#one of which is from a webseries and a fictional character who is a youtuber

[mlmshipbracket]

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Submissions for the third MLM Ship Bracket Tournament are now open! This is another opportunity to submit your favorite men loving men ships to be pitted against each other and see who will be crowned victorious.

Information and Rules for submitting your favorite gay ships can be found below, along with the submission form at the bottom. Please make sure to read all rules and information. If you have any questions feel free to submit an ask and I'll be happy to answer.

INFORMATION:

Submissions must be made through the form linked below

Multiple submissions are allowed per person, but only submit an MLM ship once

Previous ships from previous MLM ship bracket will not be considered for submission [HERE] & [HERE]

Ships will be added on a first come, first serve basis, ships with more submission will take priority

There are 32 slots open, any remaining slots will be filled by me

Make sure to mark any spoilers

Submissions close Sunday, November 12th (You have one week)

If you have any questions about submissions, information, or rules please use the ask button

RULES: 

Ships must be fictional

Ships must be male (cis or trans) or masc nonbinary /genderfluid 

Ships for this poll are couples only

Ships can be canon or fanon

Ships can be from a variety of fandoms and genres including but not limited to: TV Shows, Movies, Plays/Musicals, Games, Cartoons, Anime/Manga, Books, Graphic Novels, Comics, Webseries, Webcomics, and Podcasts  

No original characters (OC’s)

No Bandoms

No Minecrafters

No real figures such as celebrities', youtubers, or streamers

Note: Any ships submitted which do not fit the above mentioned criteria will be disqualified from participation in the bracket

[raisinchallah]

(carmilla anon) i watched it reading along with the official twitter/tumblr accounts (there were bits i was like "oh this must've been so cool live!"). s1 specially feels so much like *theater* with all the long takes/fixed camera. a lot happens off screen sure but they tried to include so much of the action using only the actors' physicality. i was impressed! (i was also amused by the different ways they tried to fit that one tall TALL actress in the frame).

it was fascinating to peek at (what's left) of its fan culture as an outsider but i am sure it could feel deeply personal in uncomfortable ways to revisit if you were *there* so i feel you.

yeah i recall it being like a very fun live experience with lots of material outside the videos themselves which i think is something interesting about that era of web productions that there was like more of the veil coming down there wasnt as much of the distance between say online personas and actual life or anonymity of internet media of the 2000s but also kind of being tongue in cheek about like well the idea of "real" internet personas and showing ur face because of course this was material in character for the most part tho the actors were also giving interviews and kind of blurring that boundary more naturally i guess than normal actors and i think utilizing the space of the internet to craft a story and the fact it was like riffing on the vlog format popular on youtube at the time and such idk interesting slice of time they perhaps handled the collapse of like the lines between fiction and reality more naturally than regular actors in major tv shows but it was also still quite small and niche so probably less weird idk miniature micro fame or whatever wow u know i never saw the film they made i see they leveled up to getting canadian actors niche known for playing gay characters on genre shows after or right around being in that film (cara gee as camina drummer in the expanse and dominique provost chalkley as waverly earp from wynonna earp lol)

i believe the actors who played laura and carmilla made another webseries or movie or something together capitalizing on their extremely niche internet gay popularity for a minute which i found fascinating but idk whats really happened seems most of the people involved have really only continued to make webseries but i guess the bottoms kinda fallen out of the world of internet media despite the world being so online.. sad

[novelmonger]

I watched every* Northanger Abbey adaptation so you don't have to

*Does not include written, audio, or theatrical adaptations. Excludes works that are merely "inspired by" Northanger Abbey, but not actual adaptations. Also I didn't watch the Spanish TV movie, because I wouldn't be able to understand it anyway.

Northanger Abbey (1987) starring Katharine Schlesinger and Peter Firth

Reasonably faithful adaptation (if you don't count the soundtrack, which sometimes veers into very '80s territory with saxophone and...was that an electric guitar?)

While all the actors are decent enough, none of them have a smidge of chemistry with each other.

Props for showing bits of 19th-century life we don't normally see in such adaptations, e.g. sedan chairs and the actual public bath of Bath (which seems to be more-or-less historically accurate?)

Everything feels rushed and smushed together, which is ironic because it's actually a couple minutes longer than the 2007 movie, which doesn't suffer from the same problem.

Absolutely terrible casting. Peter Firth was nowhere near charming and witty enough to be Henry Tilney, even if he is the only one out of all these versions to actually get to say his best line (the "intolerably stupid" one) in full. He comes across as such a serious, judgmental man that it's hard to understand what Catherine sees in him. And Robert Hardy is an excellent actor, but completely the wrong choice for General Tilney. He looks far too jolly, and works much better as Sir John in Sense and Sensibility, or even Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter.

Kudos to them for finding a Katharine to play Catherine.

Wishbone s02 ep09 "Pup Fiction" (1997)

Obviously very truncated because they had to fit it into a half-hour children's show with a real-world framing story

They basically cut out all the marriage drama stuff and focus more on not letting your imagination run away with you.

Whether you enjoy it or not will mostly depend on whether you like Wishbone in general. (Personally, I'm ambivalent.)

Northanger Abbey (2007) starring Felicity Jones and J.J. Feild

The most watchable version (best acting, production value, faithfulness of adaptation, etc.)

Felicity Jones is perhaps "too pretty" to be Catherine, who is supposed to be rather plain, but she's very easy on the eyes and does an excellent job at portraying Catherine's wide-eyed wonder and naivety.

J.J. Feild is the perfect Henry Tilney. Suave, charming, with a cheerful twinkle in his eye as often as not, it's so clear to see why Catherine falls for him, as well as why he becomes so attracted to her way of assuming the best of everyone. Alas, he doesn't get to say the wonderful line about those who don't read novels being "intolerably stupid," but he shines in all the scenes where he teases Catherine. I also think he did the best job at portraying the gentleness mixed in with the anger when he rebukes her for assuming the worst of his father.

Excellent casting for most, if not all, of the supporting characters. Liam Cunningham makes for a very intimidating General Tilney, William Beck is exactly what John Thorpe should be, and Carey Mulligan, though I will always see her first as Ada Clare from Bleak House, was the perfect choice for Isabella.

The biggest downside to this adaptation is that some of Catherine's dreams and imaginings are rather sexual in tone. If memory serves, she even has a dream where we see her from behind, standing completely naked in front of a man. It's unnecessary and adds a strange sort of voyeuristic note to the movie that I didn't appreciate.

We get to see more of Catherine's siblings, which is very fun.

Does the best job at capturing the satirical tone of the novel, mostly through music and the narrator

Northbound webseries (2015-2016) by Oh For Cute! Productions

Of the two (yes, two) modern-day adaptations on YouTube, I think this one did the best job at capturing the essence of the novel. It's set forth as the vlog of Catherine Morland, a girl heading out from Fullerton, Virginia, to New York City. Instead of Northanger Abbey, she goes to North College in NYC, where she meets Henry and Eleanor, then finds out that their father is a history professor, and decides to take a class from him.

All the videos are fairly short, so it's kind of impressive how easily a coherent story can be told through them. Due to the format of the series and it being an indie production, the audio/video quality is fairly low and the actors aren't exactly Hollywood-tier (some better than others). But it kind of lends a sense of authenticity to the series, like it really is just a vlog by some random girl relating her adventures in New York.

Catherine is cute and pretty, but in a normalish sort of way that I think is very fitting for her character. She's very relatable. I wasn't sure about Henry at first, but he has a certain "dashing heartthrob" quality about him, and a great sense of humor, that are very fitting for the character. A lot of the characters are very relatable or feel like people I've met in real life, especially because of the modern setting.

Worth noting: In this adaptation, James Morland is Jamie Morland, Catherine's sister. She still has a romance with Isabella, and has much more of a presence in the story than James does in the original.

Oh my gosh the modern-day version of John Thorpe is so creepy and ick. It put the character in perspective so well for a modern audience, more so than scenes of him tearing through the streets in his fancy carriage or whatever. Like...I knew a guy in college exactly like him, though thankfully his attentions weren't turned on me *shudder*

The chemistry was really good between all the actors, so even when some of the lines felt a little too scripted, it was super believable that these people would be friends (or what have you).

I absolutely 100% want to be in Catherine's friend group (after the end, when the Thorpes are no longer around). They're all such lovely people, and seem fun to hang around.

The Cate Morland Chronicles webseries (2016) by Apple Juice Productions

Unlike Northbound, this one has Catherine in her twenties, trying to figure out how to be an adult while also being a huge nerd. Cate is running a vlog, but it's a bit more "official," because she runs a fan blog for, among other things, the cult classic TV show The Mysteries of Udolpho. She gets a job as a journalist, and continues the vlog for work. Shortly after she gets her new job, she has the opportunity to interview Henry Tilney, the actor for one of the lead roles in Udolpho. They're immediately and obviously attracted to each other, and the story evolves from there.

The setup for this series was much less relatable than Northbound, even though the characters talk about various fandoms (real as well as the fictional Udolpho show). I mean, many of us have gone through struggles like the Northbound Catherine, trying to find our way as adults and as college students. But how many of us have been journalists who have the chance to interview our teenage movie crush? And then fall in love with them for real? And end up in a relationship with them? And have it all captured on video and put up on YouTube for the world to see? It broke my suspension of disbelief more than once in that respect.

While the camera and mic quality was better than Northbound, the Cate Morland Chronicles generally seemed to have a lower quality of actors. Cate was probably the best, and Henry was pretty good too. But a lot of the supporting actors just didn't feel natural - especially James and Eleanor, I thought. It was like the difference between a high school play and a college play.

Probably as a result of the acting itself not being the best, a lot of times the chemistry between characters suffered. This was especially a problem between Cate and Henry. There were a lot of videos where I found it hard to buy that they were falling in love. The best ones by far were the road trip videos.

Oh yeah, and they had Henry and Eleanor not be siblings for some reason? She's his publicist instead. And yet they're super close, so that Eleanor can go along to Henry's house with him and Cate, and so they can preserve that fake-out moment when Cate first meets her and thinks Eleanor is Henry's girlfriend or something. So they had to have this whole thing where Eleanor explains that they have a brother-sister relationship, when everything would have been so much easier to explain if they'd just...actually been siblings, like they are in the original.

This is more subjective, but I found Cate to be kind of annoying at times. I just found her to be less likeable than the Northbound Catherine, kind of exhausting actually. I think she had a bit too strong of a personality to be Catherine Morland. To put it in Northanger Abbey terms, she actually seems to be perfectly set up to be the heroine.

Hopefully this information will help you decide which, if any, adaptations you want to pursue yourself.

[broccwalker]

Hello! I believe I can answer this question (more or less). The Architect verse is a fictional collaborative setting revolving around an entity known as the Architect. The setting involves multiple universes that were all created by the Architect and every webseries usually takes place in its own universe. It was originally just a spinoff of the Fear mythos (which is already a spinoff of the Slender mythos) but it eventually separated off into its own thing after creative differences arose between the creators of the differing mythoi.

The Architect verse's creation is credited to Owen Parker, Gabe Gazic, and Tom Scott but it mainly got its start with crossovers between three different horror webseries. The North Woods Project/AlexHenderson100 (created by Owen Parker and Jeffrey Taylor), Sirensinthenight (created by Izzie Drizzle), and ~Jeff Woods~ (created by Gabe Gazic).

TNWP/AH100 originally revolved around the Fears from the Fear mythos (in particular The Archangel), ~Jeff Woods~ was a loose video adaptation of the 2011 Jeff the Killer story (with some additions such as Slender Man and Jane the Killer), and Sirensinthenight had a completely original cast of characters and story to my understanding. While the three had minor crossovers here and there, it wouldn't be until the video "The Architect" was published on all three channels that the Architect verse was fully realized. The video was a sort of Avengers: Infinity War type crossover, where the main protagonists from each series banded together to defeat the Architect, a god-like being who created the universe. After the Architect is temporarily defeated, Sirensinthenight and ~Jeff Woods~ basically went back to the usual, while TMWP/AH100 started shifting away from being Fear mythos and started being solely about The Architect and his worshipers. There were other series that crossed over with them, but these channels could be considered "The Big Three" of the Architect Verse and are pivotal to understand the entire thing.

Unfortunately nowadays basically every architect verse series has been deleted off of YouTube and can only be watched on the Web Archive. I think it has something to do with drama among the creators but I don't have enough information to conclusively say anything on this subject. The only one that's left is ~Jeff Woods~ which was rebooted a couple months ago that, while no longer being Architect verse related, is actually pretty good. Despite the low quality of the entire franchise, it is kind of sad to see it gone, it had a type of charm that I can't really describe.

Right now there's not really a good way to experience the series, the aforementioned Infinity War type crossover would spoil the death of a major character from one or two series depending on which series you watch first and watching them as the videos came out is impossible due to them being deleted. That being said, if you intend to check any of the web series out, I suggest starting with TNWP/AH100 as it explains and sets up the Architect better than any of the other series. The Web Archive videos are usually hard to find, so here's a link to the Architect verse category.

Also the Architect verse is technically a part of the slender verse; the Architect verse crossed over with The Mayhem Theory, which is connected in some way with acryfromwinter, which crossed over with Stan Frederick of Slenderverse fame. I think that's neat.

what the fuck is architectverse and why it's related to slenderverse and creepypasta at the same time

[sometimes-love-is-enough]

I MEAN IT GAVE ME CHILLS IN A GOOD WAY. and also it would be hilarious to write imo; just these 6 dudes that all look the same and just made up A Guy.

“Thomas,” Roman announces quite suddenly, with a triumphant gesture that manages to inadvertently sweep half of the script drafts off the couch in the process.

“I still can not believe we’re doing this,” Virgil says.

“Oh, you’d better believe it, Way Down Gay-destown, ‘cause I just got the perfect name for him. Thomas. That’s his name – Thomas Sanders.” Roman pauses, and wiggles his fingers a bit. “Thoughts?”

Remus perks up. “Oh, our fictional character has thots now?”

“Crawling all over him like weevils,” Virgil nods.

“I thought we were calling ourselves ‘Sides’,” says Janus.  

“Guys, please,” Roman begs.

“Thomas sounds good to me,” is Patton’s opinion. “It’s nice and friendly, and also it has two syllables, like the rest of us! It kind of fits in like that.”

“It is a surprisingly apt name, especially when you take into consideration that Roman most likely did not know of the linguistic root when picking it,” Logan muses.

Remus waves a hand lazily from where he’s draped backwards over the couch, writing Transformers inflation porn on the notes app of his shitty phone. “Uh, noparoni, falsehood, all that jazz. I was watching. He went on babynames dot com and everything for this.”

“...What he said, yeah.”

“Ah, yes, babynames dot com, the internet’s premier and leading source for all accurate name derivations,” comes the dry response.

“Thomas means twin,” Roman says. “It means twin, and it’s funny because we all look identical! It’s like another layer of meaning! A fun little injoke, just for us.”

“Yes,” says Virgil, “you’re right. We need many, many deep layers of meaning and in-jokes woven into the shared identity we’re crafting as part of Roman and Remus’s wild, spur-of-the-moment internet scam.”

“How dare you,” Roman objects loudly, flailing so suddenly that he nearly falls off the couch. “This is polar opposite of a scam, we’re – we are merely taking advantage of our uncanny shared appearance to... share joy amongst the humble Youtube vlogging community! And perhaps show off. Just a little. But to say that it’s a scam – ”

“No, this is definitely a scam,” Janus says. “I mean, look at us. We’re inventing an entire person for internet clout.”

Patton looks like he’s having second thoughts about this whole thing. “I’m having second thoughts,” he says. “Like, on an ethical, moral sort of level, is any of this... really a good idea?”

“People invent other people for shittier reasons all the time, I think we’re fine,” Virgil says. “I mean, look at internet catfishes. Or every male fiction writer with a very obvious and creepy fetish. Or J.K. Rowling.”

“J.K. Rowling doesn’t exist?” Janus says. “Excellent. We won, boys.”

Roman grabs a pen and scribbles it into the notebook, next to a hasty little stickman doodle of an average-looking guy and a list of qualities and attributes and skills. “Well, all that aside, nobody seems to have an objection to this, so Thomas it is! Thomas Sanders. Thomas I’ve-Just-Realized-He-Needs-A-Middle-Name Sanders.”

“Thomas F Sanders,” Remus suggests.

“The F stands for ‘Fucking’, doesn’t it,” sighs Patton.

“Well, yeah.”

“Way to go for the low-hanging fruit, dude,” Virgil says. “Okay, put a pin in the middle name for now. Our collective brainchild has a name, so... that’s something. I guess.” He grabs the notebook from Roman and squints down at the short-ish list they have so far. “Any more character traits we wanna give this guy?”

“Intense love of Disney films,” Roman says.

“We’ve already got that; you suggested it about five times already.”

“Maybe he can play the ukulele!” Patton suggests.

Virgil nods, and starts to write it down before stopping abruptly. “Wait. Can any of us play the ukulele?”

Silence.

“He can only have traits that we already have,” Virgil reminds them. “That’s the whole idea. We’re derivatives of him.”

“Well, I’ll work on the ukulele thing,” Roman says decisively. “Put it down anyway. Anyone else?”

“He can’t cook to save his life,” Janus says.

“Catholic guilt,” Logan provides, with a little wince and a slight adjustment of his glasses. “It provides a good base for many of the plotlines we wish to include in this, I believe.”

“Give him a huge dick,” Remus says.

“Remus,” Roman growls.

“Just a humungous badonker of a penis. He beats his meat and the entire earth rumbles.”

“Remus,” Patton groans.

Remus grins. "He’s packing some real chunky meat down there. As in, his drill is a five star excavator. A proper manmade wonder. It's the kind of meal you get a prize for finishing. A bridge between two warring nations. And the girth! God had to resize the Earth so the radii wouldn't match. You can use his cast iron pelvic greatsword as a radiation shield in Chernobyl. His – "

“Remus, weren’t you listening? We’re only giving him traits that we already have,” Virgil says, looking Remus dead in the eyes. “I’m not going to let you misrepresent yourself like this.”

The room almost immediately erupts into a loud chorus of enthusiastic oohs. Quite a few people throw things at Virgil, who lets out a snort of amusement and ducks to avoid getting nailed in the eye by a stray television remote control. Remus just cackles.

“We’re going to have to tone back the dick jokes, probably,” says Janus with some regret, once everybody calms down a bit. “Don’t want to get demonetized within the first few weeks.”

“Well, Remus already broke the Youtube demonetization speedrun last week, so at least we know what not to do,” Patton says absently. “The real question is, though – who’s going to actually play this Thomas person?

“Don’t look at me,” says Janus. “I’m looking forward to getting the play the villain for once.”

Patton points at him, mock-glaring. “Hey, don’t think you’re missing out on a redemption arc just because you like the evil aesthetic!”

Janus lets out a little affronted hissing noise at that, but doesn’t actually object.

“Well, I’m not shaving my moustache for any of you fuckers, no matter how much internet clout we’re gonna get for it,” Remus declares.

A quick, meaningful glance is exchanged between the four remaining people in the room.  

“Leave me out of it,” Virgil decides.

“I don’t really mind, either way,” Patton says.

“In that case, I shall arm-wrestle you for the honor of portraying our glorious, talented and entirely fictional centre of being on our upcoming Grammy-award-winning sixty-part webseries,” Roman declares, flexing dramatically.

“Which may or may not be a scam,” Logan says.

“...Look, are we doing this or what?”

“Absolutely.” Logan places down his book, and shrugs off his jacket. “I should warn you, however – I am what I believe is colloquially referred to as ‘absolutely fucking ripped’.” He breaks out into a surprisingly wicked smile. “Roman, let me be clear. I am going to be the one to portray Thomas Fucking Sanders, our beloved nonexistent media superstar culmination-of-our-collective-selves. And I am about to flat-out destroy you. Let’s go.”

There’s a beat of silence as everybody stares at Logan. The stares range from impressed to terrified to obviously horny. All of these are equally valid emotions to be feeling, because Logan is ripped, and somehow none of them have ever realized this before.

“Well, before we do that, give me five minutes to make popcorn,” says Janus. “Because I have a feeling we’re going to need it.”

[karmazyndusza]

Fuck  it  I  might  just  make  a  lil  multimuse  of  youtuber  muses

[sirenofthetimes]

I think I was about 8 or 9 when I read Anne of Green Gables for the first time, and of course I loved it right away.  That and Anne of Avonlea were one of the few books I actually owned as a kid (as opposed to checking them out from the library) so I read them over and over again for years. With each reread, I wanted to be Anne. She was vivid and magnetic and people were constantly drawn into her orbit. She was weird and made all kinds of mistakes and she wasn’t always understood, but she was very deeply loved, and as a fairly strange kid myself that was really all I ever wanted out of life. Even though I held Anne up as an aspirational figure throughout my childhood and tween years, even though I also used words that people thought were too big for my age and had an incredibly vivid imagination, there was that one thing keeping myself from truly seeing myself in her: she was white and I was not. There was no coincidence that all the fictional girls I most aspired to be were white. They got all the good narratives, they were the leading girls, heroines of their own unique complex stories. The black girls were perpetually on the sidelines, lending support. Or they weren’t even there at all.

           In between my freshmen and sophomore years of college, when modernized webseries adaptations of classic books were starting to blossom all over YouTube, I heard about one based on the Anne of Green Gables series with a twist: this time Anne was black. It was something that I never even thought about, the possibility that us black girls had the power to take narratives that weren’t supposed to be for us, really, and take them and tailor them to truly fit us. It was that surprising revelation that got me to start watching the series. And it was the incredible writing, acting, and editing that got me to stay. See, the Anne of Project Green Gables wasn’t just an instance of colorblind casting, a black girl transposed onto the original story with all traces of race smoothed out. Quite the opposite actually, she was deliberately black. And she talked about it at great length: natural hair struggles, the longing for representation, what it was like aligning yourself with white people who dearly loved you but were never like you, it was all there, detailed in the vivid, dreamy, descriptive way that made me love the original Anne so much. Watching Project Green Gables has opened me up somehow, loosened my childhood mind that had limited the possibilities for girls that looked like me. The series also contained several, lovely coming out moments under a variety of sexualities, which were treated with the upmost grace and respect. That was something that I had originally thought I couldn’t relate to, but I have since come out to myself as biromantic, so I suppose my development is even more closely tied with the character of Anne than I originally thought.

           Project Green Gables awakened in me a very similar affinity to the character of Anne that I felt in childhood, but with one very important change. Anne was vivid and magnetic and people were constantly drawn into her orbit. She was weird and made all kinds of mistakes and she wasn’t always understood, but she was very deeply loved.

And she was black like me.

  Thank you so, so much for that.

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

LIW Review: The Cate Morland Chronicles

I’m a sucker for Jane Austen adaptations, and I was so excited when I found out someone had done Northanger Abbey properly as a webseries (I’ll give my thoughts on Northbound at some later date). I did a whole school project on this book last year. Let’s just say it’s pretty close to my heart.

The premise:

Catherine “Cate” Morland has just finished grad school when she lands a job at the famous Persona Magazine. This real job is amazing, but at heart Cate is a fangirl – of everything, but mostly of the fictional TV show The Mysteries of Udolpho. She runs a Udolpho fan blog, and it’s popular enough that she has an automatic following when she starts blogging. And yes, that actually worked.

The plot begins when Cate goes to Comic-Con and gets to interview her celebrity crush (and the star of Udolpho), Henry Tilney. Sparks fly, magic happens, and everything continues from there.

Format:

Vlogs on Cate’s YouTube channel, with a few extras thrown in as well. Cate was also active on social media, but none of those components were necessary for the story.

Realism:

Cate’s vlogs work as vlogs because of who she is. They stretch realism by having a significant number of important video calls conveniently happen on camera, but otherwise it’s pretty strong. Also, another fun feature of this series is the existence of the fandom in-show. One character actually creates the ship name for Cate and Henry and takes to the comments section to talk about it. It’s beautiful.

The Cate M Chronicles also actually utilizes the description boxes, which is always nice to see. In this case, they’re not necessary for understanding the plot, but they are a lovely edition, as are those comments from a certain character.

Production values:

High. Everything is well-filmed, well-lit, and generally attractive. These people have good film equipment, in other words, and I’m happy they do.

Representation/diversity:

I had no idea how much I needed Dele Opeifa to play Henry Tilney. He and Eleanor (who is his assistant, not his sister) are both black, and Eleanor is a lesbian in a happy relationship with an offscreen character. 

This series is also just so accepting in general. It talks about fandom (and defends if, hurray!). The characters don’t do problematic things. There’s very little strife but still plenty of meaning. It’s wonderful.

My three favorite things about The Cate Morland Chronicles:

1) Madeline Thatcher and Dele Opeifa’s chemistry. Catherine and Henry are adorable in the book, and I love this slightly older and more self-aware but still adorable version of them.

2) The fact that they created a t-shirt for their fictional show-within-a-show. WHAT! Yes, they really did.

3) Cate’s beautiful defense of fandom, which was straight out of Jane Austen while simultaneously being very in-character and very relevant to now.

Difficult things about The Cate M Chronicles:

Well, there certainly aren’t many actual obstacles in this series. It’s pretty smooth sailing, and it’s pretty self-referential and free from the troubles of the world. If you desperately need a series that addresses those troubles and puts major obstacles in the way of its characters, go look somewhere else. 

My only real issue with this series is that it’s too short. I watched the entire thing in one morning without being interrupted, and that never happens.

The verdict:

Adorable, relatable, true to the book, easy to watch. What’s not to like? This series is easily in my top three Jane Austen webseries, despite the stretched realism and excessive video calling. Oh, and the very silly but wonderful ending. An enthusiastic 4/5 stars.

Awards:

The Cate Morland Chronicles is up for this year’s Literary-Inspired Webseries Awards! Go nominate them in any of the following categories before April 15 (full cast list follows).

Best script

Best transmedia

Best costume and set design

Best LIW

Best lead actress: Madeline Thatcher as Cate Morland

Best lead actor: Dele Opeifa as Henry Tilney

Best chemistry: Madeline Thatcher and Dele Opeifa

Best supporting actress: Amanda Taylor as Isabella Thorpe, Erika Ovudoba as Eleanor Monk, or Charla Cochran as Leslie Allen

Best supporting actor: Rob Zimmerman as James Morland or Frankie Madril as John Thorpe

Created by Apple Juice Productions @applejuicepro

Watch the Complete Chronicles here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqOG9unl8i4qE-ECzoWlJX11BVggB3hhj

[literaryinspiredwebserieslove]

LIW Review: The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy

This series is a little different from others that I’ve reviewed because it has three seasons, and I’m reviewing them all together because the whole story is short enough for that to be possible.

The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy is loosely based on Peter Pan, but the characters are now adults living in Neverland, Ohio. Tinkerbell is still an actual fairy, but Peter is now a comic book author and the Darlings own the local newspaper, the Kensington Chronicle. Tiger Lily is now Lily Bhaga, a businesswoman with more money than you can shake a stick at. Hook becomes the owner of a media company (JH Media), and Smee becomes his multitalented assistant.

Format:

This series is very mixed-format. In Season One, everything is either a “Dear Darling” video filmed by Wendy or shot from the point of view of Tinkerbell, which allows the camera to move and allows her to exist as a fairy without having to show her. In Seasons Two and Three, a lot of episodes are shot by the cameras that Jas Hook has installed in all of his offices. The characters were all active on Twitter, and the Kensington Chronicle (later the K-Chron) existed as a real newsletter.

Realism:

Well, there’s an actual fairy involved, so obviously we’re stretching belief a little bit from the start. The real issue with realism is the filming. All the footage exists in-universe, as I said, but there’s no justification for how it’s being edited or for any of its existence on the internet. Since there’s no in-universe YouTube channel, it works, but creating the justification for filming and then not creating a fictional framework for what happens with the footage is a strange combination that doesn’t entirely work for me.

Representation/diversity:

Season One starts out with only five characters. Four of them are white. Lily is Indian and very, very rich. She and Wendy also have a very negative relationship, and Lily is generally not portrayed in a very positive way. I’m not convinced that Season One passes the Bechdel Test, though I would have to rewatch to be sure. If it does, it does not do so with flying colors.

Season Two is different, and just generally better. We get Billie, a female pirate (fine, JH Media employee) who has an actual friendship with Wendy. Ethnic diversity goes up in Season Two. The characters get more complex (Peter does bad things, Hook does good things), and there’s non-stigmatized LGBTQ+ representation (well, okay, just G, but for such a big-budget webseries that’s huge). 

Season Three is the wrap-up season, and it pays equal attention to the gay relationship as to the two straight ones (technically it’s the second most important/spotlit relationship of the three). There’s good parental advice, which is always nice to see. There are discussions of money, which is something the was sorely lacking in the first two seasons (these people are hopelessly upper class, especially for LIW characters). 

I should also mention that John Darling has OCD, and it is discussed frequently, usually in a very healthy way. Other characters (notably Peter) probably have various mental health issues, but these are never discussed or named.

My three favorite things about The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy:

1) Episodes 12 and 13 of Season Three. I can’t say why without serious spoilers, but those two episodes made me feel many things.

2) John Darling. I don’t identify with him, but at the same time I do, very strongly. I sympathize with and understand him more than anything else, and I love him.

3) The aesthetic. The production values are super high, the sets and costumes are a pleasure to look at – visually, everything is wonderful.

Difficult things about New Peter + Wendy:

Well, the money and realism points I mentioned earlier are definite issues, but I think this series suffered from two other big problems. First, an aversion to really digging deep. There were moments of raw emotion and honesty, but not as many as there could have been. The script often just didn’t quite go where it maybe should have gone. The second issue is how dependent they were on funding. Season Two somehow got massive amounts of money, so they cast recognized actors, filmed more episodes, and frequently used multiple camera angles. Then, for Season Three, they had considerably less funding, and so there were fewer episodes and simpler filming setups. While I understand that funding is important, especially if you have to pay your actors, it seems silly to see a series with many thousands of viewers asking for many more thousands of dollars when series with similar formats make just as high-quality content with no money whatsoever or with very little (Nothing Much To Do and Lovely Little Losers spring to mind, though there are obviously others as well). 

The Verdict:

I enjoyed this series immensely, and of course the production itself was nearly flawless, but the lack of depth, the small number of episodes, and the disconnect with the rest of the LIW community cause problems for me that no other series has. It’s in a weird place between television and a regular LIW, and it maybe could have taken some queues from other LIWs in how it operated. That being said, when you need a cute little diversion with high production values, fairly strong representation, a fairy-cam, and actors who people have actually heard of, you really can’t go wrong here. 4/5 stars overall.

Cast:

Wendy Darling – Paula Rhodes

Peter Pan – Kyle Walters (who also played Ed Denham in Welcome to Sanditon)

Michael Darling – Brennan Murray

John Darling – Graham Kurtz

Lily Bhaga – Lovlee Carroll

Jas Hook – Percy Daggs III (you may remember him from Veronica Mars)

John Smee – Satya Bhabha (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, among other things)

George Darling – Jim Beaver (yes, that Jim Beaver)

Billie Jukes – Meghan Camerena 

Created by Kyle Walters and Shawn DeLoache/EpicRobotTV @newpeterwendy

Three seasons, seventy-six episodes. 

Watch the entire adventure here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkF--ahv3nwpPqCfzKh1OyfR9NwVRAXwD