#this is also apparently a recording with the original cast

[booktomoviebrawl]

Baking accident...

[unproduciblesmackdown]

speaking of the horrors brian goosebumpsphantomoftheauditorium is still So funny for being like yeah i'm a ghost i know i'm a ghost. & he's befriended the horror fan menace duo who are giggling clutching each other like omg omg okay. we're fine. we're breaking into the school at night to investigate the horrors aaaa what if there's a ghost eek ok ok!!! & brian ghost who knows he's a ghost is like omg guys aaaa stopppp ;;m;; suffering thee Most but he's not putting on an act to conceal his phantomly destiny. he's just like that

[thebroccolination]

BOUN TWEETS ABOUT REVAMP’S SCRIPT

Today, after returning to Thailand from his first European fanmeeting with Prem, Boun tweeted about Revamp’s script, a hint that workshops and filming for his much-anticipated vampire series with Prem are imminent. \o/

Boun: The script is sooo good, I want to brag about it!!! [translation by @hallowpen]

For anyone who hasn’t been following Boun’s passion project, Revamp is a fully original story and has been in the works since long before Boun and Prem joined GMMTV last spring. As early as 2020, Boun was begging anyone to cast him in a vampire series, so Revamp means a lot to him. <3

He's been very heavily involved in the script-writing process, and he also put a significant amount of his own money, time, and energy behind aspects like 1) pitching the series to potential sponsors in Japan, 2) managing the fitting and photoshoot, and 3) funding the first teaser all while the production was under Studio Wabi Sabi.

When Boun and Prem joined GMMTV in spring of 2024, Revamp came with them. In order to appeal to a broader audience, the action-based script was altered, centering the romance between vampire Ramil (Boun) and antiques dealer Punn (Prem) while intensifying the tone of the story. If I'm remembering correctly, it was GMMTV’s CEO Tha himself who suggested the changes, which to me speaks highly of BounPrem's place in their new company as well as the resources GMMTV is putting behind BounPrem's first production in their care.

However, even under GMMTV, Revamp is very much Boun's project, and I think he and Prem have both continued to have significant influence in how it's shaped.

My only reservation has been New as director, but I've actually come around on that. As long as he delegates editing and sound design to someone else, my only other concern was the sensuality. The whole vampire trope is deeply erotic, and New's gone on the record over and over that he doesn't need sex in his series. To me, that always felt very sex-negative, but after speaking with a Thai friend recently, I may have misread him and his views (which would be a relief, and I'll be happy to be wrong).

According to my friend, the way New speaks about not needing sex in a BL series reads less as sex-negativity to them and more as…ego.

See, regardless of how anyone feels about any series New's directed, he is an influential director, and his earliest series were groundbreaking in the Thai BL industry. It makes sense that as more and more BL series rush out grabbing their viewership off the strength of nudity and sex above craft and dedication, New seems to pride himself on drawing in his viewers without leaning on eroticism.

Once my friend said that…I think they're right.

Because if that is New's point of view, I really can't hold it against him. He's an openly queer man who founded and built an extremely protective queer space in the industry in Studio Wabi Sabi, so it would check out with his ethics that he'd care a lot about who's watching his series, what drew them in, and the direction of the queer media in his country as a whole.

However, that being said, New hasn't shrunk away from the sensuality of Revamp, and he's apparently been teasing fans on Twitter about how much Boun and Prem are doing to prepare physically for their roles. So I think it's not necessarily that New's anti-sex, but more anti-unnecessary-sex, if that makes sense.

After all, New directed the original teaser, and the original teaser had this:

At the end of the day, the script will always be what matters most to me, since it's the spine of the whole production, and I'm over the moon that it's been prioritized, adjusted, and perfected. But I'm happiest that Boun is happy, because he's been so eager for this over the past five years, and it's finally coming to fruition with the budget and the reach it deserves. :')

And the fact that Revamp has gotten exactly the same length of time for its preproduction as KristSingto's comeback series The Ex-Morning (also original) is a very good sign to me.

In conclusion,

IMMORTAL VAMPIRE LOVERS!

[thatseventiesbitch]

Well guys & gals & non-binary pals - it's here. Another installment of That '70s Show original scripts! This week features S6xE20 Squeezebox.

Not a ton of changes from script to episode in this case, but as always, read on for my dutiful summary! (FYI the cast signatures are a re-print - though still cool!) I absolutely love reading through these and noting the different lines - I hope you all enjoy learning these details as much as I do! 😊

First up: confirmation that the Slurpee Slut's name is Chloe, for the record. It was never mentioned in the episode, though she was listed this way in the credits.

The first (small) change is Eric's additional line when Donna asks about Chloe/Slurpee Slut in the opening scene: "They're all crazy in that business, it's all that slurping." 🤣

Next we have an extra dose of "LOL Kitty is an alcoholic!"... sadly a theme this episode.

There was a longer exchange between Bob/Kitty/Red re: Bob 'welcoming Pam to the house'.

This extended interaction between Eric and Mitch. Apparently photon torpedos are from Star Trek, not Star Wars.

Also - Mitch bables about disco (??) and Kelso doubles down on his burn after learning what braille is. 🙄

Hyde and Red's scenes in the Toyota discussing the Pam situation were pretty much word-for-word, except for this added line from Hyde: "But it's like she's teasing us. It's haunting me, like a sexy, topless ghost."

This cut Eric/Jackie friendship moment 😩. Well, kinda. *lol*

More *lolz, alcoholism!* jokes. Kitty's not interested in the cake Pam brings until she learns it's a rum cake.

This is after its revealed that the guys saw Pam's breasts and Red asks Kitty what she expected him to do: rip the eyes from his head? She says yes, *lol*

Pam's story is slightly different, too. In the episode she says, "This isn't the first time my body has caused a fight. One time I caused a riot on a topless beach in Venezuela. Imagine what you saw, only all tanned and oiled."

In the episode, the scene ends after the guys walk out. In the script, Kitty and Jackie have the following exchange afterwards:

Kitty feeling jealous of Pamela winning her teen son's friends' affection -> 😵‍💫

Next up, Mitch originally tells Donna that not only does he think Eric and Chloe had sex, but that they probably had sex on Donna's bed while laughing at her (🙄)

In the final basement scene, Eric is less offended by Kelso's burn about him and more intrigued by the thought of Donna and Pam hooking up. 😂

I liked Eric's addition here about the time Donna had mono.

Their final exchange where they make-up is also slightly different from the episode:

And that's all she wrote!

Thanks for reading along with me, your host, @thatseventiesbitch!

Other Scripts I've Posted:

S2xE20 "Kiss of Death" S2xE22 "Jackie Moves On" S2xE23 "Holy Crap!" S2xE26 "Moon Over Point Place" S5xE21 "Trampled Under Foot" S7xE8 "Angie"

[on-this-day-btvs]

November 6, 2001

Once More, With Feeling aired for BTVS season 6, episode 7. This was the only BTVS episode performed as a musical. All of the regular cast performed their own vocals, although two actors (those who played Willow and Dawn) were given minimal singing at their request. Apart from vocal and choreography prep: "[actual shooting] took something like 19 hours of singing and 17 hours of dancing in between shooting four other episodes."

The demon Sweet (shown in a blue suit above) is played by Hinton Battle, a three-time Tony-winner. This is his only Buffyverse appearance.

(mod note: Apparently Hinton Battle also choreographed the dancing in this episode!)

Commonly referred to as "OMWF," the episode was nominated for a 2002 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction. (If it had won, the award would have gone to Christophe Beck and Jesse Tobias.) Despite the nomination, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences neglected to include the title on the ballots. The Emmy was awarded to the Opening Ceremony of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

In March 2019 a vinyl press of the original cast recording was released, with cover art by Paul Mann (shown above).

The moderator is unaware of any recordings of the 2002 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony ever being sold, in any format.

(image create to illustrator Paul Mann) (vinyl details and image via Consequence) (SMG quote and other information via wikipedia)

[melverie]

⸺ LESSON 11 ⸺

Solomon

Lucifer

two bitter exes

demons & angels (& humans)

strange feelings & soup

records of a banshee

fragments of the past

misc

- lesson 10 || lesson 12 || all posts so far -

Since season 3 releases starting July 2, I hope I can finish the recap by then ;-; I actually have a few more thoughts on the 'two bitter exes' & 'records of a banshee' categories, but I'll put them in their own posts. It also has to do with 10-A btw :) General spoiler warning for all of Obey Me Nightbringer, as well as for the original Obey Me taglist: @lonely-north-star

⸺ SOLOMON ⸺

treat for the Solobesties <3 [11-1; pic below]

Solomon says he hasn't been to the reaper's cave in a long time [11-4], but we went there in OG season 2?? Was that really that long ago??

Solomon apologizing to MC for putting them in this situation [11-8; pic below]

we learn that the rule at the Fountain of Knowledge is that no promises can be made there and Solomon claims he forgot about it [11-8]

Solomon reminds us that we can't return home even if we wanted to [11-12]. Thanks Solomon ._.

Thirteen gives MC the brothers' grimoire and adds that, since grimoires are born at the Fountain of Knowledge, that's probably why Solomon wanted to come here in the first place [11-16]

⸺ LUCIFER ⸺

apparently Diavolo and Barbatos wanted to come with Lucifer, but Lucifer somehow managed to talk them out of it. He also told Belphegor to stay with Beelzebub [11-14]

if MC tells him that he isn't actually angry, Lucifer doesn't answer and instead just looks annoyed [11-14]

he has moments where he seemingly calms down for a second only to immediately go back to trying to recreate the OG's lesson 16 incident [11-14]

⸺ TWO BITTER EXES ⸺

(hi the category title is a joke. That being said, re-read lesson 11-14 and you'll know what I mean)

Solomon calls Lucifer out on essentially needing Diavolo's permission to do anything because he swore complete loyalty to him for all eternity [11-14; pic below]--which is SO funny to me btw?? Like, Solomon is really out here acting like Lucifer wasn't actively committing treason the first time they properly met back when the exchange program first started -> that being said, he does seem to put a lot of emphasis on Lucifer having sworn his loyalty to Diavolo... -> also why is Solomon provoking Lucifer further btw, the situation does NOT call for that

Solomon mentions that Lucifer already sees him as an enemy which then caues Lucifer to fall silent and change the subject [11-14]

Lucifer casts a spell on Solomon and MC to immobilize them. I have a few problems with this because

1. I might have misremembered, but wasn't it (offhandedly) mentioned in NB season 2 that Lucifer was still learning demon magic? OG Solomon should definitely be able to easily break free of the spell then 2. Solomon easily overpowered pissed off Diavolo once 3. Solomon thought a war against the entire Devildom by himself 4. even if Solomon isn't necessarily stronger than Lucifer, the OG has stated multiple times that they are on par with each other

You can argue that Lucifer's magic was enhanced because he was so pissed and overprotective of his brothers in that moment, but Solomon is also super protective of MC. He should have absolutely been able to overpower Lucifer here -> also, Solomon later does break free from the spell, however he was only able to do so because Lucifer lost his composure after seeing the grimoire [11-16]. I call shenanigans, but that's for another post... (-> also just wanted to say that I love overprotective Luci. That was such a good moment ❤️ [11-14; pic below])

when MC decides to hand the grimoire over to Lucifer, Solomon seems saddened by their choice, and Lucifer questions if they truly know what they are doing [11-14]

⸺ DEMONS & ANGELS (& HUMANS) ⸺

Solomon asks MC to side with humanity [11-8] -> he wants the other realms to see humans as equals -> he does kind of make it sound like he won't be able to side with humanity himself for whatever reason [11-8; pic below]

⸺ STRANGE FEELINGS & SOUP ⸺

Leviathan calls Thirteen the 'mean and scary type'. Asmodeus rightfully points out that Leviathan should have no idea what kind of person she is [11-12]

both Leviathan and Asmodeus seem kind of bothered by how much Thirteen loves MC [11-16]

⸺ RECORDS OF A BANSHEE ⸺

once again, the only two brothers that originally went to free Beelzebub also happen to be the only two that now attack MC for being human. Who knows what would have happened had Solomon and the rest of the brothers not shown up when they did

while discussing the lesson @misc-obeyme (hi CC!! Thanks for letting me post this <3) pointed out that the entire situation with Beelzebub was probably orchestrated by Nightbringer to force MC into revealing the truth [discord server lol; pic below]

⸺ FRAGMENTS OF THE PAST ⸺

Solomon's past!

1. he and Thirteen met back when he was a kid [11-8] -> he was looking at her through a lattice window from the basement and shrieked when they made eye contact [11-10] 2. Thirteen says that back when they first met Solomon's soul was captivating [11-10] 3. Barbatos brought Solomon to the Fountain of Knowledge when he was on the verge of death and nursed him back to health. Once his wounds were healed, Solomon left. Thirteen doesn't know where to [11-10] 4. Barbatos gave Solomon the title as "the Witty Sorcerer" and told him that he now has to look after the Fountain of Knowledge [11-10] -> ever since then, Solomon's soul has changed 5. Thirteen says that Barbatos let him experience whatever he wanted which is why he lost his innocence and why nothing scares him anymore [11-10]

⸺ MISC ⸺

Thirteen lore Thirteen lore Thirteen lore Thirteen lo--

1. she lives in the 'Otherworld'. [11-4] Solomon says it's called that because Thirteen enjoys her freedom 2. she already has the RAD uniform because Diavolo gave it to her in hopes of her attending the school. After modifying it a little, she now wears it because she likes it [11-6] 2. each level in the reaper's cave has a different rule that must be followed, otherwise One Must Pay the Price™ [11-6] -> the rule at the Fountain of Knowledge is that no promises can be made there [11-8]. MC later promises the brothers to help them and Must Therefore Pay The Price™ [11-16] 3. she has an older sister called Candy ( @too-much-gacha is that you? XD). Solomon says he hasn't seen her ever since she fell victim to one of the traps decades ago, Thirteen claims she's fine [11-6] 4. she hated the human world back when she first met Solomon because of how depressing it was with people dying left and right due to diseases [11-10] 5. apparently reapers are supposed to stay neutral, but Thirteen does her own thing [11-16]. Queen <3

Leviathan gives us the basics on how grimoires work [11-16; pic below]

Asmodeus turns into Leviathan's personal interpreter for a second, you love to see it lol [11-16]

Satan and Luke bonding over a cat ❤️ [11-A] -> btw has anyone else noticed that they've sort of become a dup lately? They keep sharing Nightmares and events...

[manyplushtoys]

Firffels: the Wuzzles Competitor That Disappeared

Recently, I found this toy at my local thrift store. I thought it was an oddly cute nativity toy, but upon closer inspection the tush tag read "FIRFFELS. I'm glad to be a SHAMEL." I did a quick search online and the first result was this page on Ghost of the Doll, a toy collector's site that archives information about 80s/90s toys and includes a forum where anyone can seek help with identifying toys. This lead me down a rabbit hole of figuring out just what Firffels were: a failed line of toys promised to be the next hot phenomenon, with minimal documentation online and a handful of toys floating around in thrift stores.

Other than Ghost of the Doll, I found info about Firffels in this 2010 blog post by Trish Babbles (written in an edgy, mean-to-be-funny style that I think is too uncharitable, but it was a different time to be online lol) and this blog post by AF Blog. My other info comes from Othello Bach's website dedicated to the book itself (her personal site is no longer functional) and from a handful of youtube videos I found of a Firffels commercial. Many thanks to these sources, without them there'd be like, nothing online about these creatures.

Firffels are based on the children's book Who ever Heard of a Fird? by Othello Bach, first edition published in 1984 by Caedmon Childrens Books (upon Googling, it appears that Caedmon is owned by HarperCollins now and focuses on audiobooks). The story follows Fird, a fish-bird hybrid, as he travels the world to find other firds. Along the way he encounters a goofy, lovable cast of other hybrid animals who have all never heard of a fird. The story ends with fird learning to love his uniqueness and find peace with being who he is. As is apparent in the Amazon link above (not sponsored, just showing my work), a used copy is $86 dollars right now. An audiobook narrated by Joel Grey (an actor that I'm unfamiliar with who is apparently known for his role in Cabaret) was also released on cassette, listed on Ebay for $75+. Luckily, there is a youtube video of someone doing a complete read through of the book, but the camera angle is poor. This is the only visual record I could find online of the interior illustrations by Michelle Dorman, other than a brief look at a few in a low quality VHS promo rip I'll get to in a minute, and the image below from an Ebay listing. There may be a few more photos in some Etsy listings that I missed.

In Trish's blog post they complain that Shamel is an ugly monstrosity and there were a few comments on Ghost of the Doll's forum of the same nature about Shamel, but I think Shamel is the cutest one! It just looks like a new breed of camel, meanwhile Fird in the background here is...he's so cartoonishly goofy. Idk how else to describe him. He's so fuckin' goofy. He'd make squeaky Spongebob-esque sound effects when he walks, I imagine.

The book was allegedly a hit and Remco bought the merchandising rights. They went all in, as is detailed in the 5 minute promotional video below. Based on a cast of 6 characters, plush toys and posable action figures hit the market with a promise that Hanna Barbera would develop an animated tv show starring Firffels, housewares would be made, there'd be a clothing line, and Design-a-Firffel contests would be held. A few housewares seem to have been made and plush toy sewing patterns were released, but I was unable to find evidence that anything else moved forward.

Absolutely fucking insane fact: according to this video, Caedmon Publishing was owned by Raytheon at the time. Thanks Raytheon for these cuddly children's toys and also, uh, horrific weapons of war?

After I bought Shamel, I went back to the store to see if there were more. There were! I found Bertle and Elephonkey, who still had the original tags. I swear the day earlier I had seen a frog toy with butterfly wings but it wasn't there anymore. I remember passing over it and thinking "eh, butterfly wings on a frog aren't cute," and did not bothering even looking at the tags. My mistake. Turns out that toy was worth a decent amount of money and was part of this whole story.

Bertle's pink belly super bright in real life, like neon. There is a sunbleached spot on it's front.

Elephonkey is the only one with original tags. I also included an image of the tush tag. For each toy the tush tag is the same but displays the character's name.

Hybrid animals are not a unique concept. Wuzzles, a line of plush toys that were animal hybrids with wings and likely made to compete with Care Bears, are brought up in most posts and forums where Firffels are mentioned--usually to disparage Firffels as being knock off, less successful Wuzzles. Wuzzles weren't exactly successful either, though they definitely lasted longer and had more reach, likely due to the backing of a Disney/Hasbro budget. AF Blog in 2015 makes a good point that I agree with: it's unlikely that Wuzzles and Firffels were ripping each other off due to production timelines. Toy lines can be in development for years before any information is made public. It takes a long time to design toys, then get them to a manufacturer, then go through the revisions process. Not to mention the time it takes to ship things out, negotiate contracts at every step of the way, etc. And, as AF Blog notes, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was released in 1984, a year before the first Wuzzles tv episode aired, and Firffels hit the market a year later.

People draw hybrid animals all the time. For example, furry adoptable artists draw hybrids all the time (take a shot every time you find a closed species that is a feline with a fish tail or deer feet or some other animal's defining trait), the Lego movie had Unikitty, and I literally went to Walmart today and in the toy section there was a miniature rabbit-like rainbow animal with wings and a unicorn horn there. The thing that makes these toys potentially appealing, in my opinion, is that they choose safe and popular traits: sparkly horns and feathery wings, for the most part. Things that are easily marketable.

The thing with Firffels is that they combined animals with traits that are less immediately appealing. Image below from Ghost of the Doll.

Some of them are cute but the others miss the mark. Personally I like Shamel and Bertle (the plush version only tbh).

Worth pointing out is that the character illustrations do not match the toy designs. If you go back and watch the commercials included in the 5 minute promo video, you can see that the Bertle plush and action figure are brown and green rather than pink and blue, and that Shamel's hair is brown instead of purple. I saw varied photos of the Butterfrog plush: some were lighter green while others were darker. Could be an issue with differing cameras, but I don't know for certain. And then there's Elephonkey, who is the most inconsistent of the bunch:

The first image is the prototype toy as it appears in the commercial. It is grey and flesh colored, with odd looking plastic hair. The second image is from Ghost of the Doll, of how the Elephonkey action figure actually appeared in stores. Third is a photo of my Elephonkey plush. Compare it with the official character art...well, he's not my favorite design in any incarnation.

I think the toys in the commercials were prototypes that were changed to brighter colors so as to appeal more towards girls. In the 30 second plush commercial there are 4 girl actors and 1 boy actor, with the camera shots getting closer to and focusing more on the girls' faces, so it would make sense. In contrast, the action figure commercial features 1 girl and 2 boys, and most of the camera shots are of the kids' hands playing with the toys, giving off a more boyish, gender-neutral vibe. Classics of gendered marketing, am I right? lol. But I think the change was a good one. I wouldn't have picked up Shamel if I hadn't seen the purple hair, and I definitely would not like Bertle if he wasn't pink. It gives the toys more of a cohesive style, a unique identity, and they fit in more alongside the Wuzzles/Care Bears visuals with the vibrant, happy colors. There's more of a toy-like quality to them, which increases the cuddle-ability and inspires more of an urge to play.

Discovering and logging all this inconsistency has been pretty fun. But it makes me think that these toys were probably doomed by a chaotic, unorganized development process behind the scenes. And given that the book was published in '84 and toys hit the market in '85...the signs seem to point to production being rushed.

To be fair to Firffels, it was probably a little harder in the 80s to hit it big with kids. You had to be lucky, you had to have connections with the right distributors, you had to anticipate what is universally appealing to children--one of the most unpredictable audiences out there--and you had to pay to air your commercials during prime child viewing hours. These are all things that are still true, but we have the internet now and the advertising power of the internet is scary. Going viral on TikTok has the potential to skibidi someone's toilet career. iPad babies are growing up into grade school kids who throw birthday parties every year and get toys as gifts. We are living in an era where mass-producing cheap little polyester plushies and plastic figures is easier than ever and corporations have massive budgets to pump into kids' eyeballs through every advertising avenue they possibly can. They don't even need to come up with the designs anymore, they can just partner with whatever Roblox game is popular right now and capitalize on that. Maybe Othello Bach should get on Roblox.

Actually, it appears that Bach was given the short end of the stick by the time Firffels were pulled. Though her personal website is no longer up, her other website dedicated entirely to Whoever Heard of a Fird? has some info:

At the height of Fird's success, with over 100 licensees cramming the store shelves with children’s merchandise and an animation contract with Hanna-Barbera, the book and all the merchandise suddenly vanished from the shelves.  Although she lost the rights to several other published children’s books at the same time, Othello has never received a reasonable explanation for what happened.

So this passage actually clears something up for me. This whole time something that hasn't really lined up is that I had assumed that Othello Bach published the book first and then was approached for merchandising rights after the book sold well. I actually think now it's possible that from the get-go the book was written with the intention for it to become a worldwide sensation. Not so much Bach's intent, though. I have some professional familiarity with licensing and other such creative publishing contracts, particularly with books. Based on what I know, I believe it's more likely that Bach pitched her manuscript to Caedmon Publishing and Caedmon, seeking to create popular IP, was like, "this has potential and we are going to sign you on not only for the book, but for more." That might be why the character designs are so strange: they were trying too hard to get famous quick and had instructed the illustrator (it is regular practice for publishers to pair authors with an illustrator and given how much was on the line for this IP, Bach might not've had much input here) to design characters that could also become toys. It's unlikely that Michelle Dorman, a kids book illustrator, had product design skills needed to make standout, awesome toy designs. Not a knock on her, illustrators just have niches within their field that they're best at it. It's why you see so many illustrators complain about how often they get approached to design logos--that's not what we do, thank you.

What's sad is that clearly Bach had signed a bad contract that gave away most of her rights as the writer to the publisher. She openly says so above. My guess is that Caedmon told her they needed more rights than usual to be able to conduct so much merchandising (like signing contracts with Remco, much easier to do when you don't have a third party also involved), and because they were pouring so much effort into it on their end. Bach is just the writer, so while the original idea is hers, Caedmon would have matched her with an illustrator and taken charge of all the licensing and merchandising. For a publisher this is a huge commitment financially and personnel-wise, so it makes sense why they would have put forth a contract that gave them so many rights. If Firffels had become as popular as they'd hoped, they don't want to not own the IP. They would have poured all those resources into it and not be able to reap all the rewards because that pesky author would own it. It's almost like contracts like these are predatory and only serve the interests of the publisher. Almost like publishers are companies existing in a capitalistic system and therefore only serve profit, not people. Almost like companies will never truly have artist's best interests at heart, and if you are ever to sign a contract with a big publisher you need to have a good lawyer by your side.

It makes me so sad to read that they didn't even give her a reasonable explanation as to why everything was cancelled. She does not even appear to have any of the merchandise on hand, as all the photos on her website are from Ghost of the Doll. In hindsight we can guess, obviously, why the cancellation happened but I'm in the moment it was probably upsetting. It's still upsetting, given that she has included this in her website for the...revamped book!

However, like Fird, Othello refused to give up. For the next 20 years, she tried to regain the rights to her work. Entertainment attorneys assured her it would never happen.  They said, "It can't be done!" But... it could be done and Othello did it, regaining the rights back to all her work.

Yeah, so, I actually think this is the saddest part about the whole thing. She managed to get some of the rights back and republished the book with...new art...that looks so fucking BAD. Image from her website:

Sorry to this illustrator, but got damn. There is no sauce to this art whatsoever. It is unseasoned, not even salt and pepper. This looks like ass and would never fucking fly with any editor worth their chops. It took me ages to figure out that the long yellow curved line is Fird's tail. Like, this is so unbelievably sad to me. I don't even really like the original art a whole lot, but compared to this...

My informed guess as to what happened is that Bach lawyered up and fought. As we know, Caedmon is now owned by HarperCollins. I can't say for certain but there was probably some case to be made that Caedmon being sold breached the contract, or nullified parts of it, or perhaps the contract expired. It could even just be that HarperCollins didn't care about an old, unprofitable IP and granted Bach her rights back. There is also Remco to consider: they also hold some of the rights, but probably just for the merchandise? Given how prominently their logo is displayed on the toy tags, they might actually own a significant share. Perhaps they were happy not to have anything to do with the book so long as the merch rights weren't touched. I don't know! There's no info about it on the site and this stuff is usually under NDA.

So Bach got her rights back, but she's just the writer. She doesn't own any of the art, so in order to republish the book she had to hire a new illustrator. She likely did not have a huge budget for it, maybe even paying for it out of her pocket because the Choice Books logo she has in several spots on the Fird website appears to be for a distribute on demand service, in place of a traditional publisher.

As the writer, she also would not have gotten the rights to use the original audiobook, so she had one re-recorded. It also appears like she does not have the rights to the name "Firffels" either, as the only places it appears on the site are in photographs of merchandise and in titles specifically referring to the work that is still owned by Caedmon. She carefully refers to her own work as "Fird" for short or the book's full title, probably because she cannot legally imply that she owns or made anything else.

I dug into this thinking it would be a quick look at some strange, forgotten toys from a bygone era. Instead I found a story about how an artist can so easily be shafted by publishers. Everything always loops back around to workers' rights, it seems. Stories like this about shitty publishing contracts (see: Webtoon if you want to get into something current) still appear so often, man. It's depressing, and indicative that the publishing industry needs some reforming ASAP. Like, Illustrators, when are we getting a proper union?

But I'm glad Bach got her rights back and got her book republished within her lifetime. I'm sad she didn't have the budgets for a better illustrator. Sorry to bring that up again, I work as an illustrator irl and I have opinions about craft, lol. Also I just think that given how hard Bach had to fight, she deserved to have better art made. That being said, here's another link to her current website. There's not much there but what is there is a monument to a battle she fought and won, and is proud of.

The lack of detailed, clear, centralized documentation of these toys frustrates me. One of the most frustrating things about the internet for me is that there are few easily accessible, publicly available archives of toys--even for modern toys. I've had to use Amazon reviews and Ebay listings and broken online stores to decipher publication years. With this in mind I decided to do a write up and provide clearer pictures of the toys that I have (I'll take hi res pics in natural lighting too someday). Archives are important to me and the internet kinda sucks for it, I say as someone who started this blog for that purpose. If Tumblr goes down, so does everything I've posted here. As an artist who works primarily digitally, one of the scariest things is knowing that I'm laboring over an ephemeral body of work. It's just not going to exist for very long unless I print it out on archival materials. Data is not the same as a physical object. My Firffels have survived for 39 years but the digital art I draw every day is unlikely to last past 10 years because websites die and files get deleted.

I bought the Firffels from my thrift store thinking I'd resell them. I'm low income so I sell many of the things I thrift. I prefer to buy the older toys or the ones that need cleaning because it makes me feel better about being a reseller (I don't want to take away options from low income kids in my area, ya know?). But I'm putting in the labor to freshen them up and I'm putting in the effort to make unavailable toys available again, at least for one person. And I don't have a whole lot of shelf space to display the toys in my collection...but for now I think I'll keep them.

[project-sekai-facts]

sorry if this has been sent in/answered before, i tried searching thru the blog and couldn't find anything

i remember you made a post a while ago about beta character designs and mentioned this miku and shiho(?) placeholder card

i just found this year old reddit post theorizing that the character isn't actually shiho and might have been a "human mc" design, which, along with another commenters note about unused virtual live audios

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectSekai/comments/12kk4l9/i_dont_think_this_beta_character_was_shiho/?chainedPosts=t3_txq6vn

mm, i don't really agree with that person. saying "it looks nothing like shiho" isn't exactly a valid point. like that's not how character design works, sometimes there are massive changes. like there's too much evidence pointing towards that character being then-shiho. she's absolutely not final shiho, but she was the shiho character back then. the design matches with what we can see of the leoneed concept arts, and matches with shizuku's early design.

my theory is originally then-shiho was the "ichika" character: the face of marketing who was probably the audience surrogate miku fan, before these attributes were given to ichika. in all honestly i think it's likely that then-shiho was completely reworked into final shiho for whatever reason, still being the leoni bassist and shizuku's sister but with a new design and personality. and hey shizuku might've been changed first who knows. i think this is kinda what OP was meaning, but they completely denied the fact that then-shiho looks very related to then-shizuku, moreso than their final designs look related. like they had her down as a totally new character when imo it's pretty clear then-shiho was just reworked into what we have now. also apparently when yukki auditioned, she was cast as shiho before they even had character art of her, so that kinda backs up that she was reworked later in development (cannot find the source for this but i keep seeing people metion it for like the last 2 or so years).

and well the art is labelled as placeholder so it was probably drawn just for the sake of testing the game before finalised stuff was being drawn and implemented. the final character designs were completed in early 2019 iirc but initial planning and dev would've started long before then, since the game was first revealed later that year looking close enough to the game we saw at launch. the art style has some resemblance to early bandori cards which also makes sense since clpl is an offshoot of craftegg and it was probably one of their artists that drew that card probably not long after garupa opened service. like those blurred out arts of n25/ln/mmj are clearly very old and from the very early game concept stages.

also those voice clips were probably recorded by staff for testing. the last one is introducing a song to be performed and I think they're saying Tell Your World, which means these are stand in voice clips are placeholders for Miku. it might even be Saki Fujita voice recordings but i don't really have much to compare it to other than a few short pjdiva cutscene things.

[ca-suffit]

i agree when it comes to female characters whatever their origins, I think the showrunners did the best they could. I did find weird that anne rice never wrote any queer female characters, it's all subtext. the books are really filled with sexism and while anne rice wrote the mayfair's witches, with a main female characters it's still full of incestuous rape and I couldn't believe amc took the decision to make an adaptation of those books. Just the whole stuff with 13 years old mona mayfair... I really never understand why anne rice wasn't comfortable with her female characters. anyway we could still have merrick in iwtv. they could change some elements of her plot.

tw csa

Anne Rice included a lot of themes that are popular and common still in modern stories and ppl tend to not understand the main difference of why ppl take offense to Anne's writing and not others. Case in point, this thread I responded to the other day on twt:

Here is the source (from her official website) for what OwlsGoldberg was referencing (thnx to them for sharing this link in the thread too) "O.K. I just read a book I recommend. It's called THE DEADLY FEAST by Richard Rhodes. The book centers around a man named Carleton Gajdusek. Carleton Gajdusek is a Nobel Prize winner and he's in prison--apparently for fondling a 14 year old in a shower. I have not seen the court record and I'm not in any way qualified to judge what goes on. All I want to say is that I highly recommend that you get the book. That the contribution of Carleton Gajdusek to medicine and to science has been fantastic and that I personally am looking into the whole question of child molestation, children's rights, because it concerns me. I remember being a young adult, and I remember being real angry that I wasn't allowed to do things that other adults were doing. I was working full time and I was living in a rooming house and I didn't like being classified as a teenager, because somebody wanted to sell me something expensive. I know I sound angry--I am. I am angry. But we've got to revise our concept of teenagers in this country. If we want to stop the crime in this country we've just got to realize that 14 and 15 year old people are adults, they are not children. And leading them to believe that there is a fundamental difference between play killing and real killing."

That's not even all of it for that twt thread, but u get the point. Nobody can ever criticize anything with Anne Rice without ppl saying it's just misogyny or ....whatever that accusation of queerphobia for a cast member is about (there was no clarification who that's referencing but I'm guessing it's Sam Reid bcuz this fandom rides hard for white queerness in him / Lestat at any chance, especially in order to silence other issues). It's always easy for these ppl to erase everything about anything else except "victimization" of a rich white woman. This only happens within the fandom too, as most ppl outside it don't respect Anne Rice at all for her behavior or writing....and that's without even knowing the depths of this kind of stuff. U couldn't pull this crap on any person on the street, they'd rightfully think ur terminally online and fucking weird.

Anyway, back to the point about themes. Anne Rice had repetitive themes that ppl will argue are for "the genre." The thing is tho....it has to still serve a purpose to the story to be any good. Most of the time (at least for my knowledge of TVC books), there isn't a reason to have these things present. She simply has a fixation on them and a lot of them are things that hurt women just for the sake of doing it. The reader is also uncomfortably made to feel like this is all supposed to be ok too, which is the main issue ppl have. It's not critical or intentionally envoking horror and dread....it's just saying "this is what being a girl/woman is" and giving the message to love ur abuser (most often a very old white man in TVC), which many survivors of a lot of things find triggering af.

Mentioning Merrick too, that's a character I rly liked and yet was wasted all over. The book with her name is narrated by David Talbot, this elderly, white, British pedophile, and we spend more time hearing his gross thoughts about her as a child and other similar shit in his life (always with underage poc) instead of spending time with her in her own head as an adult. Or Louis, for that matter, who is also more who the book is about than David, yet Davis is our narrator.

There's a lot more I could write but I'd never stop tbh. It's clear to most everyone who isn't finding excuses that Anne Rice just wasn't a good writer and had so many issues with misogyny and a lot of other things. I've never seen any other author excused so much from criticism, especially one who was so obviously known in life as being a rly unlikeable person, particularly to her own fanbase. If it weren't for other ppl, there wouldn't even be a fandom for her work. She v much almost destroyed it by herself.....but she's dead now, so ppl have been quick to start rewriting history and accusing others of anything they can think of to avoid criticism. Just like she always did.

[ultravioart]

I have been going through Overwatch lore again, especially the video content, and I noticed that Overwatch is probably using 'sacred geometry' as a basis for it's scifi-magics?

(Please note I am not spiritual/religious and do not follow this belief. These are simply observations of what Overwatch has used.)

Shambali/Iris: uses chakra locations + 'sacred geometry' patterns in the Iris design. This part isn't that strong but it's notable. We do know Aurora's sentience is tied to quantum mechanics in lore, and we can make a guess omnic energy (only omnics can use omnic energy, not much is elaborated) is perhaps a 'scifi-magic' version of quantum mechanics (like how Tracer uses scifi magic time powers, etc). 'Sacred geometry' places a large importance on light as a form of conciousness, and Aurora's ascension involved her becoming light and becoming a geometric pattern. As seen with Sigma, Zenyatta floats with no explanation, but under 'sacred geometry' systems it makes perfect sense as Zenyatta tapped into his abilities through sacred geometry practices (meditation, etc).

Sigma: He is a direct reference to 'the song of the spheres' (hearing the melody of the universe by being able to sense 'sacred geometry') + his weapon's shapes represent 'aether' aka 'universe' according to sacred geometry/alchemy. Sigma has a singularity directly within his 'source' chakra location (explaining his mental state), and his gravity powers can be explained through sacred geometry spiritual practices (floating, etc). Sigma states 'the melody is a harness' backwards in his origin short, and sacred geometry seems to place importance on patterns, frequencies, and connecting with the 'vibrations' of the universe.

LifeWeaver: in his hero origin short, the 'flower of life' symbol is shown in his biolight tree. This is an undeniable explicit reference to sacred geometry, and it would make sense that his biolight tech works because hardlight tech can exactly trace (atomic level) the 'sacred geometry' of the universe to power healing.

Moira: Honestly it's pretty funny, but apparently 'sacred geometry' also deals with genetics. Moira's character makes COMPLETE sense if sacred geometry is the sci-fi-magics system in Overwatch. Moira is wanting to 'evolve' humanity (a conspiracy followed by sacred geometry believers that humans are on the cusp of a spiritual evolution through frequencies/patterns in dna), and if Moira's work taps into sacred geometries, it explains why others were unable to replicate her experiments (as confirmed in declassified). If one meddles where they shouldn't and disrupts cycles, according to sacred geometry beliefs, they can become ill. Moira has been meddling, explaining why her arm is deteriorating. Reaper's powers are also explained, as how can Reaper's conciousness remain if his body and brain becomes a mist? If it's through genetics solely, sacred geometry would allow that. (I personally prefer the idea Reaper's conciousness has been recorded digitally and he lives within nanobots, which explains how Ramattra could have created failed recreations of conciousness in Wargod Ana, etc. It is canon that nullsector has created botched recreations of certain heroes like Ana, etc. But sacred geometry explains reaper within genetics alone.)

Ngl I never was a fan of overwatch having true magic/spirits because it ruined many aspects of the story ('Do omnics have souls' was a huge rhetorical question in Overwatch, but if Kitsune spirits exist then yeah no duh omnics do have souls lol.) Also confirming Shinto beliefs as the 'correct' religion is pretty awful to do in Overwatch since it's so focused on a global, diverse cast. I would much prefer no true magic/spirits which legitimizes all faiths as personal beliefs OR have a universal scifi-magics source which legitimizes all faiths as real and drawing from the same source. And with sacred geometry, it's vague enough to apply to pretty much any culture, as 'the flower of life' patterns has showed up in various cultural arts (... because its a combination of circles.)

Anyways, I will look through more lore to see if I can find more instances of 'sacred geometry' being referenced in Overwatch, but Sigma and LifeWeaver are the main supporting evidence pillars of this hypothesis! Then the Shambali/Iris stuff can be inferred. And Moira is a fun guess lol.

[theswiftheartsystem]

Look at this Vinyl we got for a dollar at a overpriced book store

We had never listened to Camelot before, we had heard about it, since it’s decently well known and liked, but this was our first listen. It was pretty good! Not like a all time favorite (for me personally, don’t come for me fellow alters in my brain)

Also this was the second to last record we looked at, we first say the ones in the front, and then we saw a ton in the back in two rows on a bookshelf, this one was at the back of the top row, which was the last row we checked. The Vinyls in great shape too! I can’t believe I got it for a dollar!

Julie Andrews is always a delight, but I quite enjoyed everyone else! We may watch a stage performance of the show, not sure yet. Apparently a movie adaptation was made in 1967, but the singing is eh, and has more issues than the original. We love a good mess of a musical, but seeing as the movie is 3 HOURS LONG, we would rather just stick to what’s seen as the better version lol.

Also this some reason is harder to find on youtube, but the second to last song is called Guinevere, and it’s also pretty good! But you will probably have to search it out, which is why I wanted to add that!

The sound Vinyls make when playing is just- so good. It makes me so sad that listening to the songs on YouTube don’t have it. (Obviously it’s because it’s from the record player)

Also it got a revival last year! We haven’t seen a lot from it, but from what we did, it seems there’s an effort in casting POC actors, which is always a good and welcomed change! (Although we don’t know how many POC actors where casted, but Theatre has a history of racism and discrimination, and it’s always wonderful to see more POC actors being casted)

[thenightling]

Songs that might actually have real magical power connected to them / may double as a spell.

Vocal spells fall under the element of air since we need air to speak and wind is is what carries our voices and our intentions in our voices. The reason some spells rhyme or are in a foreign language different from the native language of the caster is because that makes you focus more on the words and the intention and meaning behind those words. This focus is what gives vocal spells their power. Whether an incantation, chant, vocal invocation, or, yes, a song.

Here in my top ten list of real pop songs that might double as spells or have magick infused into them.

Disclaimer: Some of these are harmless but others might actually be considered dangerous. Proceed with caution.

1. The Witch Queen of New Orleans by Redbone. Often played on Halloween radio dot net this song is a classic. According to legend if you make an offering to the great Marie Laveau and then dance to The Witch Queen of New Orleans you might invoke the spirit of Marie Laveau. She will grant a boon to anyone who can win her favor.

2. Sympathy for The Devil by The Rolling Stones. It doesn't matter who sings this, according to some rumors, any time this song is performed live, someone near to the performance will drop dead. Whether from being trampled, heart attack, or drug over-dose. The song is considered to be cursed. Even River Phoenix's death may be connected to it as a new cover of the song was being recorded for the movie Interview with The vampire around the time of River Phoenix's death. He was supposed to play Daniel Malloy, the reporter, in the movie. The role ended up going to Christian Slater.

3. Heaven is a place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle. Ever since I was little I took this song as a sign someone I knew and loved was going to die. The song doesn't cause it, but I noticed that it would happen to be on the radio, particularly walking in to a store, shortly before someone's death. Some writer on the 2019 Swamp Thing series noticed something similar and had the song tied to a haunting in an episode of the short lived series.

4. Witches' Brew by Omnia. The lyrics to this song are actually words from Shakespeare's MacBeth. The play, MacBeth, is supposed to be cursed. According to one version of the origin for the superstition, Shakespeare got his Weird Sisters scene from observing an actual witch coven meeting and when he used it in his play, the real witches cursed him and the play. It's a popular theatre superstition that you are not supposed to say MacBeth except in regard to the character's name and to only refer to the play, itself, as "The Scottish play."

As the song Witches' Brew by Omnia is just the dialogue of the witches from that scene put to music, the song is considered to have a power of its own and may also be cursed.

5. Bad Moon Rising by CCR. Many know this song from its use in An American Werewolf in London. The song has been on a few Halloween albums and is also considered a rock classic. Some people have considered the song to be the musical equivalent of a mild hex or The Evil Eye. Mild bad luck has been associated with the song.

6. The Ballad of the Witches' Road (Lorna Wu / Pop version) from Agatha All Along. In the canon of the show the song is a protection spell for Lorna's daughter to keep a family's generational curse at bay. The lyrics, out of context, seem to be about the road of life, particularly for a Pagan or Witch, and the importance of love and its eternal and infinite power. With the references to real occultism, the song might have the power to enhance or infuse a spell casting potential if only slightly. Besides being an affirmation of faith in magick and love. Consider it a magical espresso or booster shot, particularly for Wiccans and some other Neo Pagan groups.

7. Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. This is an adorable one. Apparently the song, Ghostbusters, was infused with a lot of positive energy such as the emotions of playfulness mingled with hope and so many people can't help feeling a sudden and unexplained optimism and / or joy when hearing it. Ray Parker jr., himself, believes the song can make you smile even if you've never seen the Ghostbusters movie to understand its context. It just makes you feel good for reasons you may not be able to explain.

8. Remember by Ember from Danny Phantom. This song is considered to be cursed. I don't even like putting it at number 8 on the list. Originally it was written for the TV show Danny Phantom. The song gave the backstory of the ghost Ember and how she died. A fan named Randy Robert Stair became obsessed with the character to the point of delusion and ended up shooting up a local store in 2017. The song is now considered tainted by these murders.

As the song was originally the angsty backstory and battle cry of a vengeful ghost from a kids show the song already had an innate negativity to it despite the catchiness of it. Some people even claimed they didn't like to sing along to it or even hear it because any time they dared do that one of their pets would fall ill within a month and die.

9. Angels by Within Temptation. This one is a slow burn justice spell. The song may invoke spirits of justice and if they deem your cause justified and worthy, those who wronged you will be justly punished within three years of the use of the song as invocation for angels of justice.

10. Locked within the Crystal ball by Blackmore's Night. Just an affirmation of faith in the magick that exists in the elements of nature.

11. Bonus mention: Anything written by Charles Manson including The Beach Boys Never learn not to love. All considered cursed. Anything by Fleetwood Mac / Stevie Nicks is magically infused. Stevie Nicks is a practicing witch. And certain songs by David Bowie are about occultism and Kabbalism.

[rainkays]

dropping a rant here because i’ve been seeing stuff about the ud movie on my tl all day and just wanted to drop some thoughts ! this is in no way trying to shit on the actors that were cast/ people who are excited to see this movie, i just wanted to talk about my opinions on the details that have been given/leaked so far as a huge fan of the original game since it came out <3

so from what i’ve seen on twitter and reddit, the characters in the film are completely new and are in no way connected to the original characters from the game. i don’t even need to say this but it’s so beyond disappointing to know that in a movie called UNTIL DAWN we won’t even see the characters that made us love the game in the first place. this is probably one of the biggest criticisms i’ve seen of the film, and an extremely valid one at that. i’m not really sure what reaction the creators of the film are expecting, but making a video game adaptation already comes with a ton of hesitancy from fans considering the shitty track record of adaptations in the past. (resident evil i’m looking at you)

the other thing that i’ve seen A TON of people take issue with, including myself, is the plot of the film. in a reditt post someone confirmed that the film is going to deviate significantly from the plot of the game beyond discarding the pre existing characters. apparently wendigos will not even be included but instead they’ll be taking a happy death day approach with a death loop??? so fucking confused by this and honestly i have no idea why they’re calling it until dawn at this point (if these facts are true) because it’s just not even remotely close to the game’s story. and for anyone who’s gonna say “you guys will complain about anything” it’s extremely fucking valid for anyone to say they’re disappointed considering it has nothing to do with the game’s characters or story.

for people who aren’t fans of the game, im sure this will be a fine movie and probably entertaining but i have lost any interest i had in seeing this since it was on announced months ago so pls fell free to drop your thoughts in the comments or reblog because id love to discuss it with you guys !

(also forgot to add that it’s confirmed that peter stormare will be making a cameo and everyone’s been jumping on it like “this means it’s connected to the game” i highly fucking doubt they’ll go the same route with his character if the plot is going to be completely different and not centered around a josh-like character so idk)

[kathjack]

The circus is hell, or purgatory or something like that, not literally but a personal one for sure

You know

With Pomni saying "he wants me to suffer" and not sounding like she was talking about Caine, the fact that they refer to that place as hell in a more personal way than just the fact that that is the name of the room they're in and Kinger's sanity getting back from the dark but ALSO the recording of the guy saying he killed his own wife

It all just makes me believe more in the "the characters deserve to be there as a personal hell" theory

In this essay I will-

Something something Jax deserves to be in the circus the most ask answer something

If I remember correctly, the characters didn't just straight up forget everything about the real world, they just forget their names and likely, most of their lives (Like Zooble who doesn't remember their gender), which is weird because why would they remember references to movies such as Augustus Gloop but not remember something as basic as their own names? What even is that system?

Going back, the moment Pomni and Kinger get dragged to "hell" is when Pomni starts to lose her mind and breaks

Tbf I'm also losing my mind i'm running on 3 hours of sleep

I think we all catched up that the "he wants me to suffer" felt too personal to be about Caine, mainly because she's referring to herself and not the rest of the cast even tho she knows by this point that Kinger isn't having a good time either. The thing is that she knows HE wants her to suffer but she doesn't know WHY, she knows she is in hell but has no idea what she did to deserve any of this

And I believe is worse to punish someone and never tell them why, than to tell someone why they're being punished, not knowing what they did to deserve it will only contribute to the mental torment

Yeah, we can easily guess why Jax is in the circus, but how about the rest of them?

We don't know much of the characters, but assuming they're straight up horrible people like Jax is pretty boring This is where the other theory of "Every member of the cast, abstracted and not abstracted, worked for the company at some point, or was somehow affiliated"

We know what the show is based of: I have no mouth and I must scream, we could assume that it's not deserved as in "they did the unspeakable and are going to get tortured because of it" but more like "they got involved into things they shouldn't, and are now paying the high price for it"

Lets move the subject to Caine for a bit

We all now this, Caine is the name of the first sinner, Cain's punishment is to be inmortal and forever walk in earth among humans and can not be killed And also, Caine is probably NOT in control of the circus, apparently, there's someone above him, whether that someone is a human or an AI like AM, is unknown

The circus still depends of him tho

The moment he starts to question what is he good at if not keeping people sane the world crumbles

Caine is, in a way, some sort of opposite to AM

He likes humans but doesn't understands them, he tries to keep them from losing sanity and TRIES (and fails) to treat them good and decently, he also is sentient and doesn't seems to have a problem with it While AM keeps the humans alive to torture them, Caine has no control on their lives but tries to keep them safe

It connects back to the original idea, the cast is in hell, but while AM actively tortures them in the most gruesome ways you can harm a human, the circus destroys them from the inside

His job is to keep them there, you're no allowed to die and instead become an abomination with primal instincts that can't be easily calmed down for probably eternity, the alternative is to surrender to the madness and go into adventures that, most of the time, just end up very wrong and traumatize the cast

Caine is UNVOLUNTARELY torturing the last remaining humans that were put in that world, stretching it and getting confident, I would even say the last humans that worked in the company

Jax deserves to be there the most, this could just be a joke about how much of a dick he is, but it can also be literal and he was a horrible human being It is unknown if the rest of the performers might've done crappy thing voluntarily or willingly, so we can just assume that working for C&A is already bad enough to deserve to be put into a colorful hell as the circus

"He" could be anything, the boss of the company trying to get rid of his employees in the same way many people disappeared after using their products, employees that think everyone deserves to be punished for supporting the company, even a bigger AI that became sentient and realized what they were doing

This also just concludes another thing: They can't escape, they will never be able to because the circus is made to be an eternal punishment, you can't get out of hell (well, technically you can but that's not the point) so you can't get out of the circus either

The characters are being mentally tortured and punished and they can't even remember what they did or what they should be repenting. The headset is MADE to not allow you to remember yourself, but the life's of the other around you

So basically: The cast worked for C&A, they were punished by getting them stuck in the circus and they don't know that so they have no idea that they're being punished and why for

[jeskaim]

Duskmourn: House of Horrors

With most of the set spoiled I think it's time for me to share my thoughts. When I first heard this set was themed around horror I knew we would get some good artwork as well as a ton of referenced to classic and modern horror movies and I think it's safe to say they didn't disappoint.

Rooms are an interesting mechanic. When MaRo gave his traditional teasers he mentioned "A component of the set with a frame using technology first designed for an Un-set" but this isn't what I was expecting. It's definitely an interesting concept where you can cast one side to unlock that room and then pay the cost at sorcery speed to unlock the second. This reminds me of the split cards from the Return to Ravnica block with the Fuse mechanic but in permanent form. I also like how the artwork is one cohesive image that depicts both rooms.

It's not a standard set without a rare land cycle and these ones definitely blew my mind. I can definitely see these being used in commander but not on turn one unless you have a card to spend the mana on. They definitely have potential mid- or late-game and I can see them becoming staples in commander. Now we just need the enemy versions.

MaRo also mentioned a Meathook Massacre II in the list of card names which got a lot of players speculating about how it would compare to the original. If you ask me the original is better because this one is too expensive at 2X and four black while the original pretty much does the same thing at a cheaper cost and gets around indestructible like this one. I can see it being played in some decks but like a lot of graveyard-based strategies it's a lot less powerful against graveyard hate. On a side note i like how some cards have a treatment called "lurking evil" where they have a monster in the artwork that the other version doesn't. It seems fitting for a set like this.

I love the references to famous horror movies in this set just like the references to famous detectives and mystery movies in Murders at Karlov Manor. I'm not much of a fan of horror movies but I like the Final Destination series, especially the third one which is referenced in The Rollercrusher Ride. I love how even people who aren't fans of horror movies can recognize the references to "Ghostbusters" in Ghost Vacuum, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in Chainsaw, and "Children of the Corn" in Orphans of the Wheat. Not to mention "Saw" in Let's Play a Game and "The Ring" in Cursed Recording.

Now for my favorite reference. I'm honestly not sure if John Carpenter's "They Live" counts as a horror movie since it's more action/sci-fi but apparently Wizards considers it one. "They Live" is one of my favorite movies (not because of the critique of capitalism and consumerism but because I'm a huge Roddy Piper fan and one of his most famous lines came from that movie) so once I saw the alternate artwork for Doomsday Excruciator I knew I had to get myself a couple of copies. I actually dressed up as his character a couple of years ago for Halloween and tied for second at my work's costume contest. I might do the same this year since Roddy would have been 70 this year. This may not be the most obvious reference but it's definitely my favorite.

I think that's pretty much it for my thoughts on Duskmourn. I think the mechanics are pretty self-explanatory and I like how we have desparked versions of Tyvar and The Wanderer. The Wanderer is one of my favorite characters so I got myself a copy for my collection. Honestly if anyone can survive the house of horrors that is Duskmourn it's her. Liliana would have been cool to see because she would fit right in on Duskmourn but she fits well on Innistrad with all of the dead bodies she can resurrect to do her bidding. I have my cards preordered and I can't wait to get them.

[psychicpinenut]

netflix atla review

i decided that i wanted to see it through anyway so i finished the netflix atla. here are the things that made me want to hurl rocks at my tv (i might not remember a lot of things because i stopped watching after ep 4 and only continued this week so this might get rambly as i try to recall things)

let me start on the cast. no offense to these kids but my god. one of the things i hate the most is when you can tell an actor is acting. the whole time you could see that they walk up to their mark, stop there and recite the lines like they're in a high school play. and i get that they're young and probably don't have too much experience but i just keep thinking about the original voice cast who were children as well at the time of recording and they're some of the most talented actors i've ever heard. but then again i know they had to not only find people who resemble the characters but can do martial arts and act. so whatever, i hope they'll grow more during this. the only actor i liked was dallas liu who is the oldest of the main cast (i believe he was around 20 when they filmed this) which is probably why he doesn't have a chronic case of child acting.

constantly making up and/or changing lore:

why can aang only speak to past avatars in their shrines?

roku is sidelined in favor of kyoshi (who for some reason is extremely aggressive towards him) who can see into the future apparently because she gave aang a vision of the northern water tribe being destroyed instead of sozin's comet coming.

aang somehow being "lost" to the ocean spirit at the end which is ???

sokka and katara can enter the spirit world with aang

koh keeping his victims like some fucking spider and only gives them back after aang gave some stupid totem back. they also brought him so forward that he doesn't tell aang about tui and la which was the entire fucking point of looking him up in the first place

yue is a fox? in the spirit world?

wan shi tong is there also in the spirit world

i'm guessing they're already abandoning the ancient library storyline because they already intoduced wan shi tong and zhao was shown that he found out about tui and la from the fire sages in roku's temple. which is going to be interesting because that's where sokka finds out about the solar eclipse but i guess they'll come up with some other solution like toph can sense the moon moving through her feet or some shit

tui and la becoming mortals for only one night?

zuko having extensive research on the avatars should mean he knows that roku is his great grandfather but we're either leaving that one out or he's just not good at research

they took out sokka's sexism, thus eliminating any chance of character development, in favor of putting in actual sexism perpetrated by the show itself. suki is made into this small town girl, rapunzel type of character who needs sokka, the man, to bring the world to her and expand her mind. and then instead of sokka being grateful to suki for teaching him, she's the one that's thankful for ... going there? and bringing the world to her? because strong women mean they can punch right?

constant references to book 2 in the first season

they made so that aang didn't actually run away from his responsibility as the avatar - which is a pretty important part of his arc as that guilt follows him through the entire series - but that he only took a little trip to clear his head. which makes everyone accusing him of disappearing seem dumb and unfair

which leads me to bumi. why the fuck would bumi be so pissed at him? the whole episode he's antagonizing him and yelling at him to go do his job as the avatar meanwhile he's holding him hostage and making him do his challenges. like let him go so he can do his job maybe?? stupid

the entire ep 3-4. they really just shoved like 5 episodes together into one which i get because they don't have time to do everything but they did it so badly and the messages from each episode disappeared in favor of the CGI fight scenes.

like what do you mean sokka barely even got to interact with jet? that's the episode where sokka is proven to have good instincts and leadership because he saw jet for what he was.

why are teo and his dad here? what about aang's massive grief over the industrialization of his wiped out culture?

why would jet try to kill bumi? they completely obliterated the moral dilemma of jet wiping out a fire nation village because he sees that as justified even though he's killing civilians who happen to be fire nation.

for some reason they had sokka and katara go through the secret tunnel which is kind of fucking weird. i don't mind if they cut the kaang romance line but it is going to be interesting once it comes to the earthly attachments and some plotlines that revolve around aang having a major crush on katara. also what do you mean the badger moles sense "emotions"? toph is about to sense people's emotions in her feet and learn bending that way

they mary sue'd katara. she's bad at waterbending until she isn't and suddenly she's a master just from self taught basic waterbending she learned from the scroll gran gran gave her?? which is another thing they robbed us of because katara going to great lengths to steal the scroll shows how determined she is and desperate to learn waterbending but here she just gets handed the scroll. she's timid and lukewarm the entire season, the only time i can recall her even raising her voice is when she's arguing with sokka over jet. she gets mad at pakku for not letting her fight which is stupid because girl who is gonna stop you? go and fight?? you should be getting mad at pakku for not even trying to teach you waterbending. then she brings the entire untrained female population to the fight because girl power™. despite all of this, she's proclaimed a master without any actual training and beats zuko's ass purely because she's So Good. like at this point she shouldn't be able to hold her own against zuko without the full moon's help because as soon as the sun comes up zuko easily overpowers her ("you rise with the moon i rise with the sun"). which didn't happen here because she's a self proclaimed master now apparently

aang didn't bend a single waterdrop the entire season. it's book 1: water. it's called water. where's the bending aang? too busy doing another stupid walk and talk

stripped of iroh telling zuko he thinks of him as his son

stripped of one of the rawest lines i've ever heard on television: "my father says she was born lucky, he says i was lucky to be born"

which leads me into azula's character. they brought her in earlier just so her role in the whole season can be her groveling at ozai's feet, seeking his approval, trying to outdo zuko. which is insane cause she already outdoes zuko by a mile. she's a prodigy. they make it look like ozai favors zuko over azula which is so fucking insaaaane it made me so mad. she already knows she's better than zuko, she doesn't need her father's approval. also why isn't her fire blue.

iroh being the one who kills zhao. this one pissed me off so badly because in the original, as the ocean spirit takes hold of him zuko reaches out to zhao to try to save him.... that man tried to have him KILLED. and zuko still tried to save him. but zhao's arrogance didn't let him take his hand and that was his demise. that single act tells us so much about zuko and they just??? took that out??? so iroh can just murder him?? instead of it being the ocean spirit's revenge for killing its partner? instead of giving us that glimpse into who zuko is as a person? i'm going insane

don't even mention the fact that zuko fought back against ozai during the agni kai. he was literally banished because he refused to fight him. he got the scar because he refused to fight him. that's who zuko is!!!! and then they show us that he, a 13 year old boy who is still fairly inexperienced at bending, could have defeated ozai but he chose not to?? i'm sorry???

during the meeting where he spoke out against their plan, they made it look like he only spoke up because the general taunted him and not because he thought what they wanted to do was morally wrong.

now tell me which line hits harder: "compassion is a sign of weakness" or "you will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher". yeah...

yue bringing sokka to the spirit oasis to heal momo?? it was so fucking stupid and unserious that they were cradling a cgi lemur that i was in tears of pain. i almost gave up there

sokka constantly talking about wanting to be a better warrior and bossing katara around but doing absolutely fuck all to prove himself was insane. sokka was just standing around the whole season making bad jokes (cause wow they made sokka unfunny somehow) and flirting with women.

there was no goofiness or lightheartedness to aang. he took everything so fucking seriously it actually hurt to watch because they blew things out of proportion that didn't need to be. why was he so afraid of his normal bending power? not even his avatar state power but just his airbending. constantly angsting over his responsibility and how he's failing as the avatar. jesus fucking christ.

since zuko never stole katara's necklace, june had to use some fuckin random fabric she found on one of the trees that could've belonged to anybody??

zuko was able to capture aang after june found him instead of getting his ass whooped and paralysed so when zhao basically forces him to hand aang over to him, it's easier to guess who the blue spirit is as zuko makes a whole scene about it earlier

truly the one thing i really liked was the addition that the 41st division was the crew he protected at the war meeting

circling back to the first episode where we start out in the past and we get to see the whole genocide of the air nomads instead of finding out along with aang. we also get to see how he ends up in the iceberg so we don't get his story paralleled with zuko's backstory like in the storm. i mean whatever but the aang and zuko parallels were always dear to me.

hated zhao's actor. instead of him being intimidating and scary, he was acting like a frat boy and talked like tom cruise's character in magnolia. just simply annoying

jet telling katara to just stop being sad about her mom and she stops being sad and suddenly she can bend again. and later when he tells her she can bend because he helped her, she straight up denies it because it was "all her" like i gotta disagree there cause no, it was definitely him who helped you.

icing on the cake was when zuko walks into a bar and the patrons there reference like 4 storylines that they skipped over

so anyway... that's all i could think of at the top of my head and i hope they fuck up less in the upcoming seasons god willing