#potterless

[rayssion]

I've just started listening to potterless and I'm playing the introduction and Mike just goes all out and says something like:

"fun fact! Cedric Diggory is the only Hufflepuff we meet during the whole series!!"

"fun fact! Cho Chang is the only Ravenclaw we meet during the whole series!!"

And I was really wheezing like the man really knows nothing

[uselessgaywhovian]

You there!

Watch 20 to Midnight. The D&D actual play stream by Gabriel Urbina, Beth Eyre, Emma Sherr-Ziarko, and Mike Schubert. It's delightful.

Here, let me get episode 1 for you

[imyelenasexual]

me listening to potterless

and i just listened to the episode where mike finally finished the books and his love for mcgonagall skyrocketed

and then get a news notification “remembering dame maggie smith” thinking i missed her death and she’s been dead

but no it’s that she actually died today, as i listened to potterless

i don’t know what to feel

rest in absolute peace dame maggie smith, we all will always love and cherish you and your life ❤️

[rays-of-gold]

mike schubert thanks for this one

[mycolddisaster]

[dont-u-know-it]

i've listened to the same episodes of potterless probably six times and they always brings me joy

[capncunt]

relistening to potterless. Podcast Of All Time.

[chiefnooniensingh]

I listened to the Cursed Child Potterless episodes again and I just kept thinking, whenever Harry did something: Harry Potter would not, under torture, say or do any of this

[froginapartyhat]

Reblogging because Mike Schuberts podcasts are a gift and binge listening to them single-handedly got me through the pandemic

Honestly going through series I lived with fresh eyes is so entertaining

So with the disney series on the way and one of my friends currently in a production of the lightning theif musical I've been getting back into pjo, and I've been listening to the newest olympian podcast (guy named mike who's never read pjo reads pjo and talks about it chapter by chapter with longtime fans), and in episode 8 he talks about how the cosmic threat (gods) is really different from the malicious threat in other books (eg voldemort) and it makes the stakes have a really different energy because it's not someone evil intentionally hurting people for personal reasons, it's larger powers at play who don't really care if they hurt people because to them it's just collateral damage.

Now of course mike is still early enough in book one that the cosmic threat is the only threat and we all know that changes as the series goes on, but it made me think about the difference between the godly antagonists and the human antagonists in pjo and how they're portrayed, and I sort of realized for the first time that, in the case of the fate of humanity, pjo doesn't have "bad guys".

There are two types of antagonist in pjo. The first are the gods/titans/other mythological beings who don't care about humans beyond what they can do for them and are mostly just fighting amongst themselves. Yeah, big bad villain Kronos isn't really a fan of humanity, but destroying humans isn't his main objective in the war. His objective is destroying the gods and taking back control. Destroying humans is a happy bonus for him, but even if he knew he wouldn't be capable of that he would still be fighting the gods.

The second type are the half blood traitors, and this is what I really care about, because Luke is an antagonist but he is NOT a villain. He's a victim. And that distinction is the entire point.

Throughout the entire series Percy shows he understands this concept. Our first minor human antagonist is Clarisse. Percy doesn't like Clarisse, but he understands she's a product of her situation and he treats her with genuine compassion even when he's not being very nice to her. He knows how important her quest is to her, that her anger stems from insecurity, and he makes sure she gets to take the fleece back even though he won't get any credit.

As the books go on we see more significant demigod antagonists who don't just bully Percy but actually betray him. It would be easy for Percy to hate them, to write them off. But he doesn't.

Nico turns on Percy several times throughout the series, always for the same reason (seeking information on his family/bianca). Someone else might see that repeated betrayal and be furious, and yes Percy is a little pissed, but his first conscious reaction is guilt that he wasn't there for Nico and his first instinct is to try and help him. He continues to trust Nico despite everything. And Nico fights alongside Percy in the very end when it counts.

Silena doesn't just betray Percy, but all of camp and by proxy all of humanity. And instead of seeing a traitor Percy sees that, just like Clarisse, just like Nico, Silena is a victim of this life they've all been forced into by their godly parents. Percy understands that the human threat has been created by the cosmic threat, and Percy turns around and says "no." He has Clarisse's back. He forgives Nico. He makes sure Silena is honored as a hero. He gives the knife to Luke.

And this is what sets pjo apart. This is why the story is so important. Luke is the ultimate traitor. He was Percy's first friend at camp after Grover, and at the end of book one he tries to kill Percy and nearly succeeds. He turns his back on the gods, offers himself to Kronos, and forsakes all of humanity. And instead of building up that animosity throughout the series and culminating with Percy killing Luke, Percy spends years trying to help him. He learns Luke's backstory. He meets his parents, the godly and the mortal. He sees Luke's experiences as what they are: trauma. He finds him and asks him to come back. He offers him his trust. Luke declines, multiple times. But Percy doesn't stop trying. And at the very end, when killing Luke is the only way to stop Kronos and Percy has the opportunity to do so, he doesn't. He is not the hero, and he knows it. Instead, he forgives Luke. He gives him the knife. He offers his trust. And Luke finally accepts.

So Luke dies, Kronos is defeated, and Percy is not victorious. He sees it as a failure that they all let it get far enough that saving Luke wasn't an option. The gods offer to grant Percy one wish as a reward for his heroism, with immortality as the implied correct choice. And Percy shocks them all and says "no. This isn't about me. It was never about me. I don't want to be a god. I want you to make sure that what happened to Luke never happens to anyone ever again."

[seylaaurora]

I know this might not be so interesting cause I only listened to three podcasts this year, but... are you interested in seeing yourselves appear in someone's spotify wrapped @lightusonfire911 ?

[tamayokny]

so....long story short i have been inspired to revisit the harry potter series. i rewatched the movies, but i don't feel like rereading the series so i'm listening to the potterless podcast. and mike schubert is hilarious for many reasons, but i laughed so hard when he said harry potter is dumb in his first episode for goblet of fire. cause he's so right lmfao harry is one of the most dense protagonists ever but i love it.

[rcarx]

discovered the creator of the podcast "potterless" also created a similar type of series for percy jackson and im so excited to listen to it!!

[teammightypen]

I love this! You absolutely weren’t hijacking the question, that’s exactly what I was asking about. BTS is so cool, and it’s wild to realize that all these people were just folks you were in class with. That’s so real of you.

Not having faces, just essences for characters is such a relatable mood. The only original work I made has like seven characters and none of them have faces either (That is, three main characters, 3-4 secondary characters, and a handful of recurring minor characters). They’ve just got vibes and that’s enough for me when it comes to writing them. Casting and filming is a different beast.

For me, if you’re interested in hearing, these are what the characters ‘look’ like to me. Like their one defining trait, but some are a little goofy.

Sam has mousy brown mid-back-length hair, I think maybe it’s because you play her, your name is Lauren, and so I imagined Lauren Lopez initially and that just stuck forever. She’s not as short as Lopez, though.

Chloe has shoulder-length blonde hair but it’s usually up somehow. She’s also petite but her short stature doesn’t contain her.

Damien doesn’t have a face but all I see for him is a black suit with a red tie. I know he’s never wearing that, but that outfit is what his voice sounds like, ya know?

Caleb is nebulous in my mind. Sometimes he’s blonde, sometimes he has light brown hair, but his shoulders are wide. Adam is the same height as Caleb, but he’s got darker hair, and he’s more narrow.

Agent Green is like 50% Ben Wyatt from Parks & Rec, and 50% Syril Karn from Andor. Can’t telly you anything more about that except that I love him.

Mark is tough, because the closest thing I can get to how I see him is Sebastian Stan, but like softer, with longer hair that’s just long enough to require combing.

Ok, now Joan. This one’s silly, but her voice during my first listen (three years ago? wow) reminded me of Tara Strong’s Twilight Sparkle, so for a long while she didn’t look like anything but she just gave off such strong Twilight Sparkle vibes. Nowadays I’ve seen some fanart of her inspired by Julia, so the two things have merged in my mind.

Maybe I’ve been watching too much Dropout lately, but I was watching Make Some Noise the other day and saw Jiavani and went ‘that’s Wadsworth’.

The others you’ve listed above just don’t exist in physical bodies for me at all.

Lol maybe now I’M the one who derailed this. Love that you have a tumblr presence, it’s fun seeing you on my dashbord

When you write your characters, do they have specific, locked-in physical appearances? Does that only come once you get the characters cast/does it match what the VAs look like irl? I was thinking about how, when I listen to TBS I picture the characters different than you probably do or how other listeners do.

For me, I usually only picture things like height/build and hair color/length, but even that is different from other interpretations I see in fanart. What’s it like to see fanart of characters who don’t have faces?

great question!!! no, absolutely not, pretty much never. I have a hard time coming up with character appearances even in books--I am just not a visual person! in writing prose, I of course do have to determine what they look like, but it's not usually the first thing that comes to mind.

when I wrote TBS, I had absolutely no thoughts about what the characters looked like beyond certain vibes (mark: handsome, agent green: beanpole, damien: exceptionally average, etc.) but that said, I'm not sure I necessarily picture every single character looking like their actor. and that's largely because we have so much incredible fanart for the show, that every time I see a new version of a character, I'm like "that's it!". so, to answer the last question in your ask, it RULES

but it's a little different depending on how the casting went. with the exception of Chloe and Sam, almost all the original roles in TBS (so, the first four seasons), were written without a specific actor in mind okay, I started to write a long paragraph about each of the characters and then realized it might be fun to go through the whole original cast and talk about how each actor ended up in that role--

(my god this got long I'M SO SORRY I feel like I've hijacked your really nice and straightforward question)

Sam - easy; she was written for me, she is me, and yet I never picture her looking like me

Chloe - I knew I wanted to get Anna to be a part of the show, so I wrote Chloe with her in mind. but I also don't really picture Chloe looking like her!

Dr. Bright - the hidden lore of TBS is that I thought about playing this role for about half a second, instead of playing Sam (thank GOD I wised up). I don't remember the thought process of casting Julia at all because I'm pretty sure I was just sitting in acting class one day as she was doing a scene and was like "oh, there she is"

Caleb - god, it's so weird to try and remember when these people were strangers to me - Briggon was so big-hearted in acting class, that I knew he'd bring so much to Caleb. but it was watching him do a gruffer scene in class that made me ask him - I wanted Caleb's big heart to make itself known more slowly. Briggon has an essence that I picture with Caleb, but I don't picture Briggon as Caleb, if that makes sense.

Adam - in lots of ways, Briggon cast Adam! he and Alex had been buds for ages and when I wrote the episode in which Adam first appears, I needed someone to do a few quick lines and Briggon suggested Alex. and that was supposed to be that - I had no plans to ever have Adam appear in the show again. but then, of course, we recorded with Alex and I simply had to make him a presence in the show. ditto here in terms of essence vs. appearance.

Damien - I remember the moment I (mentally) cast Charlie so vividly. I'd already shared the season 2 script where Damien first appears with Julia and she was very eager to know who I was going to cast - I think we were talking about it before class, because we both knew that we needed someone very specific and very good. and I'm like "idk! I haven't thought about it in depth yet!". and then Charlie was doing some scene or other in class and Julia and I literally leaned forward in our chairs so that we could look down the row at each other because we had the exact same thought at the exact same time. and we shared this look and that was that. I've never pictured Damien as looking like Charlie, because Charlie is way too good looking.

Mark - these next two were really hard to cast. mostly because I had such a specific idea in my head of a vocal tone/vibe, and I didn't know any actors who fit that perfectly. and it took several weeks of sunday classes with Andrew before I asked if he wanted to get coffee and talk about it. and it took that long because Andrew has this very annoying thing about him where he's literally so versatile and so grounded and real and fucking good in every role he does, that every time I'd watch him perform, all I could see is what he was doing in the moment and nothing else. I would get totally lost in what he was doing and, of course, it is that exact quality that makes him such a compelling Mark. I picture Andrew as Mark about...32% of the time.

Agent Green - an insurmountable task. no one in my acting class was right for it. no friends of friends were right for it and I asked around a lot, got sent a lot of voice memos. and then I was doing a short film with Anna and Ian was there - I'd met him once before when he was in a Rocky Horror production with Anna - and I really dug his energy. and he wasn't right at all for what I was imagining Agent Green to be, but I was like "you know what, I want to work with this actor, and it's one small-ish role in two episodes" and then we got Ian in with Julia and all of a sudden I was like "WELL I GUESS I HAVE TO WRITE A WHOLE AGENT GREEN STORYLINE NOW" (this has happened to me several times. goddamn actors). I think the Green in my head is like...the combination of Ian and his common fan art representation.

Wadsworth - I met Alex doing the same short film - she was in it and also doing fight choreographer and was just incredibly competent and cool. I knew I wanted Wadsworth to be someone who could really boss people around but, like.....in a hot way. it helped that Alex and Ian knew each other pretty well, because obviously that dynamic is central to both those characters. and I think, similarly, Wadsworth is half Alex, half fan art in my head

Frank - I hadn't really planned on bringing Frank into the show itself - kind of an Adam situation - but I saw Phillip do a very interesting intense scene in class and just....couldn't stop thinking about it. despite writing the role into the show more or less for Phillip, I don't really picture Frank as looking that much like him.

Rose - this one was pretty straightforward - I wrote Rose, thought through actresses I knew who had a particular energy and could also sing and Alana popped into my head right away! (the only other actress that came close was Helen, who plays Helen in TAMA which, as you can guess, was written for her. she's got an incredible singing voice like Alana does, but Alana was the better fit, and I got to have Helen villain it up, which was so fun, and have a fucked up thing with Wadsworth (Alex and Helen are irl besties)). but I don't picture Rose in any particular way, other than the cover art for SFP!

Charlie - I loved Ars Paradoxica, I loved Reyn in Ars Paradoxica, and it just felt right. I do think I picture Charlie as Reyn actually.

honorable mentions from the spin-offs:

Mags - I knew pretty much immediately that I wanted to get Bryce in the mix of TAMA and wrote Mags for her in the same way I wrote Chloe for Anna. Bryce and I met doing a production of Spring Awakening years and years previously (she was Martha, I was Wendla) and she's such a talent! I don't really picture Mags like Bryce though - I think I picture Mags as being much nerdier.

Beck - Jason "Marley" Beck has a very specific description in the books. he's a tall, hulking white guy with a buzz cut and a kind of frankenstein's monster energy to him. he's pale as shit. when I wrote him into TCT, I looked for actors like that (and found some truly great ones!) but I'd left the role open and when I heard Chris's audition I was like "welp. that's Beck. I guess Beck is going to be Black in podcast canon!" and that's what we did. podcast canon and book canon are technically two slightly different versions running on parallel tracks, and I wanted to go with the actor that I felt best fit the role, regardless of the fact that the book had already been published. so the image of Beck in my head is different for the book and the podcast.

Oliver - ah, Oliver. the surprising fan favorite. or, really, not that surprising, because I had the exact same reaction to Kristian when I first met him. he auditioned for a role in Passenger List and, while I was of course already a fan of his from Orphan Black, I was still shocked at just how much fun the audition was. and to be clear: auditions suck so so so so so bad. and for PL, they were full 6 hour days of watching actor after actor after actor and, well, it's my least favorite part of the process always. but for the, like, 5 minutes Kristian was in the room, I was having a genuinely good time. so of course we cast him and he was as lovely to direct as he'd been in his audition. when Caitlin came up with Oliver, I think we both had something very different in mind. but there was a mad scientist energy to him that made me think of Kristian so I pitched him to her and she liked the idea and the rest is history. and then, of course, he and Andrew's chemistry was a wild lovely surprise, so we brought him back. gun to my head, I could not tell you what I think Oliver looks like.

[pagesofkenna]

does anyone want to go with me to the Newest Olympian liveshow in LA next month (and maybe also pick me up/drop me off in Palm Springs bc I know my car won't be able to make that trip)

[raggedyclaraa]

Ah yes, Spotify exposing me, as it should.

[severusskywalker]

I’m looking for some more podcasts to listen to.

I’ve recalling liked The Magnus Archives, Welcome to Night Vale, Malevolent, Wolf 359, and a couple others, and I’m looking for more. I like ones with overarching plots, if that makes sense? Any recommendations? Thanks!

Edit: A few more I have enjoyed/finished (including from the list below, as I listen to them!)

Archive 81

Auricle

The Deep Vault

The Scarab Archives

Vigil

The Technomacy Project

What Will Be Here

Re: Dracula

Stellar Firma

Out of Place

I Am In Eskew

Ars Paradoxica

The Antique Shop

And now the ever increasing recommendations, so they are all in one place… please feel free to keep recommending ones too, I love growing recs lists! (Now alphabetized!)

Aftershocks

Alice isn’t Dead

A Voice From Darkness

Camp Here and There

Captain Skyjacks

Case 66

Critical Role

Cryptids

Dames & Dragons/LegendLark

Darkest Night

Death by Dying

Derelict

Desert Skies

Desperado!

Deviser

Dimension 20

Don’t Mind Cruxmont

Dungeons & Daddies

Either

Ethics Town

Find Us Alive

From Caulk and Candles

Ghost Wax

Girl in Space

Greater Boston-the vignettes

Hello from the Hallowoods

Interstitial AP

Just Roll With It

Kakos Industries

Keep it Steady

Last Call at the Bluebell Cafe

Life With Althaar

Limetown

Mabel

Midnight Burger

Midst

Mirrors

Mission to Zyxx

Mockery Manor

Monstrous Agonies

Murray Mysteries

Neighborly

Newts!

Not Quite Dead

Old Gods of Appalachia

Oz 9

Paralyzed

Potterless

Red Valley

Revolution

Riley Hopkins and their Amazing Friends

Rusty Quill Gaming

Sayer

Second Star to the Left

Seren

Somewhere, Ohio

Spines

Spirit Box Radio

Spirits Podcast

Steal the Stars

S-town

Strange Case of Starship Iris

The Adventure Zone

The Amelia Project

The Black Tapes

The Bright Sessions

The Cellar Letters

The Deca Tapes

The Invictus Stream

The Left Right Game

The Liberty Podcast

The Milkman of St Gaff’s

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality

The Newest Olympian

The Night Post

The Pasitheaa Powder

The Penumbra Podcast

The Sheridan Tapes

The Silt Verses

The SPC Foundation Database

The Storage Papers

The White Vault

Time:Bomb

Unwell Podcast

Vast Horizon

We’re Alive

Within the Wires

Woe.begone

Wooden Overcoats