#tl is my attempt at it for now! if an official one gets released ill replace it with that

[krdc]

マジカルラブ (magical love) — full version

spotify

(lyrics & unofficial translation below)

magical love　be with you　wow baby

指の隙間でチラ見 (キミの smile)

yubi no sukima de chira mi (kimi no smile)

glancing through the cracks of my fingers (at your smile)

僕にはもったいないって？ (ちょっと待って)

boku ni wa mottainai tte (chotto matte)

aren't you wasting it on me? (hang on a second)

今までだったらそれで終わり (チャ　チャンス？)

ima made dattara sore de owari (cha-chansu)

if it had been before, this would've been the end (ch-chance?)

一味違うthis love　wow

hitoaji chigau this love wow

this love is different, wow

まさかまさかの展開

masaka masakano tenkai

there's been a surprising turn of events

心もカラダも限界

kokoro mo karada mo genkai

my mind and body are at their limits

寝癖　ドキり　照れる　素振り

neguse dokiri tereru soburi

your bedhead, your nervousness, the bashful way you act

超 cute　ズキュン

chou cute zukyuun

they're super cute, they've struck my heart

瞬間　近づく鼓動

shunkan chikazuku kodou

the moment i got near your heartbeat

聴こえた　マジかよ　マジカル！？

kikoeta maji ka yo majikaru

i heard them, it's for real, it's magical?!

もう　ムリ無理　見て見ぬフリ

mou muri muri mite minu furi

i can't keep pretending i don't see it

夢でも　胸高鳴り

yume demo munadaka nari

even in my dreams, it makes my heart race

運命変えちゃう love

unmei kaechau love

a love that changes destiny

君と　僕が？　あわわっ

kimi to boku ga awawa

between you and me? i can't deal!

ハッピーエンドの途中

happi endo no tochu

on the way to our happy ending

焦る i want you (yeah)

aseru i want you (yeah)

i want you right now (yeah)

一緒なら越えてゆける

issho nara koete yukeru

as long as we're together, we can overcome it all

明日は���色　君と甘色　wow yes

asu wa nanairo kimi to amairo wow yes

tomorrow will have a rainbow, with you and the sweet colors, wow, yes

四六時中　夢心地 (キミの voice)

shirokujichu yumegokochi (kimi no voice)

day and night, i keep dreaming (about your voice)

そんなの聞いてないって (もっとキテ)

sonna no kiitenai tte (motto kite)

saying things i've never heard you say (come closer)

想定外　好きが渋滞 chu (che　cherry？)

souteigai suki ga jutai chu (che-cherry)

unexpected feelings stuck in a traffic jam (ch-cherry?)

大胆不敵 this love　wow

daitan futeki this love wow

this love is fearless, wow

一歩進んで後悔

ippo susunde koukai

the first step forward, there's regret

二歩目は　あら単純明快

ni home wa ara tanjun meikai

the second step, it's just plain and simple

a b c d x y z

妄想ばかりじゃいられない

mousou bakari jairarenai

i can't keep staying in my fantasy

敏感　本音と嘘

binkan honne to uso

my sensitive true feelings and my lies

気づいた　マジかよ　マジカル！？

kizuita maji ka yo majikaru

you noticed them, it's for real, it's magical?!

もう　ムリ無理　見て見ぬフリ

mou muri muri mite minu furi

i can't keep pretending i don't see it

夢でも　胸高鳴り

yume demo munadaka nari

even in my dreams, it makes my heart race

運命変えちゃう love

unmei kaechau love

a love that changes destiny

君と　僕が？　あわわっ

kimi to boku ga awawa

between you and me? i can't deal!

ハッピーエンドの途中

happi endo no tochu

on the way to our happy ending

焦る i want you (yeah)

aseru i want you (yeah)

i want you right now (yeah)

一緒なら越えてゆける

issho nara koete yukeru

as long as we're together, we can overcome it all

明日は七色　君と甘色　wow yes

asu wa nanairo kimi to amairo wow yes

tomorrow will have a rainbow, with you and the sweet colors, wow, yes

隣にキミの笑顔 (love is the magic)

tonari ni kimi no egao (love is the magic)

with your smile next to me (love is the magic)

yeah (love is the magic) oh

魔法が解けたって　大丈夫さ　ふたりなら

mahou ga toketa tte daijoubusa futari nara

even if the magic is undone, we'll be okay as long as we're together

幸せすぎてもムリ

shiawasesugite mo muri

i'm too happy, i can't handle it

未体験の胸騒ぎ

mi taiken no munasawagi

the apprehension of something unfamiliar

世界の数だけ love love love wow

sekai no kazu dake love love love wow

for every world out there, there's just as much of our love, love, love, wow

初めてだらけのストーリー

hajimetedarake no sutori

in this story filled with our firsts

誰にも邪魔させない

dare ni mo jamasasenai

we won't let anyone interfere

特別以上の love

tokubetsu ijou no love

a love that's beyond special

愛しい　嬉しい　気持ち

itoshii ureshii kimochi

and the precious, happy feelings

ハッピーエンドの途中

happi endo no tochu

on the way to our happy ending

もう全部 i want you

mou zenbu i want you

i want you, all of you

一緒なら越えてゆける

issho nara koete yukeru

as long as we're together, we can overcome it all

明日は七色　君と甘色　wow yes

asu wa nanairo kimi to amairo wow yes

tomorrow will have a rainbow, with you and the sweet colors, wow, yes

magical love　be with you

[doctorbunny]

MILGRAM theory time: Haruka!

This isn't going to go super in depth (famous last words) but there's a few heavily debated parts of Haruka's MV I want to share my findings/thoughts on because I think this is my new special interest and during my quest to get best boy's song to 1 million views I have been looking over his first MV with a fine tooth comb so to speak.

Disclaimer: As the Jackalope said in the "This is the MILGRAM" trailer, we don't necessarily know everyone's crime from just the first video, its possible that a lot of things will be re-contextualized in the second MV, however I am not psychic or bilingual and thus will only be working with content released before August 20th 2021 and translated into English (which could cause some language/cultural details to be lost on me as translation is not a 1 to 1 process).

TW for discussions of ableism, child abuse, murder and animal death. Also this is really long so sorry to all the people that follow me for non-MILGRAM stuff

Firstly, I want to start on the topic of Haruka as a person. He is disabled. He does not have 'the mind of a child' (although he is 17, making him legally a minor in both North America and Japan). He is not just 'child-like'. And he is not mentally ill (well he might be, in the sense that many disabilities like Haruka's have strong comorbidities [where a person has two or more conditions but neither directly causes the other] with anxiety, depression and PTSD, but usually when I see people talk about him 'struggling with mental illness' they go on to refer to aspects of his disability). Sometimes on tumblr, people like myself, will see canonical traits written into a character and identify them as being traits associated with our disabilities/mental illness and headcanon them as such. Sometimes this even involves saying things like "It's basically canon!" Although we understand that these characters were probably not the result of a writer intending to write a disabled person. When I say that Haruka is being written as a person with a neurodevelopmental disability, I mean the writer intended to write a disabled character and wrote them in a way that they wanted the audience to pick up on. As an autistic person (which is one of many neurodevelopmental disorders and also something I probably didn't have to specify because who else would be writing an essay about a series they got into a few days ago at 11 o'clock at night) I really like how Haruka has been written so far. There's definitely some parts of him that have been exaggerated so abled normies can pick up on his disability (namely how his MV 's main motif is really child-like drawings) but the writers also included a lot of smaller details I appreciate like how it is noted he avoids eye contact when talking to other people and is depicted as nervously pulling at his sleeves in official artwork, or how he says he finds his prison uniform (which has tight straps) 'relaxing' and when he gets nervous/tense, he will dig his fingernails into the palm of his hands. (These last two potential being examples of 'self stimulation' [aka stimming] where a person seeks out specific sensory stimuli in order to help regulate their nervous system/emotions, in this case the tight uniform creates a comforting, secure feeling [you may have heard about some people preferring to sleep under weighted blankets for this reason] and digging nails into his palms sounds uncomfortable/painful but is done in an attempt to deal with a greater sensory discomfort caused by the situation/environment) I also appreciate the depth he is written with, he struggles to communicate verbally but in his MV and interactions with other inmates is shown to have insecurities, opinions and a consistent thought process (this is all basic character stuff but unfortunately not always present in disabled characters)

Also I want to add that (in terms of what we've been shown so far) Haruka did not kill anyone because of his disability/mental illness. Disabled people are not inherently more innocent than abled people. But there is no disability/mental illness where a symptom is that you kill people and real people have to live with the stigma when you speak carelessly and suggest things like "Haruka is the kind of mentally ill person who kills people as a cry for help" 🧂 (or at the very least real people have to read BS like that and cringe). TL;DR Haruka is less child-like and more onion-like (as in, he has layers) 🧅🧅🧅

Now is the actual theory stuff, oops:

Every prisoner in MILGRAM is supposed to have committed murder in some way, obviously considering Yuno just had an abortion (which i personally do not consider an act of murder) whilst Mu literally stabbed someone to death, this definition is stretched a bit. But it is not agreed upon yet who Haruka killed/how many people he killed or why he killed.

In his MV he is shown to have chased after his dog into a forest, seen something off-screen, then beaten something into a messy pulp with a rock. Some people think the dog is a red herring and that Haruka actually killed his mother/the girl from the fireworks show/his brother. I do not agree.

First: I believe Haruka when he says he doesn't have a brother. The MV literally starts by Haruka looking in the mirror and then switching between the him now

and a really similar looking younger child who just so happened to be a key feature of his memories (I don't have the vocabulary to explain it but its like cinematic parallels that establish this is the same person at different points of their life)

Its not impossible that this is Haruka's secret younger brother, but i think its unlikely. I saw someone saying they had to be different people because Haruka looks less happy than the child but like, most 17 year olds are less visibly happy than when they were 7 (or however old the child is meant to be). Life happens.

So when Haruka is shown pushing the child around and eventually strangling him, this isn't meant to be literal (homicide or suicide), but a representation of how conflicted Haruka feels about his younger self, who may have committed the murder (if you've ever been kept awake cringing at memories of something you said in the past and wishing you could go slap some sense into your former self, this is like that but 10 times more self loathing). The lyric "I am always repeating yesterday," implies he might think about this specific past event a lot.

Moving on, its pretty well accepted that Haruka's parents were abusive in some way and Haruka internalised a lot of it: he constantly apologises, he says in his interrogation questions that his one wish come true is that "[he] want[s] to be loved" and describes in his MV how when he couldn't find the words he was looking for ("you're unfair") one of his parents "would get angry at me and say “You’re hopeless.”". He seems to know its unfair but also still says he 'loves' his family, possibly mistakenly believing it is his fault, but also showing an awareness of his situation (and how his parents might behave).

Now, the MV is stylised in a way that makes certain details unclear, but there is one clear detail showing that Haruka's dog was killed

This is the first close up of Haruka and the dog. Haruka's mother is just out of frame supervising, but they look pretty happy. Notice how the puppy has a silvery chain for a collar. Somehow, this dog gets out of the house but only Haruka is shown chasing after it (whether his mother was searching elsewhere or didn't bother following her disabled son into the forest is unclear). Either way, young Haruka is now in the forest, unsupervised.

By the time he finds the dog, there is already blood, suggesting it was initally attacked by something else.

is this a sigh of relief from a boy whose finally found his beloved pet or a jealous weakling glad that nature took its course and he is finally free of that meddling mutt stealing all his mummy's attention? /j

I think this shock at the discovery that 'there is blood on his hands' could imply that rather than literally getting the blood from his dog, Haruka has seen his already injured dog and realises that if the dog got out because of him (he is previously shown to be aware his parents seem to blame him for everything) then he is the reason his dog is injured/dying and will be blamed for it. (this scene plays over the lyrics "It’s fine, though it’s really not It’s really fine, though I don’t really think so When I tried to understand it, You’ll make that disappointed face again" suggesting he is trying to avoid making his parents disappointed and letting the family pet escape into danger is something that could make them very disappointed)

now we get into rock murder (this is present-day Haruka implying that this is either: not how the scene really played out; the writers really wanting the audience to know that this was Haruka's doing and not someone else's; or this turns into a separate incident that happened much later [although note that the red sky and blue moon is the same as when young Haruka first appears at the start])

b the corpse is beyond mangled now, but its clearly the dog because the silver chain collar is still there, to the right of the body. (circled in red for your convenience :3)

My hypothesis is: Haruka didn't set out to kill his dog, but upon finding it injured (we don't know the severity aside from bleeding and also it not being able to run away from Haruka kneeling down above it w/ a big rock so it could range from treatable with a lot of vet help to already on death's door, TBH I don't think Haruka would know the difference) He knew he'd be blamed for this; made into a villain who let the poor puppy come to harm. He panicked and killed the dog out of some idea that it would make him the victim here (since he'd be found crying over a dog corpse, which might make a parent go comfort him rather than getting angry about what could've happened to the dog). This is over the lyrics: "I cried, I screamed I wanted to be a pitied and loved weakling I was in denial, I was in denial I just had to make sure I’ve become a victim, I’ve become a victim" (there's another theory that he was also jealous of the dog, which could work here too, since this is not some calculated plot; rather its a rash decision) This ties in with his Japanese song title (translated as Weakness) which is a play on a phrase sort of like "The strong eat, the weak do not" to become "The weak are eaten by society" or "The weak eat each other to survive" [once again I am reminding everyone this is based on second hand information from the youtube comments section (from users mitchki and Alphaistic) because I do not speak Japanese] This second meaning (The weak eat each other to survive) makes sense under the reading that Haruka killed his dog in order to 'survive' making his parents disappointed for the dog escaping.

Miscellaneous points:

We don't know where Haruka's necklace came from yet, it must be a gift since the most expensive thing he's ever bought was cotton candy. The younger child in the video isn't wearing it and neither is his mother or the girl in the purple dress.

Haruka's home seems quite big, at the start we can see a large flower garden outside the window and there's a forest in walking distance. This might suggest his family is quite wealthy

Haruka probably did go to school at some point as homeschooling is not a legally accepted as an alternative to public schools in Japan. (However it is estimated that up to 5000 families homeschool, this is uncommon) A lot (about 62%) of Japanese schools apparently have a 'special needs' classes and there are about 505 schools focused on educating intellectually disabled students (although I do not know which sort Haruka would've needed as whilst intellectual and development disabilities can be comorbid they aren't the same). Now, if children aged 7-14 don't go to school, their parents receive a fine, but its possible that if Haruka's parents are wealthy, they just paid it to avoid sending him to school. (This might imply they wanted to hide him or were generally ashamed of him in some way) However high school education (for students over 14) is not legally required and its likely that even if Haruka went to elementary/middle school, he hasn't been around people his own age in at least 3 years. As he seems quite lonely and glad that the other prisoners give him attention.

I don't think Haruka's parents are divorced and if they are, its not his father who left. Haruka mentions in the 30 questions that he thinks he disappointed his father. But still includes him as part of his family ("My father and mother and me"). A theory I've seen is that his father was disappointed by his son being disabled and left. but developmental disabilities (especially in non verbal and semi verbal children like Haruka) can be diagnosed before the age of 3, so I feel it is unlikely that Haruka would bring up his father if he left that early in Haruka's life

All MILGRAM prisoners have covered one of DECO*27's older vocaloid songs (DECO*27 is a well known producer who composes the music for MILGRAM) Haruka covered 'Two Breaths Walking' (https://youtu.be/puXLfVWrz2Q) which is about a boy's first relationship and how his mother's jealousy set him up for failure as the relationship becomes toxic (specifically it has some very funny out of context lines like "Whose breasts are you sucking on now?") so yeah, mommy issues: the song (Also: some people say in the song, the boy kills the girl at the end, but this isn't literal, TBW is the first of a trilogy of songs about the same relationship, it is followed by Android girl then Two Breaths Walking: Reloaded and the story resolves with the couple reuniting as adults and getting in the relationship again, although its not necessarily as abusive as before, its still implied to be codependant ending on the line 'We should live like oxygen tanks, sucking breathe from the words each of us exhale, until our last breathe')

In all seriousness, the scene where younger Haruka is walking through the city with his mother but it keeps repeating until older Haruka pulls the younger one away might indicate an attempt to focus the happier memories of his parents (since this is also over the lyrics "Why is it breaking? Tell me why? Please don’t change If I tried and couldn’t say it, You would get angry at me and say “You’re hopeless.”" which depict a worse scene) I think both his parents are still physically present but have become far more emotionally distant, not giving him as much attention, which exacerbates his loneliness from not having any friends his own age to talk to

And if one of his parents did leave? I think its likely his mother since she is shown disappearing out of his reach after the dog-incident (inferring she got angry/disappointed in Haruka anyway) This could also be where he got his necklace from: Its something his mother used to wear (although this is 100% a guess) and that's why its shown to be important to him

This one is just me, but i didn't realise until a rewatch that when Haruka is watching the younger him and the girl running together, the background has fireworks. Haruka mentions fireworks being a key memory to him so I wonder if this was one of the first/last times he got to make a friend...

On three separate occasions in the interrogation, Haruka mentions not liking animals. Despite this, he is depicted as sleeping with a rabbit plush and on his birthday art (I'd include that too but tumblr only allows 10 pictures per post, so here's a link) he is standing next to a giant blueberry and strawberry cake with two bunny themed biscuits at the side. Through my experiences of seeing Japanese fandom art on pixiv, sometimes rabbits are used to insinuate a character is cute and timid in fanart.

Meaningless details: Haruka sleeps with his necklace on; he sleeps on a bed and not a futon; at first I thought he woke up holding his plush's hand but his hand is merely next to the toy; and considering the state of the pillow and blanket, I wonder if he moves a lot in his sleep or if the is just because in this case he seems to be waking up from a nightmare about the dog incident...

Final note: I've spent so many hours writing this I don't remember if i was building up to any big finale or not but I hope you enjoyed reading this! Feel free to add on in the comments/reblogs.

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY'S GREEN THUMB

Unaired Episode {originally scheduled for broadcast December 6, 1986}

[Photos © Getty Images]

Directed by Marc Daniels ~ Written by Mark Tuttle

Synopsis

Lucy's energy drink breakfast is so unpalatable that the entire family dump it into a potted plant. When they come home, the plant has tripled in size. Realizing that Lucy may have invented a new miracle fertilizer, the pressure is on for her to recreate the concoction. But when Lucy can't recall the recipe, Curtis's dreams of fame and fortune wilt.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Barker), Gale Gordon (Curtis McGibbon), Ann Dusenberry (Margo Barker McGibbon),  Larry Anderson (Ted McGibbon), Jenny Lewis (Becky McGibbon), Philip Amelio (Kevin McGibbon), Donovan Scott (Leonard Stoner)

[For biographies of the Regular Cast, see “One Good Grandparent Deserves Another” (S1;E1)]

Guest Cast

Jerry Prell (Reporter) was seen on television in “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “The Young and the Restless.”  Off screen he was active with New England Academy of Theater and the Hartford Conservatory.

Doris Hess (Woman with a Sick Swedish Ivy) played Tina on three episodes of “Happy Days” and small roles on “Laverne and Shirley.” Hess was particularly busy in ADR (automated dialogue replacement).  

The woman's Swedish Ivy is named Helga.

Stuart Shostak (Stuart, Photographer) took a class taught by Lucille Ball in 1979 and subsequently went to work as her personal film archivist from 1981 until her death in 1989. This is his only screen acting credit. He also served as Assistant to the Producers and warm-up comedian for the series.

The reporter calls Stuart by his real first name.  

Melvin, Agnes, and Helga (Potted Plants)

Others at the press conference are played by uncredited background performers.

This episode was filmed ninth, but scheduled to be the eleventh one broadcast. It went before the cameras on October 21, 1986.

This is the only episode written by Mark Tuttle, who was also a writer on “Three's Company,” one of Lucille Ball's favorite shows. His career started in 1963 writing for “The Beverly Hillbillies.” He had worked with director Mark Daniels on two episodes of the TV series “Private Benjamin” (1981-82).  

On December 2, 1986, just two weeks after “Life Was Lucy” was canceled, Desi Arnaz Sr. died from lung cancer at the age of 69. His final screen appearance was on “The David Letterman Show” in 1983.  These two events devastated Lucille Ball and she became despondent.

Lucy: “I'm just a big flop.”

On December 6, 1986, “Life With Lucy” (and ABC's entire Saturday night line-up) was replaced by Christmas specials.

Curtis: “I'm just going to be a small businessman with a small store.”

In this episode,Curtis becomes obsessed with making money, just like his previous “Lucy” characters Alvin Littlefield (“I Love Lucy”), Mr. Mooney (“The Lucy Show”), and Harrison Carter (“Here's Lucy”, above).

The very first time Lucille Ball was seen on “Life With Lucy” she was carrying a potted plant (a schefflera). Lucy was afraid it had spider mites.

Lucy: (To Melvin) “The free ride is over!  You either get growin' or get goin'!”  

The living room now is home to two potted plants: Agnes (on the coffee table) and Melvin (on the table behind the sofa). Lucy begins the episode saying good morning to Agnes.  Hearing Lucy say “Agnes” reminds us of Mame, the 1974 film in which one of the major characters was named Agnes Gooch (Jane Connell).

Lucy: “My mind is a blank!” Curtis: “We know that!”

Unbeknownst to Lucy, the entire family dumps Lucy's healthy breakfast (a super-strength organic energy drink) into Melvin's pot rather than swallow it. When they come home, Melvin has tripled in size!

It is worth noting that a man named Melvin Frank directed Lucille Ball in the 1960 film The Facts of Life. [The plant behind Lucy is mere coincidence!] 

Margo: (about Melvin's growth spurt) What could have made it grow so fast?” Kevin: “I know. (pointing up) Aliens!”

This episode slightly resembles the 1960 film (and stage and screen musical) Little Shop of Horrors, in which a plant mysteriously grows to enormous size. The plant's origins are also attributed to aliens! In this case, instead of blood, its life-force is derived from Lucy's energy drink. The musical film was released on December 19, 1986, just two weeks after this episode was scheduled to air, but the stage musical had been playing off-Broadway since 1982 and would out-last “Life With Lucy” by a full year.  

Curtis comes up with the name Gigant-a-Grow for Lucy's miraculous growth potion.

Curtis: “From now on, when you hear the name McGibbon, you'll think fertilizer!”

Margo tells her mother that thanks to her discovery she'll be in the encyclopedia next to Luther Burbank. Luther Burbank (1849-1926) was a pioneering horticulturalist who developed more than 800 varieties of new plants in his career. A Californian, many schools and public buildings have been named after him. In 1986 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Curtis promises Leonard three weeks paid vacation. He plans to go to Hawaii to lie on the beach. This is the third mention of Hawaii in the series. In the first episode, Curtis had just returned from vacationing there and in the second episode guest star John Ritter says that his wife is Hawaii with the kids. Hawaii was a popular destination with Lucille Ball and her sitcom characters. It was also a favorite get-away destination of the Arnaz family, has been mentioned since the early days of “I Love Lucy”, even before it officially became a state!

On the telephone, Curtis asks a reporter if they've got a connection with “60 Minutes.” He thinks the story of Lucy's Gigant-a-Grow would be perfect for Morley Safer. The CBS TV prime time news magazine show began airing in 1968, the same year as “Here's Lucy.” Safer was a host of “60 Minutes” from 1968 until his death in 2016.  

Lucy briefly does her famous 'spider' face “ewww” when Curtis threatens to get the formula out of her head “one way or another.” Unfortunately, the moment is obscured by background music fading out to commercial and the omnipresent laugh track.

The recipe for Lucy's 11th attempt at duplicating Gigant-a-Grow:

1 ounce of ginseng extract

3 drops of lecithin

gobs of garlic powder

wonderful (God-given) wheat germ

yeast to rise it to heaven

blend on high

In “Ethel's Home Town” (ILL S4;E15) a old vaudeville gag makes it appear that a potted plant grows into a tall tree – all behind the back of Ethel Mae Potter (we never forgot her)!  

When the Ricardo's rent their Connecticut home to the Williams family in “Lucy Makes Room for Danny” (LDCH 1958), Lucy is worried if they will take care of her houseplants. When Ricky finds out she's been rescuing them against his wishes, she physically demonstrates how badly wilted they'd become.

In “Lucy's Mystery Guest” (TLS S6;E10) Lucy Carmichael is plant-sitting for a neighbor when her health nut Aunt (Mary Wickes) sprays the plant for bugs, and it promptly wilts. 

In “Lucy and Mannix are Held Hostage” (HL S4;E4) Lucy Carter suddenly starts naming and talking to her plants. Their names are Ruthie, Hugo, and Priscilla. Ruthie meets an untimely end when she is tossed out a window in an attempt to stop a robbery.  

This Day in Lucy History {had this episode aired as planned on December 6th}

"Ricky's Contract" (ILL S4;E10) – December 6, 1954

"Lucy Saves Milton Berle" (TLS S4;E12) – December 6, 1965

"Lucy in the Jungle" (HL S4;E13) – December 6, 1971

[staydownlittledingo]

TL;DR if you don’t want to read the whole post: Overkill kinda sucks at character portrayal in general, Sydney’s voice is a serious mixed bag, and with a bit of help I managed to work Sydney into something more pleasing to everyone.

So about Sydney... this is mostly just me throwing my own thoughts out but it’s primarily a followup to @didyamxssme​‘s post about why she hates Sydney in her base form (that being how Overkill released and portrays her). Since launching the Sydney blog back around summer of last year (I think a few months or so after Sydney was initially released?) I’ve seen things said by the community about her. Lots of things about how she’s kind of a stereotype, how her voice is fucking irritating, and I think I even read one thing about how Overkill was shitting on the mentally ill, but it’s been a while since then so I’ll just stick to the main points first: portrayal and voice.

On her portrayal, I’ve read a LOT of posts all across the board (save for the Steam community, fuck that dumpster fire) about Sydney being a stereotype. As far as what I’ve got to say on that, Fish already brought this up briefly, but from what I’ve seen Overkill has kind of already done the same mistake with other characters, such as Bonnie and Sokol - making them sound and act pretty stereotypical of where they’re from. I can’t say for myself if I think Sydney herself is a stereotype -- I’m far from Australian at all, in fact I’m a Filipino-American living in the US, but in that case I should probably shut the fuck up-- okay, I’m ranting. I do my best to try not to go too deep into stereotyping, so I’m never really sure how good of a job I’m doing in that department.

Now, on voice. Sydney’s VA (Georgia Van Cuylenberg) already has an Australian accent as-is, and Fish also mentioned as to how her accent is forced. I couldn’t pick up on if it was forced at all, but even if I did I couldn’t really build up an argument on that part. I’ve also heard plenty about how Sydney sounds really “screamy” in that she almost seems to be screeching all the time, and her voice is grating-- you get the point. It might just be me, but in my opinion I find getting screamed at in an Australian voice to be an actually quite pleasant experience. ...yeah, it’s definitely me. I know her voice doesn’t generally seem to be most people’s cup of tea, and considering that there’s already a mod to mute Sydney altogether (in my opinion this is NOT a good idea if you have someone playing Sydney in your lobbies as you might not be able to hear them telling you to go to them without practice) I can say that I’m probably just too used to playing as Sydney to really be bothered by her voice at all.

So by now, some of you might be wondering how I deal with all of this, considering I play as Sydney...

So, how do I play characters? When I take up a character I want to write, I usually try to stick pretty close to the general canon I want to follow, unless I’m playing an obvious AU - but this only applies to characters with readily available and reliable sources on their mannerisms/feelings/etc. With characters who either have so little/varied on any official info or are just aren’t portrayed very well by their creators, I’ve used a method that involves trawling the internet for ANY credible information as well as going through source materials to cobble together as much information as I can, then filling in “blanks” so to speak with my own headcanons and the like.

In Sydney’s case, there was... little to work with at first. Then I fell upon The Making Of Kelli “Sydney” King, a bit of writing by one of the character designers at Starbreeze that provides a bit of insight on Sydney’s character, even including a FULL bit of biography! So I snapped all of this up and put everything together... and so I’m still filling in blanks. I’ve attempted to tone her down from how Overkill portrays her, and I’m glad to see that I’ve done a damn good job at working her out a bit to something more tolerable.

So there you have it, my thoughts/rambles and how I play characters that aren’t well-written in their own source material. Hopefully you found this as a bit of insight or something, I’unno.

(On a slightly funnier note, “with a bit of help” was going to be written as “with lube” so there’s your immature joke for the day)