#many things I like. A great cast of characters. Honestly I could read tons more stories set in this world.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Asunder

slow-paced high fantasy

a woman who has a contract with an eldritch entity allowing her to see the dead & survives by taking various jobs

when a job searching for stranded smugglers in a cave goes wrong, she ends up with the soul of a dying stranger bound to her shadow

along with a scholar and her old childhood friend, they travel to his home country to find a way to unbind him and save them both

dark fantasy world with gods, demonic entities, arcane magic, and semi-sentient beasts used as transport

[the-kirby-movie]

ATTENTION KIRBY FANS!

Do you want to see a Kirby movie more than anything, but Nintendo keeps letting you down? Well, today's your lucky day! I'm in the process of creating my very own, fanmade Kirby movie based off of Star Allies - and I'd like your help. I believe that with the efforts of a community coming together to work on this passion project and give something that we love our all, it will turn out better than anything official that they could come out with. Overall, while this project is serious to me and something that I am very dedicated to, I also want it to be fun and for everybody to have a good time creating this art together. If you do decide to jump on and help, there's no need to worry about deadlines or stress or needing to have a ton of skill. But, without further ado....

Animators

I'm looking for people that have experience working in Blender here. Pretty much any skill level is okay, though I will still request that you show me some sort of example (just to verify that you know how the application works at all, basically). Ideally I'd like to have enough people working on this that I could step back from leading the animation, eventually, and focus fully on writing/storyboarding and other design aspects instead - but I understand that this might be unrealistic.

Storyboarding

The more the merrier! Regardless of the level of your art skill or your style, if you can sketch out scenes in a way that's decipherable to others, you're more than welcome here.

Voice Acting

The big one. Voice actors for Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, and Bandana Waddle Dee would be very much appreciated. I also have a longer list of characters that need voices that includes many of the Dream Friends, Hyness, the Mage Sisters, and more. This is the one thing I will likely be a little picky on, and require you to audition for the role.

Writers

Honestly, I'm not looking for many other writers right now. I think I have it mostly under control, but I could possibly take one or two co-writers on with me.

Sound Effects/Miscellaneous

Do you think you have something to bring to the table that I didn't list before? Great, this is for you! Let me know what you want to do, and honestly, I doubt I'll have any reason to turn you away. Whether it's stitching music and effects together, editing extra graphics, or literally whatever you think will be helpful, tell me so that I can get you in.

Community

If none of that sounds like something you'd be interested in, well, you can still do something to help. Just stick around here! Throughout development I'll be posting updates, questions, and polls about decisions on this blog for you to influence. I want this to be something that the community creates together and can enjoy together. By us, for us, you know? And everyone who wants to deserves to be involved.

- Closing -

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! This blog will likely be changing a lot in the upcoming days as I update and personalize it to be more effective. I also now have a discord server! Anyways, though, the long and short of it is that I'd love to work on this with other people but I will complete it, no matter what. So this is your official guarantee - sometime, in the indiscriminate future, you will have a Kirby movie. And I hope you enjoy it just as much as I'll enjoy making it, because honestly, this is just my dream. I hope I see you around, and have a great day!

progress as of 1/13/25: the cast list has been mostly filled! we have the trailer scripted and storyboarded, working on models and rigs.

[lusthurts]

**SPOILER WARNING FOR THE RED WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE MOVIE**

This movie was very entertaining. It hit all the beats of a great rom-com. I personally enjoyed the music a lot, even if it was at times very different from the music in the book. Nicholas Galitzine was a standout of the main cast for me - he really made me feel Henry’s angst just like the book did, and I think this is a character that the film truly did justice. My personal favorite character from the movie though was Zahra - Sarah Shahi was absolutely incredible. She had fantastic comedic timing and her dynamic with Alex, Henry, Shaan, and Ellen. I really enjoyed Bea, Nora, & Pez as well, although I think they were severely underused and I kinda hated how the Nora/Pez dynamic worked without June. I think the romance was beautiful - I particularly enjoyed the polo scene, the karaoke scene, the Texas stuff, and the V&A museum.

I also laughed out loud a ton during the movie. Zahra’s scenes were hilarious, and the royal wedding/cake debacle was handled perfectly. I miss June here a bit, but I generally was very satisfied with how it all went down. Also, despite many fans early fears of a lack of chemistry between Nick and Taylor, I thought their chemistry was fantastic. Maybe not the best I’ve ever seen, but it was definitely believable, entertaining, and one of the most compelling parts of the story.

I also liked that we got more of Henry’s POV than we did in the book. It didn’t add a ton in my opinion, but I do think it allowed Nicholas Galitzine to show off his acting chops. I think the heart of the book remains, and after the press/everything I’d heard about the movie going into it, I was pleasantly surprised with how the political stuff was handled. Alex’s arc with Texas in particular was beautiful, and I think the end of the movie left me with a similar feeling to the book.

As for things I didn’t love, and I will say there were kind of a lot of small things, I’ve made a list that I’m sure no one cares much to read.

I missed June a lot. I identify a lot with her character, and although I totally understand why she was cut out (I do think in the book she serves less plot purpose than Nora), I actually think the choice to exclude her made even less sense after seeing the movie than before seeing it. Nora and Alex’s relationship felt very underdeveloped in the movie, and none of the romantic elements that I thought made their relationship important to the book ended up mattering at all in the movie. He kisses a different girl on New Year’s, there’s no mention of a sexual history between them, there’s no fake dating setup to detract from Alex/Henry, and Nora’s just generally absent. I feel like June would’ve served that purpose fine if not better.

The romance felt kind of rushed. The whole Christmas phone call that imo is so crucial to Henry & Alex’s relationship and character development doesn’t happen at all (probably because his parents are still together), and I didn’t have like a timer or clock or anything but it felt like the 100 or so pages leading up to the NYE kiss was like less than 20 minutes.

I hated that Alex’s parents were happily married, and I think it massively takes away from his character development. His arc honestly fell very short for me which is disappointing since he’s a character I identify so closely with. I don’t feel like they do his like major anxiety justice, and I think he goes from kinda being an idealist, reckless dummy to being a heartfelt, romantic, ready for a big commitment guy in the span of a few minutes.

I honestly could’ve done without the sex scenes. They were good, and I could tell the intimacy coordinator slayed with this one, but they were more explicit than the book imo (especially the one in Paris), and while I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, I would’ve much rather had more fade to black so as to save screen time to develop the romance more at the beginning.

I didn’t enjoy the Miguel character at all. He has no character development, and I do not at all understand how this character is the Luna/Liam blend he was promoted as. He functions as a ruthless journalist who despite being queer himself decides to out Henry and Alex to the entire world, and we NEVER get an explanation for why. It’s alluded to that maybe Miguel had feelings for Alex and did it because he resented Alex for not feeling the same? But like, he literally outed two prominent figures to the entire world at risk of benefitting a homophobic predator running for office. And he never apologizes? Or faces any repercussions???? Like this is just kind of there?? And that is NOT AT ALL Rafael Luna or Liam who are both generally speaking positive forces in Alex’s life. I just don’t get it at all.

This is a personal issue I had that most probably don’t care about, but I’m from Minnesota, and seeing Minnesota red in the movie was infuriating. MN is not a swing state, never really has been, and was basically the only state in the upper midwest to stay blue in the 2016 election. I’m biased because this is my home state, but MN would NEVER vote red and I’m kinda just annoyed at the implication that it did instead of them just choosing to blame it on all the actual swing states.

Okay those are my thoughts. I doubt anyone cares that much, but I needed to get it out of my system. I will say I really enjoyed the movie, and I can see why the bulk of reviews are positive. I think anyone who didn’t read the book won’t feel like anything is missing, and fans of the book will for the most part still really enjoy it. I will definitely be rewatching when it comes out officially on Amazon Prime tomorrow, and I can see myself rewatching hundreds more times in the future. But it sort of needs to exist independent of the book for me, I guess. And that’s okay! I think everyone involved did a great job with the adaptation, and I look forward to watching it again.

[yuexuan]

[Review] 破云

Title: 破云 (Breaking through the clouds)

Author: 淮上

Length: 155 chapters + 6 extras

Tag: Crime and mystery, action, thriller

Summary [taken from novel updates]:

Foreboding clouds raced across the skies above the city.

Three years ago, as a consequence of Commander-in-Chief Jiang Ting’s error in judgment during an anti-drug operation in Gongzhou, a chain of explosions occurred at the scene and caused the Narcotics Division to suffer heavy casualties. Now three years later, Jiang Ting, whose flesh and bones should’ve faded from existence after dying at the line of duty, actually miraculously woke up from a vegetative state.

His heroic soul could not rest – he must return to the mortal world from the depths of hell and exert all that he has in order to bring the bloody and inconceivable truth to light.

Novel | Novel[translated] | Audio drama | Manhua

Comments **Contain spoilers**:

Ok, this is the second time I am reading the novel: the first time in 2021 with the full uncensored version and the second time with the censored physical version. But honestly? The censored version still has so much fluff and sweetness, and I’m reminded once again why this is one of my favorite danmeis.

First off, a little bit more about the novel: The story starts off with former Commander-in-Chief of the drug task force Jiang Ting recovering from his three-year coma. He was discharged and started living at the KTV ran by one of his former informants. It was just his luck that a body was found in the KTV’s freezer and the cause of death attributed to an overdose of drugs. This led to the unfolding of a series of drug, kidnap, and murder cases that were related to Jiang Ting’s troubled past, and his meeting with Yan Xie, the eventual love of his life. 

Highlights:

I’ll say it again, in spite of the censored version, there were still tons of tooth-aching fluff. Jiang Ting and Yan Xie living together? Check. Jiang Ting cooking for Yan Xie and teaching him how to cook? Check. Yan Xie acting as a personal training coach for Jiang Ting? Check. They were so domestic when not working on cases and their chemistry was just *chef kiss*, the right balance of action versus mellow, brash versus stoic.

Talking about characters, the gong - Yan Xie - can come off as being too much of an overbearing ‘straight man’ when treating his underlings, but he reserved all his softness for Jiang Ting and helped the latter heal from his past traumas. He liked to think of himself as boyfriend material, despite the amount of time people want to ‘slap his face with a shoe’ and how often he got jelly of Yang Mei lol. I love how action-oriented and confident he is, and yes, there’s a reason why Yan Xie is known as one of the four coquettish gongs (‘四大骚攻’) in danmei.

When it comes to plot, Poyun presents an engaging read, filled with all sorts of plot twists and heartaches (Up until the end, we had cause to believe that Jiang Ting might be the villain). The cases are logically sound and the pacing is tight, but leaves enough room to balance the plot with the right amount of fluff. 

Another thing that I appreciated was the amount of research put into the novel. I’m actually taking notes along the way for future reference when (and if) I eventually write my crime-related fanfic~ There were just so many details, such as the different types of police and their roles, the laws, information on the drug market etc etc. And it’s integrated really well into the narrative, not just thrown as exposition. 

Also, can I talk about the female characters? It’s sort of a common critique that danmeis don’t have great female characters, but I’ll say that Poyun has a strong female cast: there’s the almighty Madam Zeng Cuicui, who was so disappointed in her son Yan Xie’s love life that she started studying up on same-sex marriage laws lol; then there’s the street smart Yang Mei, the source of Yan Xie’s envy but overall a great informant; and also the eager Han Xiaomei, who, despite her small stature, actually had a stand down against J and survived; and finally, let’s not forget Chief Yu, who was ready to retire but still managed to provide support in so many cases. Even the bad guys (gals?) such as Bu Wei were quite smart and cunning. Definitely a good selection of female characters!

Now this is probably the controversial part, but when it comes to pairings, I also shipped K and Q. Hard. Heck, add in J too, I don’t mind a KQJ threesome hehe. I loved the whole drug lord and police dynamic, their constant cat-and-mouse chases, their enemy-childhood friend relationship, and how gentle but also cruel K treated Jiang Ting. It just scratched my dark ship itch <3

[greenmagic-oilspill]

Spoiler-Free FFXVI review

Going to keep it under a Read More because it’s pretty long...

FFXVI is a really ambitious game, and from beginning to end I was invested in the plot and characters -- but it's missing just a couple of things that would really make it great. It’s a beautiful game, no doubt about it, with an amazing score and environments, rich lore and deep worldbuilding, fun gameplay, and some really compelling characters. When it excels, it really excels. But where it falters, I really felt it. I’ve got some recency bias here, working for and against the game (since I only beat it yesterday), so I’m not really sure how my thoughts will change over time. I’ve definitely changed my opinions of many FF games after revisiting them a second time, so this one could benefit from the same.

I’m going to start with the characters and plot, because those are the most important parts of a FF game to me, but I’ll also delve into the worldbuilding, gameplay, and music of the game.

Characters

With as many cutscenes as this game has, the characters really find their time to shine. It’s primarily Clive’s story, and over the course of the game we really see him change. His development is a bit cyclical in some ways, but there are definitely events that shape him and who he becomes over the story, and he really feels different from every other FF protagonist. I like him well enough – I think he’s among some of the better FF protagonists for sure. Clive shows such a wide range of emotions and his VA did a stellar job of capturing them.

My favorite character in this game is a spoiler, so I’m not going to go into that in this review.

One character I really wanted to like more was Jill. She’s got all the makings of a compelling character and a compelling story, but a lot of the time it just felt like she was there. The other day @faerantstory and I were discussing how they’d heard that every female character in this story fell under the umbrella of “Pure,” “Sexy,” or “Evil,” and at the time, I had just finished a sequence of the story where Jill most certainly veered away from “Pure,” but after that she fell right back into it. And then she was just an ever-present support to Clive who did little else. I liked the part of the story that focused on her a lot, but it felt so brief and they could have done a LOT more with her past that they didn’t do – she just felt so underutilized. To be honest, she feels a lot like Tifa 2.0, for better or for worse.

Benedikta and Hugo were both extremely disappointing. I expected more from them. Without going into spoilers that is all I am going to say. Barnabas too, to a lesser extent – they went in a direction with him that I didn’t really expect and I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. Dion, however, was pretty great, and Joshua’s story at the beginning of the game made for a really compelling start. Continuing with the umbrellas that female characters fall under, Benedikta fell under both “Evil” and “Sexy” and not much else.

The villains in general (including the main villain) didn’t really do it for me. The main villain didn’t really do anything new that past FF villains had already done before, and better. Their motivations were interesting and followed the overall theme of the story, and there were some twists, but as a character they kind of fell flat. One of the other villains even felt cartoonishly evil.

Honestly, where this game REALLY shines with its characters is primarily in the supporting cast. This genuinely might be one of my favorite parts of the game. You meet a TON of characters over the course of this game (some might even say too many) and I found some of them more compelling than the characters who got more screentime. The world feels so alive with all of their stories, many of which play out over both the main scenario and also through side quests. Many of these characters live in the Hideaway, the main hub of the game, but just as many appear in the various towns and settlements you visit. They all felt like they had a purpose, and many of them had a surprising amount of depth. I definitely encourage doing all of the side quests and taking the time to talk to them after many of the story beats. Also, none of these really fall under a bland Pure, Evil, Sexy umbrella! That was great! But maybe that’s why they’re side characters. :/

The Plot

It’s hard to really go into it without spoilers, but overall I really liked the plot itself and the structure of it really worked to help tell the story they needed to tell. They had clearly defined goals and the characters never felt like they were simply reacting to everything happening around them. I’ve seen some criticism for the “MMO style storytelling” this game has, and that makes sense coming from the team who made XIV, but if you like the story progression in XIV I feel pretty confident in saying you’d like it in XVI. It feels really similar and follows the same pattern of go to new area -> help people with their problems -> gain the trust of the populace. It worked for me. At times there are parts that may feel like “filler” (I’ve always hated this term because people tend to use it wrong), but all of it helps further the characters or worldbuilding. My biggest problem with it is that at times it felt predictable.

At times things felt really bleak, but it never got too bleak for me, and overall the story has a hopeful message so that really helped.

Worldbuilding

Stellar. The Active Time Lore system is a huge help to understanding and conveying the lore and politics of this game – I can’t stress enough how much I loved that system and the dedicated characters in the Hideaway who discuss these things and tell you more about them. The lore in this world is rich and it feels so alive, as I mentioned earlier with the side characters, who are perhaps the primary reason for it. Everything and everywhere really has such a great atmosphere. The marketing stressed that things would change a lot over the game’s time skips, but I didn’t really feel it to be honest – things changed more after big plot events regardless of how much time passed.

Three of the six nations of this story felt extremely underutilized, though, which was a huge shame. Two of those in particular were being really built up but due to story events nothing really happened.

I don’t know how to describe this criticism, and this is more personal preference than anything, but XVI didn’t really feel like it offered anything “new” or original to the overall series to make it feel like it has its own identity distinct from the others. Every FF game offers some new summon that doesn’t appear in other games, maybe a new marketable/cute/iconic monster, a unique airship or something, a unique race, etc. I don’t know if that makes sense, but every concept introduced in XVI felt like a reference to a previous game in the series (even, to some extent, the main villain, whose very name is a name used before). Because of that it almost feels like it doesn’t stand on its own, in a way.

Gameplay

Battles were a ton of fun once I got the hang of it. Loved how smooth it felt, loved the gameplay changes for certain boss battles. I played with one of the accessories to help with evasion – with it, at times the game felt a little too easy, but that’s not a criticism from me. I like easy. I knew if I took it off I’d have died a lot more often. The battle system itself was the best part of the gameplay.

Customization could have been better – sometimes I felt like I had a lot of options for different Eikon abilities to equip and not a lot of space to equip them, leaving some abilities completely unused despite how I wanted to equip them. Weapons and armor were pretty much always straight upgrades that increased your stats and did nothing else. Accessories had the potential to switch things up a bit and offer some variety, but with only three accessory slots you couldn’t really do much (especially if you have one of the accessibility options equipped, like I did). Character progression was mostly achieved through story events, because leveling up is just a straight stat increase, which I can understand is very boring for some people.

I loved that this game was not open world, and instead used four separate and very large maps. Of those four, one felt considerably smaller than the others though. Open world games tend to be really overwhelming for me, and too easy to get lost, so I typically don’t care for the exploration aspect of a lot of those games. But with these four separate areas, I did actually want to explore them – the problem is, aside from finding beautiful vistas or the locations of certain hunt marks, there was not a whole lot to do. Any treasures to find were mostly just filled with useless crafting materials or gil. Not the highest priority for me, but I can see why people would count the exploration against this game. Speaking of gil, once I got past the early game I almost never had to spend any, so it just kept building up and felt pointless.

My biggest gameplay criticism is the enemy variety. All of the enemies in all of the maps were the same, just in different colors. Every map had crabs, or scorpions, or antelopes, or bandits, or chocobos, or goblins, or spiders, or plant monsters, or a couple different species of dragon, maybe an adamantoise or coeurl. Again, there was nothing new – no fantastical creature that the FF series never introduced before, and many of the series staples (like tonberries and cactuars) were missing altogether. It got particularly egregious when they went as far as to double up on some bosses.

Music

Fantastic, as expected of Soken. Not much to say there. I like his work better overall in XIV, but that’s unfair with the sheer amount of songs XIV has. He was allowed to experiment a bit more in XIV, but in XVI he took some opportunities to use different genres here and there.

Overall - 7/10

I can honestly say I really liked it overall – it’s a beautiful game with really rich characters and lore, and where it excels it really excels. I’m not a big fan of the way it ended but I think that is mostly due to personal preference. There were several unanswered questions and I don’t know if they have plans to go into DLC or even a sequel, and I don’t think there’s enough for that anyway – it ended pretty neatly. I will let this game sit with me and I’ll read up on some discussions from other people to see if my thoughts will change, but I don’t know if I’ll end up liking it more or less.

Thanks for reading this really long review!! I will write up a more spoilery one in a couple of days.

[rainofbrasspetal]

Bleach: Final Thoughts

I have just finished the final arc and the final chapter of Bleach. I spent many years as a hater because I heard it was bad and because as a kid and I carried that belief for years. As I have gotten older, I have softened a little bit towards media and became more willing to give things a chance. I just wanted something to read while waiting on new One Piece, CSM, and JoJo. Bleach is just shy of 700 chapters so it seemed like it would be an okay time sink. I didn't know anything about Bleach other than after the first arc is bad and I thought that I might as well give it a shot.

As I finish this series, it becomes a favorite of mine tbh. Kubo is probably one of the most talented artists I have had the pleasure of reading. His designs are so creative and visually pleasing. His blocking and panel work are engaging and sometimes really creative. This display of Shinji's ability is so sick. I love looking at it.

Kubo actually playing with the word bubbles like this to display the other character's power of "painting over names" is so cool that I kept going back and reading these couple of pages this happens before moving on.

The main cast are all great and very very easily likable. I ended up really loving them all. I found it really hard not to. The side characters and villains had a lot of great designs and I enjoyed almost all of them really. The powers and the bankai were all really fun and unique; bankai also had great designs. Boy, oh boy! One thing about me with these shounen battle manga, I love whacky powers that can just be whatever!

They weren't kidding that Soul Society was such a great arc. Everything about that arc really clicked and it was so well written! The common complaint about the Arrancar arc is just Soul Society again and I feel that but honestly, it was still fun. I was engaged enough and having enough fun to not really care. I will say, after looking into the filler, if I was watching the anime, I would have dropped it pretty quick. Luckily I had a good pace thanks to reading instead. I was talking to my friend yesterday and he said the he dropped off at the end of Arrancar because he thought that was where it really should end. If I had watched the anime, I would have agreed. Fullbringers was mainly just a fine arc. Sure there were parts I liked and characters I liked but it was really just an okay arc that existed just so Ichigo could get his powers back. However, since I was reading and got to read 1000 Blood War all at once, I disagree with the sentiment. That last arc is really really strong. 1000 Blood War is such a great arc with well raised stakes and a satisfying ending in my opinion.

Any complaints I have would be again that the Fullbringers is definitely the weakest arc, Nel was a really weird character. I thought she was cute as a kid but didn't like her as an adult. Some of the fights dragged a little but overall the fights were really cool.

I had a great time with the series. Sure I had a few problems here and there but I loved it a ton overall!

I would give it an 8/10 on the Stitchy Scale. It was great and I'll definitely want to collect physical copies in the future!

[quickdeaths]

Spell out your url using characters you love from any media. then, tag as many people as there are letters in your url ( or however many you'd like ! ) inspired by the song titles dashboard game.

Q - Qiu Tong, Tamen de Gushi. Ngl, finding a character with a Q name was tough haha. Qiu Tong is a good choice tho, both for how big TdG was in my circles when it was at its peak, and the sad story of what happened to it. Free my girls!

U - Utena Tenjou, Revolutionary Girl Utena. Utena is too hard to watch to be my favorite anime, but I do think it's kind of the perfect anime, and I will truly never be free from taking inspiration from Utena herself when making characters.

I - Itto Arataki, Genshin Impact. My girlfriend played Genshin Impact and I was thinking about picking it up, but I wasn't totally sure, and then I saw this guy. History made.

C - Claire François, I'm In Love With The Villainess. I love the villainess genre, absolutely oversaturated with slop though it may be. This one is a fave, and what I like about Claire is that she has multiple arcs. So many examples of this genre use isekai or reincarnation explanations to sand off the rough edges, and while I think Claire is very sympathetic, the light novels show that she has to prove her good intentions and overcome her prejudices.

K - Kotori Minami, Love Live! She's not the strongest character, really, but I just like her a lot. Love Live! meant a lot to me when I was like, 21-22.

D - Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks. Gosh what a performance, huh? I was obsessed with this show in college, and the absolute weirdo energy brought to this character has never left my brain. I really gotta watch the new season.

E - Edelgard von Hresvelg, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. She's not my fave FE3H character, but I do like her a lot, and unfortunately the discourse around her is the clearest portrait I've ever seen of fandom misogyny. The double-standards, the flattening of motivations, the lack of credit or benefit of the doubt that male characters got easily, it's all there. Edelgard they could never make me hate you.

A - A2, NieR: Automata. This is a stand-in for her, 2B, and 9S, honestly. NieR: Automata is one of my all-time faves, with a story that I loved the whole way through. For me, they are "frequently bought together, do not separate them," but A2 is the only one whose name actually starts with a letter, so she gets the honor.

T - Tahani Al-Jamil, The Good Place. This is kind of another "ensemble" pick since it is hard to choose, although Tahani might be my favorite of the main four cast. I don't watch a ton of TV, but I honestly devoured this whole show in like... maybe three weeks? I love the characters, and I loved the story, and while The Office and Parks and Recreation never really hit for me, this definitely did. With Tahani specifically, it helps that I love Jameela Jamil.

H - Hanabi Yasuraoka, Scum's Wish. This is a hard manga to recommend, and Hanabi is a hard character to love, but it lined up for me at a time where I needed to read things about characters who weren't great people but still deserved the hope that the could be better. Fun fact, an article I wrote about my relationship to the anime for a website is, I believe, the first time I was ever paid for my writing.

S - Saeko Sawatari, How Do We Relationship? I could honestly talk about Sae forever. HDWR is maybe my favorite romance manga of all time, and Sae is relatable to me in ways I find affirming and representative, and also deeply uncomfortable. Sometimes I'll be reading normally, and then Sae will say something that feels like the kind of thing I'd write in a diary and then throw into the ocean strapped to fifty pound weights due to being too honest and vulnerable. I can't explain all the things that I see reflected back at myself from her, and honestly, I probably wouldn't want to. All I can say is that she's such a special character to me.

Tagged by: @more-than-a-princess

Tagging: Normally I would tag people, but I did just do a dash meme recently and also tags are like busted for some reason for me like what's up with that. If you want to do it, though, I think you should and you can say I tagged you and it'll be our secret.

[thewertsearch]

Asks Compilation 31/10

Thanks a ton!!

Yup, the trolls have all simultaneously started talking about their complicated alien relationships. Hussie clearly just woke up one morning with the coolest idea that just had to go in the comic.

It's a little out of the blue, but I've been rather enjoying myself, as I puzzle out what each new term is supposed to mean. It's already one of the more unique things about Alternian culture, and it's a lot of fun.

Plus, it turns Nepeta's shipping wall multidimensional. Does she have a Black Romance section?

True, true. Like I said, he deserves to be read as charitably as Vriska did. These kids are products of the dystopia they grew up in, and like it or not, that's going to have consequences!

God-tier troll, honestly. Kanaya is one of the most consistently entertaining of the cast, and I'm hoping we get to spend a while in her PoV before we have to move on.

I just missed her so much you guys

Thanks!

Nuanced is certainly the word. You have to view each story event on multiple levels, and be aware of how they interact. Hopefully I'm able to keep up!

Sane, linear, and a dead giveaway.

Rosemary is pretty great, as is Pepsi Cola - although there are a lot of red and blue characters. The ship name could equally apply to Karkat/Equius!

And hello again, L.O.S.S. anon! Maybe that could be your post signature?

[asked on the 25th! although I looked it up and I'm not sure what the reference is 🤔 her Hivebent intro was July 31st and first pesterlog was January 1st, must be missing something - C ]

Until proven otherwise, I'm going to assume this is Hussie officially confirming that Kanaya's birthday is October 25th. Thank you, Hussie, for this lore.

Heh, Meowrails. I'm sure Equius just loves that.

anonymous asked: I am horribly sorry if this is already long since decided but there is a fanon class that is basically all about faffing about in SBURB "code" called Waste, and I thought you might be interested in learning more about the fanon classpects later [] yes I know you have mentioned how you feel about fanon but please just trust me on this one I barely know anything about aspects myself, but I think with your writing mannerisms and analysis, you might vibe just enough with Mind? and if you can't be the Waste of Mind anymore, maybe your trollsona can?

As someone who invented countless Pokemon types in her childhood, I like the idea of fan Aspects - or even Classes. I might try my hand at some, after the liveblog ends in early 2038.

There are many who surely would consider this project a Waste of Mind. I shall wear this moniker with pride.

I recall hearing the Lord British thing was an accident - another accidental reference by Hussie?

For once, I actually did know the The Locked Tomb had ties to Homestuck. I believe the author was an extremely popular fic author in the fandom - and having read TLT, I believe it.

It does kind of look like his sign - but that blank, red eye can't be anyone else, can it?

Unless Nepeta somehow knows about Karkat's blood. Now there's a thought.

Ooh, I didn't think about that! Vriska was saying that in a message to Aradia, after all.

Maybe she's a little less apathetic than she lets on. A few of Vriska's words were ringing around in her head - and when Equius mentioned her heart, she already knew what she had to do to get that damn chip out.

[inbarfink]

So the Character-Flavored Tea sold in Cyber City has a lot of interesting details to analyze:

It’s possible that a person perceiving their own tea as just water is just... how the tea is supposed to work. But you can also read it as an indication of self-loathing and\or a lack of a clear self-image. I think you can argue that pretty much all the characters involved suffer from this to some degree.

Lol Noelle is thirsty

Susie likes everyone’s flavor but herself’s! Awww! it’s clear that outside her Tough Bully Exterior, Susie might be the most Wholesome character in the cast. Deep down, she’s really just “HELL YEAH THESE ARE ALL MY FRIENDS AND I LOVE THEM A LOT”

Obviously Ralsei has a high score for Susie and Kris but not really for Noelle because he barely had a chance to interact with her. This is also probably why she perceives Ralsei Tea as an empty cup. She literally has no impression of him. Same goes the other way around. 

The fact that they even have 50HP for each other might be a testiment for how sweet and accepting both of these characters are even with complete strangers. 

(And Ralsei at the very least knows that Noelle is soft and sweet!! Awww)

Noelle and Kris’ scores for each other are above-average but not Great. Probably because they USED to be quite close as kids but then had a falling out. So their relationship is still a bit tense even though they care about each other. 

This is clearly expressed in the flavors. Susie and Ralsei aren’t sure if Kris likes Noelle Tea or not (probably because Kris’ feelings about it are conflicted.) Noelle’s Kris Tea has a cinnamon flavor with a strange aftertaste - just like her feelings for them are mostly pleasent but with some lingering sadness\apprehension.

The most intersting thing of all is that although the Player is given many opportunities to make Kris express affection towards Ralsei... Kris only gets 60HP from Ralsei Tea. Just 10HP more then Noelle and Ralsei gets from That Person They Don’t Even Know. Perhaps the implication is that in spite of any choices made by the player, Kris doesn’t like Ralsei all that much. Maybe they feel apprehensive about his overly-friendly attitude. Maybe, like a lot of fans do, they kinda suspect that he’s not on the up-and-up

Notably, Kris does get a 120HP does of FRIENDSHIP from Susie Tea. Many fans have noticed that some of the few things Kris does without the player’s control involve showing a clear affection for Susie. Protecting her from the King, calling her “a friend”, being angry when other people bad-mouth her... they might have even slashed their mom’s tires just as an excuse to have a sleepover! 

And when Susie asks Kris who’d they rather take to the Town Festival, “You” (Susie) is the one answer where Susie doesn’t mention them ‘sounding so confused’. (I mean that could also be that she was so flustered by the implication that she didn’t notice the tone, but ‘Kris likes Susie the most and wants to hang out with her’ is probably the most obvious interpretation)

It’s very sweet to think that although Kris met Susie under the Very Unfortunate Circumstance of Being Mind Controlled, they have grown to see her as their closest friend regardless of that fact. But it’s also kinda sad to think that Ralsei’s great affection toward Kris is kinda one-sided.

... But I do actually have an Alternative Theory as to why Ralsei Tea has such a low score for Kris, and that has to do with the Flavor (Text). We can only tell how Kris feels about the Tea from Susie and Ralsei’s comments. And interestingly enough, both Kris Tea and Ralsei Tea give them “No reaction?”

SO, one of the theories about What the Hell Ralsei Even Is, is that rather than being the Dark World Manifestation of an inanimate object - he’s the   Dark World Manifestation of an abstract concept. Namely: Kris’ memories of Asriel. So he’s able to manifest in whatever Dark World Kris wonders to because he is literally manifesting from Kris’ brain.

And so, assuming the Teas taste like water when you drink your own flavor is Just How It Works - is it possible that drinking the Tea of someone who is Made of Your might be somewhat diluted???

Eh, it’s just a theory. Honestly I kinda like “Kris just doesn’t like Ralsei as much as Ralsei likes them back” because it’s very tragic and sad.

SPEAKING OF RALSEI AND SADNESS, can we talk about that “I’m happy!” when Kris drinks his Tea? Like is it just another indication of Ralsei’s extremely eager-to-please and desperate for approval personality. He’s happy that Kris even chose to drink his Tea and he’s just trying to ignore the implications of Kris seemingly having no reaction to it?

Is it about his own low\lacking self-image that he showed in the Acid Tunnel of Love. Is it like “Oh wow you had a Neutral Reaction and got healed 60HP? OH YAY! I was so worried that you were gonna spit it out in disgust and lose 20HP! I’m so relieved you can even be Neutral towards my flavor!” 

Other things about the tastes: Ralsei’s tastes for Kris and Susie correspond with their Dark World colors. Kris is blue and has a blueberry flavor, Susie is purple and has a grape flavor. Is it just to show how Ralsei has only ever seen them as their Dark World selves (because Kris is very much not Blueberries in the Light World)? Or maybe it’s meant as an indication that maybe Ralsei’s impression of them is still a bit... shallow?

Susie tasting Noelle Tea as Eggnog and Ralsei Tea as Marshmallows both make tons of sense. Eggnog is warm, comforting and Christmasy - marshmallows are soft and very sweet. That’s a pretty good description of Noelle and Ralsei.

I’m just trying to figure out why Susie thinks Kris is apple-flavored? Is it because they’re green in the Light World? Is it a reference to how their the child of a teacher? Kris is... not super-sweet but... crispy?? I’ll have to think about it.

[damnredthing]

Just some mindless, happy ramblings – SNW S1E07

This post – naturally – contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the episode yet and do not want to read spoilers, please do not read any further.

This is not an episode review but rather just a bunch of ramblings which I’ve tried to at least sort a little bit into categories.

Season 1 – Episode 7 – The Serene Squall

This episode was hilarious. It is a nice break in tone compared to the last episode and it was so great to see Anson goofing off and showing his comedic talent. He hasn’t done many comedic roles in his career, which is why I am happy he’s catching up now. This entire episode looked like he had a ton of fun making it. I honestly don’t know how the cast and crew could finish shooting this episode, there must have been a lot of laughing fits.

I’ve also worked a bit on my gif-skills and trying a new approach with my ramblings by adding more gifs. I hope you enjoy.

.

A lot of T’Pring in the series

I am surprised how much we get to see of T’Pring in this series, especially if you compare her screentime with Hemmer, who is supposed to be main cast. I am even more surprised that I don’t mind at all seeing her that much! She is a breakout character for me who I didn’t expect to see much of, but now realize how much I like to see her.

In this episode I was even more surprised that we even get to see her at work. For a recurring character that is a lot of insight. But luckily the episode gave the reason for this and it all falls into place for me now. Especially with the last second reveal in the episode, SNW is going to focus a lot more on Spock’s family (if not in season 1 already, then for sure in season 2).

What I found funny was her suggesting human sex to Spock. I just wonder why Spock was so shocked about that. What exactly were they planning to do in the pilot episode during their “special night” when Pike interrupted them? That looked very much like what humans do, too! 🤔

.

Did Dr. Aspen / Captain Angel hit on Pike?

Or was it just part of their tactic to get Pike on their side?

During the dinner when they told Pike he’s known in Starfleet for being their (!) boy scout, the teasing and charming grin felt genuine. And what I find even more interesting is that Pike seemed to be intrigued.

.

That boy scout comment tho!

So here I was squirming around in my last ramblings not to flat out call Pike naive, and they drop the bomb in episode 7 with the boy scout. Next time I guess I should just stick with my gut feeling and call it as what it is.

But was Una just teasing him that it was even in his file? I mean… a nick name in a Starfleet file? That would be weird.

.

Remy had a thing for Pike

Nobody can tell me otherwise. Sure, he’s an Orion slaver and most and foremost saw Pike as a prime meat that gets him lots of latinum. But the way he eyed him up, felt for his bicep and patted him while only sideeying La’an and literally disregarding her… tell me I am not the only one who saw this?

And later he tells Pike he doesn’t want to wreck a great jawline (hello???) and then also calling him handsome and witty. I cannot say that Orion had bad taste.

It’s so funny how Remy tried to dominate Pike when his helpers were doing the dirty work for him, but later Pike turned the tables and played Remy like a fiddle.

I wonder if we ever get to see Remy again and how their second meeting will be, after Pike caused his crew to mutiny against him.

.

Why did nobody help Pike up when he was tossed inside the cell?

Okay I admit it, I laughed my butt off at this scene. Anson played this so hilariously funny!

But uh, something irks me about this scene. Pike has been the care bear for his crew. Always wants their best. Always puts them before himself. Surely by now his crew must appreciate him as being an awesome captain, no?

So how come when that lizard guy tossed Pike into the cell, none of Pike’s crew made even the slightest attempt of helping him up? They all just stared at him – admittedly in shock about how much he had been roughened up – but they just watched him hauling his butt up all by himself.

I know it was done for comedic reasons (and Anson was so great), but I still find that remarkably weird. There was only one guy in the cell (the one with the gold uniform, kneeling on the right side) who at least offered Pike a bit of a hand. M’Benga at least checked his head (after Pike got up on his own mind you). But Ortegas and Una? They just watched him go down.

.

Hints for the big twist

I admit I didn’t see the twist coming, but I was very pleased to watch Jesse James Keitel turning absolute evil as Captain Angel. As they were able to escape, I sure hope we gonna see them again. Especially as they are married to Sybok who I am sure we will see more of. If not in season 1 then in season 2.

Only when I watched the episode a second time, I noticed there were hints that Dr. Aspen was the pirate leader, or at least associated with them.

During the dinner, when Spock mentions the Serene Squall, you can see Aspen stop in their movements for a brief second.

They also tell everyone how the pirates are outsiders, fiercely loyal to each other, which turns out to be not true. But as Angel was their leader, this is certainly what they wanted to believe to be true.

Dr. Aspen also knew the solution how to get out of the net trap. It was a very scientific solution, something one wouldn’t expect from a counselor.

Remy knew exactly that Pike is the captain. How else would he know if not from Angel beforehand? At the time Remy was torturing Pike to get the codes, Angel was still in their Dr. Aspen cover.

Dr. Aspen urged Spock to use the escape pods and abandon the ship.

.

Angel and Sybok

Angel isn’t just married to Sybok, they also share the belief in allowing emotions to unfold. Multiple times Angel encouraged Spock to rely on his emotion. Just when they asked him about Kolinahr (which is the Vulcan ceremony to detach themselves from all emotions) and were all excited to learn that Spock hasn’t underwent the ceremony yet, or when they pushed Spock to follow his gut feeling to decide which asteroid to fire on to destroy the net trap. Not to mention the dialogue they had with Spock about Spock’s true self (which was beautiful!).

Angel might have chosen a vile way to get their husband back, but they acted out of love. I don’t think they are purely evil. I think Angel is truly believing in Sybok’s ways and as such, I am almost certain we will see both again.

Sybok on his path to find Sha Ka Ree is going to gather quite a following. He will collect many followers by using his telepathic abilities to heal people from traumatic experiences. I am curious if we’ll get to see any of that in SNW and who all Sybok will try to win over. I mean, there are a couple of people on Enterprise with traumatic experiences…

I am also curious how his relationship with his half brother Spock will unfold.

.

Star Trek writers know exactly what the fans want

Not only did we get a non-binary character, who kicked ass!

But whumpers also got their happy day!

Still some unchecked boxes though. But I am certain the show will deliver.

.

Some Randoms

This is very random, but I loved the boing sound the Enterprise made when it kicked the rock away that set off the trap

I cannot wait to get my hands on the season 1 blu ray and watch the outtakes for this episode. How could they all pull this episode off without getting caught in endless laughing fits?

Holy shit was Spock badass or what? And he’s just half Vulcan. How much stronger is a full Vulcan? 😱 I was squealing when I saw that.

Pike wearing an apron over his combat gear (!), and to top it off, the apron is also gold just as his gear? This had me in stitches. 🤣

The oversized steering wheel… in a spaceship… like wtf? Lol

Did Chapel seriously aim a hypospray at Spock and Dr. Aspen in engineering? 🤣 This episode was pure comedy.

The Serene Squall under Remy was about to separate from the Enterprise and leave part of their crew behind when Remy announced they would set course to Qu’Vat to sell the Federation crew to the Klingons. So, was this actually a double mutiny? Fran turning against Remy on the Serene Squall, after Remy turned against Captain Angel? Well played Chris, well played indeed!

“Spock, you are failing to communicate effectively.” Bahahaha, I love this. Vulcan’s being funny when trying not to be funny.

Does this need further comments? 🤣🤣🤣🤪🤪🤪

[spaceorphan18]

I really want to know who your favourite LOTR characters are! I saw an ask about Silmarillion that said you've already answered this before but I tried searching your blog and couldn't find it

Oh hello! Usually my tag is LOTR for this stuff, but I may have forgotten to tag things.

Anyway... my favorite LOTR Characters!

Bilbo Baggins

This is probably more due to the Hobbit, which I did read before LOTR. But I've always thought of him as my fictional kindred spirit. He's grumpy and tired and really wants to be left alone so he can write his book. And the only way you'll get him to do anything is show up with 13 dwarves and a wizard to kick him out the door.

Btw - Martin Freeman was a perfect casting for this role. I'm sad the Hobbit films weren't better ones, because Freeman embodies him perfectly.

Gandalf

Look, I love Wizards. Love. Them. Maybe it's the aesthetic? Maybe it's the idea of some old, frail looking dude being able to kick your butt with ancient magic? Maybe it's the fact that they're the ones who always know the mythology? I don't know. But one of the reasons I love LOTR is for the wizards, and Gandalf is one of the greatest. Plus, he's grumpy and too old for this shit and really would rather just sit back and enjoy the Hobbit nonsense if he could.

Also - another perfect casting choice here with Ian McKellen.

Pippin

I really love the Hobbits in general, but Pippin is my favorite. I think in both the book and the movies he gets some really great material - he's not as comical in the book, but he does bring levity to the story in both. Plus, his story arc showcases how someone so small can be beneficial to the overall story and he gets to hang out with Gandalf a ton.

Aragorn

I mean, look at this sexy dude. ;) I think this is one of those instances where the movies gave a lot more complexity to a character who was more of an archetype in the book. But I think I just kind of love the gruff, gritty guy who is actually an heir to royalty but really isn't in it for that trope.

Legolas

I'm really fond of the Elves in general - and their mythology is one of the hearts of the book. But in the movies, let's be real, it's mostly aesthetic. ;) Also - the fact that there are so many great memes. Lol

Frodo & Sam

Okay, I originally just had Sam on here - Sam is the literal heart of the whole story, and has one of the best arcs in the whole book. It's really his story, and I absolutely adore him.

I'm including Frodo here, though because in the movies, he and Sam have one of my favorite dynamics. In the books, Frodo and Sam have a very strictly master-companion relationship, it grows into a very strong bond, but there is that level of class that always stays between them. To make it more modern (and I'd say more American - but this is a New Zealand film) they eased up on the class stuff and made it a really strong friendship. I'd even go as far to say that this is perhaps the best 'romance' of the movies. (I don't even mean that in a sexual way - but that their love and connection is very deep and isn't played up for laughs in the same way as Merry and Pippin or Legolas and Gimli.)

Faramir

Honestly, I think he's a character I enjoy a lot in the movies, and maybe less so in the books. He doesn't have much of a personality in the books - and I'm okay with the movies trying to give him a better character arc. But idk, I've always liked him - maybe because he gets to pal around with Pippin while they're both stuck in Minas Tirith.

Eowyn

It's really sad that I only have one woman on this list but at least she gets to be badass and gets to do cool things.

****

In case you're wondering about some characters not on this list...

Merry - Poor Merry gets the shaft. But he is the weakest developed of the four main hobbits. His friendship with Pippin is great though.

Gimli - Okay, people don't hate me, I've never been all that into the Dwarven cultures. :/

Gollum - Look, I realize he's, like, the favorite of everyone, the most morally complex, and Andy Serkis should have gotten a damn Oscar for that role, but I just don't like him. Sorry.

Saruman - I really don't think he gets to do all that much in either book or movie. He has some interesting backstory stuff going on, but he's a little generic in the main story.

Boromir - Tolkien doesn't have a lot of morally gray characters in his books, so it's great when we get to see him. But for me, I'm meh on him even if I recognize that he is a good character.

Elrond and Galadriel - Both of whom have better stories elsewhere in Tolkien's mythology.

Arwen - Ug, she's not a character in the books, and barely a character in the films.

Sauron - You know, he's a great character in pre-third age related things. But he's used only as a dark menace here, so I feel, despite being the main antagonist, you don't get a full sense of him and he's not much of a character in LotR.

Okay, did I miss anyone? Despite there being a million characters in these books -- there really aren't that many characters that play an active role.

[dreamylyfe-x]

Your trevor meta is making me realize how weird it is that the writers and cast were so insistent that mickey wasn't coming back, because I don't think theyve ever really known what to do with ian's story without him. They put him in these lukewarm relationships and tell us they're so much better and healthier, but then have ian straight up admit that he still loves mickey and nobody else has made him feel the same way. How do they set that up and then have him go back to trevor? They set up ian moving on with "I'm not that person anymore" and follow up with season 8. It's like okay...who he is now is gay Jesus? Lmao. He's always been the shows forgotten middle child and after they wrote mickey off "for good" they could have taken him in a million directions but they chose one so shitty it basically made cam leave lmao. Sometimes it feels like fan insistence kind of forced mickey back but in actuality, the seasons where he's gone just hammer home that he was always the inevitable end to ian's story. So bizarre how little the showrunners understand their own story sometimes.

Ok. I’m going to be a little more Doylist here than I usually am, because we’re talking about what the writers are thinking. And I’m also going to take this opportunity to share this fascinating article from the AV Club in 2016: When Fan Engagement Goes Wrong. Everyone beware, it contains significant spoilers for The 100. But it’s also largely about Gallavich, the fact that online promotion of Shameless leaned hard into the popularity of the couple, and were up against it when Noel left. I’ll quote: 

“[Supervising Producer Shelia] Callaghan’s choice to be honest and straightforward when engaging with fans is admirable, and yet also on some level futile. She can’t tell them exactly why Fisher chose to leave, she is (logically) unwilling to spoil future storylines outright, and she can only speak her own mind as part of a collaborative process over which she holds only some influence. So while many fans respect her effort to maintain the connection to this now marginalized community, others attack, reinforcing that attempting to manage these situations is a full-time job that no one has been properly trained for.” 

This article links some tweets and the one I find the most interesting is this one:

“But the actor left.  So...what to do? Have them just break up?? Felt way less true to me than a forced separation!” 

That tweet is from Krista Vernoff, who wanted to convey that they tried really hard to come up with what they do with Ian now that he’d lost Mickey. And I’m sure they did try really hard. And.... People hated it. Mostly. 

Here’s what I think, based on what I’ve read and the interviews I’ve seen, on deleted tweets and Tumblr rumours and YouTube clips: The show didn’t want Mickey to leave the canvas. At all. Noel wanted more money. The show could not come up with both that money and the money they needed for everyone else. The show let him go. And hoped they could solve the creative problem their budgetary problem had dumped in their lap. 

I actually think Ian’s story in season six is decent. I miss Mickey, of course. I find the last scene with him really painful -- but it’s not painful because the show is trying to diminish him. They write and then cut together a scene where Mickey is DEMONSTRATIVELY still deeply in love with Ian. He’s carved his name in his chest. He is looking at Ian like he’s the most beautiful creature ever given breath. And Ian can barely meet his gaze. They tell us Mickey is being sent away for 16 years but when we see the last of Mickey Milkovich in season six I think “God, this is so sad. They love each other so much and this is so fucked up.” 

I do NOT think “We are NEVER EVER EVER getting back together.” 

The show always knew what it had with Ian and Mickey. They leaned into it promotionally. They gave meaty storylines to the characters, particularly given that Ian was the fourth lead on a family dramedy built around six children. John Wells replaced Aaron Sorkin on The West Wing. He knows how hard it is to follow a phenomenon. 

The more I think about it, honestly? I don’t think they tried. I think they knew that they couldn’t bring in Mickey Milkovich, the sequel in season six, so they brought in Caleb. And maybe they meant for him to be a LITTLE more viable than he was... but I think there’s a pretty good chance they were just throwing something at the wall to see if it stuck, while being fully aware that the important storyline in season six was getting Ian from despair to a fulfilling career. Caleb was just there as a catalyst. 

Season seven if more interesting, because Trevor is brought on and it’s very much... “Hey, let’s do something new. Let’s bring on a transmasc character and put him into a relationship with Ian and explore those complications.” 

“Great! Put it up on the board!” 

“Also. Let’s call Noel Fisher’s people and see what we can work out because we can do better with Mickey’s send off and people are yelling at me on the street about it.” 

Quite honestly, these are not equal tasks for his writer’s room. You have one story -- Create a whole ass new character. The only thing we know is that he’s trans. Figure out the romance from there. You have six episodes to get them together as an established couple. 

Then: Bring back the well-established and beloved character for an epic romantic two-episode arc where he reunites with his true love and they run away together and then ultimately realize it cannot be, and say goodbye and it all feels like I Will Always Love You should be playing in the background. They actors worked together for five years. They have a great professional partnership. They like working together. They have a ton of history so there’s lots of juicy subtext. The longing and sexual tension comes pre-established. See what you can do. 

HOW do you make both those things work out so that they are equal? You need lightening to strike. And that already happened on How I Met Your Mother. They squandered their good luck and now there is none left for Shameless. I do not disparage Elliot Fletcher at all when I say that for Trevor and Ian to really work he’d have had to have come with scorching chemistry with Cam, rich material that really gave them a good opportunity to build rapport between the characters, and A wizard standing by to cast spells in the wings. They had SIX episodes, a pretty average connection between the actors, and the “these are the LGBTQ+ people in your neighbourhood” scene. 

I just can’t believe that someone with as many years of TV writing under his belt as John Wells has expected that to work. He hoped the Trevor story might be good, and was certainly going to break some ground in terms of telling trans stories. And the Mickey story was going to be the highlight, because he knew people wanted it and he also knew that they’d had something pretty special to start with. Which is why people were yelling at him at Comic-Con. I DO think he hoped it might placate fans a bit. But... he wasn’t going to completely close the door on Mickey this time, either. 

So... I don’t really think the show every intended to write Mickey off “for good”. I think they wrote him off “for now, and we’ll see what happens...” -- and they did that with Karen, Shelia, Jody, Steve and Fiona, too. They only brought a few of those people back... They brought Mickey back three times. They ended Gallavich FOUR times. Noel is in ever season except eight. I don’t think they wanted Mickey gone -- but I KNOW the fans also made it pretty hard for them not to know his value, so absolutely I think that played a role. But when you create something people love and you get that lightening in a bottle like they did with this story, I think writers are always going to be excited to get that back. They like praise! They like people to be excited about their show. And Gallavich was always one of the things that got people excited about Shameless. 

I think they also wanted Gay Jesus to be a great story. But that’s why the lightening in the bottle is so valuable. You can’t just get it anywhere. 

[stellar-imagines]

HEADCANONS REQUEST: ❝theatre kid /SO.❞

[ Fandom: Haikyuu ] [ Characters: Kuroo Tetsurou, Bokuto Koutarou, Oikawa Tooru ]

「Headcanons of Kuroo, Bokuto, and Oikawa with a theatre kid S/O.」

KUROO TETSUROU

♤ Kuroo is a person who knows quite a lot of things. He knows all those famous plays by Shakespeare and reads a few novels himself. He’s a very thoughtful person and is probably one of the very few people you know that can actually understand your hardships. You claimed that your friends were the only ones from the drama club but Kuroo easily became your friend, bonding with you over his favorite plays. He might not be into it like you were but he's a great listener.

♤ Honestly, your ability to memorize things always makes him wonder if you were some sort of secret genius. You merely told him that it was something normal since you had to memorize lines for a play numerous times. Kuroo likes to call it a talent of yours and that it was like some sort of cheat from a game. Of course, it doesn't mean you can memorize things easily. You'd like to say that the trick was to imagine that your textbook was a script.

♤ You always never have the time to hang out with your classmates after classes because of rehearsal and club activities. However, with Kuroo it was different. Since the two of you had club activities, you both would coincidentally meet up a couple of times by the school gate. He would walk you home, claiming that his house was nearby but you learned that it wasn’t from his teammates. In the end, you decided to just let him be and it made you kind of touched that he would go out his way just to walk you home.

♤ A great practice partner but sometimes he can be overly dramatic. He actually likes to rehearse with you since he gets to see your different expressions. Kuroo finds it amazing how you can switch between many roles, personalities and feelings so easily. One day you will be practicing a character who's brash and hardheaded and on another day you'll be practicing a character who's quiet and timid. Every single day, you'd be a different person depending on what role you're given for your next play.

♤ Super excited to watch your play during Cultural Festival. No matter what role you were given, big or small, he will be there supporting you. He will try to catch you during the little break time you're given and express how amazing you were on stage. This guy always shows his interest in your club activities. Kuroo really likes it when you talk about your club members and spill all the drama that happened between your friends in the club.

BOKUTO KOUTARO

☆ His enthusiasm matches yours. Bokuto is the most supportive friend/boyfriend you'll ever have. This guy will be at all your performances, minus the ones that clash with his practice hours and games. However, he'll get someone to record it for him so he can watch you perform on stage. He's like your number one fan, the one who will be supporting you before you become well-known to the world, someone who will watch over you throughout your entire growth.

☆ Definitely not a reader but loves hearing you recite Shakespeare and quote from some of your favorite plays. He eventually knows how to respond to your lines and it becomes a thing that you both would do from time to time. If you both start dating, he's prepared himself for the movie marathons. that you will initiate. Bokuto brings a ton of snacks and will cuddle you throughout the entire movie.

☆ Bokuto helps you recite your lines for your next drama and he does a pretty great job at it too. You were super excited when you saw potential in him, trying to convince him to get into the drama club but of course, he's dedicated to volleyball because it's his passion. He can really read those lines well and never fails to amaze you every single time he practices with you. He's a really fin practice partner and always shows interest in your future plays.

☆ Gets very jealous when you're in a play with another guy and he actually tries to get you to change your roles. It took you some time to tell him that he shouldn't be jealous because you will only have eyes on him. Gives you that pout that always makes you weak and it really does work but you tell yourself that you couldn't be swayed. All it took was a lot of convincing and a promise to give him all your time and attention later on.

☆ Remember the cast list you have been waiting for? The one that could make you throw up in anticipation? Because Bokuto remembers that, he will be far more excited than you, dragging you to see whether you got a role in the next play or not. If you didn’t, he’s there for you and ensuring that you don’t beat yourself up for it. But when you make it in, he will be celebrating it with you and he kinda brags about it to his teammates about how amazing you are.

OIKAWA TOORU

♡ Oikawa has greatly misunderstood how hard it is. You constantly tell him that being in the drama club wasn't that easy. People may seem friendly and all that but you remind him that there are always two sides of a coin. You'd often tell him about what's going on within the club that is not known to anyone outside of it. Oikawa loves heaving these juicy gossips and finds it interesting that there was so much going on in your club.

♡ Oikawa has heard that everyone thinks he practices volleyball a bit too much, when he sees you practicing for your next play and memorizing scripts, he feels like he's not that bad. At first, he always thought that you were waiting for him to finish practice every single day. He always thought that your "I wasn't waiting that long." was just you being nice but it turned out that you had been rehearsing with your friends and finished up late.

♡ You have tried to drag him into the drama club from time to time, claiming that he would actually fit in because he's very overdramatic. Though you bluntly told him that he could probably be popular in the club by looks alone. Oikawa took offense and yelled at you for it but you stood your ground. Well, you're not wrong because he's already popular with the girls because of his looks and physique. This guy whines about how you only looked at his appearance and never accounted for his personality.

♡ Man, this guy gets very emotional when he watches some plays with you. It was common to have him tearing up at the sad moments. But of course, it wasn't like you're any different. You still can't over that one scene that always brought you to tears. You introduced a lot of things to Oikawa and it became a thing for you two to watch something together during the weekends. You thought that he was a volleyball freak who practices 24/7 but thanks to you, he found a way to relax.

♡ Finds it amusing how you're always like a different person every day thanks to your club. Every single day, you will be in a different role. He rehearses with you from time to time but this guy lets every little compliment you throw at him get the best of him. He finds your stage costumes interesting as well as the makeup. He thinks you look good in them and never fails to tell you so.

Total: 1284 words Published: 18.07.2021

Thank you for requesting! ｡٩(ˊᗜˋ)و*｡ Honestly, I hope we got the theater kid stuff right..... We hope you liked it! ― author Lou

Thank you for requesting it! Hope you enjoyed this! Please don’t hesitate to tell us more on what it truly means to be classified as a theater kid. Our chat is always open! ― author Natsuki

Requests are closed! Matchups are closed!

Please do not mind the grammar mistakes and typos.

[turtlegirlave]

So this has a ton of opinions which I usually stray away from but i really let all my opinions out here. Also there is definitely fact mistakes, probably name mistakes and some incorrect singing terms in here, I wrote this at 2 A.M. with a limited knowledge of theater I’m just trying to get a point across.

Why s2 of hsm the series should have been newsies instead of beauty and the beast:

They say straight up in the show “we need a real Alan Menkhen musical” and they pick beauty and the beast instead of newsies, a literal Broadway stage production???

At first I assumed it was because the cast was primarily male, but that isn’t even a reasonable argument. 1)as shown by s1 when a boy played sharpay, gender doesn’t matter when being considered for a role. 2), a cast with multiple male leads would give the gay men in the show a chance to shine, instead of shoving them to background roles like Chip. Not to mention Carlos is a dancer, and newsies is a musical driven by choreography. 3), since nini moved there are only like 2 lead females anyway, which works for the 2 female roles in newsies.

Casting Wise, the play works SO MUCH better!

Ricky: jack kelley is a much better role for him than the beast for many reasons. First, their personalities are very similar with the mischievous main teen vibe, so the role would be like Troy where Ricky can slip into it easier. Second, it fits him better vocally. It is very clear from listening to Joshua basset sing that he has a relatively high vocal range, and singing low notes or in a deep voice doesn’t come as naturally to him. Jeremy Jordan has a similar vocal range, where he stays in higher octaves and more rarely uses a deep, monotone voice (at least never to the beast’s extent). Ricky would sound perfect singing in Jack’s vocal range. The beast, however, sings almost exclusively in an extremely deep, monotone voice that Joshua cannot easily perform.

Ashlyn: not only does she look quite similar to Katherine, but they have similar personalities as well. Also, katherine’s high and bubbly singing voice would sound lovely with Ash’s, which is also high and bubbly but often softer. This would allow her to push herself to sing louder and more confidently. And she still gets to play a smart bookworm lead female role.

Kourtney: she was born to play miss medda larken. Mrs. Potts’ debut song “beauty and the beast” is a soft romance ballad, which does not match kourt’s stadium reach, strong, powerful voice. “That’s rich” not only shows off her vocals better, but matches her personality and voice much better with the grit and power behind it. Also, Mrs Potts as a character is the soft, motherly type. Miss medda is a rambunctious, empowered, “I got men if I want em but I don’t need em” kinda woman. Which role better fits the girl power, loud, activist, personal cheer squad type person that Kourtney is?

Carlos and Sebastian: not only would this stop shoving the gays and only interesting men other than Ricky to background roles (sorry big red), but it would show off their talents. Seb would make a wonderful crutchy, with his innocent nature and likeness to the character. It would also give him a chance to flex his vocals and sing a duet with Ricky in Santa Fe, further developing the friendships in the show. Carlos could play really any of the main boys, I mostly think he would kill in this due to his dance and choreography skills, which newsies really emphasizes.

Big red: PLEASE this boy would be perfect as Ben Cook’s role (can’t remember the newsie’s name). They’re both the kinda dumb but endearing friend type, and he leads “king of New York”, a song with a killer tap dancing break, which is the whole reason big red wanted to try out! His chemistry with Ricky as crutchy would make that a fine role for him too, but since Sebastian has stronger vocals I think it’s better for him to take a more prominent role while big red relies on his dancing skills over singing.

Gina: though there’s no more lead girl roles, I think she would kill it as mr. Pulitzer. They could add some spice to the character through her insane dance skills, and she would play a great “cunning yet intelligent buisinesswoman” type. This dude also gets 2 or 3 songs, and honestly I don’t remember who she plays in Beauty and the beast so idk.

EJ: I admit Gaston is a perfect role for him and I can’t fit him into newsies well. He would play a good spot conlin, though it is a significantly smaller role. No one really cares about ej though so small loss.

Plot valuability:

doing newsies makes literally way more sense. Firstly, they are kinda planning entering this show last-minute compared to the competition, so to pick a show already written and choreographed for stage production would really save time. (Even though it would still need work to be condensed for a high school production). Second, miss Jen is so determined to stand out from the crowd and win the contest so she picks... beauty and the beast? One of the most popular Disney movies (and honestly with one of Alan’s weaker soundtracks compared to tangled, Aladdin, and the little mermaid imo). Having them do newsies, especially when switching up gender roles like casting Gina as Pulitzer, would actually make them stand apart from the dozens of schools performing Disney movies. It would also give a significantly more impressive vocal and dance performance, since the songs were written for Broadway singers rather than actors. The set is also more cheap and condensed, while still looking professional, which would help with their “we’re too poor and late to afford a straight-up aquarium so let’s do the most with what we’ve got.” Putting the characters in these roles would also not alter their development or main story plots much, besides strengthening certain friendships and pushing aside less popular characters (ej). It would also give more rep for the gays as well as switching up gender roles. Imagine, the gay guys get actual things to do in the show and aren’t defined by the sole plot of “my boyfriend rich” relationship drama! (I love these two but I am a tired ace). Also jerjor performs in both this and tangled the series, so it’s a double whammy for Alan menkhen representation.

Marketability: I know the musical has to be widely known and appealing to viewers. People watched s1 because they love hsm. People also love beauty and the beast, so viewership may raise with fans of the movie. Newsies doesn’t die here, though. It is a very widely popular play among theatre people, and existed first as a movie musical so it isn’t exclusive to theater kids. Also, fans of Newsies are generally between their tweens and early twenties, the exact age demographic for the show. Beauty and the beast is a classic and more widely known, but also doesn’t draw in large numbers of the exact age group you want. Also, the fact that newsies is a little less mainstream only helps the plot point of them choosing it to still have something well known while also standing out from the competition. Doing beauty and the beast is not only an awful choice for casting that limits the actors vocals or is completely out of their range, but it also makes them blend in with the crowd.

Final notes: beauty and the beast was IMO the worst choice for the play this season. Movies like Aladdin and tangled both have very energetic and loud soundtracks that allow these characters to belt their hearts out. Beauty and the beast has a very folksy, quiet, ballad type of track that limits the actors. The only actor that I think sings ballads better than big booming tracks is Nini, who isn’t even in the play this year. Ricky also sings great ballads, which is why ballads that are still slow but also emotional and powerful like “Santa fe” or “something to believe in” (which would sound AMAZING in his and Ashlyn’s voices) fit much better than the deep voice of the beast that he can not comfortably sing in. Also, the beast has very few songs whereas newsies would allow him to belt his heart out in nearly every song with that lovely voice he has. The age range of the newsies cast (that characters are supposed to be 17) fits better with these very teen actors than a movie about old fashioned French young adults. Really newsies was the best musical choice for this season, but I also believe beauty and the beast was the last one they should have chosen.

(After reading comments I rescind my statement that beauty and the beast was the worst choice, but it’s still second to newsies imo)

Feel free to debate me in the comments or point out my mistakes, I’m very open to other points of view

[venteamocha]

Thanks so much for the IF recs! I'd absolutely take a second post of recommendations for Twine games too if you're willing to share! <3

Of course!!

I... actually like twine games better than cog based ones, in some ways, just because they tend to be fancier and prettier, and I am secretly a ferret in the body of a human and I love shinies. ADHD, baby!

I only actually know of like 12 twine games, so if there are any that anyone who sees this knows of that I didn’t list, feel free to let me know about them! There’s a chance I do know about them and just didn’t put them here, but I would rather hear one I already know of on the off chance that I’ll get a new one dropped in.

That said! Another list of games I really like that is again in no particular order!

They’re all on itch.io by the way! They tend to work better if you download them but most can be run in your browser and most are also mobile friendly so you can play them on your phone! I’ll note which ones are.

Scout: An Apocalypse Story: I love dystopia stories, I dearly wish we had more IF based in this kind of setting. Set in a wasteland that is trying to pull itself together with people trying to find out if other settlements are out there while also trying to, well, stay alive. I gotta say, I played only E’s route for a long, long time, but once I tried the other ones I haven’t really gone back. I still love E, you can pry the childhood friend trope out of my cold dead hands, but wow. Oliver. Wow. That dude has serious UST. And Sabine!! I’ve been forced out of my little “play it the same way every time” rut and I’m not sorry. I very much like that you can choose the intimacy level, as someone who’s ace. Sometimes I like reading the smut, sometimes I don’t. Options! (mobile friendly!)

Bad Ritual: I got it baaaaaaaaaad~ I do though, I love Siruud. I have terrible, terrible taste in men. I mentioned Dracula in the other list, and here there’s an actual demon. This is a game with *sass* and I always love a chance to be sassy. I think part of the reason I resonate so much with this one is because of how jaded retail has made me tbh but that’s another story.  Honestly, if you like dark settings, I recommend you play this one first of all my recommendations. It’s just such a good game and there are so many choices and even the pronoun choices are pretty varied.  It’s just good! (mobile friendly!)

Wayfarer: Another for the fantasy list! I love the worldbuilding in this one, and the character creator is just amazing. There are maps, there’s a codex, seriously if you love reading lore, this is definitely a game for you. This is like if Tolkien made an IF. It’s amazing. I’ve said that a few times but it’s true. In all honesty it might count as one that’s not so romance focused, since it does focus more on plot. If I could just sit down and make an IF, I’d want it to be like this tbh. With a beautiful framework, a well organized space of information for the players to just look at and see stuff about the world, a way to develop and build their own character in a clear cut way, and the game immediately tells you what stats are effected by what choices. I really enjoy it when games try to work in character creation in creative ways, but sometimes I just want to sit down and go, “Okay, my character has red hair, blue eyes, is short, and has a crippling phobia of lizards” and this game lets me do that. Well, except for the lizard part. (Not as mobile friendly as the others but I make it work!)

Love and Friendship: It’s a regency game and I love Pride and Prejudice. What can I say? Something about the massive amount of rules of society just gets me. Propriety! This is a game that has a set gender protagonist, female, and it actually is a bit different from the norm in that it has two female love interests and one male, when most of the time it’s the other way around. So that’s something. You can even have a platonic route with a fourth love interest, who is also male. There really aren’t enough platonic routes, but I understand why that is, since a lot of IF players are looking for romance. (mobile friendly!)

Exiled From Court: Also a bit of the same vibe simply because of how constrained everyone is by rules. Nobility, after all. There are a lot of love interests, and one is the MC’s sister’s husband, which is definitely gonna be scandalous. Will I do it? Will I? Eventually. I do like how you can act like an absolute hellion, well, as far as that goes considering. You can try to be a better person but that’s less fun, lol. (mobile friendly!)

A Tale of Crowns: This is literally one of the very first twine games I ever played. Really! It’s got a lot of wonderful intrigue and the setting is very fun. There aren’t a ton of fantasy middle eastern games, and this game is definitely one reason why we should have more. There’s a great deal of customization, and the love interests’ gender will changed based on your MC’s gender and sexuality combination. I like R & D best, and no that’s not a pun. I think. (mobile friendly!)

For the Crown: This is a different game, I swear, they just both happen to have crown in the title, lol. You get to play as an assassin, which is a great deal of fun. The lore in the game is very nice too. I tend to play with they/them pronouns though, and there were a few pronoun hiccups in the game. Seems to be an issue across all of the games made by this author, but I know how much of a pain variables can be so hopefully those will get squashed soon. There’s an explicit content choice in this one as well, and if you turn it on there is an “equipment” choice, so this is definitely gonna be spicy later on! (mobile friendly, but after each chapter the browser shifts as it auto saves. you just have to tap restore game to keep playing.)

-These games aren’t exactly twine games, but I’m putting them here because they’re visual novels that fit the IF format for the most part and are also on itch.io and I love them and for this post at least I will bend my own rules! They all have gender choice MCs and are nonbinary friendly.-

Perfumare: This game is actually being made into an IF, with the visual novel as a sort of preview of what we’re gonna get there. I literally cannot wait for that to happen, this game is so good as it is, and from what we’ve been told it’s only gonna get better. This game has an excellent world, the characters are all messy in the best ways, and ugh it has hurt me quite a bit, again in the best way.  It’s another one on the dark side of things. The powers in this game are just so fun, I dearly want a game set in this world where we can choose what powers we have! Maybe that will be in the IF, but I have a feeling the answer is no. We’ve been teased that there will be a second game with a different MC who will get to romance the characters we can’t in this one, and that alone is enough to get me to jump as soon as it drops. The love interests aren’t gender variable but there are two male ones and one female. I, a known mess, recommend Laurent for lots of repression and pain. (not mobile friendly, you gotta play on desktop/laptop)

Andromeda Six: I’ve recommended this one to pretty much everyone I know, it is such an excellent game. The cast is a mashup of misfits and makes me miss my Mass Effect crews. I specifically set my pronouns to she/her just so they’d all call me Princess. What can I say, I like it. There’s lots of pain, lots of drama, lots of world building, lots of interesting lore, and there is much breaking of cuties. Much. Can’t wait till we get to the next planet. The author has gone out of their way to say that each love interest is gonna get their own arc and will definitely get their own share of attention, so no matter who you pick you’ll have plenty of time to be with them and watch them shine. (not mobile friendly, gotta play on desktop/laptop)

When the Night Comes: Not only do you get to play a badass hunter but it has multiple poly routes! Multiple! It’s rare when you get one poly in a game, this one has three! You can also choose to romance any of them individually if you so choose. It’s dark fantasy gothic, and I really really like that. (not mobile friendly, gotta play on desktop/laptop)

Errant Kingdom: Made from the same dev as WTNC, this one is set in a more fantasy middle eastern setting. Very pretty, lots of intrigue. You can choose between three set protagonists, who can have three different storylines depending on your choices, which is very nice for replayability. It’s got two poly routes this time, and it works the same as their other game in that you can romance them individually if you’d rather be monogamous. (not mobile friendly, gotta play on desktop/laptop)

[twh-news]

‘Loki’s Tom Hiddleston Teases Marvel Series Finale, What It All Means & Is There More Of The God Of Mischief To Come?

By Dominic Patten | Deadline

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of the first five episodes of Disney+’s Loki, & maybe the finale. Maybe.

EXCLUSIVE: “I have learned, at this point, having said goodbye to the character more than twice, two and a half times maybe, to make no assumptions,” says Loki’s Tom Hiddleston as the hours tick away to the finale of the Disney+ series drops early on Wednesday morning. “We’ll see where the ride goes now,” the Marvel alum adds. As always with almost any project from the Kevin Feige run studio, that ride could continue, at least in some form or another. Certainly, the June 9 ‘Glorious Purpose’ premiere of the Michael Waldron penned and Kate Herron directed Loki proved to be the Disney+ and the MCU’s biggest small screen success so far. Also with any Marvel project, past Emmy winner Hiddleston was elusive on what could be coming next, be it in the Loki finale, another season or another appearance in the movies as the MCU shifts into its next phrase.

One thing is clear, after a decade playing the God of Mischief, Hiddleston still has a lot of Loki on the brain, in the best way.

Leading towards the finale, I chatted with a UK-based Hiddleston about returning to play Loki and the search for who or what controls the seemingly all knowing, all powerful Time Variance Authority. The Night Manager star also spoke about filming during the coronavirus pandemic, working with Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Richard E. Grant, and Sophia Di Martino, who portrays variant and soulmate Sylvie, and his upcoming AppleTV+ series The Essex Serpent with Claire Danes.

DEADLINE: There’s a great line in this season’s penultimate episode where your Loki and Sylvie are stunned at watch Richard E. Grant’s Classic Loki recreate Asgard to distract Alioth and you say “I think we’re stronger than we realize.” There seems to be a great resonance in the line that there’s a whole lot of Loki coming in the finale and probably more …

HIDDLESTON: I suppose it resonates with the theme that we all wanted to highlight about purpose and about meaning. Loki’s someone who’s probably been deluded by the idea that he’s burdened with glorious purpose, and that perhaps that purpose has been revealed to be fraudulent or meaningless, and maybe his self-image or the role that he has condemned himself to play is redundant.

His experiences through this story have shown him that there are actually more opportunities available to him, and you know, it speaks to this idea, like, can we change? Can we evolve, and in that evolution, is there room to grow? You know, so, I think the stronger than we realize I think is Loki finally understanding that, really, by caring for other people, that maybe there’s power in that, and I found that very touching, and the whole thing is an extraordinary dream.

DEADLINE: Speaking of an extraordinary dream, you have been playing Loki for a decade now, since the first Thor movie, We know you are going to do some voice work in the animated What If…? series, but how has it been having this series directly centering on him, in all his variants, so to speak?

HIDDLESTON: You know Dominic, I have enjoyed it so much, because I felt it was a gift and a privilege to be invited to come and sit at the table and think about what the show might be. Also, I suppose so many of the things that I’ve discovered about Loki as a character in the comics and a character in the Norse myths, in the canon, aspects that I’ve always thought were interesting, and understandably, there hasn’t been time or space in the movies to explore them.

DEADLINE: In terms of who he is?

HIDDLESTON: Those aspects of him have been externalized and embedded into this new story about identity itself and about integrating the disparate fragment of the many selves that he is or perhaps the many selves that we are. You know, we contain multitudes. Loki certainly contains multitudes. We have met many of those multitudes, including Alligator Loki (laughs).

DEADLINE: Sounds like you’re not done with those multitudes yet. From your POV, from conversations with Kevin (Feige) is there more that you see for the character as the MCU heads into its next stages?

HIDDLESTON: Well, I certainly don’t have Kevin’s brain or encyclopedic knowledge or capacity for invention. I’ve been on the ride for a while, and it’s been the most extraordinary journey, and to have lived through different iterations, different phases of the MCU, and I’m so grateful that I’m still here, and it’s been amazing to watch. I feel that the MCU is even more expansive, is even braver, more inclusive than it’s ever been.

DEADLINE: How so?

HIDDLESTON: I think the stories are getting really exciting. Not that they weren’t before, but I think they understand that the investment of the audience is very deep, and they don’t take it for granted for a second. So, yeah, I suppose the perspective I have on how Loki might affect the ongoing course of the MCU is this idea of the multiverse. People have already understood it when Miss Minutes is introducing Loki to the TVA. She talks about the multiverse and the war and that the sacred timeline, which is reality as we know it.

DEADLINE: It opens up the aperture certainly for new stories from all opportunities, doesn’t it?

HIDDLESTON: It raises questions of, well, maybe there are other parallel or alternate universes. Maybe there are other realities, and the possibilities there are endless. I feel that at the end of episode five, Loki and Sylvie are close to discovering the answers to the questions that they have of who is behind the TVA and that, somehow, this will provoke even more curiosity about…

DEADLINE: …Because in the Marvel Universe, answering one set of questions always leads to another set of questions, in many ways.

HIDDLESTON: Right. Yeah. Yeah, and I know that there are lots of, you know, interesting titles of movies that’ve been announced, which kind of hint at where it might be going.

DEADLINE: One of those that hasn’t been officially announced, but is rumored is a Season 2 for Loki, in gear under the temporary title of Architect on call sheets and the like …

HIDDLESTON: Well, yes, maybe, as I say, all the kind of multiple alternate realities are …it’s taken me 10 years to get a handle on this sort of mono timeline. The idea that this might be a multiverse is actually beyond my knowledge of physics

DEADLINE: Well, I doubt that, but let me ask, and no spoilers for the finale or further, but if Kevin, Marvel, Disney asked you to do more Loki, are you game?

HIDDLESTON: (laughs) I have learned, at this point, having said goodbye to the character more than twice, two and a half times maybe, to make no assumptions. So, I’m also aware that I’m only playing him because of the audience, really. So, it’s not up to me. But I do love playing him, and every time, I seem to find new, interesting things about him. So, yeah, I’m a temporary passenger on Loki’s journey, but we’ll see. We’ll see where the ride goes now.

DEADLINE: On the ride, as the finale looms, there’s a ton of fan speculation out there and so much that people have hooked on to from the show. So, as the man at the center of it, what was your favorite part of Loki the series?

HIDDLESTON: That there was meaning in the making of it.

That we crossed the finish line in the middle of a global pandemic and could create something, and more than ever, I felt really grateful for being able to do this job. I think in this there are some of those questions that we were all asking ourselves in the last 18 months in the show, you know, what do our lives mean?

I love taking Loki in new directions. I love the contributions of my fellow actors, of Owen Wilson and Sophia Di Martino and Richard E. Grant and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Wunmi Masaku, they all brought so much to the table, and I’ll always remember that. You know, I’ll always remember just being in Atlanta with all of them and making our bonkers show. Yeah.

DEADLINE: Making your bonkers show in Atlanta as the world, as America was still in the heat of the pandemic. What was that like, because you were in production and then everything stopped and then you came back, right?

HIDDLESTON: I mean, people have used this word a lot, but it really was unprecedented. I think we did six weeks of filming before the hiatus, and then the production was suspended for four or five months, and we came back. At first, it was unfamiliar because we had to make adjustments, but the thing I remember most of all, quite honestly, is the diligence and resilience and spirit of our cast and crew.

DEADLINE: Really?

HIDDLESTON: Yes, and it remains extremely special for me, this project, for that reason.

For me, it just demonstrated the character of these amazing people. It took a huge amount of planning and care and looking after each other. By that, I mean, being in the bubble. So, for many of us, the only other human beings we saw, really, were each other. So, we came to work, and we became a team, and the circumstances fostered this extraordinary team spirit, and so the memory of making it is really my incredible and deep respect and affection for my fellow filmmakers. People like Trish Stanard, our line producer. Richard Graves, our first AD. Kristina Peterson, our second AD. Autumn Durald, DP. Kevin Wright, our supervising producer, and so many others making sure everyone could stay safe and look after each other.

It’s really…I find it…it’s very moving, and it’s remarkable, and I just want to salute them all because I couldn’t have done any of it without them.

DEADLINE: In that vein, you have just come off filming The Essex Serpent with Claire Danes for AppleTV+. Very different from Loki, and yet also a tale of what is real and who we are. Is that what attracted you to it on some level?

HIDDLESTON: I read it and immediately connected to it. Read the screenplay, the adaptation. It’s based on a novel by Sarah Perry, which was published in 2016 and is set at the end of the 19th century. It’s an extraordinary story about uncertainty and about our deepest fears and how sometimes our fears can distort our imaginings and how our minds can lie to us. About how we have to guard against that, and Perry sets it in this extraordinary time with a beautiful leading character of Cora Seaborne, played by Claire. Anna Symon adopted it.

There’s this community on the east coast of England who believe that an ancient beast has been awakened by an earthquake and that it’s dislodged all these fossils. But perhaps, it has also dislodged this ancient underwater monster, which has been used to explain certain unusual phenomena. This was in the era when Darwin had just been published a few decades before and people are starting to think, this Charles Darwin, he’s onto something. Still, fear spreads very quickly, and it’s a very fascinating time where science and faith are in conflict.

DEADLINE: When you describe it like that it sounds very Loki indeed.

HIDDLESTON: Maybe the themes are very Loki. Maybe that’s where they join up, but I’m playing a 19th century vicar who is trying to contain his community. You feel very destabilized by all these rumors. So, yeah, to go from Loki to a vicar was definitely new, a new territory.

DEADLINE: Literally and figuratively?

HIDDLESTON: Well, it’s my first significant time in Essex, where we filmed, which I feel embarrassed about. I’ve been to Essex before, but I’ve never been to the very, very eastern, most eastern coast of Essex. It’s the Blackwater Estuary, which then feeds into the River Thames, and it’s a very ancient part of England. It’s so marshy, it’s where in Great Expectations, that’s where Pip meets Magwitch for the first time. It’s all foggy and muddy and marshy and quite atmospheric and a perfect place to set a story about of uncertainty and fear and gothic romance. Clio Barnard directed it, and working with her has been amazing.

DEADLINE: You know, it occurs to me that of all the main Marvel characters, Loki has been such a constant, yet so ethereal in so many ways too. Is it jarring for you to jump back into the role with all the uncertainty it brings?

HIDDLESTON: You know, I’ve always seen it as sort of an extraordinary and surprising constant in my life for a decade. But, I don’t take it for granted because I don’t often…you know, it may end. It has actually ended, and those endings have been conclusive. I really thought a couple of years ago, after I made Avengers: Infinity War, you know, we all know what happens in that scene, and I thought, that’s it.

I thought it’s over, and I was really proud to have been part of it. I was grateful for my time, but I thought that, my work would go off in a different direction. So, the idea that I got to come back and have another go was a complete delight, it truly was.