#if we ever get an adaptation (which we better) the fan edits are going to be insane

[acourtofquestions]

Sobbing cause

is Empire of Storms final paragraph rowaelin😭

p.s. thanks @guardian-angel12 for showing me how to add the songs directly😂💕😊

[kingdomoftyto]

I'm crying laughing, the DVDs are even worse than I remember... Season 1's menus are silent with a single static jpg of the same key character art they use for everything else, and the episodes on the Season 2 discs don't even match what's listed on the box! Absolutely stunning lack of shits given. Truly unparalleled. But I really shouldn't be surprised given... well... everything about how this series has been treated since the very beginning.

Time for a quick ~✨PHANDOM HISTORY LESSON✨~ to give newer/less hyperfixated folks more context for why the graphic novel being as great as it is is such a HUGE deal:

Danny Phantom was one of Nickelodeon's MAIN cartoons, in its time. It was a central pillar. One of the top three or four of their lineup, which is saying something when the competition includes the cultural juggernaut that is Spongebob.

Despite this, and despite its superhero theming making it perfectly marketable, it got basically ZERO official merch.

What little we did get was often ugly and very, very cheap. The dedication at the start of the graphic novel that jokes about collecting the Burger King toys? That's because it was some of the most notable merch the franchise EVER had. (I sadly do not have any of it. There was no BK in my hometown. Here's a pic from the internet, though, to give you an idea.)

If you think I'm exaggerating about that being the most significant physical merch to come out of the series, consider that the first video game had an entire menu option specifically for the Burger King promotional tie-in:

That video game, by the way, was one of only two ever based on the show. The first was an adaptation of "The Ultimate Enemy" in the style of a short sidescrolling beat-em-up, and the second was themed around "Urban Jungle" and (as far as I can tell--I've only played the first couple levels) was an arcade-style scrolling shooter. Both were for the Gameboy Advance, and both are...... fine, as far as cash-grabby video game tie-ins to kids' shows go. This was pretty normal for the time, so I suppose we did okay in that department, actually. They're not GOOD, but they're playable and have at least a bit of effort put into them.

But besides those two video games (plus a handful of simple, long-defunct Flash games on nick.com)? In the decade and a half since the show ended?

Nothing.

No books, no games, no comics, no web shorts--unless you count mega-crossovers with every other Nicktoon (a la Nicktoons Unite), or soulless promotional material like "Fairly Odd Phantom" (which, trust me, despite being the first new DP animation in over 10 years was not even worth the effort of watching).

...I think there was a limited edition FunkoPop once?

So yeah.

A Glitch in Time is not just the first cool, well-made thing we've seen from the franchise in a while. It's the first THING we've seen since the show. PERIOD. And arguably the first worthwhile supplementary material to EVER come out of the show, depending on how you feel about those GBA games and the Nicktoons crossovers.

This franchise is widely beloved even now, almost 20 years after it first aired, and it feels like that fact is now, finally, FINALLY getting some official recognition.

PLEASE read A Glitch in Time. Tell other people about it. The series--no, the fans--deserve this (and more of this, if the folks in charge see enough of a response and decide to grace us with any followup). It's LONG overdue, but better late than never.

[sergeifyodorov]

would u do a little analysis of how each team has done so far this season … i trust ur opinions so much

EACH team okay... under the cut bc i am not subjecting the masses to 32 nasty little thots cody edition

Bruins: RIP patrice of course but the bruins are steamrolling as ever... i think that if there is any evidence of the universe simply not caring abt good things it is that the bruins slip and stumble and have some of their best players retired and still manage to put up a 50 win season every year. <- salty leafs fan but ANYHWAY the bruins are easily a Playoff Team. simply "there" 5v5, strong power play, they make their money off finishing (pastrnak you filthy animal) and goaltending (swaymark you filthy animals). they have been trending downwards of late so i'm not entirely sure of like their final standings place but with this kind of head start they're staying up.

Sabres: currently in what we the people call a "decade of darkness." might be a "two decades of darkness" if we're going to be honest. the active player with the most playoff points with the sabres is tyler myers. 7 points. yeah the tall one most famous for having a subreddit that posts the gamescore card every time he's on the bottom of the gamescore card. sabres are really hard to fix because their first real step to contention is "hoping devon levi turns out really good." not promising. bad enough that by selling a piece or two celebrini is in sight. maybe that'll help? a third 1OA?

Red Wings: presenting the mid-season Season Ruining Unforced Error Award early by saying: not that they were going to be as good as their first few games of sniping suggested, but signing patrick kane tanked any realistic hope they have of playoffs. is patrick kane good? he's actually alright. maybe this time the surgery worked. is the team made better by having him on it? it surely isn't! a few REALLY BADLY TIMED dylan larkin based misfortunes have made it go from bad to worse. they were in A2 like a month ago and now they're Out. strengths: finishing. weaknesses: everything else, including morale.

Panthers: okay you've probably clocked this by now but ive been Generally Salty so far and that is bc a) im easily tempted to haterhood and b) currently discussing each team in the atlantic which does nothing to make me less Tempted To Haterhood. that being said the panthers are Good and For Real About It. they can do everything except finish chances, which is fine when the other team has way fewer chances than you and your goalie doesn't let any of them in. fuck ALLL the way off. place your bets on these guys having a deep playoff run. cross your fingers for them not having a deep playoff run i can't stand chuckyposting again it's RAN ITS COURSE. (also: machuk is probably still injured and absolutely Not doing as well as he did the last few seasons. maybe because he's just not that kind of guy but it's probably at least mostly the broken chest thing)

Canadiens: they are bad EXCEPT when it comes to overtime + the shootout. also much like the sabres they're going nowhere fast. i expect at least one of their goalies to be gone at the deadline... furthermore i think ppl who are ragging on slaf's slow development are simply expecting all 1OAs to be like an auston or a connor type (pick your connor) where they come in and immediately adapt -- slaf rings very reminiscent of quinton byfield to me, who was picked 2OA in 2020 and is only now starting to break out. give him time he's a baby...

Senators: despite how much literally everyone talks up all their players constantly, they are not good either. like the sabres or the habs... atlantic is 4 teams in the genuine hunt, 3 teams who suck and have sucked forever and will suck forevermore, and the red wings who haven't made up their minds yet. the sens actually Do have a singular Biggest Problem though and that's goaltending, but they're not a good enough team otherwise that getting a quality goaltender is going to make them playoffs worthy, especially not in the very short (this-season) run.

Lightning: the lightning are weird to me because like i think they're still making up their mind as A People what they want to do. kucherov is the best player in the league rn, this is stamkos' ufa season and he hasn't been offered an extension, vasilevskiy is back and vasying his levskiy... i fully believe they have the capability of getting a playoff spot, maybe even A3 if they want. we've all seen them in the playoffs, we know how they can turn ~It~ on at will. as always they're a deeply mid 5v5 team powered by very strong special teams... the goaltending numbers say goaltending is shit but they've been playing in front of the genuinely unplayable jonas johansson most of the season so i think it'll be fine.

Maple Leafs: as the team ive watched the moast i can talk about these guys for evar so for all of our sanities i will be brief: Auston Matthews, Baby, Look At Him, That's Auston, Auston Motherfucking "Sexy Mustached Bitch" Matthews!!!!!!! powered by an extremely strong power play and very good offence, and defence and goaltending that is held together by Morgan Rielly and a dream. possibly the only reason they're in a playoff spot is the fact that martin jones didn't get claimed on waivers three months ago and i am being dead serious about that. for some reason they're at their best when they're down by two. they do really need both their #1 goalie to come back from injury and to make a splash for a genuine nhl-calibre defenceman, but they're stubbornly determined to win games even through nasty flu.

Hurricanes: their usual selves -- analytics darlings, can't buy a goal. this year they can't buy a save either -- Freddie is out with a medical condition, Raanta is straight up not good, and Kochetkov is... well, he's Kochetkov. they're not far out of a spot but they'll need a hot hand if they want to get comfy... which i don't expect, frankly. they're good enough to make the playoffs, but they're not really a team that goes on heaters, so they'll be bubble until the end.

Blue Jackets: genuinely not sure they know what they're doing like... okay. from an outside pov they are obviously Tanking. they're bad in every way that matters except for finishing and the standings show it. but also like... they're at the point in their development cycle where they shouldn't be tanking... or at least are on the verge of Shouldn't Be Tanking. and again, because they don't know what they're doing, they hired mike babcock for this... if they know what they're doing they'll toss kekalainen as soon as they can and, following this year's draft, start Fighting. but let's be real i doubt that. adam fantilli it's your time to shine... sorry sweetheart!

Devils: see Hurricanes. Great on paper, can't buy a save. They've obviously been stunted by Timo, J'accuse, and Nico all being injured at various points, but goaltending is their biggest and most solvable problem. Unlike the Hurricanes, though, the Devils are fully capable of going on a heater, so the gap between them and WC2 isn't as big as it looks (probably.) Luke Hughes is going to be something special.

Rangers: Looks like Lafreniere is finally getting his feet under him -- but the Rangers have always been far more about getting old, known players to get a second wind with them than they've been about prospect development, and Quick and Wheeler are both showing this pretty definitively. Another one of those teams that's run by special teams and finishing/goaltending. Easy playoff spot, likely solid run. Nothing too interesting here.

Islanders: On the other hand, the Isles are interesting because... like... how did they get There? They have a negative goal differential, for heaven's sake! Their special teams are godawful, their defence is a sieve, they blow leads like that's what actually gets you points in this league, and they're somehow second in the Metropolitan??????? Is it Horvat? Barzal? Sorokin? (It's probably Sorokin.) They'll make the playoffs but i doubt they'll succeed in them.

Flyers: This one's also weird. They have the power play and offence of a peewee team in the big leagues, but have become defensively Actually Super Competent and are somehow good because of this? I'm going to theorize -- because you've asked me to but also because I really want to -- that this is due, at least in part, to somewhat of an inverse Kane-on-the-Red-Wings effect from their offseason removal of Provorov and DeAngelo; without them, the team is now not only better defensively on paper but also better as a team in the locker room. They're [uncle voice] playing with heart now! I doubt they're a real contender, but I think they might actually make playoffs.

Penguins: ...this one's also weird. They're good on paper. Like, really good on paper? Defensively "just okay" but offensively great, goaltending is fantastic, special teams are shutdown. They just can't buy a goal and they can't buy a good sequence.

Capitals: This one's weird, too, but in the opposite way -- aside from the power-play, the Caps are actually godawful on paper, especially when it comes to finishing (because when Ovechkin takes such a high percentage of your shots but he isn't scoring, your team REALLY suffers) but somehow they've managed to pinpoint sequencing luck (win close, lose ugly) and are somehow in WC1. Do I think they'll make the playoffs? Absolutely not -- if either the Devils or Canes step up, the Caps are the odd man out -- but it might be fun to see them try. Or hell, I hope they win-close-lose-ugly their way to a goddamn Cup final. Would be funny as fuck for Ovi's second-longest ever playoff run to come at the fresh young age of thirty-eight. Dude looks ragged out there. I'm going to shut up now before I start talking about finding him sexy

Coyotes: Simple on paper: bad at running play, good goaltending and finishing. Essentially what the Canucks are doing at a smaller scale. The Leafs should never have let Kerfoot walk and I mean that unironically. Okay, anyway, the Yotes are a bubble team and won't make higher than WC1 because of the logjam at the top of the Central, but holy fuck do I want them to make WC1 (or a playoff spot in general.) People ask "how can we grow the game" a lot, and when it comes to what the NHL can do directly, the number one biggest thing is win in small markets. Arizona has already created one of the sports' biggest stars -- Auston! -- and it's an absolutely massive TV market and a potential hotbed of new fans and new, great players. Arizona making a playoff spot -- or even better, going on a run -- would be amazing for the NHL. And it would be funny. And I would like that.

Blackhawks: shoutout to dave !!! dave who works for the hawks!!! anyway the hawks are very obviously tanking and good at it. Their only real point of interest is their Sacred Child, and holy fuck is their Sacred Child going to absolutely fucking smash it when he's given a team that's not entirely made up of scrubs. i think his analytics, especially his defensive numbers, are, like, fine? but accounting for his leverage (all situations, especially the difficult ones), his teammates (his best linemate is Anthony Beauvillier, and tito... is a third liner), and the fact that he's all of eighteen, he's definitely on track to be a Real Force. i kinda love him... okay moving on.

Avalanche: All-over good: finishing their biggest obvious strength, but hockeywise they don't have any real weaknesses... although there is some serious Drama brewing in that locker room and i think it might just be getting started. with landeskog gone for at least until the end of this year (and possibly forever) and ej a sabre, there is absolutely no one in there capable of actually emotionally running a team: makar lacking in a leader's magnetism, rantanen an idiot, toews and mackinnon far too high-strung and competitive, and no one else with seniority. they're a good enough team that it's not really affecting them right now, but ... i don't know, i can kind of feel it coming. They'll make the playoffs, but when the pressure is on they'll either step up or completely fall apart.

Stars: See above: all-over good, but saving their biggest obvious weakness. I think most of this is spurred by Otter being out -- Wedgewood is a serviceable backup goaltender, but obviously not capable of being a real starter, and the team is stuttering because of it. I doubt it'll be for long or too much difficulty (they're a good defensive team, so it's not going to affect them a lot, but they might lose a game or two they might have won with Otter, especially if he's out for a while), but it's going to keep them from taking a step on top of the Central. Easy playoff team, probable contender.

Wild: They are bad! Penalty kill is their worst weakness, but they're not great in goal either and the combination is kicking their ass. As much as I respect how well they've done with that giant cap-space penalty from the Parise/Suter buyouts all those years ago, it's... kind of time to throw in the towel. Get Flower those final few wins, because by god are they devoid of much other success. Right at the tail of a competitive arc. RIP. Tank incoming.

Predators: Weirdly good, even though Saros hasn't been his usual self? O'Reilly esp has been an absolutely fantastic addition for the team over the offseason. No huge strengths, no significant weaknesses. Not an amazing offensive team, but it's Nashville so they were never going to be -- the place practically breeds defensive forwards and all-around dmen. I don't expect they'll seriously contend, but they'll make the playoffs (unless someone offers the farm for Saros).

Blues: I genuinely think so little about the Blues .... that whole thing with Jordan Kyrou has been the most I've thought about them for a bit. That and the fact that only three of their games haven't been decided by the first goal? They're not good and they're really boring. Yeehaw.

Jets: THE JETS let's get JUICY. Jets' biggest strengths by far are a) 5v5 defence and b) finishing/goaltending. Even with Kyle Connor out they're sniping and Hellebuyck and Brossoit are both absolutely on it. The Jets have always seemed to have this problem where on paper (take a shot every time I've written "on paper" in this post if you want to die of alcohol poisoning) they seem fantastic, then January onwards they absolutely plummet. And it's not January yet, so that might still happen, but that kind of thing tends to happen because of a dramatic morale shift, and now that Lowry's captain and Wheeler's left for New York... that might not happen? They've banked enough points that unless they're historically bad from here on out they're still a playoff team. If they keep up what they have going so far, they're a contender, but if it's the same Winnipeg with the same problems, then they're not.

Ducks: Taking a step in the right direction with Carlsson and Mintyukov, but still bad! I really hope Carlsson recovers well, he seems like a sweet boy. Also: what on Earth are they doing with Zegras. Is he a defenceman now? Are they making him play defence? Are he and Dixie D'Amelio still dating? I have many questions. I just hope whichever high draft pick they get is an idiot. I feel like they need another dumbass baby on the team.

Flames: The Flames also appear to have no idea what's going on. And frankly, neither do I! They're too good to be obviously tanking, but not near good enough to be a bubble team. They're definitely reluctant to sell, but their best hope to win soon absolutely should be selling. They have one of the worst contracts in the league on their payroll (wow... I hope the guy in charge of my favourite team didn't sign that!) and a bunch of really solid late-round picks and prospects cutting their teeth on the NHL. In short: they aren't going to make the playoffs and should be leaning into that, but they don't seem to have realized this yet.

Oilers: For the sake of not gloating, I'm going to sum this one up with a Marek quote: If you have a goalie, it's 70% of your team. If you don't, it's 100%. They've had finishing trouble, but considering they absolutely run the show at 5v5 AND special teams (they put nearly SIXTY SHOTS on Vasilevskiy the other day) a little finishing shouldn't be quite so dangerous if they didn't have two sieves minding the net. McDavid might hit 150 again and the Oil might still miss the playoffs. If they get in, they're going far, but at this point it'll be tough as fuck to make it in.

Kings: Average penalty kill. No other weaknesses. Kopitar 4 Selke.

Sharks: This is an absolutely glorious tankjob. No other way to put it. This is the pinnacle of tank design. This is the Wayne Gretzky of tankjobs. This is the Casablanca of tankjobs. This is the Saturn V of tankjobs. Nothing has been so beautifully engineered to suck since Sir James Dyson patented his vacuum or Nancy Reagan walked the earth. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. I am in awe. They deserve Celebrini purely because of how flawless the tank is. I don't care if he has a warm undertone and would look pink in that fantastic teal. The boy needs San Jose.

Kraken: Good defensively at 5v5, bad pretty much everywhere else. I'm going to be honest with you all, last year was kind of a flash in the pan -- Seattle isn't great and they're neither headed upwards nor downwards. Not a bubble team, probably won't pick top ten. They haven't decided whether or not to build up or tank. Beyond the fantastic aesthetics and four-unranked-lines shtick, they don't really have a whole lot of competitive mojo: no star forwards, no goaltending. Wholeheartedly mid.

Canucks: oH BABY!!!!! The 23-24 Canucks made us all learn what PDO is. The 23-24 Canucks are first in the motherfucking league after being one spot out of being in the Bedard lottery. The 23-24 Canucks are on track to have the best shooting and saving percentage in league history. The 23-24 Canucks' leading goalscorer is Brock Boeser, the guy they've almost traded practically every year since they drafted him. The 23-24 Canucks started the season by naming the Wettest Little Man On The Planet captain and they haven't looked back since. I think they're an easy lock for a playoff spot -- but within the playoffs, do I know what they're going to do? I absolutely do not. They could PDO their way to a Cup or they could bow out in four games flat. Either is equally likely. They have thoroughly embraced Good Chaos. Quinn Hughes might win the Hart. Everything's coming up Vancouver.

Golden Knights: Not as good as they were last year. Ultimately still pretty good. Easy playoff spot. Definite contender. Jack Eichel is better than ever and I love him for it, the dickhead.

[purplebowties]

A few thoughts

The past few days in this fandom have been absolutely exhausting, depressing, disappointing and overall frustrating. I do need to get some stuff off my chest, and though I've already said something on Twitter, I want to elaborate further on how much the fandom is absolutely ruing the experience of the show for me.

Firstly, and foremost, I am a longstanding Lestat fan and a Loustat shipper. I do not, in any way, feel the need to apologize for this. However, I do feel extremely uncomfortable right now in the fandom, and I know for a fact I'm not the only one experiencing such emotions. Though by now I hardly ever interact with people on social media, I like reading what fandoms think and how they perceive things. To me, sharing passion and opinions has always been an essential part of the deal of loving a piece of media and, after years of very bad experiences, I truly thought this specific fandom was a safe place. I mainly thought this because I'm very familiar with the books and books canon, and I thought people were entirely prepared for morally corrupt characters and dark, though extremely fascinating, stories and relationships. I understood after episode 5 that this was definitely not the case. I accepted that and tried to move on. But the past few days, ever since it was revealed that Season 3 is planning to cover The Vampire Lestat, have been unbearable. It personally didn't happen to me, cause I hardly ever join discourse, but it hurt to see Lestat's fans shamed and put down, if not totally vilified, for the simple reason they rejoiced in the idea of finally seeing the book adapted and of finally getting Lestat's point of view. Though on one side I get the fact people fear Louis will have a less prominent role, on the other hand, I do feel confident Louis will keep on being a main character. It's been repeatedly stated and confirmed and there are several ways in which Louis can maintain his undeniable importance even in an adaptation of The Vampire Lestat. I also scarcely manage to understand why people did not see this coming: Lestat has been the most important and iconic character of this saga for decades. Furthermore, this is a saga based on the concept of the unreliable narrator: the natural progression of the story is to have Lestat's point of view of the events, in order to get a full picture of them. Lestat was always going to find his way on the main stage and tell us his story. It all fits within the essence of canon.

I do get Lestat can be an uncomfortable character to like or love, and I understand the show is portraying him in a very villainous light. There are several reasons why this choice was made: firstly, Louis and Claudia are unreliable narrators and their memories of Lestat are not necessarily accurate - most of the time, they aren't. Whatever Louis is telling us, it's bound to be a romanticized version of Lestat, and I use the term romanticized to mean that Louis is exaggerating everything about Lestat: because memory works like that; because remembering him in such a flamboyant way makes it easier for him to deal with his own guilt; because in picturing Lestat as a monster, Louis is also protecting his memory of Claudia. It's impossible to know for sure what actually happened between Louis, Lestat, and Claudia right now, because we only have one heavily edited point of view and because the narration has been cut in a half. Not to mention the fact Armand might have a key role in the way Louis remembers and tells things. Armand has the power to manipulate thoughts and memories, and canonically uses it to achieve his goals. It's a dynamic that must and will be explored and could change a lot in the way we perceive Louis' story. This is not, by any means, an attempt to denigrate Armand. I adore Armand. Being a sucker for tragic characters, how can I not love him? But I won't pretend he's a positive character because it fits the narrative of Lestat being the sole and only villain better, especially because it wouldn't be fair to Armand - or to Lestat, or to Louis.

But even with all this put aside and ignored, even if Lestat turns out to be exactly how Louis has depicted him (and it's one hell of an if), people still have the right and the choice to love him. Nothing, absolutely nothing, allows you to judge people and bully them, and shame them, and guilt trap them, over their preference for a fictional character. It's simply not justifiable. Here's a refreshing take: not everybody thinks of fiction as moral guidance. Not everyone needs their favorite characters to be positive, heroic, and ethical. Not everyone wants to see their favorite characters react to trauma (and Lestat carries boulders of it on his back) in healthy and pretty and acceptable ways. Some of us love anti-heroes, anti-villains, or simply villains. In different occasions, and sometimes even in the same moment, Lestat is all of the above. People who love him know it, and love him still - in spite of it or even because of it. That is FINE.

Lestat does not exist. And because he is a fictional character, he can absolutely be redeemed: it only takes a creative choice to do that. It's how fiction works. I do think Lestat will face a long and painful redemption arc, but I also do not see it as an absolute necessity. Redemption arcs are just one possible narrative choice. A character doesn't necessarily need to be redeemed for people to love them, to function better as people or to function better within relationships. Though it might not be the case, Louis and Lestat could choose to be fucked up together. Louis' journey might be a corruption arc. Again, we're too early on in the series to make assumptions about this. Choices will be made regarding this point, and viewers will decide what to do with them.

Which includes feeling uncomfortable watching Lestat. That's legit. Lestat, as I mentioned, is an uncomfortable character, and a rollercoaster of ups and downs. However, though he might be louder and unapologetic and dramatic, he is not the only one in the saga. Every single character in the saga is extremely problematic, tragic, and dark. That obviously includes Louis and Claudia. By refusing to see them as fully rounded characters, by reducing them to the role of tragic victims, by not accepting the possibility that their intentions, their reactions, and their actions might not be one-layered, you end up misinterpreting them and missing out on the satisfying journey that it is to love them with their contradictions, negative impulses, and darkness. This is a story about vampires and vampires are monsters. Rice's vampires especially struggle with their monstrous nature and face existential crises, and that is extremely interesting if explored in the correct manner, which really requires taking off the moral glasses and embracing these stories as the tragedies they are. The Vampire Chronicles are not about who's evil and who's not, they're not even about degrees of evilness. They most certainly aren't about who "deserves" to be with whom, and they are not about who "deserves" redemption. By real-life standards, none of them can be saved, redeemed, or involved in a relationship. This is not, however, real life. This is fiction, fiction about monstrous, semi immortal creatures with supernatural abilities.

So, please do not be mean towards Lestat's fans and Loustat shippers. Please be kind. Please don't try to discipline people over how they are supposed to enjoy fiction. Many of us find escapism in fiction. To many, fictional stories are a happy place - and often the only one. Discussions and different opinions are always welcome, but do not, at any time, give in to the urge of putting people in a corner and accuse them of vile things because they love a certain character or a certain relationship. Everybody is allowed to love and hate, to feel triggered, uncomfortable, or ecstatic and full of passion. Nobody, however, is justified to call people out because of their appreciation of a character. It's fiction. You can enjoy it or not, you can watch it or not, you can criticize it or defend it, analyze it or decide it's just not for you. You do not get to turn fandom, which is supposed to be a safe and welcoming place, into a toxic and suffocating environment.

[fuckyeahjasonschwartzman]

im becoming a fan bc of spiderverse and i love your blog <3 ive seen a couple wes anderson movies/scott pilgrim but are there any movies or shows you’d recommend? thank u!!

okay so fair warning, outside of the animated movies, the wes anderson ones, and spvtw, pretty much all jschwartz movies and shows are going to contain something mildly graphic at the least. usually it's weird sex which I think is awesome but I can't recommend viewing if you're a minor (most of my followers aren't tho so I'm not worried)

anyway, here are recs with my personal thoughts! (reading the little reviews is not mandatory but suggested? I guess if you want a better idea of what you're getting into)

Shopgirl (2005)

Besides Steve Martin's absolutely rancid performance, I'm actually a huge fan of this movie and I think it's so enjoyable. it's not a masterpiece, but there was clearly a lot of intent and thought put into the design choices and cinematography (I've written papers on the color symbolism!) and though the story isn't amazingly coherent because it was adapted from a much better written novella, it is still at least enjoyable. I love the atmosphere, and I think it's a very unconventional romance film that explores the unhealthy relationships that are glamorized in similar media as sexy and desirable (ray porter is a character that existed before, and yet still makes fun of toxic love interests like christian gray). and I like how it extremely accurately represents what it's like being a severely depressed lonely woman.

I'm inherently biased here because I watched this movie for the first time while I was in an abusive relationship and it still really resonates with me. most people luckily do not experience that so I'm a bit of an outlier here :')

2. I Heart Huckabees (2004)

I have no deeper reason for loving IHH I just find it delightful. it's weird, it's confusing, its kinda gross, it's shocking and you don't start understanding it unless you think about it really hard for a while. it's essentially a beginner's guide to different schools and concepts in philosophy, which I'm a big ol sucker for. lovely message that I believe is handled better than a lot of movies who go for the existentialism thing. not a fan of the director, but this movie is pretty enjoyable and leaves you with a lot to think about (if you're into that). LOVE the score.

3. Spun (2002)

INITIAL WARNING THIS MOVIE IS DISGUSTING. and I love it. it's so fun and experimental especially with the editing and cinematography, the pacing is insane, not to the mention the animation, the color correction, the everything... has one of the most amazingly satisfying closing shots in a movie, ever. but it's definitely not for the faint of heart, if you can't sit through watching someone snort meth off a urinal stall or a close up of someone injecting themselves with a needle, this is definitely not for you. (not to mention the sex, again).

4. Marie Antoinette (2006)

yayy finally an option that most people agree is good! unless you're French. I was almost named Antoinette after my French g-g-gma (got named after my French g-g-g-gpa Raymond instead), plus rococo is a huge interest of mine so I adore this movie. it was shot on location at Versailles, the costumes are GORGEOUS, and almost everything is accurate! it has a mixed classical-modern soundtrack and aesthetic that I find very effective in getting its message across. however I do tend to like this movie more than most because I know who everyone is and what's happening already! it's based on a biography by Antonia Frasier which is sitting next to me as I type this lol.

5. Funny People (2009)

HEAR ME OUT. OKAY. mark taylor jackson was my "ohhh shit this dude's hot" moment and this movie was The Beginning for me. YES, it's an Adam Sandler movie co-starring Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill. AND YES. I FIND IT TO BE AN EFFECTIVE DRAMA. I don't like drama in film in general, I find most to be very unrealistic and unrelatable for me so I get bored easily, but I do think this weirdly works? I love how it's kind of an introspective look at Adam Sandler's career, with liberties taken, and the characters seem to actually have some chemistry and realism to them, even in the sillier moments. jason schwartzman is super cute. need I say more.

6. S1m0ne (2002)

ok, admittedly jason isn't in this one too much. and yet it's still worth mentioning because it's an insanely underrated and likeable movie! if anything al pacino is hot, and the entire premise is so unsettling and dystopian in an ACTUALLY WELL HANDLED sci-fi manner (good sci-fi concepts tend not to be "what ifs" but allegories for things that are actually happening already). S1m0ne is a criticism of hollywood, celebrity culture, and mass media, and it's genuinely just so creative to me. another contender for the best ending shot in cinema. ALSO, very pretty cinematography and a very fun early 2000s feel to it. the writer/director also wrote the Truman Show iirc!

7. Bored to Death

saving TV for last. let me tell you one thing! if you're looking for jason schwartzman at his best, you need to watch this show. it is so funny, so entertaining, and best of all, every character in it is so terrible and fucked up and it's wonderful. it's crazy, but grounded in reality, which makes it even crazier. jason schwartzman plays a hopeless romantic author who's boredom and disappointing love life lead him to becoming an "unlicensed private detective" who accepts jobs through craigslist. also there are zach galifianakis and ted danson, who play the two other main characters. the entire premise of the show is these three guys getting high and solving mysteries together and it's phenomenal. there's an actual episode where jason runs down the streets of brooklyn in full leather bdsm gear. there's an episode about furry sex. It's so weird and perverted and SUCH a good comedy noir(?) I can't not recommend it, despite having the worst fucking ending out of anything ever cause it got canceled.

tldr: I like bad movies

there are a ton more I could go ok about but these are the ones I personally enjoy the most. good luck

[ultimate-muscle]

Since Kinnikuman is getting a new series, I've had some concerns. The property is understandably a product of its time, and it's chocked full of outdated stereotypes and unsettling imagery (Brocken Jr. and Geronimo's messy heritage comes to mind), which is one of the reasons why it was never fully localized in the west, to begin with. So I'd wonder if they'll ever try to fix those problems or consider possibly hiring sensitivity readers for their works. Sadly, I doubt it would ever happen; but I honestly wish the authors could work around some of their cast to adapt to current times. What do you think should happen?

I think the old work should stand.

It was a product of its time and culture, and it's been edited as necessary by the authors over time (current volumes have been censored accordingly, and the worst has already been removed). The manga is problematic, but I agree with companies like Warner Brothers and Disney; better to keep things as a record of the past than to remove them or change them. That being said:

A new anime needs to make changes.

The issue I have answering this is more 'do I talk about ideal changes for us in the West' or 'realistic and needed changes for Japan'. I think really it's two different questions, so I'll talk about what I think should happen - and will probably happen - for Japan. That is to say . . . not much. I don't think much is needed.

It's easy to remove Nazi symbols from Brocken, and his current design lacks those symbols anyway. They can easily just remove references to him being a Nazi, and instead he can just be a 'soldier'. Kinnikuman Great can go back to his original red design. Ramenman cannibalising a person can just go back to the original gore (or a broken back). The "Roots" arc can be generally edited or left out.

I think if people have a problem with how nationalities and ethnicities are depicted, and we're talking about Japanese modern standards of racial sensitivity . . . they might be disappointed. For the culture in which it's written, I think it's been pretty great with diversity and representation. We have a black man as a hero. We have a native American as a really inspirational character. We have Americans and Russians shown in positive lights. We have people of all sorts coming together under the banner of 'friendship'.

I think Geronimo is still going to have his headdress and go "owahahaha" in battle, and Ramenman is still going to have stereotypical eyes like a South Park character, and . . . while I don't agree with it, I think we just have to accept that it's a Japanese anime, and that for a Japanese anime (bar the situation regarding female characters), it's going to be pretty ideal.

Now, in terms of the West . . .

I think the best option is to leave the animation exactly as it stands (unless they somehow did keep the swastikas and such), and edit the dialogue in the dub to make it more appropriate. The "owahahaha" cry can be something else. The inappropriate jokes or comments can be made more palatable. The references to Nazis (if left in) can be changed to comments about soldiers.

Now, don't get me wrong, this raises a whole other debate about whether to be true to the source and whether this would be censorship . . . personally, I'm a massive fan of Hetalia and Ultimate Muscle, so I wouldn't even an object to a total script change (so long as it kept true to characters and story), but I think it's the best option to avoid overly being offensive. Let's face it, though, there's not much anime out there that's perfect with different ethnicities and nationalities, and none of them get changed for the west.

That's not to say it's right, but it's also not to say it's wrong. I don't really feel comfortable judging Japan by Western standards, and - even then - I remember things being acceptable in Spain (as one example) that would never be acceptable in Britain, so even 'the West' is an extremely vague and not too useful term.

tl;dr I think designs can be tweaked, and - keeping close to the manga, and not the original anime - a lot of the worst will be absent anyway, especially if they stick to the edited manga. If I'm going to be completely honest, I think if people get offended by Ramenman and Geronimo, they probably are better off reading/watching a different source than lamenting what could/should be in a perfect world. It's not so much a product of its time, but also its country, and I think we all get a bit too sensitive in modern day. Brocken is a whole can of worms, but the rest just . . . is. I'd personally keep it as it stands.

[mrbigbrother]

The Black Cat (1934) an early horror classic with a dark revenge storyline.

Edgar Allan Poe may never be truly adapted to the screen due to the nature of his work. The Black Cat is a story of a diseased man with an intense and all consuming horror of cats. And that is all that makes it into universals first of only two attempts to adapt Poe in some form.

Bela Lugosi plays (Dr. Werdegast) the closest thing to a hero that he was ever allowed to. It shows that he was capable of playing characters that weren't always evil or demented. At least for a little while until the Dr. finally gets his revenge. We can see that there is a decent man who would still not see the young couple be mixed up in his game, either out of kindness, or out of worry that they could interfere. "where the soul is slowly killed." says everything we need to know, and there is no one living or dead actor that could have played this character better. There is something truly sinister in the performance, about his desire for revenge that led him to doing something to Poelzig that is poetic and deserved, but equally disturbing and gruesome. I also enjoyed The Raven (1935) that gave Lugosi the chance to go further with this sinister performance. In that film, I like to think that maybe it was a what if Werdegast survived, but after torturing his worst enemy to death, he became addicted to it. Now that would make for a fine fan edit.

'The skinning scene effectively uses the power of suggestion to convey the horrible deed with shadows, and somehow that makes it more shocking. Horror isn't always seen, but it can always be felt. I don't need to show you a man being skinned alive to scare you; If the characters are strong enough, it only takes a good director to use the power of suggestion to get under peoples skin (pun intended.)

That's the beauty of horror fiction, as it is an exploration of the feeling that pushes our minds into new territories to meditate on. Is that not what Poe did? Just as Poe was an early pioneer of the genre in his time, so was early horror cinema in the 30s.

I wish that this film was longer and had more to it than a little more than an hour runtime. Werdegast's fear of cats doesn't really play much into the plot save for a few moments. It could suggest that the inuman torture he lived through as a P.O.W. involved cats in some way maybe. That and the fact that his daughter was alive with Poelzig, didn't add any real stakes to the story like it should have, other than showing the cruelty and madness that both men share for each other. The production is nothing shy of what was as good a film that was being made at the time. Every shot is a dreadful and haunting image of this pleasure palace built on war scorned land that tells just as much of the story. The music isn't bad; overbearing at times, but can be striking in other sequences. Performances that are not only career highlights, but do stand tall. These are truly fleshed out and ghastly men stalmated in their game of death, that I have no problem believing has lasted for decades.

Boris Karloff plays maybe his most menacing and inhumanly evil character ever; and yet Poelzig is as mortal as we. Not a man sewed together from body parts, or a thousand year old mummy who woke up and went for a little walk. nope. Poelzig is just a man that is as soul dead as Werdegast from his time in the war. Only he is a satanic priest of his own coven who has guests over for rituals and sacrifices of beautiful women who can't resist his charms. Oh and he tends to keep them on display as well...The satanic elements not coming off as over the top or campy like other works about satanic cults. It's just an element to his character. Which satanism is more about worship of the self rather than the devil. And I could see Poelzig as being so vane to sacrifice people to himself as he fancies himself his own dark lord. Boris had a screen presence that was and is still unmatched. He was able to generate such a real tangible menace without speaking a word. And this was one of the first films that allowed him to speak dialogue, and that gave him the opportunity to show how soft and hypnotizing his voice was. When he speaks, we listen. When he is silent, we feel his very auro that echoes despite being without a soul; that people are just objects at his disposal.

The Black Cat (1934) is a truly effective horror film that realizes its horror through great characters and the legendary performances behind them. It is a trip to the darkest depths that a man's soul is capable of descending to. One consumed by the evil of his actions and only able to find peace when others are suffering; and the other consumed by a hatred that slowly killed his very own soul, and has come all this way to lay about 15 years worth of wraith upon him.

It is a great film, but I have to admit that it isn't a very good adaptation of Poe. And I don't blame it for that. Maybe it wasn't supposed to be. I see how the story has influenced many elements of the screenplay. I also have to say, that a remake wouldn't be a bad idea here if universal decides to do so. I doubt it would happen; It didn't have mainstream appeal then, and it doesn't now. But I would love to see some talented filmmakers explore the ideas and characters further. Robert Eggers comes to mind; he would understand, and would go to great pain staking lengths to achieve the same surreal malice, that universal achieved almost 90 years ago.

[helen--richardson]

ok so, some thoughts on the new magnus archives stuff

I really hope they don’t do a sequel. I think the ending they left it at, while emotionally devastating, is thematically appropriate and satisfying. Not that I haven’t written/am writing several fix-it fics, but that’s an activity I do as a fan and it isn’t something I’d want to do if I was telling my own story like this. I think giving any canon conclusion to the story would cheapen the ending.

I’d also like to think that Jonny is a better writer than that.

The “concerning” thing is that “Magnus Archives Two” has specifically been mentioned. I don’t like the vibes of that. Like, the direct connotation is a sequel, which I don’t like for aforementioned reasons. I don’t really know what else two could mean in this context. It could potentially mean another universe/reality or a remake. 

Now, thinking about things in the context of our reality, I don’t think that a project that big would actually happen. It’s a lot more likely that something smaller is happening. Some ideas I’ve seen/thought about are:

new/special merch drop

partial or complete adaptation into a book or something

special halloween episode (non canon canon or pre-ending)

other bonus content release, like previous patreon-exclusive things

live action adaptation (lol this one is definitley not happening)

something ARG-esque (the vibes are arguably already there with all the code-solving)

lore-wise, something spider related. maybe the web is sitll in the og universe, maybe it’s branched off into other unvierses and that’s what we’re hearing, maybe we get a snippit of a different martin/jon, etc.

a devastating idea would be hearing the beginning of the story again, in a different universe, confiming that the fears are spreading and the tragedy is going to replay itself (edit: the fact that we can even listen at all is confirmation that the tapes have spread lol)

Again, the problem is some of these wouldn’t make sense with “magnus archives two.” It’s completely possible that I’m just overanalyzing that one phrase, or it could have other connotations that I haven’t thought of but will make sense when what ever it is is revealed.

I don’t really have a conclusion to this, I am kind of just saying shit. I guess a nice thought to end this on is that I am slightly apprehensive but also very excited about what comes next.

(also shoutout to @martinswormjar they’ve talked w/ me a lot and influenced my thought processes and also they are sititng next to me in class as i type this)

[0junemeatcleaver0]

Honestly has to get this out of my system because I'm mad (an advanced apology for my long rant, also thanks to the previous anon, you encourage me to do this finally). For a start, it's only been a few months that I discover the book through the series. Never like stuff about supernatural being like werewolves, vampires but I saw an edit of the series and it gives me a huge Achilles and Patroclus vibes so I give it a chance (still doesn't like about the vampires stuff because let's be honest, it would make it a far better series if they doesn't include it). And I usually much prefer to read so I want to see how the source material goes seeing how different the series and movie are, and...... I was never the same. That book is incredible and breathtaking, I fell in love with Louis so much because finally finallyyyyy I saw myself in a character. And then came the question "What's up with that series?" because let's be honest once again, with all the questionable thing it contains, the first two books (IWTV/TVL) are literally perfect. And I would pretty much support some changes like plantation owner, incest etc if they prefer to do so and badum it will still be a faithful adaptation that both book fans and new fans would probably love. Why not done that? And I think the book is a classic and modern in my honest opinion like come on, two guys raising a child for 60 years? What's more gayer than that? Those with trouble understanding how gay it is can rot away. And talking about that (please bear with me, I swear I'll be done soon), I don't like how the show focus so much on sex when the book's main attraction is more about the feelings they have, and neither like the nudity on screen so randomly (this is not meant to attack anyone, it's my personal opinion but an advanced apology if my words are lacking). And again, in my deepest opinion, the movie was so much more gay than the series atleast for me, and again for those who refused to acknowledge the homoeroticism in it can rot away, and yes I'm going to put the movie on the pedestal because it's the most faithful adaptation so far and that in the 90s? It totally deserve that recognition it deserves and I totally despise anyone blindly hating on it. I love love Lestat, Louis and Claudia in there, and this is probably an unpopular opinion but I prefer Brad Louis over Jacob Louis (just in case, not an attack to the actor, he's amazing with what he's given) and that's a great loss because no matter how I look, the way they let Jacob portrayed Louis is no longer the Louis I love from the book. Brad Louis is also lacking, but I could see Book Louis from his portrayal so that's that. I'm now forever going to keep the book as my no 1 and I'm absolutely going to hate anyone trashing on the books in favour of the show, you can dislike it, but don't go talking about comparing and decided the book is evil because it deals thing differently as compared to many books, know the context or I don't know *pulling their card* just don't read it because you have a certain liking to things and that's totally fine. And in my eyes, the show..... it's just a show which pulled some trope from different series instead of it's own source material (shocking right?) and trying to put itself as the most faithful ever when it can't even get the aesthetic right (sorry for being not sorry). And once again my hate to those who tell book fans they can't ever get the faithful adaptation they wanted so they must accept the show for that because duh, we sure can if handled properly by people who 'really care' and the book fans totally deserve that because as I said above, change a few stuff about it and it'll be a faithful and most greatest series ever about vampires.

While I disagree about being able to change things like the plantation and/or incest and have it still be faithful (it's gothic literature--you take the uncomfy stuff out, you change the genre, you change the whole vibe, you change the narrative), I do fundamentally agree with everything else you said, anon.

[cannoli-reader]

My notes watching Wheel of Time Season 1, episode 2

Posted on readandfindout.com on 11/19/2021

1:48 – Just for the record, on this so-woke show, the two blackest actors are playing Padan Fain and Eamon Valda. Not even cool bad guys, but scummy, marginally competent, bad guys. And rapists.

2:46 – More stupid world-building and “characterization”. I hate hate hate hate hate these lazy monologues about something pointless that is supposed to be profound and allegorical, or some experience or anecdote from a character’s distant past that is incredibly on-point and relevant to the current situation. Seriously. Back during their strike that messed up broadcast schedules about 10+ years ago, I opined that they didn’t deserve anything because TV writers are the absolute lowest form of fiction writers. Nothing in the production of the five major fantasy series I’ve seen adapted for the screen since then has changed my mind in the slightest.

By the way, there had better be something other than “cutting off an Aes Sedai’s hands prevents her from channeling” to explain how the Children of the Light got around “live witches being somewhat hard to (execute)."

5:00 – As abstractly symbolic intros go, this is not the worst. I’m still going to start using the Skip Intro button unless I see it’s somehow relevant to the coming episode.

6:20 – One thing that has never occurred to me, regardless of medium… if they were going to prevent the Trollocs from crossing the Taren after them, they would be effectively stranding them in the Two Rivers. With all the people the boys left home to protect.

8:36 – In the Borderlands they have a saying, ‘The look of the Eyeless, and the Noseless and the Lipless is fear.’

9:30 – I like this version of how Moiraine screws over Hightower. The book version seems not have landed with people as much, and the fandom doesn’t have much sympathy the boys being disturbed by it, which feeds into the myth that Moiraine is always right and smart and everyone should never doubt her because she’s the bestest.

11:27 – “I know, instead of showing character interactions on screen, why not just yeet one of them out of there and then have Mat tell the audience what it would have been like!” “Brilliant Rafe! Book authors are just morons, aren’t they!”

11:52 – Yes, this! Rand’s articulated thought is an actual thing. Like, Moiraine has good reasons for doing what she does, but she also badly handles the Two Rivers boys, so their reasons for being wary of her are also good.

11:55 – Also making it possible for any of them to be the Dragon kind of undercuts that this is something Rand struggles with when he is finally told what specifically the Shadow is after him for, but if done right, it gives opportunities to explore the conflict in dialogue, rather than internally as ITB. Not super confident it’s going to be done right.

13:55 – “Words are important and how we use them is important.” Spoken on a TV show that’s going to mess up all sorts of words, and misuse them dramatically. Edit from the Future: Oh, you sweet summer child.

14:50 – "The Power inside you is the smallest part of your strength. It’s your mind and how you use it that will mean much more in the battles to come.” Explains so much about Egwene, really.

15:35 – That Moiraine has already sensed Egwene’s channeling ability should rule her out as “the most powerful channeler who ever lived.” Meanwhile, ITB, normal people don't care who is a more powerful channeler than whom. To normal people, they are all just channelers, and normal people more likely to call them Aes Sedai than channelers anyway.

17:01 – “It’s the wind that listens to you” is neat wording, harkening to “touch the wind that moves the sun”.

21:07 – I suppose getting the dream stuff out in the open right away works, to stop the fans whining about them not trusting Moiraine and saving time.

22:35 – I like this conflict. It informs the rest of their relationship. Even if to the uninitiated, Rand comes off as petulant, based on the ITB world-building, he’s got legitimate questions.

23:34 – The word “bastard” is never used, once, in the whole Wheel of Time series. In a series where the main character discovers that he was born out of wedlock, with the circumstances of his birth and parentage being a significant and traumatic issue for him, and where a major character conceives a royal heir outside of marriage as well, with her pregnancy being an issue with her character over three books by the original author. Take all your woke bullshit and gender studies nonsense and shove it where the Dark One will be confused, because that’s way more important! That people in WoT don’t even have the concept of legitimacy says way more about gender relations and women’s agency than all the substituting of the word ”person” for “man” or “woman” in the world, or finding ways to cram LGBTQ issues into a series that is already overstuffed with material that it doesn’t have time or room to adapt to the screen.

Even Brandon Sanderson, with all his other blunders, abuse of anachronistic language and misconceptions about the themes and setting, did not make this mistake. He used “interrogate” more times in one paragraph than Jordan did in 11 books, but he was not stupid enough to use “bastard” in the mouth of a character in a world where female social dominance is unquestioned and even mass murderers and Darkfriends are appalled at rape.

More relevant to the plot, Rand’s prior understanding of Egwene taking the Wisdom job and cutting off his nookie nicely establishes that his anger at Egwene’s choice to follow Moiraine is not petty relationship crap, but genuine betrayal that she’s siding with outsiders.

23:47 – Mat is trying to talk Rand into being more reasonable in his hostility toward Moiraine. Because if you’re going to swing and miss that hard for the setting, why not the characters, too? That is a kind of Mat-like rationalization, but it’s the sort of thing Mat says, rather than does. He talks about being practical and self-preserving, but then he acts according to principle.

25:43 – I don’t think Moiraine actually hopes her “sister” in Whitebridge will let them stay. And “wars and witches” kind of do concern them. The effective portrayal of the Three Oaths requires writers who are on the ball, and reasonably clever. But shows keep hiring TV writers instead.

25:45 – Waiting for the zinger question, and it better not come from Valda.

26:00 – There is no worse Child of the Light to alter into an Inquisitor of the Hand of the Light than the egregiously unsubtle and incurious Eamon Valda, whose only tactic is “the charge”.

26:43 – I could be wrong, but I also don’t think the Children ever refer to Aes Sedai as sisters. Even when Niall and Balwer are plotting their PR campaign about the Tower split.

27:27 – “Madam” so they have French in this world?

27:58 – NOOOOO! They would never recommend someone seek out a sister for Healing! What is this?

28:09 – The idea of Moiraine grinning sycophantically like that in the books is highly amusing to me. It kind of looks like Lan is thinking “seriously Moiraine?”

You would think the Children would be questioning how Moraine and company managed to escape Trollocs when they managed to inflict that wound and meanwhile, no one else shows any sign of injury.

29:20 – There’s just something wrong about Moiraine being the one to tell the kids “it may not be the truth you think you hear.”

29:49 – I like the ruins. It’s the kind of thing that WoT should have. They’ve been through the equivalent of two falls of the Roman Empire, after an apocalyptic cataclysm.

30:05 – Nosewart.

30:17 – I’m thinking Nynaeve’s moment of revelation is going to be her saving Moiraine’s life when she turns up again by Healing her.

30:21 – We need singing even less than the books needed dress descriptions. Which were actually important. Unlike the singing.

31:08 – Moiraine only tells people things when she needs a reaction. She told the story of Manetheren to sway the ire of the villagers. She would not whip it out when the kids are already in a good mood and especially not when the last on-screen words with Rand were a fight. Don’t want him getting too full of himself.

31:48 – Nosewart

32:21 – “They knew no help was coming.” Yes, who betrayed them again, Moiraine? See this is why, regarding Rand being suspicious, this is a bad time to bring that up.

34:30 – Sweeping vistas and scenery shots. The TV equivalent of dress descriptions.

36:33 – Don't sniff on camera! First off all, sniffing has a particular meaning in this fandom and second of all, you have a certain osenay artway issue to which it calls attention.

36:50 – You’d barely know Perrin was a widower, if Egwene hadn’t mentioned Laila twice on the journey now.

37:50 – I guess this is their adaptation of how Perrin becomes a Coyotebrother. Because that looks too small for a wolf.

41:05 – Okay, at least with Moiraine being unconscious, there is some excuse for her not telling the boys what Shadar Logoth is. However, Lan on his own would absolutely tell them. Moiraine acts like they have no agency and will behave as she expects. Lan acts like they’re idiots. The former would just sit where they were left and not move without permission, and the latter would not trust them to behave.

43:00 – Which he does.

43:30 – Now they might think this version of the Shadar Logoth story is more economical, but it utterly destroys the lesson of Aridhol, which is that doing things for the wrong reason, and fighting the Shadow with the wrong attitude, is just as bad as being on the wrong side! This is incredibly important, because it informs the stakes of Rand’s internal conflict for most of the story!

And let’s not even get into the potential motivation such as the fact that it conveniently fits with a specific political narrative, leaning into “Walls are bad” and steering away from any implications for extremist methods and their narrative, where what side you are on is all that is important and any tactics are justifiable if your heart is in the right place. In WoT, motivations matter. Using evil methods to a achieve a good end is self-defeating, and the penultimate major lesson for Rand to learn. In later books, we believe a mentor figure who declares that unless Rand pulls his head out of his ass, his victory over the Dark One will be as bad for the world as his defeat, because Shadar Logoth is an example of how that can be.

44:59 – Be neat if this is the same spot where Rand sees Sammael get Mashadared.

45:27 – Good, right profile. Keep showing that right profile, Egwene! No, stop, don’t turn. No, no. Not the left side… And cut to wide angle. Phew.

45:51 – Lan, you have now let all four Emond’s Fielders out of your sight. Are you really doing any good poking at Moiraine’s shoulder?

47:30 – Mat-Perrin interactions are weird. Mostly because they barely exist ITB.

Also, I’m thinking somehow Mordeth is going to infect the dagger from Laila. Or Mat will take up an already infected dagger, because he gave his own away, which is no less dumb.

50:00 – This is all very stupid, because they were specifically warned against touching anything. Whereas they were not in the books, and the dagger was just something Mat picked up at random, instead of specifically messing with stuff he knew he should not, against instructions.

51:18 – One problem with CGI creeping evils is that it’s hard to get horses to react to it. Aldeib’s just standing there in the background, chillin’, because Moiraine can’t run so they can’t have her horse run off, but it looks very incongruous.

I do like this version of Mashadar. For my money they will never top the depiction and atmosphere of Shadar Logoth from the WoT PC game, but this is an interesting way to do it, especially when you remember how much Moiraine’s weaves in the prior episode looked like the book description of Mashadar.

52:08 - “Why don’t you hoist me up?” is a very good question when directed at someone canonically eight inches taller than you.

52:43 - Good use of the power-wrought sword’s properties.

53:19 - The person who says “I’ll find you” when forced to part from their love interest always must shortly after jump from a great height.

54:20 – Forget Rand and Mat, you guys left Bela!! Narg’s lines are cut, and Bela doesn’t carry Egwene out of Shadar Logoth. This show is bullshit.

55:07 – Nynaeve FTW!

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

i just read your post in which you ranked the twilight movies from best to worst and you mentioned a lot of the scenes were pointless to the movies, and i was wondering what scenes you would have used, in place, to make the movies better and more watchable

Asker is referring to this post.

A Caveat

It's okay to like the movies.

I may hate them and find them not only utterly dull but nigh unwatchable, but you're not me, and most of this site adores the movies. (Even the ones that claim they hate it, they loved that thirty-minute wedding in Breaking Dawn, every second of it.)

So, just because I don't like something doesn't mean I'm right or wrong. It just means I have opinions and people enjoy asking me about them for God only knows what reasons.

The Other Caveat

That wasn't the only reason they were bad movies.

Oh, it certainly helped, but I'll put it like this. Even with liberal editing and a very draconian screenwriter, they would not be good movies. There was the directing, the acting (even by phenomenal actors who, bless them, were doing what they were told and so we get Sheen's delightfully awful Aro), the special effects, etc.

At its heart, what really did Twilight in, was that the producers wanted to make money.

Oh, producers always do, it's their job, but in this case it was egregious. They were producing a cash cow and they knew it, throw enough fan service at the walls and the teenage girls will stream into your theater.

That kind of thinking is the death sentence of any story as it means a) a misunderstanding of what the point of your story is even about b) the sole concern not being to tell a story but to desperately make sure the broadest audience possible likes it and throws money at it.

The Twilight saga films were never going to be on par with The Godfather.

But Alright, You've Hired Muffin as Your Editor

Not screenwriter, mind you, as I would not be the one you want writing your Twilight adaptation. Meyer would have killed me and thrown a tantrum upon seeing my script, I'm sure.

But I'm editing and I get to decide which scenes you have to sit through and which ones you don't.

Rather than write a pretend script for you, I'll just go over the highlights:

Breaking Dawn Part One: The Wedding and Honeymoon

I would have cut the wedding. The wedding would take place during the opening credits as a montage, we'd get our fill of Bella in a dress, Edward in his suit, the beautiful atmosphere, and then we get a montage of them flying to Brazil, having their wedding night, and when the dialogue starts up it's the morning after and Bella and Edward explain that they're married, on Edward's private island, AND THEY JUST HAD SEX.

That's all we need to know, that's where the plot begins, everything else is fanservice. HALF AN HOUR OF POINTLESS FAN SERVICE.

Minutes are precious in cinema, we can't waste that much time on a scene that does nothing for the plot.

(And watch as people throw tomatoes at my head BECAUSE THAT WEDDING WAS PERFECT AND ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY)

I'd also skip most of the honeymoon through montages. We'd learn that Edward was very terrified of having sex with her, that this isn't a done thing, but we would not have to see the whole damn honeymoon. The next major scene is Bella getting sick and realizing that this film is actually Rosemary's Baby.

Eclipse: Bree Tanner's Short Life

I'd cut all the Bree scenes. Eclipse, in and of itself, was a giant mess of pointlessness. The movie had no idea what it was even about or even doing so it kept throwing canon spaghetti at the wall in the hopes that this made a cohesive story.

Edward and Bella aren't doing anything? Uh, LOOK AT THESE HOMELESS PEOPLE IN SEATTLE!

By introducing the Bree storyline we have more characters we don't really get to know or ever really get attached to. It also spoils the mystery of figuring out what's really going on behind the scenes with Victoria.

I'd also have cut the wolves + Cullens chase Victoria through the woods scene. It's just... so cheesy and pointless. All we need to know is them bickering and that the hunt is not going well.

What Scenes Would I Replace Them With?

I wouldn't.

Breaking Dawn had such a catastrophically long run time that it was made into two parts. It became two films about nothing. Rather like watching Waiting for Godot, actually.

They don't have to be replaced by anything, and if they are, then that scene better do something to advance the plot or our understanding of the characters.

But this is a weird exercise because what you're asking is "What would your Twilight screenplay look like" and the answer is that Meyer would murder me and you don't want me writing your Twilight screenplay.

So, it's probably best I stop here.

[wigglebox]

If you don’t mind me asking, what didn’t you like about the leaked script and why are you so convinced it’s not real? Especially with filming locations, casting, etc matching up with it pretty perfectly so far. No hate, I swear. I’m just genuinely curious. I read it and loved it, although I do hate that it was leaked in the first place.

hello! sorry for the delay! wasn't gonna answer this bc i've ignored the other asks in the last couple of months but i realized that i never really, i think, explained why i hated this leak so this is going to be my one and done.

the tl'dr is if you consider yourself a fan of SPN, jackles, dee, robbie, whoever is involved, you would forget that script leak ever happened, forget that "script" exists, and just wait until we see shit on our TV. don't give energy to people who think they have some kind of right to share things that aren't theirs and getting attention off of it.

this isn't the leaker's baby. this is jackles, robbie, and dee's baby and when the time comes to see what they've done, THAT'S when we can appreciate it.

elevated sodium levels under the cut

first and foremost, talking about this leak, acting like it's real, acknowledging it, and spreading it around — to me — means you're not really a fan of jackles, dee, robbie, etc etc.

they had a bad leak last summer and it caused a lot of stress.

why would a pilot script leak be any less damaging? Truly? It frustrates me that so called fans of theirs would take a script like this, and be it real or not, wave it around claiming it is.

why would you want to risk something like that? why would you spread this around? why would you give it to anyone? why? like again, in my eyes, you're just not a fan and don't actually support them, you're just looking for clout

*i'm using the royal You/Your btw because idk where this thing got started and i don't care to find out.

But whoever started it, to me, they aren't fans, they don't care about this show, they don't care about the people involved. They're selfish. Plain and simple.

As for the script itself.

I didn't see the whole thing, but from what I read off of like, 4 pages [because I too am not perfect and was curious when i saw it briefly on Twitter]

1) It doesn't read like Robbie at all. I don't mind the details included in it, but the actual writing itself is bad. Like from just a technical, standard screenwriting perspective it's bad. It reads like someone took fanfiction and adapted it to a screenplay with no care in the world.

There are actual Robbie scripts on the superwiki you can read. It reads nothing like this. And yes there is some time between those scripts and this, but usually you improve as a writer. I have read an old Jerhico script from him and it was average, and his SPN scripts were fantastic and he really found his style of writing and voice.

This "leaked script" doesn't read like it. It doesn't even read like the person who wrote it even tRIED to imitate him. And maybe it's a draft — who knows — but all I know is it read more as a scratch board for ideas rather than a normal, Robbie Thompson script. He's better than that.

2) It's too long. Things get edited down, yes, which is why obviously... idk I read somewhere it was a network draft? Lord I hope not. That should be the first draft. Like THEE first draft that you dump all your ideas into and flesh out. But regardless, things are going to get cut from it. Someone told me how many pages it was. It's way too long.

3) I HATE i despise this post-finale attitude of information gathering. Secrets this, connections that, carrot dangling, blahblahblah. And this script only adds to that.

Getting SPN scripts isn't out of the realm of logic, again the Superwiki has a bunch. But those episodes aired. We know what aired vs what we got in the yellow pages, green pages, final draft, production draft, etc etc. Those were sought out, bought, awarded in charity auctions and donated.

getting script leaks for a show that hadn't even started filming its pilot yet, and not even made to series order yet, and peddling it around like it's something good? No. That's bad.

All it does is fuel whoever started this to keep doing that bullshit.

Also, personally, i'm annoyed because people do keep talking about it like it's real. But no one can possibly know that unless Robbie or Jackles or Dee came out themselves and said that.

And I just get really frustrated people talking about this show already and acting like this script is real because you should NEVER ever ever read a script and assume that's how you're gonna see it on TV before said episode airs. if this was actually a network draft, it's so far away from what we're going to get on-screen word for word, shot for shot because it is too long! [again, that's an estimation, I was only told how long this thing was when I asked]

So I don't like this leap folks are already taking like 'oh they cast this person as this character so the script must be real!'

like no.

always always wait for it to air, and then find the scripts.

and for the love of god, stop trying to information hunt at the detriment of peoples' ACTUAL hard work.

it's rude, it's selfish, and it leads to bad attitudes across the board.

this isn't the script leaker's story.

this isn't theirs.

this is jackles and robbie and dee's story. this is THEIR hard work. it shouldn't be leaked (again!) because someone felt entitled to do so like last summer.

it's not the leaker's work. they're just being dicks and want attention and I don't feel like as a fandom we should give it to them.

spoilers used to be fun, like, oh a set picture from a set stalker! oh clues in interviews, ohblahblahblah. now it feels like a competition and did since the end of season 15. and that's just bad. and leads to more pushes for more information before things air or happen, and that's when things turn sour REAL fast.

so yeah. I'm sorry I'm talking in a circle now.

but basically yeah, like my tldr: I don't like the pilot script leak thing because there's no way to actually confirm everything in it is real until the pilot airs. it's not the leaker's hard work and efforts; they contributed nothing to this.

it's just selfish.

and I find it very sad.

[nonny none of this was directed at you, this is just a general rant]

[rpgsandbox]

Beyond the reach of roads, past the scope of mortals there is a darkened place. A shadowed tree-line where no-one dares cross and whose boundaries go undisturbed.

This is not the woods of peaceful fey and beast, but the dark and twisted children’s tale that kept you full of terror. It is a world of fear, madness, and bloodshed; ruled over by the uncaring watch of ancient trees. There is no bargaining with the primal forces that rule the uncivilized world, as you have nothing they could ever want.

The woods do not care for you. Never forget that.

Into the Wyrd and Wild is a supplemental book for those seeking to incorporate a weird and terrifying wilderness into their role-playing game. Players and GMs who enjoy a level of horror and prefer the sweeping, darkened landscapes of forest and mires to the well-trodden cobblestone of dungeons need look no further when it comes to books. Presented within the book is a light overhaul of the adventuring system, modified to fit better with a campaign centered around forays into the frightening wilderness.

In addition to stocking the area with new monsters and set pieces, Into the Wyrd and Wild is also an attempt to increase the playability of the wilderness. Rather than have the wilderness remain a place along the way to a dungeon, it seeks to make the wilderness a dungeon in itself. Included in this is an essay on design theory as well as a way to easily and randomly construct a wilderness dungeon.

The book contains a variety of information for both GM and players alike. For players there is a vast array of strange items and artifacts, each embodying the haunting and feral nature of the Wyrd and Wild. There is also a section devoted to spells, specifically, Wyrd magics that may be just as deadly to the caster but offer great and terrible powers if they choose to harness it. Finally there is a list of the odd and useful floras that dwell within the wilds, plant-life that ranges from profitable and wondrous, to deadly and loathsome.

For GMs, this book contains every possible thing you might need to run a wilderness-horror themed game. Monsters that present unique and specific challenges to the player, while also being terrifying and lethal; simple rules for use in the Wilds that make gameplay both easier and deeper; unique factions that exist within the Wilds, for use or adaptation in a home game; and of course a plethora of tables for generating random locations, treasures, encounters, and more.

Why a Revised Edition?

Into the Wyrd and Wild took a lot of people by surprise when it first launched. Charles Ferguson-Avery and the team at Feral Indie Studio managed to take the woods, something many of us take for granted in RPGs, and transform it into something truly terrifying.

After multiple conversations, reviews and self-reflection, a number of things came to light that could be tweaked to make Into the Wyrd and Wild the absolute best product it can be while staying true to the intent and vision of the original. Among those are:

Some new and enhanced art in certain places

Additional detail of the original intent of the book

More information on how to implement the rules into games

Two new tables for encounters

A few reworked GM handouts

An index

Hardback as the standard format, which sets the baseline for future projects.

Since its initial printing, there have been repeated calls for a reprint due to limited availability of the initial product. Wet Ink Games and Feral Indie Studios have teamed up to bring you this gorgeous revised version, and print enough to help get it in the hands of fans though various retailers.

If you are a previous backer, or have purchased the original version through DriveThruRPG or Itch.io, we will provide you with a PDF copy of the revised version at no charge after the campaign. While we value your support if you choose to help bring this to production, we do not expect you to have to buy the book a second time.

While the contents of Into the Wyrd and Wild were designed for D&D and the OSR, this book has been written to be as system-neutral as possible. This means that:

Rules and stats are written bare-bone with the intention of being widely compatible.

Enough information is given that a GM and player can easily adapt it to their own preferred system.

The book contains:

Rules for wilderness travel and survival

Rules for Moon Cycles and strange phases.

Rules for hunting, tracking, and butchering monsters.

40+ dangerous and terrifying monsters.

40+ strange and savage items.

40+ spells and rules for channeling the Wyrd.

An essay and guideline on running and creating "wilderness dungeons."

A step-by-step guide for generating your own wilderness adventure.

100 random wilderness locations.

Tables upon tables of random diseases, wilderness dressings, traps, hazards, flora, encounters, and MORE.

All illustrated with over 150 pieces of original art.

Whether you are a veteran group looking to make a foray into the terrifying Wilds, or new to the hobby and looking to spice up your game, Into the Wyrd and Wild provides something for everyone.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Fri, May 28 2021 2:00 AM BST

Website: [facebook] [twitter]

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

May 2021 Wk 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

It’s a cray cray Friday when Vietnam gets its eng subs up before GMMTV Thailand. What alter-reality are we in? Well, the Vietnamese offerings are better right now anyway. (Oooo, feel that burn.) 

Ongoing Series - Thai

Top Secret Together Ep 2 - pulping it up in the best possible way. Sure sound and production values are pants, and in classic Thai fashion the editing in post is exacerbating (rather than fixing) pacing issues, but it’s still CUTE AF. I don’t even mind the added university storyline, because they’ve got good chemistry (and a confident gay fresher after a panicked gay hazer is an old favorite... what can I say, SOTUS was my first love). We aren’t spending too much time with any one couple, so it’s weighted a lot better than Brothers was, but also character development is slow. 

Siew Sum Noi Ep 2 - Unfortunately, it’s just too hard to find, plus no subs. I’m dropping it in the hopes it comes back on my radar some day. 

Y-Destiny Ep 8 - (Thurs) It’s rough having a ghost boyfriend, half your friends are scared, the other half think you’re crazy, and kissing shortens your lifespan. This was a cute couple even if I wasn’t wild about the surrounding story. 

Close Friend Ep 5: (Dear My Star/JimmyTommy) - about high school penpals. It had to rely entirely on voice over work as the actors only meet face to face at the end. It’s a good thing they are appealing screen presences on their own, with good vocal control. It’s hard to imagine any other BL pair carrying this kinda plot. It’s by far my favorite of the series so far, and I’m not even a big JimmyTommy fan. 

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 7 - no subs. Do we care? Not really. Because we have... 

Nitiman Ep 3 - currently my favorite out of Thailand. It’s the university Thai BL i’ve been waiting for since... when was the last good one? My Engineer? Yowza. Anyway we got: head on my shoulder, baby is a floppy drunk (but still wants to be in control), proximity alert, boyfriend’s closet, seme gets seriously jelly, and a cute twist on feeding him. There’s something fun and complex about Jin’s character. He’s not a panicked bi. He knows exactly what’s going on, he just hasn’t decided if he wants Bb or not. He clearly enjoys being looked after, the compliments, and the attention, but he’s not sure if he’s going to like what happens if he gives in. I like that twist on the usual tsundere uke archetype a lot, cautious rather than willfully obtuse or freaked out. We can see Jin realizing in stages: I like this person, I like that they like me, I like the romantic attentiveness. But in the background is... do I actually want to f*k him? It’s a dynamic we don’t often see on BL. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 10 fin - the most ridiculous show using BLs worst tropes in a sort of weird smoothie of bitter greens and too ripe banana. The ending was the sappiest cheesiest thing ever, like cheese syrup tapped from the cheese tree. So of course I loved it, but I’m pretty sure I giggled through all the bits meant to be profound. Because, in the end, to tolerate this show at all, you just can’t take ANY of it seriously. RECOMMENDED (with some SERIOUS reservations and trigger warnings.) Full review here. 

Be Loved in House: I Do (Taiwan) Ep 1-2 - I don’t mind a damaged seme character but this one is a bit weird for me. Like creepy Cheese in the Trap level weird. On the bright side, the story has given our tsundere uke good motivation for his angst and great existing friendships, loyalty, and likability. Plus I’m invested in the cafe owner/innocent puppy side dishes. So if it’s only the seme character I’m not jiving with, and he’s the most established actor, it should all turn out fine. I believe in you, Taiwanese BL. 

Papa & Daddy (Taiwan) Ep 6 fin - speaking of belief. This such a good show but they gave us a cliffhanger ending. Now we must hope against hope for season two. That’s never guaranteed with Taiwan tho. So, I’m docking a few points and saying, RECOMMENDED so long as you realize it’s a cliffhanger. 

Love is Science? (Taiwan) Ep 1-9 (BL subplot) - this is a good het romance, but the fact that the BL subplot is a beautifully acted disaster bi + confident gay means you’re hearing about it whether you want to or not. Plus they just added in some GL! Come on! I gotta support Taiwan normalizing queer to this extent. They are fighting the good fight and if I also have to watch a career lady and her much younger softest straight boi get it on, too? Twist my arm with that service sub subtext. Go on Taiwan, TWIST IT. It’s on Viki. Join the revolution.   * Incidentally if you actually like the D/s het dynamic of this show, I highly recommend Japanese Kimi wa Petto - career woman keeps a hot young dancer boy as a pet. Oh yes, an actual pet, that IS the pitch. Never doubt Japan when kink is on the line. It’s also on Viki. Go get your kink on, thank me later. (If it helps: That was not a request.)  

Most Peaceful Place 2 (Vietnam) Ep 2 (AKA 5) - love triangles aren’t my thing, but if you’re gonna do it short form, by all means bring in the lead’s other BL pairing so the chemistry is on point. Now I've no idea who I want him to end up with. Can’t they just be in a poly triad? 

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 7 - I’m still enjoying it a lot. It’s still unabashedly queer and the tension is ramping up. We now have secret identity, blackmail, femme fatale, faen fatale, and incoming seme confrontation. Best of all, the series is still airing, which makes it longer than any other Vietnamese BL I’ve seen (aside from Tein Bromance - which is just too weird to count). 

Gossip - Thai BL 

SEVEN PROJECT TEASERS

No one is entirely sure what Studio Wabi Sabi’s Seven Project/7Project will entail. 

It might be like Close Friend (1 episode per couple, no linking), 

or Y-Destiny (2 episodes per couple, loosely linked), 

or The En of Love (4 episodes per couple, linked but independent consecutive stories). 

They’re giving the couple’s arcs separate titles. So each one would be what? Seven Project: Once Upon a Time or the like? We’re in Taiwanese title territory people and NO ONE WANTS TO GO THERE. Anygay... 

Once Upon a Time is the BounPrem (og UWMA) anchor story, and seems to be the most dramatic and likely saddest. These two can handle most of what’s thrown at them at this juncture, so it should be good. 

Vs Love is a BoomPeak (og Make it Right) university vehicle. Since I thought Boom was done with our nonsense, I couldn’t be more thrilled and surprised this pair is doing another show together. I don’t think either of them are the greatest actors but I find Peak very endearing and Boom charismatic on screen, so I’ll watch. 

Would You be My Love is the hotly anticipated SantaEarth launch. They’re a (cultivated) IRL ship and Earth is an established BL actor. They have great chemistry and high energy so this could be lots of fun. 

We are also getting a GL from this series from established BL actresses Samantha and Pineare. Nothing teased yet on that, but I’m looking forward to this installment the most. Also curious to see how the ladies handle the branding and promo side, not to mention the culture. (Thailand variety shows gonna force *girls* to play the Pepero game?) 

Secret Crush on You upcoming Thai BL with no release date, co-produced by and featuring (but NOT staring) Saint and directed by Cheewin (sigh) with all fresh faces. (Previously known as Stalker the series.) It looks like pure pulp and I’m not wild about the plot but could be better than expected as it’s adapted from a novel. Cheewin is an okay director when he has an actual story to follow. 

Don’t Say No the series. Coming from the producers of TharnType this is the JaFirst vehicle many have been waiting for. Friends to lovers + a good boy/bad boy pairing on a sports romance foundation. It’s basketball so they tapped Meen as well (he’s semi-pro). The bad news? You get one guess as to who is writing the darn thing? Yep it’s MAME. So, ya know, expect some slam dunk kidnapping, a light dribbling of rape, and me turning into a basketcase. AKA... 

Will I have to live blog this series in order to survive it? That seems to be the only way I can. So probably. Which means the bad sports puns will continue. Look, if I’m suffering, SO ARE YOU! 

Rumors of a new YinWar vehicle The Best Story (mini series) coming in July. Also rumors that their previously announced Love Mechanics (full length series) has either been delayed, is facing money issues, or is moving studios, or all three. 

Breaking News 

DELAYED (I’m talking these three off the watch list until we get new airing dates) 

Love Area’s release was pushed out but it got a trailer. 

Golden Blood was supposed to drop Weds but comments in MDL report that it is delayed due to C19.  

Love’s Outlet (Taiwan) is supposed to have started a 50 episode run (only 3-5 min each, what utter nonsense). Sadly, this delay is due to a surge in cases in Taiwan which was doing so well, but also doesn’t have many inoculations. 

Bad Buddy has started workshopping at GMMTV actual. 

Kang Insoo’s BTS for Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding is SO FLIPPING CUTE. You have to watch it. Trust me, I don’t rec behind the scenes stuff often. 

Next Week Looks Like This: 

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

[lokiondisneyplus]

LOKI 4 PRESIDENT! For a narcissist trickster sorcerer with the personality of a praying mantis, there are few occupations in the world that would suit Loki better than president of the United States. A few years ago, in the summer of 2016, comic book writer Christopher Hastings imagined just that in a satirical limited series for Marvel titled Vote Loki.

Five years later, Vote Loki has found its way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the fifth episode of the Disney+ series, “Journey Into Mystery,” a variant Loki (still played by Tom Hiddleston) appears in the desolate “Void” surrounded by a Mad Max-esque posse. On Loki’s tattered blazer is a red, white, and blue “Loki” button, indicating this Loki was, uh, elected to lead. Turn on the subtitles on Disney+ and you’ll find this Loki is credited as “President Loki.”

In an email to Inverse, Christopher Hastings says he had no idea this was going to happen.

“I found out [they were doing Vote Loki] when a trailer for the show featured the campaign outfit from Vote Loki,” Hastings tells Inverse.

When Inverse exchanged emails with Hastings, it was prior to the episode’s premiere, to which Hastings said he was “very curious to see exactly what from the comic gets into the show.”

“I love time travel and multiverse material,” the writer says in praise of Loki. “I am a big fan of the TVA as a setting. I'm eager to see how it goes, and what it might mean for the next phase of MCU movies, especially since multiverse wackiness seems to be a major part of those upcoming movies.”

In 2004, while a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Hastings wrote and illustrated The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, a serial webcomic about a doctor who is also a ninja. The series was a cult hit, at one point attracting 110,000 unique visitors a day. By 2011, Hastings was doing work for Marvel, writing single issues of A+X and Howard the Duck. With Chris Bachalo, he co-created Gwenpool — a bizarre blend of Spider-Man ex-girlfriend Gwen Stacy and Deadpool — and penned the 2016-2018 solo series The Unbelievable Gwenpool, teaming up with Japanese studio Gurihiru to create the character’s deeply unique comedic tone.

But during Gwenpool, Hastings spent the summer of 2016 playing with a different Marvel trickster: Loki. In the four-issue miniseries Vote Loki, Hastings spoofed the chaos that was the 2016 race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In Vote Loki, an ambitious Loki seeks the seat of the president with a very unique campaign strategy: being honest about lying.

With “President Loki” having a minor cameo in the MCU, Inverse caught up with Hastings to look back on his explicitly political riff that took place inside the Marvel Universe.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Take me back to the origins of Vote Loki. When did the seed for the story plant in your mind? What was going on in the world of culture/politics at that time?

Gosh, it's tough to come up with one thing specifically, because we were making the comic by the seat of our pants, and so many things got scrapped and rewritten along the way, often at the last second. But one of the core topics I wanted to cover had to do with narratives versus reality. It's kind of a given that in the world of politics, truth is this malleable thing, and now more than ever all you have to do to make people believe a lie is to repeat it enough times.

I liked the idea of Loki playing with narrative in a way that wasn't necessarily outright lying, more bending. (Except the bit about being born in Maryland. One outright lie there.) The other driving point I wanted to explore was how Americans can have a tendency to incorporate their national-level politics into part of their identity, and what that does to a person, particularly when a character like Loki is the one on the ticket.

What sort of conversations did you have with Marvel about a political satire starring Loki? What was the elevator pitch that got approval?

Like I said, things changed so many times, I'm not even entirely sure how many versions were kind of approved and then scrapped on the way to get to what was actually published. I think it was more that I assured editor Wil Moss that I could jump on the book (which Marvel was determined to make; they just hadn't decided who was writing it when I was pitching) after talking about the stuff about narrative and identity, and the basic idea that the viewpoint character shouldn't actually be Loki but a journalist covering Loki's campaign.

Vote Loki introduced the character of Nisa Contreras. What was the primary inspiration for her?

That would be my real-life friend, Nisa Contreras. She's not a journalist, but she’s someone I'm sure could take down Loki if he were a) real and b) got on her bad side. I wanted the story to be more about witnessing the tension and the comedy of Loki running for president, about not knowing what was up his sleeve. And so I came up with [a] journalist.

Vote Loki was published over the summer of 2016 when the election was ramping up in awkward ways. (“Pokémon Go to the polls!”) Did the real election influence the comic in any way, including any specific moments?

The comic was a direct response to things that were happening during the 2016 campaign, specifically that a “joke” candidate that was obviously terrible could get pretty far with enough media oxygen and a comfortable political system that ignored the disgust a lot of people had with it.

Vote Loki ran for four issues. Was there ever a possibility for more?

If it was a smash hit, I believe there would have been a President Loki to directly follow Vote Loki.

What do you think of Vote Loki's inclusion in the TV series?

Top five surreal moments of my life.

Do you think Vote Loki could be the focus of its own adapted series/movie?

Oh for sure. You wouldn't even have to take the material from our comic; there's so much more brand-new political madness that a new Vote Loki series or movie could tap into.

A lot has happened in the five years since Vote Loki was published. What are your feelings looking back now in 2021? Did your opinions on the book ever change?

There was a lot happening in American politics in 2016 I missed and wish I had been able to see to include. For example, how broken political polling has become. I had no idea, along with the rest of the country.

It was tricky to do a cohesive narrative amongst a shifting Marvel continuity we had to stay inside; a lot of feedback and demands from various sources within the company and an election that was changing every single day. It was truthfully (heh) a quite stressful book to write, but looking back on it I'm proud to see what we absolutely nailed about American culture. In particular, what we had to say about politics as entertainment and identity, and how a slippery enough politician can not only shake scandal [off] by speeding up an already fast news cycle but embrace and twist it to their advantage.

LOKI WILL AIR ITS FINAL EPISODE JULY 14 ON DISNEY+. VOTE LOKI IS AVAILABLE NOW.

[masterhandss]

Who do you think katarina will end up with?

Anonymous asked: Who do you ship katarina the most with ?

I got these two questions consecutively, I'm assuming they are coming from the same person so I'll combine them to a single reply, if that's okay.

People who have been following me since the first season can probably tell that I really like Geordo x Katarina (GeoKata) the most out of all ships. At first it was mostly just because I have an unintentional biases towards characters with blonde hair, which is why favorites were GeoKata and MariaKata, but then when I slowly got into the series more, my biases permanently shifted to the G-boy.

I'm not really a fan of laying out why I like certain ships through test to be honest. I usually get super frustrated when zine mods ask contributors to explain why they like a character or ship for contributor spotlight graphics because I can never really say everything I feel correctly hgdsjsdgfj, which is a good thing someone had already asked me a similar question before so I'll just copy paste my response here if that's okay :DD

TLDR; I ship Katarina with Geordo (Maria, Sora and Cezar behind him), and I think Katarina will end up with Geordo :))

You didn't really ask why but I'll give it anyways :)) -> major light novel spoilers, by the way <-

I'm not really the most deep person, if a ship has the bare minimum of something that I like (a trope or a hair color combination) then I stan it hard. That's why I used to be so equally adoring to both Maria and Geordo, because hurrdurr blonde hair hurrdurr. But the more I read the books and got into the community, I eventually liked him more than Maria. I didn't understand how or why at first, since Geordo and Maria are undergoing a very similar character arc: both characters wants to become better people in order to become worthy of Katarina (Geordo emotionally, and Maria physically? magically? in terms of her position/social status? I can't think of a right word but you get it). Again, Maria and Geordo's struggles are similarly written but one of them is more compelling to me. I feel like Maria's problems are easier to solve (her inability to rely on people, her attention seeking and her desire to be more magically powerful) imo, since she's already a well-liked figure in the Ministry and she's already a high-level magic user. Geordo's though; the series doesn't put too much attention on it, but despite the fact that Katarina gave his life color, he still somewhat sees the world in a desaturated light even post-childhood according to the novels and his lack of empathy still prevents him from completely absorbing all the colors. He's still learning how to see and he is happy that Katarina is always there to help him learn how.

I just love the irony that Katarina sees Geordo as a Perfect Prince and feels that she is inferior and unworthy of him, but then Geordo also seems himself as flawed, inferior and unworthy of Katarina and sees her as someone perfect. Geordo constantly wants to be better for Katarina (and for the people around him), and in time, maybe he could become a motivation for Katarina to be better too (on Katarina's side though, because on Geordo's she doesn't have to because she's already perfect the way she is). Geordo, while being self-centered and aggressive in his pursuits, isn't always selfish and thinks about what Katarina wants too. He'd fight tooth and nail for her and will do whatever he can so that Katarina will love him in the same way, but that doesn't mean he wont respect her decision if she falls in love with someone else, he just wont lose without a fight that's all (and fight, he'll give that's for sure).

Geordo is crazy in love with her; wants to protect her happiness, keep her safe whenever he can, and is even willing to both fight to become king and throw away the life he currently knows if it means he can live a life where he and Katarina can be together wherever she is most content and happy. He wouldn't lock her up in the castle like a caged bird like what Keith and some fans of the series thinks, whenever he does have thoughts like that like in Volume 6, its his internal response to the lack time they can have together alone, rather than being indicative of how he wants to treat her (like in his desire in Book of Desires, he conjured up a literal honeymoon because a honeymoon is the only time where he can spend it with her alone without someone butting in! It's weird and exaggerated, but his desire is simply to just be able to spend a day with her and be able to pursue her romantically without the threat of people like Keith and Mary).

Katarina sees him for himself, and she extends her hand of friendship to him despite all her fears of her bad ends involving him. She knows he's a "sadistic prince" but doesn't always tie him to that title. Out of everyone, Katarina has just as bad, if not worse, initial impression of Geordo compared to almost everyone around him (Others sees him as a Perfect Prince while she sees him as a Sadistic Prince and Future Murderer), and yet she accepts him and wants to learn more about him. She supports him and wants him to find happiness in love with Maria, even if it means she'll get exiled to another country or to a far off farm! (i'll edit this with citations later)

I can't help but want that for him, someone who there for you through thick and thin, who supports him despite everything she knows about her future involving him. Katarina is everything he would ever want in a partner: someone who isn't disturbed by his past, can see through his fake smiles, constantly cares for him, sees him beyond his princely façade, is one of his first friends who has helped him create friendships with other as well that prevented him to wallow in isolation and hate of the version of himself that society created for him, is genuinely interested in him as a person, is endlessly fun to be around and unpredictable, and is overall beautiful inside and out.

Again, a lot of Maria and Geordo's struggles are very similar to each other, but I'm more interested in Geordo's side. I find it more compelling. Geordo's scenes always almost provides something new, we get to see him angry, flustered & embarrassed, scheming/conniving, possessive, grateful, sad & frustrated and so much more. Maria has that too (we get to see her sad and thankful), but this might be my own perspective of reading the novels, but Maria's scenes kinda feel the same to me. It almost always starts with Katarina helping her and her realizing time and time again how much she loves her and become more motivated to be a better version of herself. I mean its unfair to say that they are all the same but that might just be me. (Maria: wow I'm so grateful for everything Katarina has given me, I want to be with her forever (rinse and repeat for the next 5 books))

Yes I know it's beautiful to see Maria falling deeper and deeper in love with Maria, but I'd rather see moments of someone who is trying to advance on those feelings rather than someone who is still trying to understand what they feel. Declarations and descriptions of love are beautiful in literary works and it always gets my heart fluttering, but I can read fanfics if I want to see that be written in 8 or more ways. Give me some action, some internal conflict!

It also doesn't help that it makes me really really happy for Geordo that he's made a dent in Katarina's baka shield? Katarina's heart skipped and fluttered for a second when Geordo was patting her head, and it makes me want to root for him even more! (Yes, go break the bubble! You can do it!!)

It's not even the same doki-doki as when she gets charmed at how pretty Maria is, to me its different in a way that my small vocabulary can't explain.

And besides, it really is just a battle between the protagonist that almost ruined her life (Maria) and the love interest that almost ruined her life (Geordo). Keith is part of that equation too, but he was never a threat after they became close (narratively, its seriously just Maria vs Geordo vs Keith, ignoring the changes to that narrative by FL2). It's always about Geordo (and Maria), everything she's doing in the Fortune Lover 1 Arc is because of Geordo (and arguably, Maria & Keith too) and the consequences of where he decides her future to would lead to.

It has to be Geordo, in my opinion, to show her that things aren't the same as the game (and he already kinda has, just a dent though) (If not Geordo, it should be Maria). He, who she feared and yet cared for so much

(I know Fortune Lover 2 basically removes that importance of Geordo and Maria specifically to Katarina's narrative by making her an active problem in all routes, finally becoming loyal to the title "All Routes Lead to Doom", but its not like the story is digging into Katarina's brain that she's sword training for the purpose of fighting back against all the boys, its still just Geordo, so idk I still count that in my shipper brain)

It also also helps that Geordo is basically the poor bullied animal in the hamefura community's eyes, regardless of how far he is into the battle (like in the reddit discord lmao). Yeah he has the best chances which is why many people both in and out of the series find it so fun to drag him under because of his unfair advantage, which is fair, but just like how you feel when you see a small wounded animal, you can't help but want to help someone who has the whole world against him (there's literally a canon manga page with that joke lmao), which is how I eventually felt over time. He's so misunderstood and bullied by people despite the authors dedication to flesh him out more beyond being a possessive prince fiancé of Katarina because of the anime's adaption, so I'd rather give my biases to someone who needs (and deserves it) rather than other contenders who are already overflowing with love and support. Also who doesn't love a perfect guy who breaks when his beloved is harm/who opens up to the person he cares about most?

I know people will read this and find it unfair that Katarina is giving so much to Geordo, but he isn't really giving anything to her. One thing I'll agree that Maria has over Geordo is that Maria makes Katarina want to try and work hard. Seeing Maria improve her magic wants Katarina to do the same, and whether or not it's from motivation or fear of getting left out depends on the reader. So far we don't really have anything like that for Katarina with Geordo because most things involving Geordo intimidates her, compared to Maria who is surrounded by mysteries and adventure (though arguably it's Katarina and not her lmao, but Kat doesn't know that).

Katarina is already the most well-adjusted character in the story even as a child so the only thing to really explore from her is mostly just her relationships and skewed sense of reality. That's why I hope that Geordo will not only help her realize that she can be loved by her peers romantically despite her self-perceived position/role, but also be one of the persons to make her completely realize that she isn't living inside a game. I mean like I said a few paragraphs ago, he's already kinda doing it by constantly confessing his feelings to her, reminding her that he is a person with his own feelings and not a character programmed to fall for a heroine.

So yeah, I ship Katarina with Geordo for those reasons and believe they should end up together for those reasons.

If you ask me who I think would she end up with objectively, I'd still say Geordo. The author's focus jumps between Geordo and Maria so that really depends on who you're asking. It also doesn't help that Geordo is always in the marketing with Katarina in the books and games, which pretty much cements his Male Lead status to Katarina's Female Lead status lmao

Thank you for the ask lmao, I'll be updating this with more thoughts and possibly citations later :))