#sometimes i think about the fact that one of my favorite actors ever has played one of my favorite characters ever and i just

[haloiisms]

every time cillian murphy and christopher nolan refer to their first time working together twenty years ago i kick my feet and giggle because i know they’re talking about My babygirl (dr. jonathan crane as played by cillian murphy in batman begins (2005) dir. christopher nolan) and well. Surely i can be normal when thinking of him <- abject lie

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

On David Tennant and Aging

So, I’ve seen a lot of posts in response to Tumblr users’ habit of affectionately calling their favorite middle aged dudes “old men”, David Tennant in particular, saying things like “clearly you’ve never met an actual old person”, “omg you talk about these guys like they’re 80”, “please be normal about people aging”, etc. And on one hand, all of these statements are objectively right and true! But as someone who’s always been really fascinated by and found a lot of beauty in getting older (which I’ve explored in some of my writing on A03 because nobody else is going to do it for me), I’d like to provide a bit more nuance on how I think this label applies to David in particular.

David, obviously, in literal terms, is not “old”, at least not to me- I don’t personally consider people old until they get past 60. 52 is middle aged, simple as that. And yet, when I see David stuck with the “old man” label, it still somehow feels weirdly right, for a number of reasons.

It annoys me so much when people say David “hasn’t aged a day since Doctor Who”, because, well…

He clearly has. A lot. He’s got forehead creases, deep crows’ feet and eyebags, and I think that post-Fourteen we’re gonna see him rocking the grey temples a LOT more. He also has the voice of an older man now, his upper range is still there but the default is much more deep and rich, with a gravelly, rumbling quality that just goes straight through you. I personally think Broadchurch was when David finally started to embrace looking his age- Alec Hardy just wouldn’t have been served by Ten’s fresh-faced boyishness.

Obviously, these are the kinds of changes you’d expect any 52-year-old man to have, but something about David just makes it all seem a bit more… intense? The expressiveness of his face combined with his almost gaunt frame makes his wrinkles very prominent, and when he works his voice to its emotional extremes, his lower register can sound positively ancient, to devastating effect.

David, I think, is someone with an old soul- I don’t think he could be as good as he is at playing ancient characters like Crowley and The Doctor if he weren’t. He has lived so many lives, given so much of himself to so many characters, often incredibly tragic ones, and I think it wears on him. David also has five kids. FIVE. Do you know how exhausting it is to be one of the hardest working actors alive and be a present, loving father to even ONE child? But David somehow does it anyway! Nowadays I see him and my heart breaks because he looks so tired, so weary and fragile. But he’s all the more beautiful for it to me because I know that that is because he is kind. He’s a deeply empathetic person who feels and lives to the absolute fullest, and that story is written so clearly on his face, along with every other story he has ever been a part of.

There’s other things about David that make the label endearingly fitting- his utter hopelessness when it comes to technology, for instance. And he’s just got that warm, wise, grandpa energy too sometimes- look at that above Fourteen picture and tell me I’m wrong!

I once showed my friend who’d only seen David in Doctor Who and Harry Potter a picture of David from Around The World in 80 Days. It was a particularly emotional scene, and his face had just the most beautiful expression of compassion and sadness, every wrinkle on full display. And she said, in a less than complimentary fashion, “he looks so old!” Which, of course, offended me quite a bit at first. But to me, referring to David as old almost feels like a badge of honor, something he’s earned by living fully and selflessly, working hard and being wise and compassionate beyond his years. I think David himself is secretly more than a little insecure about the fact that he’s getting older. There’s sadness behind every jovially self-depreciating remark he’s made about his age in the past year, particularly in comparing himself to Ncuti Gatwa. I know how much David struggles with his impostor syndrome and how people perceive him, and I can clearly see in his eyes the fear of being discarded, the anxiety he feels about if he’ll still be as loved as he was back in 2007 now that he’s closer in age to King Lear than he is to Romeo. So I hope David knows it’s a privilege to watch him grow older, to watch his soul and talents deepen with the crinkles around his eyes. If I, in my silly goofy tumblr girl-ness, call David Tennant an old man, it’s because it’s a label that suits him beautifully- even if it isn’t TECHNICALLY an accurate one yet.

[aclockmaker]

Part 2 now here

Okay to expand on this I just think: Steve who’s been in a couple of tv shows and is having a moment, famous offscreen for his hair and his charm and onscreen for his ability to find chemistry with anyone (and also, again, his hair).

And Eddie who is a complete unknown; he’s been in some stage productions and had the tiniest bit parts on TV but nobody’s ever, like, recognized him on the street.

Eddie auditions for a new HBO show. When his agent tells him that Steve Harrington is already attached Eddie is like cool, I’ll never get this part but the audition will be good practice so why not. They’re never gonna cast him. He’s sure he’s playing it too weird, and he hasn’t cut his hair (but he will when a part needs him to) but then he gets a callback. Twice.

And then he’s getting called in to do a chemistry test with some of the other actors. The show is like a modern Freaks and Geeks but with a slow burn murder mystery, and Eddie’s actually dead in the main timeline but about half the show is told in flashbacks so it’s a big part. When he meets Steve he doesn’t know what he’s expecting from the paparazzi darling but the guy is super genuine, makes Eddie feel way more comfortable than he has so far. They do their read together and Eddie is just thinking to himself like… damn, this guy really is good, because that felt crazy. He’s acted opposite some insanely talented people but it’s never been that easy. That must just be what it’s like working with Steve.

And now it’s dangerous because he really wants the part. He wants to stop bartending to make rent. He wants to be on this show, because the pages he’s seen are good, and he thinks he could really bring something to it. And because he wants to work with Steve. And even the rest of the cast, too, but—

The day Eddie gets the part he gets a text from a number he doesn't know. Hey man, really looking forward to working with you. And then, a few minutes later, It's Steve btw. He's smiling down at his phone so much that his agent, whose office he's in, is like "What, did you just score another life-changing opportunity I don't know about?" And Eddie is like "Nope, just the one, uh—it's just my uncle saying congrats. Anyway—"

They don't make him cut his hair. They don't tell him to stop playing it so weird. Everything goes so well that it feels fucking hard to believe, in fact, like he's just waiting for the other shoe to drop. There's one group of them playing seniors in high school, the main foursome of which is Eddie, Steve, and their two girl costars, Nancy and Robin. And then there's a younger group playing freshmen whose story intersects with theirs.

His and Steve's characters are set up as opposites, almost rivals, and at least at first, you're presumably supposed to wonder if it's Steve's rich, popular guy who's killed Eddie's character. Nobody in the cast knows the truth yet; the scripts get revealed to them as they're shooting them and they've been told the murderer won't even be revealed in the first season (so here's hoping they get renewed, because Eddie would really like to know who killed him—and he'd also like to keep making HBO money).

Their scenes are some of Eddie's favorites to film (although he also has a soft spot for the kids—especially Dustin who plays a hilarious and awesome nerd who does D&D with Eddie's DM). Eddie hopes his and Steve's stuff is working on whatever level they ultimately need it to work on—sometimes they do get notes that tell them to pull back or dig into something, to emphasize something else, so he has to trust that they're doing the right things.

They often film out of order so when they eventually film the scene where Eddie and Steve's characters have their first run-in at school, it's far from the first time they've shot together. They get all up in each other's faces in the scene, and they've run the lines, done a table read, but acting it out at full intensity is. A lot. Steve's character is mad because he thinks Eddie's character is trying to steal his girlfriend (really she was just buying drugs from him). The way Steve plays it is all simmering intensity, the threat of violence just under the surface, and this is where Eddie doesn't know if he's reading something into it that isn't there. Because for him, there's also another kind of tension between them. And he doesn't know if it's his real life bleeding into the character; if it's just how Steve can't help being with everyone; or if it's a legitimate part of the scripts that they're supposed to be picking up on and exploring. He doesn't even know if anybody else sees what he does. But they do their takes; nobody tells him he's doing something wrong. And after the director calls cut the first time, Steve winks at him. Just to cut the tension, Eddie thinks, maybe to make him smile, which it does. It's fun watching Steve work, watching him slip into and out of character. He's really easy to work with.

Sometimes they get together to run lines or talk motivation or whatever. “It's crazy, you know," Eddie tells Steve in his trailer one night. Steve's is bigger so all of them usually hang out here. They've been making each other laugh, shooting the shit about increasingly funny backstories for their characters, and Eddie feels high with it. "I mean, you know this is my first real show. It's like—" he gestures between them, trying to encompass everything that happens on-camera and all the fun of working on that off-camera. "I didn't know it would be like this."

"Oh—yeah, man," Steve says and laughs a little self-deprecatingly, running a hand through his hair. "But, I mean, for me, I've done a couple and, with our stuff—it’s never been like this with anyone else, either.”

It's going to be so hard, Eddie thinks, looking back at him, to not read into that more than he should.

[twelvemonkeyswere]

I re-read Good Omens via audiobook and I just collected my favorite details

"Crowley rather liked people" is a quote I still love so much. Even though he is a demon with the job of making people upset each other, he likes humans. The contrast between what they make him do and how he experiences Earth.

That scene with the ducks where Crowley almost drowns a duck and Aziraphale is like "I say, my dear" and Crowley is like "Oh yes I forgot myself" and allows the duck to return to the surface. Crowley is usually very polite about the most unhinged things which I just find endearing

All the times Aziraphale calls Crowley "dear boy"

The fact Aziraphale has "exquisitely manicured" hands lmao. I like to think he does go to the manicurist, same as he has a proper barber in the show

Aziraphale blushes sometimes and often gives mean looks to customers to push them out of shop

I like the on-going theme in the Good Omens universe of wanting to build a better world for loved ones, but how that drive, when taken to an extreme, is self destructive. Adam says he'll make the earth good for the Them, and will make sure the Them will be protected and happy in it. But the Them don't want it, they understand Adam is acting out and is not thinking things through. There is no point in trying to possess something and bend it to will forcefully. It wouldn't be good. It wouldn't be of free will. It would make them just another of his whims and no one, either the Them or Adam, actually want that

Aziraphale thinks Crowley is a creature of God when you "get right down to it", which is a thought both meaner and kinder than he realizes

Crowley is described to have "a voice so laid-back you could lay a carpet on it"and it's my most favorite thing ever lmaooo

"You're seducing women here!" /"I think perhaps you got the wrong shop" is always a brilliant line

Even though everything in the Bently turns into Queen's Greatest Hits, I love that Crowley actually loves music, and keeps his collection of records highly organized

Also love the fact that Crowley keeps his apartment orderly, though that's probably in big part because he doesn't really live there

I do appreciate that Crowley sleeps because he wants to, not because he needs to. Truly a relatable guy.

There's a big HOLY SHIT moment in the audiobook - the speech the American evangelist gives about the apocalypse. It's fucking incredible. The actor is amazing, delivering fire and brimstone and absolute hatred and certainty until Aziraphale pops inside of him.

Death really is Azrael, literally the angel of death

Aziraphale comes up with the solution at the end but ONLY because of Crowley, who challenged Aziraphale about the difference between the great plan and ineffable plan at the very beginning of the book

There are many moments where both Crowley and Aziraphale are thought to be a gay couple, but it really made me laugh that they are at the end of the world, telling each other it's been a pleasure to know each other all this time, and then Shadwell interrupts to call them "Nancy Boys"

Everyone in the Good Omens fandom is right, I do love that in the book, the wings of demons and angels are the same color

Crowley thinks the biggest battle will be heaven and hell vs humanity. This has got me thinking a lot. I figure this is because at some point humanity will rebel against any divine intervention, once we figure out that heaven and hell have been playing dice with us. But we'll see.

It does warm my heart that the story begins and ends with a garden and with the eating of the apple - Adam doesn't know why the old man hates people touching his apples so much, but the world would be a lot less interesting if he didn't. It's a fitting end for a fitting beginning.

[ebonystarfall]

Hey, I just saw your blog, and I'm so excited to see more of this fandom!! Could you write some Red Son x M!reader, where reader is a dragon? Maybe a familiar of Mei, who is very cold and introvert. Maybe an ice dragon??? Also, if you're not comfortable with male reader, can you make it gn? Thanks!!

Blazing Flames and Frigid Ice

Red Son x M!Dragon Reader

Created by: Starbeam (Owner 1)

Type of content: Headcanons

Pov: Second

Word count: 562

TW: N/A

A/N: I’ve played so many pjsk matches that I want to curl up and cry. However, I will write this to ignore everything on my CRK blog (I still love it, just a bit tired). Also decided to read Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol and loved it. Please read it. Oh, by the way I made the reader be Mei’s cousin.

REBLOGS ARE APPRECIATED

For starters, Mei introduced the two of you sometime after s3 and before s4, stating that of course she would want her favorite cousin to meet the hot-tempered (but overall heroic) mentor she had when she was training to control the Samadhi Fire. Of course, Red Son and you didn’t…well, let’s just say that the two of you didn’t get along. While you were much more cold and indifferent, he was much more vocal on the fact that he did NOT need to be meeting another arrogant dragon…

And both of you thought of the other as a pompous, ignorant snob, that was for sure. Not like you planned to voice your opinion.

Yet, it was Mei that brought the two of you for a day of fun and gaming. Since MK was busy with other things, this was a great opportunity to see how her favorite cousin and one of her best friends would interact!

…she basically decided to put you and Red Son in a gladiator match for gaming. (You both tied and were equally pissed at that fact)

—

For the next few days you were staying at Mei’s house, you unfortunately had to deal with seeing the Bull Prince more. Especially the times when she made you tag along with him. Honestly? You’d much rather stay in bed eating ice instead of going out in the sun and next to someone who literally controls fire. You can handle if Mei’s just there, but when two people with pyrokinesis are by you? Yeah, you felt like turning into a puddle for the most part.

Surprisingly, Red Son was the one who noticed this first, and he actually kept his distance from you for the most part. On a day that was particularly hot, he decided to begrudgingly buy you an ice cream. During this, your cousin was giving you ALL types of teasing looks, basically saying, “I think someone has a crushhhhh…” ;)

You decided to ignore them for the most part, because there was absolutely no way that either of you could ever have a crush on-

He let you lean on him when the three of you were watching a horror movie.

Most of the time, the two of you were just blaming the directors and actors for making everything look stupid instead of scary. Yet…in that moment, you guessed you could tolerate him for the time being. He didn’t seem so hot-tempered after all. Or was he only this way around you?

—

At the end of the sleepover, when Red Son was about to leave, you felt the urge to walk up to him. Of course, he was slightly annoyed and confused, but all that vanished as you pressed a hesitant little kiss against his cheek. He stared at you in complete shock, an immediate blush appearing on his face as he looked away.

You paused. Had you done something wrong? Was he mad? Oh, gods, you knew that it was a bad idea, what if he didn’t lik-

Now it was your turn to blush as he gave you a tiny kiss on the forehead, then he immediately started to walk away awkwardly, clearly flustered and embarrassed. You actually felt…warm, after that. No ice could compare to what the hell just happened here.

Well…guess you were definitely planning to stay at Mei’s place more, weren’t you?

[emotionallychargedtowel]

Sato Ryuga in Kamen Rider Geats - an overview for non-toku folks

Now that Living with Him (Kare no Iru Seikatsu) has premiered has a couple of episodes out and is getting a good response from a lot of the folks I know on here, I thought it might be a good time to do one of those posts I do sometimes. I should probably have a name for this. Like, a tokusatsu actor overview post? My imagined audience for posts like this is made up of BL fans who haven't watched toku but would like to know more about their favorite actors' pasts in that genre. But I hope they're interesting for others as well.

The tokusatsu-to-BL pipeline has been getting shorter lately, with a lot of recent toku alums getting into BLs within the first year or so after their toku series has ended. Sato Ryuga falls into this category. He was on Kamen Rider Geats, which stopped airing last August. His costar Kan Hideyoshi, who played the lead rider in that series (Ukiyo Ace, a.k.a. Kamen Rider Geats), made the leap so quickly that the BL he was in, Although I Love You, and You? a.k.a. Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka, finished airing a while ago. That show had its moments but was a bit on the lackluster side (through no fault of Kan's--I thought he was charming, funny, and showed an admirable commitment to the role). I'm a lot more hopeful about Living with Him. In addition to its promising start, it was written by the screenwriter of Old Fashion Cupcake and directed by the director of My Personal Weatherman.

But even if it weren't for these positive indicators, I would have been excited to see Sato in a BL, or just about anything. He was really impressive in Geats. He showed a lot of range on that series, handling action, high drama, and occasional comedy really well. And it doesn't hurt that he's cute as hell.

By the way, I'm going to keep the spoilers vague in this post, but I can't really avoid them entirely while doing this type of overview. If relatively mild/general spoilers don't bother you, you should be OK to continue. And of course, if you don't think you'll ever watch Geats, you don't have to worry either way.

Sato and Kan together during Keiwa's villain era.

Sato's Geats character was named Sakurai Keiwa. Keiwa starts out as a sort of proxy for the audience. The premise of Geats involves a high-stakes competition called the Desire Grand Prix where the winner gets to magically change the world. Most of the time, most people don't know this competition is going on. It's already in progress when Keiwa encounters the players for the first time and he has zero context. As he learns about the game, and ends up joining in as Kamen Rider Tycoon (a pun on the fact that his suit form is modeled after a tanuki), the audience learns about it alongside him. Keiwa comes into the story as an idealistic sweetheart so it's easy to root for him right away. (This is less true of the other characters. Geats's biggest weakness, to my mind, is that it starts out conspicuously lacking in any sort of bonds between characters or truly relatable characters other than Keiwa. This gets a lot better by the latter part of the series, but I found it somewhat rough going to get to that point, and it took longer than it needed to.)

One interesting thing about Keiwa is that you can tell a lot about what's going on with him by his hair. You'll see what I mean. I didn't notice this until I was doing screenshots for this post and then it really stood out to me.

So, here's Keiwa as a naïve newcomer. Check out the cute mop.

It doesn't take long for him to get kind of intense when he's in a fight and about to henshin (transform into his armored suit form).

Speaking of which, for the first part of the series, his pre-transformation move involves a sort of determined fist gesture, which will be important later.

This is a later example of the henshin fist, but it gets the point across.

Intense henshin face notwithstanding, he's still Mr. Nice Guy for a lot of the series. He might get a bit of a hair part but he's basically a floppy-haired cinnamon roll.

And then something bad happens.

This thing is really hard on Keiwa, and he has a dark night of the soul. He gets estranged from the other lead characters.

The hair is already going a little haywire here.

He does some creepy shit.

Then he gets into an even darker place.

Keiwa switches up his henshin move. He starts snapping his fingers, which is part of Ace's signature move. Ace is a total badass who has won the Desire Grand Prix repeatedly. He's a perpetual contender, the guy everyone else is always gunning for because he's the most likely to come out on top. I mean, his name is Ace. Adopting the snapping part of his henshin move has significant symbolism. It's like Keiwa is saying he's the new badass in town. He also has a new, stronger suit form to go along with this change.

There's a difference in the way Keiwa does the snap that's worth noting. Ace's snap move starts as a fox head hand gesture (think the rock'n'roll devil horns gesture but with a pointed snout) because Geats takes the form of a kitsune when he goes into suit mode. Keiwa's snap starts with his hand upraised, fingers up, the back of his hand facing outward. It's reminiscent of an American-style beckoning motion (the "c'mere" finger thing and its multi-finger equivalent), which I gather is considered extremely rude in Japan. This calls back to the henshin move of a favorite toku character of mine, Sawatari Kazumin/Kamen Rider Grease, who Takeda Kouhei played on Kamen Rider Build. Sawatari just straight up does the rude beckoning motion before transforming. It's a very antagonistic, cocky thing to do.

As you can see, Keiwa's hair is really going haywire at this point.

Keiwa ends up facing off with Ace more and more, including in some scenes like the one below. It doesn't really come off this way to me when I'm watching the scenes, but when I look at these screenshots, these two look about as likely to smooch as they do to come to blows.

Keiwa's hair starts to get a little less poofy at this point but the cute mop hasn't returned. Instead, his hair is almost ready to go into bad guy mode!

Finally, Keiwa tips over into full-on villain territory. This is signaled by his hair getting a defined part. He also starts wearing an earring, just for extra bad boy hotness points.

(I’ve seen this earring thing happen in Japanese media quite a few times and it always seems funny to me, because an actor will have had a very visible hole in his earlobe for a whole series and then when he puts something in it we’re supposed to be all surprised Pikachu about it. It’s an interesting commentary on the cultural significance of earrings on dudes, I guess. Now I’m trying to think of nice boys in toku who get to wear earrings in their highly visible ear holes. Kaito from Zenkaiger is one, at least. I assume there are others?)

He keeps snapping/beckoning.

The beckoning thing is clearer here, and it has that flipping off the audience energy.

He adopts some pretty cold-blooded expressions.

In some scenes, like the one seen above, he seems to have subtle makeup on. I don't know if this is because villains are supposed to be hotter or because they're supposed to be more gender non-conforming. Or both? Well, it suits him.

As you would probably guess, Keiwa doesn't stay bad. The stuff that sent him off the deep end gets resolved and his relationships with other characters get repaired. He also gets his mop back (it's only intermittently messy) and loses the earring. He goes back to his original henshin move.

There you have it! Hopefully this gets across a good bit about Sato's Geats character and some of the shifts he goes through. Of course, I've left out plenty of stuff as well. Anyone who's really curious should definitely check out the series.

[annerbhp]

So I think you’ve written some of my fav HP fanfic ever like ever ever and I see you’ve been obsessing over the untamed lately. Is there anything similar narratively that drew you to it or another reason why you’d recommend someone watch the untamed?

Thanks so much! That is very kind of you to say, and REALLY nice of you to give me a chance to blather on about The Untamed!

You know, sometimes I just think the right piece of media comes along at the right moment and just hits all the right buttons. I swear I can never see it coming until it does.

Part of the reason I started watching The Untamed in the first place was because I kept seeing random posts about it and I was looking for something to distract me. It was still during the most isolated time period of COVID. I'd also found that my attention span and ability to focus on one thing at a time was severely challenging at the time? Like I couldn't even watch TV without also playing a game on my phone or doom-scrolling. So when I started The Untamed looking for something to watch, the fact it was in a foreign language and I had to read subtitles like...fixed this for me? It allowed me to fully focus on something for the first time in a long time. I also really like the formats of Chinese dramas in general, in that they are long (50 episodes in this case) enough to get really invested in the characters and character arcs, but are filmed at the same time with a complete plot from beginning to end. It's just so much nicer than the American TV show format of "here's a season, maybe you'll get another, maybe not, maybe the plot will wildly change, maybe we'll keep upping the ante and randomly kill people off when actors get different jobs." So the combo of subtitles and format really appealed to me.

But as for why The Untamed in particular is great, well, there's a lot of reasons!

It's a world that has magic, which I always find fascinating. This fantasy setting is based off Chinese Daoist traditions.

It has the theme of young people forced into war far too young. (Sometimes it feels like the show is actually three different genres in turn: high school hijinks, gritty war movie, and a murder mystery caper, and each one is awesome.)

Which kind of leads to another of my favorite things: the character arcs. I love a show with thoughtful character growth and change over time and this one does that really well.

There are so many characters to love, all with their own drives and interests. I can't say this show does overly well by its female characters when it comes to plot, but when it comes to character development, they are all fully fleshed out and have their own drives and none of them exist to just be a love interest, which is nice!

There are Jane Austen-levels of romantic longing. Like, the show is based off a novel that is explicitly gay, and I do mean explicit. Yet thanks to censorship, everything is subtext that is played so well by the actors and clearly very carefully put in place by the creators of the show through music and things like framing and glances and symbolism and hand touches, did I mention the LONGING GAZES? They know what they are doing. This show is so romantic, I can't even get over it, especially since it could never really be explicitly stated, even though it totally is!! (I am such a sucker for romance.)

There is also absolutely beautiful music, cinematography, and costuming.

Phenomenal acting, even when some of the CGI is laughably bad, and most people playing instruments don't look at all like they are actually playing.

This show has tragedy and humor and highly competent people and complicated evil and historical trauma and a complete denial of black and white thinking. It never holds back from exploring the ways society can fail us and we can fail ourselves. And how we can still find ways forward.

Also, the show has some jaw-dropping plot reveals that I just did not see coming, though maybe other people did. It was one of those, "WAIT A MINUTE" moments when the moment the show ended I was determined to watch all 50 episodes again immediately with my new understanding. I love media that can pull that off.

Look, the opening scene is literally the main character falling to their death off a cliff and you get to spend the rest of the series trying to figure out how that happened and where the world goes from there. It's beautiful!

If you do try to watch it, the first episode or two is SO CONFUSING, and that's fine, just go with it. By episode 10 if you are not completely sucked in, then maybe it's just not for you. We get some non-linear story telling approaches that are so effective.

Also, not really a "why is the show so great" or anything, but the fandom for this show is so active and HUGE. Like, there are currently over 43,000 fics on AO3 for the main pairing in this fandom alone. You'll be reading for ages. Some of them are the best fics I've ever read.

Hmmm. I think I'll go read some Olympics AUs.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream: Top 100 Movies #100 - #76

For the longest time I've wanted to do something like this, but I never could find the right time to do it. It just seemed so daunting, and the website's image limit was a hindrance, and then my computer died and my wife's computer was all I could use... and then I went on my hiatus from doing major reviews. But I found some time, so here we go.

These are my hundred favorite films ever made, divided into fourths so each one can get an image and I can devote more time to gushing about them if I want to without feeling like I'm dragging things out.

Speaking if dragging things out, let us waste no more time! We have a hundred movies to go, so let's knock out the botom quarter!

100. Us

Jordan Peele’s sophomore effort gets a lot of shit that I feel is mostly undeserved. Sure, some of the over explaining at the climax is a bit clunky when taken at face value, but it almost feels like it’s by design, as if the movie is daring you to nitpick the premise so that you can ignore the message it’s trying to convey. For me, I find that the stellar themes, fantastic acting, and godly soundtrack manage to make up for any of this movie’s flaws.

99. Crimson Peak

Murder! Mystery! Ghosts! Incest! Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to craft a Gothic horror film this stylish and impressive! This might just be my favorite of his films, and I definitely think it is severely overlooked compared to the rest of his output.

98. Mandy

Nicolas Cage is one of my favorite actors of all time, because when he goes crazy it’s always fun, and when he’s dramatic he genuinely kills it. This film lets him do both,with the first half being a slow burn dramatic romance that ends in horrific tragedy, and the back half having him do demon drugs and get into a chainsaw duel while he murders an entire cult. Truly a beautifully insane film.

97. Scream

The film that both revitalized and ruined the slasher genre, with winking nods to the tropes that made those films what they are while also playing things just straight enough to be appealing. Only a genre master like Wes Craven could pull off a pitch-perfect satire like this, though none of it would be near as good if it didn’t have a great cast who were firing on all cylinders. Young Neve Campbell before she became a sellout, Matthew Lillard cementing his place in horror history, David Arquette and Courtney Cox in their prime, and Roger “Mojo Jojo” Jackson playing the iconic voice of Ghostface… They’re as crucial to this movie’s success as the meta winks and impressive kills are.

96. Jojo Rabbit

Taika Waititi made one bad superhero movie and then everyone turned on him as if he didn’t make the film that proves you absolutely could make Blazing Saddles in this day and age. While it’s neither as gut-bustingly funny nor as profane as Mel Brooks’ magnum opus, it’s still a very fun, funny, and heartbreaking satirization of Nazism. I think he’s allowed to make one Love and Thunder when he made something this good.

95. Akira

The movie with the coolest bike slide in cinematic history, and this is indisputable because every single movie and show with motorcycles in it borrowed that cool bike slide. This film does show its age a bit, but it’s still an awesome sci-fi showcase of animated action and body horror. Plus it’s just a lot of fun seeing Tetsuo and Kaneda spend at least half of their dialogue dramatically screaming each other’s names.

94. 300

I make fun of Zack Snyder a lot, but I do it out of love; the dude who made 300 has gotta be capable of doing better than his recent output, after all. Stylish, slick action and slow-mo put to good use showing an army of nearly naked macho men cutting down hordes of nasty bad guys… The fact I watched this movie so much as a teenager should’ve been the first hint I was bisexual.

93. Spider-Man: No Way Home

People are really fucking hard on the MCU Spidey, and not without reason, but sometimes it really comes off as disingenuous. Look at this film, for instance; it has gotten some flak for just being a cheap nostalgia circlejerk that uses cameos so you can clap and cheer and ignore the ‘plot holes.’ I cannot imagine being that miserable of a movie watcher. To me, this film is a tribute to the cinematic Spideys that came before while giving them some degree of closure that I never thought I’d see, while simultaneously bringing Holland’s take on the character closer to where he should be. It’s also really hard to hate a movie where Willem Dafoe gets to go Goblin Mode again and power bomb Tom Holland through several floors of an apartment, cementing him as comic book movie villain royalty once and for all. Are there cheesy moments, moments where things don’t make the most sense? Sure. But to focus on those bits instead of the core themes and how the characters are used is an awful way t do film criticism. The returning heroes and most of the returning villains are used very effectively to tell the story they wanted to tell, and most importantly they don’t overshadow Tom and his friends. The fact he stands toe-to-toe with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield is nothing short of amazing, spectacular even.

92. The Lost Boys

Joel Schumacher died with one of the most unfairly earned infamous reputations around. Man made one campy superhero movie where you can see George Clooney’s nips and hear Arnold Schwarzenegger make ice puns and suddenly everyone forgets he made one of the greatest and most homoerotic vampire films ever made. While the stuff with the kids is very hit or miss, the stuff with David and his vampire biker gang is awesome, and the climax is one hell of a good time.

91. Barbie

Want to introduce your kids to feminist concepts but really don’t think they’re ready for Poor Things? Greta Gerwig has got you covered, with this pink-hued intro to feminism that uses the world’s most popular doll in a meta-narrative about her impact as well as what it means to be a woman and how the patriarchy is detrimental to both men and women. Margot Robbie gives a great performance as the titular heroine, but it is Ryan Gosling as the well-meaning idiot turned antagonist Ken that steals the show. It helps that he sings one of the most incredible, sincere power ballads ever written.

90. Street Fighter

As a connoisseur of cheesy, “so bad it’s good” films, quite a few of them have made my top 100. Here’s the first of those, this goofy Saturday morning cartoon of a film where the most American character ever (Guile) is played by the least American guy imaginable (Jean-Claude Van Damme). While it undeniably fumbles a lot of the cast of the game it’s adapting, Chun-Li and especially M. Bison are done so well it’s hard to be too mad. It’s a fun, stupid, silly 90s action film and sometimes that’s all I need.

89. Knives Out

After polarizing sci-fi audiences with his Star Wars film, Rian Johnson subverted our expectations by delivering a whodunnit for the ages. After seeing them restrained by blockbuster franchises for the better part of a decade, seeing Daniel Craig and Chris Evans really let loose again is a real treat.

88. Everything Everywhere All at Once

Twitter tries to convince me every other week that this movie is dogshit, but I ain’t buying it. This is one of the best uses of the multiverse in recent memory, using it to tell a stylish, silly, and heartfelt story about family and trauma. The entire cast is amazing, but it’s Ke Huy Quan in his big return to the silver screen that really steals the show.

87. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

My favorite thing about this movie, this proto-slasher, is just how fucking unclean it makes me feel. It’s not overly violent or gory, but it is genuinely grimy and unsettling in a way few other horror films can match. The dinner scene near the end in particular is just so fucking unnerving. Just truly unmatched atmosphere with this movie.

86. Spaceballs

While I’m not going to argue that this is a better film than Blazing Saddles, I still enjoy it a lot more since I’m a bigger fan of Star Wars and sci-fi than I am of Westerns. It’s just a damn funny parody, and hoe can it not when it has some of the funniest people to ever live (Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Rick Moranis, John Candy) and a great heroic lead performance from Bill Pullman all delivering some of the silliest lines ever written?

85. RRR

This is basically live action historical fiction anime. These characters pull off some of the most insane feats of action I have ever seen, action that makes the average American action film look like Peppa Pig. But I would not give a shit if there wasn’t a strong emotional core; the two leads have a brotherly bond unlike anything I’ve ever, and it makes the action that much sweeter. Frankly, this movie would make the list just for the final battle alone, since it might be my favorite action scene of all time.

84. Strange Magic

This movie holds a very special place in my heart. I went to see this with my wife back when we first started dating, and at the time I was filled with anxiety and insecurity, worried that I wasn’t good enough and didn’t deserve a relationship among other things. I sat down to watch this, and when it got to the titular song, something clicked, and I felt secure. I felt like our relationship was the right thing, and all these years later it’s hard to deny I was right. So thank you to this cheesy jukebox musical inspired by Shakespeare and George Lucas’ desire to make a film for little girls. They will never convince me you’re a bad movie.

83. Princess Mononoke

Maybe Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is objectively better, but this is my favorite. I think it’s because this one is a lot more excitin and action-packed, with all sorts of thrilling setpieces interspersed with the quieter dramatic moments Miyazaki excels at.

82. Jurassic Park

One of Spielberg’s greatest achievements is bringing dinosaurs to life on the big screen. No matter how many times I sit down to watch this, I still feel the same awe the characters do when they lay their eyes on the dinosaurs—which really highlights how good the cast is, because they’re amazingly convincing even when they’re looking at dated 90s CGI.

81. Labyrinth

It’s David Bowie starring as the villain in a musical filled with puppets that’s directed by Jim Henson. How the fuck is it possible to not love this movie?

80. V for Vendetta

Yes, this does dumb down the politics of Alan Moore’s comic significantly and turns the story into a much more straightforward plot. But what it lacks in depth, it makes up for with Hugo Weaving and pyrotechnics. And it’s not like there’s no depth here; crucially, this film keeps the entirety of the prisoner’s letter sequence. If that was left out, I would not have liked this movie at all.

79. Wreck-It Ralph

It’s amazing how much Disney got right here that it would go on to get wrong over the next decade. We have a hidden twist villain, something that hampered later films… but he’s shown to be a dick, with the villain reveal being how evil he is. It’s a big crossover of nostalgic properties… but they’re more used as seasoning for a story about original characters. It’s just astonishing how Disney would end up dropping the ball, even in this film’s sequel, when they got everything right the first time.

78. Sin City

What’s black and white and red all over? This bloody brilliant adaptation of Frank Miller’s sleazy comics (and one of the last genuinely good things with his name attached to it). The visual style here is the real big selling point; it genuinely looks like the pages of a comic come to life. While the movie as a whole is fantastic and “The Big Fat Kill” segment is still really, “The Hard Goodbye” and “That Yellow Bastard” are the real highlights, the former because of a career highlight performance from Mickey Rourke and a terrifying villain turn from Elijah Wood of all people, the latter because of one of Bruce Willis’ finest performances of the 2000s and excellent use of slight splashes of color (yellow for the titular bastard).

77. Batman & Robin

As long as I live, this movie will have at least one defender. Joel Schumacher created a silly, campy comic book movie for the ages, and maybe back in the day people weren’t read for it… but I was. I love the ice puns, the nipples, the bat credit card, all of it! All of its silly, stupid corniness makes this as memorable as it is! It’s like the West show with a gigantic budget.

76. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

And speaking of camp, here is the cult classic. We can argue all day and all night whether this film has aged badly, but this was a huge step forward for queer cinema on top of being a damn good musical. If nothing else, this movie helped rocket Tim Curry into the stratosphere and made him the star we know him as.

[icannotreadcursive]

I'm not doing this in a reblog because it's not worth starting a fight, but I just saw a post that was saying that if your characters are under 18, they should never be naked on screen, no matter how old the actors playing them are.

And it went on for a bit about unreasonable and exploitative on-screen nudity is, and that there's no good reason to ever have young characters naked.

And it never outright said that all nudity is inherently sexual, but it was so obviously coming from a place of seeing all nudity as inherently sexual, to an extent that I find mindboggling and frankly sad.

One of my all time favorite movies is My Neighbor Totoro--which is animated, so there's no actors on screen, but our main characters are little girls. The younger sister is about 3, and the older sister is only a few years older. There's a very sweet scene of the two of them (and their father) taking a bath and laughing loudly to scare of spirits. This is a cultural in which communal bathing is normal. Nothing at all untoward about it, it's a family bonding moment, and of course they're naked, they're taking a bath.

Pan's Labyrinth also has a couple bath scenes--del Toro has a bit of a thing for using baths as places of sanctuary and introspection in his films. Our protagonist Ofelia is 10, the actress who plays her was 11 during filming. And guess what, she was never naked on set. I have seen the costume department notes for that film with my own eyes, she was wearing a skintone bathing suit and I promise you there was somebody standing by with a robe to bundle her up in as soon as cut was called; del Toro has a rep for being very conscientious about making sure his actors are comfortable on set. Point is thought, character nudity =/= actor nudity, not necessarily.

In fact, because of the laws and regulations around working with under-age actors, a lot of the time you can't have the actor nude. If it's a case of Dawson casting with a 30 year old playing a 17 year old? That 30 year old can make their own decisions about their willingness to do the scene and the character isn't real, the character is fine.

And if you're watching a scene like that and are really that fixated on the young characters' nudity, I think there's something wrong with you, not with the movie.

Are there issues with the ways in which actors--especially young women actors--are often pressured into on screen nudity? Yes. Absolutely. And it's worth it to step back and think about what role nudity is serving in a film or TV show--and, if you're on the creative end, to consider ahead of time if you need to put your cast in that vulnerable position and how you're going to protect their comfort and dignity if the answer is yes.

But nudity is not inherently sexual. On-screen nudity does not inherently require on-set nudity. On-set nudity (and partial nudity) can be done in ways that are respectful and comfortable for the actor. Children have bodies and sometimes those bodies don't have clothes; this is an entirely nuetral fact of life and there is absolutely nothing wrong with film and television reflecting that reality.

This is not the most coherent or in-depth write up I could do on this subject, but I just needed to spit these thoughts somewhere.

Somethingsomething Americans don't see their grandma's tits and it makes them weird.

[istanchan]

Are Pat and Kawi “bad characters”?

I usually don’t go on TikTok to read discourse about shows. But I happened to stumble across this while looking for edits and it just made me so frustrated.

So op made a post about how they can’t stand Pat and Kawi from step by step and be my favorite. They went on to talk about how they don’t even understand how Jeng and Pisaeng deal with their respective partners. Honestly I didn’t really feel like talking about it but with the tens of other people agreeing with them I couldn’t stop myself.

There’s a lot to unpack here but starting off with explaining why the two characters act the way they do helps.

With Pat I feel that most people who watch the show forget that there is a 10 year age gap between the characters (and the actors). While that may not seem like a lot, the fact that Jeng is Pat’s superior and his social class plays into their dynamic and Pat’s behavior. I am more convinced now then ever that the purpose of Step By Step was to portray a realistic representation of how it would be to date your boss. It’s messy and hard to work through. Pat’s character at times is an emotional wreck, I’m not going to deny that, but he still manages to be mature even when his boss and his partner (I don’t think it’s appropriate to label jeng as his boyfriend) isn’t. Jeng completely disregards reality in episode 10, he leaves Pat to handle the brunt of the gossip. Pat after trying to talk with Jeng to mediate the situation, ends up doing what he thinks is best. His character is raw and real and messy at times but I enjoy watching it nonetheless.

As for Kawi, I feel that it’s not fair to judge his character right now since only 6 episodes are out and we haven’t really gotten to the climax of the show. His character is still growing and learning. But honestly in my opinion Kawi as a character is easier to comprehend and understand than Pat. I don’t think Kawi acts completely unreasonable. He does makes mistakes but he tries his best to fix them and better himself. Again like in step by step there is the factor of social class that comes in between Pisaeng and Kawi. Pisaeng is rich and is well known around campus. Kawi struggles to see how a guy like Pisaeng could like him.

It seems this is the common denominator for Pat and Kawi—their insecurities. And to me that’s a completely reasonable factor. For us as the audience it’s easy to rule out what behaviors we would want to change or fix with character we watch, but if we were in their shoes would act completely dissimilar? Life isn’t black and white, and making the right choices isn’t alway easy. I feel that many shows and especially these two show this.

This whole discussion takes me to this wonderful post that I think about all the time when I’m watching BL shows now:

By/For/About Queers Part 1 &

By/For/About Queers Part 2

Both be my favorite and step by step have proven to realistically portray queer experiences. While be my favorite still has way to go I’m surprised by how the writers handled Pisaengs road to discovering his identity. Talking about BL shows in the light of which ones are really for queer or and not just about queer people changes the perspective. I think this plays a small role in why these two shows may be hard to understand the characters pov. Many people that watch BL shows aren’t queer and even some who are, don’t watch BLs for to sympathize with a queer perspective. Many just use BLs as a way to escape this heteronormative world, and that’s honestly completely okay. I do it too sometimes. But that doesn’t undermine characters like Pat and Kawi or even Jeng and Pisaeng.

At the end of the day each person is entitled to enjoy media however they wish, that’s the beauty of the internet. So I don’t have any animosity towards op and all the commenters. I’m glad they have a different opinion so I can share mine.

[iguessitsjustme]

Let’s get the chaos started… number 3.

Ooooo you really meant it when you said let's get the chaos started.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you’ve seen on tumblr

Not gonna lie, I used to have screenshots of things but I cannot find a single one. I don't even remember why I had the screenshots. Well that's a lie. I remember why I had them but not the context or what it was even about. (If you want to know why I had the screenshots that's a different story for a different ask and I honestly probably won't share it because I might choose violence but I'm not malicious and sharing that story at this point would be mean and malicious cause the whole thing is over now and has been for...probably damn near a year)

So a description of the worst take I've seen on tumblr? This is tough because I have been on tumblr for a very long time and I have seen some just god awful takes. I could talk about people defending the romanticization of manipulation again, I could talk about people defending sending any form of hate to anyone for any reason but particularly for not sharing the same opinion, but instead I think I want to talk about something I saw somewhat recently.

Why on god's green earth am I still seeing people conflating actors and the characters they play in the year of our lord 2024? I genuinely saw someone use the actor's names in place of the character's names when referencing a sex scene and certain movements of the characters during the scene. I actually had to shut down my laptop and take a walk after seeing that. Because good god.

Listen, I know that pair branding and fan service exists. I know actors have contracts and are paid to do these things. I know all of that. But I also know that at the end of the day, that's their job. And I know it can get confusing sometimes because of that. But I'm gonna need some people to take a step back and reexamine the way they are interacting with the media they're watching. Especially the high heat media. Because the second the pants come off, some people's common sense just goes out the window.

This is not to say that I don't like high heat shows, in fact some of my favorite shows are high heat and I enjoy those scenes, but I never, never ever never conflate the characters and the actors. And that's not just dangerous because of the high heat scenes. Some of these actors play awful and villainous characters and they are very good at their job. And that's just it. It's their job. They aren't the characters they play. They aren't even the persona they put on for the fans. They are their own people and to act like they aren't is quite frankly terrifying to me.

So by all means, talk about the sex scenes! Talk about the pair brands! Talk about the fan service! But for the love of god, do not get those confused. The people you watched in that high heat scene were the characters not the actors and quite frankly it scares me that anyone needs that said.

Choose Violence Ask Game

[pinksilvace]

Hey fern, what if you dropped a top 10 favorite cats the musical characters list

omg 😳😳😳 maybe we could find out 😳😳😳

1: Alonzo

Surprise, surprise, I know. Silly little vain/uncertain/bravado guy. What is he doing. I just know he's so full of anxiety but he's also probably emotionally illiterate. He's SUCH a big bro figure in my brain in a number of ways, but mostly because I think he'd be the kind of guy to try and fix problems, fail, and dejectedly call for mom's help after the fact.

There's not much I can say about Alonzo that I haven't already said:

Here's where I ranted about his adjectives.

Here's where I ranted about his design for the Egg Cracker Bracket.

Goodness knows I've probably ranted across many many many tags as well. Idk man he's just so Gender to me and I think he's really funny and I love that he's a bit of a loser depending on how much the actor plays up the "uncertain" part of his character (the one that prominently comes to mind is here during Grizabella, the Mac scares, the end of M&R, and the IMMEDIATE change in demeanor during the Song of the Jellicles). I LOVEEEE that he's often shown to despise Tugger; it's such a funny dynamic. I love that different productions have him looking to Munkustrap, Skimbleshanks, and Cassandra for guidance. I love that fics make him a bit of an ass sometimes. For whatever gripes I have with Broadway revival choreo, I also love that it gave him some more character moments than he used to :D.

Every depiction of Alonzo I see gives me a new, interesting look at the character. I have yet to find one I dislike.

Aghhhh we've reached the point where this ranking gets really hard 😭😭😭 LMAO

2: Demeter

She was my favorite when I first got Really into cats circa 13 years old. I'll forever be bitter that she had no presence in 2019. She's LITERALLY the second most important character for the sake of the plot and they just LEFT HER OUT??? Just because she's hard to recognize after only a single watch or two??? hhhhhhhhhhhhh

The way actors portray her is ALWAYS entrancing. If cats is Subtext: The Musical, Demeter is Subtext: The Character. The Macavity number??? Come ON. The fact that she opens the show? Her reactions to literally everything??? Oughhhh sometimes she makes me want to chew on concrete.

Sometimes, there are portrayals of Demeter that I dislike, though. I guess it makes sense for a character whose words are skittish/cautious/paranoid, but sometimes, those traits seem to supercede her personality, which is always a shame. I particularly enjoy her interactions with Munkustrap and Bombalurina, of course, so when those are overshadowed by just how scared she is, I think it tends to weaken stuff overall. After all, those relationships thrive on how they interact and curb that fear.

I don't spend nearly enough time thinking about Demeter and it's an absolute travesty. Ma'am you are the heart and soul of the show to me. You keep everything thematically linked together. I love you

3: Munkustrap

I think that Munkustrap might be the definition of a comfort character for me. His mental health is rock solid. He's so dad-coded it's unreal. I desperately need to watch a production of Cats and only focus on Munkustrap, because his interactions with everybody are spectacular. There is so much character fit into this guy. He's also entertaining to me because I would NOT guess his adjectives, ever; they always come across as a characterization secondary to his role, and I like that quite a lot.

And oh my gosh, his DESIGN!!! I think Munkustrap has some of the prettiest makeup in the show, and his whole look is pleasingly cohesive. There's so much happening on his face, but when it's good, it's PHENOMENAL.

COME ONNNNNNNN, the HIGHLIGHTS on those WHISKERS??? The gradients on the cheeks and nose??? oooohhhhhhh it pleases me IMMENSELY. I also really like how the makeup blends into the wig, and the shape of the wig is also one of my favorites in the show - especially when it's a bit droopy, like Michael Gruber's in '98.

let's not forget about the collar

Anyway YEAH!!! He's one of my favorites to see actually moving onstage, consistently has a beautiful voice, and has some of my favorite relationships in the whole show :D

4: Admetus

This is a bit of a cheat listing. I really don't think about Admetus that much, but I would REALLY like to think about him more. I want to know what his deal is. Like Munkustrap, I think he has some fascinating relationships onstage that all present very differently - his time spent with Tumble/Pounce, Victoria, and Alonzo come to mind.

But also

THE MAKEUP

THIS LOOK WITH THE BIG LOWER LASHES??? GIRL HELP YOUR CAT IS GNC AS HELL. EASILY my favorite cats makeup look EVER. I know it's just because they have to slather on Mac's stuff later but I love that most of the face is left plain so they went absolutely ham with the eyes. It's the opposite of Munkustrap's. Brilliant.

anyway yeah he looks cool and I think his role in the tribe is in a really interesting flux stage

5&6: Pouncival and Tumblebrutus

They are a pair... do not separate

okay okay OKAY I know I often talk about my favorite characters in terms of how funny they are, and these guys??? Absolute clowns. The product is exactly what's written on the tin; they sure do pounce and tumble!!! Even a few weeks ago, they probably wouldn't have been so high on the list, but writing CFP and forcing myself to learn more about their characters as a result has skyrocketed the amount of love in my heart for them. If I had to choose, I'd probably say that I like Pouncival just a tiiiiny bit more since I think he's more memorable and I prefer his design, but the way they both look up to almost everybody else in the show is intoxicating to watch.

My favorite moments of these two are, of course, Pounce here (2:35 onward) and Tumble here (2:14:25 onward). I just think they're neat.

7: John Partridge The Rum Tum Tugger

(Okay, but, like, John Partridge is the ultimate here. My second favorite is probably Zach Bravo since his take on the character is so different, but there might never be a Tugger as suave as Partridge ever again.)

Going back to his antagonistic relationship with Alonzo, I think it's interesting that they share "vain" as a descriptor. I also think that Tugger's relationships are interesting in that a lot of them aren't necessarily dissimilar with one another (they're all quite teasing, whether romantic or platonic), but they are unique to him. The dynamism of his character is probably what makes me like him the most; I love how he code switches between his own number, Old Deuteronomy, and Mr. Mistoffelees.

Aside from all that, come on. The swagger is magnetic. (I'd write more but my fingers are starting to hurt)

8: Bombalurina

women <3

(I do have additional thoughts about her character! She's intelligent, generous, and flirtatious, and though she's always seeking romantic/sexual attention, those interactions are always secondary to her relationship with Demeter, which is something that I really like. Depending on the performer, she can easily come across as one of the strongest characters.

...but yeah. women <3)

9: Skimbleshanks

(swings microphone around) I am once again answering on the basis of "I just think they're funny"

Seriously though, at this point, there are so many characters that could make it onto this list. I think Skimble juuuuust made it here because EVERYBODY loves him, and that just makes me love him more. He and Mistoffelees definitely seem like the most popular choices for fanart from folks outside of the fandom, 2019 or otherwise.

Also, whenever I need an answer in Quiplash and can't think of anything, I put in Skimbleshanks, and without fail, somebody always votes for it, even if they have no idea who (or, in their mind, what) Skimbleshanks is.

There's not a single thing I dislike about this cat or his number; I couldn't possibly begin to list everything here. I just haven't thought particularly hard about him as a character yet.

10: Electra

I must admit that I've barely spent any time at all thinking about Electra. HOWEVER, her interactions with Munkustrap are adorable, and the single father alonzo fic has irreparably changed my brain chemistry, and for those reasons alone, she's earned her place here. I also think the unitard design is really unique and beautiful :D

Honorable Mention: Tantomile. She was my favorite when I watched Cats '98 as a young'in :).

[devilsrecreation]

Me and @sweetheart-weeb-33 came up with the best TLG au ever. Listen to this:

TLG Actor Au where all the animals in the Lion Guard is a Zootopia-esque actor

Imagine all the villains are actually super sweet irl and I do mean ALL of them

Kiburi’s an actual rapper who had a hand (claw) in helping write the villain songs, especially with Janja’s lyrics. Kiburi also wanted to do a solo in “Run this Dump” but his record label wouldn’t let him

-He probably writes his own version

He and Makuu are pretty good friends irl

Oh speaking of which, it’s one of the songs that won an award. Jasiri, Ushari, and Kiburi all collaborated on it and it was legit their greatest masterpiece

-The other songs that won an award were “Sisi ni Sawa” and “A New Way to Go” (both songs Jasiri wrote herself)

-They got the news during the shooting of a scene by someone shouting “WE FREAKING WON”. There was a huge party at Janja’s afterwards. Kiburi has picked up Makuu during the excitement

-Kiburi wasn’t allowed to speak during the ceremony due to the fact that he gloats to the other nominees. Reirei offers to do it instead

They got Kenge as a guest star from another show and he accidentally keeps mixing up the two. “Oops, wrong show” is something he says a lot

This one’s my favorite: Tamka is actually English as opposed to the New Yorker accent he does in the show

“Oh! How dreadful! I have been defeated!”

“Cut! Hey Tamka, can you say that in like a New York mobster kind of voice?”

“Oh, like this? OHHHHH! DE AGONY! YOU HAVE BEATEN ME!”

“Perfect.”

Believe it or not, Sumu’s really shy and introverted off-camera. He gets so awkward when someone recognizes him in public. He gets even more surprised when people are positive about it like “Wait, you LIKED my part? You think I’m a good villain? Really?”

-He’s even apologized profusely about what his character was about to do and if he was being too scary. He swears he would never sting out of malice

Bunga gets along well with his “enemies” offscreen. He and Ushari’s friendship is so wholesome and Mama Binturong freaking loves him. She is THE mom figure ever. You know how Danny DeVito took care of Mara Wilson during the filming of Matilda? That’s Mama with Bunga

Mama’s the mom figure to everyone, honestly. She’s interrupted filming just because Ushari or Janja didn’t have breakfast that morning

Ushari doesn’t need to act much he’s already done with everybody’s shit

He and Shupavu are married irl

Njano got a part due to being the director’s son. Yup, good ol nepotism. He sometimes needs help with his lines

Bunga’s the best with improv. 98% of his stunts are improvised

Makucha has a friendlier, higher pitched voice irl. Sometimes doing his gravelly voice hurts his throat

Ora plays his part so well, everybody’s genuinely scared of him

The cloud and fire used for Mufasa and Scar are done with special effects and puppets

The bloopers are golden. There’s a lot of cursing done backstage for a preschool show lmaoooo

[ghostcat3000]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by the super talented @theawkwardterrier

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

54

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

985,499 😅

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently SKAM. In the past I've written for: Call Me By Your Name, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, You're the Worst, Veronica Mars, and New Girl. I've also written a bunch of one-shots for Yuletide, mostly for films.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?*

Rest Easy (SKAM, Isak/Even, Nordic Noir AU, 18 chapters, Rated E, 168K, complete)

The Boyfriend Experience (SKAM, co-written with @irazor, Isak/Even, Gentle Sci-fi Love Story AU**, 21 chapters, Rated E, 177K, complete)

III. Rondo: Allegretto Moderato (Call Me By Your Name, Elio/Oliver, Post-Canon AU, 6 chapters, Rated M, 33K, complete)

A Lord's Sauce (SKAM, Isak/Even, Food Critics AU, 6 chapters, Rated T, 20K, complete)

1 Thing (SKAM, Isak/Even, Friends With Benefits AU, 6 chapters, Rated M, 31K, complete)

*I feel like this is crazily inaccurate. In terms of hits, The Boyfriend Experience is far and away the leader of the pack.

Lately, I've been getting so many guest kudos and I hate that I don't know if they're legit or bots run amok. I've gotten some fantastic comments from guests without AO3 accounts, so I'm reluctant to shut them out, but that might be what the future holds.

**This is a gross oversimplification of what kind of AU The Boyfriend Experience really is. All I can say is: trust us.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes. Sometimes I'm a little late in replying but I will reply. If someone took the time to read my story and tell me how they felt about it, then I want to respond to them. Say thank you.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm not a sad ending fic writer. Early on in my fic writing days, I worked on a non-chronological Veronica Mars fic series and a one-shot in that series, The Teeth by the Shoulder, had an angsty final chapter. That story was meant to connect with the one following, and what came next wasn't angsty at all. BUT, unfortunately, it didn't read that way and readers were like wtf, GC??? That was a structural experiment that didn't quite work. It happens. I still like the story though and how it sets up the one after. A noble failure.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh gosh, most of them are pretty happy, weirdly enough. Probably Rest Easy, because the happy ending was a departure from the Scandinavian Noir genre and I felt it was pretty earned.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten some weird things.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do. What kind? I don't know. The kind with feelings, I suppose. I think sex writing is a great tool for revealing character. That's usually the best kind.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I wrote one tiny crossover for Veronica Mars and New Girl (who famously share an actor, a fact that in typical-me fashion, I did NOT take advantage of) called Legs Up To Her Waist (The French Have a Phrase for It Remix) for a remix challenge. I think it's a lot of fun, I got to delve a little into my Raymond Chandler fixation.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Probably lines here and there, fanon, but not whole stories. I think they're considered too weird by the general population.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! My Handmaid's Tale fic, We Must Refuse to Disappear has been translated into Russian.

I also have a SKAM story, A Lord's Sauce, that was translated into Italian as part of Fandom Trumps Hate. I hope to post that before the end of the year.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, quite happily, The Boyfriend Experience with the wonderful @irazor.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I don't play favorites. I am enjoying writing Isak/Even now. Probably because they have such a good foundational story to work from for AU purposes.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The last two chapters of my CMBYN series, Piano Sonata in G Major, "Pense-bête", are so removed from fic expectations (one half of the ship is barely present/there's another, albeit temporary, love interest in one chapter, other nuanced themes are explored in the other) and are so labor-intensive. Every time I look at what I have drafted, I feel exhausted. I am not currently in a place where I can work on it, but I would like to finish it someday. So I can't say for sure that I won't do it, just not anytime soon.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Some nice language, in-character dialogue. Interest in improving.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Simplifying. Proofreading grammar.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

It's a LOT of work. However, I was very lucky when I was writing my CMBYN stories, which feature French and Italian dialogue. I got a tremendous amount of help from some lovely people.

That's partly the reason I haven't continued writing them. I don't like bugging people about translations. It's one thing to spend time writing stories, it's quite another to drag people into the vortex. Free labor is still labor.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

New Girl. Great readers, awesome betas. Really great place to start.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I have a lot of love for my co-written fic with @irazor, The Boyfriend Experience and my Nordic Noir story, Rest Easy.

- O -

Tagging @irazor, @imminentinertia, @cheesybadgers, @htbthomas, @khaotunqs, @codswalloping

[colettebronte]

Waaaaaiiitttt oooh ooh ask game thingy!!!

I wanna knowwww:

4, 16, 20, 54, 65, 74

Imma excited as Johnny to read your answers 😁

Thank youuuuuuuuuuu! Much love 🫶😁🧡🧡

WHAT? Insert the Bridgerton Mama "THE AUDACITY" gif here!🤣

Surely not The JB Wiggle?! Gahhhhhh! Ok, ok, I'm taking some deep breaths and trying to look away and answer your questions

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

I find inspo in a variety of places. Sometimes it's just a picture of the character/the actor who plays said character. I say that as if almost all my fics aren't about Anthony Bridgerton. 🤣🤷‍♀️

Or maybe it's a scene from the show itself. Other times it's in conversation with our lovely group of friends when we're bouncing ideas off each other and more often than not enabling the more intriguing/crazy plot bunnies to take hold.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

Ooooof ok. My wip list is currently sitting at 14 fics in various states of . . . . being.

One of the fics I'd like to get written this summer is the as-yet-untitled Escort Anthony fic which has DEFINITE beachy vibes but so far is just a moodboard and a half-written outline.

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

So the very intentional pattern is that I always have some element of Sub!Anthony in my fics. That man DESERVES to be put on his knees and told he's a good boy. I don't make the rules! 🤣

54. What's your favorite part of the fanfiction writing process?

All anyone needs to do is take a glance at my Bridgerton Fic Masterlist to see that I love a good moodboard. It's almost always the first thing I do when writing a new fic. For me, it helps set the tone of what I'm going for.

65. Tell us about what you're most looking forward to writing - in your current project, or a future project

I'd love to knock out more chapters of Rise and Breathe and All the Time in the World. Because I have the summer off, I hope to really hunker down and get more written for both of those series.

74. You've posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess you'd written it?

Hmmmm. The fact that it's probably Sub!Anthony? The overuse of the phrase "chocolate brown eyes"? 🤣

Idk, I own my filth, I don't think I'd ever post anon.

Thank you for the ask my friend and the VERY RUDE gif 🤣

Seriously though, these were fun to answer. Love ya! 🫶❤️

[cinematicnomad]

with what you were talking about with daisy and the six- one of my favorite visual representations of this idea is Knives Out. every flashback makes you doubt if the person is telling the truth, or remembering correctly, and not everything is even actually confirmed one way or another on screen. from what I’ve seen of daisy and the six, I don’t know if they’ll actually go this route, but it would be cool if they did!

yes!! knives out is a good example of how editing and story telling can help to make the audience uncertain of the truth. the first movie is rife with these scenes—different family members talk about how they were the ones standing beside harlan while he blew out his birthday candles, they each claim marta's family is from a different country, etc etc.

what i like about the text for daisy jones and the six is that...it doesn't really matter what the objective truth is? or, not that it doesn't matter, but that...we just have to forget about it. because the fact of the matter is, we will never know. the book can never reveal What Actually Happened in certain scenes. we can make inferences—who do we trust more, who has a greater reason to lie, who do we simply, just, believe etc etc.

like, i think it's probably pretty clear that eddie did wind up playing billy's riff, bc everything we know about eddie is that he's a pompous ass who would never be willing to admit that even if it were the truth. and i think billy probably did tell daisy that impossible woman was about her—we get several outside opinions confirming they thought the song was about daisy, and billy confessing this fact to daisy was SUCH a big moment for her she'd have to be delusional to be making that up, while it makes total sense why billy would be in denial about it to himself and why, afterwards, he might lie to himself about ever admitting it out loud. regarding who left teddy's house first, i genuinely can't say...i think i probably lean on the side of daisy fleeing first bc the shame and humiliation she describes feeling in that moment seems SO overwhelming i can't imagine her staying, and billy DOES seem like the type of guy who would tell himself the story that he was The Bigger Man™.

but the fact of the matter is...i can never KNOW. that's MY rationale for the truth, but it's not objective, and there might be others who can argue the other way around. and i think the show will have a hard time leaving room for that ambiguity. these scenes aren't just a sleight of hand—they're fully realized contradictory memories that several people hold throughout the book. the BEST scenes in the narrative are the ones where one character says something like it's an objective fact and then it is immediately contradicted by someone else—and you as the reader are left to weigh both stories and wonder which is true. and sometimes it's obvious and sometimes you just...don't know. and you have to live with that in a way that putting something on screen, having the actors say the words, doesn't quite leave the same amount of breathing room.