#julia's writing adventures

[theadventurezoneoftruth]

7 years ago, I started a group chat fanfic. People seemed to like it! I sure liked writing it.

But then life happened, yada yada, and I never got around to finishing it. To be honest, I thought I never would.

But I reread it recently. While it definitely has the strong Stench of 2017 humor on it, I found that there was still a lot to like about it. And it kept receiving a lot of very nice comments.

So I finally decided to finish the damn thing. I hope y'all enjoy.

[popstart]

goddddd whenever i remember julias canon voice is Like That it has me cringe so bad. shes very very obviously supposed to be a valley girl vsco kinda girl but her accent drives me absolutely nuts because its such a poor imitation of the accent😭😭😭and her lingo is sooooo generic. i do not hear like any actual valley girl slang or even californian slang in general. and yeah ok its a show, and its a canadian show no less which has rules on who theyre allowed to hire for their voice actors, but it bugs me and i see zero other people point out how grating it is to listen to julia for 2 seconds. am i the only valley girl fan of total drama in the entire world. am i the only one upset by this

[noodyl-blasstal]

Uhuhuhhhh marine biologists au is this anything

Oh ho ho ho! Yeah it is! Thank you so much for this, I've had a great time playing with it.

[This is an ask game - give me an AU and I'll give you five things about it. Feel free to send your own!]

Marine biologist AU basic premise: the star blaster is a research vessel and the seven birds are crew. They're looking at an area where there has been a massive fish death. However, they're not supposed to - the area is privately owned by a big Definitely Above Board Corporation, so they have to be stealthy. Kravitz is a marine ecologist that works for the same research facility but there was a whole thing around Merle smashing his favourite mug and Magnus eating his lunch (accidentally) so they don't speak.

1) Kravitz is also investigating, he's on his own so has a much smaller boat and they don't notice him initially. He thinks they're polluters and it leads to a stand off.

2) They eventually decide to reluctantly team up. He and Taako do some water sampling, obviously it's fraught with sexual tension.

3) Barry needs a fish corpse (to dissect and assess in his lab) and he needs it asap. He's on a fission.

4) Merle assesses a tonne of algae/seaweed etc. and with the other results they realise it's related to pollutants

5) Dav and Lucretia use their ability to do bureaucratic nonsense to try and stop what's happening. The corporation tries to buy their way out and bury the story by buying off trash press and lawyering other press. Lup and Magnus use his weirdly popular (he does it topless and always features his bajillion dogs) woodworking [insert social media account of some description] to highlight what's going on and everyone knows the corporation is evil actually. (And it's my world, so something actually gets done)

[bourbon-ontherocks]

this is the depressing ask. beware. 😂 

first I want to thank the writers for so helpful reminding us of 305 with the line about naked suspects. clearly, morgane wasn’t there to witness adam’s frightful interrogation because she’d have eviscerated him then and there (that’s what I like to think, at least). 

bref. the ending. are we really doing this? I feel like this conversation’s been had a thousand times before yet the show doesn’t seem to have heard any of it. or doesn’t care. (I’ll let you list off the reasons why it’s an awful twist, if you feel up to it, because I’m frankly too tired for that) 

I hate the way they showed a sonogram as if to hammer home she’s carrying a child, not a fetus, when it's the other way round. I hate the mamma mia montage, as if figuring out whose genes are involved is the priority. I hate the 306 retcon, get this shit away from me, both their drinks were spiked. I hate that we’re supposed to believe none of these grown adults (the ones who weren’t drugged, at least) considered protection. especially morgane--she’s had DREAMS about this, ffs, there’s no way that wouldn’t cross her mind. I hate the ramifications of every single way this could go down (too long to expound but you get me). I hate that there’s even a shred of doubt about how this will go down. I hate that they served us some watered-down so-called feminist juice for a whole season and still decided to use morgane’s body as an open ground for drama. 

given the way they’ve addressed the question in the ep, I’m very pessimistic about s4. Idk about you but my only solace is knowing it’s out of our hands, anyway, so I don’t have to waste my energy trying to change anybody’s mind. 

thanks for sticking along on this ride. wouldn't have had it any other way. and good luck for the year ahead of us, everybody. the only way out is through! 🤞

Nodding along at everything you said because yeah, and also while I liked Adam's line about naked suspects, your point about Morgane finding out about it just gave me a fantastic idea to add to my WIP, so thank you for that!

Now for the ending.

I think there are two main points to distinguish here because obviously, my personal distaste for pregnancy and baby storylines makes the idea of Morgane bearing a fourth child everything I don't want to see. BUT, had the circumstances been wildly different, I could have come to terms with it and accepted it, as in "Yeah I don't like this turn of events but I can get over it because it makes sense narratively and serves an interesting purpose". What actually makes this finale awful are the circumstances of this pregnancy, and now we're getting to the essay-ish part of this post where I'll try to explain

Why HPI finale is lazy, infuriating, and profoundly anti-feminist

Just like you point out, this mamma mia scenario was already explored in… well… mamma mia, plus countless other stories, zero originality here, I expected better from HPI tbh. And I read just yesterday an interview with the producer saying "Season 4 be like, we're looking for a baby daddy instead of a murderer lolilol", yea guess what, I DON'T CARE. For a while after watching the episode, I dared to hope that the montage in the end was purposefully misleading, that soon Morgane would come to her senses and remember that she did use protection with at least Timothée and David, because I 100% agree with you, it's ridiculous to make us believe that none of these people ever had a thought about contraception. Timothée even said "We're not trying yet", which means he kinda knows how not to try, no? And also I can accept the idea that Morgane isn't on any kind of birth control because it happens (some women react badly to pills and IUDs, etc), but she was with Ludo for half a season so they must have used condoms, she has to know and think about it (and like you said, she's DREAMED of it, and explicitly said that SHE DIDN'T WANT A FOURTH KID - I'll get to that later because it makes me fume). Besides, she's had three kids already, she knows how this all works. So yeah, it's lazy and implausible.

What I find particularly infuriating in this 3-baby-daddies plotline is also the deeply misogynistic trope of seeing a female character unable to enjoy an unapologetic sex life with multiple partners without getting punished by the script with an unwanted pregnancy. This is the literal definition of slut-shaming by the way. I was going to say that I didn't see where you found feminist vibes in the show, but then I remembered how much I loved the way Morgane expresses her feminity, her desire, and her sexuality, and…. yea, this is exactly the point I'm trying to make (also I loved seeing childfree, 40+ characters who were thriving but that's another discussion I guess). Seeing that we're still there in 2023 legitimately makes me sick.

Speaking of misogynistic tropes… I guess the ONE detail that really makes me want to throw spears at the writers is the sixteen weeks' mention. By purposefully making her too far in her pregnancy for abortion, they robbed her of having a choice. I mean, they could have got her two months pregnant, and then for some bad (imo) reasons she'd have decided to keep the baby, it would have made no difference for what's coming next. I wouldn't have loved it, sure, but it would have been fine by me because at least it'd have been her decision. Here she's just subjected to the plot, and like you said, her body is used as a narrative tool, and it feels like a slap in the face. Not to mention that even here they fucked up the timeline, because she fucked Timothée, David, and Adam in the span of like 4 days, right? Literally the day after the LSD adventures she and Adam decide to wait for three months, and the montage insists on how on the schedule they are. And I'd say that 307-308 happen within a week maximum because Redbone's not one to wait three weeks for his money lol. So 3 months is 12, 13 weeks at most, which means that in the end, Morgane is 14 weeks pregnant AT BEST (which makes her still eligible for abortion, mhhhh, see where I'm going with this? 🤔), and not 16. The only valid explanation would be that it's Timothée's baby and that she was already pregnant when she had her other encounters, but since the show seems to go in another direction, then it means that they purposefully fucked up the numbers so that she CANNOT consider abortion, which is the most dehumanizing, disempowering thing you can do to a female character.

They're literally forcing a pregnancy on her, and I want to throw up every time I think about it.

Speaking of which. Morgnane's already had three kids. Also, she told us in season 2 about her first-trimester symptoms. And she's supposed to be smart, hell that's the WHOLE point of the show. So there's no way she wouldn't have noticed that she was pregnant again, unless she denied her pregnancy (which would explain her total absence of symptoms, incredulity at the hospital, and possibly the fact that her brain erased her sexytimes with Adam). Now pregnancy denial is one of my greatest fears in life, so I can hear that this was particularly triggering for me specifically, but still, this is an incredibly traumatic experience to throw at her, and a source of huge emotional distress. SHE STATED SHE DIDN'T WANT A FOURTH KID FOR FUCK'S SAFE AND YOU ARE FORCING HER TO GET ONE WHEN SHE'S AT HER LOWEST, AND YOU'RE EXPECTING US TO FIND THIS FUNNY??????? I mean just go sell potatoes and stop writing shows because this is an insult to the art of writing.

😠🔪😭

Sorry I need a minute to have a good cry and yell at the abyss.

.

Okay, I'll just close the 16-week essay by saying that I entirely blame Audrey Fleurot for this, and this is what I base my theory on:

I mean, cool bro if it worked for you (except it didn't, do you want to talk again about your post-partum? Is that what you're planning for Morgane?) and I get that acting can be a therapy in some way, but this is getting way too close to the target, just get the fuck out of the writing room if that's what you're going to come up with, PLEASE.

I'm not sure where you see a 306 retcon though, for me it's pretty clear they were both under the influence, had sex, and blacked out about it (which as @earanie and @hemerae-ramblings pointed out, is highly unrealistic since memory losses are NOT a side-effect of LSD, but I can hear the argument of denial here). But speaking of 306, the finale completely doomed this episode for me, because in retrospect it feels like a giant set-up. The LSD scene is ONLY here to make it possible for Adam to have unprotected sex (side point here, I'm actually not mad they hooked up, even though it's kind of frustrating to see it happen this way, because I find the "offscreen banging reveal" a hilarious yet underused trope, and also I like the messiness), and while this last point is in a way funny, the worst part is the three months window at the end, which has in fact NOTHING to do with Adam sorting his feelings or whatever but is only here to forbid the possibility of abortion for Morgane, and this makes me want to stab people multiple times.

Also, one last thing that I find absolutely disgusting is the fact that Morgane and Adam (presumably) conceived a baby against their will (there's a whole other discussion to have about consent here but I won't go there for today) while solving a case about a BABY BORN FROM RAPE. I mean, can you make it more icky than that? Do the writers even acknowledge the irony of this? Do they even care? This baby is doomed by the narrative from the fertilization stage, and we're supposed to enjoy it as a comedy?

And now I assume we'll get to watch a forced coming together between Adam and Morgane due to the circumstances, which means that even if they end up together we'll never know if they actually wanted it? What a way to kill a ship, man, I've seen shows pretty efficient at ship-sinking but this has to be in the top three.

(somehow there's a wild irony in the fact that both the showrunners and the main cast have been saying on repeat from season 1 that they didn't want to make that disappointing season that ruins most shows, and yet they managed to spectacularly fuck-up and promise the worst season ever, and they're already paying for it audience-wise...)

See, all of this is the silver lining I'm holding onto for now, in the hope of a miscarriage (which would also be incredibly traumatic for Morgane, and still an objectified-by-the-plot scenario, but at this point our options are limited. Also for now the showrunners are only mentioning the pregnancy but not the baby so maybe there's a tiny chance she actually doesn't have it), because there's no way anyone could rejoice from this. And if she does have this baby, and if it's Adam's, then I'll officially change their shipname from Brosse Adam to Brosse & Rachel, and this will probably be my last contribution to this fandom. Hated this in Friends, will hate it in HPI.

I'm not pessimistic about season 4, anon, I just don't want to consider it at all. Obviously, I'm ready to withdraw everything I said here if they choose the only acceptable outcome (abortion) and actually make an extremely powerful narrative and political statement about it, but I know it's off the table. Having to endure such a plotline in 2023, at a time when women's right to dispose of their own bodies is threatened everywhere in the world, is a very painful punch in the face, and I sincerely hope they'll get a ton of backlash on social media for this. I just saw this morning that the airing of 308 had the lowest audience numbers ever in the show's history, and I can't say that it makes me unhappy.

(I was lowkey hoping for a cancellation at this point, even though I know the chances weren't great, but I found out today that the show was officially renewed so we won't even get the solace of knowing they can't do any further damage... Eh 🤷‍♀️)

Finally, the thing that saddens me the most isn't even what they did to Morgane and to the show, it's what they did to our community as a result. I have been alone in this fandom for almost a year, and it was incredibly frustrating. And then people joined, created content, interacted, had fun, and we had such an amazing time together, writing, giffing, vidding, sharing theories, jokes, and thoughts. I've met some incredible, witty people, some of them I dare to call friends. And now it feels like everything is falling apart. Friends are leaving, or considering to. Group chats have turned into support groups. The writers didn't only ruin the show, they took away the enjoyment we gathered from it, and it sickens me. Personally, I've had a very rough first semester of 2023, and this community is what has kept me afloat. It's made me smile and laugh in times of sadness, it's given me a shiny, quirky escape that I'll never be grateful enough for. And to witness it all collapsing really hurts. I do hope it's just a bump in the road, that we'll come back eventually, sticking together and collectively despising canon, ignoring it by ferociously writing AUs, and roasting the timeline, and making Daphné-centered vids, but I'm not even sure myself where I stand regarding my own involvement in this fandom. Nothing else to say, I just miss what we had, that's all 😢

Now that I'm thinking about it, "J'avais tellement envie que ça marche entre nous" is exactly how I feel about canon right now. You know when I said that getting into a new hyperfixation felt like falling in love? Well, this shitty ending feels like getting ugly dumped.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, anon, and thank you for sticking with me too. It's too early to say if this is officially the end of Julia's adventures with the HPI anon or not, but please know that I've loved every second of the ride and that I will never forget it 🥲

😘🥃👻

[chiropteracupola]

thinkin about the imaginary timeline where antonia sharpe and fanny and charlotte aubrey are friends again...

[herbgerblin]

For fic prompt: #27 Magnulia!! <3

“Can I stay here tonight.”

Anonymous asked: Magnulia + 49. "Stay."

Gonna go two birds with one stone with this one lads!

—

Julia: you guys live twenty miles away! and he got here in like! 10 minutes!

Killian: Yah he booked it out the door the second you called him

Carey: I'm surprised he didn't just run the entire way

Julia could feel a warmth bloom in her chest at the thought, so she stopped texting and shoved her phone into her pocket. She paused at the stairs that led down to her basement, and adjusted the towels and clothes that were stacked in her arms. Then she peeked in and scanned the room.

From her vantage point, she could barely make out Magnus's figure in the far corner, opposite the stairs. Or half of him at least. The other half was crouched behind a washing machine.

A washing machine that had, not two minutes prior, blasted him with a surge of water stronger than a fire hydrant.

Fortunately, the water was no longer gushing as it had been. But now the floor was completely soaked, and most of the electronics were disconnected, for fear of an electrical shock. A flashlight angled from the top of a bookshelf illuminated the young man, as he leaned back to pull out a curious piece of plastic from the back of the machine.

Julia chided herself, internally She liked Magnus, and from Killian and Carey's message, she felt pretty certain that Magnus liked her too. They weren't dating, but they weren't not dating. They hadn't put words to the thing they were yet. They had been spending a lot of time with each other for the past month. Julia was starting to feel like words desperately needed to be had.

"Knock knock," Julia said, knocking on the door frame with her free hand. "I grabbed some towels and the biggest clothes I could find." She descended the stairs, stopping at the very last one. "You'll have to come over here, since I'm wearing socks and don't want to get into—"

She gestured at the large puddle currently soaking the carpet.

Magnus, almost too quickly, stood up at the sound of her voice. His movements sent flecks of water flying in all directions. In his mouth was another small flashlight, which was a little blinding to look at head-on. His tall, broad frame cut a dark silhouette in the otherwise empty room. To anyone else, he'd look like a phantom.

To Julia, he was no scarier than a firefly.

He took the flashlight out of his mouth and marched over to her. His sopping boots made a terrible suction noise with every step. The basement air felt cool in the nighttime, and Julia worried that all the water made it much colder. She held out a towel the moment he came within reach.

"That's fair," Magnus replied, taking the towel graciously. "I'm already soaked to the bone. Can't get wetter than this." He plopped it on his head to dry his hair. Julia shuffled in place just a bit.

"The clothes are mostly pajamas," she said. "I'm afraid you'll have to make do with my old volleyball t-shirt. Sorry for not turning off the water before you got here."

"Oh, that's okay!" Magnus said, cheerily. He kept the first towel around his neck and grabbed another one to wipe his arms. "I did get here kind of fast."

An understatement, Julia thought. "Got any clue what's wrong?"

"I think the drain box in your washing machine got backed up. That would explain the--" Magnus gestured at the giant puddle on the floor. Julia nodded. He continued, "Best case scenario, you need a new washing machine. Worst case scenario, you may need to call a contractor for a better look at your water pressure."

“Shit, my budget is kind of tight at the moment," Julia said, biting her lip. Her father was across the country for a tradeshow that week, so she couldn't call him up to lend a hand. "Guess it's trips to the laundromat for a bit."

“I know a couple of warehouses that you could shop around from," Magnus said. "As far as plumbing is concerned, I can’t do the switch myself, but I could go to the hardware store and find the right parts. That might save you some money.”

Julia felt that familiar warmth bloom in her chest once again. She wanted to refuse the kind offer since he'd already gone out of his way here and now. But something told her not to. Instead, she asked, “And how would I pay you back for this?"

“Well…” Magnus mulled it over for a second. “A healthy helping of the Waxmen family quiche would cover a solid portion.”

Julia gave a teasing tilt of her head. “Would a glass of sweet tea and a slice of the Waxmen family apple pie sweeten the deal?”

“Most assuredly," Magnus said, smiling right back. And then he sneezed.

Julia remembered that they were standing in a drafty, dark, and wet basement. She backed up a couple steps and exclaimed, "Oh gods, Magnus. Come on upstairs! You're still soaked!"

"Oh. Yeah, I am," Magnus said, looking down at himself like he'd also completely forgotten. He shook off a few more drips of water and followed her with slow, creaking steps out of the basement. "I found the valve for the washer and turned it off, so you should be able to use water in the rest of the house."

"You're a godsend, you know that?" Julia asked, looking back. She meant it casually, as one does. But the smile on Magnus' face was so lovely, that it made her turn back around and hasten her steps. She had it bad. Bad bad.

They emerged into the hallway, into the warmth and light of the rest of the house. Julia deposited her bundle of clothes in Magnus' hands, then dipped into the kitchen to test the water in the sink. Magnus stayed behind to remove his soaking boots and socks, depositing them politely by the doorway.

“You should take a shower while you're here," Julia called to the hallway. "It's pretty late for cooking, but I'll definitely have a quiche ready tomorrow. You want some hot chocolate?"

"I'd love some," Magnus called back.

Julia whirled around the kitchen, grabbing mugs and cocoa powder and other things. She felt like if she stood still, she would burst like a firework. She wasn't ready to dwell on why she felt that way. So this minor task was a good distraction.

She nearly leaped out of her skin when she caught sight of Magnus in the doorway, still holding the clothes. Still somewhat soaked. He stared at her like he was taking a test he hadn't studied for.

“Um, it’s pretty late right now," he said, sounding much quieter than before.

"It's pretty late right now," Julia repeated. She glanced at the time on her oven. It was late. And he was still at her house.

Magnus cleared his throat. “I wouldn't...I'd hate to impose...usually I...can I stay here tonight? I mean--I can drive back, it would be uh...or, I can always hop over to Merle's, it's not much farther from here, and I'd--"

"Stay," Julia said. Magnus stopped talking.

Julia took a step towards him. She wanted to wrap her arms around those burly shoulders, soaking wet after trying to fix an unruly washing machine, that he had dropped everything to come and assist her with, in the middle of the night. For now, she reached up and gently swiped his messy hair from his eyes. At her touch and her words, Magnus' terrified, uncertain stare melted into delightful admiration.

"My home is your home," Julia said, and meant every word.

[twodoorsnotone]

I know my childhood fav book series (set in Drury Lane) has its reconstruction being a whole plot point and I now really want to reread that bit to see if they make any foreshadow-y jokes about it lasting forever, ushering a new era etc, given it burnt down 15 years after it was built

[sammy-deserves-better]

Hey people who definitely didn’t follow me for my AUs here’s another AU I thought up on the spot!!!

Fantasy/Royalty AU bam lets get into it

Julia and Bowie are the princess and prince of the kingdom, as you do, it’s gay and lesbian hostility in that castle every day

Axel, Wayne, Raj and Emma are knights with Axel being the head of the knights, Emma is also secretly a florist because why not

Priya is the head of the guards while Caleb is the personal guard/advisor to the king

Chase is a travelling bard who loves to talk about his ‘amazing’ adventures of ‘helping’ people

Nichelle is still a famous actress but instead of movies she’s like, famous from plays and all that jazz

Ripper’s a barbarian that’s pretty good at his job, unfortunately he is not taken very seriously

Millie is a famous writer but she’s so damn difficult to find at times and only a few people know where she actually lives

Damien is a wizard’s apprentice, he’s still learning but he’s got some real talent within him

Zee is the court jester, he didn’t even like try out for the role he just started talking one time and the king thought he was hilarious

Scary Girl is a famous necromancer because she is, funnily enough, scarily good at her job

And MK, silly ol’ MK, is a master thief who is wanted all over the world, but can never be located, always managing to escape at the last moment

Alright here’s some more details yippee

Raj and Bowie are like, in love, obviously, knight x prince romance! Forbidden love that isn’t really forbidden but like it’s super cute and Raj is so smitten and Bowie just loves this handsome knight that would do anything for him

Wayne and Emma are friends here because I also think they’re silly, Wayne’s the only one who knows Emma’s secret florist job because she trusts him enough and also he accidentally found out but it’s fine!! But he also nearly gives away Emma’s secret so many damn times because he’s just a little bit stupid

‘Man I wish I could get Bowie a nice bouquet…’

‘Oh well Emma is actually a fl-‘

And then Wayne gets elbowed so hard he can’t breath for 2 minutes

Emma also definitely has a thing for the cute court jester but she has no idea on how to actually approach Zee so she just sends him flowers anonymously and sighs while looking at him lovingly

Julia and MK meet because MK climbs up the damn castle walls at 2am and sneaks into Julia’s room just to rob her, gets absolutely slammed by the princess, wakes up and is tied to a damn chair with Julia right up in her face about to rip her to shreds and all MK can say is ‘you are REALLY attractive oh my gods’

This throws Julia off, they start talking, Julia realises that despite the fact she is holding one of the most wanted criminals hostage in her room, she wants to keep seeing MK because she’s entertaining and mean and just slightly pathetic, so she lets MK go on the promise that the thief will come back every night and so she does and yadda yadda lesbians toxic yuri wins

Millie’s stories actually come to life because shocker she’s actually a wizard in disguise and she needs to be really careful about what she writes so that’s why she hides herself away and is so hard to track down because if the wrong people knew about her magic capabilities oh no that’s a lot of blood and injury and angst and 10k words every chapter

Millie’s parents also had this ability to create anything from mere writing, they shared this ability with the kingdom, and so if an important figure asked them to say…make a protector of the kingdom, they would do so, and they did, and that’s where our villain/antagonist comes in but that’s a story for another day

The older gens are also involved in this one way or another as well, most are just backgrounders but some hold important to the story

Damien is the wizard apprentice to Leonard and Tammy, two great and powerful sages who spend their time helping the world

DJ is the one who taught Emma how to be a florist, he’s kind and understanding and always helps Emma choose the right flowers to give to Zee

Eva trains Ripper under her watchful eye, she’s proud of how far he’s come, but feels he can do just a bit more

Aleheather are the king and queen of the kingdom, Bowie and Julia are their adopted children

And that’s all I got for now uhhhh add whatever you want to this it’s just a silly time

[daydreamer-in-reverie]

I think one of my biggest gripes about S3 of Bridgerton is that I am utterly unconvinced that Colin and Penelope started as friends.

Now hear me out. I believe that Eloise and Penelope are friends. I believe that they grew up together, having lived across each other. I believe that Eloise loved Pen so much, Penelope was always welcomed to the Bridgerton home. I believe that by virtue of Eloise loving Pen and having her as a best friend, the Bridgerton family loved Pen as an extension.

But I’m unconvinced that Colin ever saw Pen or loved her as more than his sister’s best friend.

They tried so hard to convince us that it was Colin and Penelope who met first and that theirs is a stronger bond than what Eloise and Pen have by virtue of this but I just remain skeptical. In S1 and S2, we never really see them interact without the intervention of a ball or a social gathering. Eloise and Penelope actively seek the other person out while it was only Pen who looked for Colin and never the other way around. Colin only ever stumbled upon Penelope. He never scanned the room the find her, never tried to pull her away from Eloise so they could have their own conversation. I always felt like Penelope was such an afterthought to Colin while Penelope always made space for Colin in his life. Even while Colin was writing letters to Pen, and it was only Pen who consistently read and replied to his missives, it felt so one-sided. Penelope was eager to know of Colin’s adventures but Colin never asks Penelope about her own life and hobbies.

In all honesty, I think this could have easily been remedied by a good flashback. In Bridgerton S1, S2 and even in Queen Charlotte, flashbacks were the mediums used to fill in the gaps of the story. To inform the readers of a character’s history, and why the choose to do the things they do.

In a single episode, we saw how horribly Simon was mistreated by his father. In a single episode, we saw how deeply Edmund’s death wrecked Anthony’s boyhood and broke his mother’s heart. These flashbacks told us why Simon refused to procreate or why Anthony didn’t want to marry for love. We saw how deeply these core memories hooked themselves into these characters psyches, forcing them to become the people we know today. Without these integral flashbacks, we’re left with words said in passing to convince us of the story they’re trying to sell.

And don’t tell me flashbacks in the Bridgerton-verse are unimportant. Flashbacks have always been Julia Quinn’s method of choice when trying to inform readers of a character’s decisions. In Book 1 and 2, we got the same flashbacks as S1 and S2. In Benedict’s book, we got Sophie’s flashbacks. How her father treated her and how much her life changed after he died. In Book 4, which is Polin’s book, we still got flashbacks on Pen and Colin’s relationship and how much their friendship actually meant to the other. Book 5 showed us Philip’s backstory while 6 showed Michael’s and Francesca’s and John’s friendship, and 7 showed Garett’s and 8 showed Lucy.. While these flashbacks maybe used to showcase the love-interest’s past, they were still utilized by Julia Quinn to give us insights on the characterizations that make up their respective relationships.

I feel like this season, while having its moments, wasn’t what I was hoping it would be. There were so many changes that I feel the original plot of the story got lost. Polin didn’t feel like the main couple, just a couple with a story to be told. There were so many plots told in such extended ways that the main event was sidelined. The Mondriches, Benedict (who by the way is my favorite character), Francesca were all put on spotlight more than Polin was. In the books Francesca barely gets a passing mention of her marriage until her actual book (an act I believe to be intentional on Quinn’s part. It fits that the black sheep of the family who prefers the quiet didn’t have all of the fanfare that came with marrying an earl) yet her time at the marriage mart was put as a spotlight. In fact, when Francesca and John marry, it doesn’t happen with the series and happens much in the same way as Prudence’s marriage is (by this I mean it happens off screen). Don’t even get me started on her character assassination and deviation from the books (I can write a whole essay on this without even mentioning Michael/Michaela). All of these plot points, were put as main focuses when they shouldn’t have been. A waste of Polin’s amazing love story, if you ask me.

[brickcentral]

🤩 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: @lady-brick Hello everyone! It's time to direct the spotlight toward our community members, and today we will get to know better @lady-brick!

"Hi everyone! My name is Julia, known as Lady Brick on Instagram and I’m from Spain.

My adventure with toy photography started in 2011 when a small Wall·E arrived at home. The toys are good for practicing photography techniques, and help me to relax my mind and are a way to escape from my daily routine.

The minifigures, sets, and accessories are a source of inspiration and also an addiction. So, for this reason, now I only shoot LEGO photos.

I like making people believe that a small toy made of plastic is alive. In fact I enjoy recreating comic situations to make people smile.

I find inspiration in everyday life, watching movies and from LEGO communities on Instagram and Flickr. My favorite subjects are the minifigures, but my works includes various themes like medieval, pirates, astronauts, movies...for example, I enjoy put the stormtroopers in unusual situations.

I currently use Olympus OMD E-M10 Mark III with 30mm macro lens with a LED panel for lighting. In my workflow, I’ll draw a sketch or write some lines just to remember the idea.

I think that details are important and for this reason, I try to collect all the things that will I need to prepare the scene.

I think about the composition and the lighting. I like to move the camera lens to the eye level of the minifigures – it helps to dive into the scene and makes it more credible."

Thank you for accepting our invitation and let the community knows you better!

If you want some insights on the exclusive picture and for a better view of the others, head to our blog at https://brickentral.net/.

- @theaphol, Community Outreach Manager

[cupcakefoggy]

Ok, this drives me nuts.

I love Bridgerton. And I don't love all things Regency, so before you write me off as a romance-loving Austenite (which is ALSO a perfectly valid thing to be, thankyouverymuch) just hear me out on why this take is so damn annoying.

Ok. Cool. Now, you're entitled to your opinion that Bridgerton is too fluffy, too girly, and needs more "texture" (which, according to the article, should come in the form of labor, hardship, threatened financial ruin, the usual good stuff) but I want to impress upon you, firmly but politely, that if you're in the market for something gritty, you probably should turn off Bridgerton.

She compares Bridgerton to every prominent period show in this article, and consistently complains that it doesn't measure up. "Well it's not Downton Abbey!" No, no it isn't, and that's what we like about it. We aren't watching it to Learn Something. We're watching it because, for an hour or three at a time, it's really nice to forget that there's so much awful crap going on in the world, and just focus in on Penelope's up-and-down courtship with Colin or how damn cute Kate and Anthony are together.

But that isn't even the thing that bothers me the most about this article.

Why, in the year of our lord 2024, are we still perpetuating this "fluffy girly things are BRAIN CANDY" nonsense? Has Jane Austen truly taught us nothing? At the age of 12, back in the early aughts, my dad gave me a hard time for reading the Sweet Valley Twins books. He wanted me to read Pride and Prejudice, and aggressively shoved it under my nose until I finally agreed to take a look at it. I found it incomprehensible, looked it up online, and found to my immense pleasure that Jane Austen's literature was considered "popular" and "feminine" in its day -- not at all serious literature. I took my findings to my dad, who just about exploded and told me "that's not the point, it's a classic NOW, so shut up and read it."

Guys, I don't care if it was written in the 1600s or last week, pop culture is pop culture. It reflects its time. And more importantly, it shapes its time.

In the 1990s, Seinfeld aired the now-famous episode wherein the boys and Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character, Elaine, have a contest to see how long they can all go without masturbating. One of the men is out before the contest begins; of the remaining contestants, Elaine cracks first. This is now considered a bold statement, because in the 90s, women actually ENJOYING orgasms was taboo -- a concept they make sure to acknowledge within the episode itself, as the men insist women don't masturbate.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus later said of her time on Seinfeld, "We weren't trying to change the world, we were just trying to make something really funny. And that's really hard to do. And if you can do it, you CAN change the world a little bit."

Now, I don't watch Seinfeld. I hate it. I tried to watch a bit of it for Julia, bc I loved her so much in New Adventures of Old Christine, but I just couldn't get into it. but I saw the episode she's talking about, and it IS funny. Because they aren't up on a soapbox, they're just having fun, and she's a damn good comedic actress. So why am I bringing up Seinfeld in a conversation about Bridgerton? Because they're both fluff. No one is watching Seinfeld in an effort to solve the mysteries of the human condition or reflect on the nature of good and evil. It's just for fun. And so is Bridgerton.

And even if there was absolutely no value to Bridgerton besides being fun, it would still be "okay" to watch it. Because sometimes we just need fluff. But I don't think we really spend enough time thinking about just how much impact that "fluff" has on our culture.

I've seen people argue that Bridgerton DOES tackle occasional "serious" topics, and that's why it has value. I disagree. Bridgerton's value comes from the fact that it is FUN. It's easy to get into, it's easy to watch, no one is FORCING it on you, like my dad tried to do with P&P. And because it's fun, people -- YOUNG people -- are willingly watching it…

And they're seeing elderly women, women of color, and plus-size women being depicted as beautiful and desirable.

They're seeing a young, newly-married woman force herself on her husband and realizing that women also need to be taught about consent, and that a lack of sex education leads to damaged relationships.

They're seeing depictions of mental illness in the Queen Charlotte spinoff. They're seeing a man with a mental illness bare his soul to a woman he loves, and hearing her say, in no uncertain terms, that as damaged as he thinks he is, she loves him too. Unconditionally.

They're seeing queer representation in the Queen Charlotte spinoff, too. They're seeing racism and politics and medical abuse. They're seeing storylines that they'd never seek out on their own, and intentionally or not, they're learning from those stories.

Maybe it's optimistic to a fault, but I just can't stop wondering, how many young girls talked to each other about Daphne and Simon? How many plus-size women saw Penelope and Colin's sex scene and felt beautiful, felt seen, for the first time? How many people with mental illness saw Charlotte love King George and realized that they too are worthy of love? How many people heard Violet shyly tell Agatha that she misses having sex with her husband, and felt validated that, no, you don't turn 40 and stop being horny?

I sobbed my eyes out watching S3 the other night, because they captured the feeling of being unpopular and overweight so damn well. I saw my high school years reflected in Penelope's story and it broke my heart and gave me hope all at the same time. I love that they dress Violet and Agatha and Charlotte as richly as they do the younger, "hotter" leads. I love that Anthony Bridgerton goes down on Kate every fucking chance he gets. I love Bridgerton's message, however unintentional, that you don't have to be the classic Pretty Skinny Caucasian Starlet - you can be fat, old, BIPOC, disabled, outcast, anything, and still deserve and GET your happily-ever-after.

Shondaland is not trying to change the world. They're just trying to be fluffy and horny. And if they can do it, they can change the world just a little bit.

[superconductivebean]

#991: poppy sweeting headcanon post - 4

Imelda Reyes: >>>1 || >>>2 (nsfw) || >>>3 || >>>4 || >>>5 || >>>6 Poppy Sweeting: >>>1 || >>>2 || >>>3 Imelda x Poppy headcanons: >>>1 || >>>2 || >>>3 || >>>4

Once again raising my head from the Brainrot fog to share some character headcanons with the world. Brainrot is a fic I’m working on.

Tags: @thriftstorebabayaga @endeavour12345 @celestial--sapphic @caramel-hufflepuff @catohphm @adalinda-selwyn

In light of the recent discovery; Poppy knows how to navigate the Deeper woods of the Forbidden Forest. Her travel journal has all she needs to know: the symbols and their assumed meanings, landmarks, hand-drawn maps, points of danger/interest. To her, the Forest isn't a danger or imminent death but its own world, it has to be treated with respect;

Highwing often tags along;

Brainrot: the Forbidden Forest is hostile to the outsiders. It is a dangerous place; Ashwinders had to stick to depressions of the land and decrepit brick masses of long-abandoned dwellings to escape being snatched. However, the Forest welcomes anyone who has proven to be a friend or a worthy contender to its force;

Brainrot: d̷̪̃ò̷̙n̸̺͠'̵̬̏t̶͉̾ ̸̼͊s̵̼͆p̵͈̄ĭ̵͈l̶̼̆l̶͙̿ ̵̹̐b̴̪͌l̸͍̅o̷̫͊ȯ̷̻ḍ̵̒ ̵̟̊į̴̈́n̴̟͆ ̸͕̊t̶̟͛h̶̥̊e̷͎͑ ̸͈̿w̷̥̌ȏ̶̜o̷̤͌d̶̬̍s̶̰̅;

Brainrot: Poppy believes in fairies. The Forbidden Forest is said to house a few fae beings but Hogwarts library has only so much accounts of people encountering them -- if these could be even considered accounts. People used to write ambiguously, often referring to things by lucid and surreal names; some of the books Poppy had found that had anything on the matter were hidden in the part of the Restricted Section marked as 'insufficient drivel';

Gran doesn't support her ventures. Poppy is alone in there -- first. Her adventures there are enviable -- second;

Professor Howin suspects something but is yet to catch Poppy off the student limits;

Professor Sharp, the library dweller, noticed certain piles of books moved or changed shape. He told Eleazar. Eleazar said it might've been him or Miriam, why hold the student's name at the tip of the pen if multiple people are frequenting the library at the late hours of day each day every day for many years. Then he told Matilda. Matilda said, mister Sallow. It didn't sound plausible, given the caliber of Sallow's interests but Agnes seemed to agree with Matilda on this;

Sebastian had no idea some of his detentions were on Poppy;

Professor Garlick doesn't know much about beasts, only about those found in the gardens, greenhouses or wilderness. She also believes in fairies and allows Poppy to stare at thistles from time to time. Professor Fig was also curious but his observations were usually lukewarm, unlike those of Miriam. Poppy hadn't gotten to know Mrs Fig well but what she did manage to hear amazed her;

When Poppy's little obsession became known, that nickname, 'Peculiar', stuck. Poppy expected to hear that even from her friends but the Sallows didn't mind it at all, Ominis was mildly interested because he'd once heard merfolk was tied to fae somehow, Garreth was convinced he lost half of his socks because of these creatures, and Imelda, the one Poppy felt fearful of, was strangely quiet and would never elaborate on her interest, calling her mockers stupid instead; Poppy later learnt Orcadians were vary of the fae folk;

Brainrot: After Poppy learnt Julia was able to understand Fig's musings about some kinds of old and strange magic, she urged to inquiry Julia on fairies. Julia was convinced she was talking about the beasts from the assigned CotMC textbook but these creatures were something else*.

*do I lore-drop that I believe MC to be a fae creature or am I leaving it for a later date.

[mrs-snape5984]

“I'll follow you down to where forever lies…”

“Without a doubt, I'm on your side. There's nowhere else that I would rather be…” (“I’ll follow you” by Shinedown)

Living with a disease like ME/CFS often means a life in solitude. In my case, even a life in darkness. It’s hard enough to deal with the loneliness, that comes with being unable to cope with noises, movements and lights.

But then, there are the holidays…the celebrations…the times, when families come together. Knowing that I can’t participate in anything of this - whether it’s Christmas, the birthdays of my children or something simple like the Easter holidays - is a terrible feeling. I just can’t be with my family!! And yes…it hurts me to know, that my kids have to spend these special occasions without their mother.

My loneliness weighs more on these days…it’s suffocating me! I’m catching myself in getting pathetically whiny (this post only proves my point 🙄), drowning in self-pity and despair…only fuelling my self-loathing.

But this doesn’t make sense…it won’t make things better or easier to endure. So, I’m trying to dream myself away…fantasising and writing about another little adventure of Severus and his wife Jules.

I’ve always been a sucker for a fresh sea breeze, so of course, this couple of my dreams lives in a tiny cottage at the seashore. They’re the owners of their own apothecary ("The Potioners' Apothecary...owned by Severus and Julia Snape”) and they’re living their best lives in peace and harmony, enjoying each others company.

Usually, Sevy and Jules prefer the colder temperatures and a more rigorous weather, but today, they’re going for a little walk at the beach on a very sunny afternoon. The overdramatic and exquisitely sarcastic couple is backbiting about the heat and the burning sun, although they’re refusing to change into something shorter or lighter than their regular clothes. Well, Severus and Julia remain true to their style! 😅

When I considered about the perfect artist for this project, I immediately thought of @dranna! Their unique style highlights the dramatic beauty of my favourite couple so perfectly.

Dranna, my dear friend, as always I am extremely grateful for your talent and your dedication to your profession. I’m a big fan of your art and I love your way of making my fantasy come alive in your drawings. You are such a kind person and I enjoy our conversations immensely! Thank you for everything, sweetheart! 🥹

🖤Severus & Julia🖤

🖤Sevy & Jules🖤

[caffeinated-and-annoying-bard]

i've been thinking of writing a stardew valley au of the magnus archives with martin as the farmer and jon as some misanthrope researcher living maybe on a flat above the library instead of gunther (perhaps he's researching the strange monsters that appear in the mines and you don't see nearly anywhere else in the world...)

if i were to write it, i think it would be fun to replace canon sdv characters with tma characters, wouldn't it? maybe sasha as maru, perhaps renting a room in the house in the mountains from robin (assuming i don't change her for, say, gertrude? eric and gerry could be there as well. perhaps the house is gertrude's but eric is her assistant– or her son and gerry her actual grandson– and has taken over some of the manual work with her aging, and gerry as sebastian?)

perhaps helen and michael could be there instead of emily and haley? trevor and daisy (julia is in a band now. good for her.) could run the adventurer's guild and daisy could be in shane's place (see: recovering from addiction/unhealthy habits as a parallel to the hunt) perhaps she'd be physically disabled in some way, that would be an explanation as to why the mines are not purged from monsters overnight (can you tell i love daisy)?? basira could be in marnie's place and helping daisy recover while she recovers herself? :)

tim and danny as sam and vincent, with danny as an older vincent but younger than canon danny, perhaps?? waiting for their father or mother or both to return from the war with the gotoro empire? (maybe he had always lived there, moved to a bigger city for a while and returned when the war started. maybe he, sasha and jon are working for the same long-term monster researching project. wouldn't it be nice if martin just came bumbling around one day and drastically started indirectly improving their research productivity with his sdv farmer endeavors?? the four of them engaging in shenanigans?? think about it.)

georgie could be kind of like sandy/visit from time to time from the city, make it a jon heart event first and then a melanie one. melanie could be an aggressive version of leah ("youtuber lives in charming yet spooky town in a cabin in the woods, has a successful channel and a podcast girlfriend. good for her.")

there would be different heart events suiting more the canon characters (maybe sasha's 8-heart could be her venting about how she moved to pelican town because someone tried to kill her and steal her identity, tim's about how a circus kidnapped his little brother as a kid like in that one statement, etc. and i'm vibrating like i'll break glass jusr by thinking of what to do with jon.)

at some point jon is sent by elias to the "my ex-husband took the furniture" quest and martin tags along for the fun of it.

i don't know what to do with harvey because he's my husband and i love him and i don't want him gone but i'll think about it. after all, i'm still missing caroline, pierre and abigail (although they could pretty well be mikaele salesa running the store with annabelle working and living there.) perhaps naomi herne should suit the harvey role?? she's peaceful enough to not make me angry for not getting to have my dearest harvey right there. she'd be a doctor, obviously, and perhaps michael could work with her as a part-time nurse? she's waiting for her husband to return from the war (evan herne was sent to the army by his family for abandoning the lukas jojamart family business and marrying naomi, but he'll come back, fear not.)

diego molina and agnes montague as pam and penny doesn't sound bad, and i'm seriously considering having elias be both lewis and the wizard. for the fun of it? perhaps everyone but jon (and later martin) wonders who the wizard is- he calls himself the wizard j. magnus because he's a pretentious bastard. (jon has been set in a position where if he reveals this he gets turned into a plant or something) and he's also the mayor of the town (his legal name is very much elias bouchard.) also, instead of the affair with marnie he has an affair with morris the jojamart guy (peter lukas.)

george, evelyn and alex could be replaced by julia and trevor– they could be softer, less hunt but still recovering from the same thing as daisy– and julia could have a petty feud with jon because, before she knew she was a lesbian, she fancied gerry and gerry used jon as an escape tactic. nothing came of it between gerry and jon but the incident stayed and it was very funny to everyone else.

jude perry could fit clint (and keep on her incel pining over agnes, have a petty feud with jon, because she burned his hand "accidentally" and also because jon is very good at creating petty feuds with people. martin and i both love that man), and krobus and the dwarf could stay like that, etc. and perhaps jas could be daisy's goddaughter that she's struggling to raise (it could be an event, her realising that she needs to pull herself together and stop letting basira raise her alone, just paying half the bills won't cut it– maybe they weren't even together before this and a year or two after her starting the path towards recovery they get together??)

perhaps for willy we could put oliver banks and mike crew there?? local lightning-scarred man is entranced by the vastness of the sea (+his goth not-yet-partner). local hot goth fisherman is so done with everything and just wants peace with the dead quiet of the sea (he rants about death to martin as a heart event, fight me). they should also be a little bit older, to balance the age range of people in town and also because yes.

also jojamart. i think it shoudl stay jojamart because i need someone to make a jmart pun somewhere.

if i should set elias as the wizard/lewis, peter lukas as morris jojamart, who could simon fairchild be?gus, maybe? god knows he's funny enough to be the owner of a saloon. it's funny to imagine his banter with helen while working busy nights there (helen i love you why does the fandom only care about michael.)

i don't know who else i could switch off but if anyone has any ideas both the comment section and my ask box are open :)

[isfjmel-phleg]

I'm rereading Mother Carey's Chickens, a 1911 children's book by Kate Douglas Wiggin, mostly because there's a subplot in it which I think might be relevant to my search for portrayals of CEN in children's literature of this era (...and guess what subplot got axed in Summer Magic, a loosely adaptated 1963 film version--but that's another issue). Anyway, this time I found myself unexpectedly sympathetic toward a character Wiggin does not want the audience to be very sympathetic toward.

(and wow, this got longer than I expected and is A Rant, sorry!)

Basically, the book is about the Carey family--a widow and her four children--who have suffered a significant finanical decline after the father's death and have to move into a new house in a small town and make a lot of sacrifices and adjustments, while having various slice-of-life adventures. Not long after the move, their cousin Julia comes to live with them.

And Wiggin really hammers it into the reader's head that Julia is annoying. She's "the pink of perfection" (a phrase memorably used in a song in the 1963 film), she knows it, and she never lets anyone forget it. (Think a female version of my OC Josiah, and you're probably not far off.) She won't shut up about the rich family she used to live with, and she can't be bothered to join the others in anything so demeaning as chores. She's so dull and imaginative that "she bored her own mother terribly." She has no sense of humor, she's no fun, she's tidy and clothes-conscious, she gets perfect grades in school--in short, she's the worst and nobody likes her. Even Mrs. Carey admits "frankly" that she doesn't like Julia.

And the other children are understandably frustrated with her and very vocal about this among themselves. There's friction between her and the Careys--and the Careys don't always come off looking very good either, although the narrative doesn't recognize it. The two oldest children (who are about fifteen and fourteen, I think) even go so far as to write a poem mocking Julia's appetite (and, by implication, her weight) and tacking it up in her room. Julia in tears shows it her aunt, who finds it funny and has to struggle to show the proper sympathy. Julia protests that the family she used to live with never mentioned her appetite and instead encouraged her to eat. Mrs. Carey concedes that her older children can get carried away with joking and forgot Julia wasn't used to it.

And then she adds, "And don't forget, my dear, that in a large family like ours we must learn to 'live and let live.'" So clearly it's Julia's fault for being so oversensitive about just a joke, right? Because nobody likes her, and she had it coming. She needs to learn to have a sense of humor!

Eventually, Kathleen, the younger Carey daughter, in a moment of provocation lets it slip that Julia's father is the reason the family has so little money (long story). An angry Julia tells her aunt. Kathleen feels horrible about it and apologizes profusely, but Julia is not immediately forgiving and points out what a victim she is here--as a fatherless girl and a guest in their home.

And then Mrs. Carey gives her A Speech (emphasis mine):

"You are wrong there, Julia. I fail to see why you should not take your full share of our misfortunes, and suffer as much as we, from our too small income. It is not our fault, it is not yours. You are not a privileged guest, you are one of the family. If you are fatherless just now, my children are fatherless forever; yet you have not made one single burden lighter by joining our forces. You have been an outsider, instead of putting yourself loyally into the breach, and working with us heart to heart. I welcomed you with open arms and you have made my life harder, much harder, than it was before your coming. To protect you I have had to discipline my own children continually, and all the time you were putting their tempers to quite unnecessary tests! I am not extenuating Kathleen, but I merely say you have no right to behave as you do. You are thirteen years old, quite old enough to make up your mind whether you wish to be loved by anybody or not; at present you are not!"

Does Julia deserve to be informed that she has been standoffish and unhelpful and whiny and needs to be a team player? Absolutely. Blaming her for the Carey children's behavior though? Not so much. And to tell anyone--especially someone so young--that whether she is loved is solely up to her and currently no one loves her--is incredibly harsh and uncalled for.

The narrative consistently presents Mrs. Carey as The Ideal Mother, so there is no recognition of the hurtfulness of such a comment. Instead, it's that comment in particular that is presented as what finally prompts Julia's character development.

Not to be loved, if that really were to be her lot, rather terrified Julia. She secretly envied Nancy [Carey]'s unconscious gift of drawing people to her instantly; men, women, children,—dogs and horses, for that matter. She never noticed that Nancy's heart ran out to meet everybody, and that she was overflowing with vitality and joy and sympathy; on the contrary, she considered the tribute of affection paid to Nancy as a part of Nancy's luck. Virtuous, conscientious, intelligent, and well-dressed as she felt herself to be, she emphatically did not wish to be disliked, and it was a complete surprise to her that she had not been a successful Carey chicken.

At this point, I am feeling sorry for this child, obnoxious though she can be. This girl has a father who isn't in her life much and a mother who was flighty and bored with her and either died or left the picture when her daughter was five so she was raised by a governess and has been trying really hard to be everything her mother wasn't--well-behaved and responsible. And now after living with an apparently kind and accepting family, she's been transplanted to an unfamiliar environment with cousins who complain about and mock her. No one is listening to her; no one is bothering to help her. She talks about her friend's family so much because that's all she knows. As annoying as her displays of perfection are, it's her flawed attempt to seek love and validation. She feels inadequate compared to her outgoing and universally adored cousin Nancy (who co-wrote the mean poem and has been the most vocally critical of her--guess her heart doesn't run out to meet just everybody!), and the narrative faults her for lacking the right sort of personality. Apparently the only acceptable way for her to earn love is to make an effort to be more like Nancy. And Julia desperately wants to be loved.

But there are people who love her unconditionally! She points out that her friend, the daughter of the family she used to live with, always loved her. Mrs. Carey replies, "Then either Gladys has a remarkable gift of loving, or else you are a different Julia in her company [...]"

Ouch.

She then proceeds to accuse Julia of committing "the sin of causing your brother to stumble" by provoking her cousins' annoyance. Kathleen, though, doesn't agree and apologizes again. And Julia takes pity on her, shows some affection, and they make up.

From here, Julia is on the road to character development, and Mrs. Carey gets all the credit for it. And sure, Julia has learned that she needs to be more helpful and less critical, but she has also learned that love is earned and that her family will only accept her if she toes a certain line. Is this really any different from her previous efforts of performing perfection?

And anyway, it bothers me that the narrative is so merciless to her. Yes, she's got major issues that she needs to grow past. But is being a girl exhibiting the results of a problematic upbringing enough cause for the level of vitriol that she is given? Couldn't there have been a more effective way to prompt her character development than for a family member whom she respects to tell her she's unlovable? Wiggin's narrative extends compassion to the flaws of characters like Nancy but withholds it from others (not just Julia). Why? Why are some people more deserving of understanding? Because they're the main character?

And that's never really struck me before, I've always read this book at face value, but somehow today I ended up with emotions about Julia Carey. Who knew. If you've got this far, thank you for coming to my Rant.

[kichimiangra]

Tell me more about "Daddy I'm a Zombie"?

Oh. FUCKING. BOI. Don't get me started on Daddy I'm a Zombie!

...

...

...

Anyway we'll start with this google doc I wrote like ten million years ago when I was Spurgburgering out over this and decided to rewatch the movie and write down what happens in every single scene:

(It's not written in a format to explain shit to people who didn't see the movie though)

and THEN I bitch!

Now that that's done and out of the way, this film has a very interesting concept... or at least interesting to ME! It's effectively "The Wizard of Oz" but with Zombies. Now this is also probably just a me-problem, but I feel like the most satysfying structure to a wizard of oz style story is like so: -Protagonist has an issue in their mundane life

-gets isekai'd to a fantastical world and meets fantastical counterparts to those in their mundane life

-by helping those in the fantasy world the protag recontextualizes their mundane problem and gains the insight of how to solve it before returning to their mundane world (Often in a "It was all a dream" ending)

This film kind of does this. We have Dixie having the worst day of her life i guess before a tree branch bashes her head in and kills her, waking her in the fantastical Zombie world. Most of the people she meets along the way are clearly expy's of people from her mundane life;

In life her friend Julia friend breaks up with her and is dating the red headed boy (Ray) that Dixie had a crush on, while in death she has Isis who wants nothing more to be her friend like a touch starved golden retriever and also doesn't get along with the red headed Gonner who romantically adores Dixie, thus making 0% chance of stealing him from her.

Piroshka is clearly multiple characters, including Dixie's bullies and possibly her unseen step sister with the way Nebulosa adores her(?)

Vitirol the Wandering Zombie uses the same character model (And I think voice? At least in english I think) as her father and his Hippie aesthetic aligns with her view of her father as a passive hippie.

One of the only things we know about Dixies mother is she loves her plants, especially her Bonsai trees and Nebulosa is first introduced pruning a Bonsai tree. etc.

And when she finishes her adventure and gets back home her problems get better via (?)The lesson she learned on the adventure(?)

Nebulosa and the stories moral is easily two of the biggest issues I have in this film.

The recurring moral of the story is "You get back what you put out, like a magnet" which is basically a different way of saying "What goes around comes around". That is to say the moral that Dixie must learn to solve all of her mundane life problems is to put out positive vibes and your friend will refriend you, your bullies will stop bullying you, you parents divorce will... I dunno stop the bad vibing? But this moral is rather disconnected to the Zombie world plot. Even worse so using that moral insists that Dixie herself is her own worst enemy, and the narrative seems to confirm that as by the end of the film she stops being a miserable twat and in the sequel we see that things have really turned around for Dixie, even befriending her bullies, having other friends, making up with Julia and befriending Ray, has a better relationship to her parents, and is even running for class president! All in all changing her mood and outlook DID solve her mundane life problems!

The issue with this though is that her opponent in the Zombie world, the hurdle she has to overcome to get home and back to her life is Nebulosa, the character clearly coded as her mother. Her realtionship to her mother in the first film is strained but mostly exists as floating ideas. Her mother is the one who gave her the films magguffin; the Azoth, though it never explains where SHE got it but this connection to her mother seems to be important as it was the last gift she got from her before her parents divorced. Near the beginning of the film she is supposed to be visiting her mother but shows disdain for the idea, and finally at the end of the film she seems to have gotten over it as her mom picks her up from school and she smiles getting into the car saying "Hi Mommy" with a cheerful tone. What ever issue she has with her mother is solved but I don't really know what that issue is or why Nebulosa represents her mother when she spends the early part of the film interacting and blaming her father for her shitty life, meanwhile her father is treated as the force of good, the Wizard if you would, within the fantastical world.

The plot about Dixie's Primary issue should be her strained relationship with her mother if Nebs is to be the mother's counterpart, while if we want the moral to be "Dixie is her own worst enemy, sabotaging herself with her bad attitude about literally everything, then the opponent Dixie should have to face is Dixie herself, as such Nebs should be Dixies own counterpart instead.

A lot of this film also feels like it's just putzing around with talking head scenes while trying to get to that confrontation. Unfortuantely Dixie and Nebs are just... completely disconnected in the story. Nebs and Dixie don't even come face to face until the final confrontation. In fact after her last scene in the first graveyard Piroshka doesn't interact with the heroes either aside from Gonner, and later Dixie just one time. It often feels like there's no Hero-Villain synergy there aside from Nebs telling her minions to bring her the Azoth, and Dixie having that.

On top of THAT Nebs evil plan is just... the worst. She is colelcting all the Zombies in the Zombie world to brainwash them and then use the Azoth to open a portal to send them back and just... spread her evil. We don't know why

Wouldn't it have been a more satisfying ending should Dixie use the Azoth's power to open a portal, only for her and Nebs to get sucked in together. The portal takes them to the point where Nebs died, perhaps she died a cruel unfair death that she herself caused allowing Dixie to tell herself the moral to Nebs, that she was her own worst enemy and had she just done xyz her life wouldn't have been shit and lead to a shit death. She gets through to Nebs and the old bitch steps out of the portal,s safe zone stepping back into her life before she died to try and correct the results. Dixie is sucked back out into the void and then wakes up back to her own life and chooses to follow the advice she gave Nebs, and then among the people she researched from her 'dream' she also see's that Nebulosa managed to turn her life around before dying with no regrets, as such no longer returning to the limbo that is the Zombie world.

Wouldn't that be better than just Nuking the bitch?

Also there's a SEQUEL film and Nebs is at least a little more active as a villain but still how the fuck did she survive getting nuked????

Some of the world building loses me as well. The zombie world seems to be a different world itself but Isis is afraid of the farmhouse because there might be mortal humans there but... this can't be just... zombies hiding among the normal mundane world because of the big plot point of finding Vitriol by the old Egyptian cemetery. Are there just Egyptian cemeteries in Spain??? And also Zombies just chilling around? And Also Neb's evil lair is the fairgrounds from the beginning of the film but the surroundings look different so this has to be the ZOMBIE WORLD counterpart of the fair right??

Now I'm gonna rant about Gonner

Gonner had a lot of potential to be the roguish love interest. He's a cool pirate, he has a backstory where he didn't want to be a pirate, but a poet instead, he's got some anithero vibes because he secretly works for Nebs so that has a lot of delicious "OH NO THE BETRAYAL!" dramapotential but like.... He's such a little bastard. I think that him stealing the Azoth from Dixie and giving it to Nebs because technically that would keep Dixie safe is a good drama mindset but then when his girlfriend is chasing him around with her axe and trying to kill him for cheating on her and wants to know why he just says "Eh, she's hotter than you." and that's it. No better person or shit like that? Petty little bastard. This is then made worse in the sequel in the most egregious way. When Dixie seemingly might be grabbing herself up a human boyfriend he feels betrayed and returns to his ex, Piroshka who is just fucking super forgiving considering her got her killed in the last film and I'm okay with this this is perfect setup for SOME KIND of drama! Either Dixie realizes she pushed Gonner away and the yummy drama fills the belly OR Gonner realizes he made a mistake and tries to return to Dixie's side but is caught by Nebs and is now a hostage! TWO POTENTIAL ROUTES FOR DRAMA! The film does neither of them he just walks over back to Dixie's side like "sup?" Dixie literally didn't even know he switched sides like wtf you had the perfect drama setup and you fucking wasted but literally doing nothing with it!

The sad part is the worldbuilding is also bland and a LOT of the scenes are just talking head exposition scenes, some of them jumping rapidly between team Dixie and Team Nebs while the two never really cross. It actually can be an exhausting watch because Oh look they're walking and talking again. A lot of tell, not show and that makes me mad because the concept of Wizard of Oz but with colorful Zombies sounds so good it's like my jam but the Story is so unfocused and disjointed that it feels like it was passed back and forth between two writers who wanted to write different things and ignored what the other wrote and then sent it to the animators so any concepts brought up just don't get pushed far at freaking all!

And that's it for my rant. I literally ocd'd over this film just not doing anything with the tools it had while being a concept I enjoyed that I started YEARS AGO on and off of an "Original the character" fix it fic story where I just take the concept and work from there but that's off in the void until it figures out what it wants to be when it grows up