The glass shatters... Hyde yells something like "NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" and disappears for good. He doesn't return briefly like in the Broadway musical.

Jekyll turns back to normal and confesses everything, including his love for Doris, who also admits that she is in love with him. She adds that he didn't need to drink the potion because she already loved him for who he really is. The play ends with the main characters singing the moral of the story.

In retrospect:

When I left the theater, I didn't feel anything (I was still thinking about the first and last transformation scene), but deep down I really enjoyed it. I mean, why else would I remember this play? Overall, it was good. It had funny moments and I still remember some of the songs.

Looking back, I think the only problem they had was with Hyde. He tells the audience that he's evil, but he doesn't show that he's evil. He doesn't do much actually. Look, obviously, they couldn't show him committing murder because of the target audience, but there were other ways they could have done it. They could have made him break stuff in the lab, make fun of the other characters (the rivals, for example) or do pranks on them. Something that would have given him a more active role in the story. Nonetheless, it's still a good musical for children.

Although this is what first introduced to me to Jekyll and Hyde, I didn't become interested in it until 4 years later, when I watched a "Confrontation" animatic on YouTube. As I was watching it, I thought "Wait a minute, those two names seem familiar". I decided to watch two more animatics from the same channel and, the moment I saw the potion and the transformation, I remembered the play. From then on, I began to watch more videos related to the Broadway musical, because it was entirely different from the one I had seen, and somehow, 6 years later, I got here.

Well, that's the end of my anecdote. If you made it this far, I'm glad that I didn't bore you. The reason why I made this post was because I was curious if someone else saw it, considering that the company used to perform in various countries. I tried to look for more information about the 2013 show on the company's Twitter and Facebook page, but I couldn't find much. The only thing I know is that they performed in Argentina (in my province, at least) and Uruguay (based on the description of this very old post), but I'm not sure about the other countries I mentioned earlier (maybe they performed the previous year in those places). So if anyone in the fandom is Latin American, tell me if you also saw the play in primary school. If not, it doesn't matter. I just wanted to share something from my childhood.

Feel free to share if you had a similar experience as a kid.

[shinydixon]

i love most of you guys, especially you shiny, what you do here is amazing. thank you for letting us pour our hearts out here without judgment. but one thing that really irks me is the fact that some people completely forget that joe and grace ARE friends. maybe they're not best friends, maybe they're not close as they were when they were filming, but they are friends and he cares a lot about her like he does all of his friends. i know when season 4 dropped it looked like everything had been filmed in a week to us but it took two years and during those two years, joe was hanging out with grace and mason a lot. not to mention there was all the table reading and rehearsals that came before the actual filming. mason and grace even said joe would cook for them all the time. they had little adventures, like the aquarium visit, and basically they just had fun. i'm always on the verge of liking grace but then taking a step back because i don't really agree with the shit she pulled in the past, however, she is clearly very loved by the entire cast, even joe jeery calling her the cutest in a bts clip, and jamie loves her take on chrissy's death. so all of this just to say that joe and grace are friends, they probably do talk, maybe not all the time, but they keep in touch and whenever they work together, it's obviously fun for them. and there's no changing that no matter how much we don't like grace or chrissy. the vanquinns take that friendship out of context and turn it into something that they like and i know that is very irritating and frustrating, but i've seen people complaining grace is always at these cons or that she's always trying to be close to joe and like, no. they're friends. she probably has a contract with fanexpo too and she's friends with joe and naturally she feels at ease with him. and we all know how affectionate joe is with his friends, family and fans. and remember, vanquinns can say whatever they want, they'll never have joe saying the best part of his job was to see keery without a shirt because he has a very distracting chest. not saying joe quinn/joe keery is a ship but i just think that quote is very beautiful.

I love you too 🤍

Yes of course they're friends and it's true that sometimes people forget that.

Anyway that line about Joe K. is iconic

[veliseraptor]

I have already consumed a lot of gifs and clips and meta and several out of context chapters of a book, but I would be VERY interested in hearing direct Lise excitement about what makes vegas and/or petevegas so much fun :3c

drags hands down face. I feel like I'm still only...borderline coherent about this, is the problem. so far I've been funneling all my feelings into fic which is sometimes easier than typing out coherent actual thoughts about why a thing is making me insane

but since you asked, i'm tipsy, and i said i'd answer questions here goes: I mean I think part of it is about the...thing that i'm sort of coming to recognize from the cnovels i've been experiencing which is this feeling of "what the fuck this is not something i actually expect to read/see in a piece of media that didn't come out of my brain/fandom, this hits so perfectly on so many of my iddy desires, i feel so gloriously and terrifyingly seen" that i'm still struggling to conceptualize/deal with.

seagull screaming meme, etc.

so vegaspete specific: like...on the level where it is deeply fucked up captive/captor enemies-to-lovers, that's one thing. I like my relationships queer and bad representation! but less flippantly I think it's the ways it plays with...intimacy and trauma and kink in ways that I feel like I don't run into a lot in media in ways that really vibe with me. it's the "two deeply fucked up people with a lot of damage being fucked up together, also the way in which they excavate something new or unexpected in each other via their relationship, also the 'being seen by someone in ways you're seldom perceived by others, and also (on the vegas end of things) being loved in all your complete awfulness. if I'm gonna quote my own fic for a minute here (I can do that if I want): "He’d made himself a lure for people like one of those deep sea fish using a light to draw in their prey, dazzling them before devouring them. [...] Pete saw the gaping jaws full of teeth first and chased the light anyway."

and vegas specifically...I mean you hand me a pretty, manipulative dick with a desperate desire to please an authority figure who is fundamentally unpleasable, simultaneous arrogance and some level of self-loathing, more than a little mean and prone to destroying the things that they care about, armored in a ruthlessly charming persona...I'm there. also i joked about, like, "pathetic sadist representation" but tbh that's real

I just love characters who are both ruthless murderers and profoundly emotionally brittle! and also who catch unexpected feelings that turn out to be a big problem! I love it even more when they actually survive.

like...what a gift. only the absolute moral bankruptcy of this narrative makes it possible.

[mdverse]

What are some of your favourite Glee ships and why? I'm thinking like... top five? Or more if you feel like it :)

ooh this is a fun one because anything after my top ship can and will change at the drop of a hat lmao

1: brittana

hopefully this will come as a shock to no one aksdjhfsk,,, brittana is actually a ship i found out about before i watched glee. like i would see all of these compilations on youtube of glee moments out of context, and idk how exactly but it led to seeing clips of brittana. i remember being salty bc some of my friends at the time had seen glee and not a single one of them told me that there was a wlw relationship i would've liked lol.

but yeah there's just something really compelling about getting to see these two girls who start out as background characters with funny one-liners grow into an actual couple that gets happily married in the end. especially because i don't remember really seeing any wlw relationships get any kind of focus or open acknowledgement before brittana? at least not any relationships that lasted more than a couple of episodes? and maybe i just wasn't watching the right shows bc i only started watching glee less than 2 years ago lol but their development on the show, while very flawed thanks to the writers, was just super special for me. and it still is. i have a lot of love for them and even though i haven't drawn much brittana lately, i'd like to think that my love for them shows in some of my older art :)

also? wanting to draw brittana is what got me out of months-long art block and depressive episode where i just did not have any inspiration or motivation to draw anything, and it quickly became the catalyst for so much of the artistic growth i've made over the past almost 2 years. idk if that means much to u guys but to me it really means the world and i don't think i even have the words to explain it asksdhfk i just. i love them a lot.

2: hevans

ok listen to be completely honest, i don't think about hevans that much but once in a while i think about s2 hevans and how that would've been so nice? like,,, s2 sam was so refreshing because he arrived at a time where i was used to seeing the glee boys (finn and puck in particular) being like "oh we get called gay for being in glee club and associating with kurt, a gay kid :( and that's bad :( we don't like the idea of being seen as gay :(" and sam just did not care. he didn't care that singing a duet with another guy might be seen as weird, he didn't care that he might get bullied for it, he just cared that kurt had a lovely voice and he wasn't gonna go back on his promise to sing with kurt. and then we got rumours and kurt not even hesitating to keep sam's secret, even though his friends immediately accused him of cheating on blaine. idk hevans just had this bond in s2 that wasn't explored enough after that, and then sam was dumbed down in s4 and onwards and ugh i miss s2 sam goddammit fuck the writers for turning him into whatever the fuck we got in s4-6

also hevans makes me consider an artist!sam x model!kurt au? like when i drew kurt as the boy with a basket of fruits i could picture sam being a painter and having kurt as his model/inspiration, and i have a second very unfinished wip based on another painting in the same vein. lowkey veering into a picture of dorian grey moment now lol but is that not compelling??? i can't believe i only thought of that just now aksdjhf i love that book,,, also there's yet another painting i'd like to redraw as hevans but who knows when i'll get around to it

3: quinntina

i don't think the writers were ever gonna give us quinntina and idk if there are even many quinntina moments in the show aside from like,,, teeny tiny background moments here and there. also the show butchered them both so i'm not basing this ship in canon at all. i just think they would have an interesting dynamic i guess? popular girl quinn fabray and shy tina cohen-chang possibly wishing they could switch positions for a while because quinn is exhausted from all the pressure she puts on herself and tina wonders what it would be like to be in the spotlight? slowly bonding in glee club because tina realises quinn isn't the bitch tina assumed she'd be, and quinn finds it refreshing to be around a sweetheart like tina? indulging each other's dramatic moments but also keeping each other grounded? the mental image of tina helping quinn dye her hair pink? that time in s6 where we got half a quinntina duet in jagged little tapestry, which for the record, i think would've been a mashup of so far away and ironic? (also, vb au quinntina sharing the brain cells of the friend group?) idk i think it would've been nice and i am once again cursing the writers

4: wildebrams

i don't have much of an actual explanation as to why i like wildebrams because it feels like i haven't seen s4-5 in forever, but iirc their relationship allowed us to see a much softer side to kitty and i really loved that. like,,, kitty being nervous about committing to a relationship but then opening up to the glee club about her feelings for artie? wholesome shit i love it

i can't think of anymore ships rn because i'm not deeply invested in any ships besides brittana but this feels like a solid mini list. i feel like im forgetting a lot of the big ones so feel free to specify any other ships you'd like me to talk about :)

[literaphobe]

I know you haven't seen the purpled clip yet but personally it did seem to be in good fun to me? Like its the kinda thing i hear a lot of other mcyt say to each other. I swear I've heard sapnap, punz, dream, etc make jokes like that plenty of times before.

And the clarification that he did about the joke wasnt only about that? Apparently he tweeted something that he claims was misunderstood (as in the tweet was not about dream or any other specific cc) and taken out of proportion. But he also admitted that he did not think too deeply about it before making it and that in retrospect it was a stupid tweet.

I went looking for the tweet to see the context but nothing on either of his accounts seems like it has anything to do with dream so he might have deleted it. Maybe someone who has a screenshot can share it?

Anyways this is just my opinion. I'd be interested in reading what you have to say especially after you watch that clip.

still haven’t seen the clip but based on the transcript this is my opinion:

- purpled didn’t have context re dream having a bad mcc so him being excited that he beat dream, one of the best players in the event, prob exciting to him, not necessarily malicious when u consider everything

- sapnap, punz etc would not have ribbed on dream for that, its one thing to laugh at someone losing to u when ur both performing at ur peak (aka 1st vs 5th like when sapnap and punz had that mcc15 bet), its another thing to kick a guy while he’s down. dream got screwed in battle box and sky battle because of various circumstances and the fact that both games changed maps/mechanics, when cpk brought up the fact that zeuz placed higher than dream for instance, sapnap was quiet

- yeah the thing he was justifying was clearly the tweets and not what he said about dream not being on the leaderboard… ultimately *shrugs* im not gonna lose sleep over any of this, i’m sure dream doesn’t hate him and he doesn’t HATE hate dream but i don’t see him in the same light that i see dream’s inner circle and on that front everyone is always Lightheartedly on Thin Ice at the very least because that is the dramatic thing to do and i’ve been in theatre for half my life

[dumb-of-ass-pure-of-heart]

Both the Dave Chappelle and Margaret Atwood drama are taken wildly out of context. With their actual actions and words elsewhere they support the trans community (monetarily! where it matters). Chapelle particularly isnt steeped in the terf rabbit hole and outright says that trans women Are women but he's upset that people so hellbent on identity politics don't practice empathy when trying to correct people. Those very people drove his trans friend to suicide because she understood while he poked fun at trans people like he does @ every other demographic, he believes in her humanity. And of course people who talk about him 90% of the time haven't actually seen his shows and only quote articles about him.

Hi, first off, I'm not black, but still fuck you for this and I'm gonna tell you off based on of every single thing I'm hearing from the people who we all actually need to be listening to.

Literally every single black trans woman I know has said fuck this guy, every single black trans person/creator on TikTok, on social media in general, is saying that Dave Chappelle is perpetuating white supremacist views on gender and sexuality, perpetuating the idea that transness is a white construct that black people have fallen prey to. Perpetuating the idea that blackness and transness are conflicting identities. Perpetuating the very ingrained TERF ideology that intersectionality is wrong. Perpetuating First Wave white feminist movements. And you're saying that he's not in the wrong?

But It's Okay Because He Had A Trans Friend! Who can't defend herself. Who can't have an opinion on this because she's dead. She's fucking dead and honestly how dare you or anyone bring her up in this as some "gotcha".

I love stand-up. This Is Not Happening, comedy podcasts, Netflix and Comedy Central specials, anything and everything under the sun, including international stand-up. Seeing the recent smaller shows popping up on TikTok has really exciting to me. And before I say anything else, personally, I think Bert Kreisher's last special should have been a bigger deal in the media because half of it was him explaining all of the different ways he physically and emotionally scars his eldest daughter in like a 100% not funny way, this is relevant because if Bert Kreisher had said what Dave Chappelle did I don't think it would have even made news.

I've watched every single one of Dave Chappelle's comedy specials, I watched the Dave Chappelle show when I was a kid and once almost all the way through during the pandemic with a new critiquing eye thanks to life experience, I've even seen the clips that popped up in the very first years of YouTube as a platform. I've seen what he said on stage about trans people. At one point I was a part of a comedy scene enough that a cishet latino man who has real clout in some areas made some shit story about me as a trans person and my micro dick, as a transphobic attack against me after his dog tried to bite my cat and he theatened us both on a public platform. One of his biggest influences - Dave Chappelle. Transphobia in stand-up culture is well and alive and Dave Chappelle just gave TERF propoganda a seat at the table like it was no big deal. Like that doesn't actively put trans people in even more danger from people within their communities nonetheless. A household name stood on a stage and for 37 minutes railed on trans people. And when he did that, he railed on every single trans person. Not just the white ones.

So this take that you have is half-baked transphobic homophobic dimwitted propoganda nonsense. Congrats on falling for it. How the fuck do you have green on shinigamieyes when you're clearly steeped in rampant white supremacist transphobic rhetoric, get out of here I want nothing to do with you even if you are a mutual.

[rochey1010]

Clip 7 S3E3

(Part 3)

Ok so context for the last part of the clip is that we now see Lucas and Eliott walking along the canal towards Lucas's place. They are talking about what happened. Eliott mentions that things between Lucas and Chloe seem to be hot. Lucas tells him he's stressed as Chloe is constantly all over him. Lucas asks about Lucille and says that they must be together a long time and she seems pretty great. Eliott agrees but says that he thinks the relationship has run it's course, they seem to be going in circles and it's not something he might want anymore. Lucas asks him if he wants a relationship and Eliott replies that he does want one. Lucas then asks if he sees himself with another girl soon. Eliott says yes but "not necessarily a girl" Lucas looks at him. Eliott stares at Lucas. They then reach Lucas's place. Lucas tells Eliott that they're there. Eliott continues to stare at Lucas. He then looks up to his building and then back down to stare at Lucas. Lucas stares back. Lots of staring and then a car pulls up. Manon steps out and says hello. Lucas then looks at Eliott in disappointment.

Ok so my thoughts on the final part of the clip is damn damn damn. 🔥🔥🔥 I loved this scene and i loved that Eliott didn't care. 🙌 Just came out direct to Lucas. And zero fucks were given.😎 We see that Eliott can be more reserved and laid back. We see he can be nervy and unsure but we also see that he can be bold and provoking. He's such a complex character and i love how he's a walking contradiction. That he can have so much confidence and then sort of lose it. I do feel this kind of mood is rooted in his mental illness and depending on what kind of a time he's having he can be very sure of himself or quite insecure.🤔

I loved how when they were walking we again saw more POLARIS symbolism. The background behind them. Lucas had many city lights but Eliott had total darkness. This is why Eliott is like this. He is way more comfortable and knowing in his dark world. He ruled this night because he was in his element with his raccoon mask metaphor. 🦝 And I loved how both were fishing for information. First eliott mentioning Chloe but as soon as Lucas confirmed his discomfort and basically admitting it's a farce with Chloe. Our beloved raccoon king was smug as f. 😏 His face was like casual, nonchalant, confident and self assured. Eliott knows. He's not an idiot. The Chloe thing isn't an issue. I think Eliott is smart enough to read that Lucas is struggling with his sexuality. I'm sure he recognises the same conflict that he probably faced coming to terms with his own. So i think he never really held it against Lucas. And i do believe he was hurt but was able to understand that Lucas is scared. And eliott understands scared as he made POLARIS which has so much fear. 😥

I loved how Lucas was trying to fish for info too about Lucille. And i adored how Eliott didn't drag her. He even said she was great. But he recognises a dead end and is blatantly honest that it's over. And the way he came out in that blaze way. 👏 King Eliott everybody. 👑 He just didn't care at all, because he knows what he wants. And the game was fun but now it's time to send the message to Lucas. Yes Eliott likes more than one gender. Yes he wants a relationship and yes Lucas in case you didn't get the hint. It's you he wants all this with. 🤗 My favourite thing was when he said it he did not take his eyes off lucas at all. He eyefucked his soul and Lucas nearly broke his neck when Eliott said that.😄 😏 👁👄👁

Now it's out there. If the kiss 'eyefuck' didn't make it clear before. This certainly did. We're now on a precipice. And i honestly feel as much as they wanted to kiss each other? They wouldn't even if Manon didn't interupt. That POLARIS is still very much playing out, and that these are still 2 people who will never be together if they don't face their fears to leave their respective worlds. I honestly think they would have just kept staring at each other. 💋 That moment though when Eliott broke eye contact to stare up at Lucas's building and then look back down at Lucas was OOF. The innuendo in that, like he's like "huh so that's where i'm gonna get a whole lot damn closer to you soon" 🥵 and that height difference is a sexy mood. 🔥 The way Lucas is looking up at Eliott with these doe eyes with attitude like "bitch kiss me now" and this is what i'm talking about. Lucas ready to risk it all in the street. 😄 😍That he forgets everything when with Eliott. That this sexuality mountain doesn't seem as hard to climb as long as Eliott is there. Like the audacity of this kid just staring up demanding to be kissed. 👄 And Eliott is all "nu uh you kiss me" so a pretty blatant stalemate, and neither one willing to make that first scary move. 🙄 i also love how this version obviously focuses on the romance of the love story but isn't afraid to show the sensuality and passion too. So the buildup to them getting together is crazy tension. Their chemistry both romantic and sexual is just electric. I loved watching it then and i love watching it now. 🥳

And then of course manon shows up to ruin the sexual tension. Listen i liked that Lucas formed a friendship with Manon but i've seen the show and Manon now triggers me. I am not happy to see her because she ends up taking up too much space. So to say i groaned is an understatment. 😑

Song: Laetitia Frenod - Futuristic Intrigue

[ngame989]

(1/2) I've had a thought. It has to do with people's lack of interpretation of the episode Booth Buddies, and the failure of people who don't want Starco to happen to understand why Star and Marco can't go back to being platonic. And I think it in large part had to do with the leak of the kiss. When that image leaked, people from all sides backflipped into knee-jerk reactions. So much so that when the episode actually aired, nobody focused on it.

(2/2) Everyone was just waiting for that kiss, to either praise it or rant about it. Everyone had already chosen their reactions before we even saw the whole context, leaving only a handful of us to actually listen to what the characters where saying and deducing through their words and context clues what was actually going on: That Star and Marco have realized that their relationship has forever changed and that they can’t go back. I dunno, what do you think?

I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I saw this because of how ridiculously relevant your exact phrasing of the message is to my experience of the episode. I’ll get to my actual thoughts in a moment (tl;dr: BIG MOOD), but first; 

Story time.

The Friday before the episode’s release (3 AM officially for me, but the rip from a particular cable company’s on-demand was available usually by 12:30-1 AM) was an incredibly busy day for me, which was fine since it let me keep my mind off the anxiety gnawing at me and my eyes off the internet, avoiding all leaks. News of the leaks existing came via Discord, but I carefully avoided all contents or reactions to them… until a close friend of mine came to me. 

He had been spoiled by the thumbnail of the kiss on YouTube’s sidebar while watching totally unrelated things - of course this shocked him, so he grabbed just the transcript (not any other images) to sate his curiosity. He’s as gud a Starco boi as they come, but has a heavily cynical streak and trends towards seeing the worst in some things in the show. He didn’t spoil me, but I could tell that the leak was eating him alive - not in the expected “something big happened” way, but in that it was actually horribly depressing him, so I relented and asked for a bit more information so I could understand the situation more. His initial take was that Marco kissed Star, and her words after (”you’re my squire, I have a boyfriend” etc) were her legitimately turning him down and that this was “closure” to Starco, or at the very least a very negative sign of things to come. I didn’t (and still don’t) pass judgment on him having that reaction - it had been a rough season on us, to say the least, and everyone has their moments of weakness - but I simply couldn’t believe that was what was actually happening.

With that, I grabbed the leaks myself and dug into it a bit more to figure some things out. I did, miraculously, manage to glean the general idea just from the transcript (it was a panicked reaction by Star, not a rejection) and talked it over with him and it… at least did a good enough job to hold him (and me) over until the cable rip. Still one of the most stressful 5 hour blocks of my life though.

Cue the first release of the episode itself, on a fairly low res rip from cable. I knew what was coming,so I was trying to focus entirely on the why/how and not the what. Even knowing the words that were about to be spoken, I still wasn’t prepared for that entire scene once “What’s Different” kicked in, and I was crying a full minute before the kiss even happened. He hadn’t been watching the rip with me, but was in voice chat, and apparently my reactions were enough to get him out of that funk so hooray for that.

End story time.

The point in me saying all of this is that I have always attributed my understanding of the episode (as easily as it came to me, anyway) to the fact that I tuned my perceptions specifically towards sorting out the context of the kiss, without being affected by the shock of it in the moment. Maybe watching the episode leakless would’ve been a better experience, idk, but it ended up working out well enough for me.

The point about everyone latching on to their preconceived knee-jerk reactions is true, but it’s a (particularly explosive) microcosm of how people have always viewed this show, on all sides. It’s human nature to have knee-jerk reactions, but it’s an all-too-common tendency to stick with that even when the facts dispute it rather than re-evaluating your feelings when presented with new information. I wasn’t here myself, but I’ve seen old reactions from stuff as early as Sleepover where people refused to believe or accept what happened at the end - OK, sure, maybe a handful of people had a cable outage in the last 20 seconds of the ep and legitimately missed the moment proving Star was crushing on Marco, but in 95% of cases it was clear as day that people were twisting what they saw to fit their own ideas. 

This happened again going into Season 3, when fans had been twiddling their thumbs throughout the spring and early summer with endless art and fics of Star crushing hard on Marco, and then Battle for Mewni highlighting that even more, only for the SDCC clip a few days later to throw a wrench in the works. Clearly that itself lacked a ton of context, and I don’t hide the fact that I myself was on the “it’s a flashback” train for a while. After the Calarts thing and the episode title leaks confirming its legitimacy, I accepted that something Tomstar was coming, but I was still kinda hung up on my preconception there and didn’t “get” what the point of it was for quite a while. Even with my failings there, I can say with confidence that most of the Starco fans were way worse about it, and still don’t see the point of any of it even to this day - same underlying failing of twisting what actually happens to fit the knee-jerk feeling.

And Tomstar fans in Season 3 repeated this pattern by completely ignoring the fact that Star wasn’t really in love with Tom at all, or that she was still growing closer to Marco, and their views of her actions were warped to fit their narrative of “Star chose to date Tom and he is changing to improve himself, so therefore Tomstar is getting better” without considering the underlying arc of where Star’s heart truly lies.

Even now, even among people who do claim to “get” the message of Booth Buddies, there’s another deeper underlying presumption many people have that the show is just a soap opera now. OK, sure, this season has lacked a lot of the lightheartedness of the past (specifically within Star and Marco’s relationship). I can even say that, with some exceptions, I had less fun watching Season 3 than Seasons 1 or 2 because of this, and it’s a sucky feeling I want to go away - I’m sympathetic to the plights of Starco fans, I truly am, BUT that doesn’t change the fact that my primary goal is to understand the messages the show is trying to convey, and the execution therein, when analyzing it. This extrapolation of the presence of (completely justified, and directly addressed as an unwanted thing in-universe) awkwardness and tension between Star and Marco for the last 1.5 seasons leads fans to assume there will just be more of the same for the sole intent of stringing the fandom along, and that’s a nearly superstitious level of false pattern recognition.

The Booth Buddies leak, then, was the perfect storm of this bullshit. An incredibly controversial (both in and out of universe) action, not only lacking context, but presented to the fandom in most cases by other fans with their OWN preconceived notions via YouTube video titles and whatnot, and with an entire season’s worth of anxieties fueling those reactions. The fallout still would’ve been bad without the leaks, but this particular combination of issues was a Weapon of Mass Obstruction launched at the fandom’s collective desire or ability to figure it out.