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timeagainreviews · 1 month ago

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My Wish for the World of Doctor Who

Does anyone find it funny that the only aspect of season two that Tharries didn’t spoil was his cameo? I’ve been bombarded with thumbnails of the Rani and leaks about Omega since before episode one aired. But this? Radio silence. Those NDAs are no joke. Jokes aside, I think it’s lovely that they gave him a cameo. He very clearly loves the show. Plus it gives me hope. If a fairly popular YouTuber can nab a spot on the show, then maybe a barely noticed Tumblr blogger could one day set up the microphones for a Big Finish Torchwood audio. A girl can dream. I like to aim big. Speaking of aiming big, how about that penultimate episode? They really swung for the bleachers, right? Sure, why not?

I’m not apathetic, it’s just hard to write about the first half of a two-parter. And while Davies has delivered one of the more solid seasons of Doctor Who that the show has seen in years, he hasn’t completely gained back the goodwill he lost with the lacklustre “Empire of Death.” While yours truly was more forgiving, many were left deflated by an ending that didn’t quite deliver. While I enjoyed “Wish World,” it’s with a pensive anticipation. There are things I would love to see Davies do, but this is his story, not mine. I would like to think he has more planned than “Gallifrey is back, baybee!” But I wonder how far he plans to take this new shake-up to the Doctor’s reality. Will he make broad strokes, or will he pull back just shy of anything substantial? Are we forging into the great unknown or breaking things and putting them back to the status quo?

When I say substantial, I need you to remember what kind of fan I am. I like Doctor Who weird. I don’t want Davies to “undo the Timeless Children,” or anything so mundane. I want Davies to break Doctor Who so that people stop trying to place it in such rigid constraints. I want Davies to free Doctor Who from the binds of canon. I would love to plunge Doctor Who back into the realm of mystery promised by its title. Doctor Who isn’t the kind of show to really focus on hard facts. Can you name the different Cyberman ships? What was the name of the ridge where the War Doctor carved “No More” into a wall with a laser gun? How many times has the Doctor been 900 years old? None of these things matter to the type of story Doctor Who is. Doctor Who is unique in that its strength is what kills other shows- change. My hope is that Russell T Davies will push Doctor Who further into the realm of fluidity. I want the definition of Doctor Who to expand, not shrink.

Leading into this episode, I was most anticipating Archie Panjabi’s portrayal as the Rani. We have already seen Mrs Flood and can retroactively think of her as the Rani. But we had hardly met our new Rani before the credits rolled last week. I had a good feeling about Archie from the get-go. She has a regality about her. When I saw the photos of her “Wish World” appearance on the Doctor Who socials, I was starting to feel hopeful that they would nail the character. Her deep red coat with the gold studded shoulder pads was giving Kate O’Mara. I’ve always admired the Rani’s penchant for authoritarian power clothes. She looks smart with just a hint of dominatrix. The glimpses of her sonic syringe had me yearning for the toy. I love a good 1:1 replica, and that thing is begging to be electroplated and shipped to my house. My boyfriend better watch out because when that thing arrives, my inner Rani will unleash. She looks the part, she has the toys. So far, so good.

The episode opens in Bavaria, 1865, with the Rani visiting the seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh son. This relates back to the old folklore belief that any seventh consecutive son’s seventh consecutive son will be like a wizard. But if that wizard should then go on to have a seventh son, that son would then be a sorcerer, a sort of font of magic. As I had wondered last week, the Rani seems interested in exploiting magic as she has exploited science. Considering the Toymaker’s accent and Bavaria, I expected this baby to be related to him somehow, especially when the baby is used to turn a woman into flower petals. Not since Billy the Butcher have I seen a character wield a baby like a weapon with such finesse. The Rani kisses wishes off the baby’s head, reducing people to farm animals. The baby’s six brothers are instantly transformed into a flock of mallards. They really should have ducked. Sorry, I really quack myself up. In truth, it’s some cold shit to essentially kill those children. They sand the edges down by making them ducks, but it’s ruthless. Very Rani.

Pulling from the Steven Moffat playbook of starting the second half of a cliff-hanger in a completely different location, we find the Doctor and Belinda awaking in bed together. The room is mid-century modern kitsch. The Doctor (who is going as John Smith) and Belinda kiss one another good morning, and they set about their day. The aesthetics of the ‘50s nuclear family are the perfect backdrop for a story about a fictional world that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The Doctor, in his finest John Steed apparel, kisses his fake wife and his Space Baby Poppy goodbye. But reality can’t fully preserve itself, so slips happen as cups fall through tables. Not even Ruby's appearance at the Smiths’ door can shake the Doctor from this waking dream. The stifling fiction of this reality forces people into roles they were never meant to play. They are the invention of an idyllic megalomaniac who thinks men are men, women are women, the poor and disabled don’t exist, and that everything should be bright and sunny all the time. Who do we know that fits that description?

Conrad’s introduction reminded me a lot of George Orwell’s “1984” with Conrad acting as Big Brother. During his constant updates on television, Conrad must reestablish the lie of a world not in step with reality. If Conrad stops concentrating on this fantasy, reality has a shitty way of creeping back in with major consequences, such as flooding. I was amused by the choice to model Conrad’s Doctor Who story book on a Harry Potter book. Whether or not it was intentional, it rings true for a guy who seeks to limit the spectrum of human sexuality and gender. Did anyone else notice the author of the book was I. M. Foreman, like Susan? Interesting. Furthering the 1984 associations, we get Shirley and Ruby (and of course, Tharries) filling the role of the proles. And as Winston wrote “If there is hope, it lies in the proles.” Since Conrad doesn’t consider disabled people as valid, they’re essentially a blind spot in his worldview. Consequently, this provides a lot of agency for them to move about unnoticed. A rebellion is forming right under his nose.

This ragtag rebellion is comprised mostly of people with disabilities. However, Ruby is brought into the fold. Possibly due to her proximity to Conrad, Ruby can see through his facade. It’s revealed that after expressing doubts about Conrad, Ruby is turned in to the thought police by her own mother. Carla is cracking me up at this point. She’s such a traitor! This marks the third time in one reality or another where Carla has completely abandoned Ruby. I’m reminded of Rory Williams and his penchant for dying. I don’t truly believe Carla is a bad mum. It's just funny that a woman who fosters many children’s most consistent character trait is abandonment. After Ruby escapes capture, she is brought into the fold by Shirley. After vetting Ruby, they show her a UNIT tablet from before reality shifted. Ruby doesn’t recognise the device but it feels familiar. In their world, phones are still things attached to the wall, like the one Carla used to betray Ruby. With this tablet, they’re able to pinpoint Conrad’s location during his transmissions. We’ve yet to discover if and how that will come into play.

I liked that this group of outcasts were diverse, but one aspect I found weird was that they were all so young. This isn’t to say that they didn’t breach the topic of ageism. Mel’s status as a single older woman makes her invisible in her own right. But it would have been nice to see some older people in the ranks of the rebellion. It reminded me of “Alien Romulus”, which felt very aimed toward young people. Compare the cast of “Alien,” where the ages of the crew were varied. Call me out of touch, but I don’t understand this modern inclination to appeal to young people by assuming they can’t identify with older, if not elderly, characters. I got into Twin Peaks as a teenager, and that show is full of old people. Some of my favourite Doctors are old people. It’s not a huge issue, I simply find it strange. This episode has its share of elderly representation with Mel, Mrs Flood, and Susan Triad. But it feels out of step to say a group of disabled people are capable of fighting a rebellion while leaving out the elderly. Like I said, it’s not a huge issue, just weird.

John Smith works at UNIT- Unified National Insurance Team. It’s the same UNIT tower but in a completely separate line of work. Susan Triad is back in her “The Devil’s Chord” attire. Colonel Ibrahim has traded his tactical gear for a work-appropriate suit and tie. It’s like the set of Mad Men, except there’s a giant shipping box containing the Vlinx. While at work, John Smith experiences a couple of different slips. First, when he refers to Ibrahim as beautiful, something in Conrad’s world that a man should never say about another man. And again, when wondering who the Rani is as she flies her bone scooter up to a skeletal tower à la the Wicked Witch of the West. I mused last week that the Rani is too scrupulous to squabble with past incarnations as to who is in charge. However, even that narrative is beginning to show cracks in the presence of reality. While Mrs Flood may have sprung Conrad out of his cell, she and he have found themselves trapped in their own respective circumstances. The jailor and the prisoner are both left to rot while the Rani is free to do as she pleases. But what is she doing?

One thought that has remained with me since “Wish World” is, why would the Rani wish to bring back Time Lord society? To what end would the Rani benefit from resurrecting Gallifrey? Historically, the Rani has been labelled a “Renegade Time Lord,” alongside the Doctor and the Master. She wasn’t exactly in high standing with the Time Lords. And yet, within her palace is a giant Seal of Rassilon. This leads me to believe it’s not entirely about resurrecting the Time Lords, her dear friends. This feels more like her positioning herself to rule over the Time Lords. In the same way that she wouldn’t revere the Time Lords, I have a hard time imagining she holds any warmth toward Omega. Omega feels more like a means to an end; another source of power for her to manipulate. Going by the preview for next week’s episode, it sounds like she plans to use Omega’s body to rebuild Gallifrey. It's mythic in scale, drawing parallels to Norse mythology where the world was created from the body of a dead frost giant.

The Rani’s bone palace is a perplexing location. I don’t fully understand why her tower and its sentinels needed to be made of bone, but perhaps we will get an explanation next week. Or perhaps its just some weird shit Davies thought would look cool. Which, it does. Though it is amusing that while forming this fortress, the Rani saw fit to include a little bone kitchenette where Mrs Flood can make Conrad’s sandwiches. I did wonder if this palace was actually the Rani’s TARDIS, but that doesn’t explain the sentinels. If they aren’t her TARDIS, where is it? Historically, the Rani has always had a cool TARDIS. I would love a peek inside a modern version. We know she can travel in time as she was in Bavaria, so I expect to see it at some point. Unlike the Doctor’s TARDIS, the chameleon circuit still works, so it could be hiding in plain sight.

John Smith continues struggling with doubt when Conrad’s transmission is disrupted by Rogue contacting the Doctor from a Hell dimension called green screen. If you’ll recall from last year, I’m a Rogue girlie, so I was very excited to see him again. Belinda calls the thought police on John after finding him slipping cups through the dinner table. However, this is all part of the Rani’s plan. She brings the Doctor and Belinda back to her palace under the pretence of thought crimes. But it’s just an excuse for the Rani to exposit her entire plan to the Doctor. For a moment, I felt something in the pit of my stomach akin to worry. It was beginning to feel like the Master talking at the Thirteenth Doctor while she stood around doing nothing. But Davies smartly draws attention to this, informing us that the exposition is the point. The Rani intended for the Doctor to see through her ruse. She needed the power of a Time Lord’s doubt to undo reality. She needed Conrad to create a reality so unrealistic that only a red-pilled Broganite like himself could imagine it. Both he and the Doctor are merely pawns in the Rani’s quest to break apart reality so that she may find Omega underneath.

What Davies has done is essentially given himself the license to rewrite the mythology of Doctor Who. When he puts the world back into place, he can essentially reshape it. He has said recently that Gallifreyan lore will be rewritten. For my money, Gallifreyan lore has always been a bit shit anyway, so I’m fairly open to the prospect. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the Chibnall era, Doctor Who’s entire narrative has felt murky. Is the First Doctor just a fob watched version of the Fugitive Doctor who only thinks he grew up on Gallifrey? If so, whose leg did Clara grab? Who slept in the Doctor’s crib? So far, Davies has remained a bit vague on the situation, which has left many in the fandom waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. As I said above, I’m not looking for Davies to undo the Timeless Children, but some clarity would be nice. There are, however, some interesting context clues that could indicate which direction Davies might take the narrative.

The language over the Doctor’s origins has recently sided more on the Time Lord from Gallifrey aspect over the Timeless Child from wherever aspect of the narrative. They even refer to Omega as the first of the Time Lords. While yes, you could say that it takes more than the Timeless Child’s regeneration to make a Time Lord, it is a rather decisive way to say it, don’t you think? Furthermore, something that stuck out to me was the montage of classic Doctor’s faces, particularly the order in which they are presented. Unlike “Rogue,” which gave us a random assortment of the Doctor’s previous faces, we’re given the Doctors in chronological order. Or are we? We start with the First Doctor, William Hartnell, but shouldn’t we be starting with Jo Martin? Instead, Jo Martin is slipped in between Thirteen and Fourteen. But the War Doctor is placed in chronological order, not by his appearance. Had he been listed by his appearance, he would have been slotted between Eleven and Twelve, but here he’s shown between Eight and Nine. Perhaps because it pertains to the Doctor’s memory, they are presented in the order in which the Doctor remembers these incarnations. It’s not as though the War Doctor was forgotten by the Doctor. It may be nothing, but it's interesting that the show seems to be gravitating toward the traditional form of the narrative while still embracing aspects of the new narrative. It’s this sort of thing that makes me think we will see a kind of amalgam of the two.

The aspect of the story which stood out the most to me was Poppy. Why is Poppy here? And more importantly, what does the Doctor mean when he says Poppy is real? What implications does that have on the story? One thing we never did learn in “Space Babies” was who was making the Space Babies and why. Was the Rani attempting to create new Gallifreyans? Is that why they talk? Are any of the Space Babies going to grow up to be Susan? Is Poppy the Timeless Child? Is Susan secretly the Timeless Child? I have a hard time imagining children on Gallifrey. Specifically, new Time Lord children. I can picture the Doctor as a kid. I can picture the scarlet-clad children running in the 50th anniversary special. But I have a hard time imagining the Time Lords as reproductive. So much so that the Doctor has been alive for millennia and is only recently getting comfortable with the concept. Though I do find it funny that the closer the Doctor gets to embracing romance and sexuality, the less he mentions his age. My point, however, is that I don’t take Time Lords to be the type to reproduce. And not in that “genetic looms as canon” manner, or even asexuality, but rather in that “removed from the mundanity of having a body” sort of way. My thought of Time Lord society is that a large portion of Time Lords were dead on their feet. Ineffective and affected. Effete to a fault. They would definitely grow Space Babies.

Sadly, one of my predictions about Doctor Who has not come true. Mrs Flood is not some storytelling god with the ability to cancel Doctor Who. Fears of cancellation weren’t the most brazen of marketing gimmicks, but rather a harsh possibility. It’s a real shame when you consider Doctor Who is currently on an uptick in quality, but so was the Cartmel era and they still took it off the air. Something I think Davies could have done better was to reassert the narrative when he returned. There were large portions of the fandom who wanted to see him erase the Timeless Children from the show completely. Some fans were afraid he would do just that. Meanwhile, I found myself somewhere in the middle where I simply wanted him to make it work. His desire to please everyone has left a lot of people unhappy. Because of this, next week’s episode feels pivotal. Will Davies finally let the proverbial other shoe drop? I’d like to hope that Davies is improving the sandbox. I’m hoping that he will use this reality disruption as a chance at a clean slate. Marvel shook up continuity with Battleworld, why can’t Doctor Who do it?

I hope that Davies has more in store than sensationalism. Perhaps a surprise regeneration replacing Ncuti Gatwa with Billie Piper would get people to tune in next year. But a bit of clarity in the wake of the disastrous Chibnall era would help retain said audience. I don’t just want spectacle from this finale, I want a statement of intent. Davies has danced around these concepts long enough. In the same manner, it’s up to us as fans to remember to watch next week. Because this could be it for Doctor Who proper. Do you really want the last Doctor Who you watch to be “The War Between the Land and the Sea”? Of course you don’t. That’s why I’m going to the theatre next week to watch the episode. That’s why I rewatch the episodes on iPlayer. We need to show up so people know we still love Doctor Who. Who knows if ratings still mean what they meant in the pre-streaming era? Probably not. Let’s not put it to the test. Unless, of course, you think Doctor Who should have some downtime. I get that the current era may not be your cuppa, but Doctor Who can’t change if it doesn’t exist.

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rigelmejo · 26 days ago

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While I'm on the topic of beginners learning a language, common pitfalls beginners fall into, and and how to get out:

Starting a new learning resource (for beginners) for a few weeks/months, then quitting and starting a new learning resource (for beginners), getting stuck in a cycle of relearning the same material multiple times - if this is you, the solution is to STICK with 1 resource until you've completed it. (Or to stick with 1-4 resources if you are using different resources for reading, listening, speaking, writing etc.). If you find yourself jumping between apps, or resources, go ahead and keep jumping around until you find something you really like, so you can find that resource you'll stick to for months/a year. Basically, keep it simple, and stick with something.

No idea where to start or what to study first - if this is you, the solution is to pick a Structured Resource, so you can let the resource tell you what to do. Traditional classes in schools, MOOCs like Coursera, Textbooks labelled by 'level', Free Resources that have clear directions on what to do for how long. If you choose an app or an anki deck (something less structured), then make a study plan to do it a decent amount of time daily (more than 15 minutes) it until you complete it. If you struggle to judge what is useful and what's not, a Structured Resource that teaches basic grammar and 1000-3000 words, in listening and reading exercises (and optionally speaking and writing exercises/practice), is going to be the easiest thing to use.

Not putting in enough daily study time on average - if this is you, consider trying to make time for 1 hour or more of time engaging with the language daily. At least 30 minutes. 2+ hours if you're ambitious. Suggestions: consider using audio-only learning materials such as learner podcasts with other-language explanations (Glossika, Coffee Break Language, LanguagePod101/Innovative Language courses, Pimsleur, Paul Noble, audio sentence flashcards like japaneseaudiolessons.com), so you can study while doing chores, while getting ready, while commuting/traveling, while exercising, and see if you can fit in 30 minutes or more per day. Once you are no longer a beginner, it will be easier to make time for the language in your daily life, as you'll be able to engage with the language during more of your everyday hobbies. The beginning stage is the hardest, you got this.

Not seeing progress as fast as you wish - if this is you, the solution is increase your daily study time. I know, it sucks and is obvious. That's about the only way to see more progress in less days.

Losing motivation because you aren't seeing noticeable progress - if this is you, pick a short term monthly (or 3 month) goal, to be able to do something specific in the language. It could be any goal. Examples: read a Graded Reader story, finish X number of learner podcast episodes, read X chapters of a novel or comic (looking up words if needed), complete X chapters of textbook, go through X number of dialogues from class, watch a movie in the language (while looking words up as needed), watch a youtube video in the language (while looking words up as needed), read a short fanfiction in the language (while looking up words if needed), be able to speak a summary of your hobbies aloud, be able to write a diary entry about your day. These short term goals will give you something to achieve, will focus your studies on a particular thing you wish to do in the language, and will give you results you can see/measure for your efforts. These short term goals are also useful for if you like changing what you do every few months, and changing what you focus on improving - this is generally what I do, to keep interest and motivation up.

No idea if you've learned enough to move onto intermediate study resources and practice understanding the language - if this is you, a 'Grammar Guide Summary' and a 1000-3000 'Common Words List', both ideally with example sentences, will be your best friends. You can look these kinds of resources up online free, or if you have been studying with a Structured Resource then you should be able to quickly glance at that resource and see how much grammar and how many words it taught you (that information should be in the opening explanation of how to use the resource, or in the explanations and word lists of each chapter, or if it's an anki deck it will be the information on all the cards/the information on the deck's community page). Look up a "Grammar Guide Summary" and a 1000-3000 "Common Words List" and if most of the stuff on those resources looks familiar, then you're ready to start PRACTICING understanding the language, and you're ready to MOVE ON TO INTERMEDIATE RESOURCES. Congrats, you're no longer a beginner!

Not sure how to move into practicing what you are learning - if this is you, Graded Readers (containing a unique word count lower than the amount of vocabulary you've studied), Comprehensible Input Lessons (on youtube), and Learner Podcasts for Beginners to Lower Intermediate learners will be easiest for you to practice with. Also, if using a Structured Resource (like a class or textbook), any exercises it contains for practicing (writing sentences using the grammar and words taught that week, speaking the same sentences, listening to audio and answering questions about what it talked about, shadowing the audio - repeating what you hear as close to how it sounds, reading the text practice provided in the chapter/class).

Not sure how to start watching shows and reading novels - if this is you, you're either at the Upper Beginner or a Lower Intermediate stage, know a lot of basic grammar and 1000-3000 common words. My first suggestion is to go back to the previous point for practice until you feel comfortable. Once you wish to, watch stuff and read stuff made for native speakers - get yourself a good translation app (or website) for the language you're learning, and start watching stuff and reading stuff you want to. Look up any unknown words or grammar that seems key to understanding the main idea, and look up anything else you're curious about. Watch and read things you've seen before in another language, because the prior context of knowing the plot already will make it more understandable. Watch things with a lot of visual cues as to what's going on - cartoons for toddlers, cartoons for kids, action stuff, daily life stories, comics. Read stuff about topics you are already familiar with, such as news or history or science where you already know the topic and recognize some words. Congrats, you have hit the long intermediate stage!

#rant #study plan #advice #advice for beginners

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cherrytastiq · 5 months ago

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SD TIME SQUAD EDIT IS UP ON ARCHIVE.ORG! AGAIN!

(For realsies this time)

Every single episode of Time Squad (2001-2003) edited into beautiful SDTV 480p resolution by yours truly, for free, (hopefully) forever up on the Internet Archive.

Additional notes under cut:

If you're wondering where the old SD Time Squad edit went or why I'm doing this sort of post again in the first place, my friend and I "recently" discovered the Danish dub (Tidspatruljen) of the show fully uploaded on Youtube in 480p quality, which was ultimately clearer than the previous Portuguese dub video footage. Therefore I decided to edit the entire thing all over again with Danish dub video and English dub audio. Some of the Portuguese dub episodes still remain though as they are 720p instead of 480p.

Huge thanks to 098765four for scraping every episode before the playlists were taken down. Here's hoping those Odd Job Jack episodes are found in English!

My edits are, once again, not perfect. The Danish dub was 5% faster than the original show (presumably for copyright reasons?) so I had to manually slow down each episode, and check for syncing issues.

No, I still haven't gotten an autism diagnosis.

#time squad #internet archive #archival #cartoon network

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dearheart42regenerated · 2 years ago

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MOTORCITY SEASON 2 MASTERPOST

once upon a time, over 10 years ago, just a few months after the announcement that Motorcity was officially canceled...the creators of the show took pity on their heartbroken fandom and gave us several glimpses of what season 2 might have been like. they saw how much we loved Motorcity and gave us every scrap of info they could at the time, so that we could use those scraps to imagine our own personal "Season 2" - whether it continue on in our fics, our fanart, or simply our own heads.

I'm making this masterpost so that none of this material will be lost or forgotten, and so any fanartists/fic writers still hanging around today can use it for inspiration. if there's any related material I've missed, PLEASE feel free to add it in a reblog or let me know in my inbox! I want this list to be as complete as we can make it! :)

The Season 2 That Never Was: A Comprehensive List

Motorcity Season 2 Rough Intro "Scratch audio by our very own Chris P." (x)

youtube

-> backup download

Season 2 Writer's Wall posted (and later deleted) by @chrisprynoski on twitter, and shared on tumblr by @peopleofmotorcity, these pictures of the writer's wall showed us a "rough sketch" of what could have been, and gave our imaginations SO many fun theories and possibilities to play with. every blurry sticky note was a treasure to us. :')

-> original tumblr posts: x x x x x x x x x x x x -> image masterpost -> google drive folder

Chris Prynoski's Fan Interview + Tumblr Q&A's this whole interview on youtube is a delight to listen to, and Part 2 in particular has some interesting bits about season 2. (skip to 17:10 for some good stuff about Texas and Chuck's backgrounds!)

youtube

-> Part 1 -> Part 2

Chris P also answered several juicy season 2 questions on tumblr. sadly his blog is deactivated now, but you can still read through all of them at the links below!

-> image masterpost -> google drive folder

Capri Chilton - Mike Chilton's long lost big sister! I can't remember where or when it was first revealed that they were considering giving Mike a secret older sister, and I haven't been able to track down the origin. that being said, when it was revealed, the fandom loved the idea so much that they begged the creators to make it canon. Chris P busted out the "magical canon stick", gave us this delightful concept sketch, and "Capri Chilton" was born!

The Motorcity Series Bible "To help you all understand what it is you are reading, this is the material that Titmouse used to help pitch Motorcity, and it was also a tool for writers to use when coming up with episodes to help understand who the characters were before there was any other reference. That being said, this was one of the very first documents about Motorcity, so many things have changed or evolved from these early concepts." (x)

-> original tumblr posts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 -> image backups -> PDF download

EDIT: the COMPLETE series bible has now been leaked by Lost Media Busters on X (Twitter) and helpfully shared by @waksworldrebooted!!

--> here is a google drive download for the full PDF file!

Motorcity Series Bible - Redacted Version (Pages 1, 2, 17, 19, 20) funfact: @peopleofmotorcity was the official? unofficial? tumblr blog for Motorcity, and it was run by a guy named Mac - an animator for the show who loved to tease and joke around with the fandom. before revealing the actual first 13 pages of the series bible, he posted this censored version as a prank - a mix of truth and trolling! it's up to the fandom to decide which is which. ;)

-> original tumblr posts: 1 2 17 19 20 -> image backups -> PDF download

MTV Era Motorcity Masterpost a fantastic collection of glimpses into the original pilot/pitch trailer that would evolve into the show we know and love today, found and compiled by @waksworldrebooted. "In 2000, Chris Prynoski pitched a cartoon called Motorcity. He made a card and a website promoting the show, which wouldn't see the light of day until the Walt Disney Company got their hands on it."

youtube

--> tumblr masterpost (including wayback links to the old website) --> twitter sources from Chris P himself :)

Motorcity Unaired Pilot - 2009 Disney Version Originally aired during Comic Con 2012, the pilot was recorded and then posted on YouTube by Allison Simmons in July of 2012, later being privatized in 2022. The video was re uploaded onto VKVideo 22 days after its original posting to YouTube and is still currently available to watch online. (x)

youtube

--> backup download --> also viewable here!

if I find more material, I will add it here! :)

#motorcity #motorcity season 2 #mike chilton #capri chilton #julie kane #chris prynoski #peopleofmotorcity #Youtube

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languagelvlup · 2 months ago

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Migaku Review

I just finished my 10-day free trial of the language study tool Migaku, and I wanted to put my thoughts together into a review! If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask in the notes or send me a message.

I had seen so many ads for it on YouTube that I was on the verge of blacklisting it in my brain. Something about the messaging felt kind of gimmicky for some reason. Like "hey! stop using your stupid free apps and start paying for our super special AI app that works like magic!!" kind of vibes. Please.

That said, I saw one of Dogen's videos about it and I was like...ok fine. I'll try the free trial. They don't even make you register a credit card for the free trial, which was comforting. If you're interested in my thoughts, please continue below the cut.

(FYI: migaku can be used for I think 10 different languages, but I'm focusing on Japanese in my review because that's what I study)

I will start by saying I liked it, and this review is going to be generally positive, despite my initial misgivings. That being said, I want to get the negatives out of the way first.

Weak Points - The price tag was kind of a shock for me when I saw that the lowest tier was $120. After doing the math, it comes out to $10 a month, which is less than I pay for Spotify and Netflix respectively, so not bad. It's just...not free. So when you're used to studying with hand-me-down textbooks and the Anki desktop app which ARE free, it feels like a big investment.

- The subtitles and furigana are not perfect. I mostly use it with Netflix, where the subtitles have been like 98% accurate, but when I used it with YouTube where native Japanese speakers were using slang and speaking quickly in incomplete sentences as often happens in natural speech, Migaku had some trouble keeping up.

As a somewhat advanced speaker, I've been able to catch the mistakes with furigana just based on feeling ("I don't know that word, but it FEELS like that's wrong because those radicals..."), but I would worry a little bit about it for new learners. Although I guess beginners wouldn't be trying to watch the kind of content where Migaku struggles...but it's worth mentioning.

- It only runs on Chrome.

- It uses AI. I personally feel like this is one of the best uses of AI, as it's not trying to be creative or accidentally giving us dangerous information. But if you're avoiding AI on principle, then it'll have to be a pass.

Good Points - It runs really smoothly. I have the browser extension and the phone app. So far, if I add new flashcards via the browser window, they show up almost instantaneously in the app, ready to be studied. If I mark a word as "known" via Netflix subtitles (more on this later), my vocabulary word count reflects this immediately.

- It does flashcards well. I've always been interested in sentence mining, but it's been too much of a pain for me to do it properly. I remember trying to mine sentences and even just vocabulary from the first episode of Dandadan, and it took me like 3 hours to get through a single 22-minute episode. It was really annoying to stop and guess the reading so I could type it into jisho that was open in another tab or, oh god, try to DRAW the kanji into my google translate app.

If you're like "ok well that's very dramatic, you can just use Yomitan, and also you shouldn't be mining EVERY word/sentence you don't know" then you are correct! And Migaku might not be necessary for you. But it was a game-changer for me.

Another massive benefit is the automatic flashcard maker. It pulls the sentence audio and a screenshot from the from drama/movie/etc that you're watching. This is great for building connections that can help the words stick in your memory. I pulled a few sentences from the anime Nana, and the background music got pulled in with them, and now I get a little emotional whenever I do my reviews lol.

Also -- I wouldn't do this because I hate spoilers, but my friend brought this up -- you can open up the full subtitles for an episode and have Migaku make flashcards of the words you don't know so that you can study them before watching.

- It's not JUST flashcards. It keeps tracks of words you know. You *do* have to manually enter them, either by copy and pasting (maybe a JLPT N5 word list or an old Anki deck?) or by marking them individually as you go through texts or movie/drama/anime subtitles. I know this might sound overwhelming, especially if you're more advanced had have a large vocabulary...but I've found it to be SO much fun lol. Seeing my "known word" count increase has been intensely motivating, and as a bit of a gamer, I really like the idea that I can "100%" an episode of my favorite anime. It's only been a few days, so I don't know how long this will last, but my time spent immersing in native materials was up by like 10 hours last week. It uses the words you know to give you a comprehension rating when you open a webpage, like a NHK News or a Wikipedia article. I get discouraged easily when I read or watch something that I can't comprehend, so it's extremely helpful to see "you know 80% of these words" or "oof you only know 22% of these words" BEFORE I get started.

It also includes pitch accent lessons. I'm not personally invested in that at all, but, ya know, it doesn't hurt.

One more feature that I personally don't use but others might find interesting: there's a "skip" mode, where the app will fast-forward through (or completely skip) sections with no dialogue. I tried it once with something I was rewatching, but it was a bit glitchy.

Also, uh, I guess there's a Discord. If you're into that.

- You can import your Anki decks.

TL;DR - It's not free. - It only runs on Chrome. - Whether it's "worth it" depends on three things: Do you have money to throw at your hobbies? Do you have the time/drive/knowledge to set up / integrate existing free apps instead? Do you have the time/drive to actually use it frequently?

For me, it's "Not really, I could probably stick to Anki...but my birthday is next month." and "No, or I would have already" and "YES!" so I'm signing up for lifetime and looking forward to seeing how much it improves over the next couple of years.

#migaku #japanese studyblr #japanese language #日本語 #llu

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thisbluespirit · 1 year ago

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How To Find Your (British Actor) Blorbo On The Radio: A Brief Guide

(Disclaimer: British, because the main tool I'm using is the BBC's Genome.)

If you want more of your fave actor, or you love full-cast drama podcasts/audios (and audiobooks/NF content too) here's a guide on how to get your hands on BBC Radio broadcasts.

The BBC have a great free resource called Genome, which has all the Radio Times listings from 1922 to the present day (plus some of the actual articles), and it's searchable. Up until its arrival, it was really hard to do that, so \o/

Not all actors do radio and not everything you find will be obtainable, but it's always worth a try! It's especially likely for actor-blorbos who do other audio work, or theatre (theatre tends not to pay so well, and radio is a handy extra thing that can be more easily slotted in between performances than TV/film.)

Go to Genome, and put your blorbo's name into the search box:

Press search, which will bring back a bunch of results from both radio and TV listings from 1922 up to the current year:

2. Filter down to "radio only" on the sidebar to avoid scrolling through all the TV. At the top of the page you can change the display order to First broadcast (or Availability, if you want it only to bring things currently available to stream on the BBC website), among other options.

I can also cut down on extraneous results by selecting a date range that only covers when my guy was active.

I scroll down until I find something that looks interesting, in this case a proper audio drama, called The Hornblower Story. It's from 1980 and is an adaptation of a well known book. The details give me enough info to search the wider internet, and see if I get lucky...

3. Search the internet and listen to your blorbo act in radio drama!

There are several ways to obtain radio drama online. If you use streaming sites like Audible and Spotify, it may be there, although usually only if it's had a commercial release.

The BBC still broadcast old programmes on the radio, so it might be currently available on their website to stream - and unlike TV, you can listen to BBC Radio anywhere in the world! (If you are in the UK, you can also download and use the BBC Sounds app.) The Genome will usually provide a link for you to go straight there, if that's the case.

However, obviously, most BBC Radio from past decades is not available commercially or being broadcast by the BBC now and some doesn't exist in the archives, or was never recorded (as with TV), but as methods of recording audio at home have been widely available since the 1950s and 60s, there are loads of off-air recordings of radio made by listeners/collectors, and some have freely shared their copies online. Some are in closed forums etc., but three good sites to try first are YouTube, RadioEchoes & the Internet Archive.

I usually start with a Google search - e.g. '"Title" radio' or radio bbc and if that doesn't give me anything add on first "Radio Echoes" and then "Internet archive" to the search.

And I'm in luck! Radio Echoes appear to have the adaptation I'm after. I need to check the broadcast dates to see if they match up & then I can stream or download for free - and hear my blorbo play a stern Admiral for 5 minutes or less, hurrah!

Clicking on the links takes you to a screen where you can press play to stream or right click on the play bar to download the mp3 file to your device. (Click the "Save audio as..." option).

These are archive off-air recordings, so the quality can vary, especially for older programmes.

4. Rinse and repeat with each new likely Genome discovery.

If you find a copy of what you're looking for on the Internet Archive instead, you'll get up a page with a play bar (like the one above), with episodes listed plus details (to varying degrees) below. If you want to stream, just click play and enjoy. If you want to download it, then click on the MP3 files line on the right-hand sidebar, which will then give you an "X no of files" button to click and you can download them to keep.

(You can download all the files, but I usually cut straight to the chase and just nab the MP3s.)

Sometimes the BBC have released a commercial audiobook. In those cases, if you already use audio/music streaming subscription sites like Audible or Spotify, you should be able to find it there.

If you don't, or you want to buy a download, I've found the best option (weirdly!) (for UK users, at any rate) is to get the audiobook up at Penguin Books, which links to various paid subscription streaming and download options, so you can find the best one for you (and you know it's been recced by a hopefully reputable source.)

Last year, I wanted to buy Vivat Rex, the BBC's landmark dramatisation of all the English history plays rolled into one giant starry-cast Jacobean audio serial, and successfully used this route. (I'm very old by internet terms and still like listening via MP3 files on my MP3 player, as long as it survives.)

Pretty much the only affordable download option I've found so far I got courtesy of Penguin's links to Hive. (But this may be a UK only option.)

If what you're looking for seems likely to exist even if you can't find it by any of these methods - keep trying! New things are being added daily to all these websites, and the BBC cycle round old shows all the time.

And if you want to go deeper, there are closed forums etc. for radio enthusiasts where you need to make an account, but you may then be able to torrent or download an even wider variety of things.

Of course, whether or not your blorbo has been in anything good or any radio at all will depend on them, but I hope this guide will help enable you to find out!

YouTube, Radio Echoes, the Internet Archive and Old Time Radio all have radio from other countries too. So while the BBC Genome can't help you with anywhere outside the UK, the other links here can be good places to look around and browse for things you might be interested in.

You can of course use the same methods to search for things like a favourite author, or particular plays, to see if the BBC have done any radio adaptations - BBC Radio have done heaps of things that have never been adapted on screen, so it's always worth a look for anything you'd be into.

Radio Echoes is browsable as well as searchable, and while Internet Archive is a bit less so, there are some excellent collections you can look through, like the Saturday Night Theatre collection, and the BBC Radio Shows listings.

#bbc #radio #audio drama #resources #genome #radioechoes #internet archive #podcasts #radio drama #radio comedy #audiobooks

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holmesxwatson · 2 years ago

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The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes dir: Billy Wilder, 1970

I only watched The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes for the first time a few days ago but it lights my brain up in that special way that I know I’ll revisit it a lot. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from perfect, for one thing Colin Blakely’s Watson is a little too shouty for me, but it’s very worthwhile to check out despite its shortcomings, which I think mostly come from the fact that so much was cut from the intended script.

I absolutely love Robert Stephens as Holmes. His face is so good, he has a way of looking at Watson when he doesn’t know he’s being observed that is very soft. I thought I was hallucinating the beginning of this movie with Holmes telling the ballet dancer he’s gay and in a relationship with Watson. I thought it was going to be played for a joke, and it was a bit, but it didn’t just end there. Holmes and Watson have a conversation about the repercussions in a lengthy scene that turns very serious by the end. I can’t believe this was 1970 and no one has since tried to build on this specific dynamic in a more meaningful way. Someone needs to remake this into a mini-series exactly how Billy Wilder intended it to be, here’s hoping public domain can make it so.

[above: script page from the cut story The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room, where Watson creates a fake case to make Holmes feel better]

Also, the backstory of the making of this film is so out of control: Robert Stephens’s nervous breakdown and suicide attempt during the production, the amount of years Billy Wilder was trying to write it and get it made, the interference of ACD’s son, the Loch Ness monster prop that the crew lost in actual Loch Ness, the immense scope of the episodic story they were going for, the way it got cut down from its original 3 hour 45 minute runtime and how that cut footage was lost forever! (this is crazy! everyone go check your attics and storage lockers right now).

In one of the interviews I found, Robert Stephens says “if something is boring — if it’s three minutes long it’s too long, but if it’s interesting it’s never long enough…you don’t want it to end.” Big same Toby Stephens’ dad, big SAME. I didn’t want it to end. I read the uncut script and I am just floored at what we missed out on. Thankfully some footage and audio remain of some of the cut scenes (but still! check your basements too).

Just fully let it settle into your brain that they filmed all of these stories in the script, and then cut most of it away. Like that is mind-blowing to me, it existed at one point as it was fully intended to be. If this was made now during home entertainment times, they would have no problem releasing an almost four-hour movie, but at the very least there would be a big director’s cut dvd release and we would be enjoying all the small Holmes x Watson moments we deserve.

Anyway, in pretty short order I found a bunch of interesting links to stuff, details below. I also consulted my very well-thumbed Conversations with Wilder book by Cameron Crowe, but there wasn’t that much more information in there. I have Robert Stephens’ memoir Knight Errant and the TPLOSH blu-ray on order so I’ll add to this post if I find any more good resources. Let me know if I’m missing anything, and enjoy!

Full movie on YouTube (x) <-update: this link went private, but it's also streaming for free on Tubi and Freevee, and available to rent on YouTube, Google Play, and Apple TV

Original roadshow draft of script on Internet Archive (x)

Missing footage: Prologue [sound only plus stills] (x), The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room [sound only plus stills] (x), The Dreadful Business of the Naked Honeymooners [footage and soundtrack only, no sound dialogue] (x), alternate ending [sound only] (x)

Making of documentary that includes behind-the-scenes snippets of some of the cut scenes [this doc is in German, but you can turn on the auto-translate to English in the YouTube settings] (x)

Interview with Ernst Walter, film editor of TPLOSH (x)

Interview with Christopher Lee “Mr. Holmes, Mr. Wilder” 2003 (x)

My YouTube playlist with all of the above links in one place plus an excellent fan vid by Just Bee that I added to the list because it’s just so good (x)

Missing Movies: A Case for Sherlock Holmes from 1994 BBC Radio 2 on Soundcloud [includes interview with Robert Stephens and folks involved in the production] (x)

Articles about the lost Loch Ness monster prop (x) (x)

The soundtrack by Miklós Rózsa (x)

#sherlock holmes #the private life of sherlock holmes #robert stephens #billy wilder #tplosh #sh movies

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idkhowtopickausername · 3 months ago

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Hi!! Hope you are doing well! I was wondering if you had any tips or resources that you used when you made the sasuke amv? I want to learn how to make amvs, but it's so intimidating...

Hi! Oh that so exciting that you’re thinking of making an AMV! (This got kind of long so I’m putting it under a read more)

There’s a number of different ways you can do it—I ended up using DaVinci Resolve as a video editing software which is free although I have had a couple different issues with getting the audio to work in the past but mostly it works well. So I used that for video editing and I watched some tutorial videos on YouTube to learn how to use it for making AMVs, I think this one was one that I found helpful: https://youtu.be/FMyyfMByq18?si=oTKZPwaPOOYs5Fwb

Usually I first listen to the song and put markers where I plan to change between different clips and then upload the episodes. Then I unlink the episode video from its audio, delete the audio and cut out the parts of the episodes that I know I won’t use clips of and delete them from the timeline and then start making clips of the scenes I plan to include and try to fit the clips into the sections of music and adjust them to the right length/add other short clips in if I need to to fill space. But I sort of end up doing it a bit out of order based on whatever part I feel like working on and it probably makes more sense in the video tutorials than it does when I try to describe it.

For getting the clips I ended up learning to torrent which someone on here taught me (not sure if you know how or if that’s something you want to do, I could walk you through it if you want though, personally I think it’s an easy and convenient way to do it and I find it reassuring that I can check the comments to make sure no one has reported any issues with the file they downloaded), and I torrented mkv files of the episodes from 1337x .to so I didn’t have to worry about subtitles being included because they’re an optional part of that file format. For the audio I looked up a list of YouTube to mp3 converter websites and I ended up using dirpy .com which just lets you put in the YouTube link and then download the audio.

There’s other options for video editors and places to download the episodes though—I know that there are websites where people get raws (videos with no subtitles, although downloads of dubbed versions would work too) of anime episodes for AMVs although I never really figured out how it works or found what I was looking for that way, but you could look into that and maybe figure it out if you want an alternative to torrenting. I also know that there’s some generic piracy websites that let you download stuff and maybe if you find Reddit pages or recommendations from elsewhere on the web you can find sites with downloads that you trust enough based on other people vouching for them and you could maybe use an antivirus software (there are some free ones, I use Kaspersky) to scan the files after downloading them?

I had someone send me an ask back when I was going to make the AMV that had a link to download a pirated version of Adobe Premier Pro for video editing and that also linked a website where you could download anime episodes although I don’t know if the urls are still reliable because I know that piracy websites tend to change domains a lot (the urls they sent me at the time were gogoanime .llc for anime downloads although I’m pretty sure that one’s changed since and getinto .pc for downloading Premier Pro), you could look the names up and maybe see if there’s info about current urls on Reddit or something? I don’t think Premier Pro works with mkv files though based on what I’ve read but if you end up using a different video file format it would work.

If anyone reading this has advice or resources that they want to offer in the replies go ahead! I’ve only made one AMV so far lol so I’m sure there’s people with more experience and knowledge.

youtube

#not sure if you were looking for more technical advice about video editing or advice about how to get the files but I hope this was helpful #if you don’t know how to torrent and want to do it that way feel free to message me and I can explain the steps #or if you end up doing things the way I did and have any other questions feel free to message me as well #there’s lots of resources online and on Reddit about all of this stuff and that’s mostly where I ended up figuring things out #good luck I hope it goes well! it is very fun and satisfying once you get to the final product #thanks for the ask!#sorry about the late response #ask

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anachronistic-falsehood · 11 months ago

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yes hello I would like to order one jrwi. haha. anyways ur actually gonna make me start listening to this shit I can’t do this I can’t take more pain whiskey stop making it look enticing

HI HELLO!!! HI. jrwi is a rly fun ttrpg podcast and i've only listened to 2 of the campaigns so far but they're SO GOOD. the patreon is the main place to watch/listen to the episodes but people have put together youtube playlists of the video versions :3 i'll give u a couple of them here if u want :3

prime defenders- FAVOURITE ONE RN BECAUSE I JUST FINISHED IT. it's about teenage superheroes!!! starts out as kind of a sitcom-esque series where the stakes are very low. but then the stakes get high. and things get dire. and just. soooo many things happen. like it goes from zero to one hundred REAL DAMN FAST. and then it somehow goes past a hundred in season two. every character is so fucking good and i love them all and i think u should watch it, it's got 64 episodes total and there are a couple of oneshots in that playlist too if you want to listen to them!!! bizly dms this one and he's sooo fucking good at doing voices and stuff i love every single npc <3 HIGHLY RECOMMEND WATCHING THIS ONE TBH. ITS SO FUCKING GOOD.

the suckening- VAMPIRES IN LOS ANGELES BABEY!!!!! this one is the first one i listened to and it's what convinced me to get the patreon so i could listen to the rest. this is a google drive of audio recordings from the final seven episodes (the first five are available for free on their youtube and spotify) but i can def put together a playlist of the youtube versions and send it to you!! this is just what i had on hand. anyway it's so fucking good. literally parts of this had me crying laughing. it's a comedy horror and it's SO GOOD. charlie slimecicle dms this one!! it's got 12 episodes total right now and theres going to be a season 2 :3

blood in the bayou- again this is a google drive but i think there are video versions if you'd prefer and i can def make a playlist and send it 2 u :3 this one is 4 episodes so if you're looking for something to just dip your toes in u can start with this!! i haven't listened 2 it yet but it's a horror and it's got lots of blood and gore. and bugs! lots of bugs. i love bugs <3 i need to listen to this one. also dmed by charlie

apotheosis- this one's a youtube playlist!! dmed by condifiction!!! i don't know much about the plot of this one personally but i think it's about a team of three people, one of whom is trying to kill, god, another of whom is trying to become god, and another guy who i think is just. there to be a fucking nerd. i know barely anything about apotheosis but i DO KNOW that two characters canonically have gay sex. i have watched the gay sex scene.

there's also riptide which is their publicly available campaign thats fully up on their youtube and spotify!!! it's dmed by grizzly and it's about pirates. i have not watched it myself yet because it is like. over a hundred episodes at the moment??? it is a large undertaking but i will brave it eventually. i have heard from very reliable sources such as my mutual mac that it is very good. i personally rly think u should watch prime defenders :3 it's very good :3 it will not grab ur heart and rip it into two pieces :3 trust me

#whiskey yelling into the void

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gaiabamman · 2 months ago

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Mental breakdown: I'm back, I think?

Hi everyone! Sorry for being so absent. All sorts of things have happened to me in the past few years, and eventually, I kind of collapsed under the weight of it all.

Don't worry about what happened; I'm sure I'll write a novel about it at some point 😅 Here is what you need to know: -I'm alive! 💪

-My main website is now at https://gaiabamman.net/ (my original address was hijacked by Korean hackers, I kid you not. A minimal hiccup as compared to other bad things that happened, but heartbreaking nonetheless since I'd worked very hard on it. Starting from scratch!) 😭 🔥

-I have 13 novels now published! -Most of my novels are available on Amazon, but if you're broke, here are some ways to get a few for free:

1-I'm publishing my newest book, Ever F*cking More, episodically for free on Inkitt to get beta readers and feedback. This is feminist werewolf slow-burn romantasy with rich queer and minority representation, perfect for fans of enemy-to-lovers, found family, forced proximity, and empowering reads at large. Spicy! 🐺🌶️🔥❤️✨ New chapters drop 3x/week on MWF, but 49 chapters are already available! 2-I sold the Vincitore Academy trilogy as a digital exclusive to ReadictNovel (a digital publisher). This is a slow-burn high-school romance set in contemporary Milan Italy with queer vibes, some darkness, and lots of humor. Highly addictive, some spice! 🇮🇹❤️‍🔥🌶️🏳️‍🌈 The app is free. I will eventually release the paperbacks and audio as well. 3-If you subscribe to Queer Vibes, my brand new monthly newsletter, you can download in the Arms of Morpheus for free. The newsletter drops once a month with recommendation about queer novels, clothing, movies, culture, music and much more 🌈 Join in this celebration of queer joy!

In In the Arms of Morpheus, Tasha, a brilliant Black chemist enduring a bigoted boss, finds solace only in sleep—until the mysterious man in her dreams starts pleading for help. Enter Josh: a Seneca dreamwalker with a mysterious past and a magnetic pull Tasha can’t ignore.

Together, they chase answers through the veil between dream and reality in a story full of slow-burn romance, supernatural mystery, and real-world stakes. Set in contemporary Buffalo, this empowering and spicy novel uplifts women, queer readers, and underrepresented communities—with cultural sensitivity shaped by Seneca beta readers. -I am now trying to be more active on social media in general and you can find here my TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Goodreads. However, ngl, Tumblr was my home and where I started first as young unpublished author. So, as much as I will share here most things I post elsewhere, the occasional blog from the heart, like this one, will be only here.

-I promise to do my best to go through all the messages and reply. Just give me some time ❤️ Thank you to all of you, readers and writers, who still remember me! Feel free to share in the comments which WIPs (queer or not) you're working on and ask away if you need advice 🤘 With love, always, GBA

#booklr #writing #amwriting #author life #mental health #queer community #queer author #authors of tumblr #queer writers #writing community

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dearweiying · 2 years ago

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here to save your life.

Mo Dao Zu Shi (alternate names: Founder of diabolism, Grandmaster of demonic cultivation or mdzs for short) is an danmei novel written by Mo Xiang Tong Xu also known as mxtx in the fandom (we love you our god) which was originally published in 2016. Till now it has had multiple adaptations including an donghua, manhua, live action as well as a chibi version and an audio drama.

I highly suggest to send your support for the novel through official sites but since a lot of people can't afford to buy the books or watch and listen to the adaptations because of different issues of their own, I will be linking the places where these are available for free so that no one has to go through much trouble finding them.

Just a reminder that some of these are not official sites where the adaptations were aired which technically makes them (slightly) illegal but that's too common in the fandom so if you're new no you're not going to jail. The websites are safe and I will give specifications to avoid ads just in case.

𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹

The novel has a total of 126 chapters. The main story consists of 113 chapters and the other 13 are extras. Reading the novel was my best decision ever and I can bet my life that you won't be disappointed with it. The characters, the storyline, the freaking lines. Everything is perfect from the top and to the bottom. It has been rated mature as it includes explicit content and slight non-con?? It wasn't really non-con but then also maybe it was. It's debatable really trust me on this. You can read it here. Happy reading!!!

𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗵𝘂𝗮+𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻

To put it simply donghua is Chinese animation. Most people say that it's just anime but Chinese. But from experience I can say that don't say it out loud cause it makes some people really angry. The mdzs donghua has 3 seasons having 15, 8 and 12 episodes respectively. The chibi version is called Mo Dao Zu Shi Q and has 30 episodes consisting of 5-6 mins each.

Season 1 can be watched here.

Season 2 can be watched here.

Season 3 can be watched here.

Chibi version can be watched here.

(Tip: Download the brave browser from playstore before clicking the links as it blocks the ads completely so you can watch in peace. It is safe.)

𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗵𝘂𝗮

Manhua refers to a Chinese comic. The mdzs manhua has a total of 259 chapters. But due to our luck they have been censored which have left a few people banging their head on the wall (including me). But do not worry cause those chapters can be found on twitter. But really tho how hard is it to uncensore a kiss?? Nvm moving on from my despair you can read the manhua here.

And if you have the unquenchable thirst to read the uncensored scenes then you can find them by just searching on Google tho it has been said that the manhua publishing company will publish them soon enough.

Edit: THANK YOU TO THAT ONE ANGEL ON INSTA i got to know about the website which has been posting about the uncensored scenes here.

𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲-𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

This part is my fav I swear. The live-action is called The Untamed and has a total of 50 episodes consisting of 43-45 mins each. They are all available on youtube for free!! I will still link them all here. They are absolutely breathtaking. Due to the Chinese censorship the plot has been altered but there's not much of a difference according to me. I do think that the romance is a bit subtle but it's there. You can feel it through the screen and it makes you swoon so bad. I'm completely in love with the drama. It's so beautifully done.

There is also a special edition of the drama with the same name which consists of 20 episodes with the duration time of almost an hour on each episode. It was made for international fans with a different ending and focuses more on the relationship btw our male leads instead of the plot. Some scenes have been cut and some have been added. It's just as amazing. It's available here. The first 3 episodes are also available on youtube.

(Again don't forget to use the brave browser to remove ads)

𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗮

Man the audio drama is just....perfect. There is not a single thing I can complain about. The emotions are perfectly conveyed. The audio effects of fighting or the sound of their breathing, even the slightest sounds have been added so make it as real as possible and it certainly does it's job. Earlier the audio drama was fully available on YouTube but unfortunately it has now been deleted. You can access it by joining the discord server of Treasure Chest Subs. Here is the link along with the steps on how to join on their website.

𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 :

Novel

Manhua

Audio Drama

Donghua+Chibi version

Live Action+Special Edition

The rest is up to you of course!!! Hope you have fun with MDZS. I love it so much and I hope you will too now. This is my top danmei and there definitely is a reason for that. Happy journey to MDZS hell ;) P.S. If the links do not work or if you're having any problems with it please let me know. I will keep on updating the links if they are changed by any chance so it won't be much of a hassle.

-with love, rose

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rigelmejo · 2 months ago

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Chinese listening experiment, mini update (a big one is coming soon when I get to 300 hours...)

There's several sites in chinese where you can watch pretty much whatever you want, pirating is just as big in chinese internet as in english one, so it's just a matter of searching for what you want to watch free. Basically there's dramacool equivalents, I posted a search terms list and that should help you out (just search the basic words in chinese: 'name of show' 'watch free' or 'watch online' 'watch episode 1').

So anyway I'm browsing and I find 民国大侦探 Checkmate. Which was a show I enjoyed on youtube for about 5 episodes before iQiyi took it off, except the first episode, and made the rest pay-only on their website. iQiyi has some free-always shows on youtube like Hikaru No Go/Qi Hun and Mysterious Lotus Casebook, and some like The Long Night with Bai Yu that go behind a paywall after episode 1. So anyway, I'm thrilled! I'm so excited to find Checkmate again!

I try to watch it. Things I notice right away: I am still reliant on chinese subtitles when watching any show lol. That's fine though, for this show I want to follow the plot more than just focus on listening practice. I can do some reading and listening practice, I tell myself optimistically. I do follow what's going on! At least most of it. Which is better than when I tried to watch Victim's Game last month and felt like I only caught 50%. I probably would catch 50% of Checkmate too, if I had not been able to look at the Chinese subs (like names were obvious thanks to the subs). I am better with crime-solving mystery stories though, so I'm in my element watching any of these type of shows, I'll generally understand their main idea.

Anyway, the big difference is I notice it is easier to watch Checkmate than it was to watch Victim's Game or Day of Becoming You around a month ago. As in less mental effort, and I can read some of the scrolling comments on the episode. I'm sure part of the less mental effort was due to chinese subtitles to glance at, but also I just genuinely think I'm understanding words I know from listening Faster than a month ago. I also tried to watch Goodbye My Princess/Dong Gong this past week, with no chinese subs so just audio, and it was significantly easier than Day of Becoming You a month ago. I figure, partly because I've seen GMP before, but it felt easy enough to listen and also scroll my phone/make tea/do things.

So I think my listening is improving through this month, even though it's not huge enough to notice a big jump in audiobooks I can understand lol. I do notice a significant improvement in ease when watching shows.

Which is a good thing, as I think seeing visuals when I hear words really helps them stick faster in memory. But I am lazy and hate watching things when I can't focus, so I've been relying on audiobooks. So being able to add shows I think will speed up my progress overall.

It feels weird... because my progress with shows, listening wise, is following the same improvement track that watching shows in years 1-2 did when I solely relied on reading chinese subtitles to understand the shows. So I feel like a mid-beginner again, the way I did at the end of year 1 learning trying to watch Word of Honor and reading the chinese subs for dear life to try and grasp the plot. That's how I felt a month ago, with listening to shows. Now it feels a bit easier.

Also, in shows, sometimes they talk so much less clear than in audiobooks - like Checkmate. Also sometimes the Checkmate dialogue does NOT match the Chinese subtitles which I find hilarious, I thought that was only a problem with English subs on English dubbed content. But nope, subs not matching is still an issue in Chinese dramas with Chinese subs. It's good for me to practice hearing how people actually speak, when they aren't teachers on youtube or audiobooks intended to be super clear.

I think I may go back to using HP audiobooks... as I would like to do 5, 6, 7 and get ALL the vocabulary improvements in listening from them I possibly can. I found another audiobook of the series made by a girl who reads everything fairly neutral, so no voices or music or sound effects, and I've been using it for 'practice' recognizing words with much less context than the original audiobooks provided. I'd like to get all the context from the professional audiobooks - that makes it very easy to grasp many words - first. Also the Twilight audiobooks are professionally made, also have multiple actors and sound effects/soundtrack, and I highly recommend them for people practicing listening. The Twilight audiobooks are on bilibili.com if you just search.

I've been doing the Narnia series audiobooks lately, and the thing is... all of the individual words I'm more likely to know, but the audiobooks have far less sound effects to hint what's going on. So I usually hear a sentence, then get frustrated I understood maybe 3/4 of the sentence but not some word or phrase. I listen to a few minutes, and I can place overall what's going on, but still notice there's several details I did not get. It's that situation where it's SO close to your level of understanding, that anything you don't understand is more frustrating. Also it has less context, since it has less words, so less context to guess the remaining unknown words/phrases from.

I do find the more 'easier' stuff I listen to, the less I tolerate harder stuff. I tried to listen to MoDu again, which I've been listening to since the beginning of this experiment. And oh boy was my brain frustrated to hear as many unknown words a minute as it did when I listen to MoDu. But listening to 'harder' stuff definitely helps me stop focusing on individual words, and just focus on the overall main idea of what I'm listening to.

My skills feel like they're going UP down UP down nonstop. Maybe continuing to watch a show will help me feel I'm making progress.

#rant #chinese listening experiment

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blairelythere · 2 years ago

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Never seen ultraman

What should I watch first to see if I like it or not?

Ultraman is a tokusatsu series with a very large variety of tones and styles. Each season is distinctly different from the last, especially in the New Generation era. Some seasons are very serious and gritty, some are slice-of-life, and some are light plot/heavy action. It's up to you on what you'd prefer!

I want to preface with the three eras (and sub eras) of Ultraman, just so you're aware of these terms when they come up:

Showa (1966 - 1987)

Heisei (1996 - 2012)

-> Heisei Trilogy/Part 1 (1996-1999)

-> Heisei Part 2/Phase 2 (2000 - 2012)

New Generation (2013 - Present)

-> Reiwa (2019 - Present)

That being said, I give you 5 equally valid options to begin:

Option 1:

Ultraman (1966)

Start with where it all began!*

Ultraman (1966) is Japan's take on the Twilight Zone but with a superhero-esqe twist. If you enjoy older sci-fi like the early seasons of Doctor Who or the first Star Trek, you'll greatly appreciate the practical effects, deep but episodic plots, and the unique kaiju/seijin.

From there, watch in order of release and enjoy just how much the show evolves. All the highs and lows.

*(Side note - technically Ultra Q (1966) is the first show but does not feature Ultraman whatsoever. This show serves as a prequel to the idea of kaiju and seijin in the modern world. If you're a completionist, you can start here and be amazed at how there are *still* monsters and plots making reappearances from this show)

Option 2:

Ultraman Tiga (1996)

Ultraman Tiga is the beginning of the Heisei Era and is widely regarded as one of the best series in the entire franchise.

I have lots of love to give to Tiga specifically, and this post of mine explains why that is:

Option 3:

Ultraman Mebius (2006)

Ultraman Mebius is the 40th anniversary of the Ultra series and is a beautiful continuation and love-letter of the Showa Era timeline. It features returning cast members, monsters, and plotlines from Ultraman, Ultraseven, Jack, Ace, Taro, Leo, and 80 (which all take place on the same Earth).

This show is a perfect introductory piece to the series because it exposes you to such a large amount of lore from the past while recontextualizing it with modern effects, richer storytelling, and a more serious tone. Mebius has so much heart, happiness, and hopefulness. It's a very positive and "heroic" type show.

Option 4:

Ultraman Orb (2016)

Ultraman Orb is, even while nestled in the near-middle of the New Gen Era, a fantastic starting piece and my typical recommendation for starters. It's quite fun and light-hearted but has an intense emotional core surrounding lost love and a broken friendship. The action and special effects are top-notch, and the main villain is an ICONIC character who pops up many times in later shows.

This show introduces fusions, which become a frequent New Gen trend (Orb does it the best of all). Great choice if you're looking to get dropped somewhere not too confusing or plot-intensive yet still action-y and engaging.

Option 5:

Ultraman Blazar (2023)

Ultraman Blazar is the newest season of Ultraman and started airing back in July. As of writing this, we are currently at Episode 8.

Blazar is unique and inventive so far in both its plot and aesthetic. It has a semi-serious sci-fi/military feel mixed with amazing new kaiju and.... a really strange Ultra lol. Blazar is unlike most thus far. He's primitive and beastly, kinda like a caveman.

It may not be the most completely accurate representation of the series as a whole, but nothing beats the excitement of watching the newest season as it airs!! The Tsuburaya official YouTube channel simulcasts each new episode as it airs in Japan (with japanese or english audio and subs).

I wish you luck on your multiverse-spanning Ultraman adventures!

Feel free to ask more questions if you have any 💛💛💛

#askdemonium #ultraman #tokusatsu #ultraman blazar #infodump

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