I cannot believe people were so pissy about Assad’s casting as Armand, look at him —
The man looks like every homo-repressed renaissance painter’s wet dream - like 10/10 would paint him as Jesus or several angels into as many frescoes as possible.
the pathologic Kin is largely fictionalized with a created language that takes from multiple sources to be its own, a cosmogony & spirituality that does not correlate to the faiths (mostly Tengrist & Buddhist) practiced by the peoples it takes inspirations from, has customs, mores and roles invented for the purposes of the game, and even just a style of dress that does not resemble any of these peoples', but it is fascinating looking into specifically to me the sigils and see where they come from... watch this:
P2 Layers glyphs take from the mongolian script:
while the in-game words for Blood, Bones and Nerves are mongolian directly, it is interesting to note that their glyphs do not have a phonetic affiliation to the words (ex. the "Yas" layer of Bones having for glyph the equivalent of the letter F, the "Medrel" layer of Nerves having a glyph the equivalent of the letter È,...)
the leatherworks on the Kayura models', with their uses of angles and extending lines, remind me of the Phags Pa Script (used for Tibetan, Mongolian, Chineses, Uyghur language, and others)
some of the sigils also look either in part or fully inspired by Phags Pa script letters...
some look closer to the mongolian or vagindra (buryat) script
looking at the Herb Brides & their concept art, we can see bodypainting that looks like vertical buryat or mongolian script (oh hi (crossed out: Mark) Phags Pa script):
Matt "I can and will remind everyone that Link is REALLY wierd about Normal with like no real explination at this point" Arnold out here like "let me see if I can underminine my entire point in this character arc defining interaction" and I unironically love him for it Link is SUCH a messy b word rn
(this turned into a long response, let's talk Fascinating Character Flaws!)
I dont think it's so much that he's weird about Normal, if I'm understanding what you mean by 'weird', especially in this episode. I feel like it circles back to what I keep thinking about, which is his newest teen fact. the one where he-- does this count as poisoning? he made other children ill in a fit of jealousy for anyone having any time with his dads.
listen, I've had many homeschooled friends. At one point in college I was the "actually went to public school" member of the friend group. People can go in and out of homeschooling and be... not whatever the heck Link has going on. I was excited for him when that fact started, like, "oh he was part of a cohort!" until uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!
(the following are thoughts that I'm still developing in my head as I type and probably after I post)
whether it's due to the overprotective parenting or just Link's nature or a Symptom of a Condition (op has their own Condition but is not a psychologist) Link's got an issue with like. not getting what he wants? not usually in super obvious ways, it's not spelled out, he doesn't throw tantrums or anything. unless you count the thing at Normal about Normal not wanting to do "cool plans." and most of the time he doesn't want anything complicated, his wants have been pretty straight forward and in line with what anyone would want in these circumstances. he wants people to not die is the big major one, he wants to not feel betrayed again, he wants his friends to stop fighting, he wants to get this over with NOW. and he's been going through so much of not getting what he wants (COMPLETELY REASONABLE THINGS TO WANT, IN THIS CASE. TRAUMATIC THINGS TO NOT GET) that he seems to not know what he wants at all anymore.
like, his understanding of the world has been rocked so bad that he's pretty sure all those things I just listed just aren't things he can have. in the past whenever he needled his parents or acted out or did certain things he'd get what he wanted. not to say that he's spoiled but uh... okay yeah I am saying that a bit. but mostly in the ways that it keeps him from developing the coping mechanisms for when you ask something from life and it punches you in the teeth instead.
So in a world where he doesn't know how to get what he wants and maybe he isn't sure what he even can want, he's kinda just shutting down internally. In the mean time, he may as well make sure his friends get what they want, and then maybe at some point he'll want something again. so, in a way, what he wants is to feel and want something, so that "wants what he wants" part of him snapped out again at Normal with "well at least you're feeling something." in other words, "you have the thing that I want right now, and I'm gonna sound pretty bitter about not having it myself" which is an effed up thing to say when that thing he's having is a mental breakdown.
Link. Buddy. Bud. Kiddo. Pal. you need Help.
tl;dr and conclusion: imo for their mental health the party should split into Link & Taylor and Scary & Normal again for an episode or two. Norm and Scary for hopefully obvious reasons; and Link and Taylor because while Taylor is unquestionably a rich kid spoiled for material goods who is very good at wanting things, he is also a kid who's mom knows how to say "No. Absolutely Not. Give me the knife right now I don't care what seppuku is" and who's dad left an emotional void for over a decade that he is clearly adept in coping with and he could give Link some pointers.
also because it would be a cool callback and parallel to early episodes to do those pairs again. see how they've changed and stuff
i think one of the reasons i enjoy the percy series so much is because it’s an adaptation of the novels and not word for word the same.
at first i was a little upset by all the changes, but after rereading the books, i actually like the series even more now. as much as we all adore the books, i think we can agree that they’re not perfect. sometimes there’s plot holes, inconsistencies, or just bad writing in general. this gives rick a chance to fix those things, and that’s OKAY.
the series isn’t perfect either, don’t get me wrong, but it is nice to see the characters going on the same adventures even with some variation to the original story. i think this will allow the characters to be fleshed out more.
we have to remember that a tv show and a book is not the same medium, so the way these things are presented cannot be identical. otherwise the characters in the show would probably seem pretty flat since the books are only from percy’s perspective. the series allows us to learn more about the motives and personalities of other characters, be it annabeth, grover, or luke (personally, i’m really excited to see how his character’s story goes).
anyway, all of this is to say that the percy series is great for what it is (an adaptation of a book series). yes it could be better (cough longer and more episodes cough), but i personally really enjoy it so far.
oh no I smoked too much weed and gave myself zoomies both from the excitement from my new peak pro and the excitement from the new weed itself and def smoked way more than I should have and probs will continue to smoke more than I should because of this double dose of excitement until I finally just pass out after days of hardly sleeping recently lmao
but ANYWAYS before that happens !!! I currently have the strongest urge to go wreck people in fucking battlegrounds to level one of my assorted disc priests and because like …. ever since I got 100k honorable kills achieve, I’ve wanted that goddamn fucking ‘the Bloodthirsty’ title from the 250k honorable kills achieve and I was farming that before I stopped having the drive to game a few months back.
so let’s see how queues go at 2am on a fucking Wednesday morning, I wonder if I’ll give up before I find a bracket with fast pvp queues tonight tbh. it’s more likely I’ll end up pugging a raid on my mistweaver main if it takes too long to get into a battleground just to preoccupy myself for a bit and try to get a chance at trinkets and shit lmao
Needing a Sua perspective from the ALNST auditions to Round 1. I never put much thought into what happens to the cast post-Anakt Garden graduation (do they immediately go to the auditions? Is there a period of time where they dont see each other until they recognize each other at the audition? Theres a considerable amount of time between the auditions and their Alien Stage season, did they see each other often between then or...? etc.), but regardless, imagine being her and having to choose between sabotaging your own audition so you dont have to go the the Sing, Win, or Die Show or putting your in your all in hopes of winning and spending just a bit more time with this girl you love because you know itll likely be the last time you see her. Imagine...
Harriet Walter on how Caroline actually feels about Peter Munion.
"She wants to get in with her kids, you know? If you only see your kids seldom, and we know that it’s more complicated than that she walked out on them, there’s a huge story behind, I think, which we haven’t really gone into but it’s hinted at in that scene, about the way she was sort of bought out in a way. And at the time probably felt that sacrificing that was worth it, she was just chocking. And so to find someone who’s just a flip-flop, who kind of – is actually quite fun and, you know, we’ll get on fine because I’ve got some dough.
But you want to sort of keep in with your kids and be somebody that they want to visit and want to see so I do sort of crack jokes with them and say ‘I know he’s awful, isn’t he ghastly’ but actually – because I’m sort of reading it though there eyes – but I think actually she doesn’t care if he wears ghastly clothes.… He’s fun and he adores her and we can go to Italy and she makes out like she doesn’t want those things and didn’t want it but I think she probably feels very happy."
Excerpt from Excerpt from Still Watching: Succession Season 3 "Chiantishire" with Dame Harriet Walter – Dec. 5, 2021
I have a big google doc thing where I keep track of media and stuff (putting everything in loosely ranked categories), which is mostly just for my own reference so I know what tv shows I've already seen before, etc. and I never really look back through it, typically just a quick "okay, watched two movie in the past 8 months, need to quickly slap them somewhere in the lists. okay. done. save document. exit". But today I was actually reading through some of the old notes and there are like... MULTIPLE places where my comment is basically "It would have been good if it were about elves" or "I wish there was a fantasy show made in this same style" or "It's well made, but I just keep thinking about how I would like it more if everyone was an elf or was in old 1700s costumes" or etc like...... lol.... Most biased media ranking system on earth blatantly made by someone with an extremely hyperspecific range of narrow interests. It'd be like if a food reviewer only had 5 foods they actually liked, so they'd just go to a pizza place and be like "eh, the pizza was okay, but I just think it would be better if it was cereal instead. :/ ...2 out of 10"
it honestly frustrates me when i see people reduce the ericsons cast down to "just some teens in the woods" acting like theyre no different than any other group of lone teenagers from other existing properties and treating them like an overused trope
it is sooo important to acknowledge the "troubled youth" aspect of the whole equation. theyre not just some random teens in the woods clem stumbles across. these kids were abandoned by their families for their various "difficulties" and fucked up by The System before the outbreak even began. and then once zombies started roaming the streets their familes never came back for them and the adults that were in charge of taking care of them just left them there to rot in that old boarding school (except for ms martin who was like their lee 🥺 the only person who ever saw them as the scared traumatized kids they were and died protecting them)
the whole aspect of them already being fucked up by the adults that controlled their lives is like.....kind of important when discussing the whole "delta is stealing kids to force them to fight in a war they have no real part in and want nothing to do with" aspect of the season. and its important when comparing them to clem and her journey of also suffering at the hands of the adults around her forcing her to become self reliant. AND its important when discussing the "just trying to build a safe home (and future) worth fighting for in this world that wants them dead" aspect of the season as well
these kids were forced to come together to survive. and a Lot of them didnt... theyre the only family they have left and you can tell that even when they argue with each other theyre still a close knit group who looks out for each other. theyre a Real family before clem even gets there (and its why what really happened with the twins and brody and marlon hits them all so especially hard)
all of this is what REALLY makes ericsons such a perfect home for clem. its a Real community of her True peers. theyre not Just teens. they mightve had a layer of safety clem never had by at least having walls to keep them safe. and having the benefit of the school being hard to find. its the only reason theyre still alive when clem shows up. but theyre also some of the only people who can Truly understand where clem and aj are coming from. and its why it hurts so much when they vote to kick them out. but its also partially why she merges back into the fold so easily when she returns. plus the fact that shes Really the only one who has any idea what shes doing. shes their rock and she makes them feel safe because underneath it all theyre still just those scared traumatized kids ("EVERYONE is scared, clem..." vi was Definitely including herself in that 'everyone'), and on some level, so is clem
they saved clementines life. and she saved theirs. "the school was supposed to help them with their trauma, now they help each other" its about the LOVE the COMMUNITY the SUPPORT!!!! and thats the shit that makes good zombie media honestly 👌
Beyond done with tiktok someone posted this and there’s sm comments about how David should’ve been Hannibal/that would’ve been great…literally going insane this type of anger is what drove Hannibal to cannibalism
HELLO IM BACK to talk more music theory with my school president because i can't be stopped-
okay so with our skyy 2 came a new (fantastic!) song for our silly little musical, and with it came this tweet from gemini:
back when prom night aired i made a rather long post about each of the individual singing talents of the boys live. gemini is an incredible singer, and i love that msp live and now our skyy 2 have both given him the opportunities to sing more for my school president.
so in my previous post i talked about how gem has this really wonderful falsetto, and in this newest release, "love love love", it is nowhere to be found. instead he's singing mostly in his full voice - all those high notes! - which is what fourth did all night at prom night. and while obviously this new track isn't live - it's a recording, and edited, and definitely had multiple takes and versions to choose from and mix together - i want to point out what gemini says about it, that "it was fun to sing until there was no sound"
for those of you who don't know, a singer's range is the lowest they can sing while still making sound, to the highest they can sing while still making sound. i talk about gemini's individual talents with falsetto more in the other post, but what falsetto is, essentially, is singing on top of your vocal chords. it still uses them, but in a way that doesn't cause too much strain for your voice and also creates a breathier sound. falsetto allows you to sing higher than your "full voice" range, and everyone can do it, and train themselves to do it. if you've ever stubbed your toe and yelped really high-pitched, that was likely in falsetto.
so basically what gemini means when he says it was fun to sing until there was no sound, is simply that he was singing really high in his full voice - and to do that without cracking or going silent is really hard - you have to sing LOUD (and clearly, he is). it takes a lot of energy and breath support (fun fact! this is why jogging and cardio are good for singers!). i wouldn't be surprised if recording this song was really tough for gemini!! i honestly doubt he would be able to pull it off live in his full voice (falsetto absolutely, but it would sound quite different!), though tbh im very impressed by his ability to pull it off at all. it's SUCH a fun song, and his voice sounds SO good in it! congratulations on nabbing some really amazing singers gmmtv - they are the best you've got for real