#showing us kindness when we don't deserve it. (imo its one of if not the most impactful moment of the no mercy route on a meta level)

[dimeadozencows]

There are a lot of great tags on this post, and a lot of different and unique takes on gaster which i always love to read :DD but i dont think i managed to evoke what i wanted to with this drawing

We know that gasters aware hes in a video game, but so many characters in undertale are aware of that already. One of the things that make gasters situation different is his ability to look at our world directly. He's aware that we've been looking for him and trying to understand what and who he is, he knows these last few years were dogshit for everyone on earth and mentions it in his pre chapter 2 tweets, he knows our life outside of our tempering with these worlds

And unlike other self aware characters in undertale, he doesn't experience time and the resets. He "lives" outside of what we can control. He truly remembers all that we've done while being unaffected by any of it. So while other self aware characters (im mainly thinking of sans and flowey) know that theres a person behind frisk whos controlling time, they're affected by our choices and (for the most part) can't judge it from an outside perspective

Sans is mostly unaffected by our inputs, and he does manage to judge us in a very impactful way, but he can't be a completely uninvolved judge. He will (understandably) react to us killing his brother and on certain neutral endings, as much as hes trying to hold his unfazed facade together, he's struggling with the thought of how much of his happiness you took away, even if he knows a reset will likely happen and everything will go back to the way it was. Understandably! This game is his world. Even if he knows its just a game that gets reset its still his home and the people he loves are its residents. He can't be unfazed by everything. he is nice to us when we're nice to him, and he hates our guts when we give him reason to. And he will always forget us after a reset and react to our actions only on the current run, not being able to know who we were to him before.

And flowey acts as the embodiment of this games message, he is our mirror and, in his words, he is who we will become if we exhaust this game of all it has. He exists to judge us, but he can do so only from his own point of view. He's judging our actions, our choices in this world as if we we're stuck inside it the way he is, which we aren't. That's not to say his judgement isn't impactful, that would just be. incorrect to say lol. But he can't interpret what he sees us do in a fully unbiased way because he's in a very similar, but not identical, situation to us. While we can enter his world and play the kind way, we do get bored and try new things, like picking the other, more rude dialogue option, or killing a character to see what a person who loves them says. even if we don't fully want to. Just like he said! But while we both went through the same process, there's a difference between us. We can leave. We don't have to grow apathetic and detached from these characters. We don't have to start seeing them less as people and more as repetitive lines of dialogue. If we're bored, we can leave. Play a new game. Come back when we miss them and see those familiar lines of dialogue and feel nostalgia, not dread. And he knows that we're a person that has a life outside of this game. At the end of pacifist he desperately tries to make us stay. But he doesn't see what our life is like, he cant see what we do with our days outside of his world, so he can only see us leave and return and leave and return, and judge us through his (flawed) world view and based on our actions within a world we enter for fun.

Thats not to say they're not written well? They're the fucking coolest flowey and sans rule.(i think the info dump proves my stance on them) I'm just saying that even if they know about us they cant fully judge the situation from a neutral point of view because they have a limited world view and they're affected by our choices, which gaster (as of now) isn't

And we don't know a lot about him. But we do know that he knows hes in a video game, that he knows we control his world and its linear time, that he lives outside of that linear time and is unaffected by our inputs, that he used to experience time linearly before shattering, that he had people he cared about in undertale, that he saw everything all of us did when playing undertale, that he is kind to us in the current deltarune chapters, that he knows of our lives and what we go through, and most importantly in my opinion, he knows that we (fans of utdr) use fiction as escapism

We've had characters judge us and berate us for our misdeeds, who are fully justified in doing so since we did hurt them directly. But they also cannot see the situation from an outside perspective. No character in undertale sees us separated from their world, as a person who lives a life outside of tempering with undertale, to them we are just a god who takes control of their reality, all they see is a cruel person who entered a world just to destroy it, or give everyone freedom and then just take it away in a second, they don't see how small their world is in comparison to ours, they'll never be able to understand that our actions in their world are (for the most part) inconsequential to us. they cant see us beyond the red soul.

so imagine with me for a second, a character within the game who is not only aware of the fact that he's in a game and that there's a player who controls time, but who also has the ability to SEE the players' lives through the internet. A character who has the ability to see the horrors of everyday real life and how much people struggle with it, and see that some deal with those struggles using fiction. And not just any fiction, the fiction that the character itself lives in. A character who knows that these great beings, much bigger than him, use the thought of him and his world to get through the trials and tribulations of their lives, hardships that are horrific in completely different ways than his world ever had. A character who knows that they find comfort indulging in his world and finding everything it has to offer, because whatever his world has is much more pleasant than theirs.

He knows that to us his world is just a video game, one that remembers and we're not above consequences in, but still a video game. One of the most common complaints i hear about UT is that it is preachy in its message, and players shouldn't be berated by it for playing certain routes or making certain choices (but one of the points of the game was that there is an alternative way to complete it so why choose violence BUT that is a whole conversation in it of itself and this is long enough already)

So what if the game understood? What if the character who created this game, this world, knew that it is just a game and didn't judge the player? What if the character accepted that he is only fiction and saw the beauty and purpose within it, and how he can use his position in this situation to connect with us and allow us to escape our hurt for just a little while? What if he saw the hardships we've endured and empathised with us? What if he understood that we don't view his world as real like he does and we just use it for our fun, to escape, the way a child happily plays with a toy? What if he felt for us, and encouraged it?

Deltarune (initially) not having a way to really hurt and kill people makes me think that while gaster wanted us in this world for whatever his larger goal is, and wanted us to indulge in it, he didn't want us to hurt anyone. But he saw what we did with the previous world and knows that warnings, consequences and the visible and audible hurt of the characters won't stop us (in fact, it will encourage us), which is something he accepts and understands. it's said that his own curiosity brought him far in his endeavours so perhaps he even understands our curiosity and why we just have to see what would happen, as morbid as it is in universe

But i love that we (without the help of noelle, a game breaking pro) cannot kill anyone. He didn't even give us that option. He isn't completely detached from these worlds since he used to live within them. He still views the fictional characters in the game as real while also knowing us, our lives, and the way we interact with the characters. And he loves and cares for both.

Letting us escape into a nicer world while keeping the residents of it safe from us.

And that is of course assuming he isn't tricking us into a false sense of security to teach us a lesson, and isn't lying to our faces every time he talks to us kindly and thanks us. but i think that after an entire game and a whole cast of characters who taught us lessons and took control away from us and showed us what an asshole we are for playing the game in an unkind way.. i think it'll be a really nice thing and a breath of fresh air to have a character who knows what they and their world are to us on a realistic scale, see why we sometimes act so detached from its ways, and understand that yeah, it is just a game. And we do the things we do as a means to escape. And that it isn't necessarily a bad thing to interact with games in this way (to me that sounds like the most self aware character ever written). But also see the characters within it as real (since he used to be amongst them) and protect them from our worst.

Truly and wholeheartedly loving and caring for both his family and the person who barely hesitates to strip them of all their joy before murdering them too.

Kissing the hands of the man who killed his son

I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before

I put my lips to the hands of the man who killed my son

[namtanlovesfilm]

the fucking hypocrisy that gl fans have tho, when geminifourth got announced to be in 23.5 everyone and their fcking mother was hating on them, tagging them to get out of the show and calling them ugly and shit like that, and now that there is gonna be a bl side pair everyone suddenly silent and like nothing happened, side eye.

I mean... I didn't see this unfurl so I won't comment much on it & of course no one deserves this kind of hate at all, but I'm gonna be honest... I can see where the root of it is coming. we've waited literal YEARS to get gl shows, and they're still like 1% of what bl shows are. especially since geminifourth went from unknown to huge in between the announcement of the show & its start of production, I understand milklove & gl fans who were worried they would steal their thunder when we all know pretty much ONLY male actors at gmmtv get any type of attention. the difference with the nawintinh side ship is HUGE imo tho. firstly they're not even the secondary ship, they're the third one after aylinluna so there's a lot less chance of stealing any thunder, and, as I've mentioned in my text posts on the topic, nawin being a queer plus size person getting a love storyline is literally REVOLUTIONARY. yes, the bar is low, but that's what us fat people have to beg for. you do not realize how much since nawin got his ep 3 storyline I've been thinking about him, I finally feel represented in a thai drama. so I understand people cheering this bl side ship more than the first one, and I think the situations are wildly different. however I don't think generalizing all gl fans as bullies like you did in your ask is right, I would've been happy with geminifourth as a side ship but I'm happier with juneview & euroford as side ships bc they're more pressing representation imo. the vocal minority of haters will always be the loudest, but thinking the ENTIRE 23.5 fandom bullied geminifourth & are hypocrites is a bit insane to me, as if bl fans aren't even more toxic (I would know, I've been in both fandoms lol...)

xxx

[despazito]

wish script doctor bc i feel like this movie could've been a lot stronger with some things altered. like i dont even think it needs a complete story overhaul, a handful of changes could make it much tighter imo

asha does not live so close to central rosas, but a village on the outskirts of the kingdom, and this will be her first time venturing to see the mythical king in person.

not all wishes are equal in this magic system. selfish and shallow wishes do not contain much power, but noble and selfless wishes are very strong. (also i don't see the point of forgetting your wish you made?)

the grandad was animated way too in shape for 100 years old, make him weaker and frail. hell, put him on his death bed to raise the stakes.

perhaps have asha's grandfather be an esteemed but very humble scholar or medicine healer whose dying wish is to establish a library or hospital for the local people (or something). asha believes that if she meets with king magnifico herself, she can convince him to grant her grandfathers' wish. she believes she can do this because an old childhood friend of hers now works in the castle as his aid.

asha travels to rosas and meets her friend dahlia. expecting her to be very close to the king, dahlia sheepishly admits to being a much lower ranked servant who hardly ever sees the king in person, but still sneaks asha in to show her around the castle because she's such a fan of magnifico + introduce asha to all her friends/coworkers.

have dahlia be the only primary friend, relegate the rest of the lot to the background. we don't need much time with them all, use it to strengthen other relationships.

asha attends a wish granting ceremony and magnifico does not grant grandad's wish. after the event asha uses a sneaky corridor that she just learnt to ambush magnifico and plead her case to him. away from the crowd he goes mask off and tells her to fuck off, asha narrowly escapes his guards.

defeated, she sings her I Wish song and we meet the star.

instead of the short guy, have valentino play the grouchy foil. valentino hates the star, and they have slapstick together. hell if disney wants to be meta, have him resent the star for turning him into a funny talking animal or something.

dahlia is the only one who believes asha when she tells her about meeting the wishing star. the other friends think she's some kind of lunatic from out of town until they see the star for themselves.

have queen amaya be equally self absorbed as king magnifico and together act as an evil couple like in the concept art. she enjoys the luxury of being a self-made monarch and throws lavish balls and pampers her shitty cats or something. make them evil and campy together like mink stole and david lochary in a john waters film (we've had a villain based on divine, now its their turn)

alternatively, amaya can still have a redemption, but later on in the third act. perhaps she's vain and perfectly content with a certain level of fraud until magnifico crosses a line. have magnifico explain to her long ago that he gets strength from the wishes, but he only culls the shitty wishes bad people make. amaya thinks its reasonable that he crushes the wishes of bad people and people who "deserve" it. but selfish wishes aren't as powerful, and as magnifico begins to crave more and more power, he begins taking more innocent wishes to power himself. maybe he finally crushes the wish of some sick kid or asha's grandfather and that finally snaps amaya into realizing what they're doing has become completely irredeemable. i know disney is allergic to writing romance now so have asha stay single and instead take some time to explore this romantic relationship.

asha & co. defeat magnifico with the power of friendship or whatever, maybe even have the final final part of the battle be between magnifico vs amaya as asha rushes to care for her grandfather after his wish was just crushed. or magnifico goes full magical sorcerer and explodes asha's family home or something

everyone in rosas realizes they don't need magnifico to live their dreams and together (with some pitching in from a now queen-regent amaya) asha is able to build the library/school/hospital/insert public service building her grandad always wanted. amaya hangs the magnifico mirror above her cats' litter boxes. the end

[bobbydagen24]

"" This is the Thanks I get "" is Technically a Bad Villain song but imo its not for the Reasons people often say it is.

first off I actually love this song lol I know a couple of lines of Dialogue are wonky but Regardless I love it I think its a fun song

it shows a Narcissistic Villain being so enjoyably full of himself and slowly losing his mind Towards the end before eventually just completely giving in to his full on meltdown

and I've listened to it loads of times I think it is just a pretty fun Villain song however I do admit that Technically it is a Bad Villain song.

but the Reasons that people often state why aren't why I think it doesn't work when Hearing criticism of this song most people just state the clunky Dialogue such as "" I let you live here for free and I don't even charge you rent ""

and they say that they think the song sounds too cheery and not very sinister for the most part and like it doesn't really sound like a villain song

especially not when compared to past Disney villain songs such as Hellfire or Be Prepared or Friends on the other side

but the Reasons I feel it Technically isn't a good villain song is because it simply does not fit with the character Magnifico was established to be at the start

he was a slightly full of himself but mostly Humble powerful leader who did the things that he did out of fear of losing his home due to a great Trauma of having lost his old home and his entire family when he was younger

he was a more understandable sympathetic ends justify the means kind of villain who's side the audience could understand to an extent even if we know he's still wrong in what he does

so a song like this doesn't fit his established character as like I said its fun and upbeat as it shows a very narcissistic petty person slowly losing his mind over not getting what he believes he deserves

from people and thus in an act of extreme pettiness resorts to using a dangerous dark magic book to gain back control of the situation

this song seems like it should be for an entirely different character

its like if the lion king established in the first half that Scar is Bitter and Resentful towards his Brother

and doesn't care about him or his nephew at all and only cares about the power and respect he believes he Deserves

only for his villain song later on to be The Plagues from Prince of Egypt where suddenly Scar is portrayed as a stoic and conflicted villain

who loves his Brother and Nephew so much and Hates that he has to be on opposing sides to them but he feels he has no choice.

my point is it just ignores the kind of villain he was set up as earlier in the movie the version of Magnifico they set up in the first Half

feels like he should have a more somber slow and quiet villain song imo where he maybe calmly sings to himself about how much he loves his home and his people and of course his wife

and as he slowly starts Remembering the Tragedy that befell his old Home the song turns more Desperate with Magnifico clearly trying to Block the idea out of his mind

that this new threat to the kingdom could cause the same outcome and maybe he actively tries to talk himself out of using the dark magic book

trying to convince himself History won't Repeat itself but the song turns straight up Horror with us seeing big flashes of Magnifico's old Home

being Burned to the Ground and his loved ones Ripped away from him that he loses the calm cool composure he had at the start of the song

and becomes more and more terrified and thus Desperate that he resorts to using the book corrupting himself further but its portrayed as much more scary and also tragic.

just an idea.

so yeah like I said that's why I feel the song Technically isn't a good villain song in the story of the film even tho I do love it and I listen to it all the time

it can be pretty fun to sing along and act a little full of yourself lol.

[jack-kellys]

welcome to: rizz's extensive uksies notes, which will discuss differences in characterization, sure, but also more important things like staging, scenic and dance changes, and directorial choices (i do talk about the principal characters at the bottom so i'll forgive you for skipping down there if you wanna). i haven't looked at anyone else's posts since i didn't want them to influence my thoughts, but i'll be whipping out the third-of-the-way-through stage management degree for this shit so buckle up. spoilers/major reveals will be in this post, and this post (among all the others relating to major reveals/moments in this version) will be tagged with #newsies spoilers!!!

lets get into it, starting with the reason this show was able to be as much of an experience as it was: the space.

i think it's very important context to this version of newsies that the troubadour theater, previously, had been housing an immersive peaky blinders (popular tv show) experience. this review gives a pretty good idea of what immersive theater is, and it is... a big feat. it's more of an experience than theater, and that same goal was at the heart of the way newsies is done, too, which worked so well. both are historical fictions and are based on real things that happened, which makes it kind of easier to involve an audience imo and lets them believe what's going on.

the stage is a sort of round thrust-style in the shape of what i'm guessing is a flash/flashbulb in reference to obviously the pics we have of the strike and how "big photos attract readers" (aka the audience in this case :)). as yall know from the photos its got the same tower/skeletal setup as bway...to an extent. for bway, that's tbh all they have, but by losing the proscenium stage and moving into a space with so much more free reign, there didn't have to be one big scenic element, and it didn't have to be the only thing to steal the show. like the "big moment" for bway is when the three towers track forward in once and for all, and there's like....at least three different moments just like that in uksies and they don't even need the towers for any of them! because they didn't rely on one thing, they did so many things, and they did them everywhere. to the walls, to the aisles, to the landings, to the air, this show made sure it used every definition of the word 'space' to its fullest. initially it sounds distracting, but making sure they're all around us and making sure that ensemble characters are able to be on their own without the principals near them really humanizes the ensemble as a group of real kids who fr went on strike. i'll come back to humanizing stuff in a bit, but since we've been talking about the theater space, lemme talk abt these scenic elements because damn...

there was a slide jack used a couple times through a hatch door to escape the delanceys thru (with a little >:) wave) and escape the strikebreakers

there were mini trap doors in the stage where items were stored and revealed, and they kind of looked like the grates that sidewalks have/used to have for like rain to drain into in cities <3

there was a rope jack used to swing through and kick a strikebreaker in the face!

the penthouse actually felt like a home rather than literally just a bare bway balcony lmao, like they had mini portraits sticking to a skeletal roof-like overhang that jack probably built on his own, his art was much more obvious and hung up and personalized.

the cart with all the papers on it actually got to be used in staging in really fun ways- it was both chariot and podium for jack and crutchie mainly but they like rode around in it it was cool

medda has a huge lit-up sign for her theater instead of like. an overhang or whatever it is for bway, which is the upgrade she deserves <3

the children's crusade banner wasn't a projection, it actually dropped as a huge literal banner from one of the line sets and jack stood as a shadow behind it with a fist raised >:)

the tables for king of new york weren't the longer bigger ones from bway, it was like actual restaurant-style table for two's like in 92sies!! and they were on wheels, so they had table-ography– this was also possible due to how much more depth, physically, the stage had, like they wouldn't have had room on a proscenium. davey was pushing les around on a table and the kid was just flying around it was super cute and rly well done

speaking of 92sies, remember at the end of their king of new york when the one newsie grabs the ceiling fan and spins around? yeah, uksies does that with these huge practical lights that fly down from above- newsies get to not only hang off of them and do some acrobatics, but they can spin on them, and they not only go insanely fast, but they also are able to go higher the faster they go. seriously one of the most insane displays i've seen in a staged musical of all things, like it felt like a show and not just a musical.

The abundance of scenic and spatial elements leaves a director/choreograoher (because this guy was both, and it is visceral even in the scenes that he's both and it's perfect) with so many options, and fuckin man, did this guy absolutely use all of them to the fullest. i hadn't realized how like....recycled the blocking had been through bway and also touring, because idt they're allowed to really change it. but guys. we'd been watching the same exact movements for years, and NOW THEY'RE ALL NEW!! everything they do, each location of the stage people move to is all different than we've ever seen as a fandom, which is major, because staging is a storytelling device– since if it wasn't, we wouldn't have it. where people are in a space, where people are in relation to others in a space is also huge. the other main thing again is that it isnt a proscenium stage, so it's much easier not to stage people "in a line". think back to the livesies staging for right before the world will know when jack is telling davey about "if your father had a union". picture where they are on the stage in relation to the cart w all the newsies. its in a fucking line, bro.

this show? abused depth beautifully. the stage pictures were extremely memorable, so choreographed, and set the dynamics for scenes so effortlessly. davey is way downstage when jack's trying to convince him to join the strike, so we can see his exact thought process before the final "i guess...you do, mr. president". (speaking of, ryan kopel is genuinely the first davey to actually make that line a weirdly emotional journey?? like davey takes so long to finally say it, like he's getting over the stakes and letting jack's words sit before finally, yes, agreeing.) or when jack has his pre-seize the day monologue (of which i might make an entire post for for personal reasons and i'll link it here if i do), the three scabs are center stage, arranged in this triangle with their backs to each other and their heads down so jack gets to circle them while addressing the stage at large- it just looks so intentional and frankly very pretty to watch since they're all dancers and their posture is so clean. even something to believe in's scene staging is more dynamic because the towers themselves aren't even in a line- they're angled downstage, so even when jack and kath are high up on a more skinny platform there's still depth and an upstage and downstage they can travel on!! it's so thought through. i'll also make a post about more individual moments, but a lot of people have done that so im making the more important post first lmao.

the staging ofc was very intentional, but the transitions were also...like seriously integral to the narrative. idk if you guys know this or not but transitions can make or fuckin break a moment fr and some directors fucking suck at them LMAO but wow. these? the newsies taking on katherine's platform with the same "mornin' miss" air to their movements and kath saying a small 'thank you' to them before she sits for watch what happens, versus the transition into the bottom line where newsies push pulitzer's platform on with heads and backs bowed down, pushing slower, with more effort, like it looks painful when they push on his platform. newsies lifting medda's footlights and sort of "working at the theater" with their movements mirroring dramatic vaudevillian theatre. it was all so fluid and nearly all of it was done by the newsies and none of it was really...hidden, either, and seeing them literally "work" onstage cemented them as "the working boys of the city" really specifically, and in a very special way. like yeah, the invisible workforce, of course they're doing the transitions. beautiful, a+.

among other added elements were the new orchestrations. newsies has never sounded like this before, even excluding the new music they added. there was more base, guitar, and drums, and the tinny trumpet was much more subdued which felt more...realized and less disney, which is for me always welcomed lol. honestly it made the music sound less disney as a whole. very grounded sound overall- ALSO the sound design was so fucking excellent like you walk into the theater and it's the sounds of the city in 1899 and it's so cool...but! yes! there was new music because guess fucking what: every single dance break was extended. every single one. they all of course had new choreo (finallyfinallyfinallyfinally) but also literal new parts to the dance breaks. each by like 3-5 mins. cemented this as a show more so than only a musical which i fucking adored. in a diff post i'll go through each song (though it might. be after i see it again) and talk about the extensions because just....come on director/choreographer!! yes!!

rounding out this post specifically, im gonna nail down some characters and relationships, since honestly they were very different than we've seen before, but there's merit to all of them for real, and i appreciate a shift from how we're used to interpreting them, and honestly i hope it changes our characterizations as a fandom and adds more depth/possibilities!

starting with the romantic hero of the year, jack kelly.

he is distinctly a romantic hero in this- not in the perceived lovesick/floaty way. he's a very raw version of himself, and he's almost a loose canon (until he's forced not to be via blackmail). he's staged very intimately with others when talking one-on-one, which i know is a usual jack trait, but at michael's jack's core is "come on, look at me." every moment with those he loves is personal to him, is treasured and valued. a baseline example is crutchie, of course, who he says "look at me" to in the prologue after crutchie gets discouraged with himself. they aren't staged outward toward the audience, because jack doesn't let it– he is in line with crutchie, really looking at him, and making sure crutchie's looking back. he does this with the scabs too, except he gets to move around them because of how that trio is staged (my god that scene looks and is so beautiful..fuck).

but i think this is very exemplified with davey, actually, because what i love about michael's jack is that the emotions he wears on his sleeve aren't only ones of love- it's all passion, which includes anger. jack and davey do not get along initially. the exchange of "well if he's the best then what's he want with me" is kind of charged, which is exciting- davey really is just there for his family, he doesn't need eyes on him, and he wants to shut it down....but it's shutting it down via undermining jack, which is made clear by jack's reaction that that isn't something that happens around here. "cause you got a little brother" really feels like an 'i don't need you,' in how it's said, and any back and forth they have through that scene is an interesting animosity... which changes the moment davey and les are in danger, when snyder appears and they run (they run SO MUCH in this show oh my god, they run everywhere across everything and up and down), and once they run to the theater and jack gets them out of that situation and davey is seriously like. 'who the fuck was that guy, we had to go through that bc of you, that wasn't okay', and the way jack explains who snyder was...for the first time, jack doesnt match davey's animosity and instead just explains, in lieu/as an apology, the details on who snyder is and to steer clear of him. and instead of saying "right" as davey normally does, he says "thanks for the advice", with the staging squared and head-on to jack. and it isnt sarcastic, it's just genuine, and from that moment on, davey gets the "look at me" treatment. and jack even holds the back of davey's head during i think seize the day and lets his hand slide down his shoulder to daveys chest and daveys hand is on jack's shoulder and they're staged square and not outward like the moment is just for them.

jack's emotions are more visceral than they've been, he's very hot-blooded and it just makes everything hit more. the fucking seize the day monologue. poc fans we finally won. michael took so much time with it, making sure each line was heard and intentional and the audience was doing that thing they do at more serious straight plays with the little "mmhs" when they agree with something and like. he just made sure it was taken so seriously, same with the something to believe in scene. "what is this.. about, for you?" just the way michael structures jack's word is so smart and emotional. he also has this sort of break in his speaking voice that reminded me of jerjor actually, but it obv is just the way he acts and a choice for jack, this cracking of the self when he's vulnerable with someone at the expense of himself.

lemme say that again. this jack's voice literally has an emotional crack in it when speaking vulnerably at the expense of himself, which is SO FUCKIGN SPECIFIC GOD I LOVE HIM FSKDFJSDJ FUCK. it's genius. he does it with katherine during "i ain't stupid, i know that... girls like you, don't end up with.. guys like me." oh my god the FUCKING NOISE THE AUDIENCE MADE. oh it was heartbreaking, like it was genuinely crushing. made me tear up for sure, for obvious reasons lmao. michael is the jack i've always wanted- a little vain (he admires himself in a hand mirror during carrying the banner<3), absolutely turbulent, and painfully, horribly aware of his own stakes in this all. and black LMAO I WONNNNNN HAHAH I WON!!

speaking on crutchie next because he is the narrative of this production.

the fandom has sort of strayed away from the jack+crutchie team and fallen into this jack+race team, and this production makes damn sure that doesn't happen. it is so jack and crutchie, all the way, to the end of the fucking line. he is with jack, central, through all of act one's staging and major numbers- by jack's side for carrying the banner, with him on the cart when it spins around center and moves around the stage for world will know, he leads the newsies up to the world's door to make way for jack, les, and davey to enter it, he's included in seize the day choreo moments, he cries out for jack to get away ("jackie, run! run!!" im. i am. a mess) at the end of the brawl when he knows he's in a situation he can't get out of.

he also has this hug with jack and race when he returns from the refuge that nearly made me yell out loud LMAO (me and @roideny grabbing hold of each other in the theater and all), and the three of them have a personal spot of the stage together looking over the paper when davey makes his first appearance- crutchie is just staged very intentionally near anyone with leadership, cementing him as a leader and is certainly no longer jack's kid-brother anymore. any infantilization is really worked on getting completely gone in this production, the effort is apparent likely especially bc the actor (matthew duckett!! sweetheart supreme!!) is disabled himself!

another really key thing about this crutchie is how loud he is, in every way he possible could be. his color palette is the most stark right along with jack's, he's wearing overalls which no other newsie has, his speaking voice is almost abrasive- it's not rough, per say, but it's sort of coarse and nasally (he's so new yorker and im in love w it), and very distinct. he's also taller than jack (michael my beloved is 5'9", furthering my jack is 5'9" agenda) and like... most of the other newsies tbh.

this production does not give you a choice but to notice him, does not give you a choice but to look at him, does not allow you to ignore crutchie in any way. it's visually and audibly impossible, and that is spectacularly intentional.

he is also like... sunshiney in a rough-around-the-edges way, in a this-is-all-i-have way. he's so himself, he's abrasive and almost snide in how he talks. very self-aware, but choosing actively to be brighter about it even though you can tell his situation weighs on him. crutchie is genuinely so dynamic in this show and he's amazing to watch, and he is finally, finally, truly shown as equal to the rest of the newsies, and certainly to jack.

this is so specific but the "we have the right to starve, let's just get our papers" line is so decisive of him. like i'm realizing that that line hasn't given him power before, but it does in this show- he can raise a definitive solution to the group without being jack, and i.. don't think anyone else does this, at all, when they're discussing the strike. it's just crutchie who states what he believes they should do. like. that's never been emphasized before thats so fucking cool for him idk

alright davey time woooooo

davey is the king of defensiveness in this and i genuinely fucking love that choice for him. because he is trying to find a 'way out' within the text but also metaphorically within the story before world will know. so like– this production had davey try and contradict every time someone comments on what davey says. he'll start to say "i didn't say-" "that's not what i-" "i didn't mean-" before cutting back into the script's dialogue again, which is SO fascinating. since initially, davey is trying to separate himself from the newsies, so he uses ad-libs like that to break away, but then after world will know, those same ad-libs are used inversely it felt like, like he'd say something in a way that didn't quite fit and he'd try to rephrase so that it did? very interesting to watch.

he also was very nervous to speak in his first appearance when getting his papers, like he was very nervous about speaking in front of wiesel. this davey had sort of trouble finding words in a timely manner, but what he always has are the right ones, which was a good dynamic for he and jack. he does know what to say, and what he says is intentional, he just isn't great at saying it until act two which is so. cool. even in act 2 at the rally he's still finding his footing, and then when he's at pulitzer's office with jack and spot, he's in his own. he's nearly flippant about his words, since he's found his confidence in them through jack uplifting them the whole show. it almost..... like he and jack kind of have a mentor-y relationship? jack really feels like he does show davey the ropes (despite how biting the "well my father taught us [indicating that jack shouldn't lie so easily in front of les] not to lie" is), and davey learns from jack while jack learns from davey.

speaking of les though wow is mans protective as fuck. his arms are always around this kid, he rests his chin on his head really casually and les is so easy with it too like yeah they're brothers asf. and their moments in king of new york are so precious, and they have the center table together at the start of act two.

speaking of act two! can't talk about davey without discussing wwh reprise :). the way he talks to jack in this scene is so confident that jack's "have they busted up your brains or something" feels like it's more about that- davey hasn't spoken against jack since before world will know, and jack isn't used to the dynamic davey is trying to establish. he's so persistent, and urgent, and like... in it. "won the battle, jackie think about it" like this davey wants to win. at every single turn in this show, davey wants what he believes to win. he will speak against anyone, he will try and change his words' meaning ("that's not what i mean-"), and he will persuade whoever just so that he can win. he feels so competitive and it shines in different ways and everything he says really is so argumentative. maybe he's a little quieter, his voice is shyer, but davey isn't shy, and that's made clear. also ryan kopel hugged me at the stage door and i love him and he's so fucking sweet wowowow

ok katherine and we'RE DONE i promise.

staging made absolutely sure to ground her. she was watching a lot of the scenes she wasn't in, like she appeared during world will know in one of the aisles- felt very much like those moments in 92sies when we'd just see denton around takin notes, which i loved. showed her as a very active journalist. she also like... spoke like an american newscaster?? like she had a News voice lowkey? which was a fun choice.

her scene with jack when she's asking him questions is so serious for her and i love it, it really makes sure that she cares about what she's writing and who she's writing for. jack's "we both got a lot riding on you" takes her downstage as her desk gets set up, and we get to see jack's words weigh on her which is fuckin nice as hell.. like she just felt more grounded than she's been. she still got to be bubbly, but she was more aware of the situation than like... kara lindsay's katherine. she knew the stakes for the newsies i feel like, which is why the name reveal was more intense and the STBI pre-scene was... the best i've seen. she was embarrassed at herself for lying to jack- not telling him everything, and when she defends it she knows it's weak and doesn't try to back it up.. i just appreciate it bc that scene normally feels so superficial despite its context and what they're talking about, but kath and jack really did everything they could to save that scene's writing... they reeeeally fuckin tried LMAO. this katherine was more willing to put herself in the action for sure

her back and forth with jack in jacobi's was so fun, and the defining line of their arc through the show was definitely "this is entertaining...so far." because it's fun to flirt, until it isn't, and someone you care about his ruining his name at the city-wide rally, or revealed to be the daughter of the man sending cops to beat kids into submission. whew. they're really good together.

very quickly: THIS PULITZER IS >>>>>. HE IS SO GOOD. I CANT LIE LMAOOO HE'S SO EVIL I HATE HIM!! and MEDDA WAS SO. that's jack's mom. she also really does serve independence, and i love it so much.

anyway thanks for reading this far guys LMAO i now this is so extensive and i didn't even talk about the ensemble fr... but that's for the second viewing. the direction this production underwent took major precedence, since it's so different and so much more fleshed out.

hope this gave a clear picture on the vibe of the show and the principal characters/relationships!! more to come asf!!!

[lockandkeyhyena]

(I REALLY HOPE tumblr doesnt cut this off early... its pretty long!) Hello!! Your posts containing that recent story idea of yours has popped on my feed. To be completely honest what I have read so far has left me ... uncomfortable, but I want to be open-minded enough to give it a chance. So I hope you don't mind me using anon to ask some questions about it!

First and foremost, you have expressed what the narrative asks of it's audience, but what is the message? What is the story trying to say? I'm not necessarily against a story that asks it's viewers to sympathize with horrible people (BoJack, for example, is one of my fave shows ever), but I feel like, at least personally, you can't be too vague or open-ended with topics like these. BoJack (again, example) allows you to understand and sympathize with horrible people, but the message is also very clearly "actions have consequences, and you must own up to / live with them". I'm curious what your message is?

In your eyes, what exactly is the line between "Horrible person the audience can sympathize with" and "Horrible person the audience must pity, feel bad for, excuse actions of"? I feel like it is a line that can very easily (and often, unknowingly) be crossed, so I'd like to see your view on it

"redemption" is a word I see frequently on your posts. What is redemption to you? Is it a simple change in heart / behavior, or something more? I'm not against a horrible character like yours being 'redeemed', as in recognizing the true nature of his actions / behavior and striving to be 'better'. However to some people, 'redemption' can easily mean 'deserving of forgiveness' or 'unable to be judged / held responsible for previous actions' (which is why that kind of arc is so frequently controversial lol). All things considered, I personally don't think the latter would be wise to approach considering the characters crimes. But i'm sure you know that already.

This also begs the question - what is forgiveness to you, especially in media? In one of your posts is the line 'where do we draw the line in the sand for what crimes are deemed unforgivable even when faced with eternity, and why?', which made me curious enough to ask this anon in the first place. What is an unforgivable crime to you? How does your story plan to handle themes of forgiveness? Are you planning to write elements of forgiveness between victim / abuser? (mostly asking because, if that is the case, I don't think this could be a story I'd enjoy unfortunately)

How do you plan to have the audience feel sympathy / empathy for your character? Do you plan to go the 'he has a sad backstory' route or do you have something more planned? I also feel like it is important to acknowledge the difference between 'sympathize' and 'empathize' here. To want an audience to feel sympathy for a horrible character is something I can understand, as it calls for simple understanding. But empathy is something that is a lot more intimate imo (as it stems from a feeling of "your pain is my own, I have been in your shoes"). Which I don't think you could really ask of those who have been the victim of those things at least.

I definitely feel like it is important to acknowledge the humanity of horrible people, but I also feel like it is important to acknowledge that some people out there genuinely are just awful -- not every criminal has an unfortunate upbringing or bad life experiences, and not every criminal shares an ounce of care or regret or sympathy, as unfortunate as that may sound. With that said, I think it is perfectly healthy for the average person to maintain distance between themselves and those who cause others significant harm / traumas. At the end of the day, it is an abusers responsibility to see the harm they inflict and own up to their own actions. No innocent person should be expected to 'fix them' or tolerate their behaviors or forgive the hurt they have caused, even after redemption. Not even a simple 'you're hurting others' is owed, really. Nobody wants to put themselves in the shoes of someone who abuses children in that manner, because that is not really something you can do as a mistake, or accidentally, or without realizing, or in the heat of the moment. Sexual abuse in general is a crime done without good reason, which is why it is such a touchy subject -- and when you bring grooming into the mix, it becomes a crime that is now premeditated. But of course I say this from an outside perspective, I wouldn't know what it is like to harm children in that way …

Sorry for the ramble, anyways. All in all I'm willing to give your story a shot and I'm curious to see how you tackle these ideas (and, I will definitely be around to give you advice / my thoughts, for as long as you welcome them).

hey!! thanks so much for your input, it’s really appreciated. this’ll be a long one so strap in folks.

1. good question!! the message i’m trying to go for is something similar to bojack horseman. your behaviour shouldn’t damn you to an eternity of pain and suffering, but you still have to live with your actions and acknowledge that you’ve hurt people- and, most importantly, you can’t move forward without *acknowledging* you’ve done something wrong. basically, ‘anyone can become a better person, but you have to be willing to put the effort in and acknowledge that your past actions won’t go away.’

2. i don’t think there should ever be a character that the audience excuses the actions of, i think that while you can sympathise with and pity a character, you also necessarily have to acknowledge and analyse the bad they did.

3. OH OH THIS IS A GOOD ONE!! i think about this ALOT, especially in regards to forgiveness. i don’t personally think that if you become a better person, your past crimes should be forgiven/forgotten about. i think the most appealing thing about redemption narratively is your character constantly being reminded of their past and choosing to continue being a good person in spite of it.

redemption, to me, means recognising the horrible nature of your past actions and acknowledging that you did bad things, while simultaneously working to better yourself and be an overall good and kind person.

4. continuing on from the last question, i adore thinking about forgiveness in depth, i believe i made a post on it a year ago and still have an ask waiting in my askbox about what i personally define forgiveness as.

basically, no, i don’t plan to write any elements of forgiveness from the victim into the story, and that’s something i want alvin to have to deal with. think end of season one bojack horseman with ‘i don’t forgive you.’ i want him to be faced with that, acknowledge that nothing he can do can fix what happened, and strive to be a better person regardless.

personally, to me, while i would never *forgive* alvin for his crimes, i wouldn’t begrudge him the opportunity to better himself. an interesting contradiction in my worldview is that while i will never personally forgive child abusers, i don’t believe in being ‘beyond redemption’. i believe that if someone is given enough time, no matter how heinous the crime, give them a thousand, million, billion years of time, i believe they can see their wrongs and work towards being better people. i also believe it’s an endless task. there’s never going to be a ‘you are better now’ stopping point, and that’s something that has to be dealt with.

5. ah, simple misunderstanding of words here, i don’t really see a difference between sympathising and empathising and i use them both to mean ‘feel bad for’ or ‘understand someone’s point of view without necessarily agreeing’ while i plan for him to have a sad backstory, that’s not the avenue i plan to garner sympathy from the audience with. that’s the avenue that *he* initially wants you to take pity on him for.

i want people to sympathise with him due to his… normalness for lack of a better word. i want people to see him as a human outside of his terrible actions. i want him to have quirks, favourite movies and dislikes.

anyway, i think your insights are extremely valuable and i agree with all of them! the heinousness of the crime is sort of the point- can someone who knowingly and prolonged-ly(?) committed a vile act, become a better person? the answer i want to come out of this story with is yes, but it’s something that has to be done selflessly and with no expectation of reward.

thank you so much for taking time out of your day to write up these questions for me! any further input would be much appreciated- you’ve been very articulate and helpful with me putting my own thoughts into words.

[rontra]

who The Fuck is manhunter

god this is such a good question. who the fuck IS manhunter. well okay so let me pose a counter-question. what if women sucked and were not fun to hang out with. do we still support their wrongs?

no okay (visibly trying not to laugh) heres the girlcrush of the day. she's got what ive jokingly called "bull-in-a-china-shop lifestyle". her name is kate she's a famous federal prosecutor who specializes in prosecuting supervillains. and brother she loves pushing for the death penalty. one day when she was pushing so so hard for the death penalty, the jury did not go for it. and she got so so so mad that she decided to go find and kill the guy herself

and she liked it.

so she blackmails some guy in the witness protection program into being her gadget guy & from then on she's the vigilante "manhunter" (yay!) who kills bad guys she thinks deserve it. when she's out there she's basically operating on a completely circular logic that goes like "well if i can't kill this villain here, i'll simply get him the death penalty in court (which i'm very good at), and if that falls through, i'll just go back to Plan A (killing him with my own hands)" and it's like girl i think you just kind of Like Killing. good luck with that

it's like what if batman not only loved killing and jumped directly to it every time, but was also working With & Inside the system at the same time to ensure there is no other way for things to end. that's a weird thing to do, right? girl? this is weird?...

& like MAYBE in 2004 america this setup was written to appeal to a certain type of reader who'd go "yeah girl the System never gives the bad guys what they Deserve lets fucking go #justice" . i couldn't really tell you to be honest (and her murder mettle is proven entirely in scenarios that are like "well maybe she's morally in the clear here because the guy in question is a cartoon snake-man who eats people") (to me personally, on its face, this all reads like the origin story for a supervillain lawyer named Death Row or something. but that's just another part of her womanly charm in my eyes.) what i CAN tell you is that deciding to become a coldblooded premeditated killer in her spare time is Really cutting into both her professional and private life and now her ex-husband is suing for full custody of their son

oh yeah. she has a son and she is like a deadbeat mother she never shows up on time she forgets to pick him up and he hates going to her house when it's her weekend she is NOT doing a good job on this one. figuring out how to actually mom this kid is also kind of a thing for her and she DOES figure it out but i have to tell you. her Divorced Milf Who Totally Sucks appeal. VERY High

man. yeah she's always getting her shit pushed in during fights because She Is Just A Lawyer but she just like Walks it off (girl...). she's addicted to nicotine in a major way. she's cold and cranky and would not be fun to hang out with. she's terrible at banter. she actually sucks to the point it makes me feel Bad for her ex-husband who has to keep hounding her like "don't forget to pick up our SON" it's kind of a feat to be honest. she just sort of is charging blindly into things and wrecking her life because she has a chip on her shoulder and Maybe Enjoys Killing but at least she's also got a certain failgirl swag about it

there is a major theme of like, legacy, but crucially (and most interestingly, imo) most of the time kate is completely ignorant of said legacies existing around her while she's stomping through the porcelain with her hooves until they rear up to bite her directly in the ass, which i enjoy very much. she is very much focused on her own thing and consumed by her own motivations and does not really give a shit about these things and it's a major issue every time. even "manhunter" itself is a name that's been used by multiple dc characters (sometimes simultaneously) (including a whole cult), which suddenly becomes a problem for her when someone starts murdering all the other manhunters until she's the only one left standing. uh oh! i was just doing my own thing and thought the name sounded cool! noooo!

there's also the very pointed matter of her gear which is all "borrowed" from just like. the lockup. (girl...) so she's wearing someone else's suit and someone else's gauntlets and using someone else's weapon (actually one of the previous manhunters! there's that manhunter lineage again!) and while the audience is treated to a whole issue elaborating on the backstories of these things, kate herself is completely unaware and uninterested in the significance and legacy of these hand-me-downs because she picked them out at complete random to go do premeditated killing. it's really underscored in an interesting way how much she just is kind of bulldozing straight through everything--whether it's her own life or her proverbial predecessors--towards her own ends

the whole lineage and legacy thing is something of a Theme i guess. especially when it turns out her own biological father is an absolute sicko with a murder charge and he's on his way right now to bulldoze her life for his own ends. that's funny. maybe she's got that serial killer gene from riverdale,

jokes aside i would give her a 10/10 failwife cringemilf rating, with ample extra points awarded for being divorced, for the broken ribs, and for how much i would hate hanging out with her if she were real. this is a certified manhunter post. i hope you enjoyed it.

(reading manhunter 2004 and shaking my head sternly the whole time but also smiling. so people know i don't support the death penalty but i Do support women's wrongs)

[adhd-merlin]

merlin S1 rewatch: episode 6

it’s been a hot minute! today’s commentary is about episode 1x06, A Remedy to Cure All Ills. which I re-watched more than a month ago actually, but I’ve been busy.

just some random comments and thoughts (as usual), and not an actual review or analysis.

I think this episode is extremely underrated – I loved it the first time I watched it, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it on my rewatch. yes, it’s kind of a filler episode with a very traditional Villain of the Week format – but it's a great villain.

Julian Rhind-Tutt’s performance as Edwin is great and I love a suave, smooth-talking, scheming villain as much as the next person. The way he manipulates people, never suggesting anything outright but playing on people’s fears and biases, only saying just enough to make them reach the conclusion he wants. Something very Richard III about it. Very Iago.

EDWIN: “No… I shan’t say”

Another thing I love about this episode is the rare (unique?) instance of Merlin showing his magic to another sorcerer whom he isn't suspicious of (the audience knows Edwin is the Bad Guy, of course, but at this point Merlin doesn't).

I can’t think of another moment like this in the series. Freya didn’t actually have magic. There is Gilli, but when Merlin reveals his magic to him he already knows of the boy's intention to kill Uther, and it is a last attempt to stop Gilli from committing regicide without putting him in harm’s way. Merlin's relationship with Mordred and the Druids was always complicated by prophecies and by his role as Emrys.

But there’s none of that here. Edwin tells Merlin that magic can be used for good, and that it can be ENJOYED! which is all Merlin ever wanted to hear. And it’s a bit heartbreaking to see the hope on Merlin's face, knowing all that is going to happen later in the series.

I also loved the previous interaction between Merlin and Edwin:

“It can’t explain love”!! He’s a romantic. He loves love 🥺🥺🥺

I think the writers lost sight of Edwin’s motive a bit by the time they got to the ending. He’s not content with just killing Uther, he also wants to… rule the kingdom? And he tells Merlin they can do it together? (a concept revisited in the Cornelius Sigan episode). I don't think it works well.

I think Edwin’s final evil speech would have been way more impactful if he had tried to appeal to Merlin’s empathetic side, instead of his non-existent thirst for power, and reminded him of all the suffering Uther caused and why he deserved to die. I guess that would be a moral dilemma that deserves more than a few minutes of screen time to be resolved satisfactorily, and we’re already at the end of the episode at this point.

The series does dwell on it in To Kill the King, to be fair, but I think the “why not just let Uther die?” dilemma could have been presented before then. (Merlin's momentarily hesitation at healing Uther at the end is more to do with his fear of being seen using magic by Uther than by an actual reluctance to save the king.)

Anyway. I still think this is a very good episode overall, even with its relatively weak ending.

Other random thoughts:

The random-ass reference to alchemy. Something that wasn’t elaborated on, nor ever mentioned again (??) Missed opportunity imo.

Gaius is made "a free man of Camelot", whatever that means. (Does it mean that he, like Merlin, is not from Camelot? Or is it some kind of special privilege? We don’t know. I think maybe in Love at the Time of Dragons Gaius mentions something about he and Alice coming to Camelot but I can’t remember and I can’t be bothered to check now)

Some excellent display of brotherly concern from Arthur when Morgana falls sick. He's the one pushing for Uther to call for Edwin. We love to see it

Merlin and Gaius all but call each other father and son. DON’T TOUCH ME.

Gaius was 100% ready to let Uther die if it meant saving Merlin’s life. btw.

Gaius and Uther. WHAT ARE THEY

All the heavy hints at Gaius’s acting as a Category Traitor in the Great Purge + the only instance of Gaius talking to Kilgharrah (!!!) I am obsessed with it

The paralles between Uther & Gaius and Arthur & Merlin. I feel absolutely normal about it

“Now, open your eyes, My Lord. I want my face to be the last face you ever see.” -> I don’t care if it’s cliched, this line fucks

MERLIN CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM, AT LAST!! I was starting to worry but finally my baby is back to killing people :)

[eurekq]

movie review time again

Blade Runner 2049 (2017): Mixed thoughts on this one. Sets and backgrounds were gorgeous, but there was a certain quality lacking in the lighting that made it feel like the characters weren't fully in those sets. Would have liked to see more bounce lighting and neons actually reflected on the characters. Also: can we talk about how weird this film is about women? list of major female characters that i remember in this movie:

AI housewife whos first scene is literally her cooking dinner and then she dies and then he stares at a giant naked copy of her

Handler who is vaguely antagonistic but then takes his side because shes in love (?) With him and then dies

Pet sexbot of the ceo creep. Dies at the end from agent k literally holding her down beneath him to drown

That naked lady who Jared Leto pets creepily and then murders while commenting on her lack of reproductive capabilities making her useless

Prostitute who gets in a snippy jealousy convo with ai housewife and does one (1) plot action

Harrison Ford's dead wife whos extra special cool and awesome because she could give birth

Harrison Ford's plot device daughter who gets to actually talk like twice

I hated Joi I'm sorry. I think she probably came off differently in 2017 when AI girlfriends weren't actually a real thing yet, but in 2024 it's just. Deeply pathetic. Also that sex scene with Joi, Mariette, and Agent K was just weird. Not because of the body mashup thing, that was cool, more the fact that we didn't get to see him take any clothes off at all. If I can see both of those women getting sexy with it I deserve some Gosling ogling.

I very much did not like the main plot revolving around reproductive capacity as a qualifier for humanity. It could have worked if it was framed differently imo but in its actual state its just. strange (I have a version of this movie in my mind where the replicant sex workers get more focus, Wallace is a woman, and Luv is a man; Mariette would be the love interest as K realizes over time that Joi is literally a corporate product who is hitting the limits of her programming. but don't get me started) On a completely different note so much of this movies runtime is just Ryan Gosling staring with dead fish eyes at the camera making no particular expression. These go on far too long and force you to confront just how obviously asymmetrical his eyes are, which you will never be able to become unaware of again. Overall plot was cool though I guess. Good movie for background noise, lights, and colors to leave on during a party. 4/10.

Also, hey, uh. Why did this movie have a black man named fucking Mr. Cotton who was using (mostly white) orphan children on masse for free slave labor. what was up with that. i felt insane.

Duck Soup (1933): I'd never seen a marx brothers film before this one, but both my roommates grew up on them and i was deliriously tired so I agreed to watch. And now I understand them on a deeper level because now I know they were raised on comedy where the basis is just fucking with people for no reason. Genuinely solid comedy, points docked for one completely out of left fucking field racist joke. Requires a very specific type of audience if you're going to put it on for other people. 7/10.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004): One of the rare movies that I just haven't been able to bring myself to finish. Got pretty far into it because my boyfriend really likes it and wanted me to watch it, but guys. I hate this movie so god damn much. Jim Carrey is the worst fucking romantic lead ever. He has zero charisma and comes off as just awkward, not in like a cutesy way, but in a genuinely pathetic kind of way. Kate Winslet is trying her best to make the god awful character of Clementine work but she just comes off as the worst person you've ever met. Every moment they tried to show me of those two being together I would turn to my bf and be like "why the fuck would I be rooting for them these people are terrible" and not even terrible in a fun way. Like I don't like Jim Carrey's character but literally he was in the right to be mad about someone crashing his car while drunk, like what the fuck? Why did the film act like he was crazy. There is only one character in this movie who's actually any fun to watch and that is Elijah Wood being a little freak with hilariously bad facial hair. I loved watching that little gremlin. i hear the ending is quite good but i just couldn't make it there I'm sorry. 2/10. at least there was a little shitty guy.

Life of Brian (1979): It's Monty Python. Not a lot more to say. Girls with bush rep in this movie though, so awesome. Was curious what Jewish people think of this movie and on the whole it seems to be positive, with some people saying their rabbis regularly quote it, so I don't feel as iffy about it as I might've otherwise. Some pretty funny pastiches of leftist infighting. More coherent than Holy Grail, which I love, but less funny overall, but the bits that I did really like topped a lot of Holy Grail's bits. My personal faves were the Latin grammar one and just the entire ending, which has to be one of the funniest endings I've ever seen to a movie. 7/10, one point removed for really obvious brownface at the start of the movie. Come on guys

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024): I wanted to watch this one for the set design, which aimed for a faithful recreation of Kowloon Walled City, and I wasn't disappointed. The plot in general is kind of bizarre though; the first, like, 75% feels like a pretty grounded historical crime drama with your standard amount of martial arts movie cgi flips and twist punches and stuff. The last quarter though. In a setting entirely removed from magic. One guy randomly has spirit powers. This becomes the focus of the action for the entire ending of the movie. The guy with powers isn't even personally involved in the beef between the leaders of the triad and the main character, which was the main emotional stakes for a lot of the movie. Genuinely kind of bizarre. The powers are pretty par for the course for these movies, it just... was so absent for so much of it that I wasn't expecting it when it happened. I kept turning to Seb and going "WHY DOES HE HAVE SPIRIT SHIELD. WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS" anyways now I'm sad again that KWC was torn down rather than preserved as a historical site. Visually stunning movie with incredible set design and great costuming with a pretty good plot that goes off the rails in the last act. Still a boatload of fun and a good one to put on for friends that like martial arts movies. 8.5/10

[icedragonlizard]

The one Kirby game that really deserves a remake, in my opinion.

When Return to Dreamland Deluxe came out, I've then noticed people wanting remakes for Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot. And if I'm going to be honest? I don't think it's necessary to remake those two games. At least not around this time. They're still deep in the newer half of the spectrum for Kirby games, they're still literally from one console ago, and thus I believe it's too soon to remake them.

Remakes don't happen very often in the Kirby series anyways. But if I think there's one game in the series that absolutely deserves a remake more than the others, I think it's Dreamland 2.

This is another long rant so I'll add a "keep reading" tag to this if you're curious to hear more of my thoughts as to why I think this.

Dreamland 2 is the most outdated mainline Kirby game, as the original Kirby's Dreamland has been used for Super Star's Spring Breeze gamemode, and Kirby's Adventure has been remade into Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland for the GBA.

Dreamland 2 is the only mainline game in the series that you can't play in graphics better than Gameboy Color.

And the game has a lot of flaws. Due to being on the Gameboy, it's got a small screen. Kirby can't even run in this game because of how small the screen is. Kirby also loses his copy ability EVERY time he takes damage in this game, compared to other games where it usually takes more than one hit for him to lose his ability.

Rick and Kine both suck to use in this game, but thankfully they've been heavily improved in Dreamland 3 when they gave Rick all sorts of perks like climbing walls and being unphased by slippery terrain, and allowed Kine to be faster on land. But in Dreamland 2? Coo is the only one out of the three animal friends that's actually good here.

Planet Robobot is still pretty fresh and fine, as is Triple Deluxe. They can stand pretty well on their own and don't need remakes for a while. Dreamland 2, however, really shows its age. It's good for a Gameboy game, but it's so archaic and lackluster compared to all the newer Kirby titles, and like I said above, it's the most outdated since even the Kirby games older than it got remade one way or another.

Remaking Dreamland 2 into the modern era could easily go a long way to do it much needed justice. It could address all or at least the majority of its problems. It could provide a bigger screen to let Kirby actually run like he does in the newer games. Rick and Kine could be given all the same buffs that they were given in Dreamland 3. Heck, we could probably even add a few more copy abilities to provide combinations for, as after all we're still only dealing with three animal buddies here, so it should be okay to add a couple more abilities into the mix! They added some abilities in RTDL's remake that weren't there in the original game, so the same can apply here.

I think a Kirby adventure where Rick, Kine and Coo are the companions could be great. I love those three characters anyways. But Dreamland 2 as we know it is really outdated, barebones and tbh I'd be hard-pressed to call it fun at this point. For a Gameboy game, yes, but it's kind of a joke compared to all the newer Kirby titles. Looking at this game, it seems absolutely ripe for a remake imo.

Dreamland 2 is a short game, but in a remake they could easily just add more gamemodes to make it a larger game compared the original. I'm aware that a remake doesn't typically do any real notable expansions on the gamemodes that existed in the original, but I mean.. they could add a few things in the original mode. Like I said, they could maybe add a few more copy abilities.

Extra gamemodes.. I dunno, they could be stuff similar to Merry Magoland. I'll admit, I'm not that creative when trying to think about gamemodes, I guess they'd come up with stuff fine if they ever choose to remake this game into the modern era.

Also, maybe GOOEY could be a little bit something more in a hypothetical Dreamland 2 remake compared to how he was just in the bags in the original to serve as a heal item if you already were riding around with Rick, Kine or Coo. Who knows? Maybe a Gooey "epilogue" that happens between Dreamland 2 and Dreamland 3 to show his growth and to how he got to his position in Dreamland 3! Although I'll be honest, I'm not exactly advocating for all sorts of characters to have prologue/epilogue-style gamemodes similar to what Magolor got, as that could get old and repetitive pretty fast. But hey.. I think Gooey would be a sensible candidate if they actually do decide to go that route again for whatever reason.

Given Dreamland 2's shortness, even with extra gamemodes included I would agree that a remake for the game definitely wouldn't be worth $60 like most switch games are. I guess... $15-30 would be better? HOWEVER, I wouldn't be opposed to a "Dreamland Trilogy" that contains all of Dreamland 1, Dreamland 2 and Dreamland 3.

Dreamland 3 is also rather old for the series, although the idea of remaking that game sounds a bit weirder in comparison because I think it should keep its crayon aesthetic to allow it to stay unique. I also think it's generally more fleshed out than Dreamland 2. So in my opinion, Dreamland 3 isn't as needing of a remake as its predecessor is. I wouldn't be too opposed to it, though, since it's also old.

Anyways, those are my thoughts. I can understand why people would want Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot to be remade, but they're still new for Kirby games, and I think it'd be weird to just remake all the Kumazaki games and ignore all the older titles that arguably need remakes so much more. I mean, remakes are rare in the series like I said earlier, but if we're gonna choose another one to remake, I think it's pretty obvious who could ACTUALLY use it. Dreamland 2 is the one Kirby game in most dire need of a remake, in my opinion.

What do you think?

[variousqueerthings]

so we're at the final double-episode of the rtd run *wipes brow*

look I'm biased. I'm sure we're all biased in terms of which era we started in, whether it was nu!who or classic!who pre-post rtd... but it's just such a good run. it just is:

obviously brought doctor who successfully back to life and returned it to its status of one of the most iconic pieces of television of all time

updated it to a 21st century storytelling format and audience, with a focus on the companion as the lens through which the show was introduced and the fact that the doctor needs them on a deep, fundamental level that echoes back and gives depth to some classic companions that maybe never got their proper dues within the show, and ripples forwards right into 13's run with bringing classic companions back!

emotional follow-through, with one long arc spanning from season 1 until the next regeneration. I've heard/seen some people think that ten near the end, and especially in the last episode, is self-indulgent and whiny, but I just... idk that is incorrect imo. this iteration of the doctor is a survivor of war and genocide, and clings desperately to people who eventually leave, and they tend to react very strongly to the continued death around them until they decide to literally test time to see if they can beat it and save someone who Shouldn't Be Saved, and then, just when they maybe have found a measure of peace with it all, they have to knowingly go and die. it's a lot for the character to emotionally compute, I think ten is allowed a little tantrum before going through with it, because so much of that regeneration is the universe using ten as a punching bag (after nine was so excited to see what came next too...)

like yeah, it's angsty writing, but that's kind of the point. emotional follow-through on concepts (immortality, transience, alienness, etc) that previously were a tad brushed over, with an added specific survivor's guilt + PTSD thrown in for good measure

speaking of all the people who leave for whatever reason -- companions with families and high stakes at home and individual personal reasons for travelling with the doctor, and for having to move on from that travelling. no longer mostly stumbling into the tardis and then sticking around until suddenly back home (or um... a couple of times dying), and reeeelatively comparably easy goodbyes (for the most part) -- being left over and over, or making the decision to go on alone, or seeing people die, hurts. and on the flipside of that, seeing all that splendor and then having to go on with life... what does that do to a person?

although chris eccleston unfortunately didn't have a great time and deserved better, the atmosphere once behind-the-scenes found its footing was clearly so supportive and friendly. people were coming back year after year (and so many of them have come back for rtd's new run, which I think says a lot too)

I know the music isn't technically underrated, but I think the music is kind of underrated actually, especially individual episode scores. the companion scores, the gallifrey score, the ood choir, the action score that was introduced in s3, and so many more, all perfection and show up wonderfully as various motifs in different places, but individual episodes had perfectly tailor-made scores (some personal favourites are dalek, father's day, impossible planet/the satan pit, gridlock, human nature/family of blood, midnight, and waters of mars)

similarly to the doctor being self-indulgent, I've also heard that dtennant is overrated, which, again, I get it. I don't agree, but I do think that some people don't engage enough with other iterations of the doctor, and so aren't really giving "the doctor as a whole character" their due shake, but sticking only with ten's narrative. that being said there's nothing about dtennant's performance that I think is anything less than amazing. and there's a reason that ten is so beloved, and it's that the main themes of the nu!who soft reboot rtd era stories that people weren't sure would last beyond a season or two, are carried on ten's slender slender shoulders and dtennant does it perfectly (see, I do think there could be less romance in ten's run, because it never works for me, and that's partly that the writers themselves seem to be shy about it/not quite sure what to do with it (because it shouldn't be there in the first place) but that's not the performance, that's unfortunately dtennant's jessica rabbit-ness). the point being, this was for a new generation that was coming from a different television background, and it was done pretty perfectly. and also dtennant loves doctor who, absolutely loves it to bits, and that shines through... the fucking nerd

rtd's main flaws (there are none I'm kidding!!) are that things can get unwieldy once they get too big, and there are times where one can see the cracks badly covered by duct tape in the format and pacing of some of the bigger adventures. that being said, every single rtd finale (from the flawless bad wolf/parting of the ways to the messy bitch that is the end of time pt1+2) is always at the end about something incredibly (for lack of better word) human. it's always about the relationships between the companions and the doctor (and also the doctor and the master, but that makes sense). the doctor and rose, the doctor and martha, the doctor and donna, the doctor and wilf (honorary companion). and the pretty big cast of characters that make them feel real -- rtd may at times be messy but he is hardly ever boring or emotionally vacant. the story itself might become untethered, but the emotions are firmly understandable

(that being said, fingers crossed that 13 years of post-doctor who have given him more sense of what to keep and what to scrap, so that the specials can be both silly and serious, without the seesaw completely ripping out of the ground -- I mean, mainly I hope it won't be wanky and self-congratulatory, but I have faith on that front! we'll see in one month)

this era of television did something that has barely ever (has it ever?) been done before. brought a story back and made it not only work, but near-perfectly balance respect for the classic, with leaps and bounds into the new. it created a brand new generation of fans, and brought along the older ones too

as a kid I didn't think any of these things, because I was just watching doctor who through the gaps of my fingers (I was a very frightened child overall). and like I said, bias ahoy, because nostalgia will do that to you, but you know what? it's still good. it's really really good. I'm so glad that it's part of my DNA

[infamousjingle-horse]

OKAY SO LISTEN

I don't usually engage too much with speculation and/or meta for this show because a) I personally don't get a lot of pleasure out of speculation in general; I find that the joy of discovery outweighs any satisfaction I get out of being proven right and b) not to sound like a dick (I hope) but I do not think this is a very complicated or mysterious show. I feel like it wears its heart on its sleeve, the themes are clear, any ambiguity is pretty minimal. I'm honestly kind of baffled at how much discourse there seems to be. Which is not to say I would want to take the meta away from those who enjoy it, I just don't get much out of it because a lot of the time it feels like either wildly contrarian takes or stating the obvious? So... whatever.

Anyway after having said this I wrote a fucking essay so I'll put it under a cut

I want to say something about this little snippet in particular because it gives me a lot of hope for season two. I think a way they COULD have gone is to have Stede be kind of cringing and apologetic and deferential, which would really have changed the dynamic between them. Instead, we have him comfortably ribbing Ed. Obviously we don't know when this occurs (we can make some guesses based on wardrobe but we don't really know enough to do that with any accuracy), so maybe it takes a while for them to get back to this point, but I love that we're going to see this. Again, at the risk of stating the obvious, while this is by no means the only thing Ed likes about Stede, I think a major thing he has always responded to is that he can have a relationship with Stede that's on an equal footing (actually I think he likes it even more when Stede takes charge but that's another discussion). That's probably part of what he liked about Jack, too. It's not something he has a lot of in his life. He had an abusive father, a mother he loved but who believed in rigid class hierarchies, he got treated "like a dog" by Hornigold until he fought his way to the top, and he spends the first half of season one wanting to learn how to fit into high society because that's something his mother taught him to value--she basically told him that the only way for him to have and deserve nice things was to transcend his class origins. I don't think we're ever given much indication that he's on friendly terms with his crew. So although there's an initial period where Stede is kind of in awe of "Blackbeard", I think they get past that quite quickly and establish a relationship where they're each learning from the other, able to be vulnerable and express insecurity (though Ed is actually able to do this more than Stede, which is part of what leads to Stede flipping out and going AWOL imo). Ed is great at performing masculinity but wants to learn how to perform class status; he perceives Stede (not entirely correctly) as being an expert at this. Stede is the opposite--he knows which fork to use, but because of his gender non-conformity he's always been an outcast even within his own class, and initially among the pirates as well. What they both end up learning/unlearning from one another is that both of those things--class and masculinity--are prisons, and they'll both feel a lot freer if they stop trying to perform them and instead are just authentic. And the unexpected thing is that Ed, who has historically been much more beholden to those hierarchies, is the one who is able to escape them more completely (AT FIRST--this has flipped by the end of 1x10).

ANYWAY all of this is to say that if the power dynamic between these two men had shifted so that Stede was low status, I think it would really have undercut one of the most refreshing things about the relationship, which is that--despite all societal expectations and the gulf between them in terms of class and gender performance--these two guys see each other as equals. So this scene makes me really excited for how they're going to interact in S2. FWIW I didn't intend to get this verbose about it and maybe I was wrong about what I said up top and maybe I did want to be writing meta this whole time??? WELL

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH Season 2 Behind The Scenes

[lemongingerart]

Chapter 4 - Breaking point (I)

Fic summary: The second arc of my Armitage Hux x OC fanfic, “chocolate cookies and tarine tea”, in which both need to deal with the mess they got into (and with each other, eh eh eh). Involves cookies that won't be eaten and tea that will get spilled. Same goes for certain feelings... they are going to be hungry ant thirsty 😏

You can find the link to AO3 and other chapters on Tumblr in the pinned message on my dash, both for the first and second arc 😊

Rating: Explicit. This is going to be very NSFW. So, Minors, do NOT read or interact. 18+. Family, friends and colleagues, please don’t read this. :’-)

Tags & warnings: TRoS fix-it (kind of), Hux!lives, Hux doesn’t like Kylo, Not a Redemption Arc, maybe a little bit, shameless fem!OC insert (there are cliches but entertaining ones imo), slow emotional burn, medium sexual burn, Enemies to Enemies With Benefits to Lovers, Hux is still a villain don't forget, Virgin Characters, masturbation against the door, pinv, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Awkward Sexual Situations, Past Child Abuse, dubious first kiss, Dom/sub Undertones, Mental Breakdown, Unprotected Sex, wet Hux, that deserves a tag/warning on its own, Minor Character Death

I will add tags as we proceed in the story, please let me know if I forgot one!

Taglist: @mylifeisactuallyamess, @morby and anyone who’d like to join 🥰

A/N:   Yoooo! I'm still alive and finally have some days off! A nice bottle of wine has encouraged me to dust off this fics chapter and publish this bit.

Again, this chapter has been through quite some editing to the point that I don't think I'm reading what's actually written. So I hope the dialogue and thoughts are not too wry. Miko is an emotional sponge, so I tried to focus on that but since I'm not it's not always easy to capture her… I hope I didn't overdo it this time 😅

“What is the meaning of this?” Miko heard from her back. She was just putting the little container she purchased in a corner of the cargo hold, securing it for travel. PC resided on her back, giving her maximum space for the manoeuvre.

“... stuff?” she slowly responded, guardedly turning her head towards Hux, who entered the space with a rather authoritative walk. The clack of his marching boots were making it apparent that his steps weren't even, from which Miko, in a fleeting thought, deduced that the blaster shot hadn't healed yet. It didn't pique any sentiments of pity towards him though, for that he should’ve started this conversation differently. 

Frack that kriffing tone of his, I just risked my life to save his skin and this is how he thanks me? crossed her mind, but she kept that to herself. She still tried to be cautious around him, to avoid any second physical confrontation.

“ Stuff? ” he mimicked with an ice cold voice, his chest slightly heaving upwards, showing cracks of anger while the rest of his facade remained expressionless. 

Wow. He’s already lost his civility , she concluded, trying not to roll her eyes. Okay, her answer might’ve been on the blunt side, but she was going to elaborate if he would give her the chance to. Maybe he could've, you know, communicated like regular beings do. She momentarily closed her eyes and held back the urge to sigh out loud.

“Yeah… we still have a few days to spend on this ship, so I figured we could use some extra groceries and stuff.” she replied, pulling up her shoulders and trying to act casual. Internally, though, her blood started boiling. She just went through the second most thrilling event of her life, and she needed to blow off some steam, for kriffs sake, not get caught in his web of judgemental anger. 

Is he going to start a fight already? Because I was trying to plan ahead a bit?

“So you just went shopping ? While we are on a tight schedule? While I was thinking you might’ve been held captive? While I was starting to assume even worse?” he bristled and she could almost feel the shift in the air coming from his nose. Even when he was standing a few meters away from her .

Oops. 

She gulped, as cold sweat took over and washed away some of the anger she felt, replacing it with confining guilt. He did have a point there.

“We discussed the course of action, shopping was not part of it!” he said, while slightly raising his voice and throwing one hand to the side. 

She could see him clenching his fists,  body language she was already familiar with. 

Oh, he was right to be angry, she realised that by now, but he should at least give her the chance to speak out instead of just being so… demanding. 

The way he just treated her, though, together with his own apparent anger, worked through her culpability and made her temper rise in mere seconds yet again. 

Without a thought, she launched a counterattack: “Hey, these are loaded with useful stuff, I can think for myself. You don't have to order me around!" Miko threw back at him, reflexively mimicking his tone, although she knew this retaliation was plain stupid. Why does he always need to go that extra parsec to drive me crazy? He doesn't even give me the chance to explain or apologise!

She suddenly stopped her outburst though, when she realised the scrutiny she was under. He was looking at her under the harsh light of the cargo hold now, his eyes obscured by ink black shadows, his cheekbones hollow and his whole appearance radiating anger and darkness and a mood she couldn’t pinpoint yet. But it made her think back about how he attacked her neck before. 

No, getting into an argument with him wasn’t a bright idea, she contemplated and gulped. She took a glance at PC, who was back at her shoulder and taking a defensive position. She tried to calm down her breathing, but couldn't stop the shiver running down her spine while she slowly backed away from him, avoiding any eye contact. If he would lunge at her again, maybe she wouldn't be as lucky as the last time. Should she reach for the blaster?

While she braced herself for possible physical contact, it seemed Hux wasn't done with the verbal response.

“I’ve been here, constantly checking your position, wondering when I’d see you back. If anything happened to you- “ Hux shouted back in the meanwhile, pulling her attention back to the argument they were having. His breath hitched, making him interrupt his plea. The glitch in his otherwise harsh demeanour didn't go unnoticed by Miko, and made her involuntarily look up again. For some reason she wasn't aware of, he suddenly started focusing on the floor and stopped paying attention to her, while she was still trying to create some distance between the both of them. 

An uneasy silence fell in the hangar deck. 

“I- I…sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry that much,” she silently apologised, mimicking his body language and staring at the durasteel floorplates. 

PC turned his head sideways, as if he was surprised by her uncharacteristic response. 

She wondered when she became like this… he was the one shouting at her and she only bought some necessities. He should be thanking me, for kriffs sake, not reprimanding me. The thought about him getting physical again was holding her back and it stinged.

“It won’t happen again, I’ll see to it.” she muttered, not really knowing where that came from. Was she really going to abide by his tirades, or was there more to it? Was it the worried undertone of his voice, during that last sentence? The way he altered his stance?

She tried to pinpoint why he made her back off. Maybe it wasn't just about the fear of a lash out. Maybe, she just didn’t like to see him this angry and worried about her, too. The whole ‘mission’ had gnawed on her nerves as well. But everything went fine, right? 

She just might have forgotten to take into account his view on the matter. He’s been here for almost an hour, without any sign of life from her part. Then, she happily walks in with a box full of groceries. And if she was honest with herself, not everything in there was actually necessary. Also, she did pay for them with that credit chip he gave her, so she hoped they could let the whole ordeal rest for a while, instead of it driving him more mad than he already was.

Miko kept standing there, expecting him to reprimand her even more, but -surprisingly- no words followed. 

When she finally turned her gaze up, she saw him still looking down, his hand shielding his face, the thumb and digit finger pressing his forehead with a force that must be leaving marks. 

She paused. What was going on here? Was he still angry or…?

"Please… be patient with me," he quietly said with a raspy, trembling voice, still not lifting his head. 

Kriff , that timbre made her feel so much worse than how she felt when he was angry. The atypical request hit her right in the chest, wringing out her heart and making those banished, inappropriate feelings for him resurface in merely seconds. If she wasn’t kept back by what happened before, she would’ve walked up to him and try to console him, and who knows what would've come from that. 

Miko attempted to interpret his wordings through the emotional fog. She didn't know what exactly he was referring to - although he probably was talking about the way he was treating her - but…why did he sound so vulnerable ? Or, was this the first time she heard the man behind the mask?  

The realisation that this high placed and high minded officer was asking her such a personal thing, almost pleading to her, made her shaky, as if the way they stood towards each other was subject to a landslide, and instantly everything between them was cast in a different light. 

He did know he crossed a line back then, probably felt he was doing it all over again, and now he suddenly sounds so desperate to make amends… she thought while rubbing her neck with her thumb. Maybe… there's still some empathy left in him… maybe even…more…

Hux let out a loaded sigh and, as if by reflex, all air left her lungs; she could not bring out a word, so she just nodded and made a positive humming sound. What other reply could she provide him with anyway?

"I.. don't know who I am anymore. And who I should be right now," he continued, still focused on the floor, his tone soft and cracked. The words creeped into her core, more than anything else he had said or done to her before. Any trace of her being mad at him dissipated, the sentiment replaced by something much more gut wrenching. She was sucking in his desperation and while she was aware of it and probably should hate it, there wasn’t a way to stop it from happening.

He stumbled, now rubbing both hands in his face. 

"I almost lost everything… I can't afford to lose even more." 

Stars , she wasn’t prepared for this.

The rawness in that sentence made her heart clench, her fingers curl up, as if her world was crumbling down together with his. Why was she such an emotional sponge? This is why she usually keeps her distance from people in general. But now, there was no escape.

And with the sentiments he radiated off on her, came the realisation. It was as if she only now fully saw the gravity of what happened to him: both of them were taken from their homes, but he's the one who got shot at. She could probably return when this is all over. For Hux, on the contrary, it was not that simple. Everything he used to have, used to be, had gone up in smoke. He was killed after all, it must feel like only an empty shell remained... a black hole, forming right in front of her, ready to devour her if she couldn't get free of its menacing gravity.

An awkward silence fell between them. Miko was still processing the intensity of his statement, having a hard time keeping bot hers and his emotions quiet. It made her even cautious to breathe, as if the sound could drag him down even more. 

But… oh frack… seeing him standing there, struggling with himself and what happened to him… deep down, it made her want to comfort him… hug him, breathe new life into him. Keep the darkness at bay. 

But how could she, of all people, help him out of this deep hole? 

And actually, why would she? After how he treated her?

Frack . 

She rubbed her upper arms in an effort to lose the feeling that she was going to drag herself down into the dark pit called Armitage Hux.

Hux scratched his hair and bowed deeper down, letting out a low sound like he was trying to make everything stop. The rawness, the sincereness, the way his hands were woven through his hair made her realise that he shouldn’t look like this beautiful mess, how she wanted to support his tired face and run her fingers through those locks as if she could remove the distress by doing so, and she immediately tried to revoke those thoughts. 

He suddenly looked up to the ceiling with a sigh. 

He swallowed, and she could see his adam's apple move as he was trying to keep his distress from surfacing. 

With his focus still upwards, he asked her: "Do you have the coördinates?", his voice turning emotionless again.

"Uhuh," Miko replied softly, slightly taken off guard.  His request brought her back to reality. One part of her might've wanted to console him, just because she was not able to see someone suffer, she tried to make herself believe. But, the other part really didn’t want to get close to him when he was unstable. She didn't want to land on the wall with his hands on her throat again. 

With her reply, she saw a chance to escape the hangar and the invisible grip he had on her, so she quickly added:" I'll bring us into orbit."

Miko stepped towards the door with a pace giving away her need to get out of there, crossing him and feeling the sorrow radiate from him. She rubbed her upper arms again, trying to get rid of the chill she got from him... instead of patting him on the arm, like she probably would have done with anyone else.

[myloveforhergoeson]

omg chapter 20!!! more roxy lore w mag!! cant believe we're in season 2 already wow. whats been your favourite episode/plotline you've written so far? whether its in the main story or bonus chapters

ahhh chapter 20!!!! thanks for hanging in there until season 2 ❤️ like i do for most asks people send in, i am truly unable to pick just one concise answer... here is what i'm thinking...

i have favorite roxy-other character interactions overall, which can be a separate post i make if yall are interested, but i think one of my favorite episodes to have written was either the 6th (writing wrongs; mansion sitting) or the 18th part one (mona lisa (when the world comes down); james and roxy minnesota team up). in terms of stand alone plot lines, i really loved writing chapter 19 (no sleep til brooklyn; letters to jo and camille).

chapter 6 kinda hit me out of left field i'm not even going to lie because i didn't write it in succession with all the other chapters - i completely skipped it because it's one of my least favorite episodes of the entire show. i think once i started writing chapter 11/12/13ish i decided i wanted to start posting my story somewhere so it didn't just live in my docs so i told myself i had to put it in there lol. i'm not sure if from a reader standpoint yall can tell, but if i don't like an episode/plot line/scene in the show i kinda run and make it my own until i like it again and then the chapter ends up being superrr long so chapter 6 was like that for me. i think it really starts to establish roxy as part of the guys' friend group - she kind of solidifies herself as someone that they can rely on and someone who wants to see them succeed and they start to really accept her as someone they can count on (not that they didn't before... but this chapter hits a bit different imo...) plus it has one of my favorite roxy-james moments hehe. i ended up adding that in after i wrote the entire chapter bc i realized they went on their mini date in chapter 5 and i never mentioned it again so i wanted to get some establishment about the beginnings of their relationship together. plus if i ever manage to get myself to write some more his girl friday scenes - minor spoilers for everything about the story i keep in my head to reveal later - we'll learn that that's kind of the first time james begins to see her as someone he likes far more than for purely aesthetic reasons.

chapter 9 at the ice rink... SELF EXPLANATORY WHY I LOVE IT

chpater 17 with the music video and jo and camille!!!!!!!! they ❤️

chapter 18... both part one and two are so so so dear to me but the first part when they're in minnesota is just... my favorite thing to think about... like two forlorn individuals coming together to overcome their situation together and reach their similar goal for each other. theres a few times in there i think where roxy's like, whoop! gotta get back to LA so james can be the star he deserves to be! and doesn't realize its because she likes him and wants to see him successful and happy... girl... it also lets me go 'hmm what would have happened if she had known them in minnesota before' and then i have a little scenario to think about before i fall asleep lmao. i also like it bc its the first time we really see roxy and her dad interact even if its for a microsecond and even how he reacts to james eheh. and the begingings of roxy learning she might actually have feelings for one of her friends while she's going through it and making her comfort food... AHHH I WENT CRAZY WRITING IT!!! sidenote - the part two kiss literally had me shaking in my boots i was so embarrassed writing it so we'll see how i fare writing them as a couple

chapter 19 i like for completely a different reason - that being i wrote it in about two days because it was so easy for me to get inside roxy's head. i swear it's like she was typing through me in a weird sort of way. plus, if any btr historians were reading, i used real locations from their first tour! it was super fun to look up their tour path, map it out and get an accurate amount of time from place to place, learn fun little things about different towns around the US i've never been to. and a little easter egg for me shouting out cities in which ive seen them too <3 roxy never really talks about her emotions before that chapter, so i think it was a nice launching point for her to then feel more comfortable opening up to her friends face-to-face like she did logan in chapter 20 as opposed to on pen and paper. that, and it kind of establishes she's not really built for tour like she thought she was... woah... wonder if that might come back later...

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING once again im sorry im unable to answer questions without a literal essay, but i just get so excited talking about my story with other people :))))

[makeste]

i don't get it tbh. the apology shouldn't have been here. it was in the middle of everything and it had basically no impact on deku whatsoever? this was sooooo no what i was expecting and tbh i'm kinda mad about it ngl lol also ngl times twice but if whatever ochaco says does reach him instead of the kacchan apology that's been built up as the emotional climax for the entire series i'm just flat out gonna drop this manga lmao. but this was barely an emotional climax at all, i really don't get it

2/2 like we get just a few pages? shoved in there like "okay everyone talked now kacchan disappears from the chapter, that's over and done with, moving on" the apology itself was great, but the placement and brevity undermined its emotional resonance. deku remains the exact same after hearing it, doesn't think about katsuki at all. just about his earlier "can't keep up" words? then we go on to ochaco whose "saving heroes even though that's what everyone has been doing" i guess is more important?

3/3 (last one promise) like i'm sorry but there was time for several chaps of endeavor ugly crying, for mineta's anal beads and pervy romantic trope non-confession, for overhaul to pop up being his usual piece of shit self for no plot-relevant reason, for adult top heroes to stand around for chapters like "huh everything we're doing is awful. let's keep on trusting this smelly kid" and. a few panels for kacchan apology. no reaction. shoved among "idk u well mido but stay!" + ochaco making faces

4/4 (i lied) and all this after katsuki's distress and emotions were once more made into jokes at the hospital, emotional consequences of the war ignored, w all might probably dying and the last thing he did to this kid was ditch him leaving us to guess he maybe gives a shit abt him and maybe he bothered to visit in the hospital cuz they sure didn't show shit. i honestly feel like all katsuki stuff was shoved into the background: krbk friendship for mina, dkbk for ofa, name reveal for jokes...

okay, so I have talked in the past about fandom reacting like Miette whenever this stuff happens, and tbh this is basically what I mean by that anon. there is no reason whatsoever to assume that this is the one and only reaction we'll ever get from Deku regarding the apology and that it will never come up again. this is 100% going to be revisited. and tbh I think it's a smart move on Horikoshi's part, because if he gave us everything in this one chapter then what further development would there be to look forward to? he's gotta hold something back so that we have that one last milestone to anticipate in the rebuilding of their relationship. I've often said that for me me, Deku and Kacchan's story is the most important part of BnHA. and so it makes sense to me for Horikoshi to not completely resolve it until close to the end of the series, if not the very end.

I think this is a pretty good compromise honestly, because I wasn't even sure if we were going to get the apology itself before the finale. but this way we can head into the final battle with Kacchan having put all of his character development out there and not holding anything back, and it's nice to have that, and to have that reinforcement of just how far he's come, and how serious he is about his atonement. and so his feelings are finally all on the table now, and now it's all Deku.

and he deserves to have some time to work out how he feels about this and not be put on the spot to deliver a reaction, honestly. but to say it had "no impact whatsoever" is a huge overreaction imo. first of all, we saw the shock on his face -- he was absolutely floored. this was something he clearly never expected from Kacchan (which is why it was so important for Kacchan to actually say the words, in addition to taking action as he's already done -- because Deku needed to hear them, because he genuinely had no idea that Kacchan actually cared. and he deserves to know that, because Kacchan is one of the most important people in the world to him). not to mention that Deku kind of has a million other things on his mind right now. like we just had a whole entire arc about that lol. the apology isn't supposed to be for Kacchan's benefit; it's supposed to be for Deku's. so let him have the time to absorb it before he settles on what to say. Kacchan had all the time in the world to figure out his part of it, after all.

to me this is like a promise that there will be at least one last great, emotional, and deeply personal moment between the two of them. because when Deku finally does forgives him -- not that he hasn't already, imo, but once they finally have that conversation -- that shit is going to be so fucking cathartic, and tbh I'm glad Horikoshi didn't try to cram that into this chapter along with everything else that's currently going on. besides, I'd rather see that part of their reconciliation happen once Deku is more back to his normal self again; I feel like it would be more meaningful that way. right now he's too exhausted to be able to come up with any words. but he already has shown the best possible reaction I could have ever hoped for -- complete and utter relief and trust. Kacchan is the person he trusted enough that he could finally let go of his fears and anxieties -- if only for a moment -- and give into his exhaustion at long last, and that moment where he collapses and Kacchan runs to catch him has instantly become one of my favorites in the whole series.

so yeah, my apologies anon, but absolutely nothing is gonna spoil that for me, and I can't join you here in being even remotely disappointed with this chapter. well aside from the lack of hug lol (but I can be patient for that as well).

[tigstripe]

Guess what time it is!

If you guessed "Warehouse 13 rewatch time," you're right!

Full thought thread and screen caps after the break. There will be spoilers in the commentary and screenshots, if that's important to you.

If you liked this post and would like to see more, I'll be posting these as I rewatch the series. I will be tagging them with the reboot and show tag, so if you don't want to see them, feel free to block #WarehouseRewatch (no space) to avoid the posts.

Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

IMO, the pilot was a great pilot - for another show. While it was exciting and still had great elements of the heartfelt characters we'll come to love, it was missing Warehouse's sense of humor. This isn't a criticism, just an observation. It's still a great pilot.

Eeee! There's our girl!

"Lost. One day I'll find him." Maybe we could find that lost agent in a reboot plot with Artie.

When I said the pilot doesn't have the series' sense of humor, I didn't mean it didn't have one at all. It just wasn't leaning into it yet. Hi there, little Pete! Welcome to the family!

"You're connected, Pete. Very rare." Way to drop something cryptic in the pilot and never expand on it. The headcanons this line has generated...

Our first look at the Farnsworth! Look at how happy Mrs. F. looks! If WH13 came out today, I wonder if this design would still be used. It's certainly not super unique to have realtime videochat nowadays.

"Go to Iowa. Find the artifact, if there is one." Kinda interesting how the pilot is one of the only times where the cast is like "...but IS it an artifact?"

"I thought this was a colossal waste of time." "Not anymore." Myka was so stern in the pilot. I'm glad it was temporary. It's not a bad thing that she and Pete were so opposite in the pilot, but seeing them become two parts of a single machine was great.

Ahh, the zipline. The gift that kept on giving. Whoever thought of this deserved a raise.

Personally I think the pilot handed Pete and Myka the artifact and culprit without much real connected investigation. Most of the show allows you to come to your own conclusion alongside the agents. But it was over an hour into the pilot, so we give it a pass.

Myka goes through a pretty big shift in perspective throughout the pilot. Pete was on board from the get-go, but she needed convincing that the Warehouse was worth it. I think it proved that it was.

I like the Warehouse 13 pilot. It's a great starting point, but I'm glad that the show developed into its own monster. Season one in general is kind of weak in my opinion because the show hadn't yet evolved into what it would become. Luckily, it settled into that by season two.