#ive seen someone in a the tags of a post being like “he's so french 😫” NON IL L'EST PAS PUTAIN

[scalproie]

Also I've been watching some interview with the vampire to see what was all this then, and I have to say, while its good its also so painful to me not because of the complicated relationships between the characters but because I have to sit here and play along in pretending this blond bitch is french like QU'ESTCE QUE TU DIS MON GARS

[etoilesbienne]

out of curiosity, what are the common qEtoiles mischaracterizations, and the accurate characterizations you wished people used more? Sincerely, an English speaking fan who is re-learning French!

honestly i kind of consider it a mischaracterization when people like... make etoiles into this team leader who always knows what to do and move things forward. or like that he has a bad attitude to like... match his fighting skills. or like the dark knight brooding warrior. he says he is these things. these are lies. he lies about himself constantly. i wouldnt trust a good 2/3 of the things he says about himself to be true. you read him clearer through his actions than his statements.

in my opinion etoiles is more like. sturdy second in command. he's not there to lead, he's there to fill in the holes where they pop up. he's there as cover. he's quick witted in shortchange scenarios, but that is so not the same thing as a genuine strategist. in another expression, if someone is a leader, the leader is a doctor, etoiles's role is more like... the EMS team in an ambulance. He's not there to fix your problem, he's there to keep your problem covered until you can get someone else to fully fix it. but that doesn't mean his role is any less important when he's needed.

Etoiles is also, like, so very much a team player if he respects and trusts a person. And it is so easy to have his respect and trust. His trust starts at 100% for everyone. he's also so very very very good at reading people (gesture to the bbh clip where bbh moves his mouse slightly downward and etoiles calls him out on being depressed). He read Mousey as enjoying dungeons and pvp way more and wanting to hang out with her. He's also one of the only people who like continuously runs in the girlies group and makes all of them pvp with him and they all love it so he keeps coming back to pvp with them. Thats how he started his whole thing with Tina and pvping with her constantly. Reading other people also, he loves finding other pvpers so he attacks roier constantly now bc he knows roier can pvp.

What else OH Etoiles loves whining (and this is because Rayou loves whining) that dude will just complain constantly. You haven't seen an etoiles stream if youve never seen him whine. Can't say I'm not kind of endeared by it. With this too he loves over explaining things (RIP armor powerpoint wish you couldve been given...) because he wants to help everyone....

OH and he's very over exaggerated too in replying to people in a complaining way and a self deprecating way and also likes to try to push the envelope with people and he does all of that to try and get a laugh out of others. like he's well aware people find him going "Oh so you don't give a shit about me and want me to die ? you want etoiles to die ?" fucking hilarious and also loves complaining in the first place thats why he does that. if your etoiles isn't complaining and whining then it isn't etoiles. the self deprecating thing is... its interesting bc he does have full faith in his abilities but will never say it out loud unless its trying to reassure someone who is worried. pushing the envelope is so specific he won't do it too much and its like........... from what ive seen (correct me if im wrong) heavily directed at non francophones where if they laugh at something wack he's done he'll try to do it again to make them laugh more. shoutout to the time he made bbh laugh so much when he cursed he didn't get languaged by bbh so he kept cursing to try to make bbh do it again. the dudes a total people pleaser.

smaller thing ive talked about extensively already (u can prob find it in my q!etoiles tag if i remember i'll edit a link to the posts in here soon lol) etoiles hates losing he looooooves winning he's very intense about it lol. its cute!

on a final note even if you don't become deeply unwell about etoiles like i am i think this highlight clip video has like everything he's like condensed into like 11 minutes. You should watch it. It's a good starting point.

[emptymasks]

I’ve seen a lot about your thoughts on Elisabeth and Tanz der Vampire, and they’ve been really helpful getting into those musicals! But you have a huge list of other musicals that people can get into…

So I was wondering if you had any musicals you hadn’t mentioned in a while that you really like or would like to talk about??? (preferably something from your lists that has a blue heart please?)

Oh if only you knew how long the list of European musicals really is... I however have only seen 9 (if I counted right) and I have a lot more that I still need to watch. Oh also, I only put the blue hearts on any musicals that I was providing multiple links for so people could see which version I reccoment the most highly. If a musical only had one link and didn't have a blue heart it doesn't mean I didn't like it.

I've watched: Mozart das Musical, Elisabeth das Musical, Tanz der Vampire, 3 Musketiers, Mozart L'Opéra Rock, Dracula (the Graz production), Rebecca das Musical, Roméo et Juliette and Schikaneder.

If you enjoyed those two you're likely to enjoy Rebecca! It's written by the same composer/lyricist team as Elisabeth and Mozart (and same lyricist as Tanz der Vampire - though if you're listening to any German musical, original or translated, 90% of the time the lyrics will have been done by Michael Kunze that man is everywhere). The Stuttgart production has my favourite set design of any musical! Well... Actually probably. There are so many big set pieces it's insane, way more than I've seen in some Broadway and West End musicals. You can tell so much work went into it and the visual effects that I won't spoil if you don't know the plot but if you know the plot you know what I mean by the effects at the end are so good and I didn't expect them at all and I freaked out so much the first time I watched it. Jan Ammann as Maxim in the Stuttgart production is the best Maxim. No I won't take any argument. Other actors feel a bit one-dimensional to me, but the way Maxim acts at times comes from trauma and some actors and productions seem to forget that, but Jan really goes for it and his Maxim is a lot more sympathetic and I just want to give him a hug. Pia Douwes as Mrs Danvers, if you've seen her in Elisabeth what more do I need to say, she's amazing. A musical goddess. Her Danny is a bit more wild than some, but she kills it. My favourite video, which I put the blue heart next to, has understudy Christina Patten as Ich/I, but I adore her she's my favourite. She adds some spunk to Ich in act 2 and her voice is so pretty and aaaa. I just love these three actors together in these roles.

Roméo et Juliette is another favourite of mine! It's hard to choose which one to recommend, but it has to be the original 2000/2001 production because of the sweetness and chemistry and voices of Damien Sargue and Cecilia Cara as Romeo and Juliet. They're so pretty and work together so well. The only reason I say it's hard to pick is Mercutio. I adore him, but in the original production they cut out a song they had planned for him and he doesn't really do much at all? In the 2010 revival they gave him two more songs and you care about him so much more and John Eyzen plays such a good Mercutio. So I'd recommend the original but if you want to like Mercutio more, which you should he's amazing, I'd recommend watching at least clips of John's. It's an interesting musical because all productions are non-replica and also change around the order of songs, add or take away characters, all sorts. The Hungarian production is also very popular and I'm sure it's great, I just haven't' gotten around to watching it yet.

Mozart das Musical was the first non-English language musicals I watched so I have a fondness for it, but it's not my favourite. However, I do realise I have forgotten most of the songs and the few I've gone back and listened to are better than I remember.

Dracula isn't super popular and I understand why, I don't love the plot of the Dracula/Mina romance in it, however. I do love this musical because despite how I find the plot lacking, the songs are so good! At least, I love them. And the actors are all doing a great job. And it's one of the few Dracula adaptions to keep Quincy Morris so they get bonus points for that.

Mozart L'Opéra Rock and modern French musicals... This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but they're often more like pop-rock operas now. So if you're not into musicals with that style of music it might not be for you, but I still enjoyed it even though I didn't think I would because of the style of music. Mozart and Salieri's chemistry is very good, Salieri's bisexual crisis song is iconic, actually all of Salieri's songs are iconic.

Schikaneder... eh. I didn't like it that much and I didn't really like any of the songs. There's no English subtitles, but someone sent me the entire English synopsis and I watched it with a German friend so I had double the help of understanding it. Doesn't mean others might not like it, just none of the songs stood out to me and I had no desire to listen to any of them again. It's by Steven Scharwz of Wicked fame and I love Wicked, but I didn't love this.

3 Musketiers!! God it's so underrated and not spoken about within the European musical fandom that I even forget about it and literally forgot to write about it earlier in this post. It's a Dutch musical (though did also have a German production) and it's really good!? Faces you might know are Pia Douwes as Milady de Winter, Stanley Burlseon as Cardinal Richeliu (Netherlands Der Tod in Elisabeth), Henk Poort as Athos (Netherlands Phantom and Jean Valjean). The dialgoue is funny, the songs are good, some of the set pieces have no right to exist in this tiny musical?? They made this giant boat and pelt the actors with rain just for one 5 minute song and then we never see the boat again? And while I recommend the Dutch one because Dutch musicals deserve more love and it has official English subtitles!! Official ones, not fanmade! I have the DVD and it comes with English subtitles (and Dutch and German subtitles) which is so nice. The German version is also good, good cast, Pia came back and Uwe Kroger as Richeliu and omg they rearranged the songs and the German arrangement of Nicht Aus Stein is insane and amazing and frankly iconic.

That's all of the ones I have watched. Next on my list to watch are Rudolf and Notre Dame de Paris, both of which I have listened to some songs from and already love (I've listened to way too much of Notre Dame de Paris and am so in love).

I want to start organising streams where I'll host the musical either by getting the video from Youtube or my own files and anyone who wants to join can come along and watch with us, chat with us if you want or just watch there's no pressure to chat. I thought about doing weekly streams? This would also make me finally watch some of the ones I've been meaning to for ages. But I keep wondering about time zones. I'm in the UK and would want to stream at about 11pm at the latest (11pm BST/GMT+1 as we’re in daylight savings at the moment, if the streams continue past the end of October which would be wild then I’ll make a note of the time change that would be to 11pm GMT), which I know can work for other UK and Europeans, but for any Americans would be in the afternoon. So, I wondered if doing it on a weekend would be better? Then it doesn't matter if it's in the afternoon? Maybe Saturday evenings then? It would either be Saturday evenings UK time or Friday evenings UK time. What do you guys think? If people are down then I'll make a separate post with a list of what we'll be watching each week and if anything happens to me that means I can't stream one week then everything will just get pushed back a week, but I don't see that as likely to happen. And I'll only be streaming those that have English subtitles, so don't worry about not being able to understand anything.

edit: am also open to 10pm bst if others want that, im just trying to think of what time works best for everyone so sorry if 11pm is a little late for europeans, i know 10pm could be a little early for americans. also in case it sounded like these are the only musicals i will be streaming, thats not so, ive got more than just the ones mentioned on this list!

(Tagging some people who I know are or might be interested in streams to see what you think of that plan: @sirona-art @ringwraith100 @tanz-der-trash @smilingwoland @the-weird-dane @witchgaye @ami-fidele @kisstheghouls @looking-4-happiness @ladysapphire928 @sloanedestler @tinywound @persephonaae @phoenixdewinter @uwucoffee @freshbloodandgothicism )

[chat-noir-always-here]

“Hey Arnold!” and “Miraculous!” parallels

Ever have an idea for a post that you take forever to get around to because 2020 is 

actively 

trying

to kill you?!

 Welp, that’s me. I mean, uh, this is that post.

Long post is long and I don’t like cuts cuz I’ve lost a few posts in the past using them. Please filter the tag “long post” I use it for walls of text like these.

So there’s this show from my childhood called Hey Arnold! 

Having been on air before I had cable (I and my unsupervised brothers and sisters spent our childhood watching Jerry Springer and Maury because there was literally nothing else on our cheap little TV. How hilarious is that?) I didn’t really have much of an experience with Hey Arnold! aside from brief little glances at it when i visited a friends home or the rare occasion where they showed cartoons at school. By the time I got satellite, the show was no longer on the air save for some late night reruns and the Christmas special which aired in December along with other Nickelodeon Christmas episodes (THE best Christmas episode EVER btw).

Really I couldn’t remember much about it until hearing about the Jungle Movie finally getting a release date (a total flop but at least its no cliff hanger) and decided to re-watch the entire series in preparation for said movie.

By which point I had discovered another show—Miraculous. 

At first glance the two shows have absolutely nothing in common. Miraculous being a French-born mahou shoujo-esque CGI superhero TV series about a couple of middle schoolers who regularly battle a walking peppermint-frappucino-looking psychopath. Hey Arnold! being a more realistic children’s sitcom about a young football-headed boy who deals out humanitarian aid in the form of advice and simple good deeds to his neighbors, classmates and friends. 

In terms of setting, logic, and animation the two series are as different as night and day.

So imagine my pleasant surprise to discover a whole post’s worth of parallels shared between the two shows???

And here they are in no particular order:

1)Arnold’s Parents/Adrien’s mom

Prior to the start of Miraculous, Emilie Agreste disappeared under mysterious circumstances leaving her family behind. Later on it was revealed that she was in fact sleeping (dead?) in a glass coffin beneath the Agreste mansion--unbeknownst to Adrien, or anyone else in Paris save for Gabriel and Nathalie.

In a similar fashion, Arnold’s parents, Miles and Stella, also disappeared prior to the start of Hey Arnold! and like Emilie were always referred to as “missing” rather than “dead.” 

The Jungle Movie later revealed Miles and Stella weren’t dead, but like Emilie appears to be doing in her coffin, they were sleeping. Having caught a bout of sleeping sickness (apparently they do not need to be hooked up to IVs or other medical devices while in a comatose state cuz fuck logic) they simply needed their orphaned son to come and cure them with the help of the magical golden heart Helga provided him with.

Perhaps Mari holds the key to waking Emilie? That would be nice to see. 

Not the miraculous of course--but some other key.

Although personally I’m hoping for a hardcore, devastating ending like Emilie dying, Gabriel going to prison where he belongs, and Adrien leaving the country for a bit until the second Hawk Moth shows up because I just like devastating cliffhangers and angst and being in utter turmoil over fictional people. But that’s just me.

2) Their best friends are dating

Smol parallel here: Arnold’s best friend Gerald and Helga’s Best friend Phoebe wind up together in The Jungle Movie after being imprisoned together by Lasombra. Similar to how Nino and Alya ended up together after being imprisoned by Ladybug (for their protection, of course).

3) The Bag of Money Episode/ The Ladybug episode

OOh boy both of these episodes make me rage. 

Some context about the Bag of Money episode: Arnold and his friends Gerald and Sid find a random bag of money containing almost $4000. Sid is ecstatic and wants to split the money evenly between the three boys, but Arnold worries it could just be lost and convinces them to let him, Arnold, take the money to the police station. On the way he accidentally switches the bag with another one that is identical and contains a bunch of useless junk, and when he tries to explain what happened to his friends they don’t believe him because their bag of money was accidentally taken by an “old lady with pink hair and a peg leg.”

 Arnold’s a good boy and he’s telling the truth--but the truth sounds crazy, even to my ears. Sid accuses Arnold of stealing the money and spreads lies to their classmates, whom Arnold has spent the ENTIRE SERIES helping in some form or fashion. Despite everything he’s done for them though, the vast majority of the class come to believe Arnold is a thief. Even Gerald, Arnold’s closest friend, nearly believes Sid over Arnold but eventually comes to Arnold’s defense. The other kids (save for Helga who doesn’t really make an appearance this episode) gang up on Arnold, but thankfully the old lady with pink hair and a peg leg shows up with an officer and together they explain the bag of money is now at the lost and found where it will remain and if gone unclaimed will be returned to Arnold, Gerald and Sid. 

Pretty much everything is resolved and things return to normal between the kids. 

But I hate this episode. I hate this episode so, so much. Arnold has spent the entire series helping these people out in some form or fashion. Literally thats the entire show. And after everything he’s done for them they’re so. Quick. To. Turn. On. Him. 

Sound familiar???

4) Hidden Personality                   vs.          Surface Personality

 I do not refer to the cruddy “true selves” thing half the Miraculous fandom believes in. Depending on one’s individual circumstances, environment and how comfortable they are, said person’s behavior can fluctuate or even do a complete 180. This can be kinda frustrating when dealing on one’s own--”Who am I anyway? Is that me or is this me???”

It’s all you, fam.

Arnold and Helga are themselves too, no matter what metaphorical/actual mask they put on. There’s the side that everyone sees and then there’s the side almost no one sees. The hidden personality isn’t hidden due to a lack of trust, necessarily, but rather it is the result of retreating to their respective “shells”--ones which both Arnold and Helga were kinda punched, kicked, and shoved into. 

Helga’s surface personality: Class bully, puts up a tough front, constantly torments Arnold because she can’t stand him and his niceness

Helga’s hidden personality: Poetic, abused and isolated, is in love with Arnold to the point of being obsessed with him and bullies him via surface personality in order to hide that fact

Of course Adrien is no bully--his reasons for not being the “cunning, funny, ultra-charming Chat Noir” 24/7 DOES have a lot to do with his toxic household, his dad, and the overwhelming expectations which are constantly smothering him as Adrien. 

Adrien is a bug under a magnifying glass (or so he feels)

Chat Noir is a chance for a freedom.

 Adrien’s surface personality was molded by his dad.

 Helga’s is the result of her entire family. Her father is brash and loud, her mother is a confirmed alcoholic, her sister is a gifted prodigy, well-rounded and spends most of the series at university or elsewhere. Although her sister, Olga, has been shown to genuinely care for Helga, Olga is kinda the reason their parents neglect Helga. With their first daughter being the genius and prodigy she is, Helga’s parents poured all of their pride and affection and parental devotion onto her. Meanwhile Helga had to walk to pre-school alone. At four years old. In the rain. Not for the last time. 

Which leads me to the next parallel.

5) Umbrella in the Rain

squeals in delight over this parallel<3<3<3

If you’ve never seen Hey Arnold! do yourselves a favor and watch this short little clip over how Helga and Arnold first met. If you have seen it, watch it anyway because it is the most adorable clip in the entire show.

Dr. Bliss: “So nobody’s ever noticed you?”

Helga: “...There was someone.”

The soft way Helga confesses that--you can actually hear how grateful she is to have such a tender memory from such a painful time. 

 In a similar manner, Adrien offered his umbrella to Marinette. Of course Adrien did it because Mari had to walk home in the rain and Arnold did it as a simple gesture of kindness (seeing as they were already at the school)--one of the many kind acts he displays throughout the series. 

 But just like Adrien needed unconditional love coming from somewhere, so did Helga. They were both denied this one common necessity which everyone else around them had. It’s not a lot to ask for, and they should’ve already had it coming from their families--but they didn’t.

 And then, one rainy day, there it was--the unconditional love they needed.

6) Clinginess

What happens when you take someone, specifically a love-starved abused child from an unstable home environment--deprived of the one thing most crucial to their mental well-being--and miraculously provide them with that very necessity? 

Clinginess. 

I can’t really think of the correct word to describe this. “Clinginess” is pretty close to what I’m trying to describe, if not on point, so let’s go with that. 

 What I mean is Helga and Adrien both need Arnold and Ladybug respectively. That’s not a bad thing--it’s okay to need somebody else. What’s bad is hinging your entire being on this one connection. For if either kiddo were to be left behind they wouldn’t handle it very well.

 It can’t really be helped with either Helga or Adrien. They didn’t really have the option to learn certain things and went deprived of unconditional love for such a long time. They’re kids--nine and fourteen/fifteen respectively. They’re not perfect and they’re traumatized for life. Being denied love from your family--the very people designed to love you--would do that to a person. Naturally they would cling to the first people to show up and provide them with the love they needed. 

 The Hey Arnold! wiki says this about Helga and Arnold’s relationship

Due to her unstable family upbringing where both her mother and father constantly neglect [Helga] and shower all of their attention onto Olga, leaving her deprived of the love and attention she needed growing up. On her way to preschool, Arnold helped her by keeping the rain off her with an umbrella and even complimented her on her hairbow. He even later gave her crackers during their snack time. Arnold's kindness and being the first person to notice her quickly caused Helga to transfer all of her love and attention to Arnold.

Of course Adrien’s tunnel vision isn’t quite as bad as Helga’s.

 He treats his friends better.

 He does love his father--

Even though his father is THE. 

WORST.

 PARENT.

 EVER!!!

--because he’s Adrien and he’s just too precious a cinnamon roll and that’s still his dad even if the man does belong behind bars.

7) Unhealthy Obsession

I--

I...

Ugh. I am not going to delve too far into this. You’re just going to have to take my word for it. Helga’s creepy stalker behavior is a thousand times worse than Marinette’s. That pic up there of Helga hiding out in Arnold’s room watching him is pretty decent evidence to back up my argument, but it’s hardly the only example or even the worst incident.

 Honestly I’m amazed at what Nicktoons were able to get away with in the late nineties/early 2000s. 

But yes, Helga’s obsession with Arnold is rather unhealthy in the most extreme moments leading her to display behavior which is more often than not disturbing and concerning. 

The Hey Arnold! wiki has this to say about Helga’s obsession with Arnold

Helga is possessive of her love for Arnold and thinks non-stop about him to the point of obsession. This is evidenced throughout the series by the many shrines and poems she makes of Arnold and of her frequent dramatic soliloquies about her love for Arnold.

Again--Mari isn’t as bad as all that. She’s a sweet girl with many healthy relationships in her life. She has ambition, creativity, and drive. But yeah she can be rather possessive of Adrien too, and that needs to stop. Like right now. Adrien doesn’t need another girl being possessive of him and thinking he’s perfect--he needs someone who acknowledges him as a flawed person and loves him despite that. 

As for Helga and Arnold--show creator Craig Bartlett confirmed they are “made for each other” and wind up married with three kids, so I’m guessing Helga grew out of some of these bad habits? Or at least I hope so...

8) Helper/Humanitarian tendencies

As mentioned before, the plot of Hey Arnold! is more or less about Arnold helping people. As stated by Gerald in The Jungle Movie, “He’s a humanitarian! Like his parents!” Of course not every episode is about Arnold helping people. There are episodes devoted to supporting characters and they’re just as enjoyable and satisfying. 

 But as he is the titular character he spends a lot of time in the spotlight. 

Remember that “best christmas special EVER” episode I mentioned before?

 The reason it’s the best special, in my less than humble opinion, is due to a few things.

 The special is not about Santa Claws. In fact, I don’t think he’s even mentioned, let alone shown and treated like an actual living character.

The focus on the entire episode is again on Arnold helping someone, but he doesn’t succeed. Not really.

The one who succeeded in helping someone was Helga, who accomplished the goal Arnold had set out to do. 

The episode deals with some rather dark subject matter and is actually quite heartwarming as the “perfect present” Arnold was trying to provide someone with wasn’t something you can buy in the store

It’s also one of the episodes where Helga’s love for Arnold leaves her to do good and as her love for him is a secret, she expects nothing in return. She’s just happy to help him.

 Kinda similar to Mari who is, as Adrien puts it in Mayura, “Our every day Ladybug.” Her kindness and devotion to helping others is what drives her as Ladybug and Marinette. It’s what brought Ivan and Mylene together. Is the reason Nathaniel and Mark now have a comic book together. And at the end of the day, that’s the reason for her strange behavior around Adrien--she wants to help him. Even if it’s just as a “good friend.” 

9) There are two main characters

Although Hey Arnold! is technically a show about Arnold, one could argue it is just as much Helga’s story. 

Similarly, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is named thusly in order to convey the fact that Adrien is just as much a main character as Marinette is. 

Although I must say Hey Arnold! did a much better job of giving it’s co-character their dues. GIVE. ME. MORE. CHAT NOIR. FOCUSED. EPISODES. DAMMIT.

But, yes, in terms of screen time, Helga gets about as much as Arnold does. Her story and struggles were given just as much importance as Arnold’s and many people have even come to believe that the show is really about Helga. I’d say its about both of them.

10) Constantly bumping into each other

Granted this happens between Arnold and Helga more often than it does to the love square dorks. 

 But yes the two people meant to be together keep knocking into each other in their respective universes. 

 I forget who, but I remember reading that someone a while back theorized that this was the universe’s way of trying to push Arnold and Helga together. Kinda like the “Now kiss!” meme

Perhaps it’s the same for Adrien and Marinette? 

;)

[maxbernini]

Hi! sorry to bug but i havent really been able to find the answer in the tags, ive seen people reference that there may be certain topics that new gens are supposed to hit, do you happen to know what some of these are, please?

hey anon!! not bugging me at all!! ❤️ you probably know most of this but just in case (and for anyone else wanting to join the clowning): there's a theory that any original* remake season must cover certain topics, most likely because of a. the old skamfr showrunner saying he had to send all scripts to nrk for approval before shooting, and b. the amount of similarities between the original seasons. this got long, so i’ll put it under a cut

the obvious similarity is that both skamfr & druck started their new gens with their vilde's youngest sister (vilde herself infamously being a ~blocked~ character which is another conspiracy theory lol, but maybe connected bc if you can't make a popular character a main, why not invent a sibling she can pester?). then, both nora m & lola's seasons featured:

depictions of mental illness & self-harm

the impacts of an alcoholic mother

fractured family (esp. sibling) dynamics + having a single parent

the process of finding your true friends

antagonists who are the mean, popular cool kids

the main having a breakdown and being rescued by their sister

a love interest who isn’t white

the main being interested in street art + photography

several similar shots, including the first clip, this, and this

so those might be some of the topics you’re looking for re: what they have to hit in their first original season, buuuuuuut i’d say most of these are just coincidences: the cinematography, and the LI not being white - skamfr don’t explore race beyond a surface level mention and in maya’s case, not at all, so i doubt they were specifically looking for a French-Japanese actress and simply cast who they thought best fit maya’s vibe. ‘the popular cool kids are mean, find your own squad’ is also like, a very common thing in teen media lol. imo, the vilde sister thing is just a coincidence too bc she’s simply an easy character to start your new gen from: she’s never been a main so inventing a sibling won’t conflict with og canon or remake canon tooo much, it’s basically a blank slate + she’s still fairly popular so it’s a way to draw people in + she (and her family) are white & cishet so there’s broad appeal etc. i can’t find it but when people were theorizing about wlw!nora at the start of s5, there was a post about wanting her to stay cishet bc it’d be far more interesting if the wlw character (we knew there’d be queer characters bc of a casting call) wasn’t white, and then that week we got confirmation fatou was gay, so.

(*the reason i'm saying original over new gen is bc kato's season actually hits some of these too: iirc, she had a fractured relationship with her mom; self-harmed and struggled with mental illness; her LI was Black; she had some issues with drugs/alcohol bc of her fractured relationship with her brother; she was interested in dance aka something artistic.)

most of the theory dies when you consider skamfr 7 vs druck s6 lmao BUT there’s still the whole ‘dating someone who has hurt one of your friends’ thing - i don’t mean this literally but in the easiest terms: tiff as kieu my, max as fatou, lola as ava (and lest we forget maya’s cameo). also, a movie featuring in both tiffax (titanic) and q2 (romeo & juliet)’s arcs. i could probably dig up more but i have repressed most of tiff’s season and have zero desire to rewatch it.

but ismail and bilal again have had some similarities: a fashionable main who potentially could be muslim who also unintentionally inspires their younger brother to steal. there’s also a love triangle, but those happen every french season so, we’ll have to see where s7 goes! personally, i don’t think the remakes contractually have to hit specific things, i think most are just fun coincidences but because they’re usually specific details (eg: nora and lola photographing street art, or the stealing brother) over generic ones, it’s easier to connect dots. but who knows! crack theories are the backbone of the skamverse fandom and most of the time it’s fun to put a tinhat on  🤡 hope this is what you were looking for anon! 

[crescentmoonrider]

some details from my recent comic (mostly environment)

also, stuff that hit the cutting room floor and isn’t present in the actual thing

[link to the comic, it’s 5 pages of kekkai sensen noir AU]

so, as some might have noticed (and as i said in the tags of the comic i think), i paid A Lot of attention to the details and environments in this comic. so i thought i’d explain some of the stuff i had in mind while drawing

surprisingly, i have nothing of importance to say about the brick wall (on page 1) i spent over 5 hours on - aside from it being bricks bc, well, new york, man

or, as the artistic director for the bbb anime Kimura Shinji said : “the most emblematic buildings in new york are from the time when art déco was “in”” and “the image of the 70s new york was the one that satisfied me most [in terms of mood]”

(ive got loads of interviews with the anime staff that came with the dvds i bought, though in french, but if anyone is interested i could translate some of them)

anyway that’s what i looked up for reference. 70s streets, emblematic new york architecture (meaning bricks and side stairs or whatever these things are called), some noir movies back alleys to fit the theme of the AU, and four new york taxi photos for a result that is

... yeah

details i do have loads to talk about though !

this poster (on page 2) is based on an actual ad for the city of new york, featuring the empire state building

so why did i choose to put this element in daniel’s office ? obviously, the setting is hellsalem’s lot right ? why keep an ad of a city that basically doesn’t exist anymore - plus, what kind of person keeps an ad of their own city ?

(also, side note, is- is the huge building that we see tumbling down at the start of the Collapse in the anime. is it the empire state ?? did the empire state get scraped from new york/hellsalem’s horizon right as Mr. Kimura said he based his backgrounds on this kind of architecture ?)

anyway, this poster was my way of slowly building up the... let’s say static state daniel is in, in this AU. page 3 mentions “The constant numbness that’s been following [him] for the past three years.” and that was my attempt at introducing this idea environmentally

this daniel refuses to move past the disappearance of marcus, refuses to accept it, and that form of denial kind of leads him to get. stuck in place - or maybe stuck in time, leading me to

this glass of water (page 2 still)

how long has this glass been sitting here ? who knows. a while, certainly, if the way it’s sweating is any indication

how long has daniel been standing looking at nothing through that window, stuck inside his thoughts, until reality calls him back whenever a client walks in ?

how many times has it happened ?

on the same desk, we have... quite a few pictures

(yes i put effort into this detail explanation, yes i redrew the pictures for this one)

(also i realize i put the pencil on the left side out of habit, so i guess daniel is now left-handed. ooops ?)

on the center of the desk, we can see... Leonardo Watch ? yup, that’s him, he has a file dedicated to him, and daniel apparently followed him around enough to get 4 pictures taken on various occasions, and one mugshot he got.... somewhere

daniel is, in fact, not working on a case relating to leo. officially. alright, so, i haven’t figured out the way everything fits together, but daniel’s search into his brother’s disappearance lead him places, among which research into Things You Can’t See, and as such, the eyes of the gods

pictures 1-3 are just leo in various situations (meeting up with nej, eating at diane’s dinner, waiting for his train)

picture 4 shows leo on a bench, obviously interacting with.... someone ? who cannot be seen. even though leo clearly has his arm over their. shoulder, probably. daniel annotated the picture by hand, circling the empty space at leo’s side, and adding the commentary “doesn’t appear on photos?”, indicating that whoever was there could, in fact, be seen by human eyes

(leo, what the fuck kind of friends are you making in this AU)

on the right side of the desk, literally put aside, is a file full of daniel’s official work. and a picture related to his most current case

not explicit, or even implicit, but probably a fun fact, this one file is just. a collection of investigations into one Zapp Renfro’s many affairs, each investigation related to a different case

i’m not saying zapp keeps daniel fed through his many infidelities, but i’m not not saying it either

if they ever actually meet, daniel is either going to shout at zapp forever for being a garbage person, or he will thank him for all the easy work. or he might do both

so how did daniel take these pictures ? did he use a portable camera, like any old-fashioned detective would ? or did he go the modern way, and simply used his phone ?

the answer is neither

welcome to “i couldn’t fit this in the comic so just take it”, featuring daniel’s left eye ! my headcanons for his canon self vary from day to day (and also whether we’re talking manga or anime, since his design slightly differs), but in this AU, we’re going with a huge scar and an artificial eye

the eye is a product of beyondian technology. pure tech, no magic involved. it works as a covert camera, but mainly serves as, you know, an eye

sometimes daniel sees people with his right eye that the left one seems blind to, and something tells him he should probably not ask about it if he can avoid it

next page !

those who saw me post my progress in real time already know this one, but i still can’t get over the fact that i put research into a single shot of a small part of a watch. but i did

anyway the watch is an actual existing one. it’s a Boucheron “Epure”, steel with a white quadrant, and a black gator bracelet. you can look it up

and now we get to the One thing i really, really wanted to put in the comic, but had to refrain myself out of a desire to keep things not too cliché. i mean, shady client comes in, detective thinks to himself “the moment i saw him, i knew he was trouble” while dragging on his cigarette...

look, steven is heavily femme fatale (homme fatal ?) coded already, and is trying to look decent and Not like he murdered someone/is planning on murdering someone, because that’s precisely the problem he needs daniel’s help with. murder accusations

anyway he can not decently show up in a fur coat looking like some mafia boss

but BOY do i wish he would

[robertogreco]

The Redirect: Technology after Capitalism

Here are a few thoughts from Public Knowledge’s “The Redirect: Technology after Capitalism” event at SFMOMA with Xiaowei Wang, Andrea Steves, Kim Stanley Robinson, Finn Brunton, and Caitlin Zaloom, which I very much enjoyed. [These notes were shared on Twitter the day after the event, but I am just now piecing them together here with a few corrections.]

That description of late capitalism (finance-driven capitalism, neoliberalism, what have you) keeping us stuck in very short-term thinking reminds me of Stewart Brand’s “pace layering.” We need to zoom in and out. We need to inhabit various orbits.

That notion of the potential of art (in the broadest of terms) as a mechanism for thinking… in a way, it keeps us from doing (making messes, consuming more, etc.) by slowing us down through a process of considering, playing out possibilities and subsequently making less mess, which together with the Fred Jameson quote that came up (“Someone once said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.”) reminds of Ursula K. Le Guin’s “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”

The, again, Fred Jameson (pretty sure, but I could be remembering wrong) thought that Kim Stanley Robinson shared about the need for everyone to be a technocrat/bureaucrat because commons have always been dependent on keepers/minders/custodians enforcing them, even if not visible.

But how to bring back commons if capitalism keeps up racing along and the capitalist always find a way to root out socialism? I think about a Fred Moten quote I saw earlier today:

I don't think that scale is our friend, it's our enemy. how to get together on small scale with patience, ethical regard for one another... maybe this renewal of our habits of assembly happens on a small scale." —Fred Moten #tinylife

… and the notion of pockets (small!) of resistance (some collected quotes and ideas), with a nod to John Berger for language and for the sense of urgency, which has only expanded since he wrote.

And then back to the struggle to imagine a post-capitalist world, to break free from systems we no longer recognize as human inventions nor anything short of laws of physics, even if they aren’t, we need “the third loop” (Open thread, see above and below.)

Essentially I understand the third loop to be the ability to question a system itself and clearly see it’s contours, while 1st and 2nd loops are working within that dominant system

See also notions of (1) “cultural dark matter” and (2) “transcontextualism” and the “double bind.”

So much more to chew on: Xiaowei Wang’s visit to Alibaba towns and the “rural revitalization” initiatives in China, KSR’s re-terraforming and/or terra-harnessing (my feeble attempts at naming) of California’s Central Valley, using existing geology as “French drains,” and Aldo Leopold’s land ethic (more or less, “What’s good is good for the land.”), and “Capitalism is a fear of the other, a prisoner’s dilemma.” And “You get Theranos because there are not enough places for money to go [in capitalism].” Etc, etc. Brain food.

FIN

Update 1:

Because it relates to many parts of the thread above (especially the imagining of alternatives to our systems and the practice of art), here is some bell hooks, who of course has said:

The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is. It’s to imagine what is possible.

Update 2: From an exchange with Xiaowei Wang, whose prompts are in quotes, the rest of the words mine:

love this Fred Moten quote: so, so true. sometimes I get really excited about being part of a community/organizing + then get heartsick when we start using same vocabularies that capitalism has taught us since birth."whats the most efficient and productive political strategy" etc

yes! with sprinklings of “value” and “worth” and “human capital” and “achievement” not to mention all the hierarchy and war words… “merit” and “deserve” and “dominate” and “lead” and “win” and and

I am curious, especially wrt the "it's easier to imagine end of world than end of capitalism" quote. if capitalism did end, would our brains be able to handle it? i think of many friends who say if they could stop working, they're not sure what they would do instead!

I am curious too. I think we have so much of our identity wrapped up in our work (“What do yo do?” as one of the first questions we ask people new to us) and most of our education points to work, not life and leisure (largely discouraged beyond vacation, “idle hands…”) that even when people retire, many don’t know what to do with themselves. (If I recall correctly, there is some research about retirees and those without hobbies have greater health consequences.) But I think the answer lies in recreation and creativity. If our education emphasized creativity and recreation as part of a balanced life, then it would be easier to imagine days gardening, birding, walking/hiking, sports playing, making of all sorts (art, carpentry, writing, painting, filmmaking, etc.), care and maintenance (of children, homes, machines, etc.).

… reading, chatting, cooking, sewing, cleaning. But so many of those care and maintenance tasks today are paid poorly (when paid at all) and thus seen as something to aspire to remove from our lives (often with an app!, no less).

(Some disclosure.)

PS: Jenny Odell has some good answers to all this notion in How to Do Nothing (the text of a talk, the video of the talk, and the book).

Here’s Jia Tolentino referencing Jenny Odell in “What It Takes to Put Your Phone Away”:

It involves rejecting the sort of progress that centers on isolated striving, and emphasizing, instead, caregiving, maintenance, and the interdependence of things.

[…]

She locates the potential for change in individual acts of refusal, which, she argues, make space for others to follow.

[legolasgoldy]

things i like to know about rp partners !!

FILL IN:

i like to be called:  My name (if we talk you’d know what it was and if not just ask! Im likely to just tell you one day tho randomly tho) Goldie, And any nickname we decide to have for each other if we ever want them.

my favourite colour is: Pearly light pink with a hint of lavender, just a veryyy tiny hint to make a different tone pink. If youve ever seen pink silk, its likely that color, just imagine it to be pearly. I really like purple too, and i know its not actually a color but i really love clear sparkly things, does that count as colorless?

gender: Female

one thing you should know about me:  

I love talking and plotting out things for our muses. While I may seem very outgoing and bubbly, I am actually a very shy and be a very worrisome person. I may check with you to make sure certain things are okay about my reply to our thread or reassure you that post lengths dont matter, etc. Anything that can put us both at ease! If our conversation or thread somehow gets uncomfortable for me i’ll gently let you know so we can change it, and vice versa. If anything bothers you let me know so we can change it <3 For instance, I cant write violence with cars or things being crushed.

one thing you should know about my muse:   Finrod has a hard time acknowledging AUs sometimes. He is one of the most friendly people ever, and adores making friends everywhere with anyone. However, the same cant be said of ships. He is very demisexual so when he clicks with someone its really a one stop shop for him. Ive only ever successfully gotten him to ship with three people and its because i separated them through layers and layers of very different AUs to the point its three very different Finrod’s in each AU, hes the same person, but his background is very different. So in each of those three AUs, those ships are one stop shops, and he wont accept anyone else in those AUs because he is solely in love with that one person. As a result, hes not open to any new ships, but will accept any and all other relationships! :D

first language:  English

second language: None, but i really want to learn French! I only know a few words, not enough to form a sentence or speak it.

HIGHLIGHT:

age range:   under 13  |  14–17 | 18–22 | 23–25 |26–29 |  30+ |  70+

am i okay with nsfw?: yes | no | maybe  (Only with the few ships Finrod has, and its a given only with people and muses of age, which they are.)

my favourite/most common thing to rp is: angst| fluff | smut |crack | action | other ( I love exploring Finrod’s relationships in every way! The emotions of it all are so good!)

oc friendly?: yes | no | depends

rp blog:  does | doesn’t contain ooc posts  

TAGGING:

Tagged by:  @blind-mutant Thank you!!

Tagging: @mikhailvalhidris, @driftinglightofthewoods, @inkwoodprince , @admirable-mairon, @bouncingbeleg

[hungryhungryhippo3]

ok im kinda tired from studying all day and i just watched the latest episode, and ive got some thoughts??? but im not in the best state of mind to articulate everything so imma just do some dot points:

- letting everyone have a go as a superhero: i dont agree with; it sort of trivialises that kind of power and is contradictory to master fu’s own experiences with his carelessness,,, like did you even learn anything from hawkmoth lmao... idk why but this thing upset/made me most uncomfortable, it just seems like a lot of carelessness, but tbh this is also a kids show with a kids audience so i guess you do have to sacrifice some elements of common sense/rational thought and action/general consistency with fu’s decisions for some Cool Heroes and Fun New Powers

- leading on from this, what is our position on how we treat kwamis?? : these are sentient beings, these are actual gods ( i think?? i havent read the comics), who are chained to a miraculous. what is our (by that inclusive, im referring to the characters in the show + the actual audience + producers) actual position on them?? so we respect them as mentors and guides + actual gods, but do we also treat them with the same triviality as the miraculous object itself??? something to give away and lock up at will, something to utilise only in times of need?? and those are only in part rhetorical qqs, im genuinely curious and i wont judge if thats the way things are

- chat noir and rena rouge: y’all can argue that their interactions were strictly platonic but imma fight for this; he was blatantly flirting with her. he kissed her hand, he was *casually* leaning against his baton, leaning in towards her, ok admittedly, i know french culture is a lot more direct and touchy than western culture and i havent down my research lmao but it felt a lot like he was interested??? i mean these are the same stuff he does to ladybug??? and alya (maybe she saw it as just platonic) but she also indulged him even tho shes already in a relationship ??? lol idek maybe its just me, but the first introduction made me feel uncomfortable coz of that (the second interaction was much more platonic tho)

- keeping chat noir out of the loop: ive seen a lot about this already on the tags, and 100% agree. at this point i dont know what to make of the relationship between lb and cn. @the ml producers, whether you wanna sell them as partners or as a duo where ladybug is the Main, ill support, but pls: consistency. i feel like theyve always been presented as a partnership, like two parts of one whole, but this ep kinda went against that? marinette has visited fu many times (implied), he allowed her to choose a hero, he himself explained all that detail about the miraculous’ to her, she left chat noir to fend for himself (without explaining the plan) while she went to find fu. adrien, who took gabriel’s book to learn more himself, didnt even get the chance to learn properly. and i bet that had he been given the opportunity to read, lb wouldve been the first person he went to. partnership = developing together, making decisions together, being transparent and clear w/ each other. i didnt see that today. what i saw was something more akin to batman and robin, hero and sidekick

- development/consistency w/ ladybug and chat noir’s (general) relationship: again, ik this is a kids show, and each episode is meant to be independent of each other, and there isnt a fixed sense of continuity. and this dot point sort of touches on the last 2 as well, but a change in the dynamic had so much potential to progress on ladybug and chat noir’s relationship (there could’ve been conflict, there could’ve been insecurities, there could’ve been distance, esp. following the Glaciator ep). the producers could’ve used this opportunity to see a shift in their general relationship + some solid characterisation (in relation to their partnership/dynamic) and actually lay some solid groundwork beyond the whole lovesquare thing.

- alya in general: ok so a positive: some good characterisation for alya. it was gr8 to see some more insight about her family dynamic, her own interactions w/ her siblings, the type of person she is beyond school and the ladyblog. shes undoubtedly worthy to receive that miraculous; headstrong, focused, learns quickly (thats a bonus). but i gotta agree with some of the posts circulating, marinette, as professional as she can be when she has to, is still ultimately biased. master fu tells her himself to choose someone she trusts (according to the translation i got), and doesnt that entail some subjectivity??? thats not to say that she chose her just bcoz theyre friends because marinette would be blind not to see all these gr8 qualities in her bff. but like ppl are saying, i think alya shouldve been chosen by virtue by the guardian, who knows these miraculous’ more than anyone, knows the sort of characters each miraculous is suited to, instead of marinette randomly selecting one and giving it to her best friend.

- gabriel: is a hypocrite and does not deserve to be a parent, but what else is  new lmao

[lupintyde]

A Lady’s Guide To Surviving Pop Culture

**You can find a complete list of my ML crack posts here, and links to the other parts of this series at the bottom of this post.  I’ve linked to some of my other posts in this part.  It’s just a ton of linkage, y’all.  Also, some random cursing :)**

Confession time: I’ve had this part all ready to go for about a month, but I couldn’t think of a title.  I was so close to naming it “Ladybug Meets Slime, a Mime and Medieval Times”.  Y’all dodged a bullet ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

When we last saw Ladybug, she was chasing Chat Noir down to make out with him in order to break him from an akuma’s control.  Because True Love’s Kiss and stuff.  And then she acted like nothing happened.  As usual.

*SIGH*  I need a break from the love square antics.  I need...A HORROR MOVIE!!!

In “Horrificator”:

The class is making a fake horror movie

which turns into a real horror movie

judging by Mari’s face, it’s the most horrifying thing she’s ever se--

--oh no wait...

it’s just Chloe almost kissing Adrien

...like that doesn’t happen every time she gloms onto him...

they hear a scream and go to investigate

the reactions vary...

Alya: they’re pranking us guys

Nathaniel: GAME OVER, MAN!

Nino:  *switches from making a B-movie to a found footage horror movie*

Mari: goddammit Nino －‸ლ 

so...

a srsly hot guy with blonde hair

and a cute girl with blue pigtails

--who were JUST IN this small group, mind--

disappear and a srsly hot cat boy and cute super heroine with blue pig-tails show up out of the freaking blue

in a completely closed off school

minutes after the first people disappear

Chat even mentions how he tried getting out

OUT, not in

meaning he was in the school when it was covered by the slime barrier

..............

this entire class needs to be smacked with a clue-by-four

Time to lube up the Eiffel Tower and--oh wait.  Wrong movie.  Find out what movie we’re supposed to be watching after the cut...

so how the hell are they getting out?

LB’s got a plan, but Chat’s only concerned about one thing 

he’s gonna kiss someone today, dammit >_<

third time’s a charm

unfortunately for him, Ladybug’s used to ignoring his charm

although she may or may not have rung his bell, instead...

they go looking for Adrien and find his Hawkmoth brand shoe 

Chat: anyone recognize this?

*innocent whistling*

you’re as smooth as a topographical map of Utah, my dude

just like a horror movie to have the monster show up 2/3 of the way in

Nino’s gonna need a change of pants

Chat and Ladybug are all “what the fuck is that supposed to be...?”

Mari looked more terrified at the prospect of Adrien getting smooches tbh

PRIORITES, y’all

this is the least threatening akuma they’ve ever faced

like what if the xenomorph from Alien just needed a hug

Juleka would be all over that

In “Darkblade/Le Chevalier Noir”:

Alternately titled “Chat Noir Joins a LARP” 

not even a sword fight could derail his rapier wit

though he does end up going on the of-fence-ive 

...that was funnier in my head...

sorry guys, it’s been fun

but my ride’s here

...wait one freaking second

LB and Chat Noir are French, right?  Right.

taunting a group of knights and keeping them from getting an object they want at the top of the castl--er--hotel

in this case, a flag

instead of, oh say I don’t know, a grail

it’s a good thing he was in the presence of a lady

or he probs would have threatened farting in their general direction

after they defeat the Black Knight 

Adrien lets loose with the best pun in the series

He is King of the Puns

not that anyone voted for him

his talent is lost on these peasants

this boy could walk around in a cat ear headband and muss up his hair

and Mari would think he pulls it off better than Chat Noir

In “The Mime/Le Mime”:

you know for someone who hates liars

it took Marinette a while to come clean to Alya

Tikki’s just given up at this point tbh

Karma’s got Alya’s back tho

the cats of Paris have it out for Marinette

especially this one ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

♬♪♫ a whole new wooooooorld ♬♪♫ 

also known as a break for Ladynoir fanservice

wait...I’ve seen that move before...

...ok...what is it with these akumas throwing Chat around, tying him up, holding him down...

just because he’s a (faux) leather cat boy who has a BELT FOR A TAIL does not mean he’s into S&M, people

you think the bad guys would have learned from the Timebreaker incident not to mess with him

is Ladybug gonna have ta smack a bitch?!

Mari wants Chat to annoy the mime

because that’s apparently in his wheelhouse

he’s all “HEY!” for a split second

until he realizes she has a point

you dweebs are lucky that mime has a better sense of self preservation than you do

Good job, kitty!

gifts from cats are hit or miss

make sure there are no...presents...in there

it looks like she’s got the right idea to sniff it first

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is only one part of a series!  Here’s the link to the other parts of Adrien’s Game and A Lady’s Charm :)

ML Master List Of Crack Posts

(I used to add links to the newest installment at the bottom of my Adrien’s Game and Lady’s Charm posts, but the list will eventually end up being as long as the actual post.  So, yeah.  I’m taking the lazy approach.)

*DISCLAIMER*   The episodes are in order by the original French air date listed on the ML Wiki (link here) and I mix up the English and French names because I watch both.   These posts are my attempt at humor and not meant to be taken seriously.  Hateful/snide comments are the reason for this disclaimer and peeps trying to start arguments will be blocked.  I’m not out to prove anything and I don’t give attention to trolls.  If you reblog, use whatever tags float your shippy boat.  If you wanna use the screencaps, please give me credit for capturing them.  I am under no illusion that I own the series, obviously.   Also, long post is long and this will be a series of long posts with a LOT of pictures.  I read as many of the reblog tags as I have time for, and you guys are so supportive and way funnier than I think I am.  So thanks for the love and the laughs :)

Special shout out to @aplaceofnonsense for helping with the main title and encouraging me with an impromptu pun battle.