#they have a big fanbase already which is great for them too

[harmonytheme]

I am obsessed with Ste and Rex right now!!! Best thing Hollyoaks has ever done is this pairing.

Can't lie I have never liked Ste with James so it It's soooo good to see him with someone else. And they did a great job casting Jonny, I knew he wouldn't let me down. 😌

[genericpuff]

So I watched ChattyMia's Lore Olympus video which was great and everyone should watch it. It seems most people who do series reviews of the Lore Olympus don't like the comic for obvious reasons. Then I was reminded by the end that the comic is expecting a TV series which is in development hell. It made me think that Rachel might be better off not having a Lore Olympus TV show. Most praise for the series died awhile ago as the story became an utter mess. If it did get a TV show, people will see the early red flags like the age gap, the treatment of Minthe, trying to excuse cheating, Hades horrible behavior to workers, nymphs being discriminated with no pushback, etc. If some of them read the comic for spoilers they would later see the other big red flags of the series. Excusing slave labor, Persephone threatening the lower class, Hera getting with Echo a 'trash nypmh' as she once called Minthe, Apollo gets community service, the continued mistreatment of Demeter etc. Which I feel will cause everyone to go 'wtf is this series? 50 Shades of Grey mixed with Keeping Up with the Kardashians?'. Then you have to wonder if some of them will do a deep dive and find the stuff about Rachel's tie to Lolita. It would be especially bad if a bigger content creator talked about it. And we already know Rachel doesn't handle criticism the best (i.e. the struggle street tweet, the Minthe cosplay situation or even the merch). So I could only imagine how much worse it would be for her if Lore Olympus got a TV show and more eyes got drawn to it and her. It would no longer be just confided to the web comics fanbase but the much larger TV one. Unless Rachel seriously considered rewriting the TV script (or rekindling it lol) I don't see how a TV adaptation of her show would be good press for her.

Yess I've seen that video, it's great! She did a great job summarizing a lot of the biggest core issues with LO's story and art without getting too lost in the sauce (though god knows the rabbithole of LO's issues runs INCREDIBLY deep in an equally fascinating and "oh god what the fuck did I just read' kind of way), her video editing was very entertaining and her Persephone cosplay was a great touch 😎

That said, regarding the thought of "most people who do series reviews of LO don't like the comic", there is an amount of bias we have to acknowledge there - there's often a lot more to say in the negative rather than the positive. By extension, people who simply enjoy LO and don't participate much in the online discussion surrounding it or the discourse concerning it are less likely to make 2 hour videos analyzing it. So while the popular opinion of LO has shifted more towards a negative point of view, that doesn't mean that fans of the comic don't exist - it's just that most of those fans are blissfully enjoying the comic and can only sum it up as "it's very pretty and the plot is great", whereas many people who didn't enjoy it are more likely to voice their opinions as to why in far more explicit detail (though on the flipside of that, it also goes to show that there's a lot more to analyze in LO's flaws than its strengths - it's ironic that the fans often don't have much to say beyond "it's cute" or "I relate to Persephone" and anything further than that is relegated to pure headcanon pieced together by assumption and best guesses to make up for Rachel's lack of writing).

All that aside though, regarding the TV adaption, at this point it's less a matter of reception and more a matter of relevancy. The perfect time to release or at least show us proof of the LO TV show was years ago, when the comic was at its peak between 2020-2021. The second best time was at last year's NYCC when Rachel was a headlining guest. The fact they still had nothing to show for it at this year's NYCC, with Rachel nowhere to be seen and instead focusing more on the Freaking Romance adaption with Snailords filling the role as their featured guest (an equally if not even more problematic creator), is astounding, but unsurprising.

To me, LO feels like a real life case of "Tortoise and the Hare". Back at the start of it all, in 2017-2018, it was doing what no other comic on the platform was doing, presenting us a retelling of the Hades and Persephone story - which was very popular on Tumblr at the time - through a modern setting and with art that was incredibly unique for the platform. That, paired with WT's aggressive marketing, propelled it far ahead every other comic on the platform, creating a gap so massive that even the comics in second place on the trending tabs still weren't even close to LO's lead in terms of stats and money.

But then it got complacent. Quality of the comic's writing and art dropped, it was becoming increasingly obvious that LO had become no more than a marketing grift akin to the likes of Harry Potter - easily turned into books, t-shirts, socks, coloring books, figures, etc. - and that gave way to an increase of criticism towards it, criticism that had always somewhat existed even as far back as its days on Tumblr, but was now amplified by the existing ongoing proof that LO was never all it was cracked up to be.

Now, at best they shill $200+ figurine pre-orders, but the show is nowhere to be seen and, with the comic now finished and locked behind Daily Pass, its relevancy is dying out. "Rachel Smythe Presents" still has nothing to show for itself, Rachel's IG and Twitter seem to be purely for merch-pushing by the Inklore team, and Rachel has, at best, two new series that she suddenly announced but, in her words, don't even have anything written or planned for them yet beyond the taglines that were thrown together for her socials.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Greek myth retelling industry is in a renaissance. Hades is still a massively popular game, with its sequel now in early access; Epic: The Musical has been making waves on Spotify and TikTok far exceeding that of LO's in terms of audience reach, and even has more to show for itself in the way of official animations than LO ever has; and now Kaos has recently launched its first season after being in production since 2018 - yes, you read that right, it got commissioned around the exact same time LO became an Originals series which suggests the idea for it was already floating around and being pitched prior to LO - and, frankly, has beaten LO at its own game by achieving everything LO set out to do - weaving a Greek epic-style story in a modern setting, balancing romance with prophecies and world-ending stakes. It took a while, but Kaos made it past the finishing line, while LO has been dragging itself behind it, still making empty promises that a TV show is "still in the works" and "coming soon", with not a single thing to show for itself.

LO may have gotten a head start in being the "sleek, modern, sexy Greek myth retelling" by the virtue of being a weekly webtoon, but slow and steady wins the race - the productions that have taken their time cooking in the oven are now coming out as beautiful and delicious as we, the guests at the table, were told would be, while LO is simply the short-term gratification junk food that bombards us with gimmicks but sits like a rock in our stomachs and leaves us unfulfilled and wishing for a better meal.

Those better meals are here now and they were absolutely worth the wait.

[statementlou]

Hi💗 I'm having a bit of a hard time understanding your last post. It's probably because i'm too stupid, but do you want to explain a bit more about what you mean? I'm sorry to bother you, but I really want to understand. Lots of love🌞

anon I'm happy to help but I hope you mean the openstage one? If so: OpenStage is a "fan engagement platform built especially for the music industry"; it's a service that artists can pay for and in return they data mine their fanbase to tell the artist where most of their fans are from, their general demographics, what they respond to best, etc, and they send out promo emails and host artist pages with links all in one place (like a band caard kind of thing) and various other useful services like that. It seems great for small artists who don't have management companies to do all this stuff, but also for larger acts' management to streamline and outsource the work. Like LTHQ used to do loads of this stuff themselves, and they ended up repeating efforts a lot it seemed like and having to personally organize a lot of fiddly things like details of the hotspots and stuff; until they found OpenStage. They not only outsourced that work to them, Louis also said, this is a great platform with potential to help small artists and make money, and he invested in it personally. Little start ups getting investors means they can use the money to get bigger and do more stuff, but it also means the bigger they get, the more that investor's shares are worth. So someone gives a company xxxx amount of money in return for owning part of it which if it fails is worth nothing, the money is gone, oh well, but if the gamble that they will do good and grow is right, they will make money. So if a company is worth $100 than buying 4% of it costs $4, but if it then gets so popular that it's now worth $4000 then tada that 4% is now worth $400... anyway I'm not saying OpenStage was tiny when Louis found it, it was probably already pretty big and on the way up, but now they are EVERYWHERE and the fact that 100% of the Oasis reunion traffic is being run through an OpenStage link has to be huge. So what I meant was: it may be indirect, but when OpenStage succeed Louis makes money, so Louis is profiting from this reunion through his investment.

[jokeroutsubs]

[ENG translation] Joker Out: Playing on the main stage of Sziget means the success with capital letters for us

An interview with Joker Out published in the August 2024 issue of Rockstar magazine. Original article written by Viki Erdős, photo by Viki Erdős. Translation and review by X ddrflctns and X brnbergeron, proofread by @flowerlotus8.

In the former Yugoslavia they have won the 'Artist of the Year' and the 'Song of the Year' awards several times. With two albums under their belt, they entered the Eurovision Song Contest with their song 'Carpe Diem' last year, which put them on the Spotify Viral Top 10 list and then on the Main Stage of Sziget. We met the Slovenian five-piece Joker Out before their first concert in Budapest, where they told us: their biggest dream came true by playing for us at the Island of Freedom on 8 August. Read more of our interview on rockstar.hu!

What's your first impression of the Sziget Festival, now that you've spent a few hours here?

Jan: Actually I already came here yesterday to see L'Impératice. It's definitely the biggest festival I've been to, yet it doesn't seem too crowded. I really like the atmosphere, somehow despite the noise it's calming, and the line-up is incredible!

Jure: It's going to be the biggest stage we've ever played on.

Bojan: I didn't even see you on the stage during the soundcheck, because there was so much smoke! I turned around and just blinked 'where is everyone'?

You posted concert photos from 2016 on Instagram just yesterday. Did you ever think you would play on the main stage of Sziget?

Bojan: Performing at Sziget was always our biggest dream, we somehow thought that playing here, on the main stage would mean success with capital letters. I think we always believed that it will happen one day.

Last year your Eurovision performance brought you international success. How to imagine this? Are you getting recognised on the street, for example?

Bojan: We're constantly being recognised in Slovenia, but there are other countries, for example the Balkans, or Finland and The Netherlands, where we have a big fanbase. So the bottom line is that it's all unbearable and we're huge rock stars. (they all laugh)

Kris: And to top it all off, we are doing an interview with Rockstar Magazine.

How do you handle fame?

Bojan: Oh, it's all terrible! I can't even have a cup of coffee without being surrounded by people! (laughs)

But seriously!

Bojan: No, it's super good, in my opinion, our fame at the moment is perfectly manageable. We’re not recognised by a crazy amount of people yet, and the people who do recognise us are usually very nice. Sometimes a few fans wait for us at the airport, weirdly specifically it always happens in Finland. They tell us about how our music helped them getting through tough times or how they found new friends thanks to us. Only at times like this, we realise that we're getting closer to our goals, that music is no longer just for our entertainment, but also for the pleasure of others.

You recently came out with an animated music video for your song 'Šta bih ja'. How did you come up with this idea and how did you find the right artist for the job?

Kris: It was quite liberating to make a music video without having to be in it. Jokes aside, I thought it was a great time for an animated video, which we've never done before. We had a lot of gigs and time was tight, so it was a perfect move. We've been working with a lot of our fans over the last six months, who are great artists, by the way. We keep an eye on what they post, and we're always completely blown away by it and try to collaborate with them whenever possible. For example, they've made merch and a cover for our single for streaming platforms. The new music video was also made by one of our fans.

How much do they freak out when you contact them?

Kris: A lot, I feel like. But they try to be chill about it.

What is the story behind 'Šta bih ja'?

Bojan: We moved to London for two months to write new material, this was the first song that was written there. It was the first time we really felt what it was like to be away from home and miss our loved ones. In additional to how it feels to be a stranger in a new city, the song is also about what it's like being in love when you can only keep in touch with your partner over the phone.

I've noticed on your Instagram that you like lame photoshopped pictures. Is there an expert in the band responsible for these, or is it a team effort?

Jan: That would be me... (laughs) I don't even know how it started. I always use the same picture, it was taken for our Eurovision campaign, we all look hilarious on it. I noticed that our faces fit perfectly on any picture depicting people. It started as a joke, but now it's become our general marketing strategy.

Bojan: You've already extended the scope to foods, animals...

Jan: Yes, last time I photoshopped Nace onto a sausage.

Earlier this year, your concert film and it's accompanying live album was released. Was this a big dream come true?

Jan: The concert film and live album itself was not a dream, but playing in the arena where it was recorded was. It's nice to relive that experience.

Bojan: I haven't watched it at all. It's really about the fact that we had the opportunity to record and release it, and we took it. That's how the market works. We had to have something to spend our money on, so that we would have as little left as possible. (laughs)

Your festival season will be over soon. What's in store for the rest of the year?

Bojan: Before the tour we had already recorded most of our third album in Hamburg, but we knew that we would need to come back [to the studio] for a few more session. So we spend all of our day-offs in the studio, but now in Ljubljana.

How would you describe the new sound in three words?

Bojan: Makes. No. Sense. (laughs)

[blackbird-brewster]

Meta: Jemily Queerbaiting

With the huge influx of posts saying 'Jemily is gonna be canon', I really appreciated seeing this post because OP was completely correct. I didn't want to write an entire dissertation as a reply, so I'm making my own post with my personal opinion on this. (All sources are noted in footnotes)

Before I began this rant, for anyone who thinks this is anti-Jemily. It is not. I have shipped Jemily for 18 friggin years and that's never going to change. This post is specifically my thoughts about queer baiting.

First off, I need to note that the showrunners (and the cast members who use social media) KNOW what a huge queer following this show has and that's why we got pansexual Tara Lewis in S16 [1]. Which, in itself, was SOOOOOOO important!!! Our first canonically queer main in SIXTEEN seasons was a middle-aged Black woman!!! That's phenomenal. (The fact it was horrible rep, because they instantly ruined her relationships once her queerness served it's plot point is a whole other post entirely)

In my opinion, the 'big Jemily moment' Paget posted about on Twitter [2] (and AJ hinted at during a recent IG live) is simply queerbaiting to get people to watch S17. I know a lot of you are newer to the fandom and I love your enthusiasm, I really do, ship and let ship, but listen, let's be real, Jemily is not going to be made canon. The showrunners aren't going to suddenly say (after 17 seasons) 'Surprise, Jemily is endgame'. This show has never cared about queer rep and now that CBS/Paramount have already ticked their queer rep box with Tara, they won't be in any rush to add any other characters to it.

Please buckle in, I've got a lot of thoughts on this matter --

What is Queerbaiting?

If you aren't aware of what queerbaiting is, here's a good definition:

Historically, queerbaiting has carried two meanings: the first is an act of aggressive heterosexuality to shut down queer subtext on screen while still teasing and catering to the queer audience in advertising, public relations, and fan engagement strategies; the second is an existing homoerotic tension between two characters played up on screen while met with derision by the professionals behind the scenes. [3]

The Medium article quoted here is from 2017, a time when parasocial relationships were really starting to take over social media. In 2024, actors are now only a mention or tag away online, they have direct conversations with fans, and this process has allowed for an even deeper form of queerbaiting.

Oftentimes online, actors are asked directly about certain ships and while some ignore these questions (usually to avoid breaking their contracts or other repercussions), others (looking at you, Paget) choose to instead tease fans about queer ships. She's done this for years upon years and if I've learned anything in the past twenty-years of existing in fandom spaces it's this -- don't hold your breath. In it's original meaning, for something to be deemed as queerbaiting there had to be malicious, or at least, purposeful intent to string queer fans along by teasing them with suggestive content about the ship in question, while knowing this ship will never come to fruition in canon.

The thing to remember is, Paget and AJ aren't the only ones who know about Jemily shippers -- the network and showrunners are well aware of this ship too. When networks/showrunners figure out they have a strong sapphic fanbase, they love to use that to their advantage to get more viewers and higher ratings. Queerbaiting is a goldmine to keep fans watching long running shows, look at Rizzoli and Isles, Supergirl, and OUAT for examples of this.

Jemily and Queerbaiting:

Ever since Emily joined the BAU in S2 (2006), there have always been fans who ship JJ/Emily (shoutout to the old LJ forums!). Way before celebs were just a tweet away from fans, back when all our fics began with disclaimers so we wouldn't get sued by networks, we went to great lengths to keep our fanworks far removed from actors/showrunners attention.

As far as Jemily goes, this reply from Paget in a 2009 interview with TVGuide.com [4] (which has now been deleted from their site unfortunately, but there are quotes on Tumblr still [4.a]) confirmed some fans' worst fear -- the actors had found our fanworks online.

TVGuide.com: Of course, a band of fans want her to hook up with Hotch.

Brewster: I know! I didn't realize that fans make these videos on YouTube? A.J. Cook sent me a hilarious one that made it look like Prentiss and J.J. were having a secret lesbian affair. You know, when Hotch was blown up in the SUV, we shot this scene where he's in the hospital and I'm standing next to him, looking at his bleeding ear. Our director came in and said, "Paget, you're looking at Hotch like you're in love with him. It looks really weird." So now, every day, Thomas [Gibson] and I flutter our eyelids at each other.

This was the first time I recall anyone acknowledging Jemily shippers publicly and at the time (Jan 2009), the show was still in Season Four (just before CBS fired both AJ and Paget [5]). Paget genuinely said it's 'hilarious' that fans shipped JJ/Emily. Even now, I'll see people say 'We know Paget and AJ have seen Jemily fanvids, so they obviously ship it too' -- but those same people rarely acknowledge the full context of the original answer. Paget not only thought JJ/Emily were 'hilarious', but then she doubled down and turned her reply back to how she and Thomas liked to play up the chemistry between Emily/Hotch.

While no one can say for sure which video it was that AJ sent Paget, just knowing they were watching JJ/Emily fanvids sent a bit of a shockwave through the femslash side of the fandom. To some it felt like an invasion of privacy, fanworks are by fans for fans -- knowing the cast were poking around in fandom spaces added an extra layer of worry around what we fans were posting online. Fifteen years ago, it used to be quite taboo for actors to outwardly discuss shipping or other fanon for whatever show they were in, and we fans were usually comfortably removed from the actors altogether.

Of course, now it's the norm for fans and actors/showrunners to co-exist online and interact with one another. This connection has opened new ways for shows to queerbait their fans. Pretty much every show has some form of social media account now and there is no doubt that the people running those accounts keep up with the most popular ships and hashtags. Not to mention that actors are constantly barraged with questions about whether they ship their character with x,y,z, or whether they think a ship should be made canon, etc. These interactions only serve to benefit the shows themselves, because whether the conversation is for or against a certain ship, it's all just free publicity (Why do you think CM now has a TikTok account?)

Every time AJ or Paget say anything about Jemily, the queer side of the fandom loses their minds. But this has been going on for YEARS now and every single time, it turns out to be nothing but social media hype and queerbaiting. Remember this AJ post? [6] Or what about the notorious reply by Paget to a fan, where she talks about how she and AJ held hands under the table 'for the shippers' [7] I've seen this cycle over and over again, so perhaps I am cynical, but I'm not getting my hopes up that Jemily will ever seriously be canon.

It's widely known now, after both Kirsten [8] and Paget [9] have talked about it, that there was an early idea where Prentiss was supposed to be queer, but that was ultimately scraped before it ever made it on screen. For context, please remember, this show has been airing for nearly twenty years. It began in 2005, during the highly conservative Bush administration. Queer people didn't have rights in the US, we couldn't get married, we were rarely protected under discrimination laws, and we could even be fired for simply being queer (in some states). Diverse queer representation on screen was extremely limited to things like 'The L Word' and 'Queer as Folk' (both aired on Showtime, so they were behind a paywall. And as far as tLw goes, that show was extremely male-gaze focused and is horrible in nearly all regards if you try to rewatch it now). As far as prime time shows went, queer rep was even more rare. Which is why Emily wasn't queer from the get-go.

Yes, things have changed since 2006 in terms of queer rep on TV. We have a myriad of queer identities represented in TV and film nowadays, which is why I think it's so easy for newer fans to say 'lf she was supposed to be gay anyway, they should just make Emily queer in canon!' I know this is what fuels most fans' demands for Emily being confirmed queer, and I get it, I DO. I would be all for it! However, I do not, in one hundred years, actually believe that is going to happen after they already canonically queer confirmed Tara in S16. The fact we even got ONE queer character is ground-breaking for this show.

It's also worth noting, that in the time between Paget's departure in 2012 and her return in 2016, she became very active on Twitter. This was when more and more fans began asking her about Jemily and after Kirsten's AfterEllen interview, fans also pushed for Paget to address the possibility of Emily being gay. 'Pushed' is actually an understatement for some of the outright harassment she would receive. (AJ received some of this harassment too, but less so because she doesn't use social media ass often) Back then, neither of them replied to these things directly. Yet, no matter what either woman posted, the replies were full of Jemily stans begging for her acknowledgement. (Did you know 'stan' is literally a term coined for stalker fans?) I remember one time AJ's friend was missing and she posted info on her IG about it, you know what the replies were? People asking her about Jemily. It was genuinely sickening.

Within this context, it was no surprise to fans when Emily came back in S12 , she and JJ's friendship was seemingly erased. The two women were rarely on screen together in the late seasons, plus the writers saw fit to even give Emily not only one (Mark in London, but two, on-screen boyfriends for the first time in the entire series. I personally do not think these changes to Emily's character were coincidence, I saw the hellscape of what people would say to AJ and Paget online and I fully believe that upon Paget's return to the show, the showrunners purposely tried to distance JJ and Emily to dissuade the more abusive side of the fanbase.

Can I prove that, no. But it is the only reason I can think of as to why Emily S12+ seemingly didn't care about JJ anymore, despite their deep and meaningful friendship. I mean, they both CROSSED THE WORLD to go rescue each other in prior canon -- but when Emily comes back, they acted like they barely knew each other. This was even more prevalent in S16, when JJ's main storylines all revolved around Will, and Emily barely looked at JJ in the entirety of ten episodes. (Remember how Prentiss didn't even hug JJ after bomb, but she did go hug Luke?)

So, do Paget and AJ earnestly ship Jemily, or are they continuing the long tradition of queerbaiting us? Who fucking knows, not me. But based on the history of this fandom, I think I can make a safe bet. (Interestingly, if you search all of Paget's twitter for the word 'Jemily' [10] she only has 3 direct tweets mentioning the ship. I don't think it's a coincidence that two are within the past few months since they started filming S17 (the other one was a RT of Kirsten (who tagged something Jemily)

This is all to say --

Just because Paget and AJ have publicly talked about Jemily,, this doesn't mean it's ever going to happen on screen. And you know what, THAT'S OKAY!! There has been this constant outcry (after Tara became queer confirmed) of 'Do Emily next' or 'Why wasn't it Emily with a girlfriend!?' and 'Jemily needs to be canon in S17!' -- as if people believe their ships aren't worth anything unless they are canon.

That couldn't be further from the truth! Fandom is built on headcanons and fan interpretations and rare pairs and all types of shippers. Your ship does NOT need to be canon for you to enjoy it. I will ship Jemily forever, no matter what. I don't think there will be some magical queer plot in S17, at best, we might actually get to see Emily/JJ on screen together again and after the train wreck that was S16 -- I'll take whatever I can get.

And hey -- if I am completely wrong, if Erica Messer pulls a Korrasami out of her hat, I will be ecstatic. I will be happy to be proved wrong, but at the same time, I'm not going to lose sleep over it and I'm DEFINITELY not going to go hound the actors about it on social media.

Sources:

[1] 2022 Digital Spy article about the importance of Tara's coming out

[2] 04/18/24 Paget Tweet

[3] 2017 Queerbaiting article from medium.com

[4] 2009 Broken TVGuide link

[4.a] Tumblr quote from the above TVGuide Interview

[5] 2010 Kirsten interview screenrant.com

[6] 2019 AJ Instagram Post

[7] 2020 Paget video on Twitter (via @karasluthqr)

[8] 2015 Kirsten interview AfterEllen.com

[9] 2016 Paget Interview CriminalMindsFans.com

[10] @PagetPaget search 'Jemily'

[inyourwildestdreams22]

I really hope the Austin project is true but if not I still hope Tom starts working a bit more with his peers.Two hot takes I want exactly opposite things for TZ .For Tom I think because he already is a big name besides a couple of people he usually works with older actors or lesser known ones which is great to give them a platform but it has brought this misconception that his peers would out act him when he has shared the screen with veterans who are far more skilled than film twitter favs. For Z I wish for the exact opposite lol.I would like to see her work more with older actors and relatively unknown ones .I think because she has worked with mostly hot boys of the month who have their own fanbases she is almost always shipped with them and without fail Stan wars begin overshadowing some of her performances particularly the stupid questions journalists come up with. Like I know very little about her acting process how she approaches and prepares for her roles cause most of her press tours are just interviewers asking dumb questions to get a viral moment for twitter.I have Hope Rob has a more mature fan base otherwise we can add another set of Stan’s either coming for Z saying Rob out-acted her or new shippers shit talking Tom as usual ( Although to be fair observing during challengers I realized that most of these were just Z solo Stan’s migrating to anyone cause they hate her relationship. )

I mean they both having big names already but I do agree I would love Tom to work with more people who are his age and I would love if he works in some comedy with a big cast like knives out cause he usually picks dramatic roles and while I think he does a good job, it would be nice to see him do something else. for Z I wish sort of the same, but yeah you got a point that usually people get annoying cause there is a love story with some Of filmtwitter faves of the month so I hope the Drama has some unexpected twist and I hope she one day does a comedy too or some real villain.

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

ASOIAF entities as main pop girlies

The Night's Watch = Katy Perry

Once upon a time, pop's most influential hit maker suddenly decided to dye her hair blonde and get a pixie cut, got political, and publicly spoke to a therapist who told her to get her shit together. Thus began her never-ending flop era.

In an unrelated sequence of events, Aegon I Targaryen (a weird blonde man) invaded Westeros, created a central political unit, told the different kingdoms to get their shit together, and cut off the NW's weekly supply of men since there were no more pointless wars going around. Thus began their never-ending flop era.

BTW Jon Snow is the NW's 'Harleys in Hawaii'....their first and only hit in a really long time :(

The Kingsguard = Taylor Swift

Very famous, very rich, very influential, actually has a history of producing incredible material. But every now and then, you get a pop album that's just so..... bleh :/ And is Jaime Lannister the Westeros version of Taylor's Reputation era? Idk, you tell me....

Also, remember how TS had a feud with KP but got more famous and successful as Katy faded into irrelevance? Yeah, me too. In the same vein, the KG continues to maintain its high reputation while its counterpart (the NW) becomes even more irrelevant than it already was, if that's even possible.

The Golden Company = Gaga

Exclusively for the gays and no one else. There's really no doubt about it. But Gaga hurt the fanbase when she decided to pivot into acting, which is currently giving her more success than the music stuff. The GC has a great reputation but comes from a history of flop rebellions. So they've pivoted to a "Targaryen" pretender in hopes that they can win big this time around.

The Rainbowguard = Charli XCX

Huh?? Shouldn't the Rainbow Guard be Gaga??!

Please 🙄 don't be ridiculous. They do not have the material, and that's the T. But they're both for the gals and the gays. And in the same way that Charli had like two hits then faded into the shadows, the Rainbow Guard really can only claim Loras and Brienne. The rest are inconsequential.

The Brotherhood Without Banners = Dula Peep (aka Dua Lipa)

Who doesn't know THE Albanian pop princess Dula Peep?? She new, she's hot, and she's from out of town! She's got good music, but critics say that she's been recycling the same sound for a while now which is getting stale. The BWB has fallen into the hands of a foreign red god, and critics say that they can't produce a hit anymore since they kept recycling the same Beric. They did it six times, which got a little stale...

The Faceless Men = Grimes

Grimes makes really good music, I think? Also, remember when she dated a douchebag billionaire, got dumped, then staged a PR stunt reading the communist manifesto? Me neither. Anyway, the FM are known for being very good assassins who sell their services for the highest price possible. They were also founded by slaves, but that's probably unrelated.

Maesters of the Citadel = SZA

The talent is there, the influence is there, and the reputation is there. But you cannot trust them because they like to lie a lot...unprovoked.

[BONUS] Robb Stark's Vanguard = Bebe Rexha

Bebe is responsible for some of the greatest pop hits of the 21st century; she's even written one of the greatest K-pop songs of all time, that's a whole other region!! She's the very face of talent, but she's unfortunately a blink and you'll miss it type of gal. The average Joe would most likely struggle to name more than two songs from her. Robb's Vanguard also has the talent. They have the material. But sadly, 90% of us would struggle to identify anyone not named Dacey Mormont. I mean, did you even remember that this group existed?

[BONUS] Tywin Lannister = Nicki Minaj

A very talented but messy bitch who likes to play around with extremely problematic people...do I need to elaborate any further?

[sillystappen]

We have had singer!Daniel aus and dont get me wrong I LOVE them but

and hear me out

musical theatre performer Daniel. I have had this image in my head of Daniel pacing around (I’ve mainly pictured it in the back of RBR garage during a red flag or when nothing is happening) with a script in hand softly singing his lines to memorise them. And maybe Max helps out by singing/saying the other lines and everyone is like ??? why is F1 Champion Max Verstappen dramatically and goofily acting out a fight scene? (Waving imaginary swords at each other) And then the camera moves a tick and boom its Tony Award winner Daniel Ricciardo absolutely cackling as he fake-fights Max and gets his lines out through laughter.

When Max is asked about this he says “oh yeah I met Daniel at one of his shows and we became friends yada yada invited him to a race and sometimes I help him with his lines as a scene partner - it’s fun.” Of course in typical Max fashion he says this as no big deal and the musical theatre fans are like “who is this driver but tbh hes cool. We welcome him the DR fanbase.”

Daniel is later asked about Max he says: “Max is a great driver - huge fan. I’m literally buzzing to be here and see all of this up close and personal. It’s amazing work they do here and it’s incredible that I am even here in the garage and not in the grandstands like usual. […] I didn’t think Max would be a fan of my work and it’s still slightly insane to think about. But yeah, he’s a great guy, and well as a scene partner he’s not too bad either!” F1 fans are either just viewing him as another celebrity or are immediately charmed by Daniel and his knowledge of the sport, saying lovely it is that he genuinely likes the sport and is not there for press.

Moving forward, Daniel attends more GPs (mainly the US ones and Australia) and Max goes to shows and attends the opening night of the one that Daniel was practicing. Max even goes to the Tony Awards when Daniel is again nominated. Of course people notice they’re at least very close friends and it’s basically confirmed when Daniel appears in Max’s summer break photos. (This is when Maxiel starts).

This continues until one random media day when Max says “my partner and I” and everyone is like PARTNER?! Some people notice how he didn’t say girlfriend but f1 being f1 thats a minority.

Not long after, at a show near whatever GP it is, Daniel (cast as lead ofc) says “Thanks to the cast crew and everyone part of this show and my partner for helping me memorise every single song with terrible singing.” Which of course lines up a little too nicely with what fans already know about Max and Daniel and everyone goes ?!!!!!!!! (Little do they know Max was there too)

Those bitches knew what they were doing tho and after over a YEAR from that incident they say “oh yeah we’re together, since like 1 month after we met, and we’re married too lol”

[As their first kiss it was when Daniel was practicing a more romantic scene, Max knew this, and at the end of it, instead of just high fiving or whatever to indicate the kiss, they just both went fuck it and kissed]

[sweetmariihs2]

Lana Del Rey's songs are perfect for the Onceler: an essay

⊹ ݁˖ 🎸⋆ ˚｡⋆ 🎬 ˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖🍸⋆˖

I've known about Illumination's adaptation of The Lorax since I was a little girl, but I only joined the Onceler fandom in 2024. Since joining I've seen many versions and adaptations of the Onceler story, many fan works and askblogs, but something I'd like to emphasize here are the playlists. Not that they're not good, they're great, but I miss a big element in them, something that has a lot of potential for the Onceler fandom, which are Lana Del Rey's songs.

Non-recurring fan: "But Mari, what are you talking about? Lana Del Rey's songs have nothing to do with Onceler." And that's where you're wrong! I've been listening to Lana's songs for a long time now (years), and I can assure you that it has more to do with the Onceler story than you might think. I want to have a chance to explain why, and I know that people's attention spans are short, so I'll give a brief summary that might catch your attention and convince you to read the rest of the post: Lana's nostalgic songs about the American dream, glamour, money, living in ignorance of consumerism, and relationships with powerful and perhaps emotionally abusive men who caused their own downfall - She has a section of songs dedicated to this, and several versions of a single song that tell a story extremely similar to the Onceler's, which is the "National Anthem" collection of songs.

⊹ ݁˖ 🎸⋆ ˚｡⋆ 🎥 ˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖🍾⋆˖ ☎️⋆ ˚｡⋆ 💵˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖🍸⋆˖⊹

Who is Lana Del Rey and why do her songs match the Onceler?

First of all, I'm writing this post assuming that you know the Onceler very well, but are not very familiar with Lana's music. You've probably heard some of her songs online, but something that's important to mention and that's more familiar to those within her fanbase is her massive collection of unreleased music.

I'm good with words, a bit bad at explaining concepts, but I'll try to briefly talk about the general topics of Lana's songs to you. To start, Lana's songs are always storytelling songs, she's always telling a story instead of just explaining a concept in her lyrics (and I find it funny that this is a slight similarity to the Onceler, because he is a storyteller himself, but it's just a funny fact). Her stories are varied, and they repeat many elements, such as the lives of people from different decades of the 1900s (by the way there's the movie "The Great Gatsby" that happens in the 20s, which she was invited to write the main song for and the story itself is very Lana-coded (and Onceler-coded too)), the American dream, elements of the 60s, old Hollywood, nostalgia, political issues in the US especially those present in the 1900s, etc, etc, etc. She writes a lot of songs about bad men too, but also about American girls from different social classes, sometimes describing luxurious lives with rich men, sometimes describing lives as a call girl living in a trailer park and working at a gas station.

Her stories are varied, and usually (important information) about women in the background, living in someone's shadow, like the various versions of National Anthem, very similar to the story of Priscilla Presley, Elvis' wife, who has also influenced Lana in her career in looks and music. She also sings about depression, and she is well known for having "depressing" songs, however most of her unreleased songs have an upbeat tone, which doesn't make much sense.

All of this that I'm telling you is about the concept of Lana's songs, but if you're reading and already looking for similarities between her songs and Onceler, you'll have noticed that there are already some similarities just in the general theme of her songs. The search for the American dream, the references to the 1900s, consumerism, money, old Hollywood aspects, political issues and nostalgia, are all elements that we find in Onceler and also in the various works about him that are in the fandom. Lana also makes many references to famous names from the 1900s, social movements and fashion of the time, for example, she always mentions the Beatles, Elvis, and even former president John Kennedy in some references.

And if you've been around here for a while, you probably know that 2012 Onceler was heavily inspired by many of these names and elements from that era, as described in this post that you should really check out to understand the extent of what I'm saying. (The working link to the file can be found in the last reblog, ok?)

Lana is constantly singing about men like this. Usually bad men, but sometimes she sings about genuine romance, and generally romantic situations seen through fem gaze, often admiring the boys she sings about. Mentions of Jim Morrison (gods and monsters), Beatles (let the light in), James Dean (blue jeans), Elvis (body electric), John Kennedy (national anthem and jfk) and more. She made a song called "Axl Rose husband" once. She makes constant mentions of being by the side of powerful men (rich characters, rockstar characters, star characters, characters who are just starting their career and are not famous yet, etc) or just admiring these male characters as if they were her favorite people, each song is a different scenario... It's not like she only talks about that, it's because her romantic songs are relevant to the post. Of course she also sings about different scenarios without boys involved, but I'm focusing on the songs about them right now.

⊹ ݁˖ 🍒⋆ ˚｡⋆ 🎥 ˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖🪓⋆˖ 🎞⋆ ˚｡⋆ 💵˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖🧣⋆˖⊹

"National Anthem" collection of songs and how it's story matches the Onceler so well

I hope that by this point in the post you are more invested in what I am saying, because from here on out you are in for a rollercoaster of information. This is the most fun part for me (it is now 3:26 in the morning)

Released National Anthem - Born To Die album

I don't even know how to start this because I'm so excited, but let's start by taking it one step at a time. When Lana turned famous, on her debut album "Born To Die" she included a song called "National Anthem". Lana doesn't make the meanings of her songs very explicit, and the stories she tells usually have missing pieces that we have to piece together based on the references and elements she adds to the songs, and this case was no different. The song National Anthem is told from the point of view of a female character who is married to a very rich and politically/economically important man. They live a life of luxury, and she describes him in a way that implies the fact that he is very important to the country, using terms like "king of Chevron" (Chevron is the name of a company that extracts raw materials (aka oil)). The instrumental is also fundamental to the song, as we can hear the sound of fireworks in the background, and the opening of the song is inspired by a very well-known song in the USA called Bittersweet Symphony.

The most striking line in this song, and the line that fits the Onceler very well, is the catchphrase that she uses several times: "Money is the anthem of success", making variations throughout the song, such as "Money is the reason we exist, everybody knows it, it's a fact (kiss, kiss)" or "Money is the anthem of success so put on mascara and your party dress". Of course, this line is said with irony by the singer, and she actually wants to describe the lifestyle and behavior of the characters in the story she is telling.

After 1/3 of the entire song talking about romance, and money, and the man she loves and their lifestyle together, the bridge is where everything falls apart. In her own voice and in the sonority of the song, as well as in the lyrics, we can hear how the singer/character she portrays shows herself to be overwhelmed and worried about the lifestyle she lives, showing that all that glamour is not as wonderful as she made it out to be in the song. Of course, consumerism and alienation are clearly easy to notice up to this point in the song, but we didn't know that this female character was aware of it and worried about this aspect of her life. She and the male character live a dream, and she is madly in love with him as we can see, but it doesn't make her concern any less evident:

I would advise listening to this part of the song, because just reading the lyrics isn't enough to understand her tone of voice and how worried she sounds, and how the song changes to a hopeful tone when she mentions the fact that he'll hold her, he'll be there, pulling her back together. But the lyrics don't sound like a genuine relationship, they don't sound like a mutual romance, but more like an emotional attachment, especially in this part. When the female character is overwhelmed, worried about the life they're leading, the male character makes her stop thinking about it and makes her feel good again, and she shows total dependence on him to help her when she's down (and that's not healthy). Soon after, the song goes back to the previous rhythm, when she was talking about glamour and romance, and she says: "Money is the anthem of success, so put on mascara and your party dress", implying that it's HIM who says this line, and she's repeating HIS line throughout the whole song. To lean on something, on him? Maybe, who knows.

National Anthem tells the story of a wife of an important man, who is in love with him and the life they lead, but when she realizes that what is happening around them is not healthy, and he manipulates her back into believing that it is okay to continue like this, and she believes it, because she is emotionally dependent on him. The title and the line "Tell me I'm your national anthem" imply that the country's national anthem is as important to him as she is. Mentions of consumerism, blurring the lines between real and fake (Thneedville), big dreams ("It's gonna be huge!" as the Onceler says), it all reminds me of Onceler's story. But you think it ends there? No no no.

National Anthem - "I Still Love Him" monologue

Remember when I said that Lana tells us several pieces of story and expects us to put them together? National Anthem had more pieces of story that were cut, and this monologue was one of them. (Just because it was cut doesn't make it "non-canon", there isn't much of that here in the Lana fandom, we work with crumbs). This monologue tells about many, many things pending in the story. You see, this monologue is done by the female character, and she is telling in a nostalgic tone (similar to the old Onceler telling about his past in the cabin lol I'll stop) about that man she loved, and the life they led, but mainly about him.

She talks about how he was unique, and had a way of being that captivated everyone around him, but he was torn between being a good person and missing out on the opportunities that an incredible man like him could have (literally, that was said in her words). It's not clear what those opportunities are, but it is said that the female character tried to convince him to stop, to go back to how they were before; She says that as the years went by things got harder and they faced more challenges, although these things and challenges are not specified. And when she says that he was torn between being a good person and missing out on opportunities, we hear a gunshot, implying that his downfall was death. Something that wasn't made clear in the song. And at the end she says "But I... understood him. And I loved him, I loved him, I loved him... I still love him.", showing that she never forgot him and the time they had together.

But something interesting to say is that the National Anthem video is a huge reference to the life of John Kennedy, former president of the USA, and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy. This monologue makes it clear that the male character suffered the same fate as the president, who (tw: graphic) was shot dead next to his wife in a car in broad daylight, and that it had a strong impact on US politics at the time. I'm not North-American so I won't go on too much, but it's clear that Lana is telling a story inspired by theirs. There's no guarantee that it's not a story specifically about them, but I prefer to consider it Lana's fanfiction since it's a more romanticized version and told through her nostalgic lens, it doesn't portray the life of this real-life couple.

There are some edits and music videos of this monologue on YouTube, using scenes from movies that told abour John Kennedy and his wife or real life videos of the couple. I was kinda torn between adding one of them here or adding the lyric video, but I ended up keeping the lyric video because of the lyrics, of course, and because some of the MV's show JK's death, and some have strong images. From the real recording of the event or just a film that replicates what happened.

Lana making us chase after crumbs from this story like the Onceler makes Ted come back every day to tell the rest of his story? You should be ashamed, how embarassing Lana

"National Anthem Demo" and "I Want It All" version

In terms of storytelling, these songs don't add much, but for us Oncelings, they do. The original version of National Anthem wasn't actually that nostalgic, glamorous and melancholic version that we heard - It was a trash pop with guitar and a catchy rhythm, which doesn't make it any less fun to dance to, but it reminds me a lot of How Bad Can I Be. Making a little niche joke here, How Bad Can I Be would be National Anthem Demo and the released version of National Anthem + monologue would be Biggering, lmao. The lyrics don't change much, except for the fact that Lana sounds much more confident and fun in this one, almost completely ignorant of the problems mentioned in the released song, but which still has a worried and overwhelmed bridge, showing that her concern still exists. And in this version, some extra parts are added with a male voice saying yes to everything she asks for. "Do you think you'll buy me lots of diamonds?" "Yes, of course I will, my darling"

Honestly, this song has such a catchy rhythm and such a striking guitar riff, mixed with the "ignorant" lyrics, that it reminds me so, so much of How Bad Can I Be, it's crazy. I can't believe how aren't there thousands and thousands of Onceler edits with it, that song is his, it's such a missed opportunity.

But anyway, getting back to the subject, besides the demo version of the song, we have a version called "I Want It All". It's very good, but the chorus is completely replaced by the female character saying that she wants everything from him, she wants money and "things that love can't buy". I think Lana removed it because it gives the wrong idea of ​​the story she wanted to tell, although I personally also consider it an element of the story, it doesn't add anything new if you put it on the scale and add it to what we already have, she really lives alienated by her own wealth. It would be bad if Lana had cut the chorus and just put this one in its place, though. I'm glad she made the right decision.

JFK - Unreleased song

‼️This is the only video with this song on YouTube so I couldn't choose any other, be aware that there are strong/violent images in it‼️

Now this one isn't really part of the National Anthem song collection, but it's a song that's also part of the story because it's also about her character inspired by John Kennedy. In this song we can, once again, hear more deeply the extent of the love that the female character felt for him. I feel like this is an expansion of the monologue, because she's telling a listener about the character, and she always says "he was, I was, we were". The story is over, and she'll carry his memories forever. But there are some very interesting lyrics here for us Oncelings, just looking at them makes me want to squirm with joy.

It's like a love letter from that female character to him. She tells us about his scent, his voice, the person he was, their relationship.

She describes him as "King of the town, with a crown that would never fall", like, come on, don't you remember the Onceler painting that says "Too big to fail" and in the end he failed? Lana's character is also described with a crown that would never fall, but in the end it did fall, and we are told about it after it has already fallen. She also references rock n' roll, since it is not new for Lana to describe her male characters with rock elements and singers that she herself has had crushes on, and I must remind you of the countless rock references that the Onceler has in his design and personality, besides the fact that he is a guitarist, another thing that is mentioned a lot in Lana's songs.

In JFK, once again she describes how unique he was, that there was only one soul like his between one and a million, and there is a specific part that really gets me, which is when she says "You've got a soul like no one I know, you're so new at it; the way you see through that shit, breaks my heart and it drives me crazy". She's already described his unique and magnetic personality, but do you remember when she said that he's a good person but couldn't pass up opportunities, even though she's already advised him to stop? Here she says "You're so new at it, the way you see through that shit, breaks my heart and it drives me crazy", is he new to the business? Does she mean he's just a boy in the middle of all the currents that are dragging him along? What does she mean by "you see through that shit", she said he was torn in the monologue, he seems to be getting into trouble and seeing more than he should, is that what she's singing about? Is she referring to the character's optimism, even though the circumstances they live in are overwhelming? At least that's what I understood based on everything she said. Do you notice how there are no plot holes in each version? This is a complete story, guys.

And one more thing I would like to say, do you remember how this character was manipulative towards her? Maybe it was for her own good, who knows, but even so, there is a toxic relationship of attachment between them, and Lana always sings about unhealthy relationships. Maybe this character is perceiving him in a way that he is not. She says that he is unique, there is no one like him, and it breaks her heart to see him in this situation, but is he worth all this compassion or is she blinded by her emotions and his manipulation? He may be a bad man, or at least not as innocent as he seems, Lana gave hints of this in the bridges of the songs. She says that he is getting himself into trouble, and advises him not to do it, but he goes ahead and does it. It is just questionable, maybe it is innocence, but he may also be less oblivious than she thinks, after all he manipulates her a little, right? And since the character is inspired by John Kennedy, I have to reinforce that the relationship between him and Jacqueline was not one of the healthiest, this is also relevant.

But anyway, that's the story told by the various versions of National Anthem. It's the growth of an empire, which lasted for a certain period of time, with wealth and power, and love, which in some ways was almost like a fever dream for her character, but eventually ended when the "king of the town" fell and everyone mourned this loss. In the audio for the song JFK there are also audios of old speeches by John Kennedy himself, and the aesthetic reminds me a little bit of the fact that the Onceler appeared on TV, did commercials for his own company, probably gave public speeches and talked about Thneedville, promised great things, and unfortunately it ended up the way it did.

National Anthem, like Biggering and HBCIB, or even The Lorax 1972 and 2012, are different pieces of the same story, which we have to knead, mix, disassemble and reassemble to understand the order of the facts, with the difference that with Lana's songs we can do this with more freedom and consider speculations. But if you're sad because you think we've run out of song suggestions, I'm here to assure you that we haven't.

⊹ ݁˖ 💰⋆ ˚｡⋆ 🗞˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖📽⋆˖ 💵⋆ ˚｡⋆ 📰˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖🍷⋆˖⊹

List of other Lana's songs that matches the Onceler

Million Dollar Man

She's in love with a rich man and he's also doing bad stuff. Maybe it's also a piece of the story told in National Anthem, who knows, but I don't think of it that much. He convinces and manipulates people... of what? I'm not sure. You probably know this song by the "one for the money, two for the show" part. But yes, the lyrics really match the Onceler, I just decided to highlight it instead of quoting because it's easier for me that way to explain.

Hundred Dollar Bill

This song has two versions too, but the lyrics are the same and the story isn't as complicated to understand as National Anthem, don't worry about that. The version I want to recommend is the trash pop one, with the catchy guitar riff and the sounds of coins in the background. Basically Lana sings about being a call girl and hooking up with rich guys, repeating that nothing is more gourgeous than a hundred dollar bill. It reminds me of this scene, but if you want to insert an oc that's fine too lmao

You Can Be The Boss

She's talking about how she met a rich guy and had a fling with him. Honestly, the song delivers more than it promises, it's really good. I find it funny how she flirts in the lyrics, she always does that. "He had a cigarette with his number on it - He gave it over to me, "Do you want it?" - I knew it was wrong but I palmed it - I saved it, I waited, I called it - The liquor on your lips makes you dangerous - I knew it was wrong, I’m beyond it - I tried to be strong but I lost it - You taste like the fourth of July - Malt liquor on your breath, my, my" and the mention of his white car is also alamsnbsnjskskdbdh

Playground

This is the time Lana tried to rap but scrapped the song. She talks a lot about competition, fame, fighting to get what you want, and has a cocky tone in her voice, kind of similar to HBCIB. "I just wanna party boy, I don't wanna fight - But everybody knows that that's the way it is - Only players can survive - They all know my name now, It's just another lonely day on the playground (Only players can survive)" reminds me of "THERE IS A PRINCIPLE OF NATURE ‼️‼️💋💋 THAT ALMOST EVERY CREATURE KNOWS💥💥"

Is it wrong?

She met her local rockstar and they're also having a fling. "Is it wrong? Is it wrong? I’m makin' out with you while You’re singin' your song, is it wrong? Is it wrong? You’re playing your guitar and It’s turnin' me on" "You got me in the back of Your car like a star, is it wrong?" Ummmm I won't explain myself further

Groupie Love

She's watching her rockstar/guitar player boyfriend perform and considers herself his groupie love. They're in a crowd full of people but she knows that he is thinking of her. This song has me giggling and kicking my feet, specially before the "every time you look up, I know what you're thinking of" and you can hear a guitar playing in the background. I like to see this as a way to show this character "playing" the song, adding elements from the story inside the instrumental. Very sexy 100% recommend ‼️‼️‼️ "it's so hard sometimes with the star, when you have to share him with everybody"

Big Spender

Well, this song is not Lana's but she did a cover of it for a snippet in a rapper's song. I personally don't really like the rapper in the song, I'd rather hear her voice, so I recommend listening to the original vintage version of the song of the same name, it's good and suits Onceler, you'll like it.

White Dress

This is a song about her career. On this album she reflects a lot on fame and the repercussions it can have on someone's life (and her own). In this song, she sings nostalgically about the time when she was 19 and just a waitress, wearing a white dress, not famous, listening to rock, not knowing what her future held. Then she says "Look at how a got this, just singing in the street", contemplating the place she has reached. But she also remembers when she was just a young girl at the "Man In Music Business Conference", and remembers how ridiculous the whole situation was. "I felt free 'cause I was only 19. Such a scene..."/"I only mention it 'cause it was such a scene. And I felt seen..." There's a bit more to talk about this song's meaning, but I won't go into too much detail about that.

"I was a waitress wearing a tight dress

Like, look who would do this, look who would got this

It made me feel, made me feel like a god

It kinda makes me feel, like maybe I was better off..."

⊹ ݁˖ 🎸⋆ ˚｡⋆ 🪓 ˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖📈⋆˖ 🍾⋆ ˚｡⋆ 🪵˚ ♡ ⊹ ݁˖🧣⋆˖⊹

Playlist, my story and final considerations

I made a Lana Onceler playlist for those who like both of them and want to check it out, but specially because of the story I'm working on about an oc of mine called... Lana, and Onceler, of course. She is heavily inspired by Lana Del Rey too, but that's not all, It has a cool plot and good aesthetic too, if you want to take a look at the post I made about it, I'll leave the link here: Lana (oc) x Onceler thing I'm working on, I'm still deciding which name to choose. The playlist is about them but you can just listen as an usual Onceler playlist (Except it's a bit immersive and has old songs that fit with that headcanon of the Onceler being from the 40s-60s, it's a good setting, okay? Vintage music isn't too far off from the Lana Del Rey theme honestly, especially if you daydream like me and act out your own fanfics in your head, it's fun. Imagine Onceler in a business party, or an interview, I don't know. I have a whole story in my head but in your case you can hear it differently.)

This is the link to the playlist in case you wanna hear it.

I made this post because, honestly? The Onceler is perfect for Lana's songs, and everyone here is missing out on that. I think it would be really cool to see edits of him with these songs out there, or drawings, or fanfics and other fanworks, and I decided to come and talk about a subject that's been on my mind for about 2 months. People here would love to know about that, just as much as I do. Lana's fans are also famous for their moodboards so perhaps more Onceler moodboards too? I don't know. But that's basically it, thanks for reading this huge post that I wrote.

Every Lana song can be a Onceler song if you squint enough lmao. There are other songs that reminds me of him but I didn't added because I felt like they were really out of place here. Like the song "Dark But Just A Game" that talks about fame and previous stars, and she said she wouldn't let herself be dragged down the current as they did and had terrible fates. I guess the title speaks for itself.

It's now 06:06 AM, that's what hyperfocus does to people (only finished the graphics and added the links and pics 2 days later)

[ecargmura]

Tadaima, Okaeri Episode 2 Review - Yukku and Hi-kun

I feel like I am way too hyper fixated on this show to the point that I listened and watched the opening song throughout the entire last week. The first episode was cute and now, the second episode, is also cute. It’s mainly family slice-of-life in an omegaverse setting. The slice of life feels more notable in the first half of the episode where it feels like vignettes of Yuuki befriending Hikari and becoming the baby’s unofficial older brother and Masaki’s unofficial little brother in a way.

I’ve been snooping around Youtube reactions and social media and some people had been wary of Yuuki when he was introduced in the ending of the first episode. I was legit shaking my head at their comments because Yuuki is the opposite of his first impression and legitimately a fan-favorite character in the fanbase. Like, the readers really liked him to the point that he even got his own romance subplot with Matsuo. The subplot between them is even evident in the opening where they are shown together.

But yeah, Yuuki’s a great character. He’s gloomy and anti-social, but he’s proof that Hikari’s innocence can melt even the coldest of hearts. He never had friends growing up, but the Fujiyoshi family become his friends, which is sweet. Hiromu even pointed out that they sudden have a big kid in their atmosphere now. Masaki gets attached to Yuuki because he had reminded him of his old self where he was supposed a lot more self-deprecative and even rejected Hiromu’s confession when the latter had confessed to him in the past. Hikari’s attachment to Yuuki seems to be that he likes people with Masaki’s aura in a way? Like Masaki and Yuuki are similar in vibes, but Masaki’s a lot happier as he has a family. There’s a reason why Hikari doesn’t like Matsuo despite knowing him longer; the baby is almost two and he already has a preference. If you’re wondering, Yuuki is a Beta, so he’s not affected by an omega’s pheromones compared to Hiromu who’s an Alpha; Matsuo is also an Alpha. Also, notice how Yuuki isn’t really as shy or withdrawn as he was with Hikari or Masaki when Matsuo is around him.

The second half of the episode dives into more of the omegaverse lore as Masaki goes into heat and is out the whole day. This means Hiromu has to watch Hikari by himself, so he has to enlist the help of Matsuo and Yuuki who visited out of worry. As Yuuki and Hikari play around, the three discuss about heats and how it’s hard to deal with even for omegas themselves. It’s even harder for the Fujiyoshi family as they have no one else to rely upon during the heat cycle as Masaki’s parents passed away and Hiromu is estranged from his own. Yuuki does comment how there are a lot of difficulties when marrying those of different sexes as it’d be harder to find someone to rely on. Fortunately, the Fujiyoshi family has Yuuki and Matsuo to rely on during these times now, so that’s good.

It was heartbreaking to see what Masaki looks like while suffering through his heat. He legit looks haggard, complete with dark circles and such. While the grown-ups understand the gists of the heat cycle and what omegas go through, Hikari thinks Masaki is sick and in pain, which is why he cried a lot harder after seeing him in a rough state. Hikari’s still innocent to the world of omegaverse which is why his mind comprehends things a bit differently than adults. Also, it was interesting to see how Hiromu reacted to Masaki’s heat as it is the first time the heat cycle is shown in animated form. I think it’s animated well as an omega’s heat reacts to an alpha’s instincts, which was what happened with Hiromu. Also, I do like that while this story is an omegaverse one, the verse lore is present but only when it revolves around the adults. With kids, Hikari exists because of omegaverse logic, but he’s just a normal kid outside of the complexities of the world.

Also, fun fact of the day, Yuuki’s mother is voiced by Yuna Kamakura, who was in Gakuen Babysitters (the character design for Tadaima Okaeri is also the CD of Gakuen Babysitters) as Midori’s mom and she was also in Sasaki and Miyano (the director of TadaOka was the director of SasaMiya) as Sasaki’s sister. I always see her name in the most unexpected places but she seems rather talented because I didn’t recognize her voice at all until I saw her mention her role in a QRT of a post. I do hope she gets that big break because she’s talented!

Speaking of voice acting, I want to praise the voice actors in this episode. They did a really great job here. I did like how Masaki’s voice actor Atsushi Tamaru had a playful tone when he and Hikari were in the supermarket and Hikari wanted to buy milk with his favorite anime character on it. Hiromu’s voice actor, Toshiyuki Morikawa, changes from playful when around Hikari to serious when with others was nice to listen to! Atsumi Tanezaki always makes Hikari be so adorable that it’s crazy how she’s able to produce such a voice. Yuuki and Matsuo’s voice actors did a great job here.

Anyways, this was a cute episode in spite of the somber vibes of the second half due to Masaki’s heat. Hikari is always adorable as heck and I legit gushed during the scene where he was copying everyone by huddling and covering his eyes like them. Next episode will be a bit of conflict as someone seems to come into the picture. While I know who it is, wait and find out next week! What are your thoughts on this episode?

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

So, there’s a videogames website I used to surf some time ago. It was the early twitter era and the HP games were hot topic on the forums discussions. JKR was then relatively tamed, and their twitter feed was a constant barrage of feminism against old conservative guys… and she was so hated among the users. They called them feminazi, woke, etc. The HP games would receive poor reviews from staff and users alongside and memes ridiculing the franchise were shared in the threads.

I stopped visiting the site gradually, It’s been years since then. Curiosity dragged me back recently and things were so changed. Now the HP games have positive reviews, there’re entire threads mocking the attempts and calls to boicot. Anyone calling bullshit on the franchise is called woke, resented, child molester, etc. JKR is now an unfairly treated author. The general consensus goes about how authors have the right to do what they want with their money and the necessity to separate work and personal opinions.

Thinking about it, it’s not that big surprise. Some Xbox forums saw the raising of alt right on internet after all. But it would be funny if it wasn’t so alarming; how quickly the HP fanbase is shifting to bigotry, conspiracy and far right. While not so long ago those same (proto) groups were online crusading against what now defend and praise.

I can’t say I’m surprised. Folks who are already alt right will back whoever they think is on their side; ei republicans who what to fight “sexual immorality” backing trump the adulterer and (alleged) child molester because he tells them what they want to hear. But I saw political circles, not just fandoms, shift into the alt right over the years, actively supporting causes and ideals that once condemned. But the way they condemned them wasn’t always a matter of the harm they caused, but the intellectual inferiority of bigotry. So once the tides turned, so too did the targets of derision. This isn’t to undermine the specific marginalized groups that are targeted by bigotry, but a factor that allows it to spread is the more general sense of community superiority, which lines of perfectly with fandom toxicity. “We are better than those losers out the outside because we are the enlightened members of the in-group.”

For example, I used to follow the “New Atheist” movement on youtube, because it gave me some comfort and catharsis to see the kind of Christian extremists who were abusing me at the time dunked on. But it was just dunking. The real harm conservative American christians did to women, people of color, and queer people was used as proof that religion was a delusion held by intellectually inferior people. But then those marginalized groups started speaking for themselves and making demands, so the youtube atheists switched gears, and started dunking on the “social justice warriors” as the new delusional idiots that they were so much better than. Because the issue of American christianity was never actually the harm that was being committed, it was about how they were dumb and cringe for believing in something fake. The people who actually believed in stopping harm realized what was going on and left, so all that remained were the increasingly odious voices about how feminism and the gays were way worse than conservative christians and maybe they’re right about everything except the god part. (Though some of those bozos have “taken the god pill” in the fifteen years since because their belief system is based in perceived superiority and nothing else.)

As for Harry Potter specifically, I’ve never been in the fandom but based on the many interactions I’ve had with fans over the years, I’m not surprised by that shift. It always had an energy shared by all the worst of nerd fandoms: both the sense of superiority that their book/movie/game is one of the best things ever and it’d popular because everyone agrees that it’s great, but also it’s a special nerdy thing that the evil “normies” will belittle and bully them for enjoying because they’re too stupid to appreciate anything more complicated that reality tv. It maps pretty easily onto the facist idea that the in-group is simultaneously the superior order that effortlessly outclasses all others in everything and the poor perpetual victims of the all powerful other constantly out to get them. I’m not saying being in a toxic fandom automatically turns people into fascists, I’m saying that fascists are opportunists and pray on people who feel they have been victimized, and convince them the ones doing the victimizing are their current targets.

JKR herself was a victim of domestic violence, which is a prime recruitment ground used by terfs. That, and she was probably feeling the existential dread of her greatest success being behind her after the mainline HP franchise ended, her newer books weren’t doing well, and she wanted to feel like she was “positively” impacting the world. But that was years ago and she’s speaking her own words at this point. She’ll die remembered as a bigot who squandered the good memories propping up her overhyped franchise and not even her fellow terfs will miss her because they’re so paranoid about trans people, they’ll probably start “transvestigating” her posthumously out of instinct.

[aghostrandom]

W.I.T.C.H., interview with the creators

Some time ago, I made a post about "the original Elyon being a guardian," and since everyone was confused, I thought I'd translate the interview from which I read this information.

I don't know if someone else has already done it, but since I didn't find anything online, I decided to do it myself. I will translate the entire interview with the help of an online translator and a friend of mine.

Just remember that this interview was published in April 2021, marking 20 years since the release of the first volume.

Enjoy!

Here the original link in italian: https://heroica.it/w-i-t-c-h-20-anni-barbucci-canepa-intervista/

It is April 3, 2001 when Italian newsstands are hit by a small earthquake, which will soon transform into a hurricane...

The first issue of W.I.T.C.H. is released, a comic magazine that will shatter every sales record in a matter of months, embarking on a quest to conquer the world.

It all begins in Milan, at the headquarters of Walt Disney Company Italy, with an intuition of the then-director of the company's women's periodicals, Elisabetta Gnone, and the talent of two young artists, Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa, whom I have interviewed for you.

Interview with Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa

Let's start from the origins: How was W.I.T.C.H. born?

Alessandro Barbucci: It was 1997, Sailor Moon was still fresh in everyone's memory [the last series had been broadcast in Italy between March and May of that year, editor's note]. And then there were the Spice Girls...

"Sailor Moon was ironic, arrived at the right moment; the Spice Girls were five purely pop characters, worthy of a cartoon - during that period, we were big fans, we even went to see the movie in the cinema!" Alessandro revealed to me.

Elisabetta Gnone, who was then in charge of the women's periodicals at Walt Disney Company Italy, had a great intuition: she realized that there was a missing product for teenage girls, an audience segment that had never been considered by the major company before. When thinking about teenagers, one couldn't ignore what was happening in pop culture at that moment...

Barbara Canepa: During that period, a passionate fanbase for manga was beginning to take shape. it was clear how this new language was able to respond to the tastes and needs of teenagers - not just boys, but girls as well!

In fact, up until that moment, it was believed that girls didn't read comics. It was precisely with shoujo manga (like Sailor Moon, but not only) that this belief began to falter.

Canepa: Exactly. I had already been an avid manga reader since the days of Candy Candy: we're talking about 1986 when Mondadori released the first monthly editions at newsstands. I started reading my first manga at the age of 12, and at 16, I saw Akira (1988) for the first time in theaters. In fact, I was the one who got Alessandro passionate about this style, even though he already had some knowledge of it. We felt that the language of manga was the best way to visually "tell" this story.

Barbucci: Initially, I proposed girls in a steampunk, military style. I was a big fan of Tank Girl by Hewlett and Martin.

In my mind, Hay Lin had already existed for a long time: I had been drawing her since high school, but she was a punk with military boots," Alessandro revealed to me.

Elisabetta Gnone told me that the concept was considered too "masculine," so she proposed the idea of the five witches, which directly connected us to manga. Some people at Disney Italy were afraid that, given the theme, it would veer into Satanism, but their greatest fear was the manga-style big eyes!

Canepa: For them, it was inconceivable to publish a comic even vaguely inspired by manga, which at that time were their direct competitors in the market.

Barbucci: At one point, they considered investing in the relaunch of Daisy Duck by introducing our five characters as anthropomorphic animals. It was an attempt to somehow connect with the Disney universe.

Canepa: Yes, exactly. The project was called Daisy D. and it was intended for the monthly magazine Minnie Mag. The story featured Daisy Duck as a private investigator, accompanied by our W.I.T.C.H. characters, who in this version would have had snouts and gloves, just like Minnie and Mickey! I still have the first page done in watercolors, as we wanted to make it like the pages of Paperinik's Trip...

The scriptwriter, Ilaria Isaia, revealed to me that the inspiration for Daisy D. came from the success of "Minnie and the Magnificent Five," a story published in Minnie & Company in 1993. It featured Minnie in the role of an investigator, solving a mystery connected to five girls. Daisy D. wouldn't have been very different: "It revolved around Daisy Duck as an investigator, called by her friend to investigate mysterious events happening in a college attended by five students with magical powers," explains Ilaria.

Barbucci: Fortunately, nothing came of it.

Canepa: We were well aware that a story starring Daisy Duck wouldn't resonate with teenagers. We needed five normal girls that the readers could identify with...

Barbucci: So, the W.I.T.C.H. characters returned to being human.

For Will's design, Alessandro Barbucci Alessandro Barbucci was also inspired by "Alita" (1990) by Yukito Kishiro.

The graphic style of W.I.T.C.H., while drawing inspiration from manga, remains a hybrid of the West and the East. It doesn't stray too far from certain Disney characters, starting with Ariel from "The Little Mermaid" (1989).

Barbucci: I can tell a funny anecdote about this! As we mentioned, Disney Italy opposed W.I.T.C.H. in every way possible: they particularly disliked those manga-style big eyes. Together with Elisabetta Gnone, we came up with a game, a kind of bet with the top executives of Disney Italy. I drew a series of eyes, including manga characters, Disney characters, and our W.I.T.C.H. characters. Only the eyes were visible, nothing else. "Since you have so much to say about these manga eyes, guess which ones belong to the W.I.T.C.H. characters!" That was the bet: they could no longer complain. Well, they were wrong: they chose the eyes of Ariel from "The Little Mermaid" (1989), the protagonist of the Italian magazine of the same name, directed by Elisabetta herself, and successfully published by them for years. They didn't take it well...

Indeed, Ariel broke the Disney graphic conventions with the proportions of her face.

Barbucci: It was a "graphic shock," something that had never been seen in Disney until that moment. It was certainly a step towards manga aesthetics, with these very large eyes that we later found in the design of many subsequent characters, from Belle and Jasmine to Anna and Elsa.

We remember that you and Barbara worked on the magazine "The Little Mermaid" in the 1990s, just before W.I.T.C.H. started. In the covers drawn and colored by Barbara, I can already perceive some hints of manga style. Was it intentional?

Canepa: Absolutely yes! At that time, I bought Japanese magazines like Newtype and Animage to get inspiration. In one of the illustrations I made, there's Ariel with a straw hat: I think I took inspiration from an image of Nadia from "The Secret of Blue Water" (1990-91), or maybe from some other cover. The close-up of the face, as well as the fluttering leaves [like flowers in shoujo manga, editor's note], the pose of a model on the cover of a fashion magazine... it was all too innovative and "manga" for Disney Italy at that time, which often had something to say about my work! Even before W.I.T.C.H...

The scan on the left is taken from the website www.onlyshojo.com.

Walt Disney Company Italy didn't want anything to do with W.I.T.C.H., as we mentioned. What made them change their minds?

Barbucci: We worked on it secretly for at least a year, even at night. Then, finally, a ray of light... At the time, the main headquarters of Disney would send representatives around to other offices to find out what was being done in the rest of the world. Elisabetta was lucky to come across an American manager who was a big fan of Wicca. [Secretly from the top management, editor's note], she presented W.I.T.C.H. to him: he fell in love with it and financed the project, ordering Walt Disney Company Italy to proceed with its production.

Concept art created by Barbucci and Canepa between 1998 and 1999. Notice the homage to Minnie in the first illustration!

Images provided by W.I.T.C.H. Italia.

The project then gets underway. How did you divide the work?

Canepa: It's hard to say. Officially, Elisabetta wrote the plot, Alessandro created the character design, and I took care of the color and atmosphere. In reality, the three of us worked together on the concept, characters, and the world they would inhabit. We drew inspiration from our personal lives when creating these five girls. The city of the W.I.T.C.H., Heatherfield, is a mix between our hometown of Genoa and San Francisco, which we had visited together. Will shares my birthdate, while Elyon shares Alessandro's. At the time, I was a big fan of frogs, just like Will! Cornelia's cat is named Napoleon, just like mine - I also gave the same name to Elisabeth's cat, the protagonist of the first volume of END, the comic I created with Anna Merli. For Hay Lin's restaurant, we were inspired by a small Chinese "hole in the wall" where we often ate near our apartment in Milan... In short, W.I.T.C.H. was built and conceived based on our personal experiences: friends, memories from adolescence, and more.

Based on these characterizations, I created the character profiles that you can find in the first five issues of the magazine, as well as some internal editorials.

The character of Irma is inspired by Barbara Canepa in terms of design and personality, while Will is inspired by Elisabetta Gnone: with her, she shares an introverted personality and the detail of touching his hair when she is embarrassed.

Scans by poochieandotherfriends.it

Elisabetta chose the ethnicities and names of the girls, coming up with the acronym W.I.T.C.H., while Alessandro created the symbols of the Guardians. To draw the Heart of Kandrakar, Alessandro was inspired by a pendant, a unique piece that I was very attached to and still possess to this day!

Scans by poochieandotherfriends.it

Lastly, I'll reveal something you may not know: I was the one who designed the Witch's transformed costumes! I remember when Elisabetta jokingly scolded Alessandro, telling him to draw them less provocatively... (laughs). As for their everyday costumes, Alessandro created them, often drawing inspiration from his and our friends.

Scans by poochieandotherfriends.it

Another significant responsibility of ours was to form a team of artists who would work on W.I.T.C.H. alongside us. In fact, Alessandro and I couldn't have done it all by ourselves: W.I.T.C.H. was becoming a massive and important project, especially since it would be released on a monthly basis! Therefore, we conducted courses at the Disney Academy: Alessandro taught how to draw the Witch, while I taught manga techniques, coloring, and graphic design.

Scans by poochieandotherfriends.it

Did you encounter any other issues with Disney Italy during the production?

Canepa: There were some controversies, but at that point, the project was already underway. There were several delays, actually: the first issue was supposed to be released on Halloween in 2000. I remember that they criticized the covers: they didn't like the white background, and in the first cover, they didn't like the difference in proportions between Will and the others, which is another typical graphic characteristic of manga.

Barbucci and Canepa created the first five covers of W.I.T.C.H. and the corresponding chapter opening pin-ups.

You create the comic of the first issue: On the third page, there's a very intense panel with Will partially nude (without nipples); she appears like that later during the Sailor Moon-style transformation as well. These are not erotic images, but they certainly deviate from the Disney style. Did you face any issues regarding this?

Barbucci: Strangely, no. Maybe they had already given up at that point...

Scans by poochieandotherfriends.it

You left the project after the sixth issue. What happened?

Barbucci: The back and forth with Disney to bring W.I.T.C.H. to newsstands was incredibly exhausting. By the year 2000, we were drained from the continuous meetings, discussions, and delays... Moreover, both Elisabetta and we had realized our potential as authors. She was the first to leave: she left the world of magazines to fulfill her dream of becoming a novelist. And she succeeded greatly, as a few years later, she created the Fairy Oak series of novels, which sold millions of copies worldwide! Barbara and I were already in contact with various French and American publishers. In France, they allowed us to express ourselves artistically in a completely free way. It felt like a dream! There were so many things we wanted to talk about, things that weren't even proposable in Disney: sex, religion, politics... Sky Doll was born during this period. Furthermore, there were legal disagreements with Disney regarding the moral rights of the Witch characters. In short, after a few years with the multinational company, it was time for us to move on to other things. We needed a change of scenery!

The story you had in mind for W.I.T.C.H. was different from what we later read in the issues after your departure?

Canepa: Yes, it was darker, introspective, and more complex. It was a glimpse into teenage life presented through five very different girls. The plot had different layers of interpretation, including ecological aspects. It was certainly closer to manga in terms of themes: there was more focus on the girls' personal lives, their adolescent struggles. There wasn't a clear division between good and evil: the girls would be drawn to the Metaworld and tempted to join, crossing over to the other side of the barricade. Elyon would be the first to succumb, but they would all do so to some extent, even fighting against themselves.

Moreover, the Metaworld was a fascinating place, a natural paradise that was quite different from the medieval setting that Disney eventually created. At the heart of it all was the concept of growth and transformation, which is so dear to adolescence: the girls would have had the ability to transform into fantastic animals! Like teenagers who find themselves caught between childhood and adulthood, the W.i.t.c.h. would have been caught between two worlds, remaining trapped in one or the other, by choice or against their will. It wasn't always clear...

The W.I.T.C.H. transform into adult versions of themselves, adhering to the main theme of many majokko ("magical girl") anime.

Even Elyon, who in the version you have read is the princess of Meridian, was a very different character in our story. She was the Guardian of the Metaworld and had powers related to time, wild nature, and death. She would have tried to bring the other girls to the dark side and then redeem herself: in the last issue, she would have sacrificed herself to save the lives of her friends.

In W.I.T.C.H. #2, you can perceive some traces of the original Elyon, who at a certain point addresses the girls repeating, "Come to me, come to me..." as if trying to lead them to the dark side.

I transferred her main power, the ability to "bestow" death, to the protagonist of END, Elizabeth: with this character, I have done and will do everything that I couldn't do with Elyon, who was initially supposed to have white hair like her.

Barbucci: What was actually realized was a harmless mythology, closer to fairy tales and therefore to the Disney style. There is no mention of witches anymore... We would have focused on a more New Age aesthetic, with references to Wicca, which was very popular in those years.

After leaving W.I.T.C.H., you left Italy for France, from where you embarked on various successful projects, with Sky Doll first. It can be said that you found your dimension and creative freedom. Now that 20 years have passed, what is your relationship with W.I.T.C.H.?

Canepa: It's needless to say that the bond has always been very strong and still is today. It was our own creation for a long time: seeing it succeed worldwide brought joy, but also suffering because we felt disconnected from it.

Barbucci: It was a love-hate relationship, but I must say that it gave me the greatest satisfaction of my life: seeing dolls of the characters I drew being sold in supermarkets!

Some sketches made by Alessandro Barbucci at the beginning of 2021, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of W.I.T.C.H.

Canepa: After twenty years, perhaps it can be said that we have made "peace" with what happened. The hardships we endured have now drifted away with the wind, and that's how it should be. Today, I can talk about W.I.T.C.H. with more tranquility, almost with tenderness. For many years, I didn't even want to face it. Initially, leaving Italy helped, but then W.I.T.C.H. reached France and the rest of the world. Over time, this forced me to look at it with more "serene" eyes, so to speak. If I hadn't left W.I.T.C.H., I would never have created Sky Doll and END, and perhaps I would have never become the director of a French series that, today, celebrates nearly 100 books 12 years after its creation. Destiny, then? I believe so. Fate wanted to take something away from me to give me something else. In hindsight, I truly believe there was a magical thread in all of this... or rather, a true witch's touch! There is a happy ending to it all: today, history reminds us that we are the true creators of W.I.T.C.H. The readers know it, and so do industry professionals. Even Disney, in the end, acknowledged us. Every now and then, Elisabetta, Alessandro, and I talk and, laughing, we say, "What if we got back together and remade W.I.T.C.H. in our own way?" In any case, this remains and will always be the most important project of my life. And to have touched so many hearts around the world... well, there's nothing more beautiful and satisfying. So, thank you all. I was happy to give you these five girls.

For Women's Day 2021, Barbucci drew again the famous pinup from the first issue, Halloween.

Current and Future Projects

Alessandro Barbucci His most recent work is "Le Sorelle Grémillet" where he returns to portraying teenage girls ("it's a bit like how I would have liked to create W.I.T.C.H. back then, but it wasn't possible"). Additionally, Alessandro continues to work on "EKHÖ" and other projects. Follow his Instagram and Facebook to stay updated!

Barbara Canepa For over 12 years, Barbara Canepa has been the editorial director of the Metamorphose series for the French publisher Group Delcourt, with over 100 published books. She has several projects in the works, including "MINA's Diary," where she will serve as the writer, while Isabella Mazzanti will handle the artwork and coloring. The work is a free interpretation of Stoker's Dracula, introducing a new way of conceiving vampires. For the past two years, she has been finishing the writing of 12 volumes of a new jeunesse series, "GREENWOOD," aimed at rediscovering and respecting nature to the fullest. Stay updated on her activities by following her on Instagram and Facebook!

[genericpuff]

Hey, I've worked a bit in animation and just wanted to point out that shows very often get pitched and bought out, and can sit in the back burner for a really long time depending on the market! Seems like with all the strikes and post covid lag, and a market thats already saturated with greek mythology atm (think percy jackson live action coming soon, youtube series, other webcomics, etc.), lore olympus is probably floating in the air atm until the time is right. These kinds of things can take years to happen, even 10+ years! Some of the most popular animated shows were pitched years before they were picked up and sent into production. Hoping in the time its on hold, they get some really good writers to clean up the story. I don't mean to disregard your post, but just a lil bit of info on how that nature works in animation. I love lore rekindled too, keep it up!

Oh hey thanks for your input! So I do actually have a diploma in animation (though I never ended up working in the larger industry) so I know a bit about how things like that can happen. Nimona's a great recent example, it was bought in 2015 by 20th Century Fox but never made it through development because of Disney purchasing them and bringing the project to a crawl due to it being LGBTQ+, then they shut down Blue Sky and that kept the project in limbo until it got picked up by a new studio and brought to Netflix. So it took well over 10 years for that one to finally hit the screen.

That said, most of that post is addressing the fact that if LO is going to get a TV show (I'm really strongly believing it isn't at this point, esp not with JHC but that's me) then stalling it out for 10 years or however long probably won't be the best move. Especially not with how things are going with animation at large.

While LO is the biggest on the WT platform, the platform itself still isn't as prestigious here in the west as say, DC or Marvel. Its platform and its comics just don't have that sort of longevity out here. LO is also undoubtedly nearing the end of its run and it's struggling to stay relevant as it is - so to make a show years down the road when it's long gone out of everyone's minds (which it will be as soon as it ends and WT starts shilling the next big thing) just sounds like a missed opportunity. It could rejuvenate interest, sure, but it could just as easily flop due to its fanbase having moved on/lost interest/etc. LO is pretty much reliant on WT's advertising at this point, it's not a good sign that WT has to keep putting notifications to read LO everywhere on the app. WT loooves the "strike while the iron is hot" methodology and now with the show they just drag it out? It feels less like striking the iron while it's hot and more like trying to get a fire going, period.

Like, when Nimona got its movie, it was like "omg Nimona's finally getting a movie!!!" but I can't help get the sense that if LO goes through that same treatment, the response is gonna be, "that gross comic with the underage girl and old man billionaire is still getting a TV show??" Maybe that's a mean assumption to make but if LO is struggling to stay relevant and in a positive light now, god knows what that's going to be like years from now if and when they do release a show.

Especially when it comes to comics like LO which generate so much criticism, I feel like it's going to go through the same thing Twilight did, where people adored it during the peak of its run but as soon as the series was over and the hype left everyone's brains it gave people room to actually reflect on it and realize how icky it was LOL (and if it goes the full way of Twilight, people will read it as a joke over how bad it is).

There are also theories in the community that a lot of what WT is doing with LO rn (paying for Rachel to be in the top billing spot at NYCC, getting her a second Eisner, etc.) could very well be them trying to "shop it around" for investors or a new network, by putting Rachel in the spotlight and going "see! look at how successful this comic is! buy it!" That's just a theory of course, but it really isn't a good look when LO wins awards and people ask why. It feels like WT's is trying to throw money at a problem without realizing what's causing the problem in the first place. It winning an Eisner or being hinted at a TV show or getting a top billing spot at NYCC won't give it legitimacy because the comic they're advertising is still garbage, they're trying to convince people it has merit when it doesn't. If anything, it'll make LO and WT lose even more credibility because it makes people wonder why the fuck a comic like LO is winning those awards and why it's being given more attention and opportunities over other comics on the platform that are far more deserving.

Anyways, this post is kinda all over the place, but that's my two cents, my point really is that if there is a show happening, it's definitely not happening soon (in spite of Rachel saying "yeah it's happening!") because there's no clear timeline or progress that's been made or even team in charge of it at this point - and if it happens down the road, its only chance of doing well will be if it gets a major overhaul in its writing IMO because the comic is way too much of a mess rn for television LOL

That said, I'd love to genuinely believe that the show will happen someday, but I feel like the best time for it to happen has passed, especially with the comic losing the quality and prestige it was sold to JHC for since then. That's just me though.

[qiriex]

Why do DnP have such a large transmasc/lesbian following?

Hi! So I put out a general feeler post about this, and it seems like y’all are interested in a big ass post about Dan and Phil’s relationship with their LGBT audience. Click on the read more for a bit of unhinged analysis.

I have… a lot to say on this matter, and tbf I warned you it would be long. This will mostly be focused on the wlw (specifically lesbian) and transmasc experience with DnP. Before I get into it, I wanna state that I am NOT transmasc. I’m a he/they afab lesbian, but I am in no way talking over any transmascs who have differing experiences. This post will mostly deal with the AFAB experience, as I am not AMAB and can’t speak for our lovely transfems/enbies/cis men! I love you guys, and I would love to hear about your experiences too, though! I’m going to be using as much non-gendered language as I can, however I’m talking about some pretty gendered topics so bear with me. One more thing to note is that when researching this, I found a lot more examples of Dan shouting exact communities out. This is a post about them both, as they are both extremely important to queer communities! It’s just that Dan has generally done more press runs relating solely to his sexuality, so there is more content there. I’m sure I’m missing a lot, though, and if anyone has more Phil focused clips/screenshots I would love to link them here. This is very much a work in progress post, I’m sure I’ll be adding more later and if you have screenshots/clips/anything, my dms and my submissions are open! Okay, done with disclaimers for now, I think. This post will be split up into a few sections: DnP talking about the LGBT community (both pre and coming out), how they empower their wlw following, how they affirm transmasc identities and what they mean to the LGBT community as icons. I would like this post to be free of any in-fighting drama, both from the Phandom and LGBT side of things. We are all awesome! 

Dan and Phil are both queer men who came out after acquiring a large fanbase that was predominantly AFAB (love you transfems and cis dudes going strong btw). However, a community that started out as a common “fangirl” fanbase over the years has shifted into a predominantly LGBT fandom with a disproportionate amount of specifically transmascs and lesbians. The word fangirl was often thrown around as an insult to people like us back in the day, but I think it makes perfect sense that a group of disenfranchised, young, queer AFABs would be drawn to DnP. Both of them were, for obvious in hindsight reasons, vocal supporters of the community. I can’t find an unedited version of the clip, but this clip from 2017 is a great example of that. Correct me if I’m wrong, but not a lot of non-out YouTubers educated their community in the way that Dan does in this clip.  I think sometimes it’s lost to time how bad YouTube used to be, that 2013-2017 time period was peak anti-SJW era. As basic as what he said was, somebody with his level of influence taking the time to educate his audience on queer issues as a presumed straight man was very meaningful. This not only created a safespace for young, queer AFABs but also made their specific audience more saturated with us than your typical “straight” YouTuber of the day. Their audience shares more demographic similarities with someone like Tyler Oakley than someone like Zoella, which makes sense in recent years.

This tweet from Dan from before he was out displays my point perfectly. To my enby ass, things like this meant the world to me and I can imagine it’s much the same for my transmascs out there. Going back to the clip earlier, though, I think that how willing to break gender norms they both were had even more of an effect in attracting transmascs who hadn’t yet fully discovered themselves. This isn’t denying that a lot of transmascs who were already out were drawn to DnP! Most of my Phandom friends were actually transmen back in the day. However, I think in retrospect there’s a huge pipeline from going into the fanbase as a cis person to coming out of it as… not. It makes perfect sense to me that a generation of transmascs would be drawn to and model themselves after the two of them. Going back to the YouTube landscape of the time, even their contemporaries had a much meaner edge that DnP just never had. This unfortunately made them targets of their fellow “vaguely emo relatable YouTuber” scene; people like Shane Dawson and Onision immediately come to mind, at the time they would have been in a similar category but in retrospect are nothing alike. There was an air of cruelty that Dan and Phil never fed into, consistently remaining themselves. I think that as a baby transmasc, people who stayed loyal to their principals even when it wasn’t the cool thing to do was really empowering. In a time when my friends were all fans of LeafyIsHere, Dan and Phil weren’t afraid to be kind. To be soft, even with the context we have now of how scary that really was. After BIG/COTY dropped, it was easy to see why they were great queer role models.  But I’d argue that they’d always been this, even before we knew they were queer.

This one will be a little bit more personal, but I would like to start this section out with a personal anecdote. I grew up in a fairly liberal household, in which I was told being gay was just fine. However, my mother just so happened to use the word ‘lesbian’ as a descriptor for any woman she thought was “unsuitable”. Ugly, boyish, mean, it didn’t matter; to me, lesbian was an unmistakably bad word. I knew that the word didn’t mean that, but intrinsically I had never heard it as something positive until I heard Dan simply shout out the lesbians on a YouNow stream. Simple, right? Four years later, and BIG came out. I identified as a bisexual “who would never actually date a man ahaha” at the time, and it was life changing. Dan and Phil have frequently shouted out their lesbian fanbase over the years to the point where it’s developed into a bit of an inside joke. This is meaningful for a multitude of reasons, one of which being just how demonized not only the word but the group can be. Even when poking gentle fun, neither of them ever lean into hurtful stereotypes. I went to We’re All Doomed last November, and when Dan took his jumpsuit top off the audience screamed. He yelled into the mic “I thought you were all lesbians!”, to which the crowd screamed even louder. You can poke fun at each other without playing into things like the mean lesbian stereotype, for example, and I think it’s things like this which show that they have a genuine appreciation for their lesbian audience. I can only speak from my own experience when I say that I was originally drawn to them for their authenticity even in a hostile environment. I was a closeted lesbain who had grown attached to closeted gay men, because on a level I didn’t understand yet I related to them. It was a parasocial relationship that if I never had, I wouldn’t have come out. This section is a lot less objective than the others, because for me it’s impossible to look at this objectively. A lot of the reasons that transmascs would be drawn to DnP are why lesbians would, especially in a less than LGBT friendly era like the 2010s. They were never afraid to be perceived as weaker than their peers if that meant being kinder, and from a lesbian lens this wasn’t how I modeled my new relationship with gender off of but what I wished the world was like. I grew up with a deep, fundamental fear of men that is still there, but when I would watch actual sunshine Phil Lester and Winnie the Pooh ass Daniel Howell it made me realize that there are people out there who have your back.

I think this is where the conversation turns to now; we are mostly all adults, DnP have been out and proud for four years now. The pair have returned to YouTube (gloriously, might I add) and can talk openly about even the most mundane parts of being queer. Dan has been a very outspoken part of the community, doing a really lovely bit of standup about it. Watch it if you haven’t. I don’t think either of them are obligated to be spokesmen for the community, in a way I think one of the most powerful things they’ve done after BIG/COTY is to just continue living. Watching two queer people thrive how they have is incredibly important. They’re still just as great role models as they have ever been, just with nothing to hide this time. I think now that most of their younger fanbase has grown up, we’ve been very reflective of our past with the Phandom. Certainly not me (lie). It’s not a mystery to me, though, that two groups of closeted AFAB children would attach themselves to figures like DnP. The pair’s content encouraged a level of creativity, of believing in yourself against all odds that was and is unmatched to this day. We can moan about how much of a demonic fanbase we used to be, but the fact is that we turned out alright. People wonder why our fanbase feels like the most healthy parasocial family this side of Tumblr, and that’s because in a way we are. We were raised by these two British dudes to be how we are today; smart, funny and creative. All kids have a rough teenagehood, don’t they? It’s no wonder why queer kids would be drawn to a culture like this, one in which despite everything there is still hope that we will one day grow up to be our honest selves. Dan and Phil did, and so will we.

Thank you if you made it this far! I know this is a bit over sentimental, but they mean a lot to me. They did back in the day, and they definitely do now. Like I said in the beginning, feel free to add on. I would love to hear about this from a transmasc perspective, or any other perspective! I just love talking about these two lol. Love you guys.

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

MMA and MAMA are a joke. I like a lot of Aespa's songs, but winning SOTY, ArOTY, and AOTY, and literally lipsycning an already incredibly low effort stage is insane. THAT's your artist of the year? Are those the standards now? Can't even put on good 10 min show for a major award ceremony? At the top of their game and this is all they have? No denying they had a great year and are huge in SK, but BTS will be outperforming Aespa at their current best in their 70s, with sincerity, live singing, and charisma - many other artists outperform them too. But it wasn't just Aespa, TXT looked like their creative vision for MAMA was old BTS choreos. EN lipsynced as always and just did the same aerobic dancing routine they always do (Jungwon had a great dance break though). IVE sang live, which is their saving grace, but they're weak dancers. Their MMA stage was really good though, very well put together. If their dancing wasn't so lackluster it could've been epic. SVT really don't have much charisma to me. I didn't bother watching more than a minute of their stage.

Are BTS the only ones with good choreographers and performance directors? At least KATSEYE delivered a great performance but their performance director is BTS's long time dancing coach. They didn't sing live, but at least they delivered. They have energy and power. They aren't just power walking on stage. ILLIT's performance was very cute, but, again, lipsyncing.

Anyway, it's all very boring and disappointing overall. I also don't get SVT as artists of the year. Stray Kids have a lot more impact and are growing a lot more, but SVT are undoutbly bigger.

LASTLY, I know Jungkook won some awards, but Golden is literally the most streamed Asian studio album on Spotify (only behind Proof I think, which is a compilation album) and it won no major awards? Jungkook did real kpop history with Golden - he has impact, great choreo, great stage presence, amazing live singing and dancing, more fans, big sales, incomparable Spotify streams - and gets 0 Dasaengs? I'm sorry, but that's just fucking absurd. SVT may have higher sales and have been more active, and Aespa had better charting in SK, but Jungkook has a bigger fanbase, longevity, impact - and I mean actual impact beyond the kpop sphere. Western shows ignore him, and he doesn't even get his flowers in Korean shows? I know I'm JK biased, but these fucking metrics are wrong. LSF should've been nominated as well for all the major categories...

[iamnotawomanimagod]

Did you finish The Tortured Poet's Department? I'm not a swiftie but I'm seeing a lot of mixed reactions.

I did, finally.

There's parts I liked and parts I really disliked. This is going to be a criticism-heavy review, so please scroll on if you don't want me harshing your vibe

First and foremost: Taylor Swift is one of the most popular singer/songwriters of all time. She's "earned" the right to do whatever she wants (not that anyone should really have to do that.) And there is undue pressure on artists, especially female artists, to reinvent themselves every era and bring something totally new to the table. And it's totally fine that Taylor didn't want to play that game. Any of my criticisms aren't going to take away the fact that she's a literal billionaire, selling out huge stadium shows worldwide, and will go down in history for all the work she's already released and the incredibly passionate fanbase she's gathered.

And I think that confidence, while earned, is a huge core of the problem with this album.

Someone needed to say "no" to her. Someone needed to be like "hey, glad you got that out of your system, maybe it doesn't belong on this album though." I feel there is a good album in here, a cohesive and complete piece of work, but there's about 15 songs too many (spread across both sides of the double album.)

My top three complaints are this:

1 - Too long, too much (this includes the lyrics which I'll touch on in a minute)

2 - Doesn't feel like an "album" but a collection of songs

3 - Too reminiscent of aspects of her previous sounds but not in a good way

Too Long, Too Much

I am a pretty casual fan and was already feeling the Taylor Swift Fatigue before TTPD was even announced, so when I woke up to discover 15 more songs than there was the night before, my heart literally dropped and I just felt exhausted. That feeling carried over into my listening and I found myself making edits to her lyrics like "that line would've been more impactful if it ended there" or "that's a bad metaphor and an unnecessary addition."

Like, she needed an editor. She needed someone to go through and make the lyrics less long-winded, and she needed someone to strike about half the songs. I made it through the whole album but I definitely won't be listening that way ever again. That's in part because...

It Doesn't Feel Like An Album

Walk with me on this one. I will cede the point that not every album has to be a beautifully flowing body of work to be "good." I'm okay with an album that plays with a lot of different genres - I think Halsey's Manic is a great example of that working. And if I squint, I can see the overall "theme" Taylor was going for, even if it feels poorly realized. It's one big poetry reading where everyone is heartbroken and no one knows how to strike unnecessary lines lol. It's clearly meant to be indulgent and pretentious and a little cringeworthy. And if you're a huge Taylor Swift fan and/or a big fan of poetry you're probably having the time of your life right now.

But I truly believe you could have hit shuffle on TTPD and put the tracklist in a different order and it'd feel the same - because right now it feels confusing, disjointed, and a little haphazard.

And I have to admit, I vastly prefer an album that sounds best when played in order. Even Manic has a section that works best when listened to in a row, and it tells a cohesive story. A good, strong album should be able to do both - have great songs that stand alone while also being a complete work when you put them all together.

Cowboy Carter by Beyonce did an incredible job with this - none of those songs sound the same, she plays in all sorts of (primarily country influenced) genres, most of the songs are great to shuffle in a playlist - but they all also flow together so thoughtfully and in such a satisfying way. Each song was placed with intention and care, so when you reach "Amen" you feel like you just went on a journey with a complete beginning, middle and end.

I can't think of a single moment on TTPD where that happened, where I had any "aha! very clever" moment in the production or even the lyricism. It just doesn't feel like it goes together, except under the very loose heading of "poetry reading after heartbreak."

Which is fine, I guess? But that also loops back around to "too much" because at some point it was just like... girl, make your point. Were you trying to make a point?

And maybe she wasn't! But that feels lazy for someone of her prestige, and it definitely makes me like the album a whole lot less.

Sounds Too Similar to Past Works

One of the things that I adore about Halsey's work is that none of her albums sound the same. While you can definitely pick up on certain patterns, it's not usually possible to say "this song sounds like it should have been on [previous album.]" Every album has its own distinct sound, aesthetic, and theme.

Granted, Halsey has had four studio albums, Taylor has had eleven. I'm not asking Taylor to re-invent the wheel. (I'm actually not asking her to do anything at all lmao, just expressing my viewpoint.) At the same time, like....Beyonce has eight studio albums, thirteen if you count her work with Destiny's Child, has been in the game even longer than Taylor, and is STILL finding ways to challenge herself and make her music even better.

Anyway, there were SO many songs on this album where I thought "this could've been on Midnights/Lover/Reputation/Etc." It's starting to really feel like Taylor just keeps repeating herself, especially from a sound/production perspective.

I guess she primarily works with two producers, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, and I can mostly blame the former for the songs with production that I hate. It'd be cool to see her branch out and work with someone else for her next projects, though. After a nice long break. Because it doesn't feel like there's anything really fresh or novel coming from these pairings anymore.

And again, there doesn't have to be innovation. Taylor's done a lot of innovating in pop music (by standing on the shoulders of giants, but still.) Maybe she's done with that. That does mean that I'm kind of done with her though, lmao. (Somehow, I think she'll survive.)

I really didn't like Midnights. I think there are more songs I like on TTPD, but that's in part because there's 31 songs to choose from lmao. I just personally want something more interesting. I like it when the artists I follow really push themselves and rise to the challenge of finding new ways to express themselves.

This kind of brings me to my fourth big complaint, which is that this album feels like it's going to be the most rewarding to the people who are the most invested in Taylor's personal life. Taylor's always written really diaristic and true-to-life lyrics, but this album in particular felt like it was especially "designed" to be a sort of "figure out which guy THIS one is about" easter egg hunt and like. Yucky.

It probably wasn't actually designed that way, this is more of a fandom issue than a Taylor issue. But like..... is it? Doesn't she make more money, sell more tickets, and remain in the spotlight longer when people obsess about her love life? Doesn't this album invite that obsession by being about nothing BUT her past lovers? Some of my favorite songs by her are the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with love or her love life. I feel like this one really lacked any of those.

And on a petty, catty note - it's embarrassing how many of these songs appear to be about Matty Healy lmfao. Like he must be somethin' else to inspire not only these tracks but many of Halsey's songs on Badlands as well. Tattooed golden retriever, indeed.

AND AND.... the fact that she's still writing songs about Kim Kardashian in the year 2024 is insane. Making it as obvious as she did by capitalizing Kim's name in the title is embarrassing and juvenile. I'm not saying that Kim's part in that whole fiasco wasn't wrong, and I certainly don't like Kim, but goddamn. That shit went down in 2016. Please move on. (Unfortunately it's one of the songs I like, but we'll see how long that remains true every time I see the title and remember who it's about.)

Anyway. Those are my big complaints. Here's the songs I actually enjoyed:

Florida!!!, Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can), I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, The Black Dog, I Hate It Here, thanK you aIMee, The Prophecy, Cassandra, and The Bolter.

I don't know how many of these songs will actually stick with me, I think my top three are WAOLOM, ICDIWABH, and The Black Dog.

there are a handful of moments I really liked, some lyrics that I found really good and clever. I might write those up in a separate post at some point. but suffice to say, TTPD is not going to be my album of the year and might not even crack my top five.

Thanks for asking anon! Hope you enjoyed my overly long rant.