#recommending my favorite animatics of all the songs to my friends and ended up watching them all again and augh

[specialagentartemis]

Driving me crazy (in a good way, I find it an absolutely FASCINATING framing) how Epic: The Musical presents Odysseus telling his name to the Cyclops and how it's framed, emotionally.

This crucial moment is an act typically told and interpreted as one of his primary moments of hubris, taunting, unnecessary gloating revealing his clever ruse - the 19th century poet William Cullen Bryant translated this moment:

Thus to the Cyclops tauntingly I called:— “ ‘Ha! Cyclops! those whom in thy rocky cave Thou, in thy brutal fury, hast devoured, Were friends of one not unexpert in war;

His men tell him "seriously, do not tell him your name, what is wrong with you, let's just go," but he continues,

And then I spake again, and angrily:— “ ‘Cyclops, if any man of mortal birth Note thine unseemly blindness, and inquire The occasion, tell him that Laertes’ son, Ulysses, the destroyer of walled towns, Whose home is Ithaca, put out thine eye.’

We get it, Odysseus thinks he is so clever, and wants the Polyphemus and anyone else who asks to know it was he, Odysseus, King of Ithaca, who did it. And this moment of pride and gloating and telling Polyphemus his name is what dooms him and his crew.

Epic: The Musical reverses that emotional context. In "Warrior of the Mind," we see an Odysseus who is successful and gloating and kinda hubristically trying to one-up a god - after he kills Athena's boar.

ATHENA Well done. Enlighten me, what's your name?

ODYSSEUS You first, and maybe I'll do the same.

ATHENA Nice try, but two can play this game.

This is Odysseus at his most confident and in control, and he's playing smug little "no u" games with a goddess. Refusing to give his name first is a power move; he wants Athena to introduce herself first to show just how impressive she finds him. (It's a good thing Athena thinks it's cute rather than insulting.) (I also think it's extremely relevant that at this point in the narrative, he's a teenager who hasn't seen war or committed atrocities yet.)

So the ending of the Cyclops Saga shows us the opposite. After escaping from Polyphemus, Epic shows us an Odysseus who is not confident or emotionally in control. Epic has been leaning heavily on Odysseus's role as captain and leader with a duty to his men, and losing his people - including his best friend - so catastrophically leaves him in shock, grief, and anger. His call to the Cyclops here isn't a "if anyone asks you why you're blind now, tell them--" it's "the next time that you dare choose not to spare, remember them - remember us - remember me." It's a scream of grief and rage. It's a follow-through of the concept that his comrades will not have died in vain. It's a, how could you? The war was supposed to be over! We were just trying to go home! This isn't an Odysseus who feels in any position to gloat. Even Athena characterizes it as "reckless, sentimental at best," rather than prideful.

This is one of the big things I mean when I say Epic: The Musical makes Odysseus much more heroic and moral according to modern values than he's portrayed in the Odyssey. We are much, much more willing to sympathize, and empathize, with a protagonist who makes really bad decisions because he was driven by love and grief and a desire for mercy over violence than a protagonist who makes really bad decisions because he thinks he's the smartest specialest boy around and wants to make sure his enemies know it.

And I'm not necessarily saying that in a bad way. I think this in particular is a super interesting adaptation choice, reversing expectations and making Odysseus's doom read to us as genuinely tragic rather than "what the fuck did you expect, you dumbass."

[the-burd-lord]

Playing around with Alastor’s design a little bit. He would still wear most of the same outfit he wore back then, don't fix what's not broken, but with an added suit jacket that's a bit too big for him. I need to make a bit of to at some point, but after his break up he draws on a pencil mustache to add on to his emphasis of having a new appearance while still staying in his time.

A post depression mustache if you will.

As for some of his creepy aspects I'm cutting out the voodoo elements of his character, and instead using the uncanny and analog horror elements instead (I am a simple creature).

I need to actually remake the color pallets for him and old Vox, but essentially they both start off as black and white or with grey like colors, and gain new ones after they split up. Vox becomes more saturated and Alastor becomes sepiatone, as while it's more colorful it's still is reminiscent of the past.

Now time for some of the silly rivalry bits:

I’d image they would have casual debates on the radio and tv that would soon devolve into insults and eventually nothing but 30/50s slang and Creole French that would last for hours.

I need to finish writing this bit, but basically Charlie sees it as a good idea to go on Vox’s talk show to promote the hotel and herself. There’s some lil rivalry moments between Vox and Al, but ultimately Vox doesn’t fully let his grudges get in the way of hosting a good show.

Even though they mutually broke up they still each regret ending the relationship, and as such covey their loneliness in their respective mediums. Vox making sad, gay movies and being so worn out after that when he watches them he doesn’t even know what he made.

And Alastor having a late night audio story about a turtle and a hare going on adventures. There are times where he’ll just start describing crushing regret and isolation, and he’ll realize that he may have gone a bit far and try to steer it towards more of a happy ending with Vox listening in on all of it.

Something something relationship meme with a sketch I’ll probably never finish. Also surprising, but also not that surprising, to me that in "Stayed Gone" they didn't go with the obvious joke on what to call his late night talk show.

The grrls r fighting!! But for real this time.

Been playing with the idea of Vox turning into pure energy when he's overly stressed, or just becoming a weird robot creature as form he can take as an overlord. It's probably going to result in a lot of sketches where I 𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 won't use Videodrome as inspiration (lie).

At some point I need to get a good animation program and just start making a bunch of animatics or animations cause I have so many song inspirations for these two.

Specifically one that I want to make a whole animation for is “(They Long to Be) Close to You.” Basically it’s just going to be them fighting interspersed with moments of them waltzing together. I think you can probably parse out the metaphors and connections I'm going for here.

Also me and a friend were talking about song inspirations and after I continually listened, watched, and worked (at least for me) on Hadestown we just replaced Hades with Vox in some of the songs.

🚨SPOILERS FOR HADESTOWN🚨

One stanza that I need to make an animatic for is in Chant Reprise, specifically 2:33-3:18 with the “I conduct the electric city” line.

This is going to become a bit of promotion for the show cause I love it so much. Probably my favorite musical ever! Also highly recommend listening to this version of "Chant," cause there’s a verse for Persephone and Eurydice that provide some cool reflections that reflect the original “Chant” in their verses.

There’s no direct references to any of the other characters, although you can add your own interpretations.

On that note here’s another song that reflects them. “How Long?” mainly with the “your pity won’t fit in my bed” lines, and when Hades and Persephone are actually singing to each other turning it into being about their relationship instead of the fates of Orpheus and Eurydice.

And a lil teaser for how they make up:

Will make another post about them. I have so many sketches WWHYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN’T ESCAPE EITHER VERSION!!!!

[fairytales-magic]

Hiya! So I’m just getting into musicals after my friend sent me two songs that were absolute bangers from Heathers and I’m pretty sure you like musicals so do you have any recommendations? 👀 if not that’s totally fine!

Oh. HOney.

Do i know musicals?!?! (i’m so sorry in advance, but you’ve opened pandora’s box)

Strap in, i’m your humble tour guide!

A Beginner’s Guide to Musicals

Now, its hard to organize these all but i’ll do my best. I orignally had MANY others on the list, but it seemed smarter not to overwhelm you with too many different genres, so i kept it simple. I also will recommend some songs out of order before listening to the show from the beginning, but that’s just

Some are gonna be movie musicals, so just bear in mind, but if you want the broadway version i can oblige! A couple personal favorites i highly suggest are:

Wicked

The backstory of the Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda the Good, before the events of the Wizard of Oz.

 Listen, if i had to choose one show to see on Broadway, its this one. When the u.s. tour came to my city, i was beyond excited. And when my in-laws got orchestra seats for us to see it in, i all but cried. :D I could quite literally write an entire essay about the show deep diving into the costumes, the set and stage design, the tech and lights, the script adaptation, etc...

The music is iconic in its own right, and its just so much fun and full of heart! Start right at the beginning with No One Mourns The Wicked and The Wizard and I are brilliant places, but legit with any of these songs you can’t go wrong. There are even reprises in the show they didn’t put on the soundtrack but 1000% should be there, its just that good!

Full soundtrack available here!

Phantom of the Opera

 Ah yes! An oldie but a goodie. Its almost all singing, but boy is it worth it! I actually recommend watching this, cause it’d end up being the same runtime and you get the added benefit of seeing everything going on. But the whole movie soundtrack is available on YouTube, of course (the prologue is super slow, just fair warning, its a lot more for visuals than musical). The Phantom of the Opera title song is a great starting place. Music of the Night (immediately following POTO) and Think of Me are some of my top favorites, but really this whole soundtrack is just *chefs kiss*. Oh! And All I Ask of You just melts my heart! Also, of you want a great stage production soundtrack, the 25th Anniversary at Albert Hall starring Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo is fantastic as well!

Also also, i know where to watch both movie and stage performances, so just lemme know if you’d like that. :D

Hamilton

 Ok now hear me out! I honestly also didn’t like Hamilton when it first came out. And i didn’t for a long time. I’m a more traditional broadway connoisseur, plus the only rap i really listened to was Eminem. But even there i’m super selective, and i made the mistake of listening to the intro song first.

Don’t be me.

Sometimes you need the familiar first before you get to the place where they branch off (in this case, throwing in some rap verses).  

Hamilton in 7 Minutes is an amazing a cappella compilation of the entire soundtrack, plus the animatic someone drew for it is phenomenal. After that i highly HIGHLY recommend Helpless and then You’ll Be Back, oh and The Schuyler Sisters! This show is just as quirky and sweet as it is emotional. And i get its not for everyone, but i’d be remiss if i didn’t at least mention it.

Newsies

Inspired by the real-life happening of the Newsboys going on strike in 1899 New York.

Oh man, how do profess my love to thee? Mainly an all boys cast (but the ladies who have songs in it are *chefs kiss*), the choreography is as incredible as the music itself, and boy howdy is the music great! Jeremy Jordan is the butter on my bread and as Jack Kelly, just lives rent free in my head on repeat. If he sang to me every night, sleep would never be an issue. xD Carrying the Banner, King of New York, and Watch What Happens are great ways to start off this party. And here i shall grace you with the whole Live soundtrack (i didn’t like the audio quality for the regular recorded one i found, but its still the same cast so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).  

The whole stage show was professionally filmed and lives on Disney+ currently btw! (so go watch it! The tap numbers and spoon playing in it give me LIFE)

Heathers the Musical

The darkly delicious story of Veronica Sawyer, a brainy, beautiful teenage misfit who hustles her way into the most powerful and ruthless clique at Westerburg High: the Heathers. But before she can get comfortable atop the high school food chain, Veronica falls in love with the dangerously sexy new kid J.D. When Heather Chandler, the Almighty, kicks her out of the group, Veronica decides to bite the bullet and kiss Heather’s aerobicized ass…but J.D. has another plan for that bullet.

 I’m so glad you already like this! The music really is a great banger and the story surprisingly manages to be both edgy humor-wise and serious when the moments call for it. Its a lot of fun and i’m surprised by how much i like it. If you haven’t already listened to them, Beautiful is the intro and is really good, and also Candy Store & Big Fun!

The Little Mermaid Musical

 The movie and musical that need no introduction! I was really surprised by how much i liked Broadways soundtrack for the show, and how short-lived its time on stage was. It really doesn’t get enough credit for how much creativity went into everything. And what an all-star cast too! All the original songs from the movie are there, and i think they did a really good job expanding them even more, especially Under the Sea. Her Voice (10/10 just melts my heart) i’ll also recommend beforehand but honestly you don’t need too much. Just go straight from the start and head onward, you’ll really enjoy it!

The Sound of Music

 Man i’m getting nostalgic. Another oldie but goodie! My mom, sisters and I loved watching this movie growing up (along with Oklahoma, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Singin’ In the Rain, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, and just...every musical in our collection ;P). Funny, sweet, romantic, heartwarming, its got it all! The Sound of Music kicks everything off, and from there you can’t go wrong, but this is another movie musical i highly encourage watching! Also i just wanna throw in The Lonely Goatherd now cause its so much fun, so why wait?! ~~

Ok whew! I think that’s it (for now). It took a while to find links for everything, but we did it! Please holla at me if you have any questions or concerns. :)

Oh yes, and if you would like to see any of these masterpieces via recording, i may or may not have such knowledge for your viewing and/or audio entertainment.

[donatello-writes]

(End of year meme) 1, 10, 19

1. First things first, did you have a good year? For the most part, yes. And I partially have RotTMNT to thank for that. I happened to see an Animatic posted by Nickelodeon's Tumblr for the Repo Mantis episode, and I fell in love. I honestly had no clue there was a new TMNT show! I was a HUGE fan as a kid (I grew up watching re-runs of the '87 one), but fell out of the fandom after the 2003 series. This was all important to note because getting back into TMNT inspired me to do art again. I had gone through many years of artistic drought, so to be inspired once again was refreshing. I have also made many wonderful friends through the fandom, all of whom have helped me grow as a person and brought so much joy to my life throughout this past year. I swear...I'm not crying as I type this...

10. What song sums up this year for you? Two songs actually sum up my past year: The first being "The Comeback Kid" by: The Midnight - I came across this band on Youtube when it recommended the music video for "Sunset" (my favorite song of theirs) and I fell in love. And although the aforementioned song is my fave, I chose this song, as it represents my turnaround from not doing anything creative, to putting out more work than I ever imagined I would when the year began. My second choice is "Honey" by: Kehlani - I found myself unable to stop singing this song (even though I am no singer) after I came across it on Spotify. I love her voice, and how simply and intimate the song is. It also represents a personal discovery that I made about myself this year: that I am bisexual. 

19. What was one nice thing you did for yourself? I took a mental health day. This was significant because I am very stubborn. I tend to "power through" when I'm feeling low. That quality is both a blessing and a curse. It helps me get through my day-to-day with my mental illness, but it also blinds me from seeing when it's truly bad and recognizing that I need to take a break. A particularly bad day came up this year and, after fighting myself quite a bit, I finally decided to stay home. I had a wonderful, relaxing day to clear my head and it definitely helped.

[marvelandponder]

I’m a Little Upset They Made Me Excited for Something Called Hascon

But, they did, and over the past two days (and counting! expect an IDW comic panel on Sunday!), they’ve released some spoilers and news that’s pretty damn cool.

No real movie news aside from Hype! It’s coming in 4 weeks! because they didn’t want to reveal too many spoilers for that (although I’m still waiting for Hasbro to step up its marketing game with this one), but aside from that, let’s see what news we got for MLP this weekend [if you want Movie insight, I actually recommend picking up the art book. I just got mine in the mail and WOW is the concept art ever pretty]! This is your spoiler warning if you don’t like that sort of thing.

UPDATED: TONS OF STUFF! Movie Screenshots, more season 8 news, IDW comics, and more!

MLP: The Movie!

Not much in the way of spoilers (you can read the novelization or the art book for those, I guess was their thinking), but have three stills!

Equestria Girls

New outfits, designed by an actual red carpet stylist, Carol Lam, for both the new doll line and the characters in canon

New Youtube series officially announced, and it’s Choose Your Own Adventure style! Expected in November

Shorts to continue, and one has even been teased

Another one was a “2 minute short about Sunset Shimmer drawing a comic and them animating it... based around [the] girls catching a jewel thief.”

School play is a concept that’s coming up. Whether in short form, 22 minute special form, or perhaps even movie (although please note there has been no explicit mention of an EG5, so lovers of the movies will have to be patient)

“When asked if there is a Sunset Shimmer doppleganger rolling around, one of the panelists noted that her pet theory is that it was always Sunset's fate to travel to humanland, and there isn't an original Sunset in the world. They are leaving this open in canon though.”

No plans for Discord in EQG at the moment, but who knows?

Find EQD’s report on that here.

Okay, so first off? Loving the new outfits. With any other teenager characters, it would be ridiculous that they’re so well dressed and styled (I noticed Sunset’s hair is juuust slightly different, can’t see the others well enough to tell), but for these girls, it makes sense, since they’re all friends with Rarity.

So, yes, Hasbro. I’ll buy your crazy marketing tactics for now, because cute outfits.

As to the Choose Your Own Adventure series, I think that’ll be interesting, but not quite as cool to me as stuff like the shorts, specials, and movies. Just a matter of personal taste, but the world-building going on in the Overpowered short, for instance, is only really cool if it has a lasting effect on the characters and their world (the report said something about a coal miners daughter wanting to disco, and while that sounds possibly cute, it’s not exactly my cup of tea).

But it’ll be fun to try, no doubt! And definitely cool for younger fans!

The post wasn’t super clear on whether the Choose Your Own Adventure stuff was the only EQG content coming to Youtube (we have been teased about a series, similar to the Hana Zuki show Hasbro has on there already), but until we hear otherwise, assume it’s just the CYOA series.

And a school play theme really does sound like it could be used for a movie or a special, if they wanted to keep doing long-form stories, so that’s what I’m hoping for, personally.

Oh and we still don’t know what these are from/for:

A currently unreleased summertime short, most likely a music video.

A Netflix listing we found out about back in August. This might be the place they feature the specials and shorts, but who knows?

Season 7 News

Clips were shown for next week’s episode, It Isn’t the Mane Thing About You (which might end up being a Pinkie and Rarity episode) and Marks and Recreation 

It Isn’t the Mane Thing About (better clip than the first that was released)

Marks and Recreation (featuring the last song of the season)

Find EQD’s report on that here.

In addition, have some stills from a promo yet to be released on the rest of the season!

Likely from Secrets and Pies

Likely from A Health of Information

Likely from A Health of Information

(Not shown: Applejack falling into the party cave) Likely from Secrets and Pies

From It Isn’t the Mane Thing About You

From Once Upon a Zepplin

Likely from A Health of Information

Likely from A Health of Information (mask modelled after Mage Meadowbrook, so this will undoubtedly feature her story in a similar fashion to Daring Done, possibly told by Twilight, from the earlier screenshot)

From Once Upon a Zepplin

From It Isn’t the Mane Thing About You

Additionally, I’ll point out what we know for the season 7 finale: that there’s a tie into the Legends of Magic comics, and it’s called Shadow Play parts 1&2. Whether “shadow” refers to the character Shadowlock from the main comic series or King Sombra or something else entirely, we’ll have to wait and see!

Okay, so the most exciting thing for me is that Vincent Tong, voice of Flash Sentry and Feather Bangs, gets to sing again! As a villain this time! I could make a joke about him embracing the role the fandom has given him this season (Feather Bangs, the waifu stealer, and now Rumble, the antagonist).

Oh and for those who don’t remember, Rumble is Thunderlane’s little brother, who appears in Hurricane Fluttershy. It’s been a while, but he looked cute there.

I wonder if Starlight will have any role in this episode...

The addition of the Cake twins is to Mane Thing also adds hype for me. I’m still on the fence with the episode concept, mostly because I need to see how they’re going to run with it (could be uncomfortable to watch Rares lose her mane if done wrong), but the Cake twins were extremely endearing in Baby Cakes, and it would be nice to see more interaction between them and Pinkie Pie.

This season has been spectacular so far, so I’m glad not too much was spoiled (or you know, leaked...) so we get to enjoy it in full!

Season 8 News

Seaponies confirmed for season 8, the Movie will tie into the show

An animatic was released as well:

Find EQD’s report here.

SHE RETURNS! 

I find it super interesting that Chrysalis is outright ignoring Starlight Glimmer while gathering DNA, given that she swore revenge against her. A large number of fans are speculating that this will be some sort of voodoo plot, where Chrysalis literally turns Starlight’s friends against her, like Starlight did to her.

Not only that, but if you look in the background of that animatic, you’ll find the mane 7 are in a suspiciously new building...

Some have speculated it’s Twilight’s new castle (meaning the crystal castle will get destroyed at the end of season 7, which is alarming because it’s connected to the Tree of Harmony). I feel like it might be more of an addition to her castle, either a school of Twilight’s own (hence, calling the rest of the girls Twilight’s “teachers”) or a house of diplomacy of some kind, like a U.N. building for the different nations that Twilight and company have been befriending (dragons, changelings, griffons, yaks---heck, even Sunset Shimmer could be considered a diplomat from Equestria to the humans).

It’s still a mystery...

Also, sea ponies! And they’re adorable! They translate to show style really well, actually! And it only makes you wonder just how many other things will carry over from the movie....

New info!

Look for a Cheese Sandwhich cameo

G. M. Berrow wrote a Season 8 episode she is super passionate about and her favorite episode overall. Maybe more book tie-ins like in "Daring Done".

Josh Haber's favorite pony is The Great and Probably Going To Be In Season 8 Trixie!

Derpy won't get a featured episode like Episode 100, but she will be around, likely more than season 7.

There will be two-parters, and that's plural, so it sounds like we return to the opening and closing episodes being epic two-parters. So expect You-Know-You that we saw in that animatic to be in one of these!

Things we already know about season 8 that you may have forgotten:

26 episodes confirmed

Orchestra music from the movie to be used in some of the season’s songs, which are all finalized by now

As well, there will be twice as many songs are there are in season 7, since Daniel Ingram’s time won’t be split up between the show and the movie

Discord confirmed

Josh Haber returning as story-editor

Mike Vogel returning finally after working on the movie

IDW Comics

This year’s holiday special!

For those of you who have listened to the Christmas album, that’ll look somewhat familiar...

MLP:FIM #60 Sara Richard cover!

MLP: FIM #61 Cover revealed! A collection of foreign dignitaries, from dragons, to deers, to cats/abyssnians, to gryphons! 

“The story is going to be a "united nations" type gathering where all the various creatures throughout the planet convene to discuss the future of the planet. So think a Meeting of the United Nations but with Dragons, Buffalo, Hippogriffs, Anthro Cats, and a pony who controls the sun with a mere thought. Oh but there is a discovery made at the conference that could lead to trouble for our little ponies! A problem that might end up costing Equestria ownership of Canterlot!”

Legends of Magic #9! Seems to be a continuation of Flash Magnus’s previous issue, if the cover is to be believed.

Aaaand a page from Legends of Magic #6! Yes, that’s right, zombie ponies drawn by Andy Price. If 28 Pranks Later wasn’t grim enough for you, surely the master of expressions will deliver!

Find EQD’s report right here!

Year of the Pony