#is it a crossover if it is a show and its podcast?
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You know what I desire? A crossover between archive 81 the podcast and the shitty Netflix adaptation.
I wanna see Melody and Alexa pound Samuel into the dirt, the pathetic Samuel of the netflix show. A brilliant use of the fact that Netflix show Samuel is seen often by Netflix Melody. I wanna see Samuel try his fucking "come with me on a date to the opera" and mayhaps lean in for a kiss. Only for Melody to grab him by the nose and go "I'm married, bitch." Or mayhaps, "It is only that im unsure if you're evil in this reality that prevents from tearing you to shreds."
I wanna see Melodys first reaction to the sight of Samuel to be fight, and to see this capitalist cultist weenie to fold like a paper in the face of violence. Fecker definitely is too comfortable. I wanna see Melody getting jiggy and wild with her magic rituals in Christian demon cult building. I wanna see the demon cult residents in confusion.
I wanna see how Podcast Melody reacts to the vizer apartment residents. Mayhaps this when she realizes she's not quite in the past, that she's in a different universe entirely. Like how Jess is 15 and a girl. How there's a psychic a medium an artist and a musician. But no man who loses faces or that one guy who cannot be recorded. How watered down and uninteresting the occultism is. I wanna see her flip through books and panic at the lack of depth. Her main motivation in interviewing residents being that they are different somehow now and she needs to figure out what happened.
Honestly I think it would be soo cool if the framing of the Netflix show was the result of some entity or leviathan! Like this reality might be a pocket reality or a dimension under the control of a single entity. I'd love it if the weird Christian demon themes were the result of the storytelling of a storyteller. One who is pushing themes into the story to prove a point or to serve a purpose. A purpose that Melody by virtue of being not the watered down Heterosexual damsel in distress she was meant in this world to be, stands in the way of. I wanna see the story teller struggle to try to push Melody into the role Netflix wants her in.
Residents spouting exposition about her life, trying to reshape her image in the eyes of an audience she cannot see, as she at them in "That's not what happened, that's not me, what the fuck are you talking about" People she's spoken to maybe once suddenly privy to gossip about things she did years ago towns away.
People suddenly popping up near her where they have no business, or a strong reason to avoid being there. Like meeting a elderly resident in a wheelchair at the grocery story when she knew the elevator was out, and that Jess usually got their groceries for them. Only for them to start telling Melody that she has a dark presence hanging over her. (Something ungodly, something un christian)
People she doesn't know very well at all suddenly being very friendly after a few interactions. Old friends from primary school, or highschool, or "we were like sisters back in the day" spontaneously formed deep friendships that Melody does not reciprocate. Telling stories about Old Times™ and "all the boys Melody liked" . An ineffectual foil to a wild and weary normal person. I want an Author struggling to control a story with a rogue element.
In essence Netflix is a leviathan and homophobic. All of the writing and tropes are sprinkles on the horror sandwich.
#archive 81#archive 81 podcast#archive 81 netflix#crossover#archive 81 crossover#melody pendras#is it a crossover if it is a show and its podcast?#samuel#samuel davenport#archive 81 Melody Pendras
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GPTim would really like the Thrilling Adventure Hour/Welcome to Night Vale crossover, well, up until Croach fixes things. But the NV citizens hate the moon *so* much that they make it disappear, but not in their time in the future. So there’s moon destroying and time travel.
On a related note: Aurora would *hate* the TAH/WtNV crossover since the NV citiz-
#the mechanisms#wtnv#tah#i dont actually think tim hates the moon itself but i thought this was funny#anyway if you like the mechs you might like the sparks nevada segment of tah#although i think its more difficult to access now. i think at some point the backlog was made a reward on patreon so you cant just listen#to it anymore.#the tah/wtnv crossover is very fun and they say none of it is canon except the part that is#and wil wheaton plays god basically#and if you dont know tah but you know wtnv. croach is played by mark gagliardi. who plays john peters. you know the farmer#and sparks nevada is played by marc even jackson who was marcus vanston and then an erika#i dont think hal lublin is in the crossover or the snmom segment. but he is in tah and he is steve carlsberg in wtnv#theres some p famous people in tah#my favorite segment is beyond belief. which stars paget brewster and paul f tompkins#molly quinn plays fey in wtnv and pemily stalwark in snmom and theres a bit about that#also jason ritter is in it#also also i looked up jason ritter to make sure he is who i thought he is and he was apparently in joan of arcadia!#the only thing i remember from when my mom waytches that show (when it was coming out so i was young) is that joan steals mail in it and-#thats illegal. and its connected in my head with solve the world since she steals mail in the first ep. haha! i brought if back to podcasts-#i listened to in high school!#I MEANT TO SAY THAT SPARKS NEVADA MARTIAL ON MARS IS A SPACE WESTERN seems kinda obvious by the full name. but its silly and they sing some-#times#when i said jason ritter is in ‘it’ i meant the crossover. but he is also in the ‘teenagers of the corn’ ep of beyond belief!#edit. i forgot the other mechs tags whoops!#gunpowder tim#the aurora
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crazy how until recently my first and only exposure to dead boy detectives was a single doom patrol episode that featured them and one of the main boys had The Talk with Larry Trainor/Negative Man who spent about a season coming terms with his own sexuality and now tumblr is recommending them to me
#👁️ podcast#im not tagging this as either show but#literally the only way it clicked its the same trio as the DP one when i looked at their names#and i went OOOOOOOOOHHH#apparently they straight up just had a crossover with them and tbh dbd does fit that doom patrol vibe with its premise#i dont even recall which of the boys larry had the talk with#i might also take this as an oppurtunity to tell you people to watch doom patrol#its good trust me#im also watching dead boy detectives im like 4 episodes in and i like it
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Friendly challenge for you and those in the notes to share your top favorite DC media; be it comics, radio shows, video games, or shows: animated or live action
I love learning what people are passionate about
My favorites are: Batman the Animated Series, the live action Catwoman (including so you know I'm trash), Swamp Thing (2019), and Black Lightning
Oh absolutely!!!!!
Some of my absolute favorites:
Literally ANY The Brave and The Bold comics. Hero team ups make me so happy and they’re so fun to read.
Batman Universe. It’s a 6 part comic series and it’s delightful. If you like good Batman it’s up your alley. The interactions in it bring me joy
Batman White Knight. Comic
Superman the Radio Show (not recommended for folks with severe audio processing issues most eps have the quality of 40s audio i.e. bad. Remember it’s of its time!)
Batman: Unburied. Spotify podcast. Wonderfully written and damn good Elseworlds story
The Riddler: Secrets in The Dark. Spotify Podcast. For anyone who wants to get into the mind of a Gotham rogue it’s so fun I LOVE this version of the riddler sm.
Speedrunning the tv shows I like: Batman the Animated Series, Superman the Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, Justice League Action, Batman the Brave and the Bold.
John Ostrander’s The Spectre comic run.
The current Flash run is super fun. Pick up literally any of those comics and read em y’all.
Animal Man by Grant Morrison. My fav comic of all time.
Animal Man (2011) comic run.
The New Frontier. animated movie
Any Batman and Judge Dredd crossover comic.
Plastic Man (2018)
#bones comic recs#put your favs in the replies or reblogs!!! repeats welcome!#dpxdc#dc comics#bones replies
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Hey there! The quick and easy TLDR? I reblog fanworks every day and I love when people submit stuff I haven't seen. Under the cut is an FAQ (including instructions on how to submit fanworks or let me know if I reblogged stolen art). Please read before you send something! Here's links to the askbox and submit.
How does this work?
I track the tags for animations, coloring books, comics, commissions, cosplayers, dioramas, edits, icons, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, fanvids, filk, gifs, merch, moodboards, podcasts, podfics, poetry, sculptures, and zines. When something new shows up in those tags, I add it to the queue!
Some fanworks aren't put in my tracked tags, or are posted to other sites, like AO3 or Instagram. You can submit links to them, and I'll add them to the queue with the rest. (Just a note: don't try to put them in the askbox! Links and media can only be submitted.)
If you know of an art form that's not mentioned here, I'd love to see it! Send me a link to its tag and I'll keep an eye out for new stuff.
Do you reblog XYZ?
Probably! If it's a fanwork, and it's related to Star Wars, I'll reblog it. Crossovers, fusions, AUs, translations, and non-English works are welcome. I reblog works that contain triggering content or are rated R/Mature/Explicit, and this is a proship blog, including master/padawan and clone/clone. Everything is tagged so it can be filtered out if you don't like it.
That means you're going to reblog some character/ship/trope/creator I don't like!
I don't give a shit.
But it's gross/immoral/hurts my feelings!
I still don't give a shit.
What's your tagging system?
Non-fanwork posts are tagged #admin talk and answered asks are tagged #ask. All fanworks are tagged with their type, as listed in the first question's answer. "#nsfw (violence)" and "#nsfw (sex)" are used for mature content. I tag triggers and am happy to expand my taglist, just send me an ask. Current trigger tags: abuse, death, flashing, sexual assault, and smoking.
Works are tagged with the creator's username. I tag the names of all the characters and relationships, and if a work is character-critical or part of a series. Relationships are tagged with character names in alphabetical order, using "&" for platonic and "/" for romantic. AUs are tagged with their type, and crossovers and fusions are tagged with their other fandom(s).
I also tag 'creature' for works with animals, 'droid' for works with droids, and 'ship' for works with spacecraft and vehicles. 'The Bad Batch', 'Jedi', and 'Rebel Alliance' are tagged for group-themed works. Original characters are tagged with their type: Chiss, clone, droid, Jedi, Mandalorian, Sith, Twi'lek, Wookiee, etc.
If a tag is missing or wrong, please let me know! I don't read or listen to everything I reblog, as I simply don't have the time or spoons. All written and audio works are tagged based on the OP's tags. Let me know the chapter (for written) or timestamp (for audio), and what should be tagged. Submit that with a link to my reblog.
How do I submit something?
First, please check the blog for everything tagged with that creator's name. It might already be here! If not, the rest of this answer will walk you through the submission process. Submit as much as you want!
There's a link at the top of this post to submit. You can also check beneath the blog's banner on mobile or desktop. To the right of the Ask link is a meatball menu (three dots in a row). Click or tap that, then 'Submit'. However you get to the submit page, you'll see this:
1 is the drop-down for post type. 2 is where tumblr will prompt you to put your name and email if you're not logged in. Do not put your real name. "N/A" or "nothing" will work for both fields. 3 is where you put a link to what you want to submit. You'll have to check the box by 4 (and do a captcha if you're not logged in) before hitting the Submit button.
Don't worry about providing the information that I tag with! I take the link and do all the formatting and tagging myself.
You might not see a work posted in the same day or week that you submitted it, due to the length of the queue. If you want to make sure that something gets shared, you can DM me or send an ask, to check if it's in the queue. Please don't resubmit unless I ask you to.
How do I tell you that you reblogged stolen/reposted/uncredited works?
Submit a link to what I reblogged with a link to the original artist's post. If you don't see the work removed in three days, feel free to follow up by sending a DM or ask. Please don't resubmit unless I ask you to.
I still have more questions/want to tell you something/I like the nuance poll option.
No problem! My askbox is open to whatever you want to share, and anon is enabled. I aim to check the blog at least daily so I can reply to things fairly quickly. Please only DM me if you're checking whether I saw your submitted post!
This is a cool blog!
Thanks, I think so too :) It's my hope that having a 'one stop shop' for fanworks will help creators reach a wider audience. The best way to support them - and me! - is to reblog the stuff you like. Especially with some enthusiastic tags!
#admin talk#tagging for visibility - reblogs appreciated!#star wars#star wars comics#star wars edit#star wars fanart#star wars fandom#star wars fanfic#sw fanart#sw fandom
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So, I was wondering about the Demon summoning AU WIP you posted. It looks really fun, what are your plans for it???
I am glad you asked!
I have two other long-fic projects I am working on in the background of TRT. one being the demon summoning and another being a horror fic.
The demon summoning is still in its beginning stages, so the plot is definitely subject to change, however, I'll give you a brief description of my general plot/themes:
The story is a modern/human AU, just so you know
Alastor is a popular podcast host by day and, as we all know, a serial killer by night. He is extremely meticulous with his work but even he knows that the law is starting to sniff him out. He looks back into the occult, a minor obsession of his when he was younger, and tracks down a cult specifically to get his hands on their grimoire (think Apology Tour people with Stolas)
Lucifer is a divorcee and an empty-nester. He has been struggling with his loneliness and longs for something new. He wants to explore and travel and be in nature, but Heaven has forbidden his entry to earth. The only exception to the rule being when he is summoned by a mortal for a deal, not even Heaven can step in.
Alastor summons lucifer to make a deal so that he is never captured, allowing him to continue his *hobbies* without worrying about the police or his dear mother finding out. Lucifer accepts the deal but turn down the idea of owning Alastor's soul, instead, he wants Alastor to be his ticket into staying on earth for an extended period.
Therefore, the bickering roommates are born. Lucifer creates a human disguise and lives on earth with Alastor while also keeping him from capture.
Meanwhile I have all sorts of other hijinks planned with cults, helluva boss crossovers and all sorts of other stuff. My plan is for it to be domestic, fluffy and hopefully funny. It will also probably be a pretty slow burn.
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The horror fic is basically my excuse to write some creepy monster stuff XD
The plot is heavily inspired by the SCP community. Also a modern/human AU set in the H.A.Z.B.I.N research facility.
Alastor is a seasoned researcher who has recently been entrusted with access to the facility's lowest level, home to their most dangerous anomaly, 7-666 (Codenamed: Lucifer). This particular anomaly is known for being incredibly aggressive, powerful and unpredictable. As Alastor slowly starts to learn more about 7-666, he starts to realize that maybe the previous researchers have been going about it all wrong.
This is planned to include characters from both Hazbin & Helluva with all sorts of shenanigans (I can't help it even though I technically want this to be a grittier story), monster romance, and two misunderstood beings finding their kindred spirit with each other.
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I was thinking of starting to post drabbles or one shots on ao3 just to show y'all the concepts I'm playing with to see if any of them are interesting. Because I do also have ideas for a mafia AU, Eldritch/monster hunter AU, and mayyyyybbbbeee something canonverse. Not to mention the overlord Huskerdust fic I had almost COMPLTELY written before Radioapple stole my heart. That has been sitting in my drafts for ages.
Let me know your thoughts!!!
#alastor x lucifer#radioapple#ao3#appleradio#duckiedeer#ao3 fanfic#fanfic#fanfic ideas#fanfiction#please let me know your thoughts#too many WIPS#the brainrot is brainrotting#the brainrot is real#don't save me
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Pinned Fanfiction Post! Updated 9/25/24.
Psst… there's a way to support my writing now (and thank you Kraiva, Som, Charlie, Flamia, Bree, and more who encouraged me to do it).
Fandoms:
The Magnus Archives
Malevolent (Podcast)
Deviser (Podcast)
I'm bad at updating this, my apologies! It's all on AO3, folks.
Latest:
Malevolent
BIG BANG: BUT IT BEATS THE DARKNESS AO3 || Tumblr
The Magnus Archives
"T" IS FOR TOMB - a bittersweet sad post-TMA one-shot AO3 || Tumblr
The Magnus Archives x Malevolent
CORRUPTED, chapter 24: Fogged. A Tim Stoker x The King in Yellow weird romance because I am strange. AO3 || Tumblr
Loads of Surrogate updates, as per usual. :) The last few:
Like Father - Faroe makes a dangerous decision
Message Received - Kayne bitching because we were too busy to write
Strained - the beginning of fallout from Faroe's choices.
Nightingale - Something with Arthur is very, very wrong.
FINISHED FICS:
(This needs some serious revision! For now, be sure to check my AO3 profile until I get this part cleaned up.)
THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES
AND EAT IT, TOO
The voice gets under his skin. Is it pleasing or terrifying? Inside his head or out? Is it even real, or is his still-human brain just cobbling monster-sounds into something he can comprehend? It’s impossible to get out of his head, whether literal or not. Doesn’t matter, though, because the answer Michael gives is a terrible one, and ends the same way: Gertrude could protect herself, Jon can’t, and he’s going to die for her sins.
Playlist available here.
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A THOUSAND WORDS
It’s coming, Jon. You know something is; something that itches, that nags, that hides just out of view. Our glorious future is coming.
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QUIT
It’s a stupid-drafty manor—huge, never properly lit, all its frippery fraying at the edges. It has literal skeletons in the walls. It has a foyer right out of Crimson Peak, an empty cement hole with crumbling cherubs in the back yard that might have once been someone’s idea of a pond, and a library with more cursed books than Gerry could shake a match at. The part of Gerry that once used Sharpies to blacken his eyebrows loves this place with a truly unholy passion. If only it didn’t belong to the reason the world was going to end.
Playlist available here.
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TULIPS IN SPRING
Martin crawled back into bed like he’d crawled through the burned-flesh hole in his heart, and knew he still loved Jon. Martin knew Jon loved him, too. Jon had thrown away godhood for him, like it hadn’t mattered. Maybe it hadn’t.Jon loved him, and that meant they could fix this.All Jon had to do was wake up.
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CRUCIBLE
Martin's been having dreams.He doesn't understand them. Surely, if Jon had ever looked like that, with unreal wings and a crown of spinning eyes, he would have remembered. But his memory isn't working as well as it should right now, and Jon never blinks. Martin is afraid.
Inspired by The Watcher’s Crown by @raynecreates
Note: this is angst. Somewhere Else goes very, very wrong.
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INSTANT NOODLES (crack fic)
At least his new hobby kept him occupied in the evenings, when too much time to think turned to wretchedness. It just so happened that much of his life was public. On the internet. As part of some gods-damned podcast. There were no words for how fascinated he was. This was his story—and yet it wasn’t. It was focused on Jon, for some bloody reason, which made no damn sense, since Jon showed up at the very end. Well. There was no accounting for taste.
Note: This is nonsense. Full apologies to Jonny and Alex, who are 100% the creators of my favorite podcast, The Magnus Archives. This is a work of fiction, etc. and so forth. Take it as the joke it's meant to be. Written because I wanted Jonah to suffer.
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SHORT STORIES FOR TMA APPRECIATION WEEK, 2023
Just what it says on the tin. Silliness, angst, and crossovers incoming.
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THIS DARK THING THAT SLEEPS IN ME - Rusty Quill Big Bang 2023
This is a DARK AU; it is not a kid-fic, though Jon is young. Bittersweet ending ahead. Spoilers for the whole show, though this is very much an alternate universe. In a world where the End won and Jonah Magnus is its Heart, the cycle of death and rebirth is a given: no one lives past thirty, the Other Fears scramble for scraps, and any infant without an Alignment—called Uncertain—has until the age of ten to be claimed, or they are sacrificed. Jon, an Uncertain child, knows things he shouldn’t, has memories he shouldn’t, and also has a purpose: apparently, he’s been called to do what no Aligned person can do and stop Jonah. Sometimes, there is no happy ending, only the right one. Jonah broke the promises he made to take over the world, and Jon is here to make it right. “I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me; all day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity. Clouds pass and disperse. Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrievables? Is it for such I agitate my heart?” ― Sylvia Plath
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MAGNUS ARCHIVES x MALEVOLENT CROSSOVER
I PREFER MY HEART TO BE BROKEN
Jon feels seen in a way he has not since the Panopticon, examined from cell to soul, from ankles to ego. Does that feel good or horrible? He doesn’t know. He tries to see into this thing, just a little, but just that glimpse is enough. Fear shortens Jon’s breath, shivers up and down his form, because this thing is a god.
Playlist available here
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MALEVOLENT (PODCAST)
BUT IT BEATS THE DARKNESS - Malevolent Big Bang 2024
Serial killer Wallace Larson has been murdering children for his ritual, and the cops won't stop him. Private investigators Parker Yang and Arthur Lester choose to get involved... and everything goes wrong. Interrupting the ritual leaves Parker missing, Arthur in chains, and a piece of the King in Yellow in Arthur's head. But this piece knows who he is, and knows what he wants: to complete his ritual and rule Earth. Unfortunately, Arthur is incredibly stubborn, maudlin over his missing partner (stupid Parker Yang), and John, it turns out, is not the only piece of the King seeking power right now. It's a race against time, and John has a heavy handicap. With Larson in pursuit, a trail of murdered victims in their wake, and a host whose body is failing, John is determined to win at any cost... even if the cost includes Arthur Lester.
"It may not be much light but it beats the darkness" ~ Charles Bukowski, The Laughing Heart NOTE BEFORE READING This is part one of a Darkthur fic. There is violence and bodily harm. This fic was written in tandem with Kraiva's IT MAY NOT BE MUCH LIGHT, and is intended to be read together, though both are standalone. For the fullest experience, read the corresponding chapter from each fic. We'll be linking the connected chapters in the end notes of each. The incredible art in chapters two and eleven are by @wurmeon. The breathtaking 3D models in chapter six are from @iconiccookie.
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WRONG - spoilers for part 43
There is a thread where it all went wrong. Where Arthur, lost, has lost his hope. Where John makes a choice to teach Arthur what it means to be human.
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HERETIC- an Oscar one-shot:
What road remains for a man whose purpose abandoned him?
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Blood and Sand:
When John Luke was nine, Parker stopped writing back. It took a while before John Luke was sure, before he allowed the worry to slither into his bones, and take flavor and color away, and leave only trembling cold behind. Parker had never been quiet this long. Something had happened. John Luke Yang wants his brother back. When he learns about a wish—offered by a god, in exchange for winning some kind of game—he's willing to leave everything behind in pursuit of it. But the Dreamlands are not safe, and the King in Yellow has gone mad. The Games are not designed to be survived. Luke has fallen into deep and dangerous waters. Fortunately, he won't be swimming alone.
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They Both Just Gotta Be Dicks (Intermezzo spoilers):
Not much surprises Kayne anymore. A melting Arthur manages.
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All that Glitters (crack-fic one-shot):
John and Arthur, Lester and Doe, going mano a mano against their greatest foe: 1970s Arkham bureaucracy.
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Fragile (Intermezzo spoilers):
Arthur got low in Larson’s house. He hit bedrock; he admitted, brokenly, that they won. John didn’t let him drown. Which is ironic, because John was already drowning.
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Double the Popcorn (Intermezzo spoilers):
You think there’s anyone I haven’t seen? Fucked around with? Followed? You think there isn’t a version of you I haven’t tweaked to be the very d-d-darkest you could be, with flesh in your fingernails and blood in your cheeks like a really fucked-up squirrel? I. Have tried. Them all. And pal… they don’t fucking work.
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God of Cowboys and Fools:
Well. No time like the present. “I am the King in Yellow, and you are now my slave,” I tell him, because that is the truth and we might as well get it done. He is a god, awakened in the crater of his birth. Somewhere out there is the Wizard he needs to ensure his misplaced immortality. Now, if only the Wizard would just do as he was told instead of fighting back, they could get on with the business of living forever.
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SACRAMENT - an Oscar one-shot
Arthur and John are long gone from Oscar's life, and whatever they did has left more than one wound in the world. Oscar's is obvious. Scratch's is not. Oscar certainly hadn't planned on encountering the malevolent spirit ever again, but now that he has, he faces a choice.
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BOYO
Warning: this is a dark fic. I liked me boyo’s anger, and he was just scuttered enough to make this work. To join me hitting the prop, and hitting too much. To not know when it was time to stop, and to follow my lead as we went far beyond. Wasn’t quite perfect. Didn’t have the rhythm yet. But I knew he’d get it; musical lad, or I’m a whaler, and I’d get him singing my tune. The fool died, and my boyo stood there, panting, blood everywhere, and hit the body again just because. Fuckin’ beautiful, that was to see.
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THE INCIDENT - a one-shot for the @malevolent-fanzine
Arthur and John are in Arkham, getting their burgeoning P.I. business off the ground. And then Kayne asks for a favor, and everything goes to hell.
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TRY, TRY AGAIN - a one-shot for the @malevolent-fanzine
The King in Yellow worked for a month to get Arthur to spill the information he wanted. Eventually, he got what he wanted through a made-up Bostonian, Adam Fry. What happened in the month before Arthur woke?
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CONFESSION
There’s a trick to confession, if you want to keep another from hearing what you said. But not hearing it don’t make it not true, don’t make it go away.
I fear Arthur’s truth, so big and bright. I fear ours together may strike like flint and leap into devouring flame.
An Oscar one-shot
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PEDANTIC
Arthur Lester is the best IT architect in the world, and the reason Carcosa, Inc. has its fingers in every pie. Government, medical, everyone in the world uses its systems. Arthur is also going blind, with a rare genetic condition that can’t be fixed. The looming depression is bad. He can’t imagine a life where he can’t create anymore. Arthur nearly gives up… until a deeply annoying cybersecurity programmer prods him into trying something new. Great, right? Now, if only this John Doe weren’t clearly hiding something so wild that not even PI Parker Yang can dig it out….
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PET
Arthur loses John. Hastur loses Arthur. Yellow does not deserve what happens here.
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PUSH
They survived. John got his promised body. They're free. But Arthur is still blind, and now, he no longer has someone in his head, helping him around. He's not all right. It's all coming out of him in anger. Today, John needed a break... and, left alone, Arthur tries a four-legged substitute. It goes about as well as can be expected.
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NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY
Angst warning Things happen when we age. Unavoidable things. Until death do we part.
AO3
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CLOUD CITY - MALEVOLENT BIG BANG 2023
The sun never rises in Cloud City. Owned by distant gods, the world creaks along in techno-magical paralysis, making Contracts with spirits, and limping along in isolated enclaves while monsters run wild in the Wastes. Five years ago, Arthur Lester, a private investigator, made a Contract with a Summon called Hastur. The deal? His soul in exchange for the identity of his daughter's murderer. Until the time Arthur's soul is ripe for harvesting, Hastur will give him power, and eventually must find Faroe's killer. If he doesn't, they both die, so failure is not an option. Hastur, however, is not a normal Summon... and it turns out he's come here and chosen Arthur in order to stop a threat that will destroy the entire universe if it succeeds. Unfortunately, humans aren't meant to channel power like Hastur's, and Arthur's body is beginning to break down. It's a race against time to solve Faroe's murder and stop the incoming threat before he simply drops dead.
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YELLOW CITY - A CONTINUATION OF CLOUD CITY
Arthur Lester has been taken by the King into the Dreamlands. Arthur Lester has gone quite mad. As promised, Arthur will suffer… but his presence will have a bigger effect on the future of Earth than anyone planned.
AO3
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PUSH
They survived. John got his promised body. They're free. But Arthur is still blind, and now, he no longer has someone in his head, helping him around. He's not all right. It's all coming out of him in anger. Today, John needed a break... and, left alone, Arthur tries a four-legged substitute. It goes about as well as can be expected.
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THE BIRTHDAY SONG
Very much post-canon. Very much fluff. John has a body. Arthur has his sight. They've figured it out, working in Arkham, making their way through life, and John, at last, has chosen his birthday. It's all fluff from here, folks.
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WORTH THE PRICE OF A BOTTLE OF POP
So, anybody want a crack-fic with Kayne, Arthur, and too much sugar even for an Outer God?
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FIVE TIMES JOHN WANTED TO SEE A MOVIE, AND ONE TIME KAYNE MADE IT SUCK
In which Arthur struggles with right and wrong, bemoans the Hays Code, tries (and fails) to define love, and gets a second chance.
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SURROGATE
The beginning of the series, Surrogate: The Director's cut.
The King in Yellow has a plan. The first part works, and Arthur Lester is broken. The second half blows up in his face. John has gone mad, and Hastur’s adopted daughter is upset, but that’s not all. It turns out a certain Outer God wasn’t done watching that show, and when he arrives with director’s notes, not even the King in Yellow can refuse him.
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DEVISER (PODCAST)
DEVIL
Dad knew he'd failed with humans. Dad did not know he'd succeeded somewhere else.
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RED
Son likes painting. Son likes red.It makes him feel some odd things. Things he doesn’t really have a word for. He really likes the way it looks splattered on his hands.
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#fanfiction#fanfic#tma#the magnus archives#malevolentpod#deviser podcast#tma fic#magpod#malevolent#malevolent podcast#oscar malevolent#deviser#deviser fic#dad deviser#son deviser#john malevolent#arthur malevolent#kayne malevolent#jonathan sims#martin blackwood#jmart#crossover#surrogate series#magnus monsterverse#just a little side-quest series#corrupted fic#rusty quill big bang 2023#malevolent big bang 2023
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IMG ID: A large red glitter text graphic which reads "THE MAGNUS PROTOCOL SPOILERS"
ok episode thoughts
> the intro/set up of the statement was weak and rushed, as they all have been. i dislike the "reading an email" format because it makes the intros hard to follow, and i don't think presenting "case file" information this way serves to flesh out statement givers, even if its information about them. like, tma statement givers telling us about themsleves did so in a way that showed us their lives and circumstances. we heard their tone, we got their word choice and their emotions. reading a list of information at the beginning of an email or forum message just doesn't... convey the same thing.
> the actually spoopy part of the statament was fun!! "hungry architecture" is a lame ass pitch for someone who got sucked into a stranger/flesh/vast crossover episode but.... fine. the flesh eating non-people were great fun. felt very tma-esque in concept if not execution
> i absolutely cannot stomach this........... "plot". celia asking sam for help researching "time travel and parallel dimensions" after all this is like... you really must think very little of your audience!! you truly must think your audience members are very. very. very. stupid. just a bunch of empty eyed brainles automotons who need story beats fed to them as slowly as possible in big block letters.
> bringing in gertrude as gerry's grandma is CRAZY.... like this is alice's "we're a big happy family" line from ep1 slowed reverbed bass boosted etc. it's pathetic. anyway "gigi" is what gerry calls gertrude when he jerks off clutching her cardigan against his chest thinking about how she shoved him in front of the bleeding, animated mannequin that tried to eat her last week.
> since celia is doing a favor "for georgie's podcast" that 100% means melanie is gonna pop up in episode 9 at which point i will stop listening for real
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Get a Load of This Monster
read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/skO6jQz by SnowLeopardtherebel (SnowLeopardTheRebel) hey, so what if post tma 200 jmart ends up Somewhere Else and that Somewhere Else is pre-time skip Zaun What happens when you have two fixations? Slap them together into an au and hope for the best this is my first arcane fanfic and my first tma fanfic, I'm sorry if these guys act out of character. Some stuff was also taken from LoL because while I won't touch the game with a 90-foot pole, some things like time or money weren't ever really mentioned so I took some things from both and just kind of said "fuck it we ball" and well, here we are. Please note that this is as much an arcane fic as it is a tma fic. it is a crossover, yes, hopefully showing how Jon and Martin settle into their new lives in Zaun, however, it is also an arcane timeskip fic, detailing possible events happening during the timeskip, as well as potentially changing events of arcane canon to fit with Fears and characters one last thing! I currently have another fanfic, Remembrance of Time. That one does not have an update schedule (like this one), but it IS priority. so this fanfic might not update very frequently. have a good day! Words: 3610, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Gen, M/M Characters: Ekko (League of Legends), Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Eve (Arcane: League of Legends), Jinx (League of Legends), Vi (League of Legends), Silco (Arcane: League of Legends), Martin Blackwood, Caitlyn (League of Legends) Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Caitlyn & Vi (League of Legends), Caitlyn/Vi (League of Legends) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Shimmer (Arcane: League of Legends), The Eye is very fucking unhelpful, Desolation Avatar Jinx (Arcane), Beholding Avatar Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Lonely Avatar Martin Blackwood, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist With a Cane, Canon-typical shimmer, Jinx is a desolation avatar and marked by the spiral, For funsies, Jinx and Vi don't come into the story for a while unfortunatly, Mentioned Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Mentioned Sasha James, Mentioned Michael | The Distortion (The Magnus Archives), they come into the story eventually dw, Autistic Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, it might not be very important to the story, but its important to me, Slaughter Avatar Vi (eventually), Mentioned Jayce (League of Legends), almost all of the councillors are web avatars btw, Blood and Gore, Minor Original Character(s), quite literally just background characters tbh read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/skO6jQz
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Hey hey hey mayo mavens, it's the moment you've all been dreaming of, it's time for episode three of our little podcast! We are so happy to be back chatting to y'all, and as an aside, apparently only 10% of podcasts made get to a third episode before they run out of steam, so this is a little milestone for us! Thank you all for being here with us and showing us your enthusiasm and sending us asks for our guests and letting us know you're listening, it means the world to us, truly.
If you're new here, welcome, there are two whole other episodes that you can listen to if you like this one! Or listen to them first if you are a sequencialist. OR. chaotic option, play all three at the same time and just listen to the bits that you can hear in the gaps of the others...
We are joined this time by the glorious @metalheadmickey to discuss spicy fictions and the business of writing smut and it was such a treat, Jessie thank you so much for joining us!
Next time we are talking to everyone's adopted mom @squidyyy23 about crossovers, incredible outlines, and where my adoption papers are because it's been, like, months...so be sure to join us for that!
Until next time <3
Notes and warnings for episode 3 under the cut.
Episode Warnings
Explicit discussions of sexual content
Hosts
Leigh / she/her / @thisdivorce / vitalspark
Howl / she/her / @howlinchickhowl / howlinchickhowl
Jessie / they/them / @metalheadmickey / catgrassplantdad
Mayo In The Morning / asks
Current Fandom Events
Gallavich Trope Event / @its-a-queer-thing
Spicy Gallavich Collab / @spicygallavichcollab
Fandom History
Supernatural - obviously. Maybe one day we will get through an episode without discussing supernatural, but given our guest this time, it was never going tot be this one.
E.L. James - don't be E.L. James, guys. And by that we don't mean 'don't try and get your smut fic published and become a multi-millionaire author' because we would love that for you, we truly would. We mainly mean don't do that with a fic that heavily features kinks that you don't fully understand the consequences of practicing and export your poor understanding to millions of people around the world who decide to try it out without doing any research and put themselves in danger and put members of the community who do practice safely under intense scrutiny from the morality police. Don't do that.
The origins of Horny Gay Thug
Fanfictions mentioned
Watching / Cinematic with art by @heymrspatel / Ligature - all by Jessie
The Echo I Created by keepgoing/@23milestogo - Leigh's recommendation that doesn't quite fit into the smut category, but is worth a read nonetheless!
Our Favourite Smut Fics
Jessie
The Menagerie (WIP) by @crossmydna / You Like Me by anythingbutgrief / Spice Up Your Life by @squidyyy23/ Kinktober 2022 by @whatthebodygraspsnot
Howl
@ hornygaythug by @whatthebodygraspsnot / (g)loved up by @gallawitchxx / Let The Bodies Do The Talkin' (WIP) by @captainjowl / Size Matters by bravado
Leigh
Penile Enhancement by @captainjowl / The Switch-up by whatthebodygraspsnot / Africa (WIP) by @ian-galagher
#mayo in the morning#gallavich fic#ian x mickey#gallavich#ian gallagher#mickey milkovich#gallavich fanfic#mitm episodes#gallavich fandom#it's not NOT kinktober...
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> aven, 21, he/it, aromantic genderfluid butch lesbian
> revolutionary girl utena blog
> check out my original posts here, my fanart here, and my fanfiction here
> my rgu + mabel podcast sideblog: @revolutionarygirlmabel
> i don't tag spoilers or trigger warnings for any of the topics covered within the show itself but if you need anything else tagged please let me know ! ask box is always open for anything
tag directory below:
fanart , fanfics , amvs , analysis , parallels , headcanons , sillyposts , gifs and screencaps
-
adolescence of utena , manga
crossovers and aus
web weaving
animal motif
the narrative (posts about the narrative as an oppresive system and escaping it)
to not be chosen is to die (posts about the black rose arc)
the revolution (posts about the final duel and its aftermath)
don't be afraid of this world where we'll meet (after-ohtori posts)
tangential (posts that were not originally about utena but are thematically relevant. mostly jokes, but occasionally serious posts about the real world equivalents of rgu's themes)
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utena and anthy , juri and shiori , touga and saionji , utena and wakaba , utena and juri , utena and nanami , nanami and kozue , nanami and anthy , akio and utena , akio and anthy , kaoru siblings , kiryuu siblings
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Jacob said he wanted to do the ToBT but...with Sam. If JKirk and Sam swap characters then all the poignant Loustat scenes would have to be between Jacob and Justin. It honestly sounds exciting but I don't know how it will sit with the vast majority of the audience who is invested in Jam Reiderson Loustat as an inseparable item and isn't necessarely fond of the books (I mean even for those who do know the books, ToBT is one those who readers tend to skip). And then there's the fact that they'd necessarily have to give Sam's Raglan James a whole story line that wasn't in the books to compensate his screen time (which is stipulated by contract) and make the viewers somehow care about it. I think my biggest issue with all this possiblities is that they could be putting too much narrative effort to lift up a product (the Talamasca) that is more oriented to MW than IWTV and that feels wrong for so many reasons.
Hmmmmmmm.
I am not so sure if I subscribe to the notion that Talamasca is more oriented towards MW than IWTV, given the later books and its origins?
Also, there is this story line Anne dropped, but that the show could easily pick up on. And it would make for a nice crossover basis if they would expand on all the background of the Talamasca for ... whoever.
Personally I don't think the Talamasca are skippable for the show, on the contrary, it lends a lot of background to it all, if done properly.
But I agree that in order for Jacob to do those scenes with Sam they would have to come up with a clever way to do the switching (and I believe that is something Rolin remarked on as well in the podcast), because of course the general audience would not be invested in the same way otherwise.
Given what they've done with the show so far I am very confident they will find that "clever" way though^^.
#Anonymous#asks#ask nalyra#amc iwtv#iwtv#amc interview with the vampire#interview with the vampire amc#iwtv amc#iwtv 2022#interview with the vampire#the vampire chronicles#vc#vampire chronicles#lestat de lioncourt#louis de pointe du lac#loustat#the tale of the body thief#future season speculation
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Welcome Back My Boyfriend!
AND WE'RE BACK!
It's finally time to discuss Our Skyy 2! We were playing hurt this night: Ben was still recovering from dental surgery (please forgive his voice during this episode) and Nini was nursing a headache. Still, it didn't stop us from discussing all eight shows and talking about the crossover for an hour!
Nini and Ben assess the entirety of Our Skyy 2 and rank the offerings from worst to first.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Google Podcasts
Timestamps
The timestamps will now correspond to chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.
0:00 - Welcome 1:15 - Intro 6:07 - Vice Versa 14:23 - Star in My Mind 19:20 - Never Let Me Go 28:00 - A Boss and a Babe 36:45 - The Eclipse 49:50 - My School President 1:00:24 - Badd Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars 1:59:13 - Overall Score for Our Skyy 2
The Conversation: Now With Transcripts!
We received an accessibility request to include transcripts for the podcast. We are working with @ginnymoonbeam on providing the transcripts and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader.
We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes. When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.
Please send our volunteers your thanks!
0:00 - Welcome
Nini
Hello, hello! Your QL fandom aunty and uncle are here with giant sunglasses, brown liquor in a flask, a folded five-dollar bill to slip into your hand when no one is looking, lukewarm takes, occasional rides on the discourse, deep dives into artistry and the industry.
Ben
Lots of simping! I’m Ben.
Nini
I’m Nini.
Ben
And this is The Conversation. About once a season, we plan to swan in and shoot the shit on faves, flops, and trends that we’ve been noticing in the BL, GL, or QL Industry. Between seasons, you can find us typing way too many words on Tumblr.
1:15 - Intro
Nini
Hi, Ben. How are you tonight?
Ben
I'm battling my own body's slow recovery from dental surgery but it doesn't matter because we have so much to record so we're sticking to the schedule!
Nini
But, we're gonna be okay. You've got meds, I've got meds—a.k.a. beer—for this headache. We're gonna be fine. We're doing it live. So, what are we talking about tonight? We are talking about Our Skyy 2… What a journey. Ben, explain to the people the concept of Our Skyy.
Ben
Welcome back, my boyfriend! That's it.
Nini
[laughs]
Ben
Jojo started this off and summed it up perfectly. Our Skyy originally served as a sort of epilogue project for the initial run of GMMTV BLs.
In the first run we had the Puppy Honey crew with OffGun, the SOTUS pair with Krist and Singto, the InSun pair from My Dear Loser: Edge of 17, Tay and New from Kiss the series—before Dark Blue Kiss, and Drake and Frank from My Tee a.k.a. ‘Cause You're My Boy.
Nini
So, that's the concept of Our Skyy. So, when GMMTV put out its 2023 offerings last year: Surprise! Our Skyy 2. They are giving us epilogues for 2020, 2021, and some 2022 shows. We're gonna dive into these.
Ben
With the original Our Skyy it was kind of chaotic. So, every crew kind of just did what felt right for their characters.
Like, Pete and Kao basically went on a date that was mostly uncomplicated—something their characters needed.
OffGun did a body swap which was just so they could let Gun pick on Off for a bit.
In and Sun got closure—unsurprising, Aof was on that one.
‘Cause You're My Boy: they just kind of did just a hot mess that was weirdly endearing, which is exactly what their show was.
And SOTUS did like the the next most logical thing for Arthit and Kongpob, which was them kinda saying goodbye as they were heading into a long distance form of their relationship because Kongpob was pursuing higher schooling outside of Thailand, if I remember correctly?
In a similar vein, this particular Our Skyy run that we're going to be talking about very much captured what I think the core spirit of the original work was, and each team came back to it—for the most part—with something to say that was consistent with their original offerings.
Nini
Yep.
Ben
We went Never Let Me Go, Star in My Mind, The Eclipse, Vice Versa, My School President, A Boss and a Babe, Bad Buddy? and then A Tale of Thousand Stars.
Nini
I also think that the airing order was very interesting and maybe we'll get a little time to talk about how they chose to air what they did when they did. This Our Skyy, I think, wanted to lean a little bit into the crack. Every single outing had a little bit of a crack element to it—and I quite like that. I enjoyed that. I had fun with that—for the most part—and we'll get to the ones where I did not enjoy that.
Ben
I do think that the Our Skyy project leans into fan service, and not in an inherently negative way? They want the people who enjoyed this show to have fun coming back to the show, and it’s been notable for me that, for the most part, I found that if someone really liked the original show they also really liked their Our Skyy outing. So like, for those of you who've listened to me or followed me, you know what shows I didn't like or despised when they aired and—unsurprisingly—my takes are fairly consistent.
Nini
Maybe it's the corners of the internet that I've been perusing, which you always tell me to stop looking at…I feel like the more that people liked the OG show the more upset they were with the Our Skyy. Maybe that's just the people are being wrong on the internet corners of the internet that I like to occasionally look through. [laughs]
Ben
[laughs] I don't go there.
6:07 - Vice Versa
Nini
Let's delve into it. Let's start talking some specifics. So, if we're going from worst to first my worst without a doubt was the Vice Versa Our Skyy. I am on record as not having watched Vice Versa because I was not interested in Vice Versa. I have tried and failed so many times with Jittirain stories that I knew that I was not going to enjoy this one, and so I never watched the original. But, for the sake of the podcast, I watched every single Our Skyy including this one, except I did not finish this one. [laughs] I started watching it. I was mostly annoyed, and then something happened that just… I just said, “Oh, absolutely not,” and I stopped watching it.
So, the trope—the, the crack trope—for the Vice Versa Our Skyy; the fan fic-y, fan service-y trope is: Add a Kid. I think it's Puen? Puen and Talay have been together for a while now. They're working hard, working a lot. They don't have as much time for each other. And so Talay comes up with the idea of doing a month of special days where they pay very close attention to each other and they do special things together. And it's a really sweet idea and honestly if that had been it I would have been fine. There would have been no problem.
But then they add a kid, and the way that they add a kid is what pisses me off. One of their friends… essentially delivers his nephew into the care of these strangers… so that they can play house? But it's also like a trick that Puen is playing on Talay. Because this kid just shows up at the house and Talay thinks that it might be his kid. Like, the, the setup of Vice Versa has always—as I have said before—every time I think I know what Vice Versa is about, Ben lets me know that I don't actually know what Vice Versa is about. But there's some way that Talay thinks that this kid is his somehow.
Ben
Would you like the context for why he believes that kid is his?
Nini
Sure, hit me with it!
Ben
So, they basically spend two years in the other world with Nanon and Ohm’s characters in their bodies. Ohm's character, Tess, is an asshole who absolutely ruined Talay’s life for the two years he was in his body. He sabotaged and ruined every personal and professional relationship that Talay had.
When he got back to his own body he had to spend years fixing his own life. Which sucks, because while he was in Tess's body he basically fixed Tess's life. It's really upsetting for me that Puen, who claims to love Talay, who watched him suffer for all of the things that Tess did to his life would genuinely let Talay believe that Tess saddled him with the responsibility of an unplanned kid… because he thinks his boyfriend doesn't pay enough attention to him… like he makes his boyfriend work outside in a tent in Thailand to do graphic design on an iMac.
Nini
You were really really mad about the tent. [laughs] I remember when we were watching this. You were really pissed about the tent.
Ben
I'm—I'm not over it.
It's humid in Thailand! Why would he be outside with a Mac? Oh my God—
It's frustrating because… On the one hand, I understand the impulse of, like, how do we get these guys to consider a new form of domesticity together? But, like, why do we have to use an actual child? Why can't we use, like, a dog, or a cat? Not coercing a child into letting strangers bathe him, and treat him like he's their son, and sleep with him in their bed. It’s so, so weird… and really unhinged… and it made me like a bunch of characters even less than I already did!
It was aggravating. It's frustrating because Puen did this through the whole show. Like, he doesn't trust Talay. He lies to him. He manipulates him. Talay and he are both in entertainment and Talay was against a huge deadline the night of Puen’s birthday, and he couldn't take a break from his work to meet his deadline to go do flirty, boyfriend things with Puen.
Puen expressed this frustration directly the next day in a way that I thought was totally valid and then Talay goes, ‘You are correct. Here is the plan I've come up with for us to make sure that we don't take our own relationship for granted, and keep working at it.’ And they have a really great month doing cute boyfriend date things while trying to maintain their careers. And so the whole secret baby felt completely unnecessary.
Like, we need something to happen for the plot to justify Jimmy, Neo, Aou, and Sea hanging out together. So, we have to introduce a secret baby, I guess?
I hated it…[laughs] Like, people joke that I don't often give low scores because I don't usually watch crap. Like, if something is, like, really really bad out of the gate I am like, “Oof! I don't have time for this!” and I'll usually drop it these days, because I got too much to do. But, like, I gave the show a 3 because I was deeply put off by the coercion of a child and the audacity of it all. Because, like, you know what your boyfriend went through because of Tess.
Why would you pull on that really traumatic thread from five years ago and make him believe that Tess had done this to him as well—knowing that Talay has a strong sense of responsibility, and would of course try to do right by a potential child.
Like, it's hard to even talk about, like, any of the cute relationship things that may have come out of this because, like, they should divorce.
Nini
I did not enjoy this when it was revealed that the kid was…tricked. I turned it off, and I did not watch the end.
For every special of Our Skyy, I gave it a drama score and a crack score. My drama score for this was a -5, because I was entirely unamused—like wholly unamused. This is not what I came to see in any way. I don't care if the kid is cute. I don't care if they're all cute together. They're literally using a child to fix their relationship—
Ben
And, explicitly, the child's parents did not know that this was happening.
Nini
—which makes it worse! So, I gave it a drama score of a -5, which is of course an overreaction but it's still getting a 0. Crack score, I gave it a 10, because it is actual crack? Like, this is probably the crackiest thing that happened in all of Our Skyy. But…it's not enjoyable as crack! So, let's give it a… 5 for crack… So, 0 for drama, 5 for crack gives it a score of 2.5, which sounds about correct.
Ben
Yeah, not good.
Nini
Yeah.
Ben
Pass.
Nini
Not good. Tens or chops? One chop!
Ben
Two chops!
[both laugh]
14:23 - Star in My Mind
Nini
Let's leave Vice Versa behind in the dustbin where it belongs and let's move on to the next on the list: Star in My Mind. Hoo!
Ben
[laughs]
Nini
Ben, I can't even remember what happened, I was so bored watching these episodes, like, dead bored. Star in My Mind is also a show that I did not watch the OG show. So, I had no idea what it was about and was going in blind. And, I think that I was correct to not watch the OG show, because… if it was anything as boring as this, I didn't need to see it.
Ben
[sighs] So, the Star in My Mind special is basically just the gang going on a little vacation together, and then New tries to subvert the “You're together now. Let's throw in a jealousy element bit.” Like, you put a note on here that the trope for this one is “trick your friends into going on vacation.”
So, their friends try to tease Daonuea into believing that maybe Kluen has eyes for some girl, and Daonuea gets jealous about this, and then a fight ensues and the friends get all upset. But we in the audience know that the guys are faking this fight. They knew what their friends were up to, but they were kind of flaking on this vacation. So, he uses this fake fight to force them to go on vacation with them.
Whatever.
Like, I think the part of this that was cute was New just throwing away the whole jealousy trope for BL, and then having the gay characters just be like, ‘Yeah, this is stupid. Anyway, we're going to absolutely use this against them because these bitches will not buy their tickets and I'm [gonna] force them to.” And, like, that part was kind of fun.
I'm in my breakup era with New right now. I can see, again, him trying to do something here. New is currently over BL. He’s tired of it. You can feel that in Star in My Mind. Like, he's completely bored with all of this. And so what could have been, like, at least a cute trip, just looks like five straight dudes hanging out in the woods for like an hour.
Nini
I think my notes say “it's two hours of a bunch of dudes vibing without vibes.”
Ben
Yeah, like, it wasn't great, and I don't really like coming for actors like that. But, Dunk is still uncomfortable with on-screen intimacy—or at least it feels like he is—particularly compared to Joong, who does not suffer from being camera shy when it comes to this kind of work. And so while I've seen them in behind-the-scenes stuff, and their variety stuff, and Joong and Dunk are great bros, I'm still struggling with Dunk as a romantic lead because he doesn't kiss well.
Nini
New didn't even phone this in. Like, I think he sent an email? Maybe it was a snail mail.
This was just—it was boring, which I think might be worse than bad? What do we even say about it?
Ben
Nothing! There is nothing to say! Like, Pawin was there. He didn't kiss anybody. [laughs]
Nini
I mean… that's really all that you can say about it. It was a waste of Pawin, like.
Probably the only thing that I enjoyed about this was Joong's several pissy faces when Khabkluen is salty because all his straight friends keep interrupting his gay couple time to hang out when all he wants to do is make out. And, like, the pissy faces that he makes are delightful, and they're the only reason this has a score.
I give it a drama score of 3, because what was it even about? And I gave it a crack score of 4, and all four of those points are for Joong's pissy faces which I thoroughly enjoyed. So, It was a 3.5 for me not because it was bad but because it was boring.
Ben
I think a show has to be offensive to me in some way for me to go lower than 6 and Star in My Mind is not. It's just boring and because I've been in these gay streets a long time, I've been offended. A lot. And, I will accept boring. It's a 6. It's forgettable. We don't have to talk about it anymore.
Nini
And we will not.
Ben
[laughs]
19:20 - Never Let Me Go
Nini
We're going to move on to the actual fun and interesting ones now. [laughs] There's a definite quality bar in Our Skyy 2. There are Vice Versa and Star in My Mind, which are below the quality bar. And then there's everything else, which is above the quality bar. Now, we're talking about games of inches here.
Never Let Me Go. So, the Never Let Me Go fanfic trope for Our Skyy was they did a time travel story that was also a—.
Ben
Fated mates.
Nini
—that was also a fated mates, and also a role reversal, and also like a body hopping. Like, there were—there was a lot going on here. It was not boring. Everybody was clearly having a fabulous time making this. And, I actually really enjoyed it. It was two episodes. I could have watched maybe four to six episodes of this no problem.
This was actually incredibly interesting. It was a lot of fun. Pawin, and Pond especially, clearly had a great time.
Ben
That's true.
[both laugh]
Nini
Pond had a fabulous time. So, the plot of the Never Let Me Go special… You go ahead.
Ben
All right. So, it's been a couple of years since we left the boys in Never Let Me Go, and Nuengdiao has been studying elsewhere. He's coming back to Thailand, and Palm has quietly been setting up shop in Bangkok so that when Nuengdiao comes back to Thailand he can be closer to him. He doesn't want to just stay out by the beach because he wants to see his boyfriend more.
[Cat begins wailing in the hallway near Ben’s mic]
Nuengdiao was a little bit caught off guard by this, and didn't like him making decisions for them. They run into a fortune teller who tells them that if they don't fix what was originally broken, they won't make it in this life, either. And then the fantasy hijinks kick in, where they are sent back in time to their original pairing… into the bodies of their past selves. And in their past—in their first past together where they become a couple—Palm is the rich lord, and Nuengdiao is essentially sold to him as a slave. Also, Pawin is there in an earlier version of his character.
And so they have to play their roles. Palm is having way too much fun bossing Nuengdiao around. And also just trying to have sex with him in the past. Over the course of this they end up realizing that they have to help Pawin’'s character hook up with Mark Pahun's character, and so all of the girlies who've been waiting for that ship to reunite were fed.
Nini is correct. Like, this ended up being really fun, because we got to see Palm and Nuengdiao kind of become like the gays who have it together for other gays.
Nini
It had that crack story but there was also another story going on alongside the crack which I really enjoyed—building on Nungdiao and Palm's actual OG series story—which is that Nuengdiao believes that Palm should make his life about himself, that he should make his decisions about the things that he wants to do without considering Neung. And that they can still be together but Palm shouldn't plan his life around him. When he comes back to Bangkok, it's to tell Palm essentially that he's decided that he's gonna stay away for a longer period of time. He's gonna do graduate school as well.
And, this is actually a conflict between them that sort of leads into the whole time travel thing, but it's actually a really interesting conflict between them because it builds on their series story in a really interesting way. I enjoyed watching them navigate it and figure it out while they were also navigating and figuring out how the hell to get out of the past. I mean the internal logic of the story just about holds together. It's fun. It's enjoyable. It's emotional.
Ben
If he looks at you for seven seconds he's into you and we're all like rooting for this under an umbrella.
Nini
It's fun. It's cute. It's got a little bit of a message to it. It's enjoyable. The characters feel like themselves. At one point we get a little montage of smash cuts of Nueng and Palm: they alternate crying over each other's dead bodies through the ages.
Ben
One of them definitely felt like a nod to Aof’s work where Jojo was poking fun at him.
Nini
They were actually dressed like Jim and Wen in Moonlight Chicken complete with Phuwin wearing sunglasses, his corpse wearing sunglasses at night when he's dead and Pond crying over him. It was really funny. It was delightful. That little smash cut montage was really fun and actually upped the crack score a little. Time travel is crack, no way about it. I was fully going to give it a good crack score anyway. But that little sequence upped the crack score by at least a point. It was just very funny.
And then watching Pawin overexaggerate his “khrub’s” and fall in love with Mark Pahun's character, who's like a jewelry seller at the market. And then when they come back to the present and he's Phum again, they meet Phum at the house—which has been maintained—the lord's house has been maintained throughout the ages.
Ben
Because it had been passed down to his ancestors’ family now because they were all, like, gay besties together.
Nini
Yeah, and like, Phum and Mark Pahun's character are together in this life, too—and they're really cute—and Phum's like, “Yeah, I was a shit to you in high school. I'm sorry about that.” [laughs] It was nice. It was fun. It was enjoyable. I gave it a drama score of 7.5—I think that's reasonable for it. I gave it a crack score of 8.5 so it works out to an 8 for me, which I liked. I liked it.
Ben
I really liked a lot of this. I liked how much fun Phuwin and Pond had in the traditional garb that they were wearing. I like how much fun they had with how often they had to be shirtless. I really enjoyed them writing vows to each other in the past because they didn't know if they would be able to escape. Basically fully committed to each other. That was really beautiful, and not something I expected from Jojo. I was really surprised that Jojo did something that genuinely tender. That really worked for me.
I gave it an 8. It's one of those 8’s where it's, like, if you liked Never Let Me Go, this is going to make it feel a little bit better because the idea that the drama of Never Let Me Go is yet another instance of these two characters trying to be with each other across space and time is super romantic—and that's the kind of shit I love in my big dramas. And I was not expecting this particular show to make me go, “Wow,” [sighs] and look back at the, the original show and go, “Okay. I can see that.”
It was deeply enjoyable. If you liked Never Let Me Go enough, and you feel mildly dissatisfied by it, and you just kind of want some closure to walk away from, watch the special. I felt very good about Palm and Nuengdaio by the end of that, because they felt a little bit more grown. And I kind of like where they left the characters with Palm just being like, “Whatever, I have a rich boyfriend and I've worked very hard. I'm just gonna go hang out with you in Germany for a little while, and then we'll figure it out from there.” And I'm like, more power to you, bro.
Nini
It seemed like yes that they were just going to vibe and enjoy each other, And, after everything that those two went through? Sure! That seems like a great place to leave them.
28:00 - A Boss and a Babe
Nini
Also in the, for me, 8 category—so there is a tie here—A Boss and a Babe. This kind of…surprised me, because I ended up, with the OG show, being really disappointed by where we landed with it. But I really liked the Our Skyy.
Ben
This is a little bit weird because I think in terms of whenever the rest of you hear this. We're actually, I think releasing this before the episode where we talk about A Boss and a Babe. So, spoilers, a bit, for that particular episode, but, uh, we were…less than impressed with A Boss and a Babe.
Nini
For sure.
Ben
However, we actually had a decent time with their Our Skyy outing. Nini why don't you walk us through the setup for this particular outing.
Nini
So, the fanfic trope for the A Boss and a Babe outing of Our Skyy is, I guess, “walk a mile in my shoes” kind of thing? Gun and Cher are happy together. They're sweet loving boyfriends… but the office is in shambles. Because Gun is stressed out and he's stressing everybody at work out. And because Cher knows everybody at work because he used to work there, he has been hipped to the fact that his man is stressing everybody else. And so he goes on a mission to try to get his man to stop stressing everybody at work out.
So, trying to make him understand that he needs to dial it the fuck back. And the way that he eventually comes up with after trying a few other ways, is that they are going to spend a day walking a mile in each other's shoes. So, he is going to spend a day being the boss, and Gun is going to spend a day being the intern so that Gun gets an idea of the stresses that his employees go through. And Cher is just like whatever I'll just be the boss, and Gun is like, “Oh, it's not as easy as you think.”
And it actually turns out really fun and interesting to watch them do this. Of course it's a weird, horny sex thing because everything is a weird, horny sex thing with these two. But [laughs] it's, it's fun. It's light. It's interesting. It's…enjoyable. It's a strong conflict. It's a stronger conflict than we get in the actual OG series. It works. I think it's that because it's so short New doesn't really have time to fuck it up.
Ben
[laughs] So, like, I was frustrated because Gun’s being kind of a difficult boss, but being fairly reasonable about why he's a difficult boss. He's like, “We work in a difficult industry where we spend a great deal of time working on something, and then we release it to the public, and then it can flop. And so I have been funding people's jobs for anywhere from two to 12 months working on a project, and we really need strong turnaround for this because these people's jobs are riding on the success of this. So they do need to take their jobs seriously, and when they are given feedback or are given specific directives, they need to accomplish those directives.”
There's like really interesting tension there between, like, the boss's perspective of, “Y'all can be mad at me, but you want me to cut your checks, right?” versus, “Bro, we are not going to work well under these fucking conditions.” Like, that tension was delivered really well! Gun's perspective comes through in a way that doesn't feel pandering to anyone, and I was like he is a little bit off base in the way he talks to people, but the things he's concerned about are valid for where he sits.
It just pissed me off low-key because, like, we never figured out what Thyme’s whole deal was in the original show. Like, his friend who used to be part of the company. And it feels like that was his job here—was to be like the bridge between Gun and the team. To translate Gun’s directives and frustrations into directives for the team so they could accomplish them and to keep the team motivated. And, like, Cher was helping with that for a while but now that Cher is, like, doing other stuff, like, that has gone away. That's the biggest thing with this one. Like, this was such a solid concept that it made me even more annoyed at how the OG show just sort of fumbled every thread that they were holding.
Nini
Yeah, I have to agree. Like, the workplace conflict on this was really strong and solid, and the workplace stuff in the OG show was kind of weak. And part of the workplace stuff that was great in this was showing that, yeah, Gun does need a balancing force at work. But also, aside from that, surprisingly, Cher is not an idiot. [laughs] Like, Cher is actually pretty competent. He's not, like, ready, clearly, to be the boss of a place like this. But he's not an idiot.
Like, one of the things that happens is that Gun tries to set him up a little bit by having, like, a client come in and try to, like, have a discussion and talk to him about, like, partnering on a game or something and like talking about ideas and all that kind of stuff. And at first you think that Cher is going to blow it. But then he delivers. He comes into the meeting. You know, he takes a minute to get his bearings and understand what's going on, but then he has actual good ideas? And he can speak to the people in a way that works for the business.
So, it shows they could probably at some point in the future after Cher has learned more, they could probably run the business together. Because I think that they bring the different perspectives that's required, but, just like Ben said, that also makes me, like, really mad that we didn't get more of the Thyme stuff in the OG series because, to me, that feels like this was what Thyme’s role was. And that just completely got cast aside. So, on the one hand, I thought this was actually pretty good but, on the other hand, it made me think even less of the OG series and I was already struggling with the OG series.
Ben
[sighs] And that's where we are. It sucks because, like, again, like, Force and Book are good. And the cast of this particular show? Very good. They hold together an otherwise weak show but, man, you just really want to see what that cast looks like when they have a really good show under their belt.
Nini
Yeah, and this gives you, like, a kind of an ‘in’ to that. So my score: this was drama score of 8 because I thought it was a solid conflict. Well executed. I give it a crack score of 8 because, quite honestly, once the whole role reversal thing started. Like, if I worked for Gun’s company, I would have taken, like, vacation until that was over because it was just…It was a little too “bring your kinks to work” for me personally.
[both laugh]
I would have been like, yeah I don't need to see this. I'm gonna take a day off, and tomorrow when I come back, hopefully everything will be normal. Combined like drama score 8 crack score 8 average 8. What did you give it?
Ben
I gave it an 8, and we were joking with some of our other friends about how most of us gave it an 8, and I think it was ginnymoonbeam who was like, “We all gave it an 8, but these are all very different 8s.”
[both laugh]
Nini
Yes, that is definitely true. These are different 8s that we are giving it. My 8 is like, “Damn it. Now I got to go back and revise my score of the OG series and put it even lower.”
36:45 - The Eclipse
Nini
Moving along from the 8s and now we're starting to get into the top of tops. The top top top tops of the Our Skyy pantheon for me. And next up is The Eclipse. Ben, I'm [gonna] need you to give the people what we're talking about here.
Ben
The Eclipse picks up, it feels like, the summer after the boys have graduated from high school. So, they're away from Suppalo—we're not going to deal with any of the Suppalo nonsense anymore. It's just the two couples, Wat, and…Pawin's character for some reason, because he's always palling around them. They're getting together to help Wat shoot for a film project that he wants to submit to a competition. But we pick up, originally, with Akk and Ayan who were doing boyfriend things, and we are seeing the ongoing deprogramming of Akk continuing. And over the course of the filming for this, we see that Akk and Ayan are basically stand-ins for Golf's very complex ideas about the way our private and public lives inform each other, and how both are inherently political.
Akk and Ayan over the course of this are having a struggle about whether or not they should care what other people think. Akk thinks that to be part of a civil society you do have to care about how your actions and behaviors impact other people. Ayan, who has seen what a civil society does to people, thinks that that is bullshit and that he should be more concerned about himself and the people he cares about, and not the nebulous feelings of others. And then calls Akk directly out at one point about how his concern for others turned him into the worst version of a cop possible.
And it gets really ugly when they're working on Wat’s film project. These two are having a truly fundamental struggle about whether or not the two of them are even compatible because they do not see eye-to-eye politically. You get the sense that Ayan hoped that, once freed from the Suppalo prefect thing, Akk would start to see things more his way. And Akk hoped that Ayan would stop fighting with him so much, because Akk really just wants to do soft, cuddly things with his boyfriend. But Ayan gets off on fighting with Akk. [laughs] So he is always antagonizing him for sex reasons.
Nini
It's one of those early relationship conflicts when you're still figuring out how to be with each other. When you're dating at the beginning, you put your best foot forward. In this case, with the two of them, they put their absolute worst foot forward when they were getting together. But there's still that thing about the version of you when you're courting is…different, somewhat, than the version of you when you're not courting. For them, the issue is the version of them when they were courting was exactly who they are, but they didn't think that that was who they were.
So, like you said, Ayan really thought that out of the pressure cooker of Suppalo, Akk would be a different person, and then he's, like, coming to realize: No, this is really just who he is. And Akk is having that same realization about Ayan. They have to decide essentially—and they do decide via Wat's film—whether what they are to each other is worth bridging that gap between them. The answer that they come to is: yes it is—in a really phenomenal scene that I enjoyed so much.
Ben
Let me tell you. First and Khaotung are just really, really good together. Like, it's amazing how they can play these two characters coming to a precipice of fundamental political disagreement to the point that they looked at each other and they're like, “Is this really who I'm going to be with?” And you can see this almost weird resignation as they turn to face each other and embrace, where there are no easy answers to this.
They don't see eye to eye politically on a lot of really fundamental things, and yet they still want to choose each other each time. And that is delivered so well. Like, it's hard to watch The Eclipse with your brain off. I watched a lot of people try to do it during the original show and they struggled, because it is not a brains-off show. Golf has a lot to say about the state of their country and is using whatever platform they have to voice some of these ideas, most notably about how sitting on your phone writing mean tweets is not action. That you need to get into the work. That you have to get into the streets with other people. You have to participate in the work. Even if it's just in the support of getting the people who do do the work the tools and food they need to do the work.
And it's really fascinating that even in this little two-part special, which as far as some people thought, was just First and Khaotung making out for two hours because these boys kissed a lot in this special, they managed to say a lot. Golf managed to express their deep love of Thai cinema with the references that Wat was playing out.
It also managed to get across how much these two boys really like each other, and it was kind of fun to see Akk and Kan working their way out of their internalized homophobia. Like it was not surprising to me that Akk and Kan wanted to do a lot of touching with their boyfriends.
Nini
I really liked how it all came together: how Golf used their love of not just Thai cinema but queer cinema to sort of pull the threads together of the fight that Akk and Ayan were having. The petty fight and the serious fight, because they were having a fight on two levels. They were having a petty fight about—well, maybe not petty—but they were having a surface level fight about Ayan paying attention to Akk and being lovey-dovey and soft with him, versus Ayan wanting Akk to be tougher with him because that's what he likes. And then that going to the deep level of the political, and then, on top of that, that being pulled together by the concept of film. And then even throwing in for us a little side story about Wat and what film means to him, and how he's not necessarily supported by his family—but he kind of is a little bit but mostly not—and how he has things to say and he feels strongly about those things
Like, they managed to do a lot with very little in this special and I really, really enjoyed it. It was very deep for what it was. Very thinkable piece. I really liked it. And then on top of that, they also get to have a little bit of coming-of-age nostalgia moments about leaving high school and moving into the real world. There's so much packed into those two hours. I was really impressed with how much they managed to get in there and have it feel organic.
Ben
I was incredibly impressed by this entire outing.
Nini
I liked the special on its own. I liked it in connection to the OG show. I liked it as a continuation of the OG show. I liked the things that it had to say and the way that it carried through its themes. I was impressed by how much it managed to fit in. I gave it a drama score of 9.5. I really thought it was very, very good.
Ben
But there was singing so she took half a point.
[both laugh]
Nini
I gave it a crack score of 8. The trope really was I guess “secret surprise” because the frame that this is all put in is Ayan preparing a surprise for Akk’s birthday, but it's a secret surprise where he's pretending that he doesn't remember and he's not going to celebrate Akk’s birthday, which is a little weird which is why I took the half point off really, because I hate that secret surprise trope.
Ben
It's one of those things where I don't really like it for Akk, but if fits with Ayan’s sort of, like…Ayan is the queer kid who reads too much theory. Like, he knows more than you. And so he doesn't always see you, specifically. Like, he outs Thua in the first show thinking he's helping him. Like, he kind of is but, like, he outs Thua and oversteps, and it's the same thing here with Akk. Like, he wants to surprise Akk. Like I don't think you should be surprising Akk, because so much of his Suppalo experience is about being guided by the things that are not being said that he's supposed to just interpret.
If you're trying to deprogram him, you need to not do that to him. And the reason why, like I—I mostly let it go is because, as dense as Ayan can kind of be because he's too fucking smart for his own good, when Akk admitted in, like, the first fifteen minutes of the show that he hoped that they were gonna do cute boyfriend frolicking in the fields and taking pictures together, and Ayan was like, “Oh, I thought you were just kidding about that.”
And Akk was like, “No! I was serious.”
It's like, “All right? Well shit! Grab your camera!” And they frolicked!
Nini
[laughs]
Ben
He gave his boyfriend the cute boyfriend shit he wanted to do, even if he teased him a little bit about it first.
Nini
I did like that too. I like that they don't have it together yet but they're willing to listen, and they're willing to do what it takes, I think. But, like I said, I'm knocking out a half a point for the secret surprise because I hate that trope. The crack score is an 8 because there's these set of dream sequences which are homages to Thai film and queer film, and I thought they were delightful. There's the Brokeback Mountain one and then there's the Golden Eagle one which is a Thai film then there's the Ong Bak one which is another Thai film and then there's another—
Ben
If you have not seen Ong Bak and you like action film, please go see Ong Bak.
Nini
I have not watched Ong Bak. Of course, Ben has because he's a boy.
Ben
I am a boy! Tony Jaa is amazing!
Nini
[laughs] I really liked that Golf gets to throw that in there as well. And it's fun. The Golden Eagle one especially is delightful. [laughs] It really is. So that's 9.5 and 8. Let's call that an 8.75. Ooh the maths is coming back! It's coming back! An 8.75 for The Eclipse.
Ben, what’d you give it?
Ben
I gave it a 9 because it's really coherent and that mattered a lot for me, because we had watched a lot of—I don't remember the exact order—but I remember just not being, like, necessarily, like, great at this point because a bunch of them were kind of…stuffed…or boring…and this wasn't. I was fully engaged the whole time, because Golf has such clear ideas in their work and they're all working together at various levels that they really wanted us to not miss.
49:50 - My School President
Nini
Moving on from The Eclipse onto the next rung on the ladder up: My School President. So the My School President fan fiction trope was AU, alternate universe, for all of the characters. I had a fucking blast with this. Ben, explain to the people what happened.
Ben
I'm gonna pre-react to the criticism, unfortunately.
My School President is a high school story about pursuing your long-term crush and the final year of your high school experience. There was no way My School President was going to get an epilogue story. So instead they flipped the seats of a bunch of the characters.
So, in this version of the My School President story, Gun is the school president and Tinn is the member of the school band. This time named Lion instead of Chinzhilla. Instead of Tiwson being the school president's best friend, they keep Por, who is his bestie in this. Tiwson is a member of the band. Sound and Win switch positions in this, where Sound is the long-term member of the band. Win is the new hot boy who shows up who they recruit. They also decide to flip Yo and Pat in the story with each other, even though they're still both in the band. Gim becomes the principal, and Photjanee becomes the operator of the milk ice cream bar.
And in the process of this, like, the same beats from the show. We still hit them, but they play out very differently because the core characterization of these couples don't shift. Which forces us to reckon with certain aspects of the characters that kind of get glossed over in the idealism of the original My School President run. For example, Tinn is so much braver than Gun. Gun is kind of a coward who is gripped by an intense sense of self-doubt, and it starts off almost immediately. Like there's some political commentary with the way Gun is selected as the school president. 250 votes were cast by parents to make Gun the president instead of going through the school voting process instead, which works as a quick shorthand for the show, but also works as a commentary on Thai parliamentary politics.
And so like he's not the school president because he wants to help Tinn. He's just sort of pushed into the position by his mom, and so the moments that they hit along the way, like the dancing together scene. That plays out differently because Gun backs off and ends up dancing with someone else. The whole Questions thing they did to get close to film the thing goes differently because Gun won't ask Tinn directly, but Tinn does ask him, but Gun backs down.
It was interesting because, like, everyone still chose each other. But, like, in a weird way Tiwson and Por were the strong couple of this outing, anchoring for the rest of them.
Like, in the original show Tinn and Gun are so obviously together that the force of their mutual attraction sort of just creates opportunity for the rest of these relationships to bubble up. This time around, Tiwson and Por are working together in the background to help Tinn and Gun get together because they want to come out as a couple. Which I thought was an interesting switch-up as well.
Nini
I really enjoyed that, despite shifting the characters around in terms of their positions and roles, that the cores of the characters remained exactly the same. And you see how the same people living a different life would become a different person. Like you talk about Gun being kind of a coward and he is kind of a coward even in the OG show. Tinn’s the brave one, and Tinn has to be the brave one because Gun's the one who's gonna back down. But also the Gun of the alternate universe—the multiverse of cuteness as it is called—the Gun of the alternate universe hasn't spent his whole life on stage being judged and knocked back. And developing that thick skin that he talks to Tinn about in the OG series, so he is much less resilient than the Gun of the OG series. And that makes a difference in how he navigates his crush on Tinn.
Similarly to that, Tinn in the AU has not had the strictness of the OG Photjanee forced on him the whole time. The strictness and the straight lace-ness because things are a little looser for him. And so he feels more able to take the ball and run with it when he realizes how he feels. They redo the scene of them spending the night at the school and walking around, and this is where Tinn turns the Gun and is like, “Look, do you like me?” which is something Tinn wouldn't necessarily have asked in the OG series.
But then Gun, faced with the opportunity to actually lock it down with his crush. He says no and he runs away which is not a thing that Tinn would have done. If Gun had ginned up the, the actual courage to ask Tinn if he liked him Tinn would have been like [inhales] taken a deep breath and been like, “Hell yell, let’s date.” It's really interesting watching how they take the same characters and, just by moving their positions in the story, they create a story that's different.
Ben
And yet all the people still choose each other. They basically state the big idea at one point. The Gun character says maybe in another lifetime things would have gone better, and the Por and Tiwson of this universe slap that idea down and go, “Yeah, but you're not in those universes. You're in this one. Make the most of the life you have.”
Nini
I really enjoyed this outing. I enjoyed what they took the opportunity of the Our Skyy special to say and to do. I agree with you. I don't think that an epilogue would have worked. My School President is so of its setting. I do not think that moving the boys into college and following them there—I don't feel like I would have been interested in seeing that because that's not the point of My School President.
My tagline for My School President was “perfect high school romance” and I think that's where it should stay.
Okay, so my drama score for My School President was 9.5, and I took off a half point because nobody made out. And, I'm sorry, I am shallow. I wanted somebody to kiss in this special. I didn't care who. Just somebody. So I took off half a point. But the crack score is a 10 because I mean it's an AU. There is nothing crackier than that, so that works out to what, like a 9.75? Yeah, I'm good with that.
Ben
So, I gave this one a 9 because it was a little heady and My School President is not a really heady show for me. But the whole AU concept was. Now, I liked it, but in terms of, like, recommending it to the people who liked My School President, it's kind of hard because they wanted more of what they loved in My School President and this is not exactly that? So, I gave it a 9.
But I'm also with Nini, like nobody kissed in this one. And, again, young actors. I'm totally fine with them not kissing, but…their characters in the original show have really specific kisses, and, if they were more experienced and veteran actors, we would have gotten a different type of kiss from these characters because they are coming at each other very differently. And we don't get to offer that particular comparison here. So, minor knock for me as well.
Nini
We didn't even get to talk about the best part which was them doing a fake music video for a fake Aof song that incorporated Aof’s top three hits in the music videos, which are He’s Coming to Me, Bad Buddy, and A Tale of Thousand Stars.
Ben
We didn't even talk about that.
Nini
Tiw and Por got to do A Tale of Thousand Stars. Sound and Win get to do Bad Buddy. And Gun and Tinn get to do He’s Coming to Me. So they, they paid homage to their granddaddy in "Aof" Noppharnach Chaiyahwimhon. Three of the greatest GMMTV BLs, and also the ones that sort of set the stage for My School President.
1:00:24 - Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars
Nini
Onto the main event, and the main event of Our Skyy 2 was "Aof" Noppharnach giving the finger to GMMTV and saying, “Fuck you, I get four episodes to talk about what I want. And what I want to talk about is queer elders coming to terms with themselves, and I'm going to use anybody I want to talk about that.” AKA the Bad Buddy - A Tale of Thousand Stars crossover event.
Ben, break it down for the people.
Ben
Whereas every other one of these projects except for My School President was in many ways an epilogue this is a mixture of…it's an epilogue or a post-show story for Tian and Phupha, but for Pran and Pat it's set between Bad Buddy episode 11 and Bad Buddy episode 12. It's the senior year for Pat and Pran. They are still closeted and having to keep up the architecture-engineering rivalry, though it looks like they've tried to smooth things over over the years because most of the beef is about who's bringing…brooms to…the charity project now. [laughs] But they're having some consternation because both groups need to put on a play as part of their class president activities, and after the normal Bad Buddy hijinks kick in, Pran reveals that he wants to adapt Tian's diary A Tale of Thousand Stars into a play for the architecture school.
And once they decide to follow this route, their teacher says that, because they don't have permission from the people whose story this actually is, they need to go find them and get said permission. Pran decides that they're going to go to Pha Pun Dao to talk to them directly, tell them how important it is that they want to tell this particular story.
Before they can leave, Pat is forced to hang out with his engineering buddies and, because he has to pretend like he doesn't like Pran, he says something akin to, “That Pran guy. He'd be useless without me. I'm always having to help him.” Pran felt some kind of way about that and decided to leave Pat behind and go to Pha Pun Dao himself—much to his own chagrin—because he loves that boy, and got so nervous when he was walking around by himself without Pat.
And over the course of these four episodes, Pat and Pran learn a little bit more about themselves and their dynamic—but mostly they really help Tian and Phupha work past some really fundamental struggles that they were having as a couple that Pat and Pran realized that they had moved past a long time ago.
This crossover really elevates both works because Aof is obsessed with the idea that queer people make each other better and, by the end of this, we as a fandom seem rather split about it because those of us who liked both A Tale of Thousand Stars and Bad Buddy were able to appreciate how both stories impact each other. But, it seems like if you were really only into one of those stories, you resented the crossover in one way or another.
Nini
I think that's one reaction to it, but, I mean, we've seen among the clowns even people who were really into Bad Buddy but not so into A Tale of Thousand Stars really coming around on Tian and Phupha by the end of the special. I don't think we have like a Vice Versa situation in that, and we can discuss all the reasons that might be, but I think that definitely the crossover has made people who maybe didn't appreciate A Tale of Thousand Stars as much really appreciate A Tale of Thousand Stars and Tian and Phupha more now.
Ben
So where do you want to pick up with the beginning of this discussion?
Nini
I think I want to start with the idea one of our fellow clowns first espoused, and really sort of set me off on this thought process, that this special—this whole crossover—is all about Phupha. Because, of all four characters in the OG shows, the only character who didn't really get an arc was Phupha—this is Phupha’s arc. How do you feel about that as an idea—as a concept?
Ben
Since we're gonna start here, I'm gonna come out swinging.
Nini
Do it.
Ben
If you hate that Phupha is the focus character of this particular special, I need you to examine whether or not you actually care about gay men.
Phupha is a poor, hyper-masculine, closeted gay man, who's older than the other characters. He's about 35 at this point. There are so many queer people out there that you're never going to know about because they cannot live their lives loudly.
We're recording in June right now. Pride month. Phupha’s not gonna show up at Bangkok Pride because 1) he's not coming to Bangkok, and 2) that's just not the place where he feels safe. It's not the place where he feels seen. It's not where all of the quiet gays are gonna go, or where the gays who have to be closeted for one reason or another are going to be. And it's easy to forget them because they're boring or they're less fun.
I like that the story ends up being about: “How do we help Phupha break out of his own shell a little bit and let Tian love him just a little bit more?”
Nini
Phupha is this sort of stoic, very stern, character. I mean they lampooned that a little bit in the OG series for A Tale of Thousand Stars, and they lampoon him a little bit in the beginning of the crossover here, deflating him a little bit—kind of puncturing the whole stoic seme thing. But this is kind of who he is.
This is, as you say, he's older. He's got real responsibilities. He's got a community to protect. He's…got people that he cares about that he needs to take care of. He is not the kind of guy who is going to, like you say, go to Bangkok Pride. He is the kind of guy who maybe has some internalized homophobia that he's dealing with—definitely has some internalized homophobia that he's dealing with. He is that guy who is trying to do the right thing all the time. And so often the right thing means him subsuming his actual desires in some kind of idea of him denying himself being what's best for the community.
And one of the things that the crossover brings forward, particularly in the person of Pat, who is diametrically opposed to the idea of subsuming himself for anybody. He only does it for Pran, and only, like, grudgingly. But, to put somebody like Pat, who is just loud and proud and just completely does not care about any ideas of masculinity or propriety or anything like that, and put that character in conversation of any kind with Phupha. It's so delightful to watch that happen because, of course, Pat immediately gloms onto him. He follows him around like a duckling—he imprints on him.
He's like, “Oh, yes, Stern Daddy. I really, really like this vibe that you're givin’ off here. I'm just going to follow you around and bother the fuck out of you.”
I think it was wen-kexing-apologist who said that Pat's entire job in the special is to terrorize the local elder gay. I Love it.
Ben
Pat and Pran. They both looked at Phupha, looked at each other, and then both said at the same time ‘WOULD.’
[both laugh]
Nini
I did see that. That was funny because it's true. They hang a lampshade on it at two points 1) when Pran runs into Phupha for the first time—him really having, like, a gay boy moment. [laughs] Like, the whole, like, slow-motion, turn-around, like, gasping gay boy moment.
Ben
He's read the, the diary and he's like “I get it.” Immediately!
[both laugh]
Nini
And then, to have Pat's moment come, where—because Pat's flirtation language is competition. So, of course he basically challenges Phupha to a duel in the form of a drinking contest. And then they wake up shirtless next to each other and think that they might have maybe…done something—
Ben
They definitely did some stuff.
Nini
They made out. Just a little bit. They kissed a little bit.
But I—I loved that! I loved that they were both really into him. Like it was clear that they were both attracted to him. It was very gay and very fun. But also they're just like, “No, I get it.” They—they both looked and they were just like, “Tian, I get you. I understand why you live in this village with [both laugh] no running water, and you have to sleep under a mosquito net every night. I get you! I understand you because, for this man, I would do these things.” Like, they get it.
It's kind of delightful.
Ben
I like how, when Pran first gets to the village, and Phupha passes out, Tian runs up and Pran’s like ‘who are you’ and Tian's like, “No. Who the fuck are you?”
[Nini laughs]
Ben
And, like, if Tian had been allowed to have a knife…
Nini
Pran would have been stopped at that point—fully stabbed. “Like, who the fuck are you and why are you talking to my man?” [laughs] Like, Tian lives in the village because he doesn't want anybody else to see Phupha.
[both laugh]
Nini
Because he knows the minute any of these whores take a look at his man, if it's going to be a problem.
Ben
In terms of the serious stuff. So, they've shown up to convince them to sign these papers. Going into this Pat and Pran are fighting a little bit because Pran feels guilty, and part of this journey for him was maybe seeing, like, if he actually needed Pat as much as he does. And he learns very quickly that he is not at his best without Pat.
It's funny because Pat always knew this. Pat seemed to know already. Like, he says it in like episode 5 of Bad Buddy that he was not at his best when Pran was gone.
But Pran wants to prove he doesn't need Pat's help, and when Pran shows up to try and convince him to sign Tian's like, “Fuck yeah! I wrote the diary so people would…maybe want to become teachers and appreciate what I have out here. Absolutely!” Phupha's like, “No, y'all not going to present me as some lovesick fool on your little stage.”
And then Pran tries to talk to Phupha a couple of times and fails massively at it. Tries to lie to Phupha. And then Pat blocks the shit out of that by calling out the bullshit right away, because he's pissed at Pran for running off without him. So he's sabotaging some of Pran's efforts. And it isn't until the two of them start working together that they actually start making any fucking progress because…that's who they are.
Nini
But I think there's also, like, a really valid point to the fact that Pran—he tries to talk to Phupha about it at first and Phupha is not having it. You're right. But one of the reasons that Phupha is not having it is because he's looking at these kids and he's thinking, “These kids do not understand me. These kids have no idea of what my life is like. These kids have no idea of what our lives are like. These kids have never faced any kind of serious challenge. These are two dumb kids. I'm not gonna give them time of day. They don't get to tell my story.”
And then, by the end, the thing that actually gets Phupha to agree to let them tell his story…is Pran actually dropping the bullshit—as you said—and saying to him, “You think I don't know what it's like to feel insecure? You think I don't know what it's like to feel like my partner deserves better than me? You think I don't know what that feels like? Oh, believe you me, I know what that feels like.”
And, because at this point Phupha has spent an enormous amount of time with Pat, he's like,
“Okay, yeah, maybe you do understand what I'm going through.”
And the way that that works out in the end—and I mean we're kind of skipping back and forth through the story at this point—but the way that that works out at the end is Phupha saying, “Okay, you get to tell my story, but you have to tell my story because you understand me.” His condition for signing off on them doing the play is that they play the roles of him and Tian, because they understand him. I thought that was really—a really great way to follow that thread through the story. I really enjoyed that part.
Ben
I like the subtle way Aof played with our expectations about who would identify with who. Like, they made Tian and Pran resemble each other. Tian was like, “Fuck this twink,” right away as soon as Pran showed up.
[Nini laughs]
But then, like, Pran helps him. Pran helps him in the class and Tian softens very quickly to Pran.
Because of how physically macho Pat is—like, there's this expectation that he and Phupha are gonna be super similar to each other—and there's an interesting subtle commentary that Aof does there in that it's the more creative one, who's way too close to his mom, who's more like the hyper-masculine dude, because both of them are masking in their lives.
Like, Phupha is hyper-masculine because that's what's expected of him. And like people pick at Phupha about this a little bit, but he is trying to live up to the role that he is told he's supposed to fulfill. And Pran also suffers under the expectations of who his mom expects him to be, and it's interesting for me that Aof, over the course of these three episodes when they're all together, Aof says Pran and Phupha have more in common because they are carrying so much homophobia on their shoulders, and that's why the two of them probably understand each other best.
Nini
Using the yaoi tropes again, a talk about who is the seme and who's the uke in the story in terms of who's the pursuer and who's the pursued, and…if you look at it, like, then you can clearly see that it's Tian and Pat who are aligned because Pat pursued Pran and Tian pursued Phupha. They are the semes even though it seems that Tian would be an uke. He's not. He actually pursued Phupha.
So in the narrative sense. He's the seme. It's just very fun, this playing with the idea of what is a seme and what is an uke. And, again to use the yaoi terms—which you know I don't like to use ‘cause I don't really know the yaoi or rock with the yaoi. But, that idea of who is…pursuing the relationship, leading the relationship—like that's Tian and that's Pat.
And in terms of who is being pulled along by their partner in a kind of a way that's Phupha and that’s Pran. So, I do like how Aof leans into this…because again, it subverts expectations in a particular kind of way. But also it makes so much sense.
Ben
There's two subtle things that I really want to point out, and I want to talk about them a little.
First, Pat and Pran use titles for Tian and Phupha the whole time. And the other thing is about how nobody really knows anything about anybody in this. So, like, we're gonna call them Tian and Phupha, Pat and Pran, because we're inside of these people's stories with them. But it's interesting to me that Pran and Pat never cross a familiarity line with Tian and Phupha in the brief time they're with them. They refer to them as Teacher and Chief only the entire time.
Nini
I like that because it's a nod to their roles as adults because Pat and Pran are still kids. They're still college students, and Tian and Phupha are adults to them. But, in some ways, Pat and Pran have progressed much further in their relationship than Tian and Phupha have because they've been through more—just from the nature of their whole history. And they've crossed barriers and boundaries and, and parts of their relationship that Tian and Phupha are just confronting or haven't even confronted yet. And I liked that.
I liked, also, that interplay of the younger ones being the ones to teach the older ones something. I really like that because I feel like that's what's happening now not just in—not just in queer circles—because that's definitely happening in queer circles. But also just in terms of generalization. Like, if you're not a complete douche and you're our age—well I say our age. I'm about 10 years older than Ben. Not ten, but…when you've crossed a certain Rubicon in the adulting game. Let's put it that way.
Right now. The kids are teaching us like a whole bunch of stuff as long as you're not a dick, like, and you remain open, the kids can teach you all kinds of shit that you never thought was possible to learn about yourself at this stage in your life. And I really like that Aof played with that because Aof’s about my age, and I like that he is the kind of person who understands that the young uns have things to teach us as well. Like, we have things to teach them—clearly and obviously—and we want to make a better world for them—clearly and obviously. But also, there's so much shit that we can learn from them when it comes to just fucking unclenching, because that's what happens here! Like, all of this is in service of Phupha just fucking unclenching.
Ben
And this is what I mean about having other queer people, like it isn't just about your boyfriend. You need queer friends. Like, Tian blossoms almost immediately when he realizes that Pat and Pran are a couple—that they're not just friends. As soon as Pat flirts with him a little bit at breakfast and Pran shoves a spoon into his mouth, you can see Tian instantly relaxes and it's like, “Okay” and is more receptive to what these two are here for. And for Phupha. Like, yeah, it's one thing to just be into Tian and that be a thing, but to have someone like Pat roaming around actively flirting with him all the time, that also forced Phupha to reckon with who he is.
And it's funny, because, like, Pat and Pran are actually closeted. They basically, like, admit it to Tian and Phupha as a sort of a de facto thing. But, like, the two of them are away from the world where they have to hide. So they're on top of each other. They're constantly touching each other. They're flirting constantly…
Nini
They're fucking in the tent twenty feet away from them. [laughs]
Ben
We'll get there in a second. We’ll be there in a second. [Nini laughs] But they're so obviously obsessed with each other. And like Nini said, like during the rescue bit, Kampung is not in the tent with them where he's supposed to be. And so the boys are like, “Oh, I guess the kid decided to go stay with Phupha and Tian. Great! My foot is hurting me because I twisted my ankle, but let's get it in!” And then in the morning Pat limps to breakfast asking, “What's my score for last night?”
Nini
I love that they just fuck their way through all their problems. It's delightful. I enjoy it.
Ben
One of the sad things with Tian and Phupha is…they have to keep waiting for the other person to be asleep to be affectionate with them, and that's one of the big things that I'm really glad that they start to work through towards the end of this. Like, I'm really proud of Phupha for listening to the man who he loves, and the person who is inspired by the man who he loves.
Like, it’s so fascinating. Like—like Pran ran on this whole trip thinking he was Tian, met Phupha, realized he was Phupha, and was able to reach across that gap and say, “Please trust me. We got you.” And Phupha said, “Okay.”
There's a lot of consternation in the fandom right now about taking score between Pat and Pran about who sacrifices more, or what should or shouldn't be said. I'm not particularly interested in that particular conversation. Pat and Pran love each other. They're adults. They've committed to each other. Sometimes you're gonna be with other gays and you're not going to understand how they work, and you just have to accept that their dynamic is their dynamic. It's not about who wins. It's about who cares for you—and they clearly care for each other.
Nini
I think part of what it is, as well, is—it sounds bad, but go with me on this right? I am a great proponent of therapy. I believe in it. I am in therapy. I have been in therapy for years. I recommend therapy to everybody. But there is a certain level of therapized that I think is not necessarily good for us…And that is as somebody who believes in the power of therapy to change and save lives. I think that this idea that everything is pathologized, that you always have to be on the lookout because somebody's trying to get you in some kind of way—I think that it can be harmful to relationships and to our understanding of relationships in certain ways, because not everything that is unbalanced or imbalanced is harmful.
And I think that one of the problems that I'm having with…not so much the show, but the fandom reaction to it is…that yes, Pat and Pran’s relationship looks unbalanced from the outside. It probably is unbalanced in certain ways. But that doesn't mean that it's harmful. But there's this idea that because of—again this is a, a therapized lens that unbalanced equals harmful, and I don't think that's necessarily the case.
One of the things that I really don't grok onto and, to be fair…I am very…I am a Bad Buddy fun. I am a Pat and Pran fan. I am a fan of the characters separately and together. And one of the things that…I am really personally sticky and icky about is this idea in certain parts…that Pat and Pran do not love each other equally, or Pran does not love Pat enough, or Pat loves Pran more—all these ideas of particular kind of imbalances between them. And my whole thing is—Who are they and what do they need and what do they want from each other? What does Pat actually need from Pran? Is he getting it? He absolutely is.
So this idea of keeping score between the characters—or keeping score in relationships in general if you, if you broaden out to the idea of relationships—I feel like it doesn't serve. I feel like it's…reductive. And I feel like looking at these characters through that lens is not the way that Aof is portraying these characters, or wants the audience to look at these characters. Because I think that Aof is a person who is…very tuned into certain ideas that he wants to portray—certain things that he wants to portray about queerness and queer community and queer relationships—and…I think that to reduce probably the greatest queer relationship that he has put on screen in Pat and Pran to score keeping, when score keeping is a part of their history that they have deliberately stepped away from because they were forced into it. I feel like it misunderstands what he's trying to do and say with these characters…
And that's just my opinion, and I will admit a hundred percent that I am very precious about these two particular characters. I'm very precious about a lot of Aof characters because I feel that Aof writes characters in a way that I understand them intrinsically. But these two characters in particular I feel very precious about. And, I feel like to see them like that in the context of somehow keeping score between them is to not see them at all.
Ben
Pat only cares about one score and he asks Pran for it directly every morning.
Nini
And that's a fact. [laughs]
Ben
And that's the big thing for me! Like, they were kind of having a fight and most of it was Pran’s insecurity because Pran is a little bit embarrassed about what he's asked Pat to do for him. And they get over that almost immediately. They get to Pha Pun Dao. They see Tian and Phupha and they're like, “Oh, man. These guys are older than us, but they're like…four episodes behind us. [laughs] So, we got to catch these gays up quick!” And they—they instantly get over whatever their beef is and they start playing out their kinks the way they always do. They start cosplaying as Tian and Phupha…and flirting with each other.
Nini
And they do in the end have a little bit of a resolution to their…really not much of a fight, fight. And, there's two resolutions, really.
The first resolution is the resolution they get in Pha Pun Dao which is, “Look, I can't fucking live without you, and you can't fucking live without me, and we agree on that. So, let's dead the shit.” And they did! And it was fine, because the shit was never really live in terms of a fight being live in the first place. They were fucking their way through that whole fight…and that's how they deal with things, and it works for them, and it's fine.
And then they get a second resolution that Phupha gives them—a gift—which is, “I get to be in the open with you, even if it's just on stage. I get to be a lover in public.” And it works for me.
Ben
They even tried to redeem Wai a little bit.
Nini
It's still fuck Wai forever in these parts.
Ben
[laughs] He doesn't drop the curtain this time. Instead, he's like, “Give the people the kiss they need!”
Nini
It's still fuck Wai forever in these parts. [laughs]
Ben
And it's interesting, too, in terms of that particular gift. It works out in a couple of ways because Phupha gets to see a bunch of people react to their story. People are loving it. Lesbians are crying over them. One of the lesbians is moaning, “Why don't they just fuck already!”
[both laugh]
Ben
He gets to see people love them through this play, and then this gives Pran something that he's wanted: Pran his on socials after the play seeing people making fanvids about him and Pat. Which is something that he wants. He wants to be in the open with Pat because he knows that's what Pat wants, and this is the closest they're gonna get for now. And he is relieved to just see that.
But again, Pat is not worried about that. He's like, “Oh good, good. Did you get what you want?” and he's like, “All right. Let's stop fucking around with all this other stuff. Can we kiss as ourselves now?”
And they do!
Nini
We've talked a lot about Pat and Pran here and we've kind of scratched the surface on Tian and Phupha. But I really want to get into Phupha because the main thing that the special is doing is unlocking Phupha for the audience, because��like I said—all the other characters have had their arcs in the OG series that we're looking at. Only Phupha has really been holding the line, so to speak.
And this is Phupha's unveiling. It's his opening. This is Phupha getting harassed by a baby gay. Terrorized, actually, by a baby gay. Realizing that, “Oh my god. The baby gays came to town, and they fucked in a tent twenty feet away from us, and the world didn't fucking end. So maybe…I, too, can fuck my man and the world won’t end.”
[both laugh]
And then he proceeds to do just that.
Ben
I really like the way Aof went about doing it. Phupha primps himself up, rents an expensive vehicle, picks up Tian, and then goes with Tian to a cute cafe and lets Tian show him off a little bit, even if it made him a little bit nervous to be fawned over.
Nini
He let Tian, like, dress him up! Like, he let Tian take him shopping! He let Tian babygirl him a little bit. He let Tian spend a little money! It was nice!
Ben
That felt like a big deal because he mentioned it. He's like the money on one of these dishes could feed the village for a week in Pha Pun Dao, but he lets it go. Tian is actually a rich kid. This is part of what Phupha knows Tian gave up to be with him and so, when they're in Bangkok, he relents. He lets Tian dress him up like a Ken until Tian is satisfied with the look. And unsurprisingly, Tian chooses something very sleek, masculine, and comfortable for Phupha.
And then Phupha shows up and meets the parents. This is a huge deal too because Phupha was nervous about this because he feels like he took their son from them, and that he overstepped because Tian's dad was once a superior in the military. And all they say is, “We're gonna give you the thing that's most important to us. Take care of it.” And they acknowledge his filial piety to his father when Tian—when Phupha—admits that the reason he's a forest ranger is because his dad loved that mountain and felt a need to take care of it and the people who maintain it. And they were like, “Respect that.”
And then he proposes!
Nini
Okay y’all know how I feel about the BL weddings and the BL proposals. Y’all know that I am usually kind of, like, sitting in the corner, like, with my hands over my eyes. But this one, y'all, I was deep in my feelings. The tears came out. It was beautiful. I fucking loved this proposal. It was perfect.
Ben
I think I liked it because it wasn't a grand gesture in front of a bunch of people.
Nini
That's exactly why I liked it. [laughs]
Ben
It was for them. It was Phupha finally saying that he wasn't going to hold back anymore, and then they had loud obnoxious sex in the hotel room.
Nini
I just like that the loud obnoxious sex started like way before this. Like, the loud obnoxious sex started—like the idea of loud obnoxious sex of course was started by Pat, because that's Pat's entire brand. When he was walking around in the forest with Phupha, like, pretending to worry about Pran when he knows Pran is gonna be fine, and telling Phupha, like, “I mean I'm just going to sniff him out and, like, what do you mean you're not going to sniff out your man. Like, don't you know what he smells like? He smells so good.”
[both laugh]
Ben
You know, I don't think that's underlined really loudly in the show but like Pat says it quite plainly to Tian. He's like, “We don't need to go roaming around. Phupha’s experienced and good at his job, and Pran's really smart. We should really just stay here.”
[both laugh]
Like, nobody believes in Pran more than Pat.
Nini
Nobody. Absolutely nobody. Pat is like, “Listen. He's gonna be fine. I'm not particularly worried about him.” Like, both times. Both when he was wandering around in the woods with Phupha and when he was trying to get Tian to sit his ass down and be a heart patient like he's supposed to be. Both times he's just like, “I am not worried about Pran. Like, can we just focus on what the real problem is here. The real problem here is that your man is going unsniffed. Y’all are having a fight that y'all don't need to be having.”
I loved Pat’s whole energy in Pha Pun Dao. He was just like, “I'm just gonna vibe. I'm just glad to be here. I like being able to be out in the open with Pran. We are literally a million miles away from Bangkok. I can just be out here and just love on Pran the way that I feel like lovin’ on Pran—”
Ben
“I'm here to test the structural integrity of the teacher's house.”
Nini
All of that! “I'm here to fuck in a tent and ask the next morning if I did good.” He was just vibing the entire time, and then he got the bonus vibe of running into Phupha who he has—I'm sorry—a major fucking crush on. He does. It’s canon. We're gonna leave it at that. He brought the sex pest fairy godmother energy to Pha Pun Dao, and he's just like, “Listen, y'all are having a fight. Have you tried fucking about it? I have found that to be a very—”
[Ben laughs]
“—I found that to be very helpful method of solving problems. Y’all should just fuck! Give him a good old sniff. He smells real good. Have you noticed that?”
And it works! Like, Phupha at first is like, “Oh my God, get this kid away from me.”
Ben
Pat said, “Dick is not magical. It doesn't fix you. But! You look like you could use a little bit of a stress release.”
[both laugh]
Nini
And he's not wrong. And I love that despite the fact that Phupha spends the entire time being like, “Oh my God, child, get away from me. You are so annoying.” The minute Patt leaves, he's just like, “Okay. I'm [gonna] try what the kid said.”
And he does it!
Ben
He goes back to all of their most romantic moments that he downplayed previously and gives them to Tian. Tian doesn't even know what to do with it at first because they've been so cold for a while.
Nini
He takes Tian back to the waterfall, and he's just like, “You said that I sneaked to look at you and I did but I ain't sneaking now! I'ma look.” And then he goes further than that. He said, “Not only am I going to look. I am going to make sure that you get a good look.”
Ben
[singsong] Take a good hard look!
Nini
And like, like you said at first Tian is like, “What is happening here?” because Phupha is being so open, which I don't think he's ever been before.
Ben
And, like, Phupha was kind of manipulative about it because he made Tian relent and so Tian thought he was being, like, punished at first. Like, Phupha was teasing him because Tian's never made his attraction really quiet.
And then they finally get the stern dicking they've been needing. And Phupha…steals a line from the kids: “What's my score for last night?”
Nini
It was so fun. And Tian is just like, “Your what?” Like, Tian is fully enjoying this and I love that for him because one of the things I think people forget throughout the course of A Tale of Thousand Stars is that the Tian who starts the tale—he's sexy! Tian at the beginning of the story, he's got this edge to him. The sexy edge, and that kinda gets whittled away a little bit in Pha Pun Dao. But, that's still who he is.
And I like that at the end of the tale when we get here to the epilogue that he gets to be that again. He gets to pull out that sexy edge that is part of him and use it on his man. Like, he babygirls him, he takes him shopping, and then, when he lookin’ all nice, he leans into him and he be like, “You're real handsome. Do you have a boyfriend?” And I'm just like this is Tian! This is Tian that I remember!
Ben
And then he pushes Phupha in that bed, and he's like, “I've been waiting for five years. I'm ‘bout to get what's mine.”
[both laugh]
Nini
Phupha’s like, “What are you doing?” He's like, “Don't worry about it.” [laughs]
Ben
He’s like, “Don't worry about it, babygirl. I’ma take care of you tonight.”
[both laugh]
Nini
And I love that. I love that so much. Phupha is, like, panicked about it for a minute, and he's like [sighs]. He's decides. He's like, “Let go, let flow.” He's like, “All right. This how you want it?” and Tian's like, “Uh-huh,” and he's like, “All right, let's do this!” [laughs] I loved It. I loved it so much.
I love that at this stage of his life Phupha just learns to like—you know what? He's like, “Sometimes you just gotta un-fucking-clench.” And he just, he lets it all go.
Ben
I don't usually like talking about sexual positions around here because…of the way people project onto them, but I really like the implication in the final scene that this might be the first time Phupha really switches with Tian in a way that's also him emotionally… because you do have to unclench if you want to enjoy that particular act.
Nini
[laughs] In more ways than one!
Ben
It works really well because of the proposal. Like, Phupha's putting it all in the line. He's actually putting himself on the line. And he's going to be a complete partner to Tian, and is also going to relent and let Tian have some of the things that he wants.
Like Tian is happy in Pha Pun Dao. He doesn't hate their lives there. He just says, “I want you to come home and see my parents once a year. It's important to me. I just want you to come down for that. And when we're here, let me treat you nicely.”
Like, even if their lives aren't gonna always be there—like Tian may someday have to take care of the responsibilities of his parents getting older. But, I feel better about them facing that now as two people who are fully committed to each other than Phupha’s whole waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop thing all the time.
Nini
I just…really liked…getting to see…Phupha just…be… We never get to see him just be. Once he internalizes what Pat and Pran say to him, at every point from then what we see is him getting to just be. Yeah, in a slutty way—which I personally enjoy. But also just not worrying so much about what the things he's doing say about him. And yeah, there are, like, moments of that, like, when they get to the play and the curtain goes up, you see him starting to, like, freak out a little bit. But as the play goes on he relaxes.
I like that he leans into both the relaxed energy and the slutty energy, because I feel like the slutty energy is incredibly important. Like, one of the things that I really enjoyed about the final episode of the crossover was that mosquito net moment because—
Ben
Oh my God…finally.
Nini
That's so many things! That's Aof acknowledging that he was maybe slightly too precious with their sexuality in A Tale of Thousand Stars. That's Aof acknowledging that, maybe yeah, they should have kissed there. That's also Phupha acknowledging a bunch of stuff. That's also Tian getting to recast those moments in his mind.
Ben
I also love that Aof basically gave them the Bad Buddy post-credits scene.
Nini
Now, everybody’s saying that, but to me I just remember that the A Tale of Thousand Stars post-credits scene wasn't sideways either. Like, they wrastled in that A Tale of Thousand Stars post-credits scene. Like, Tian had to ask for the dick but he got it.
Ben
I'm just very satisfied by the outing this time.
Nini
I really, really enjoyed it, and I think that a lot of the Sturm und Drang around it is because of these ideas—again once again—these ideas about balance, and feeling like it was maybe unbalanced between Pat and Pran, and Tian and Phupha. But I don't think those ideas of balance are relevant to what Aof was trying to do here. I think that using Pat and Pran—who are a solid, established couple who we know are pulling through anything because we've seen their future already—using them as a conduit, or a catalyst, or a support to pull Tian and Phupha through a hurdle that could break them. I was fine with it in the end.
Like, I went through a lot of like—you know. I mean, you know because you were in these discussions with me and you and the clowns, like, sort of pulling through, like, how we feel about this.
Ben
Everybody else is having a difficult time. I was vibing so hard for like—[laughs] for like two weeks! Everybody else is like, “Oh I don't like this episode!!” Like, everybody was mad after episode 3! Me…I thought that episode was great. They're like, “I hate how long they were lost in the woods.” I'm like, “Well, that was the whole point.”
They were lost in the woods. They were all circling around an issue, and the issue is really simple. Like, just sit still and let other people find you. Because that's what you need to do, baby gays, sometimes, it's sit still so we can fucking find you! And help you!
[both laugh]
Ben
All right! Let's talk about the actors.
Nini
Watching these four get to vibe together. I want to see it. And not just the four of them vibing together, but…the…pairings because they gave us like a mix and match. So, they gave us every single pairing that you could get out of these four actors, and everyone was delightful and delectable. And I enjoyed every single one of them, but I particularly enjoyed pairing Ohm with Earth.
Ben
I really liked… the pairing of Nanon and Mix, and I don't know what we need to do to see those two work together again, but I would like to see the two of them take on meaty characters together.
Nini
I mean they're gonna be in The Jungle together.
Ben
Are they? Well well well…
Nini
Yeah, maybe you might have to watch The Jungle. [laughs]
Ben might have to watch a straight show!
Ben
No…we just did that! It sucked!
[both laugh]
Ben
I loved Mix in this. Like, we've seen MIx and Earth together a couple of times, and you talked about this during episode two. Their drunken walk home together felt like Phupha and Tian, not Jim and Wen.
Nini
They made it feel so different, even with similar framing, even with similar camera work, even with the same actors, and the same director. They made that moment feel completely different from Jim and Wen's moment doing the same activity, and I—hats off, I bow down. I appreciate actors—y’all know that.
Ben
I like how all four of them managed to make their dynamics feel lived in.
Like, Pat and Pran felt settled. Like, they have some long-term difficulties to deal with—some of which are never gonna go away—but it was kind of interesting for me knowing that they're rock solid by the end of BB 12 that you can see them starting to get there now. Where Pran is nervous that this can't work forever because Pat is too loud. He…needs to be loud about stuff.
But, like, you can see the signs here of them giving themselves openings. Here, like with the play, with Pat going home to his dad later and giving him the liquor that Pran got in Singapore, loudly climbing through Pran's window when he comes back to Bangkok…to go play with his guitar in his room.
Nini
Pat needs to be loud. Pran knows Pat needs to be loud. And the journey that they're setting off on through the special—I can't even say that it culminates in Bad Buddy 12 ‘cause it doesn't. It continues in Bad Buddy 12, but it culminates at some point in a future that we don't get to see. And there's something to be said about Aof putting that way-way off…and the things that he wants to say to the baby gays and the elder gays.
Hoo! Man, I've been feeling Aof lately. Like, Moonlight Chicken, like, unraveled something in me. And going back to some of his earlier works in the light of Moonlight Chicken because part of the whole point of the crossover—and of crossovers in general—but in this particular crossover is intertextuality. When we were talking about Bad Buddy. When we were, like, thick in the things of Bad Buddy. We're talking about text and subtext and metatext working together to tell this story, and the thing that didn't become a part of that story—there were hints of it, mostly in the Pa and Ink storyline—but the thing that was hinted at, but not really fully grasped onto, was intertextuality.
Like, the conversation that different pieces of art are having between themselves. And one thing that this special—that the crossover delves into now—is the intertextuality.
Ben
I particularly like it because you have two leads interacting with each other and I find that sometimes we can get a little too archetypical about the leads of shows. By forcing the audience to consider who Pat and Pran are relative to Tian and Phupha, it forces you to revisit how you've been viewing them the whole time. Like, Pran thinking that he was Tian, and us maybe getting a little too caught up in that. Because, like we called it at the end of the first episode! We're like, “Why does he look so much like Tian? That feels off.” And it was off!
Oh. I wasn't trying to make a pun there.
He's not like Tian. Like, as soon as I saw them I was like, “Why would they compare him to Tian? He doesn't feel like Tian to me?” I was right! And so, we get to the end of this whole shebang, and I am having a blast. Like I'm watching people having to sort themselves out like “Did I like this? Did I not like this?”
I was drinking a mojito, having a good time, after this ended. I was drunk at the reception hanging out with some lesbians.
Nini
I mean in the end is it not the place that you want to be? I feel like it all worked out super well, and one of the reasons that it worked out super well is that these two stories had to be in some ways told together. And yeah, one got a little subsumed to the other. But that's the way that it had to be at this point in time.
Ben
I think it was pragmatic.
Nini
Yeah, I think if we had caught up with them and done this crossover at a different stage in each of their relationships a different problem would have come to the surface, and maybe a different arrangement of the two couples might have happened. And that's also something that we need to think about in terms of the specifics of when in the story narrative and the timeline of the stories that Aof chose to set this particular crossover.
When it comes to Aof I'm always thinking about what he's trying to do, because one of the things that has been very clear to me throughout his oeuvre, but particularly in Bad Buddy, is that…he is always going to tell the story that he wants to tell. He's not overly concerned about making it fit into certain narrative structures. He's not overly concerned about making it fit into audience expectations. He wants to tell certain stories, and that's what he's gonna do. And that was made very clear to me with Bad Buddy 12, because that defied every narrative expectation—every audience expectation—to speak a truth that Aof had on his spirit.
Ben
The other thing for me—this is the part where I’m gonna get a little bit grumpy again. It is expensive to make television. Like, the biggest thing that stands out to me with all of Our Skyy is how stripped-down all of it looked.
Like they filmed in like one or two locations at most it felt like half the time, and they had really short filming schedules, and everybody had to be good very quickly. There's not a lot of runup time. It feels like people just brought whatever they still had left from the last performance and they just ran with it. Everybody had to be really good, and it's expensive to film on that mountain. And so Aof needed to justify that particular crossover, by using the most potent talent he had.
Like, there's a huge Bad Buddy fandom. There's a pretty solid contingent of people who like A Tale of Thousand Stars. And for A Tale of Thousand Stars to get something good, he needed to merge the Bad Buddy budget with the Thousand Stars budget.
But also, they didn't want to touch their ending, which is why he sets Bad Buddy before its ending, but Tian and Phupha only at the beginning of their romance when we leave them. They have more work to do, so they can have an epilogue story that really hammers into some really interesting stuff, which we just spent the last hour or so talking about.
But it's done really efficiently! Like for the most part we all seem to enjoy Our Skyy, and they manage to do that with their limited budget. Like Pat and Pran are in a different room because it's probably cheaper to use this room. There's less people in Pha Pun Dao this time. Au is running around in the background as an extra! Wasn't he the damn director of the Kwan and Riam play? [shushes] Don't pay attention to that. A bunch of guys are running around with masks on—that's probably just crew members!
Nini
I did sort of love that chewing gum and string energy these productions can bring that is really sort of the heart of the Our Skyy franchise. I feel like I like that because to me that means it's for the art. If you're going to do this on chewing gum and string it's because you really fucking care. Like if you're going to do a story like this on string and chewing gum, it's because you really want to tell this fucking story. And in the end that's where I land on the vast majority of Our Skyy 2.
Ben
So what's our final verdict on Our Skyy then? Worth it? Not worth it?
Nini
Before we get to our final verdict on our Our Skyy, we didn't give our final verdict on the crossover.
Ben
Oh, it's a 10. [slams desk and laughs]
Nini
It's a 10! It's a 10! It's a 10! Let's just—let's just—let's let it go. Right? It's a 10 for drama and a 10 for crack because what is more cracky than a crossover? And so it averages out to 10. Have I got quibbles with it? Yes. Do they, in the grand scheme of things, matter to my enjoyment of it? Absolutely not. It's a 10—point blank period.
Ben
It didn't waste my time. They set out a really interesting premise: what if Tian published his diary? What if “lonely queer looking for meaning and community” Pran found it? What if he met them? What do they do if they meet each other? Like, they follow through on that in a way that gave us so much to talk about for two weeks.
And it was fun seeing the whole fandom come alive and see people revisit characters! It was fun seeing people change their opinions on Phupha, and even Earth and Mix as the result of watching this. That was so much fun.
Nini
It was delightful. It was enjoyable. It was meaningful. It was narratively enjoyable at least for me, it was a 10. I loved it and one of the things that I love most about it is that Pat gets to lick Pran's finger this time.
Ben
Oh my god.
Nini
I mean, it's just the slutiness of it all! Pat gets to lick Pran's finger. Phupha gets to touch his titties in a sexy kind of way. They get to make out with that damn mosquito net, and I enjoyed every single second of it. I laughed, I cried, I…felt warmth deep inside.
1:59:13 - Overall Score for Our Skyy 2
Nini
All that said, in terms of the overall—let’s give an overall score for Our Skyy 2. Ben, what do you think?
Ben
With the caveat that you should only really engage with the Our Skyy content if you liked the original show, it's a 9.
Like, I didn't like Vice Versa and I didn't like Star in My Mind when I watched them the first time, and so everything I didn't like about those shows was present in their Our Skyy offerings. I don't think it's very fair of me to be especially mean about their Our Skyy offerings when they are in line with what the audience has been taught to expect. If the audience likes that more power to them. But for the six shows that I genuinely liked, I had a good time with these.
Like, the weakest shows in this that I had a hard time with on the front end were A Boss and a Babe and Never Let Me Go. And I really liked what Jojo did with Never Let Me Go, and I thought that A Boss and a Babe actually had a really interesting story this time. But I loved The Eclipse and I thought Golf was great with this outing. I thought the cast was great in The Eclipse outing, and I felt like that about Bad Buddy and A Tale of Thousand Stars, and I felt like that about My School President.
I had a great time! It gets a 9 overall. Like, there are quibbles—it's not always the best thing, and it forces you to maybe look back at a show and alter the way you felt about it. And if you'd rather lock the show in a mental prism of where you last left it, maybe don't watch these offerings? But if you grow and change, and you kind of want to imagine what your characters are like if they also grow and change, then maybe it's worth checking out for you.
It's a 9. Highly recommended.
Nini
For you, the score is always about a recommendation. For me, it's always about do I like this? How much do I like this? And for me, for the vast majority of Our Skyy, I fuckin’ loved it. So I also give it a 9. I don't have any caveats about recommending it to anybody or anything like that. I just had, for the most part, a whale of a fucking time. And so, it's a 9! I enjoyed myself!
So kind of in our own form of intertextuality harkening back to our Season 2: Electric Boogaloo episode of the Spring Series, and talking about sequels. So, Ben, after Our Skyy 2, how are you feeling about sequels?
Ben
Enthusiastic? [laughs] I mean, come on, man, like, this was fucking good. We need to think about how these characters stay together. That can be so rewarding to think about and it's good for the audience to think about it.
I hope we see Pat and Pran in 10 years after their little sprout has blossomed, and maybe they're considering something else. I'm totally down to return to characters every couple of years for check-ins. That totally works for me, and I think that there is value in transitioning the types of stories we tell with characters over time, because they're going to face a variety of situations over time, so it can be so, so rewarding for us as viewers to go on those new journeys with them.
Nini
How do I…feel about sequels? Again, it's the same way I always feel. I feel like when there's story still to tell, I'm ready to see it. I'm ready to hear it. And if I feel like there isn't anything left to say, then I'm not interested. That's largely where I landed with the Our Skyy episodes for the most part where I felt like there was story left to tell. I thoroughly enjoyed getting that story and then those, like Star in My Mind, where I felt like there was no story, I wasn’t really interested.
So, do I feel pumped about sequels and the whole idea of following these boys into the “staying together” part of things? Yes, that's something that I'm always going to enjoy, and if that means conflict, I am fine with that. I enjoy watching them navigate that, whether the conflict is minor or major, I am having a blast with that in my mind.
And…I can't wait for Our Skyy 3.
That is going to wrap us up on the Our Skyy 2 episode. Y'all are going to hear the edited version of this, but I just want you all to know that we've been talking for three hours, and we've been having a great time. See y’all in the next one. Say bye to the people, Ben.
Ben
Welcome back, my boyfriend!
Nini
[laughs] Bye.
#podcast#our skyy 2#bad buddy#a tale of thousand stars#my school president#the eclipse#vice versa#star in my mind#never let me go#a boss and a babe#thai bl#bl series#ben and nini's conversations#the conversation#on art#season 3#summer 2023#summer series#Spotify
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Moonshot Network is opening for YOUR podcast pitches this Friday! But who even ARE we? What does that mean? How do you even send a pitch????
Good news: we’ve made this handy slideshow in order to answer all those questions, and also questions you didn’t even know you had! It’s a condensed version of our official pitch guide, to save you the trouble of clicking through to the GDoc link! You can also find the full plain text below the cut here.
What is Moonshot and why should I pitch you my podcast, anyway?
WHO WE ARE
Moonshot is a podcast network built on creative collaborations and far-out ideas. Some of our work includes: podcast seasons recorded in 24 hours, a dunk tank fundraiser stream, amateur Pokemon competitions, fanfiction actual plays, and deep media analysis of things like Saw, Christmas music, Harlequin romance novels, and the Halo 3 alternate reality game.
Our primary goal is to be a home for out-there ideas, shorter and seasonal projects, and experiments in the podcast medium that might not fit in anywhere else. We aim to provide the enthusiasm, the structure, and support for our members to work on their dream projects.
Our second goal is giving first-time and early-career creators the tools they need for a successful start. We feel strongly that podcasting should not be a gatekept medium, and aim to support new creators with the funding and guidance to make their show a success.
WHAT WE HOST
Here are some examples of shows currently on our network:
ARGonauts Podcast: Andrew and Marn do deep dives into the niche world of alternate reality games and the people who create them.
Riley Hopkins and Their Amazing Friends: Short-form actual play series and one-offs that focus on transformative fanwork and crossovers of established shows/franchises/characters.
I’ll Be Pod For Castmas: A seasonal podcast released in July and December where Juliet and Katherine pick a piece of holiday pop culture and discuss it through the lens of a piece of topical classic literature.
After School Anime Club: Max, Max, and Stevie take a nostalgia trip back to the anime of their youth, and play game shows about it along the way.
The Podcast Mines: There But For The Grace Of Pod Go We: Riley and Andrew pitch each other podcasts, talk about the medium of podcasting, and sometimes do neither of those things.
WHAT WE OFFER
We offer network members a lot of perks, including:
Coverage of hosting costs, plus access to Pinecast's advanced analytics
A pre-existing community of fans and listeners to introduce your show to
Collaborative network shows with monthly spots for guest hosts
Other podcasters to talk shop and collaborate with in our creators-only Discord
Assets for streaming, a Twitch channel, and (time permitting) a stream producer
Subscriptions to Soundstripe (royalty-free music ) and Otter.ai (transcription services)
Optional participation in large group charity livestreams
OKAY...HOW DO I PITCH?
If you’re a creator looking to pitch us on a not-yet-published show, send us:
A strong pitch of your idea - what the base premise of the show is, an introduction to the regular hosts, what topics you hope to cover, and anything else that feels relevant. For audio dramas, feel free to send us an outline of the plot alongside the basic pitch!
A recorded and edited pilot episode.
OPTIONAL: More sample episodes, if you’ve already recorded them.
OPTIONAL: More scripted episodes, if you’re making an audio drama.
Examples of your past audio work. If you don’t have any, don’t worry! As long as your pitch is solid, you don’t need to have prior experience.
If you’re a creator looking to pitch an ongoing/established show, you’ll need:
A link to your feed.
Links to 3-5 episodes that exemplify what your show is about, and what it sounds like at its best.
If you’re a creator that has a pitch that is outside of these two options:
3-5 episodes in some format.
A solid pitch for why we should take on your show!
Please send these things to [email protected] with the subject line PITCH: [Your Podcast Name Here]. The body of your email should include a brief introduction of yourself, your podcast, and any cohosts; followed by links to the above requested content.
If you’re a new creator and have any sort of roadmap for your show, including an outline (for fiction shows) or a list of content you’re going to cover in future episodes (for nonfiction), we’d love to see those too! Please also include links to your and your cohosts’ social media.
Our inbox opens for pitches on November 25th! We hope to see you there!
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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Tuesday, September 17
Angelus: And this... this is the garden. Drusilla: Wow! Look. Jasmine. Angelus: Night blooming. Drusilla: Like us. Oh, Angel, it's fairyland. Ooh! Spike: It's paradise. Big windows, lovely gardens. It'll be perfect when we want the sunlight to kill us. Angelus: If you don't like it, Spike, hit the stairs and go. Take a stand, man. Spike: Well, our old place was just fine till you went and had it burned down. Angelus: Things change, Spikey. You gotta roll with the punches. Well, actually, you pretty much got that part down, haven't you? Spike: Very funny, mate. Angelus: What can I say? I just love to see you smile, buddy. Spike: Yeah, you're a giver.
~~Buffy Episode #31: "I Only Have Eyes For You" ~~
[Drabbles & Short Fiction]
The Darkness and the Light (Anya Jenkins/Willow Rosenberg, G) by SirenOfTitan
Spoons (Angel/Spike, M) by MamaBewear
Wanking Up Alone (Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers, G) by b33n
What We Need (Angel/Spike, OC, M) by fatalfae
SLUMBER PARTY (Buffy, Willow, E) by KNZ1
I Called Him Mine (Angel/Spike, E) by MadeInGold
Divine Comedy in the Withering Heart (Angel/Darla, E) by CoffeeHunt
Yes, Mistress (Darla/Drusilla, E) by TheClowniestLivInExistence
Untitled (Buffy/Spike, unrated) by forevercaroline
Enjoying The Show (Spike, Willow/Tara, M) by Serena The Drama Queen
Cloudy With a Chance of Mischief (Buffy/Spike, E) by Maxine Eden, ClowniestLivEver
[Chaptered Fiction]
The Right Swipe Ch 8 (Buffy/Giles, E) by DancingAngel0013
Hello, Darling Ch. 6/9 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Spikelover4ever
Blood of Kings Ch. 4 (Ensemble, T, Young Royals xover) by LadyInBlackandWhite
Double Date Ch. 3 (Buffy/Giles, E) by Rippertish
If We Could Freeze Time CH. 42/64 (Buffy/Spike, E) by cosplayermadness
In the Company of Witches and Slayers: Ch. 158 (Willow/Tara, E) by VladimirHarkonnen (TheLightdancer)
Bring Me To Life : A Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel Crossover Event Ch. 70 (Buffy/Angel, unrated) by Jean_theGuardian
Soul Mate Magic - Chapter Four (Giles/OC, E) by emma-m-black
Welcome To Westworld CH. 75 (Ensemble, T) by Ninja Master
Do as Romans do Ch. 45 (Ensemble, T, French language) by OldGirl-NoraArlani
A Tumble in Time, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, T) by thedoppleganger
Forty-eight days in LA, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Blissymbolics
Where Clocks Don't Tick, Chapter 9 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Willow91
Hope is the thing with feathers, Chapter 11 (Buffy/Spike, E) by will_
The Degradation of Duality [Series Part 2], Chapter 51 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Ragini
Because the Night, Chapter 10-11 (Buffy/Spike, E) by CheekyKitten
The Neighbor's Point of View, Chapter 131 (Buffy/Spike, ) by the_big_bad
Stiff Pole, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, E) by scratchmeout
Oh My Goddess, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Maxine Eden
It’s a Secret Ch. 4 (Xander, T, Harry Potter xover) by MsSunshine
Aim High Ch. 8 (Buffy, T, Stargate xover) by Buffyworldbuilder
[Images, Audio & Video]
Artwork:Buffy by RookBooks
Artwork:Buffy by nineinchnals
Artwork:Spike by forsuperbang
Artwork:Oz, Buffy by onedrawsoverthecuckoosnest
Artwork:Cordelia & Angel by artsying-ifer
Artwork:Venom Faith by goaskmalices
Artwork:Buffy & Willow by wooneygoblin
Artwork:Buffy by artofnicolle
Artwork:Buffy & Spike by o-cm-draw-o
Artwork: by o-cm-draw-o
Artwork:Buffy by bertolts
Manip:Episodic art for BtVS 2x22 “Becoming, Part 2. by revello-drive-1630
[Reviews & Recaps]
PODCAST: Episode 41 - Poor old Glove of Myhnegon, Begin Again (Revelations) by The Sunnydale Diaries
PODCAST: BTVS 602 - Bargaining, Pt. 2 by Another Buffy Podcast
[Community Announcements]
Tuesday Prompt: Weather by comment_fic
Is there a Buffy-verse fic idea you’ve been dying to read? Are you looking for inspiration for your next fic? Join us on AO3 or Dreamwidth! by buffyversekinkmeme
Join the Faith and Buffy Slayer Scissorfest Discord Server!
[Fandom Discussions]
today Him 7.06 was on and it got me thinking by aphony-cree
ive become such a spike apologist its terrible. by lesbianmarrow
buffy essentially conditioning spike like an animal to never believe what she says by nicollekidman
the point of Faith’s final scene in Salvage by coraniaid
ok i have some thoughts about cordelia and anya by electricabsolution
Jenny and Anya would have been such a good duo. by ohrevienssoleil
something about the scoobies all being slightly unhuman. by pinesorneedle
I am still baffled that people think Beer Bad is the worst episode of Buffy when episodes like Wild At Heart, Into the Woods, and As You Were exist. by paarthursass
i didn’t really get that whole attack dog relationship thing folks were posting about a few months ago but then by lesbianmarrow
There’s just something about Spike understanding Buffy when she’s not even able to articulate or understand (at the moment) that’s what she needs. by pinesorneedles
my post-chosen headcanon by comradesummers
Off the wall question! by Moptop
Going to meet the First Slayer by garfan
What was the episode where..... by Dufflepod
Ángel could Beat buffy? by FoxIndependent4310
Did Spike Not Watch Return of the Jedi? by matsu-oni
Cordelia by Disastrous-Zombie-25
S3 ep 13 by txn120
Best insult ever by BluePhotonOnMonday
Rewatching the show after being a caregiver by Lady_Audley
"Fool for Love" (B S5:E7) & "Darla" (A S2:E7) by Pyrefly79
Can we talk about how terrifying this guy is by StarsThatGlow
I loved Cordelia's style season early on in season 3. by pit_of_despair666
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Okay if you guys are scared about RWBY renewal this is a collection of thoughts which may or may not be reassuring:
CR was never a good choice. Finding alternate funding opportunities is preferable e.g. ideally not cutting a deal with a streaming service which subsequently leads to cut episodes. Streaming services are conservative to the point that successful shows do not often get renewed as it is. There are other issues there like I don't think the CR audience was ever one to crossover enough with the RWBY one.
RT seems to be looking at more local funding opportunities (drawing in sponsorships for RVB; RVB renewal playing on drawing back fans in - I know I haven't watched it consistently since Season 13). They've cut back on RTX (major money drain - events such as these tend to just about break even, speaking generally, if not work at a loss) and this was likely a decision made at the beginning of the previous fiscal year, which was around when CR did not renew RWBY. They've explicitly said they're looking at getting more sponsorships lol. Raise your hand if you cancelled yours because you thought they didn't own RWBY anymore
From what I can see a lot of people are concerned about the silence regarding renewal and from my personal perspective is that there are NDA's involved (I know for a fact that Miles has this in his Tumblr description, or at least did at some point), the year-long exclusivity with CR, etc. as well as the fact that with this type of money that RWBY is throwing around now as what is effectively more of a serious production than it was six, seven years ago means that you can't really admit to too much weakness in public (speculative investors), nor can you speak strategy. I'm not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing, but just potentially par for the course, especially because I'd argue the closeness RT had with its audience did not end up being for the best for many different reasons.
It's probably very likely that based on the success or failure of the new RVB, RWBY will or won't be renewed. I'm not saying you are personally responsible for making RVB succeed. There's no responsibility of the fan here. But if we look at the avenues they've taken to draw in money: crossovers (comic book audience), manga, novels, anime (Beacon era nostalgia), the CrunchyRoll audience of honest otakus, etc. they've cycled through to trying to re-establish their RT fanbase to offset RWBY production. RWBY fans are good for RT and RT fans used to be good for RWBY. RWBY was made because Season 10 of RVB was very successful.
It's no coincidence that RT's relative decline in years (I stopped watching around 2015, if that's anything) has led to this. I'm kind of at the point where I wouldn't even say any of this is really RWBY's fault because it's a very weird production (I say this as a fan). There are plenty of influences I've failed to cover here because I'm trying to keep this contained to my honest assessment - there's obviously something not quite adding up with the numbers of how many RWBY fans there are vs. its renewal dangling in the balance. They struggled with monetising way back when during the adpocalypse on YouTube which led to episodes not being uploaded on there anymore. RWBY has been a cult sensation and it owes its success not just to a loyal fanbase but taking risks. RWBY itself was a risky endeavour. I'm not sure if people remember but by that point RT was doing pretty well, but not corporate money well, and its flagship show was a Halo machinima. They were doing crowdfunding/Patreon before it was a thing, they were doing podcasts before they were a thing (obviously radio existed, but you know what I mean). When Fullscreen acquired them I remember thinking 'hm this feels weird' and I was about right.
I don't have any conclusive remarks here but I would say that I would really start to doomer worry by the end of this year. I imagine that between the exclusivity of a year (and how much that does or doesn't influence contract negotiation with other funding sources) and RT currently overhauling its strategy we won't really know until six months from now, let's say optimistically. It probably does in part hinge on RVB and getting back that sponsor base, but I'm not sure I perfectly understand it because I would sign up for sponsor if I knew we'd be getting RWBY, or something specific to RWBY only on RT - which is seemingly not possible right now. I don't know the full ins-and-out.
Of what's going on behind the scenes, we know less than drop. It's six to one, half a dozen the other, but my overall summary would be that CR was always the wrong move and RT needed an overhaul in its approach to sponsorships and funding as well as establishing its brand and regaining audience trust/transparency. RWBY should have stayed on RT and other sources of revenue needed to be pursued. I couldn't even figure out how to buy DVD's of the show a few years ago because it was so hidden. (Am I even suggesting something like Patreon here? Hell, maybe). We're not going to see the result of their developed strategy for some time. This is my tentative speculation.
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