#we pretty much all ended up liking hamlet btw

[fruitsofhell]

Look, I've been the kind of student who's payed attention and read everything throughout all my English classes ever and it STILL took me till Senior Year to realize that's what English class was! A lot of kids definitely weren't paying attention or taking anything seriously, but a lot of fucking teachers were treating English like a "Reading Old Books And Saying The Right Things About Them" class with little room for students to explore their own abilities to relate to and process media through their own lenses.

The second I had a teacher who genuinely opened the floor to students to discuss any and all opinions on the works we read (including: "Hey don't you guys think its silly people think Hamlet is the best story literally ever?" "YES!"), then I realized what it was. Pretty much instantly I began considering becoming a teacher just so I could make that clear to more kids someday.

“we need to teach media literacy in schools” guys was i really the only person paying attention in english class bffr

[mephistopheler]

✵ SALUTATIONS MY HUMBLE AUDIENCES~!

Welcome to a place where my quite peculiar interests goes into ♪

Now, now... 'Tis the time for me to introduce mineself...♪

My name is Val!!! (short for Valerian) Also known as Kolya, Petruk or Wahyu on other platforms :D

{My pronouns are He/Him, I'm a guy and a minor fyi ☆}

My literally WHOLE typology incase someone's curious :>

ENTP 3w2 sx/so 379 Chaotic Neutral Sang-Chol

✵ ALRIIIIGHT~ LET'S GET TO MY INTERESTS, SHALL WE?

➸ My Interests!

• Anything of Jester, Clown, Circus, or Magician aesthetics I absolutely DEVOUR those!

• Shakespeare (Especially R&J, Macbeth, Tempest, Hamlet MND and Twelfth Night)

• Other Theatrical Plays/Musicals/Operas

• Historical fictions

• Classic Literature

• By liking classic literature, I am destined to be interested anything that involves Bungou such as; Bungou Stray Dogs, Bungou to alchemist, even obscure ones like Bungou Series, Tsuki Ni Hoerane, Circus at the very end, Ravuhebun, etc.

• I play rhythm games like Enstars (EN+JP), Bandori (EN), D4DJ (EN), and Deresute! So if you wanted to befriend me there, just message me~ (I am HEAVILY interested in Enstars)

• Speaking of RHYTHM games I love classical music!!! (Mind you i'm also in the Classicomp fandom) Other favorite genre of mine such as Jazz, Electro swing, etc. can be found on my quite full of tomfoolery Spotify account!

• By liking Classical music and it's composers while showing interest in Japanese media, of course I'd love CLASSICALOID!!!

• PUYO PUYO!!!! Ms. Accord my beloved btw ♡ (Val trying not to fall in love with mysterious ourple characters challenge impossible)

• Ofcourse i'd enjoy Madou Monogatari too

And I like, really really hate Satan guys I swear 😁 He's being denial again fellas

• REVERSE 1999!!! As a biased Shakespeare fan I love my Daughter Charlie, The Fool, and Nick Bottom ♡♡♡ (I play on Global server!)

• 31 Minutos yes! The dreadfully humorous and peculiar puppet show!

• JJBA it's literally my childhood show besides My Little Pony (don't ask why)

• Hetalia because I love history and this is actually one of my comfort media...

• The Bibl—*GUILLOTINE DROPS*

• AND MANY MORE WHICH YOU'LL COLLECT LATER LIKE POKEMON!!! (Because all he does here is indulging himself on his own interests)

✵ OBLIGATORY BYF & DNI SECTION. ONE MUST READ BEFORE PASSING.

➸ BYF

• I have BPD and AUDHD! I'm pretty much a calm person, so thou shalt not be afraid. im very sane I swear guys I swe

Except I'll be like, SUPER annoying about my interests—or in general. !! I try my best to understand social cues, so it's best to make me aware if I ever did something impolite or uncomfortable to you outside of my awareness !!

• I'm INDONESIAN 🇮🇩 So my English may not be the best, because it is not a main language of mine! (And I sometimes ramble in Indonesians here whoops)

• Yes I do type/talk peculiarly. Get used to my theatrical antics! 🙄 (May this perhaps be what everyone called... A typing quirk?)

• I am a multishipper!!! I also don't concern oneself with any ships that are not to my likings.

• My blogs are most likely to be jokes/satirical! Better to take things lightly~

• YOU MUST BE IMMUNE TO MY CRINGENESS!

• I am completely sane and aware of my actions.

➸ DNI

• Post or actively talked about ED & SH

thou shalt refrain from calling me a weakling!!! Those topics are a triggering one for a fool like I am!

• LGBT+phobes, BE FEARFUL AS I TRANSCEND THE GENDERS!!!

• Ableists, of course! I mean... Which ableist could even keep up with someone as AMAZING as me?

• Racists

• Zoophiles

• Pedophiles/MAPs

I am not a centuries old ancient being, sadly. Please be mindful!

• Neo N*zis

• Matcha haters 😡/j

Other than that, I think you're good to go~

✵ Applause, everyone! The comedy is over! My greatest gratitude goes to all of you who decided to come by and be intrigued by my show~!

Seriously... Did you read ALL THAT?

Anyways, May the fate let us to reunite sometime ☆

(By that I mean, I NEED MOOTS)

[unproduciblesmackdown]

which bmc scenes make you the softest bc for me it's gotta be most of the stagedorks scenes ESPECIALLY a guy that i'd kinda be into. mostly bc of christine cause her and michael are my favs (i love them all sm though) but also bc of jeremy because he is a close second to both of them. also vimh but vimh makes me cry a lot although nowadays i can hardly watch one scene without at the very least tearing up. anyways yeah which ones make you soft

i simply rewatched bmc and took notes for this and really got off track at points in the sense of sticking to What Makes You Softest but that’s how it goes babey

ACT ONE - in mts when jeremy is just having a whole moment being smitten in christine's presence while she's inelegantly picking herself up off the floor and smearing on lip balm and adjusting a skirt wedgie - jeremy and michael just being default that glad to meet each other in the middle of a random schoolday - michael hyping up jeremy's crush on christine and just encouraging this momentum to get jeremy to sign up for the play - ilpr.....that christine stops after like, the first two verses and goes back to her book b/c she doesn't figure someone's looking to listen to her beyond that but then she sees jeremy's still 110% paying attention and the whole rest of the song enfolds with increasing enthusiasm - jake doing that whole bit "all the pressure i feel to be the best at everything all the time" lmao classic stuff here, depressing content delivered in this humorousse way. charming moment - "leave me alone, i've had a bad day" - 2pg......when michael taps jeremy on the shoulder to get jeremy to join in on his choreo, which jeremy then does.....that michael asks if jeremy will be too cool for Video Games and jeremy just responds Emotionally Directly......we love the Favorite Person moment......that this song just ends with the two of them grooving 2gether god bless - jeremy stammering and Tics and Fidgeting when the squip remarks uponst it - jeremy delivering the Looking Pretty Sexy Brooke as awkwardly as possible and she's just like "thanks :)" - jeremy's own Theatricality coming out......hey hamlet - jeremy spinning around in place alternately addressing both brooke and the squip with "oh i'm supposed to meet my friend michael" - nice little detail wherein brooke signals for chloe to join in on her choreo - speaking of, v fond of the Moment jeremy is in on both their choreo......brooke sort of alarming jeremy with her whole attempted grande finale, straw and all, ft. the first instance of her messing with his hair so much she's just tugging his entire head around - cute that jake and rich have a sort of 2pg-esque handshake routine too - jeremy's "that's sad, what should i do" reaction re: jenna - rich's Earnest invitation to come over and play xbox... - "bonjour, jeremy" "ooh brooke!" and this whole exchange, her complimenting him, him laughing at "That Was French" and remembering to ask about pinkberry - love the whole choreo sequence/s in sync up, especially fond of his Moments with the girls, bumping hips with chloe (twice), hearing some Gossip from jenna, posing with brooke.... ;__; - the bowling alley performance art exchange before agtikbi ;____; - agtikbi......the glittery hearts choreo.....the whatever! the interlude or whatever!!! the I Guess A Part Of Me section hhhhoughhh ;o; ;o; ;o; ;o; ;o; that she pulls him into a hug and puts her head against his shoulder omggg ;_________; - brooke just trying to interact with jeremy the Right Way w/o any guidance on the bleachers and it continues to be awkward and funny....like comforting just his Leg while he converses w/his squip.....how she just ends up Physically pushing him around by the hands and head and shoulder and etc......whole situation here in upgrade.mp3 clearly less than Ideal but jeremy and brooke are nevertheless very cute individually And together - meanwhile jake also trying to genuinely Be With christine in upgrade is also charming lol, quitting archery to hang w/a girl like her.... - i always love when the Playful Shove brooke gives jeremy at "but at the mall, you looked at me" pushes him back a whole few steps....this moment of them truly Getting each other sans anyone else's interference.....tres magnifique - jeremy being That psyched to see michael for the first time (in like, less than one full day lol)....michael being That psyched just hearing that jeremy's cool scifi thing worked out after all - lgw ;_________________________; - like i'm some normal, handsome guy..... - giving us All that silence after "The Problem Has Always Been Me" - the whole bit where he launches into the "I'm Not The [series of insults]" and i've realized it's really especially a stretch to say i'm Soft for these moments in lgw but i Am vulnerable and that's its power. little 1" tall will roland on my screen here just made me shed a real tear doing That.....

ACT TWO - brooke's Howl at the end of her verse lmawooo - oughhh jeremy and brooke Greeting each other at the party too, jeremy unable to disappoint her and going for the Real Compliment, just v charming. rip - jake and jeremy's danceoff lol hell yes and then jake just having Misunderstood the costume plan between him and christine lol - the squip getting in on the dancing :) go you funky little ai - jeremy and brooke singing that last verse of Halloween v enthusiastically at each other, - again that jeremy is just genuinely glad to see michael.... - the inherent intimacy of singing mitb b/c your bff dumped you..... - AGTIKBI REPRISE..... ;______________________________; hhhhuouuuoh my god :'3 the lil detail that at the Height of things christine is Shy and turns away.....just. This Scene oh my god - soft in a vulnerable way like, rip to jenna where we're seeing chloe's Lack Of Enthusiasm in accepting a call from her :[ - the Shift at the start of the pants song :] - and the lil mitb reprise during said pants song lmao, also always having a great time w/this concept of "maybe this teen having a rough time needs some guidance from someone grown w/all that bonus maturity here" - i wish there was a way i could help everyone but i don't know how so i guess i'll just do theatre..... - jenna being Moved simply being asked for the first time ever How She Is u_u then her being like "....Okay!" lmfao jenna's great - just have to say in whatever context i'm v fond of pitiful children there at the end lmfao the bass kicks in like that and we're having a great time - the audience always having that response to "all the way to broadway" - jeremy going "you came to see me in the play? :)" like, that he's processing the significance of that in the middle of these Very Raised Stakes - i'm soft for will roland's vocal glitching mouth noises live every night!!! - jeremy like "ha! >:)" flipping his squip off after he's successfully Apologized lmfaoooo love him - but then having that real And I'm Stronger Than You Think I Am victory like :'| - that michael's been by like a ton btw during jeremy's probably somewhat concerning coma. also cherish the lil dance he does while they're celebrating mr. heere's bepantsedness - jake and jeremy sharing a Dab - and just the Popular Kids actively seeking him out to help re: christine b/c they just Want To Be Supportive.....very nice - this vimh interlude or whatever with christine and jeremy like jlsdfhh i think of this all the time - me and the voices in my head have made up our collective mind ;__; what do they say we should do ;______; and the Woohoo! ;_______________; - huoughh kiss and you KNOW especially the [jeremy spinning away in sheer enthusiasm] of 2.0 just KILLS THE MAN ;O; - jeremy not missing a beat despite the squip's interruption leeet's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - the more than survive na na na na na na na na na na na's but they're all So, and jeremy ending With everyone but also there with Himself and it's so Good and Everything Wants What Vimh Has!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hhrough ;0; - that jason does that spin at curtain call w/his excellent squip costume... - that in virtually any given curtain call when they get into line together there's that lil ritual of george smacking will's ass lmao love languages

i mean tl;dr quite Same in that like, most likely to inspire tearing up over something or other includes agtikbi reprise and vimh which is just like, again any finale wants what it has, and the I Guess A Part Of Me bit of the non-reprise agtikbi like Oof augh this is so cute, and lgw always Gets me, and while i was rewatching speaking of being soft and move-able i was also just continually struck with delight over various moments throughout, and noticing little details for the first time thank god. just Vulnerable the whole time

[ghostplantss]

rant abt les chimères bc i’ve finals + tend to project when i’m anxious

this is going to be perhaps v silly bc i don’t look things up when i’m confused or simply ignorant - i thought the statue of voltaire was an old lady til last year despite knowing full well who voltaire was - i just. i just think delfica really ruins all of les chimères for me. apart from? the final two poems, the jesus one and vers dorés, which seem to be more about truth vs falsehoods and, to me, more a justification for the necessity of the poem anthology as a whole than a continuation of the themes themselves, les chimères’s mostly abt the reconciliation of the past + the present, and, other than delfica, seem to fall into a p nice sort of chronological order from to the initial divorce, eventually, reunion of past and present and future.

i love delfica But just. jsldjfas. i think it just stands out like a sore thumb and i’m not a v observant person you see so it must be a glaring fault. to be fair it was added later into the anthology after it had first been edited out of myrtho, and it’s p obvious why? both how it meshes perfectly w myrtho but also why it was edited out in the first place?

idk i feel like somebody’s said the following more eloquently than i could ever but I’m Mad and I have Finals and i don’t want to think abt finals so i’m Mad.

Anyhow, the chimeres begins with??? Le Descidado? i p butchered that but it opens the anthology with a sense of loss. Not only of the self but of the past, of heritage, and of one’s relation to the past. the speaker starts by identifying themselves as “le prince d’aquitaine a la tour abolie.” without their heritage, abandoned by their “seul étoile, their “fleur qui plaisait tant a [s]on coeur désolé” - perhaps which represents the past to the grapevine’s present but also maybe it just represents his lover who had recently passed away - they are devastated, inconsolable, have lost their identity - “suis je l’amour ou phebus etc etc” -  and still define themselves by the past and by their past actions -“j’ai reve dans la grotte ou nage la sirene”- and although the poem ends on a fairly positive note - et jai deux fois traverse l’acheron/modulant tour a tour sur la lyre dorphee/les soupirs de la sainte et les cris de la fee, and although idk i mean i heard the sainte and the fee being described as religion/mysticism and madonna/whore, to me i think the speaker used to be able to overcome the obstacles that stood in their way btwn themselves and of the past, and they used to be able to balance the past and the present - the saint and the fée - and they, like orpheus, like they had been able to before, hopes to recross the acheron to reunite w their lost love and with their heritage and with the past, but they’re worried they won’t be able to, and that’s why here they makes no promises but, rather, continues to define themselves with their past actions, with their past successes, and anyhow the poem ends, still, with a rather hopeless sense of loss, longing for a past where past and present were united, w the flower and the grapevine still all mangled up on the stupid trellis, with perhaps a tinge of anticipation for the future to, perhaps, revitalize said union

we then move on to myrtho!!! which is such a pretty poem btw the volcano as rebirth motif is just ajdfla it’s this tentative rejoining of past and present, where the speaker rhapsodizes over myrtho and how they themselves’re the child of greece, and they’re connected with their heritage who happens to be represented by an especially pretty enchanteress, and this enchanteress you see has made the volcano erupt again, she’s brought rebirth, and all throughout history the pale hortensia - the past - has united with the green myrtle -modernity- so everything’s alright bc it’s always been alright and the pretty lady’s going to make everything better again

i am not coherent it’s going to be morning soon and my past’s going to reunite w my future and oh it won’t be pretty

poem three i think is. um. OH it’s horus isn’t it??? it’s the best it stands out the most i think from the rest of the anthology bc it’s just so. actiony. it’s v don quixote compared to the normal hamlet vibes. and the change in perspective is just!!! i love it v much. so Isis goes and dumps the dieu kneph who’s honestly been dragging her down. i love the line “l’aigle a deja passé, un esprit nouveau m’appelle” she jumps out the window rides away on a rainbow into the sunset. it’’s the rebirth of the future from the past of france from napoleon it’s v sexy and dramatic

anteros is horrendously unmemorable. but anyhow the speaker’s defined by their past again -vikings/satan/cain/abel - the point is that lost heritage has been found and all is well

let’s skip delfica for the moment and! artemis! here, having traversed the initial loss, a burgeoning hope for the future, rebirth, and finally a reconnection to the past, the speaker has vanished into the vast cycle of death and rebirth, the past, present, and future are all as one, the rhyme scheme of the final two stanzas is a lovely littol ouroboros - ABC CBA - and artemis is just a glorious of celebration of? eternal and anarchic unity, structured chaos, we’ve found the end of the cycle all is well and has always been well or at least it would all have been if it weren’t for delfica

delfica cuts us off before artemis and says um actually the past is lost to us forever. poor daphne presumably stuck in her tree continuously cries out for the unhearing gods who had left her behind, and everything she knew and has once known is gone and sealed away and le sibylle is asleep under the arc of constatin and rien n’a dérangé la severe portique. i suppose the poem leaves the possibility of a reconnection of w the past for the sibylle may perhaps awaken but it all seems so hopeless poor daphne screaming into the void like that and it makes the triumph of anteros feel so entirely empty. i’m not entirely sure how it fits in to the rest of the narrative and perhaps artemis reawakens the sibylle perhaps the chaotic unity of artemis disregards the past in view of future cycles idk i just. alsdfj. it makes the entire struggle of les chimeres feel so futile. to find your identity your place in time a sense of belonging. i just. it leaves me feeling like daphne, rooted in place, crying out into the voiceless past in hopes that some old god might hear me and bear me into the future

[annakie]

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Four

Wherein we make it to the Citadel, and do a lot of running around.

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

So right away, we meet Udina and the Council, way to throw us right into it.  

It’s a brief introduction and gives us an idea what Humanity is up against and who is representing us.  Basically, we’re supposed to get the idea that it’s a lot of bureaucratic bullshit, I guess.

This is also the first time we see Asari and Salarians, and they’re in reddish-brown and white, which really isn’t the best look.

Bioware continues to push the story forward.  We get enough to know that Udina is kind of an ass, and the Council isn’t going to just trust what some guy says even if he is the representative for billions of people.

And finally, after this, we’re set free.

The Citadel I think is one of the coolest locations in like almost any game I’ve ever played.  They do a great job of both making it feel huge, but also accessible.  Enough bridges to get across to places you need to get to, and after you walk somewhere once, Citadel Rapid Transit is great.  I still choose to take elevators about 80% of the time even when I can CRT somewhere, just because I like the squad conversations and news updates. There’s a shorter elevator rides mod that helps, too.

There’s so much to do and see, and having one of the main areas just be such an awesome combination of scifi futurism and lush greenery + water is both trippy and breathtaking.  I think, especially with the updated graphics mods/settings, the Presidium especially holds up fairly well.  I mean it definitely feels more populated and modern in ME3 but, I just consider this to be more of a residential / professional area of the Presidium and most of what we see in ME3 is a more retail section.

It’d be annoying to be a groundskeeper here, though.  Lots of green areas that you’d really need to climb to, or garden on a steep slant. :p

I always found it interesting that the natural first place to head to is into the ambassador’s office next door, where we find some friendly aliens, and one not-so-friendly one.  But honestly, this is a great place to find out the different ways other species view humanity, and how there’s apparently tiers of respect given to various species.

I always kind of hoped the Elcor would feature more prominently into the world in future games, but at least we got Hamlet.  I have SO MANY QUESTIONS about how Elcor like... do things?  We never see it but you have to assume that their hands have opposable thumbs and they’re able to stand on two legs, right?  I want to see what an Elcor ship looks like and Dakuna specifically.  Give us more elcor, Bioware!

BTW, the Mass Effect: Annihilation (aka the book that was supposed to be based on the Quarian Ark DLC that never happened in Andromeda) is totally worth reading just for the elcor character in it.  It’s also probably the best of the Mass Effect books, in my opinion.

Din Korlack’s got a point though, they not only have to share an office, but their view isn’t nearly as good as the human’s.  This is especially bullshit for the volus, who could stand on that railing and probably STILL wouldn’t have a view.

I love how Mass Effect 2 takes her from a completely forgettable character to making me think  “Sorry you’re gonna die in a few weeks, your mom’s really gonna miss you.” every time I see her.

PALIN DESERVED BETTER.

I don’t remember which ME3 mod it is, maybe the Spectre Expansion Mod or maybe EGM, but thank you whichever modder it was who made Palin’s story and death more clear in ME3.  Sorry Udina got you killed.

Also, it was good to get a dissenting opinion on Spectres from him.

Avina is such a good, optional way to get more loredump.  Yes, you can again ask them about Spectres if you want to hear about them again.  But I liked that each Avina terminal taught you a little more about whatever you were nearby, and the state of the galaxy in general and since they were programmed to be information dumps, it felt more natural to get information this way.

Don’t these people have jobs?

I love the Krogan statue, and the Avina terminal nearby telling you about it.  But now every time I see it, all I can picture is Grunt and his buddies climbing it.  So good.

Managed to get a clean shot of the crew without the UI in the elevator, thanks Flycam!  You have about a half a second to get this shot though, because the camera is stationary while the elevator is not.

Oh hell-lo Pailin, who is your charming-looking friend there?

This entire conversation needs to be longer. It’s a nice, quick introduction to Garrus, but, well, let’s spend a little more time with the main characters!!

I mean how can you not just not immediately love that?  Hey remember how bad Garrus’ face texture used to be?  Thanks, modders.

I just really love the Citadel tower.  Absolutely beautiful and atmospheric.

SO the thing is, if you can pretend that Saren isn’t, you know, already half Reaperized, 100% the Council is right to not just go throwing one of their longer-term agents in jail because Shepard had a bad dream and a random dockworker said the guy who killed Saren looked like this.

Honestly though, this and OH A GOOD CHUNK OF MASS EFFECT 2 would be so much easier if Shepard wore a bodycam. :p

Also, I wonder who took the dockworker’s testimony?  Did Kaidan run back real quick while Shepard was sleeping?

This was an embarrassment for humanity, and I agree with Udina that we needed more to go on before making demands of the council.  The council is right to not convict based off a bad dream Shepard had.  Go get some real proof!  Also, do a bunch of sidequests!

And scan some Keepers for this shady guy!

Which is actually good quest design, because you really have to go to every nook and cranny in the Citadel to find them all, though it would have been nice if they showed up on the minimap.   Really gets you to explore and get to know the area like the back of your hand.

This time around, I forgot to grab the one outside Dr. Michele’s office and had to hunt for it before heading up to grab the last one at the docks.

Thank you, though, Barla Von, for telling us all about the Shadow Broker and telling us about Wrex.  See u in ME3.

Bioware please give us diverse-suited volus in a remaster.  Maybe I’m reusing a pic of Din Korlack, you’ll never know! :p

Thanks, texture modders, for really highlighting what the end of the hanar’s noses look like. 

The hanar are another species I wish we got more of throughout the series.  They are probably the most alien of all the aliens we interact with.   I mean, at least we got Blasto.  I’d really love to visit Kahje someday.  I know it’s in the comics, but you know, in-game.

Annnd let’s go visit Sha'ira.

I have very mixed feelings about Sha'ira.  On one hand, she’s clearly very respected, is probably making bank, in control of her own destiny etc.  On the other hand, she’s probably the asari we have the second most interaction with in this game after Liara, and after just seeing Benezia’s boob-tastic clothing and then heading to Chora’s Den soon to see the dancing asari we’re getting a very slanted view of the species.  I think Bioware course corrects in later games but oof this is such a dude-fantasy alien species in ME1 it hurts.  Especially since Liara is almost a born-sexy-yesterday trope.

Also... don’t touch me if I don’t wanna be touched. =\

Noveria advertisements... that just say Noveria.  I guess this is effective marketing in 2148.

Look how great those shadows from the tree are... actual definition in shadow... wow.

Raise your hand if you’ve missed this conversation in a playthrough before and reloaded like an hour or more past to make sure you get it.

It’s one of those little moments that they didn’t have to put in.  Just a little conversation reflecting on humans and humanity, and our place in the world, and showcasing Ash’s wit and Kaidan’s adorkableness.  Also making sure you appreciate all the work that went into this particular view.  It’s a pause in the action and all the things you have going on, and it’s so great for characterization and making you feel a part of the world.  

Speaking of the view... I decided to flycam it.  Warning, I spoil some of the “magic” below.

Pretty quickly, you see that the arms are actual objects, untextured on the non-visible side.

I decided to head for the closest line of “cars” on the bottom center-left to see what those “cars” looked like.

Flycam feels pretty fast when you’re trying to frame a specific shot just right... but when you need to travel a great distance, it feels verrry slow.

It took me probably close to five minutes of traveling to make it all the way there.

What I discovered was... a few of the buildings are real, the rest are a very good painting.

This is how far away the citadel is from the rest of the map. That grid would be that entire view from outside Dr. Michele’s office all the way to the edge of the shops on the other side, plus some extra.

So both the building that those “cars” (the string of white lights) are coming from and going to are... on the painting.  Neither one are physical objects.

Made some gifs.

You can see the lights moving at a mostly-downward angle, while it looks like they’re just heading south when standing on the Citadel.  Also you can see other lights moving farther up the map.

And here you can see the lights “disappearing behind a building” but they’re really just hitting an invisible wall, the dark angle of that building is just a part of the wall painting.   

Looking up from the wall...

So that was a fun distraction.

Emily Wong deserved:

Better.

An entire shirt.

A mention in ME3 after she gave her life on social media defending Earth against the reapers while keeping her cool reporting on the invasion the day before ME3′s release.

That day before launch though... was amazing.  Bioware did such a great job on social media with the reaper invasion happening on twitter.  I loved that lots of fans got into it, too, posting photoshops and their own reaper invasion stories.  I remember being at work that day but not actually working very much.  A few friends and I had a google hangout going on to report in on anything we saw happening on social media and keep up with it and to be very hyped together online.  

We reblogged a bunch of it on fuckyeahbioware starting about here and working backwards through numbers.  

One of the ME3 mods, and again, sorry, don’t remember which, does give Emily a nice tribute through an email.  She deserves it.

Okay that’s enough for this post!  Will try to finish up the Citadel next time!

[sometimesrosy]

Why do you think CL was toxic? I've seen you ( and lots of people from the fandom) talking about it a couple of times but never in length. I always felt that while their story seemed sweet, there was something not right about it. Btw it's ok if you don't want to answer this because CLs might come after you. Thanks for your amazing metas/reviews/analysis ❤❤

Thanks for abbreviating the ship name. That makes things easier.

Long story short (I keep trying to make my long stories short and it rarely works,) CL reminded me of my relationship with my emotionally, psychologically and economically abusive ex husband. From very early on, even before they were romantic. Actually from where L coerced Clarke into agreeing to let TonDC be bombed. I experienced that coercion on a bi-weekly basis in my relationship the last few years, every time he ran out of money (for various nefarious reasons) and he would force me, with dire emergencies, to give him money, or I would suffer. He used many of the same techniques that L used on Clarke.

The connection between my relationship and CL continued through betrayals, isolating, “the carrot and the stick,” through gaslighting, threatening the loss of important things, creating enemies out there that made us a team, hinting at suicide, and culminating in Clarke staying with L to “protect” her people even though staying made her weaker and incomplete. I was triggered by Clarke staying and, much later, realized that was because I stayed in my abusive relationship for my children’s sake, when I wished I had left when I first thought I should, and I ended up being nearly destroyed by staying. I had a full on panic attack over that episode and it took me a long time to get over it.

My emotional truth with the CL story is that it mirrored my abusive marriage, and I used CL as a fictional couple to analyze my OWN relationship and trauma and get some perspective on it. It doesn’t trigger my PTSD any more, but when you first start seeing emotional abuse as a real thing, it’s very hard to stop seeing it.

CL, in many ways, illustrates an abusive relationship.

In many other ways, if you don’t see that dynamic, it illustrates many wonderful, dramatic, romantic tropes. 

I never tried to force anyone else to abandon their romantic interpretation of CL, I just wanted to talk to people who had experienced something similar and saw the darkness, so that we could talk about it and get something out of it.

I’m not even sure I really like defining it as “toxic,” because I think that is a trigger word and minimizes the story and ship and also what an abusive relationship is. 

I can interpret CL in other ways, too. Not just from my personal experience of abuse. For instance, I think the story of L as a shadow of Clarke is fantastic, and falling in love with L was a way for Clarke to make peace with the darkness in her own soul... this reinforces both the psychological interpretation of season 3 and the Jungian interpretation of Clarke’s hero’s journey. 

I think Lxa’s story is that of a tragic hero. And if you were to interpret it from HER POV, it would be the story of a powerful leader who was on top of the world but through hubris and her own fatal flaws, sees herself and all she worked for destroyed, leading to her fall. This is a story like Macbeth or Hamlet, and makes her story a good one. Not a happy one though. Tragic. This story thread makes Lxa the hero and Clarke the love interest and the political grounder story is the true tale. Bellamy doesn’t really factor into it, except as a rival for Clarke’s attentions who is rather vanquished. But that story starts in mid season 2 and ends in mid season 3 and is over. It’s not the main narrative. And it’s not a romance, it’s a shakespearean tragedy. 

As a romance, I don’t find CL romantic enough. It falls short for me. I don’t like romances with great power differentials, and the romance I saw on screen was too political and not authentic enough for it to get me in the heart. Neither of them were honest or open or vulnerable with each other, and I need that in a romance. That’s a personal taste thing. And outside of my feelings about abuse. It’s interpreting it without the abuse lens.

I don’t talk about it much because I got harassed pretty badly by the CL fandom over it. And it’s not a major point of the narrative anymore, so I’ve moved on for the most part.

[sunalsolove]

I’ve got a question! How would you rank the 5 seasons of AOS, and also how would you rank the 5 seasons based solely off Fitzsimmons moments? I did this for myself today and my FS chart was almost the complete opposite of my general season rankings!

I think my answer is exactly the same for each? Since it’s mostly those FS moments, good or bad, that drive how much I enjoy the season?

Season 3: I liked S3 a lot (barring space rando as a Macguffin). It was a pretty tightly woven plot from start to finish, I really got a massive kick out of HIVE, there were still funny parts, it was pretty epic in scale, FS finally got together, and I didn’t like Lincoln enough to feel *that* bad that he sacrificed himself. (Sorry, Lincoln) I was more upset on Daisy’s behalf. There were so many good moments. It turned into Buffy for a moment. (Seriously? Squidface is a senior partner, i.e. the Ram? REALLY??? I was screaming. Loudly.) FS boinked. 

Season 1: Besides having the EXACT same damn twist as S2 of Buffy (more or less) I really liked the first season. There was so much humor! Human ingenuity and skill saved the day, some of the episodes linked back to the larger Marvel universe. There was a flying car. Fitz and Simmons were cute little beans. Daisy was totally the newbie that needed everything explained to her so that the audience would know what was going on. The pink dress. Coulson right at the end. The pod scene that was heartbreaking, beautiful, and that destroys me every time. 

Season 2: Huntingbird! Daisy gets her powers! Everything is bigger and scarier than S1 and friendships and relationships are much more complex. Way more complex. Kind of too complex at some points. May dances. Fitz wears glasses. I think the season ended up being too complex and fell apart under its own weight. To many intersecting plotlines and too many new characters. Also way too many overly dramatic deaths. Trip? Really? Izzy? Ugh. 

Season 5: Too many villain side plots (sorry to everyone that likes the blues). Space and time travel were not that exciting to me. I don’t know what they were reaching for, but it all seemed to end up a muddied mess. Kind of like the lighting. There were some retrod themes and some moral point making that I did not agree with. The writers seemed to forget everything we liked about the show by the end. Screw found family and friendships, don’t you want to know how being overly attached to your freaky daughter will unbalance you and make you try to destroy the world? The wedding was the only bright point (literally) and now it doesn’t matter because watching one of my favorite characters bleed out because there’s a back up version somewhere is rewarding cinema. 

Season 4: Well, I like how it starts? But wait, no I don’t. Jemma isn’t in the lab. WTF???? I don’t care about power or whatever the hell with pulled out of the writer’s arse’s Mace. She’s a laboratory scientist with two doctorates, she’s NOT A FLIPPING ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT. I like Robbie. The 4a Ghost Rider arc was a highlight. Only GHOSTS? Okay, why they wanted to make a whole season with endless daddy issues that is basically sideways Hamlet I don’t know. It sucked. I hated it. 4b with it domestic abuse torture porn is disgusting. The framework flat out makes no sense. Yeah, yeah...darkhold blah, blah, blah, but there was a million different ways that could have gone and all it did was do things like give Mack false hope (which you should’t cling to), let us know love can’t conquer shit (thanks for ZERO emotional payoff for my faves, btw, that was great) and literally ended up with AIDA going off the rails because she was a woman scorned. WTF?? It what universe it that an acceptable ending? It was all overly pretentious shite. I really have no idea why I kept watching. Or made it to S5. It destroyed the thing about the show I love, that science and people can save the day just as well a magical super heroes and tossed in the trash. We got the darkhold and well I love Robbie and Quake, that we needed good vs. bad wacky magic super pissed me off. 

[kitesupportgroup]

Be More Chill OBCR 💛💊

So the bmc obcr has been out for a bit now, (and I love it so very much) so I decided to write down all of my favourite things it- if not for other bmc fans but for myself. Enjoy reading through everything I love!!!

****This is not finished, but I ran over the character limit so I’ll be constantly updating this on reblogs! Look out for the most recent ones!!!****

(Btw It’s not all new additions to the album but just everything)

Jeremy’s Theme:

I mean. I love the be more chill band so much.

With the universal Be More Chill sound?

How could I not love this!!!!

And the amazing theremin?

(That’s what that instrument is called)

(I looked up ‘electric stick instrument’ to figure out what it was)

It’s just terrific

100000000/10

More Than Survive:

Will Roland’s voice (and Will Roland in general)

How unenthusiastic ‘good morning, time to start the day’ is

The addition of the parts part between Jeremy and mr. heere on the recording

‘Dude!’ (Weight the options)

‘Oh god!’

Will Roland’s voice (and Will Roland in general)

When the whole cast comes in on the third ‘c-c-c-come on!’

The new hallway lines (I’ve literally never noticed him before)

The dramatic music when Rich writes on Jeremy’s backpack

‘Oh! It’s a sign up for the after school play!’ *pause* ‘It’s a sign up sheet for getting called gay’

‘End scene’

‘Christiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine’ (new harmonies+notes ahhhhh!!!!!!)

‘No need to wallow, no’

Will Roland’s voice (and Will Roland in general)

MICHAEL!!!!

Just George Salazar

Just Michael Mell

‘You look like ass, what’s wrong?’

‘My mothers would be thrilled!’

‘That’s... good?’

[I was gonna say] ‘Getting atoned in my basement’

THE CHRISTINE HARMONIES YALL HAVE MY HEART

The band is so incredible I can’t

The ooooooooooooooo harmonies when Jeremy is signing up for the play

‘Gayyyyyy!’

‘I like gay people’

THE WHOLE LEAD UP TO MORE THAN SURVIVE ITS SO SOFT AND GENUINE WILL YOU WONDERFUL HUMAN

‘Whyyyy’

‘And teach me how to thrive’

THE INSTRUMENTS COMING IN AT THAT PART THEN THE NANANANANA’S

I LITERALLY LOVE THIS SO MUCH THIS PART GIVES ME CHILLS

Will’s bits AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

‘SUR VIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIII VEEE!’

‘GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GOOOOO GO!’

I Love Play Rehearsal

Stephanie Hsu. Just. She’s a queen. No- a goddess

The way she says ‘because it is fun.’

And the pause between ‘because it is fun’ and ‘...I love play rehearsal’

‘not depressed as in like’ bit

MAD GIGANTIC FEELINGS

‘I also have a touch of ADD

where was I?

Oh, right!’

‘The way it works out in the Pla-aa-y’

‘Centre of attention’

‘That was, really one of my best roles’ THAT VOICE💛

‘Do you find that? *pause that Jeremy clearly cant respond in time* Cause I totally find that!’

‘Why-y-y-y-y’

‘I *punch* LOVE *punch* PLAY REHEARSAL!’

‘Hives’

‘Why’m’

‘There’s also a part of me that wants to do this *adorable weird noises* yasss’

‘So I did it *giggles*’

‘My brain is like bzzz, my heart is like wow’

‘And it’s starrrrrting,

starrrrrting

it’s starrrrrrting,

sooooooooooooooon’

More Than Survive (Reprise)

I’m sorry. A NEW SONG?!

I LOVE IT AND THE TONE AND TUNE AND BAND AND WILL

the fact that ‘at least I didn’t have a breakdown, and have to go to the nurse’ suggest that this has happened to Jeremy before I NEED TO PROTECT HIM

Just the whole set up- it’s what touching my hand aimed to do but shorter and wonderful

The Squip Song:

I realise I’ve added this to everything but Gerard Canonico and his voice I love him

The start instrumental

The way he sings ‘girlfriend’ (idk why i just love)

‘Gross’

‘Futile quest’

‘I would trip!’

‘Then then, Then then, Then then, Then then, Then then, Then then, I got a SQUIP!’

‘You got quick?!!’ Jeremy is so excited aw

‘Not quick. SQUIP’

That entire conversation

Just the entire: It's from Japan

It's a gray, oblong pill

Quantum nano-technology CPU

The quantum computer in the pill will travel through your blood until

It implants in your brain and it tells you what to do’ part

And of course ‘so... it’s like drugs?’

*deep breath*

‘IT’S FROM JAPAAAAAAAAAAN!’

The techno ness on Rich’s voice

The band

THE HARMONIES

‘Almost hopeless’

‘Yeah, your whole life will flip’

‘Squi-I-I-p’

ALL OF THE SQUIIIIIP BITS WOAH rich GO OFF

Two-Player Game:

Can I just say- one of the cutest songs ever

The part where the intro is all slow after Jeremy and Michael are yelling so excitedly I laugh at it every time

The whole intro sequence basically

The band is amazing

Will and George’s voice’s sound so good together 💛

Michael YOU ARE SO DAMN CUTE

‘pac-man tattoo!’

‘Guys like us!’

‘Listen, bro’

Zombie! Watch out! Ah! Aoh! Awww’

Will’s voice ahhhhHH

‘Dude, I know, I get it!’

‘But we’re not in college’

‘All the same’

‘Ahh! Ohh... ZOMBIE! BLOOD! CLAWS! Pause’

YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE NY FAVOURITE PERSON IS SO CUTE

‘I’m your favworite pwerson’

JEREMY’S CUTE LIL ‘yes! *giggle*’

‘Conquer it!’

‘Two... PLAYER GAME!!!’

THE BAND IS SO AMAZING

‘Two player gammmmmme!’

THE LAST FEW HARMONIES I LOVE

The Squip Enters:

Woah it’s so short but I have so much to say

STARTING OFF BY JUST SAYING HOW GREAT THE BAND AND SOUND DESIGN FOR THIS IS I MEAN WOW

Jason Tam’s Squip voice 💛

‘What the hell?!’

Will’s screaming and yelling and noises I love

Christine is so concerned!!!!!!!

‘Mild?!?!’

Jake. That’s all. 💛

‘Oh- wait. I’m fine. I jus-‘

‘Discomfort level may increase’ *yelling intensifies*

‘Welcome to your Super Quantum Unit Intel Processer. Your SQUIP.’

Jeremy is so awestruck and cute

‘You look like Keanu Reeves!’

‘But I can see you may prefer to take instructions from Batman, Beyoncé, a sexy anime cat girl with a tail’ ‘KEANU’S FINE’

‘Can everyone see you?’ ‘I exist only in your mind. All they see is you having an animated conversation with yourself- so don’t do that.’

‘Like in X-Men?’ ‘I can see this is going to be difficult’ OH BURN OH DAMN I LOVE IT WOAHH (really tho this makes me laugh so much every time)

‘You want to be more chill?’

‘Oh, you mean cool!’

‘I do not’

Be More Chill, Pt. 1:

Okay but the Squip enters moves so smoothly into be more chill pt.1 woah

NEW INTRODUCTION ITS AMAZING

The ‘c-c-c-Come on’

THE ENTIRE KEY THAT THE BEW INTRO IS IN THO

THE WAY JASON SINGS ‘outdated’ assffhfkglsherb

‘I’ve arrived now, this is not a drill’

‘Be. More. Chill’

‘wow’ (Jeremy you’re so cute)

‘Oh but I am a masturbator’ ‘we’ll fix that’

‘I thought I was more of a... geek?’

‘Wha- stammer? N- I I I. I don’t stamme-‘

‘Non existent’

‘Buh’ ‘Uh-’ ‘Buh?’ ‘Uh!-‘ ‘No.’ ‘UH!’ ‘Stop.’ ‘DOGH!’

‘Everything about you is so terrible’ ‘Terrible?’ ‘Teribble’ ‘oh’

Jeremy sounds so dejected and sad on that ‘oh’ I need to protect him

‘....makes me wanna die’ *hyperventilating*

‘So DONT freak out’

‘It says Eminem’

‘If you’re so astute, what’d’ya need me for?’

‘I envision a future in which you wear a Eminem shirt and things turn out well’ *foreshadowing*

When the whole cast starts singing ‘everything about you sucks’ you can hear individual voices in it and at one point I swear you can hear George doing some weird voice and I love it

‘Now you try picking a shirt’ ‘That’s a girls shirt’

‘Jerry?’

‘Jerry-me’ or ‘Jerry-my’ (I always think of Jeremy being shocked about Chloe talking to him so he’s just like ‘Jerry? Me!’

‘Oh- Hi, Brooke’

‘You look sexy.’ ‘I cant say that to a hot girl- AOWWW’

‘LOOKING-PRETTY-SEXY-BROOKAHH’

‘No! Yess (????!)’

The entire round part I LOVE IT

‘Just like this HAHA’ SO ADORABLE

‘So who was this mystery girl?’

‘Oh you’ve probably never heard of (SQUIP HELP ME OUT HERE)’

‘Madeline’

‘What.’

‘She’s Fre-e-e-e-e-ench!’

‘She is not French! She just pretends to be for attention’ *radiating disdain*

Brooke is SO CUTE

‘Yeah- I mean- (????!!!!!)’

‘Because she was cheating on me-E-eeee-E-eeee-Eeeeeeh’ (YES I LOVE)

‘Hey. Hamlet. Be. More. Chill’

Leading into do you wanna ride!!!!

Do You Wanna Ride?

Okay but Lauren Marcus is literally amazing

And Brooke is amazing

The way the Squip and Jeremy day ‘Yes!’ At the sane time

‘Mich-ael’

Brooke is trying so hard to be seductive and it’s so damn cute

‘Do you wanna get inside my mothers car?’

‘Ah, hah’

‘We gotta stop for frozen yogurt first!’

When the incredible Katlyn Carson comes in GO CHLOE

Harmonies 💛💛

The band 💛💛

And, of course:

‘PII-IIINNNIN-IN-IN-IN-INK berrrrryyyyy

*giggles* ‘Au revoir’

SHE’S BEING FRENCH TO IMPRESS JEREMY

SHE’S SO CUTE

Be More Chill, Pt. 2

‘Repeat after me’

‘Everything about me is just... terrible’

‘Good.’

THE SQUIP IS SO MANIPULATIVE

‘Everything about you makes me wanna die’

‘Everything about me makes me... wanna die?’

‘Now you’ve got it.’

THE WAY THE BAND COMES IN

‘ABout you’

THE CAST

JASON TAM

‘Cool’ ‘Cool!’ ‘And powerful’ ‘wow!’ ‘And popular’ ‘*giggles* ‘incredible’ ‘woah!’

The accordion thing in the aforementioned section? Amazing

‘You wi-i-i-i-i-i-ill’

‘Be More Chilll! *giggles*’ JEREMY YOU ARE SUCH A PRECIOUS BEAN

*squip, probably face-palming* ‘be more chill’

THE CAST

Sync Up

*ahem* SCREAMING

THIS NEW SONG

IS AMAZING

I

LITERALLY

CANNOT

I have so much to say

Let’s go

First of all, the original more than survive reprise starts us off. I love it

‘C-c-c-Cmon, c-c-c-cmon go g-AHHH!’

‘I’m inside your brain’

I can’t write all of the lyrics as highlights but just know that all of the lyrics are highlights

‘Let’s sync up!’

‘Those facts are not mutually exclusive’

I LOVE HOW THIS SONG SHOWS EVERYONES FLAWS AND FEARS

‘I’m shook, I’m blah, I’m just-’ ‘there-there’ ‘Brooke!’ ‘I’m sorry’ ‘it’s not fair’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘I know’ ‘oh we so sync up’

That entire bit I just

‘But as soon as she shares it, they ignore her’ ‘that’s sad. What should I do?’ *pause* ‘you should ignore her*

‘Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-A’

‘The only controller you need is your mind!’

‘Looks like Jeremy’s killin’’

The electronic ‘lets sync up’ bits

THE BAND IS SO AMAZING THE ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS AND THE EVERYTHING

[terramythos]

My reread commentary on October Daye #8, "The Winter Long" or "more shit goes down in this book than the first 7 combined, holy shit".

I apologize to anyone who reads these cause I literally hit the length limit on this post and had to pare it down lmao 

-Good start: Under the Acknowledgements section: "Everything I have done with October's world to this point has been for the sake of getting here". Sooo basically the first 7 books? Setup for this one. We're in for a Ride.

I want to emphasize some of the best meta foreshadowing I've seen:

FOR REFERENCE, Rosemary and Rue is the title of book 1. It's also the only book whose opening Shakespeare quote (from Hamlet) doesn't really match the title. If you know your Shakespeare, you probably would have caught that and figured out that it was from The Winter's Tale instead. Plenty of conclusions you can draw just from that. Since then the series has been chock full of hidden identities, and this book has two BIG ones coming into play. Foreshadowing was here from the very fucking beginning, and it is some next level shit. Very well done.

-If you skipped book 1 you are SO fucked, btw.

- we're going to great lengths to describe Sylvester's physical appearance. Gee I wonder why. I'm sure it's not relevant

- yes Sylvester has FOX COLORED HAIR and YELLOW EYES and his magic smells like DAFFODILS and DOGWOOD FLOWERS. He is Toby's LEIGE and FATHER FIGURE.

Me on a first read: oh it's just beginning book exposition, they all do this

Me on a second read: god fucking damn it

- toby: I should have known Sylvester would never disappoint me.

Me: oh sweetie. Oh honey.

- "He smelled like smoke and rotten oranges.

This man wasn't Sylvester Torquill."

Anyone who read book 1: OHSHIT.AVI

Welcome back, Simon! You know, Sylvester's evil twin? You know, the big bad (so far) of the series? The the one responsible for turning Toby into a fish for 14 years?

-Yet he seems kinda... off, huh? Comments about how he didnt know the spell would last 14 years, how he hates to upset October's mom, of all people? Whatever could he mean? :)))

-New toby power: spell reflection? Hell yeah? Also spell BREAKING, but to be fair she did do that one other time. In, you guessed it, book 1.

- "When I tried to picture Sylvester's face, I kept seeing Simon's instead" ow oof

- Simon calling Amandine "Amy", which we've established is an affectionate nickname (it being what, you know, THE LUIDAEG calls her). Why would Simon, of all people, call her that?

... oh.

-That sure explains a LOT, huh? That sure was set up... this whole time, huh?

-Little "fuck you" lines like "I didn't know Sylvester had a niece" in book 2. Talking about January. Well, uh, he has several actually! You're one of them!

-Explanation for why Sylvester had any inclination to be October's mentor... eventually becoming her liege and father figure... even giving her the Changeling's Choice (something family is supposed to do). It seems mighty convenient that a random noble was involved in the life of a changeling to such an extent. BUT, if he was her uncle, and knew his brother wouldn't step up? Well...

-This isn't even the biggest reveal of the book. Like, we're only a handful of chapters in and this bomb gets dropped.

-Sylvester, every 10 minutes: oh boy I cant wait to see my brother so I can like, completely eviscerate him!

Everyone else: uh,

- Tybalt: and here I thought I was going to have to ask Sylvester for his blessing. Now I technically have to ask SIMON?

Toby: uwotm8

Tybalt: oh god uhh I'm joking yeah uhh I'm just trying to distract you from all this stress :)) yeah (nailed it!)!

-And now we begin the "wow Sylvester is actually not a great person" slide. It's been hinted at that he's pretty unstable and has shitty priorities regarding people he cares about. But Toby glossed over a lot of it because she adored him. Welp.

- It's also an interesting aside that Etienne was kind of a dick to Toby for a reason in the earlier books. He legit thought she had been knighted because she was family, not that she had earned the post. And after the last few books he clearly knows now that that's not the case and they've actually become friends. That's interesting hidden character development.

- ok so The Gang finds out that Simon was telling the truth when he said turning Toby into a fish for 14 years was to save her. Because he had actually been hired to KILL her and didn't want to do it. So it was a loophole-- everyone thought she was dead, and then (as established in book 1) pretty much everyone forgot she existed until the spell broke.

-BUT Simon is bound by a geas (where have we seen that before) and cannot divulge his employer's name. But who had such a grudge against Toby and/or her mom to order a hit on her AND forcibly bind everyone to secrecy?

-who knows? Not toby. So they go to The Luidaeg to maybe get a lead, and she establishes right away that she is ALSO bound under a geas and can't say who did it. So we play some 20 questions, and then...

ULTRA DISTRESSING LUIDAEG LORE :((((

-additional: another month name just came into play. August. Toby's half sister, missing for a century. WHAT IS WITH THE MONTH NAMES

- "please don't mistake villainy for evil." That's an.. interesting quote re:Simon.

- Simon's way of protecting toby from the impending threat is "well maybe you turn into a tree for a few centuries but like. You're safe, right? Why are you mad?"

- The Luidaeg: *is straight up dead*

Toby: hey tybalt remember that time in book 2 when I Resurrected the Dead

Tybalt: yeah, it was fucking terrifying and I didnt speak to you for 6 months

Toby: *finger guns* guess whaaaaaat

-The Luidaeg: *says just. A bunch of Lore*

Toby: Luidaeg dont you dare drop that cryptic shit on me then pass out

Luidaeg: nap time

-"If you so much as whisper the first word of a transformation spell, I'll have your larynx in my hand before the second word can form." DAMN, Tybalt.

-Simon: I am VERY sorry for my bullshit earlier. I can't tell you who my employer is, but I CAN give you this BOUQUET of ICE COLD ROSES. Ice cold, like winter. Winter Roses, if you will. Yeah. Uh have a nice life, bye!

Everyone: well this sure is a mystery

-Simon is definitely a morally grey character. Has done really awful shit, is built up as a major villain... but turns out he had relatively little control over his actions. He does the wrong thing a lot but it's usually not for a truly evil end? If the context is to be believed he got stuck in the geas contract with Unnamed Employer to save his daughter, which explains the bad shit he did that we know of. Which then inadvertently kicked off like the whole series. He seems to genuinely care about Toby in a warped way? It would be so easy to write him off as an evil stepdad or whatever and there's plenty of canon to support that stance (she's an illegitimate CHANGELING child) but he seems like he wants to just be her dad. I hope we explore his character more, is what I'm saying.

-And not to keep rambling about it but Toby is an established unreliable narrator and a horrible (initial) judge of character. So it's not like this is an asspull or off base at all.

Twist of the fucking century here.

-You know... the character who set off the events of the series? The character who was murdered in book 1 and bound October to a geas forcing her to find the culprit or die? Evening fucking Winterrose?

-There were hints, most very subtle unlike the other big twists, but probably the biggest one is SHE NEVER SHOWS UP AS A NIGHT HAUNT. And they're in the story quite a bit, and they ALWAYS feature killed off characters. Except Evening.

-My favorite hints were the ones just piled in book 1. Comments like "no one knows who Evening really is" said with zero self awareness. Because we are actually about to find out who she is... 7 goddamn books later.

-dead meme but "surprise, bitch. Bet you thought you saw the last of me."

-God she's so awful lol

-Toby thinking Quentin died then calling him THE SON SHE NEVER HAD is a BIG OOF right to the HEART. ;-;

-The book also points out that The Luidaeg through the series has ALWAYS referred to Evening in present tense. Even though she "died" in book 1.

-The Luidaeg ALSO never refers to her as Evening. It's always "The Winterrose". You know, a title. Which we have heavily emphasized is something the Firstborn use in place of their true names.

*jazz hands* Surprise!

-We also (finally) have a canon explanation for the... rather remarkable coincidence that Quentin, the fucking Crown Prince (from TORONTO), is in San Francisco at all. It was always weird he got sent to Shadowed Hills, and it's been commented on multiple times... Evening arranged it, of course! For reasons we don't quite know. But as the Daoine Sidhe Firstborn, her descendants couldn't exactly say no. Even though they didn't know who she really was.

-We really are falling all over Firstborn in this series? It sure is.. an odd coincidence, huh?

We got:

The Luidaeg: Roane/Selkie

Amandine: Dochas Sidhe

Acacia: Blodynbryd

Evening: Daoine Sidhe

Blind Michael: ... uh actually I don't think we ever learn what race he's Firstborn of. All his "children" are kidnapping victims forcibly twisted into monsters. Well, except for Luna, but we only know the Blodynbryd side.

But it's weird that for being so rare that we've run into 5 of them in 8 books. There's gotta be a reason for it.. but what?

-Luna starts the series as Toby's Surrogate Mom and is now just straight up an enemy huh

-I made this observation in my book 1 notes, but I find it very interesting that all of Toby's initial friends and allies... aren't by this point. Whereas her current allies are either former enemies or people she initially disliked or distrusted.

Starter allies: Sylvester? Was lying to her the whole time. Luna? Pretty much tried to sacrifice her (+above). Evening? Uhh this whole damn book. Devin? Tried to kill her for personal gain. Lily/Connor? Both killed off for real.

Current allies: Tybalt? Literal former enemy turned lover. Quentin? Kind of a snotty, vaguely racist kid she whips into shape. The Luidaeg? Extremely powerful witch who Toby assumes is True Neutral and wouldn't hesitate to kill her. May? Literal personal walking death omen.

It's just a cool reversal. There's so much really excellent character development in this series and I love it.

-Simon still is a pretty major bastard but.. less outright mustache twirling evil than we were led to believe up to this book. You learn his Backstory and while it really doesn't justify his actions it does...explain them.

-Blink and you miss it Lore: August is missing because she entered a contract with the Luidaeg. She's holding the candle from book 3 :)))

I'm starting to realize I stan The Luidaeg so hard I just have to take a picture every time she shows up and does stuff lmfao. (Best character).

-But... nothing like your inconceivably ancient and powerful aunt suddenly owing you a life debt, I guess???

-Toby. You know, just an ordinary weak changeling who has somehow managed to KILL A FIRSTBORN and RAISE THE DEAD. yikes.

I'm just putting this here cause it's funny as shit. Tybalt really is just... a cat

This book: I heard you like distressing Luidaeg lore??

Me: oh thanks I don't need to feel things

-God Evening is awful. Like, if you didn't know that already, see above.

-It says something about The Luidaeg that despite all that shit their Firstborn did to her she ends up becoming such good friends with Quentin, a Daoine Sidhe?

-BIG LORE with The Luidaeg talking to Maeve??? And Maeve "responding" kind of? This series damn well better explore what the fuck happened to those three it's been built up all series

-Omg the showdown with Evening and The Luidaeg. And Toby managing to break free and realize she deserves so much more than Evening-- all without magic. And Simon showing up for a last minute redemption trying to hit Evening with elf shot? I mean he gets shot in the process, but...

-We now have like, 3 or 4 characters just... asleep indefinitely thanks to elf shot. that's gonna be a Thing isnt it. Rayseline, Evening, Simon, Arden's brother...

WE DID IT BOYS

-This is the last full one I've already read. Most of my reactions in 9-12 are gonna be new. So.

[iamtrappedinsideasnowglobe]

How would you describe hamlet's plot to an absolute fool (me) unacquainted with the story?

Hooooo boy I will now open the floodgates. So. Basically. I would watch the Hamlet movie w David Tennant because he's an a m a z i n g Hamlet and it's pretty much just the play in movie form. BUT. The general plot:So like Denmark was in a war w Norway I believe? But like. That's just occurring in the background. This boy Fortinbras is basically in the same situation as Hamlet but in Norway, and he comes out far better. You'll see. Anyway.These guards are like "yo we keep seeing the ghost of the dead king Hamlet" and Horatio is like "My lord! We keep seeing your dead dad." And Hamlet is like "oh worm, Horatio? Let me see."And uhhh Hamlet's dad has barely been tossed into the ground when King Hamlet's Brother, Claudius, marries King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude. And Hamlet is wearing black and Gertrude is like "Ham can u wear some color" and he's like "God mom it's not a phase, u incestuous slut" :/But anyway Hamlet and Horatio and some other guy I think go to see the ghost and Hamlet sees the ghost and the ghost of King Hamlet is like "CLAUDIUS MURDERED ME, GO KILL HIM" and Hamlet's like "Dad! You're back from the grave!" And Horatio tumbles in and Hamlet's like "Hey Horatio I'm gonna fake being insane for a while! I'm gonna kill Claudius! Don't tell anyone!" And the ghost is like "SWEAR. SWEAR. SWEAR!!!" And they're all like "we swear we swear!" And the ghost peaces out.So then there's Polonius and his 2 kids Laertes and Ophelia. And Polonius talks 2 much and has Laertes followed, and he's basically Big Annoying. And Laertes peaces out for a while and Ophelia is all "I think Hamlet's in love with me! 😍" This is important to know, I promise.So Hamlet begins to act crazy around his uncle/dad Claudius and mom Gertrude and they're like "you OK son??" And he's like "2 b or not 2 b, I want 2 die" and Hamlet sees Ophelia and is like "Let me get one last good look at you..... OK yeah time to go full ape shit" and Ophelia is like "something is wrong with Hamlet!!" And everyone is like "haha it's just dumb love yeH"So Claudius brings Rosencrantz and Guildenstern over to try to see what's up with Hamlet and Hamlet's like "My childhood best friends! Btw, don't try to get info out of me" and he kind of tips them off that he's got something else going on.Then, a random troupe of actors strolls up and Hamlet has them do a sad monologue that is symbolic of things in his life and what he wants and Polonius is there and is like "enough of this!" And Hamlet's like "Shut up Polonius, we all know you only like things that are risqué, let me enjoy this." And then Hamlet is like "WOW you guys act good! If I wrote a play, could you perform it?" And they're like "yea"So Hamlet basically tells them to reenact King Hamlet's death, aka, the King's brother poisons the king and marries the King's wife. He wants to know if Claudius is actually guilty. Even tho the literal ghost of his father came back from his grave to tell him. Wwhatevver.So the day of the play comes and Hamlet is being mean and making all kinds of innuendos at Ophelia and she's like "??? BOY what's wrong with you???" But the play begins and Claudius gets Big Mad and leaves and Hamlet is like HA YES I KNEW IT. YOU DID KILL MY FATHER. But quietly and in his head.So Hamlet and Horatio are dicking around in the aftermath of the play, and Rosie/Guild tell him his mom wants 2 see him. And he's like. "No. Go away. I'll see her in a minute." But he eventually does go.And he sees Claudius praying. And he's like "Time to kill Claudius!" But then he's like "Oh wait, if you kill someone who's praying then they'll go to Heaven. No. I'll wait." So he goes to see his mom.And his mom and him have a tense, weird conversation and he kind of tells her to get the hell outta her relationship with Claudius. And he sees the ghost of his father again, or thinks he does, (because, in the beginning of the play, anyone could see the ghost, and now only he can 'see' it). And he goes full ape shit wild. And he HEARS SOMEONE IN THE ROOM SHOUTING FOR HELP (to subdue Hamlet, who has gone quite mad). So he assumes it's Claudius. And shoots it. NOPE, it was Polonius, he just killed Polonius. So he's like "o dear" and takes the body and leaves. And Gertrude is like what. The. Fuck.So Hamlet hides Polonius's body and no one can find it. And Claudius is like "This is the LAST STRAW! Go away with Rosie and Guild." And so off he goes.WHAT HE DOESN'T KNOW. Is that that was a trap. Rosie and Guild are unwittingly leading him to die. But they die, and Hamlet ends up captured by pirates, who bring him back home.While this has been occurring, Ophelia has slowly been going more and more crazy. She sings nonsense songs, she strips and runs around, she gives people random flowers she's picked while crying, it's bad. And one day Gertrude is like "Umm? So I just saw Ophelia fall into the river and she just looked so out of it that she actually literally drowned. She might have killed herself?? But it kind of looked like she just had no idea what was going on." So Ophelia is dead, so it goes.And Hamlet and Horatio roll back into Denmark, no one is expecting them or even really knows they're alive. And they roll in through a cemetery, and they meet a grave digger. And the grave digger is uhh digging a grave. He just yanks the bones out the ground and tosses them to the side. And Hamlet asks him whose grave it is, and the grave digger just keeps making jokes about death and not telling him. And Hamlet finds a skull and is like "Yooo, Horatio, I think this was my boy Yorick??? He was a cool dood who let me ride on his back and stuff when I was a kid. Can't believe he's dead???? His skull is just here, now????????" And he's depressed, as usual.THEN THE FUNERAL BEGINS and Hamlet sees them coming and hides and suddenly realizes THEY'RE BURYING OPHELIA (but not in the churchyard, because she potentially killed her self). And he gets big crazy and babbles and Laertes gets Big Mad at him.This is getting too long I really better rap this summary up.....Uhhh Hamlet goes back home and Claudius gets Laertes to side with him and kill Hamlet (cause Hamlet 'killed' Ophelia.) So Laertes challenges Ham to a duel (but he secretly has a poisoned weapon). Claudius says the winner gets a pearl, which he drops in a drink. Hamlet and Laertes duel. Hamlet gets cut with the poison sword, Laertes gets cut with the poison sword, Gertrude says 'I do what I want' and (knowingly?) drinks the poisonous pearl in the cup and dies, Claudius gets cut with the poison sword, basically everyone drops like flies here.And Hamlet is there, dying, and Horatio is there cradling him, tears in his eyes, and is like "Maybe there's poison enough left for me..." but Hamlet is like "No dear, sweet Horatio, don't. You have to live. If nothing else, then to tell my story. Please."And Horatio is like sobbing, "Goodnight sweet prince/may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest"AND FORTINBRAS STROLLS IN LIKE "hey I'm here to take Denmark! I worked out all my problems!" And just sees the entire royal family dead. And the rest is silence.

[hhemeraa-a]

Rules: Answer the questions you’re given, write 11 of your own and tag 11 people.

(1.) Is there anything you dislike about the character(s) you play? OC or otherwise?  How difficult he can be. He doesn’t make plotting or interactions easy for anyone and it’s hard to be spontaneous with him unless he’s under some influence. It gets bothersome at times when you see muses you as the mun like, but know your OC would never have anything to do with them. 

(2.) How many languages can you speak?  I can only speak English. I took over 2 years of Mandarin but still couldn’t properly speak it, though I can read it pretty decently. Same with Japanese - took 4 years but at most can just read it. I understand a lot of Spanish and some Korean. I took Arabic in high school, but I suck at it. Only know like 3 words now. 

(3.) Where did you first go on vacation?  I remember as a child when my parents were still together, we went on a road trip from Chicago all the way to Disneyland in California. We went through Colorado, I got to hand feed a giraffe, I fell on a cactus, I cried about not being able to go on the monorail, had my first BBQ sauce pizza (which I hated) -- I think that was my first vacation. 

(4.) Do you have any potentially-unpopular opinions about your character or the fandom that they’re involved in?  Since Myles started off as a Starfighter OC, I guess you’re asking me if I have any unpopular opinions on Starfighter? Do you have 8 hours?  I understand that Starfighter is/was supposed to be a smut comic and was actually supposed to stop after “chapter 1″ but got so popular that the author decided to continue writing it. I understand that a majority of the plot is based around two dudes fuckin’ and I understand that expecting or asking for more than that is silly.

BUT THERE IS SO MUCH POTENTIAL JUST WASTED. THE WHOLE REASON I EVEN FUCKIN JOINED THAT FANDOM WAS BECAUSE I THOUGHT I COULD DO IT BETTER AND YOU KNOW WHAT?  I fucking did. Hamlet gives such a great basis and outline for amazing world building that just ends up falling flat because the story is focused on well detailed dick draws (which are great btw, I won’t slight her for that). The concept of the last surviving humans fighting against an alien collective using their own tech against them just gets my dick hard, but all of that is sort of thrown to way side and lost under “who emotionally betrayed who” and “I love you now even if I didn’t at the beginning” nonsense. You can still have a great romance story OR EVEN PWP?? But establish it in a world that makes fucking sense. There are all of these aspects that we’ll never get answers on that she’s just thrown into the story as a vehicle to get to the next sex scene and it just rustles my fucking jimmies. 

I had to stop writing in the fandom because I honestly am incapable of writing with the new people who come in -- nothing against them and their writing abilities, I’m sure they’re great, but everyone always comes in like “I’m looking for an Abel for my Cain” or vice versa, or just some smutty locker room pwp and weird Commander Daddy Doms -- just things I’ve read over and over and over again that have just become absolutely bland. 

DID YOU KNOW??? There are whole constellations?? of crystals floating through space? Shattered diamonds and acidic clouds?? Did you know?? that there are 3 different theorized ways to bend space and time to create warp drives? Could you imagine being the final ship BSG style trying to float your way to what essentially might be your grave in space avoiding stars that are literally eating each other so that you can fight an alien race that has destroyed not only one, but many of your species homelands??? 

BUT WAIT, LEMMIE GET A DICK IN THIS SPACE CRAFT FOR A MINUTE AND WE CAN BICKER ABOUT HOW U LOOK LIKE MY EX.KJDHGJKGHKDJGHS IT JUST MAKES ME SO MAD. DONT GET ME STARTED, I FEEL VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT SPACE.

(5.) How many kids would you like in the future? 0 is also an acceptable answer!  z e r o -- I can barely take care of myself, how am I supposed to take care of another life??

(6.) Have you ever broken down into tears because of writing a roleplay scene?  No, idk, I don’t get that emotional about things? Last time I cried was because I was on drugs after my surgery and there was no ice for my tea. 

(7.) Where did you first get started roleplaying?  Gaiaonline.com sgjkdhskgjs  I still have my account. 

(8.) Quick! Make a list. FIVE FILMS TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE.  That I haven’t seen already??? uhhhh UHHHHHH 1. Schindler’s List 2. Breakfast At Tiffany’s  3. Shape of Water  4. Hurt Locker 5. 13 Assassins 

(9.) If we had to ask your friends to explain you in five words or less, how do you think that they’d describe you?  avoidant, funny, no-shit taking, emotionally strong, positive ((I guess????))

(10.) What is one of your life mottos that helps you get through each and every day?  “No regrets.” “No excuses, nobody cares.” “But will it kill you?”

(11.) Do you feel comfortable writing NSFW themes? Hahahahaha WELL.  Yes - I’m comfortable with plotting out the nasty nast, but when it comes to actually writing it? It takes me forever because I get really really really embarrassed. I once talked to Lex about lube and it was just me screaming uncomfortably for about 15 minutes, but ask me about nasty fuckin and I gotchu. 

Rules: Answer the questions you’re given, write 11 of your own and tag 11 people.

(1.) Hardest thread/plot you’ve ever done and why? Did you complete it? (2.) A song that triggers a memory and what happened (3.) Favorite subject in school (4.) Do you have any potentially-unpopular opinions about your character or the fandom that they’re involved in? (5.) Would you chose to be immortal? (6.) Have you ever considered veganism / vegetarianism? Why or why not?  (7.) Who/What was your first OC? Describe them. (8.) Be honest... how honest are you with your friends? Your family? (9.) What would be your superpower and would you use it for good? (10.) What did you do before Tumblr? (11.) Guilty pleasure food

Tagged by: @celestialspitfire Tagging: @banditborn / @corpusdxlicti / @sonderrow / @portalipsis / @viclate / @vicariousphotographer / @dcsidcrium / @paxeuropaea / @catastrophicur / @sokrovennyi / @inionnaforaoise / @sukkubxs / @evildcers / @fluffmiester / @flieuthi / @moonsought / STEAL IT AND TAG ME

[hiddlescheekbones]

Thor: Ragnarok - a first impression

Ragnarok is funny, colourful, cheerful, different. It’s the best Thor movie to date, no doubt about it. Is it perfect? Well no, but no superhero movie will ever be for various reasons. I had fun, laughed through the whole thing. I loved Loki, he was so in character, so mischievous, so... Loki. No flaws there. The plot was actually well conceived and interesting, and advanced the MCU story (unlike the previous two movies, which were rather inconsequential). That being said there were three moments that annoyed the living crap out of me and why I consider this movie not perfect. More under the tag. 

BEWARE, SPOILERS AHEAD! Read at your own risk.

It’s a comedy. That’s its main selling point. Don’t go into it thinking you’ll get Marvel drama (as my company did and got let down) because you won’t. Serious moments will always be turned into comedy. Funniest character: Korg. Taika is brilliant in his comedy and he puts everything into it.

However, there is one moment at the beginning I thought I was going to cry and without getting into detail, that was because Loki was heartbroken and I can’t stand seeing him tear up.

The beginning is also one of the movie’s problem. And a big one, in my opinion. The pacing is so fast, if you’re not a hardcore fan you’ll have trouble keeping up. In the first 15 minutes we do Surtur’s planet, Asgard, New York, Norway, Sakaar, and Asgard. Try to catch your breath. I was selfishly disappointed we didn’t get a full scene with Loki and Doctor Strange. To be honest, I don’t even think Tom and Ben were in the same place when that was shot, but I could be wrong.

Second thing that annoyed me, Hela gets to Asgard and immediately kills three of the main characters from the other movies. It was so fast, I’m pretty sure half the room didn’t even remember who they were. RIP Warriors Three. Also where was Sif? Was I supposed to get it with that Hamlet styled play at the beginning? Also, Matt Damon as Loki lmao. That was a good scene I have to be honest. I laughed so much.

From then on the movie slows down, and it’s when at is best. All the Sakaar scenes were pretty funny. A talking Hulk, a drunk Valkyrie, a cocky Thor, a selfish Loki, and a lunatic Grandmaster (btw, Jeff Goldblum is so creepy and brilliant). Small reference to the story told by Thor from when him and Loki were kids. Brilliant. I laughed my ass off and Loki’s reaction is incredible.

About Hela, plot twist about how they are all related. I suspected something but I didn’t think they were going to play that card (will keep the spoiler safe for now). Unfortunately, for me, she doesn’t beat Loki as the best MCU villain, because she’s very isolated and not relatable. There’s no humanity in her which is what makes Loki so good. However, Cate Blanchett is brilliant, all her scenes are spot on. I’m just sorry they didn’t explore her arc more.

Of course, our heroes save the day (including Loki), but not before the main event of the movie (will keep that spoiler safe for now too) and Thor loses an eye... Or does he? Because of all those three points that annoyed the worst of all is how bad his makeup was. I COULD SEE HIS EYE CLOSED UNDER THE MAKEUP! How did this even get through post-production?? It was really distracting. All the scene were well lit so you could see his eye. I don’t really understand how that happened given that there were so many special effects.

Speaking of, Marvel you sneaky sons of bitches, a lot of the trailers were altered to not give anything away. And I’m not just talking about scenes missing in the movie and lines placed out of context. I’m talking about scenes like this

that don’t happen like this. Hulk is NOT in this scene, he was placed there for the trailer alone. Thor doesn’t have both eyes when he goes full Thor at the end. The Revengers do not include Loki, etc. All this doesn’t bother me a bit, I actually like how they play us. Good move, Marvel. Bold, even for you.

I know I threw a lot of negativity down this post, but I had high expectations for this movie. And I was NOT let down. Of course as any superhero movie it plays with a lot of exposition and convenience but I’ve learned to look past that.

To cheer everything up here are some of its strong moments:

Great cinematography. I’m a lover of colours, and the palette for this one brings happiness to my heart.

Nice soundtrack, in the scene with Pure Imagination I was crying with joy

Loki looked really beautiful?? And I loved his balance between light and dark as Tom calls it. I went from “Fuck this little shit” to “That’s my boy!” and vice versa multiple times. And *wink wink* remember when he goes past the Tesseract . He’s the god of mischief but he can be so much more. 

Innuendos. The movie was PG-13 but the subtext was hilarious.

Valkyrie. That’s it. I loved her.

No romantic subplot. Thank goodness.

Moments of improv that made some scenes feel very real. Genuine reactions.

I think I’m going to watch it again but in IMAX. I probably missed a lot of details and I’m not remembering half the things I wanted to say.

tl, dr: A movie doesn’t have to be perfect for you to love it. And I loved Thor: Ragnarok.

[verdiprati]

Hi there! (I love this blog btw, God bless) I'm not an opera expert, hence the anon, but a theatre buff who would very much like to hear your thoughts on Brett Dean's Hamlet if you feel like it ...

Greetings, Anon! Thank you for the compliment on my blog, and thanks for sending me a question! I like to chat and discuss stuff.

I’m not sure if you’ve seen Brett Dean’s Hamlet or not so I am not sure how much context I need to give for my remarks. I will take a stab at this, though.

The first thing I’d observe about Dean’s Hamlet is that it assumes its audience is already very familiar with the play. I think it’s watchable even if you do not know the play well, but sort of like Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, it is aimed at people who have probably read the play in school and seen multiple stage performances and/or movie adaptations of it, and who may be able to quote some of the more famous lines from memory. Hamlet is one of the most performed and most adapted pieces of theater in the world; Brett Dean and the librettist Matthew Jocelyn are well aware of that, and do not respond by trying to make the ultimate, most perfect adaptation, but rather by making something new yet recognizable, with plenty of in-jokes. 

As you may know, they sort of put the text(s) through a blender. Many famous lines and familiar characters were completely cut out; other lines were re-ordered and re-assigned. A chorus, nonexistent in the Shakespeare play, was added; as well as making up the court of Elsinore, it functions like a classic Greek chorus, commenting on and amplifying the action, and also like an extension of the orchestra, sometimes adding eerie vocal effects to the overall tapestry of sound in the auditorium. The roles of Horatio and Marcellus are greatly reduced in the Dean/Jocelyn Hamlet while the presence of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is increased in proportion to (what is left of) the rest of the play.

Probably my favorite thing about the Dean/Jocelyn adaptation of Hamlet is the fact that they deliberately selected bits and pieces of language from all three of the textual witnesses, including the so-called “bad quarto.” To back up and explain a little bit (with apologies if you know this stuff already): there is no one text of Hamlet. As with all the rest of Shakespeare’s plays, we have no manuscript in Shakespeare’s hand. What we have are various early printed editions of Shakespeare’s plays that could plausibly, in one way or another, have derived from a manuscript (or multiple manuscripts!) written by Shakespeare. In the case of Hamlet, there’s the 1603 quarto edition (Q1), the 1604 quarto (Q2), and the version included in the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (F1). The texts of Q2 and F1 are largely similar to each other and most modern editions of Hamlet are based on a melding of them, but Q1 is substantially shorter than the other two texts, a couple of the characters have different names, and some of the speeches are chopped up in ways that seem clearly erroneous (Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech is notoriously muddled in Q1). Thus Q1 has come to be known as a “bad quarto” and has traditionally been disparaged and discarded by editors trying to piece together an authoritatively Shakespearean version of Hamlet. 

There are various theories of how Q1 came to be so “bad.” I did my undergraduate thesis on the so-called “bad quarto” of Romeo and Juliet, so I spent a few months reading as much scholarship on the “bad quartos” as I could get my hands on. Some of the “bad quarto” theories are kind of crackpot. The generally-accepted explanation for how these texts came into existence, though, is piracy by memorial reconstruction: the idea is that a couple of actors in Shakespeare’s company would go to a printer and recite as much of the play as they could from memory. They would report their own parts pretty reliably, and they would have fair-to-good recall of other actors’ lines from the scenes they were in, but their recall would degrade for scenes where they were offstage. Moreover, cuts and other changes to the text might have been made in the theater in the process of bringing the play to the stage; these would be reflected in the “bad quarto” but not in other versions of the text deriving more directly from a manuscript penned by Shakespeare. On the plus side, the actors would sometimes supply stage directions in the “bad quartos” that were never specified in other textual witnesses, giving us some valuable clues about the action Shakespeare’s original audiences might actually have seen on the stage.

In recent years, there’s been some interest in reviving the so-called “bad quartos” as performance texts, with an eye towards accessing more “theatrical” versions of Shakespeare’s plays: my interest in the “bad quartos” was first hooked when I met a scholar of early modern performance studies who was directing a “bad quarto” performance of Romeo and Juliet at Oxford in the late ′90s. After finishing my Romeo and Juliet undergrad thesis, I headed off to a graduate program known for its strengths in textual studies, intending to continue in this academic vein. I actually ended up changing fields for my dissertation but I took enough graduate coursework in bibliography, textual criticism, and scholarly editing to achieve geekgasm when Dean and Jocelyn had characters alternately singing “solid” and “sullied”—a reference to a notorious editorial crux in Hamlet, one of the most famous scholarly editing problems of all time. (Here is just one person’s take on the matter.) I really enjoyed the fact that they not only used bits and pieces of Hamlet Q1 on an equal footing with pieces of Q2 and F1 but also took the spirit of a “theatrical” reading of the bad quartos as justification for their adaptation: in cutting and reordering the Hamlet scripts and reassigning many words to other characters, they were not doing anything that Shakespeare’s own company of actors didn’t do. (They did a lot more of it, though!)

Witty and intriguing little turns in the Dean/Jocelyn adaptation flew by too quickly for me to remember them all, but I remember having the impression that their version of Hamlet did a number of things to foreground the theatrical themes of the play. For instance, the whole episode of Hamlet’s trip to England was cut, but the play-within-a-play received lavish attention. (Amber Treadway composed an excellent tweet on “the most meta players scene ever.”) One tiny detail that I especially liked: Hamlet’s line “Do not saw the air too much with your hand,” from his instructions to the players, was relocated to the final duel, where it became a taunt from Hamlet to Laertes, calling attention to the aesthetic aspect of Laertes’ performance as a fencer.

By reducing the cast of soloists, minimizing some of the secondary roles, and completely cutting out all references to the Norwegian threat to the Danish state, Dean and Jocelyn shaped their version of Hamlet into a drama of two interlinked families. Hamlet, the Ghost, Claudius, and Gertrude make up one of the families; Polonius, Laertes, and Ophelia make up the other; and the two are linked by Hamlet and Ophelia’s broken romance. This adaptation foregrounds Gertrude’s tenderness towards Ophelia and Laertes; up until Hamlet gave them reasons to hate him, after all, Gertrude was planning and assuming that she would soon welcome them as new relatives by marriage. Throughout the Glyndebourne staging directed by Neil Armfield, Gertrude can frequently be seen literally reaching out to other characters, touching and caressing them; she is, in this version, a dedicated peacemaker, striving—up until the moment of her own poisoning, when she realizes that her husband intends to kill her son—to hold the court together.

Another interesting presence in this version was the triply-cast role of the ghost of old Hamlet, the first player, and the gravedigger, played memorably by Sir John Tomlinson for the premiere production. I liked the fact that the opera made use of role doubling, a longstanding theatrical practice that is believed to have been used by Shakespeare’s acting company. Besides being one of the elements that made the opera feel very “theatrical” to me, it also allowed the ghost of Hamlet’s father to sort of implicitly or symbolically stick around as an ally to Hamlet. The roles of the first player and the gravedigger stand outside the two-family structure I outlined above, but they fit into another structure of Dean’s Hamlet: Team Hamlet vs. Team Claudius. As Hamlet’s bonds with his immediate family and his girlfriend are rapidly eroded, he turns to figures like Horatio, Marcellus, the players, and the gravedigger for trustworthy information and companionship. As I already mentioned, the roles of Horatio and Marcellus are minimized in this adaptation, so the roles of the first player and the gravedigger take on proportionally greater importance (even though their lines are also reduced). 

Those are my thoughts on Brett Dean’s Hamlet, or at least, as many thoughts as I can write up in an evening. Feel free to send me your thoughts too, or ask follow-up questions!

[sambart93]

2017.11.07 Makai Ouji: The Second Spirit [Review]

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4 Video Coverage 1, 2

CAST and CHARACTERS

Ishiwatari Masshu as William Twinning Ayugawa Taiyou as Dantalion Tamura Ryouta as Kevin Sakurai Keito as Sytry Saki Masato as Jill De Ray Yamanaka Kenta as Michael Matsumoto Yuuichi as Priest Crosby Endo Makoto as Bealberito Aizawa Yu as Leonard*** KEN as Bafmette Yonehara Kousuke as Kamio* Clothemble**: Umetsu Mizuki and Fukui Shouta

*For some reason on the website, YoneChan is listed as ‘Tokubetsu Shutsuen = Special Appearance’ but he was in it like a normal actor? He had a lot of scenes, he had solo scenes, he had songs to sing... I don’t understand what was ‘Special’ about his appearance... other than his character isn’t supposed to be in this part of the story? I don’t know...

**Also it’s interesting that they didn’t bring back Issac this time and instead just had the Clothemble play what would’ve been his parts.

***Unfortunately Leonard’s actor dropped out literally days before the stage started.

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: This was so much fun! I completely forgot, but totally remembered while watching this stage, why I loved the first one so much; it’s so ridiculous, you just sit there and laugh the entire time - my giggles were ridiculous this time too! So many funny and stupid and ridiculous moments. Every time Dantalion smiled, I couldn’t handle it. Yet you still end up crying at the end! The songs are not quite as on par as the first stage but it’s still a super enjoyable play. It’s so enjoyable that you completely forget that the stage is 360 degrees and you completely forget there are people all around because the stage just brings you in and your attention is completely on them. The comedy is on point, and the higawaris (daily changes) are just as ridiculous as the stage itself. I think my favourite song is yet again a William song. The use of the stage and how they worked with the 360-ness was just amazing! I love how they would turn it around at different points of the stage too so it was like everyone got a ‘front’ view at least one. The stage is small enough that every place is a good spot pretty much! And every spot is very close to the stage too! Quite a lot of us had the actors directly looking at us or their clothing hitting us etc. And I was lucky enough that I sat closest to one of the entrance/exit doors for the actors, so I was near freaking EVERYONE but by god did I feel fear at one point when Taiyou was running down the steps towards me o_O he’s a big boy! xD Keito as Sytry was just... perfection <3 Also, it’s impossible to tell where Leonar should’ve been (note above about his situation); the play is flawless that you can’t really tell where he should’ve been and where his scenes were! So kudos to the staff and cast for so swiftly being able to change out his scenes because it’s honestly impossible to tell where he was obviously supposed to be. The only unfortunate thing was the venue itself; the sound is atrocious - sometimes when they’re just talking, you can’t actually hear them - and I was sat next to, what I assume is the AC machine, this huge and loud humming and buffering machine that one when they were singing and the songs were blasting out, that you didn’t hear it. I kind of hope they do a short rerun of this stage in a different theatre in hopes for better sound quality and for better sound recording for the DVD. Rating: 8/10

Okay! now onto the spoilers, fav parts, fangirling etc!

SPOILER REVIEW

I don’t know where to start.... first, before the show even started I wrote ‘There is a door right behind me and I just heard guys laughing... PLEASE don’t come out from this way...’ and as you can tell from my review above: I was right!!!! I was so lucky the practically everyone came out beside me. And at one point, I even had Taiyou running down the steps that were TOWARDS me - which was both making me full of fear and made me super lucky and excited xD - it was so great to be so close to so many damn actors. There was NOT a bad seat in that place at all in terms of how close everyone was to the actors.

I love how the stage this time starts the same way the first one did; Bafmette coming out quietly, walking around the theatre and the coming up to the stage and bursting into song. I really like they kept that in and continued it from the first stage. In fact, they kept a lot of things in or what similar aspects from the first show which reminded me of just how much and why I loved Makai Ouji the first time around. The whole ridiculousness of it, the fun in the songs, the fact that while it’s all fun and games, they still have a super serious moment and story towards the end, lots of adlibs and having to cope with each other’s ridiculousness - I just laughed the entire time just like I did last time -, the cast itself is super amazing and most of them came back this time around which is great, it’s just such a fun musical!

This musical is just so stupid.... so many good moments to choose from! Where to start:

Oh we have to talk about YoneChan straight away. For some reason he was labelled as a ‘special appearance’ but he ends up being in it a lot and having his own solo songs etc. But I guess it was special because his character doesn’t technically do anything and Yone is pretty much left to do whatever the hell he wants, which leads me to: He is SUCH a huge troll! There’s a moment where the main characters are explaining something on stage and Yone is just literally next to the audience and having a conversation with one of the guests; another time he was just pulling face and pointing at the other characters; he winds up Jill A LOT and constantly forgets his name; then another time there’s a point where some sexy music comes on and all of a sudden it’s like he’s back in HostChan and he was puts his hands all over different audience members and trying to pull them into a hug and everything; he really was just left to do whatever the hell; he’s a huge troll and a little shite but it’s so funny to see xD

Another great moment is just every time Dantalion smiles because A. Taiyou’s smile is freaking gorgeous and lights up the world and B. so it’s so WEIRD seeing Dantalion smile! What the hell! He should not be smiling! But there’s moments like during William’s song Dantalion is how Will wants him to be so all the smiles and getting along with Sytry comes out. 

Also another ridiculous scene with Dantalion is when William finds out Sytry and Dantalion ate everything and in shame, Dantalion put the plates cover on top of his head xD

OOOH!!! Another scene with him is when he pulls a Kageyama (Haikyuu reference here) and he walks on with this crown and long red cloak like a king/prince!

Ooohhh!! ANDDD!!! Freaking Priest Crosby with the mic! The first half of this play, whenever he has a solo singing moment or anything, he became a rapper! He had a rapper hat that says GOD on it and was dropping some serious raps! It was so... surreal! What the hell >.<

Some non-comedic moments I’d like to mention:

Can we talked about how FREAKING GORGEOUS Keito is. He’s just someone who I cannot get over his beauty. He’s just so gorgeous! And he was exactly how I imagined him as Sytry to be! He was perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Kawaharada’s Sytry too! But Keito is just... the perfect match for Sytry! He was so gorgeous! I’m sad we didn’t get as much of him as we did of Kawaharada as Sytry. I was kind of hoping this stage would be Sytry’s main story but it ended up being Michael as the main plot point which makes me sad - Sytry has always been my favourite character. But damn, seeing the hate between Sytry and Dantalion really hurt my heart! And when they started having this big fight between them - oh my! I didn’t want either of them to get hurt! But yes... Keito as Sytry was just gold <3 he works with Clie a lot so hopefully he’s here for the long run!

OOOOHHH!! AND WE GET FREAKING KEITO IN A DRESS THIS TIME!!! He and Dantalion have to act in Hamlet and OF COURSE Sytry gets given the GIRL role! It was so beautiful! He was so beautiful! He looked so pretty and gorgeous! Damn you Keito! Y U SO PRITI?! Keito in a dress is something I think should be part of the law.....

Speaking of Dantalion; Taiyou is also just this beautiful beast of a man! I already spoke about how gorgeous he is when he smiles! And I super duper love him as Dantalion! He too is a perfect casting choice. I already mentioned how he came bolting towards me at one point; at the moment I was a cross between ‘oh god, please have control and don’t run right into me.. but also if you run into me and land on top of me, I’m good with that’ xD You’ve never felt fear til you see 6ft tall Taiyou running down the steps right next to you and towards you >.< 

And the scene between him and Will towards the end... you guys... Dantalion and Will are just THE Canon-OTP I will never get over. Dan and Will OTP FOREVER! Esepcially their scene towards the end when William comes back to himself and they’re getting really close to each other and talking about how they need each other by their sides and they’ll never leave their sides and it looks like they’re going to kiss when - SOMEONE OBVIOUSLY BUTTS IN AND DESTROYS THE MOMENT!

I’m actually really sad how in both this musical and the last MO musical, the lack of Dan x Will stuff really upsets me... SO much Dan x Will is in the anime and the manga but I feel like the actors and the Clie can only handle like 2 cute moments max with them... WHY?! Y U NOT GAY ENOUGH?! Especially in this one. That ONE moment right at the end is the ONLY Dan x Will we get in the second stage *cries a river* I was starting to think Dantalion didn’t CARE about William in this stage because of how little they’re together and because of how little in the gayness moments they have between them *cries*

(BTW am I even allowed to say ‘gay’ and ‘gayness’ anymore?! I’m not offending anyone right? I’m allowed to like the gay right?! I don’t get how PC the world is anymore... I don’t know what’s okay to say or not anymore... ANYWAY!)

Another actor who’s performance I really enjoyed was Yamanaka’s! Funnily enough Yamanaka Kenta IS my favourite out of the two of them (he has a twin called Shouta for those that don’t know and they both are in the stage business) so I’m not surprised I ended up liking his character so much. But what DID surprise me what the fact that he can DAMN sing! I always thought the Yamanaka twins were somewhat lacking when it came to singing (see their songs in EnStage) and weren’t the best but I guess it’s just Shouta who’s the lesser able one when it comes to singing? Because DAMN Kenta can sing! I was so surprised! AND his acting - DAMN! I absolutely loved the way he switched between being this nice top of the class student who’s polite and kind, to then being this BITCH of a angel who’s horrible to his servants and is physically abusive as well as manipulating! I absolutely love the way he treats William and he switches between the two. ALSO every time he stood on the damn table was so funny! Just so he’d be taller than the other >.< AND that one moment when he smacks his hand down hard on the table but then proceeds to talk calmly to William - oh my! 

And that damn picture of his feet is freaking everywhere, but I’m not going to torture you with that shot here; but there is a good reason why he’s barefoot a lot -- although I do like the moment where he decides to show his true colours and the first thing he does is take his shoes off and thrown them off stage xD

I also really liked the swashbuckling (shhh I know it’s really called fencing but I’m calling it swashbuckling okay!) between Will and Michael - it wasn’t just a physical battle between them but also a mental one of who could do better in the exams and stuff.

Speaking of Michael (Mikael?), I had MAJOR deja vu during a Mikael x William scene that takes place right after the Butler Yagi’s song. It was totally freaking me out majorly because I was like ‘I’ve already seen this! I know what’s happened. I know this happens! Please stop...please!!’ it went on for pretty much that entire scene and I have no idea why....

The replacement for Kevin was really good too! Unfortunately I did like the previous Kevin so I have some there BUT the new Kevin (Tamura Ryouta) was a damn good singer too!

Dantalion and Sytry got SO beaten up towards the end - it hurt my heart! And the infamous ‘why doesn’t Solomon remember Dantalion?!’ scene was in there which is great (and heartbreaking!). I really liked when Dan and Sytry were going against each other, Sytry’s song is very rocky-ish and his voice is very strained and deep and strangely enough I really enjoyed it - you could feel Sytry’s pain in the song! Not that that’s a good thing - poor Sytry!

Also, the actor for Leonard dropped out due to poor health just before the show started, however, whatever scenes he was supposed to be in, it’s pretty impossible to figure out where because they covered it up flawlessly. I can only think of one moment where it’s sort of obvious where he was supposed to be and that was during the Butler Yagi’s long solo song in the middle of the show; as well as the Sytry’s bulter vs Dantalion’s butler when it comes to cooking scene because the Butler Yagi is on stage at that moment on Dantalion’s side of the stage (am I making sense?). But other than that, they’ve made it look like it was planned and made without the guy from the start which is huge kudos to them.

The clothemble were great! They had so much to do. Same as the last musical, they had to be the magic (sheets xD) when the character fought, and they had to rotate the stage or spin it around; also this time they ended up splitting Isaac’s character between them and played like generic school students but with parts of Isaac’s lines and stuff put in. They had a lot to do and were constantly up and down the stairs and running in and out. They did a brilliant job and there were only two of them! Huge kudos to them too!

By the way: No one warned me to take tissues!!! I streamed!!! That final scene between Dantalion and William! Oh my! I was crying so hard! This play is so much that when the serious parts come in, they are REAL serious and real dark and it just hits you and the tears just pour out...

CURTAIN CALL!

The show I went to had three curtain calls! So we had the first curtain call, then in the second one the clothemble were the speakers for today and they gave their speeches while back-to-back and rotating around so they could face all the audience at one point. They started off by ‘usually it’s jsut one person speaking and they’re normally worried as to where to look but there’s two of us so we can turn around and talk to all of you!’ which was adorable! They were really sweet. The final curtain call, Masshu said thank you to us all and then we ALL got waves from ALL the actors at the end as they left the stage for good! And with everyone being in obvious site of everyone else, you knew the actors were ACTUALLY looking at you when they waved. Oh my heart <3 Yone... Taiyou... Keito.... ARGH I was dead xD

*

GOODS

I’m still on a mission to get the two Sytry randoms - KBooks is probs my best bet... is Keito popular enough to be a ridiculous price though... knowing me; yes.

My goods from the 2.5 Exhibition are here too xD And I accidentally cut Sytry off .<

*

And that’s all!

Unfortunately I was sick recently (the week of Nov 13th) so while these reviews were technically written pretty soon after the shows were seen, I didn’t get time to post them until now -- I’m sorry!

[mariedtofiction]

50 bookish questions tag

Thank you @thevajunglebook​ for tagging me! (I’m always up for being tagged in anything btw)

1. What is your favourite book and/or book series of all time? 

It’s maybe a boring answer but it simply can’t be anything other than the Harry Potter series

 2. What is the longest book you have ever read? How many pages?

 According to Goodreads it's Winter by Marissa Meyer at 827 pages 

3. What is the oldest book you have ever read? (Based on its written date)

I read parts of the Iliad for class, but the oldest book I’ve read in its entirety is probably Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing

4. What is a book series that everyone else loves but you do not? 

I wish I’d read The Mortal Instruments when I was younger where I would have probably loved them. But I read them last year and though they were entertaining enough they’re not worth the hype in my opinion 

5. What book or book series would you like to see turned into a film/ TV series? 

The Shades of Magic Trilogy! I just want all the Lila and Alucard scenes tbh 

6. What is your favourite stand-alone book? 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I reread it at least once every year

7. What is a book that you feel glad for not reading? 

I’m proud of myself for DNF-ing Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I was 200 pages into it and thought it was kind of stupid and kind of sexist.. 

8. What is a book that you feel guilty for not reading? 

The final book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, Dreams of God’s and Monsters. I really should have read it last year when I finished the second book, but for some reason I didn’t and now I need to reread the previous books

9. What is a book you have read that is set in your country of birth? 

Hamlet by Shakespeare 

10. What is a book that you own more than one copy of? 

I own four copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone...

11. What horror book made you really scared?

I don't like horror oops 

12. What book do you passionately hate? 

Shadowland by Alyson Noel. I’m embarrassed by how long it took me to realize how bad the Immortals series is, but they were my first books in English and I was just high off the fact that I understood what I was reading

13. What is the biggest book series you have read? How many books are in it? 

I loved everything Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen when I was little so I own a lot of the books inspired by their movies and TV-shows. I owned and have read the first 32 books of the Two of a Kind Diaries

14. What book gives you happy memories? 

The first book in Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series is so precious to me. Again it’s a series I read when I was younger, but I reread them last year and I still absolutely adore them even if it’s mostly because of the nostalgia. 

It was the first book where I felt more connected to a character than to my real life friends. I wanted Mia Thermopolis to jump off the page and be my friend 

15. What book made you cry? 

I’m not really a book/movie crier... The only book I can think of where actual tears left my eyes is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the part where SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS Harry walks towards the forrest to die 

16. What book made you laugh? 

A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Banard made me laugh mostly because it was so incredibly cute! It’s so sweet and meaningful at the same time, it’s possibly my favorite read of 2017

17. What is your favourite book that contains an LGBTQ+ character? 

We are Okay by Nina Lacour is amaaazing! I love it

18. Have you read a book with a male protagonist? What is it? 

Ha! Yeah I have. History is All you Left Me by Adam Silvera is one of them

19. Have you read a book set on another planet? What is it? 

The Martian by Andy Weir is one of my all times favorites I recommend it to everyone! 

20. Have you ever been glad to not finish a series? Which? 

All of the Percy Jackson spin offs. I started the first book of the Heroes of Olympus series and promised myself to never pick it up again. It wasn't Bad and I liked the original Percy Jackson, but I don't need any more Rick Riordan in my life

21. Have you ever read a book series because you were pressured?

I'm ashamed to admit I'm more likely to be the one pressuring others when it comes to books. But there was this fantasy-series when I was maybe 8 yo that my teacher forced the class to read and I absolutely hated it (it had more male characters than Dead Poet's Society)

22. What famous author have you not read any books by? 

Brandon Sanderson but I plan to fix that

23. Who is your favourite author of all time? 

Rainbow Rowell 

24. How many bookshelves do you own? 

7 but most of them only hold like 10-15 books

25. How many books do you own?

Around 200 I think 

26. What is your favourite non-fiction book? 

I think it’s Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Rhonda Vilcox

 27. What is your favourite children’s/middle-grade book? 

I don’t really read middle-grade anymore, but back when I did The Shamer Chronicles by Lene Kaaberbøl were my absolute favorites. They’re translated into English and if you enjoy great characters and dragons I highly, highly recommend them! Here’s a little link

28. What is your next book on your TBR? 

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson has been calling my name lately or maybe The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

29. What book are you currently reading? 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the audiobook read by Stephen Fry 

30. What book are you planning on buying next? 

I own way too many books I haven’t read yet so I’ve set myself a goal for the summer: I can only buy five books in total from June-September. The books I’m itching to buy right now are:

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Eliza and her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

(However I’m going to a yard sale tomorrow and there’s no way I’m not bringing back a book or ten...)

31. What was the cheapest book you bought? 

My copy of City of Thieves was just 1$

32. What was the most expensive book you bought? 

It’s either the Hamiltome (Hamilton: The Revolution) or the illustrated Harry Potter books 1 and 2 

33. What is a book you read after seeing the movie/ TV series? 

Matilda by Roald Dahl

I first watched the movie and thought it was way too revenge driven. But maybe the original story would be better so I bought the book, but ended up seeing the musical before reading it. The music was great and the show had its moments, but I’m sorry to say I didn’t really like it that much. Finally I read the book. And though it was better than the movie I still didn’t really like it.  

34. What is the newest book you have bought? 

The Hufflepuff version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

35. What three books are you most looking forward to reading this year? 

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake!!

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

and I’m finally going to get around to reading Radio Silence by Alice Oseman (I know I’ll love it)

 36. What is a book you love that has a terrible trope? (Love triangle, etc) 

The Raven Boys series. There are several tropes to point out, but I think the forbidden-lovers-trope is super terrible. But I still really like the 2/4 of the books that I’ve read!

37. Have you read a book in a different language? What was it? 

I read almost all of my books in a language that isn’t my native one. I’ve read books/novella in English, Danish, Swedish, and German 

 38. What is a book you’ve read that is set in a time period before you were born? 

Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars

 39. What book offended you? 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

 40. What is the weirdest book you have read? 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and I really didn’t like it

 41. What is your favourite duology? 

I wouldn’t exactly call it a favorite, but I haven’t really read that many duologeis, so I’m going to say The Wrath and the Dawn 

 42. What is your favourite trilogy? 

Captive Prince or The Hunger Games!

 43. What book did you buy because of its cover?

Rebel of the Sands was a pure cover-buy. It’s not something I do all that often although I will search and search for the prettiest cover of a book if I like the summary

44. What is a book that you love, but has a terrible cover? 

I hate the design of my copy of Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

 45. Do you own a poetry anthology? What is your favourite poem from it? 

Poetry is kind of a hit and miss for me but I do own two anthologies. I loved the one I’ve read which was the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace. My favorite poem from it is this one 

 46. Do you own any colouring books based off other books? 

I was gifted a Harry Potter one and it’s too pretty I can’t color it in!

 47. Do you own any historical fiction?

I own The Bronze Horseman as an e-book, All the Light We Cannot See, The Book Thief, and a few others

 48. What book made you angry? 

Sophie’s World!! Grrrrrrrr.... I cannot talk about that book calmly

 49. What book has inspired you? 

I don’t 100% agree with the message of Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson but it inspired me to think about my summer in a way I previously hadn’t

 50. What book got you into reading?

We start and end with Harry Potter. The first time Harry helped me was when my parents read them to me as a kid and one day I took over and read them myself. And then Harry helped me again two years ago after I hadn’t picked up a book in years

I tag @thebookgiver, @bookswithmichelle, @thoughtsfromaravenclaw and anyone else who wants to do it! 

[one-of-us-blog]

The End of Time, Part I (Doctor Who Christmas Special)

Today Jon is forced to watch and recap The End of Time, Part I, the latest Doctor Who Christmas Special and the penultimate special in this little mid-season bacchanal. The universe is being plagued by bad dreams, and the dreams all seem to center on an enemy long thought to be dead. Can the Doctor save the whole of time itself before it’s too late?

Keep reading to find out…

Eli, your “Brotherly Love” recap was just fantastic! Your recaps are getting better and better every time, I swear! I might be biased, though, because this definitely is my favorite episode and I was so thrilled that you enjoyed it! I’ve always felt that all four Girls were on point in this episode; Dorothy is at her wittiest, Blanche is at her flirtiest, Sophia is at her most dangerous and Rose is at her goofiest. All four main actresses stick all of their landings, and Ted held his own pretty well throughout the whole episode. Also, I’m a sucker for a good Hamlet reference. I can’t wait for your next recap, Chief!

Buttocks tight!

Episode directed by Euros Lyn and written by Russell T Davies

We start out with a stirring narration by Timothy Dalton. He explains that in the final days of Earth, specifically around Christmas, the entire human race was having some seriously spooky dreams. Everyone forgets about the dreams they’ve been having in order to keep on living. Everyone, that is, except for one Wilfred Mott! Whatup, Wilf? Wilfred has a flashback of his dream, featuring the face of a distinctly familiar looking guy. Wait a second, was that the Master?

Wilfred decides to repent his wicked ways and heads into a nearby church, where a children’s choir is singing for no one in particular. Wilfred takes in the church’s stained glass window, which features a tiny little TARDIS. A woman suddenly appears behind Wilfred, and explains that the window is depicting the Legend of the Blue Box. The lady explains that in the 1300’s a demon fell from the sky only to be vanquished by the Sainted Physician, a man who appeared in a blue box. The lady speculates that the Sainted Physician might be coming back. Wilfred would like nothing more, but when he turns to face the lady again she’s gone. Wilfred’s ears are filled with the sounds of the Master’s laughter as we head to the opening credits.

The TARDIS lands on the Ood Sphere, where the Doctor’s met by his (and our) old pal Ood Sigma. The Doc’s got a bit of a chip on his shoulder; he’s taken his time getting here, going from planet to planet and even getting married briefly, all to avoid this meeting. Sigma tells him he should not have delayed, but the Doctor points out that the last time he was on the Ood Sphere Ood Sigma said his song would be ending soon, and he’s in no hurry for that. He shows off a new feature and locks the TARDIS remotely (get it? like a car?) before finally following Sigma around. Sigma shows off the thriving society the Ood have built since they were liberated from humanity a century ago. Suddenly the Doc’s a little worried; the Ood are developing way too quickly and there’s no way Ood Sigma should have been able to contact the Doctor all the way back in the 21st century after only a hundred years of development. Sigma says something’s amiss; every night, the Ood have bad dreams. Someone should tell the Ood to cut back on the chocolate before bedtime!

The Doctor is taken to the Elder of the Ood, and is directed to join in a circle of Ood to share the dreams they’ve been having. The Doc gets a vision of the Master, and the Elder Ood says pretty much everyone in the universe is dreaming of him. Next the Ood show a shot of Wilfred, then a man and young woman the Doctor’s never met. Finally he’s shown Lucy Saxon, who’s in prison for killing the Master and avenging the millions of people he had slaughtered in the Year that Never Was. The Doctor’s super sure the Master is dead, until the Ood show him that bit from the end of “Last of the Time Lord” where the Master’s ring falls to the ground. I meant to make a fun Ming the Merciless joke about it at the time, but trying to work it in now just feels weird. Just pretend I stuck the landing on that one, okay? Anyway, the Ood show the Doc that the ring was picked up by an unknown woman. The Doc’s ready to bate that Master, but the Elder Ood says the Master is only part of the problem. Something big and ancient is moving, and the Ood are able to see through time like this because time itself is weakening. The end of time is coming. *mic drop*

The Doc’s off to the races and runs back to the TARDIS. Meanwhile, Lucy Saxon is visited in her prison cell by the woman who picked up the Master’s ring. She’s taken down to the basement of the prison and… well, I mean, this is where things get a little weird. Apparently at some point during the months between the Master showing up on Earth and him becoming Prime Minister, a sort of cult grew up around Harold Saxon. Like, with secret sacred texts and everything. It’s a bit of a Knights Templar 2: Wacky Wizards situation, only a lot less scrutable. If none of this rings a bell, BTW, it’s because it’s coming out of literally nowhere. Anyway, we find out that Lucy was given a secret trial with no jury after she shot Saxon and locked up in the pokey (side note, what the hell? she should have been given a medal, not a prison term!). She never told anyone who Saxon really was. The new governor of the prison is some kind of Grand Wizard for this Harold Saxon fan club, and she’s going to use the Master’s ring to bring him back to life. She and her gal pals mix together some magical potions (made from recipes taken from the Secret Books of Saxon, I shit you not), the Master’s ring and a bit of Lucy’s DNA.

Lucy begs the women to stop, but they’re pretty onboard with sacrificing themselves to bring back the Master. The Master begins to materialize, but it turns out that Lucy also checked the Secret Books of Saxon out from the prison library and some friends outside of prison cooked up an anti-life potion. One of the guards involved in this is actually on Lucy’s side, and she gives Lucy the potion. She had it on her… just in case, I guess? Or she knew this was going to happen and didn’t, like, just try to take the ring before any of this could go down? I don’t know. Lucy has a little monologue, then she throws the potion at the Master and the entire prison explodes. Right on cue the Doc arrives. The guy and young woman (who are father and daughter) that we don’t know yet are reviewing footage of the prison burning down and catch sight of the Master running from the wreckage. The two meet up with some scientists and tell them to prepare a big ol’ alien-looking gate thing.

Wilfred tells an unseen Donna and Sylvia that he’s going out for a drink, then rallies all his friends from the senior citizen center and organizes them into a search party to scour London and locate the Doctor. Some vagrants get some grub from a food truck and have a topical discussion about President Obama. Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone? Anyway, the Master shows up with a bleach blonde hairdo and tells the food truck lady that he’s real hungry. He then hops over to eat a burger really quickly (and super grossly) and harass the vagrants for a bit. His skin is sort of transparent sometimes? I don’t know. Eventually he chases the vagrants over to the burnt-out ruins of the food truck and then maybe eats them? He’s got a bit of a Tarrare thing going on now, so he probably eats them. The Doctor sniffs him out and the two have a brief staring contest before the Doc starts chasing the Master only to lose him when he’s distracted by the sudden appearance of Wilfred. Did I mention the Master can jump really high now for some reason? I don’t think I did, but he can. It’s just a thing, go with it.

Wilfred and the Doctor go out for tea after ditching the Silver Cloak Gang. The Doctor wants to know who or what Wilfred is and how he’s able to keep finding the Doc. Wilfred thinks he’s just your average Joe who gets lucky a lot, but the Doc isn’t so sure. He tells Wilfred that he’s going to die (because of the prophecy thing from “Planet of the Dead”, remember?) and both he and Wilfred are super bummed. The Doc says even if he regenerates it won’t be him anymore, and this version of himself will die. This is interrupted by the unexpected and delightful reappearance of Donna Noble outside; Wilfred begs the Doc to restore her memory, but we’re sticking with the whole “her brain thing will burn up” storyline. Donna’s engaged to a nice guy Shaun Temple and Wilfred thinks she’s happy enough, but sometimes she looks like she’s sad but can’t remember why. Great! Wonderful! Just what Donna deserves, right? Really glad that we’re sticking with this arbitrary plot device!

Anyway, the Doc lets Wilfred know he’s traveling alone now, and that turned out to be a very bad thing. He takes things too far on his own, and he needs someone with him to keep him in check. The two bros have a nice almost-cry and then the Doctor leaves. Timothy Dalton reminds us in another voiceover that the Earth’s going to die tomorrow, then the Doctor catches up with the Master. Did I mention the Master can shoot lightning bolts and shit out of his hands now? It’s just a thing, go with it. He Livewires the Doc and then has his own little monologue about how he used to be a really big deal but now he’s just a homeless lunatic. The Doc’s ready to ask the Master for help to stop this end of time/coming darkness thing, because he’s suddenly a dumbass. The Master starts going on and on about the drums again, but this time he does a mindmeld with the Doc and the Doc actually hears the sound. The Master’s pretty happy that the drums aren’t just him being crazy and, I’ve got to say, I’m pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. A helicopter shows up and the Master is kidnapped while the Doc is knocked out by some paratroopers.

Christmas time! Donna gives Wilfred Fighting the Future by Joshua Naismith, but she’s not really sure why. Naismith’s the guy we haven’t met yet, by the by. While Donna’s trying to figure out why she got Wilfred the books she appears to be dangerously close to remembering how relevant she used to be, but luckily Sylvia’s able to distract her with a naughty holiday card. Speaking of Naismith, he and his daughter have the Master held captive. They know a vague amount about Harold Saxon and the daughter’s pretty excited to have him as their houseguest. Wilfred sits down to watch the Queen’s speech, but that lady from the church is on the TV. Wilfred is the only one who can see her, because he stands at the center of coincidence. She tells Wilfred that the time will come when he’ll have to take up arms, but she tells him not to tell the Doctor about her. Wilfred goes to his room and digs up his old pistol from the war. Oh, shit, is Wilf about to risk it all? No time for that, because the Doc’s outside and he needs to talk to Wilfred.

The Doc can’t figure out how Wilfred fits into all this, but he knows he’s involved. Wilfred doesn’t tell him about the woman on the TV, but he does show the Doc the book Donna gave him. The Doctor figures out the Ood might have been able to seep Naismith into Donna’s subconscious, allowing her to help the Doctor without remembering her kickass past. Wilfred and the Doc set off in the TARDIS to find Naismith. The Master is brought to the alien-lookin’ gate thing, while two of the technicians excuse themselves. Downstairs they reveal themselves to be aliens who are trying to get the gate thing working. They’re cool with the Master working on the gate, because they just want to get it working so they can hijack it. Upstairs Naismith explains that he got the gate after Torchwood 1.0 folded. The Master’s given a turkey and we get to see more delightful sped-up footage of him eating, complete with all the sound effects you could hope for. The gate is powered by a nuclear chamber thing, but it turns out it can restore a person’s body and heal them. Naismith wants to use it to make his daughter immortal. Her name’s Abigail, by the way.

Wilfred and the Doc arrive at Naismith HQ, and the Doctor shows off that he’s now able to hide the TARDIS a second out of sync with reality. The Doctor finds the aliens in human clothing in the basement and quickly de-glamours them. The Master begins fixing the machine and gets it working in record time. The aliens downstairs explain that they’re a salvage team who were sent to collect the gate thingy, which is essentially a giant sickbay. It’s specifically giant because it mends entire planets at once. The Doc figures out the Master’s up to something and runs upstairs, while Naismith watches the speech by Obama that’s been mentioned about 57 times so far. The Doc arrives upstairs but the Master easily breaks free of his bonds and jumps into the gate. His template begins spreading across the entire world, first by appearing in everyone’s minds. The Doctor’s able to get Wilfred into the radiation booth in time to shield him from the effects. The aliens downstairs realize the Master’s set the gate’s template to only effect humans, but then Donna calls Wilfred to let him know she’s not being effected. The mental picture is just the beginning of all this, though, as in a matter of moments the entire human population is physically transformed into copies of the Master.

Donna’s beginning to get flashbacks to her Doctorly adventures, and her head’s already killing her. Time for another Timothy Dalton check-in! He says this is the day the human race ceased to be, but it’s also the day the Time Lords shall return. He’s a Time Lord, and he’s surrounded by a massive chamber full of his fellow Lords and Ladies

The End…?

~~~~~

I’m going to zag here a bit, if no one objects. Unlike previous two-parter episodes, like “The Empty Child” / “The Doctor Dances” or “Human Nature” / “The Family of Blood”, The End of Time is specifically broken into a Part I and a Part II. Because of that, I’m viewing it as one episode that’s just going to take me two posts to finish recapping, and so I’m going to wait until the end of Part II to give my rating of and thoughts on The End of Time as a whole. That was probably an overly complicated explanation, but, hey, it’s twentyserpentine!

We’ll see you again on Tuesday when Eli will cover the next episode of The Golden Girls, “A Visit from Little Sven”, and then on Wednesday I’ll recap the last half of this Doctor Who special, The End of Time, Part II.

Until then, thanks for reading, thanks for resurrecting and thanks for being One of Us!