#some of the speak-singing parts

[starredfishing]

epic the musical review: troy saga

horse and the infant:

i like the underlying beat at the start. bassline? it fucks

but now we'll be the ones who SLAYYYYY ✨💅🏳️‍🌈

'diomedes will lead the charge' yay nepotism

'neo avenge your father kill the brothers of hector' i forgot pyrrhus was here,,, get their asses ig. anyway i like that he shouts out almost every major player just for a fun cameo

setting up some very strong leitmotifs (?) at the start w the penelopeee line

thats not an eagle bitch!!!! dont fucking give me a hawk!!!

i respect jorge's songwriting i rlly do but sometimes lines don't hit and i dont think "i know that im ready/i dont think youre ready" just didnt hit idk

the music box lullaby when he sees the infant bc its a baby :((

troys very own prince Hec Tor . the beat hit on that one

just a man

im gonna be so real this song solos almost the entire rest of the musical its so good ALSKJFJDF not a single off or odd line in the whole song. first song i heard from this before i knew what epic was. i have nothing but positive things to say abt it sorry SLDKFSDJF i like that it sounds like a lullaby. i like the way it swells. i like how hard jorge's fucking EATING w the vocals

full speed ahead

it is kinda jarring how we jump right from the war to full speed ahead but also like whatever full speed ahead

great strings <3 ily strings

SIX HUNDRED MEN.

the chorus has a good blend of voices

that for meeeEEeee was so beautiful thanks jorge

great introduction to eurylochus and polites' opposing philosophies in terms of strategy and also his crew

open arms

polites has suuuuch a beautiful voice this song (specifically the chorus) gets stuck in my head all the time

the opening claps make me wanna start singing where is your rider by the oh hellos

jorge was so fucking funny for this choice. like narratively it makes sense for how he decided the theme was ruthlessness is mercy enough that he was like polites is important and the lotus eaters are just lil guys. justified choice but funny nonetheless LDSKFSDJF

'welcome :]' theyre so cute slfkjdsfj

whenever im having a rough one i just hear polites 'you can relax my friend' and im like fuck so true i CAN relax

warrior of the mind

again its so interesting that jorge's thesis for this musical was sometimes its ok to be harsh/murder is okay but this is abt greek mythology so yeah go off ig

i didnt realize there was a flashback in here at first listen so the clock noises just confused me

actually the first bit of epic i heard was YOU ARE ATHENAA (ATHENA) BADASS IN THE ARENA

overall thoughts:

pretty lighthearted intro to the entire musical, the songs sound like they're made by the same person/for the same show while still retaining unique qualities. just a man is, again, my personal fav of this saga and the only one i tend to re-listen to i think bc it has the most traditional musical qualities as opposed to some of the (sometimes) halting speak-singing and tripping beats. but im getting more endeared to the show the more i listen to it but ngl my first listen thru i was kindof a hater

[emacrow]

Um.. Superman.. what that thing stuck on your cape?

Clark's brain short circuit for a moment as he just got back of flying at great speed in the middle of deep space to thrown one of Lex's giants bombs destroy the city and come back in record time.

He turn a bit to look at his cape to see a tiny humanoid starlight dust covered child with white hair, glowing full green that look like white specks stars were implanted themselves into his big ol eyes, nawing on a handful of stardust with inhumanly sharp itsy bitsy fangs.

A small yet floating crown that look similar to one of Nasa pictures of far out space.

Did he just accidentally abducted an royal alien child/teen?

[akkivee]

some peak moments from the mtc fan meeting lmao

god bless asanuma-san’s leather overcoat and leather pants 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

and him sitting on stage when backbone hit with that yakuza drinking cup (a sakazuki cup pls look it up lmao) and mtc brand champagne bottle like bruh?????? why’re mtc so cool 😭😭😭

the champagne bottle was actually just water tho lol

so iirc bb only answered like 2-3 questions on their q&a and that’s what i mean by they talk so much lmao, the mtc seiyuu actually ran out of questions to answer LOL

there was that one that pointed out the seiyuu’s individual hobbies and asked based on said hobbies, what hypmic character would they like to be???

i haven’t slept so i’m like, blanking on asamuna-san’s hobby gomen (i think it was acting??) 🙇‍♀️ but his would be sasara, komada-san the photographer would like to be rei and asanuma-san suggested dice for kamio-san’s magician hobby, and he didn’t disagree but he also locked in jakurai for his answer LOL

there was a sports question i think asking what sports they would like to play. kamio-san is already a recreational boxer!!!!! idk which of the two brought it up, but it was decided asanuma-san should definitely do curling and to demonstrate this, kamio-san offered to be his curling stone. asanuma-san stared at him blankly for a full 30 seconds before agreeing and it sent me LOL

komada-san said he’d like to be a basketball player and they even threw in a slam dunk reference just for meeeee (and the thousands of fans the series has and bc kamio-san is part of the cast LOL)

instead of doing a ranking quiz like bb, mtc seiyuu got to do a shooting target booth!!!!! if they got enough points they’d get to hold a raffle for the audience!!!!

asanuma-san pulled up in his long leather overcoat with a glock and hit two of the five targets and it was so cool like neo keanu who goddamn 😭😭😭😭😭

komada-san got to use a revolver and also hit two of the five targets!!!! (his gun also got jammed lol)

there were only two guns on the table so assnuma-san asked which of the two kamio-san would like to use and kamio-san pulled out a rifle from dj uichi’s booth LOL he also hit all five of the targets never forget who’s the goat in mtc lmao

the seiyuu had all been sharing the mtc champagne water and sipping out of that yakuza cup throughout the live but at the end during final comments, asanuma-san got really thirsty and bc every move he makes causes the audience to scream lmao, his little water break was interrupting kamio-san’s closing message lmao

komada-san decided to follow asanuma-san, so after he got thru with his drink, asanuma poured him some and komada-san drank from the cup. i’m sure by the frenzy it caused, we have another samajuto indirect kiss for the books LOL

asanuma-san served kamio-san as well and the audience tried to get him to chug LOL. he told them to save that energy for shinjuku lmao 😭😭😭😭😭

asanuma-san didn’t forget to serve dj uichi 🤗🤗🤗 i’d like to take this moment now to say that sharing a sake cup like the sakazuki cup usually means a sworn, lifelong bond between drinkers 🤗🤗🤗🤗

[hauntingblue]

ARCANE DAY

Episode 4 and 5 in the tags and:

SALO BEING A VIKTOS FOLLOWER??? CRAZY. ALSO BOTH VIKTOR MISSING JAYCE AJDHSKSJ also cait has kinda calmed down... and I am sure she misses vi so I KNOW this is going to happen to her soon.... we aren't getting much of her feelings yet... she's still too onto Jinx to catch up on where ambessa is going...

DID JAYCE JUST KILL SALO??? WHAT HAPPENED IN THERE

Also vander not recognizing vi at first until she gives up fighting.... incredible ALSO vander and silco being miners and vi wearing her gauntlets that were initially thought out for miners.... damn

This is my favourite episode so far....

Episode 6 here:

Sky really being there..... of course she is....

Ambessa training caitlyn.... of course thats her new daughter akdjskms Tunnels in your eyes.... GIRL!!!!!!! THAT'S WHAT YOU DON'T NEED RIGHT NOW also the guy outside is a mage... ambessa is such a hypocrite

Vi and Jinx vs ambessa and cait.... this was always about class war don't get it twisted SINGED!!! TRAITOR!!!!

ARE THEY GOING TO SEE VIKTOR???? I looove how viktors touch on their faces leave "scars" so recognizable

Did isha just take the gem from vi's gauntlets??? Omg I wasn't expecting viktor to build a hippie commune to be honest omg he looks so good.... with the blonde underhairs.... and I do believe that's the same blanket....

And of course viktor knows who vander is.... nvm he diesnt know omg viktor asking for Powder.....

We are getting viktor horsegirl montage.... omg the vander momtage I can't..... omg they wanna stay.... singed is gonna fuck all this up NOOOOO 😭😭😭 they are already there I am going to kms

CAITLYN STOP THIS MADESSS!!! ✋️ CAITLYN!!!!! VI KILL THIS MAN!!! OMG CAITLYN...... mongoose... yeah.... and fuck you too.... CUPCAKE!!!! ABOUT TIME!!!! CAITLYN I SAID STOP THIS MADNESS WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!! And jayce too 😭😭😭 we're never making it out of the fissures

It's such a shame the spit on here won't work like on challengers.... one can only pray I guess

Jinx experiencing the "there's nothing more undoing as a daughter" moment.... incredible

"Your absence provided a vacuum I was able to fill" TO VI???? I KNEW THAT HAND HOLDING IN THE COMMANDER SCENE WAS SUS AKDHKASJ maddie exists and ambessa knows that and still.... it was not filling her mother's void...

YES CAITLYN!!! YES!!!!! VI is so hot I am distracted... ambessa was right.... now what the fuck will jayce fuck up??? Thats the question... NOT ANOTHER CHILD!!! jayce is a menace... the guys smiling at jayce are viktor... maybe the child even....

JINX KILL THAT MAN!!! NVM VANDER KILL THAT MAN!!! JAYCE YOU FUCKING MORON!!!!! JAYCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WHEN I GET YOU JAAAYCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Isha what are you going to do omg 😭😭 did she kill vander... another powder... my god another week...

That was such a good fucking episode too.... and caitlyn didn't go insane when finding Jinx that is a step forwards but viktor can't be dead... no fucking way... he was giving himself away for the people and he was going to finally die by saving vander and look at what we got... no wonder viktor hates his guts. Jayce you were so good in act one.... what happened..... alright. Christ.... another week....

[good-beanswrites]

🎬: Please do not remind me Kazui and Kotoko didn't get their songs covered by Es 😭 It was such a disservice. I'm gonna just chalk it up to Kazui's voice is so deep that Es couldn't sing it properly and by the time Kotoko's MV was shown to them, the first trial ended before they could even sing it.

Or, y'know. Your AU, so Es did cover their songs too.

Also another thing for post-MILGRAM hangout where Es joins in too...KARAOKE (didn't Milgram have some sort of karaoke-related event running earlier?) Or maybe they have their own karaoke party at someone's home (I know someone has a karaoke set at home!), so they sing their songs and encourage Es to sing too...and pleeeeease sing "half" and "harrow" too (this will lead to Es finding out they've been eavesdropping on their singing. Hey!). Bonus that Deco's song is such a bop in the AU that everyone sings the songs they covered.

...my train of thought is still running, but I just imagined this AU's Milgram allowed everyone to gradually accept their faults that almost led them to their crime. Soooo Mahiru is still just as sweet, BUT rocks it when she sings "Psychogram". Also Amane, I like to imagine at this point she can be a bit more of a kid (I can dream!), so she's sort of bouncing around when she sings "Positive Parade" and "Animal" while the girls dance with her.

But with that said, I hope we'll get more Es' song covers! Or at the very least make up for "half" and "harrow"...and c'mon, Es didn't get to sing at all this trial. What gives?!

RIP I know 😭 I'm hoping we'll get a bunch of covers to fill the trial hiatus, and that they'll start with those two!! I know some people were worried that they would never get covers because they didn't reach 1M before the trial closed, but I think that's an oddly unfair requirement for the later prisoners. So I'm confident we'll get them at some point!

Kotoko's does make a bit more sense -- it was right at the end of the trial, and there wasn't much too break down in the lyrics because she was very forthcoming with information/intention. And I like that explanation for Kazui's! Es was intimidated by his voice and didn't want to do it an injustice by singing it poorly. Maybe Kazui makes a snide comment that they would have actually understood his crime better if they'd studied/sang his lyrics like the others' 😅

And I love the post-Milgram thoughts! Given Yuno's mvs and her written response about liking karaoke, I can definitely see her taking everyone out to her favorite karaoke spot. I like that too because the covers were kind of an indulgent inclusion of mine -- I knew they didn't quite fit in during the trial hiatus but I really wanted it to happen asdfdsn. Like, I know Amane wouldn't do frivolous things, and Kotoko/Shidou/Kazui would try to take the situation seriously and not play around. But if it's all after the experiment... >:3

Thank you 🎬! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for those covers soon 😤🤞

[hplonesomeart]

I’ve plummeted deep into the brainrot and no soul can even fathom being able to pull me out of it don’t even try because it’s a lost cause :))

Enjoy the silly spur of the moment cover I did while seated in the car Thursday (the 8th if I remember dates correctly). Was on the fence about posting it anywhere but hell why not. I tried to make one with cleaner audio quality but hated how my voice inflections sounded so this is the best version we’ve got a hold of currently!

[popcorn-plots]

there are too wolves inside of me.

one wants to have the voice to sing Christine in Phantom of the Opera. the other wants to the euphoria of singing Evermore from Beauty and the Beast.

[hershelwidget]

I drew something for TBoCI for the first time in what feels like forever even though it’s only been a month

Something something AU where instead of sending each kid to the Magical Islands FT keeps all them with him and Perry as well so they ALL end up on Cold Island pre-collapse… Alternatively here’s four canon characters and two fanmade characters, guess whos who (all of that was sarcasm)

In other words I decided I will starting this over from the ground-up. It’s been over a year and my motivation is finally, FINALLY back. I will be keeping all of the current stuff on @theballadofcoldisland but that ask blog is officially shut down and is now just an archive.

Instead of being one long and strange story that only focuses on characters that honestly have nothing to do with the title, I will split TBoCI into several smaller stories that give a MUCH better insight on the motivations, groups, and the like. I will inevitably share the original files, drafts, and ideas.

This is the part where I get somewhat emotional and sincere apologies in advance to plushii, who I might mention in there. All good things, my friend. All good things.

I think this is the best course of action. There are a lot of characters in this story that despite being incredibly important, are not addressed properly or not at all until the last chapter that only exists in my notes. I mean… A massive amount of this story has only been discussed in a discord chat with a person I cannot contact anymore. It’s a massive mess of an idea that sounds stupider everytime I think of it.

And then a long while ago now, I was on Pony Town and talking to a friend I has just made. I distinctly remember they were in a Celestial skin. I think at some point they’d asked what “TBoCI” meant in my name, and I explained my story to them. They said they were writing a fanstory for MSM as well. I encouraged them to post it.

Now I daily see wonderful, wonderful content for that story, both from the creator and the fans. I finally understood what I did wrong. TBoCI was incoherent and messy where Fallen Stars was clean and consistent. I had so much in my mind that I had spilled it all out to One Person, and now there exists only two people in the world who know who the hell Kane is (possibly only one person now)!

What I’m trying to say is, in short, thanks @plushii-gutz . There’s a few factors to me being able to write TBoCI again, but you’re definitely the biggest part of that. Our encounter was a blessing.

And to everyone, please look forward to a much smoother ride. This is a fun one.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

they're so right about the diction of course

they're also soooo right about the breath control from william "holds that 'again' in (acoustic) loser geek whatever for fifteen damn seconds and long enough live that other jeremys just gotta be cutting it down a bit when they perform it" roland like my god the consistency in every moment of these lines. that lowest note being such a crisp & cool spritz & he's sometimes holding it too & it just never falters like my god....the mass effecties are having a great time w/this too, hope it gets around to someone official seeing it, which gets around to will. simply going tf off once again lord....

and the extra mile

[lesbianlenas]

went to see the aces yesterday which first of all they were amazing it was my first time going to a concert w lesbian music and it was very special to me (also the lead singer was so sexy btw js 😩) but ANYWAY. i asked my friend if she wanted to go w me & she had never listened to them before but she said she would and i sent her some of their music to listen to etc etc. so like we went to the concert it was great and afterwards she told me she thought it was boring and she didn’t like the music. which was kind of crazy to me bc it’s like indie pop/rock music and like as someone who does not enjoy the majority of indie music bc i find it boring their music is not boring 😭 so first of all i find that offensive. second of all she was like well if you find a concert from x artists then i would enjoy that and she listed like three artists to me one of which was taylor swift and i was like. yeah where am i gonna get taylor swift tickets lmfao. but the other artist she listed (i don’t remember the third one she said lol) i just looked up his music and i’m legit like 😭😭😭 first of all this man looks like he just finished hibernating for the winter and crawled out of the cave into the sun for the first time in months. second of all. that’s also what his music sounded like. my point being that going to this man’s concert while he strums a single guitar in a flannel shirt and jeans would be a million times more boring than watching women having fun on stage and singing abt lesbianism idk call me crazy………it’s like i would find it more understandable if it was at LEAST interesting music………

[flovverworks]

fauaki send post

[fix-me-sixteen]

this is sick and horrific

[runawaycarouselhorse]

[iklachomzwaartekracht]

any og followers know my feelings about ghost the musical

well i just saw the uk tour. and i liked it a lot. yay!!!

[celestial-kestrel]

It's that time of year again where Mari Lwyd starts to be talked about and shared around and an INCREDIBLY misleading post gets shared a lot. As someone who grew up with Mari Lwyd I wanted to clear some things up.

Also hello, if you are unaware who Mari Lwyd is. This is about the Welsh tradition of the horse skull who visits houses during the Christmas to New Years period in Wales asking for alcohol.

First off and probably the most important one:

Mari Lwyd is not a cryptid!

I can not emphasise this enough. She. Is. Not. A. Cryptid. There is no story or mystery about a ghost or zombie horse roaming the Welsh valleys. She's not even supposed to be a ghost or a zombie. It's just a horse skull on a stick with a guy under a sheet. She's a hobbyhorse and a folk character used to tell Welsh stories and keep songs alive. When people spread the misinformation that she's a cryptid, it's the equivalent of saying Kermit the Frog is a cryptid.

She is actually only one character in a wider cast of characters who go door to door or, in more modern times, pub to pub. The cast of characters can change town to town and village to village but there are some common ones I see time and time again. The Leader, the Merryman, The Jester and The Lady are just some I see regularly. Punch and Judy used to be more popular a few years ago but I haven't seen them in a while as their tradition has mostly fallen out of popularity. In most cases, almost the whole cast will be played by men. Even the characters are considered and referred to as female. Though this again depends and varies by which group is partaking in the Mari Lwyd tradition.

This point also goes onto my second point,

Mari Lwyd does not rap.

I think this comes from a very common misunderstanding of what rap is vs spoken word. Rap is a very specific style of music originating from the African American communities of the USA and has it's own structure and motifs unique to it. It's a lot more complex than people give it credit for as a style of music and just flippantly assign anything similar to it as being rap. If someone is talking fast or reciting poetry, it is not rap. Or anything that is an exchange of words between two people is not a rap battle. Mari Lwyd does not do rap, actually something that gets left out of these posts is the fact Mari Lwyd does not even speak. It's actually the Leader, who does all the speaking and song based banter between the house/pub owner for entry. Mari Lwyd just clicks her mouth, bites people and bobs her head around.

I think Mari Lwyd is a really beautiful and unique part of Welsh culture. She's not actually as wildly celebrated as a lot of the posts make her out to be. Actually, I think most Welsh people themselves learn about Mari Lwyd through the internet as well. Her popularity is increasing thanks to the drive of local groups wanting to keep the traditions alive and a renewed desire to document Welsh traditions before they're gone. Which is why it's such a shame that she's turned into something she's not to earn horror points on the internet. I think this is why it bothers me so much to see the misunderstandings of the culture and the folk tradition. Mari Lwyd's origin is very hot debated as well as how long it's been going on for. But I think it's thanks to a lot of traditions like this that the Welsh language and our stories weren't lost forever. Welsh culture is recovering as is the language. But it's still in a very fragile place. I think it's why it's important to document and correct information when it's spread.

Anyway, if you want to see the tradition in action, here's a lovely video from the Cwmafan RFC going to one of the pubs for charity. It includes the song exchange with the pub owner for entry and the whole pub singing and joining in once Mari Lwyd and the rest are inside.

As well with another video from St Fagan's showcasing the more traditional and door to door form with the larger cast.