So, I just finished watching Staged and I'm having so many mixed feels. One of the weirder impressions I got was it seemed almost like a vehicle to put a wedge between Michael and David. I esp hated the ep where Georgia did all the stuff to the office room (messed with the thermostat, starved them, etc) just to get them to bitch at each other (and then admitted that it was cos "people like to watch that". Er, no. I like banter as much as anyone, but the energy of this series seemed idk...wrong?

Hi, Anons! These are both completely valid opinions and I very much appreciate you both feeling comfortable enough to write in and share them with me.

Anon #1: I had a lot of mixed feelings watching Staged 3, too. I think the episode you’re specifically referencing is episode 4, and I also thought that much of that seemed really contrived. I get needing to create conflict to have a show, but it seemed like there’s so little natural conflict between Michael and David that Simon had to fabricate something, and it just went sort of beyond the limits of believability. (This was also just confirmed by David in a Times Radio interview that was released today.)

I think that in real life, if Michael and David ever did fight for any reason, Georgia knows the fight would last for about two minutes and then they’d find their way back to each other, without any intervention. The banter between Michael and David that we love so much doesn’t need to be engineered or cajoled, because it just happens naturally. I almost wonder if Simon deliberately went over the top because he knew no one would ever buy Michael and David “breaking up” in episode 6 unless he chose to be heavy-handed about it. Which then contributed to the energy of this series feeling the way it did.

And Anon #2, that ties into what you have said as well. That defensiveness, particularly in the scene with David/Georgia and Michael/AL reading the “reviews” of Staged 3. It was indeed very meta, but rather than that “meta” being the show not taking itself seriously, it seemed to not take the audience seriously. It was the idea that “You don’t get this series because you’re not clever enough” as opposed to, “You don’t get this series because Simon is trying too hard to be clever” (which is what I felt was actually the case). 

To me, the funniest/best parts of Staged 3 were the ones farthest from the script. The little moments that weren’t rehearsed, and that let Michael and David be something more closely approximating themselves. It could be that some of the characters were dependent on the meta-ness to be relevant/have something to do with the plot, but not Michael and David. They have and always will work best just being who they are, together.

I also noticed some really interesting choices in terms of the dynamics this series chose to play up, and which parts of the characters were exaggerated/highlighted. I think the self-awareness tended to be apparent where it possibly wasn’t meant to be (as opposed to the scenes that were, and tried too hard to be). The place we got to at the end of episode 6 was ultimately where things got much better/how things should’ve been all along, but the process of getting there just seemed very circuitous and unnecessary.

Much of this is things I intend to cover in my analysis/review, so I don’t want to add too much more here. But I love that we are having these robust discussions and I very much enjoyed reading your thoughts, Anons. Thanks for writing in! x

Bruce regrets sound proofing all his children’s rooms

There are some things parents don’t want to know or hear when it comes to their children and it seemed like a great idea at the time.

That being said, as he looked down at his tired youngest, bottle feeding a baby in a way that seems to be half muscle memory, with a look on his face that can only be encompassed by the sentence “oh shit.”

Bruce was suddenly wondering if he made the right call.

Me playing chess against a 12 year old with the intent of killing her friends: Yeah i'm a total grandmasterpilled chesscel. I'm basically going chess mode and i'm giving checkmatecore vibes My subordinate Z, chief of staff: Vice President I think God should kill you

Top 3 Annoying Translation Mistakes I’ve Read This Year (from least to most annoying):

Category I - lazy calques that let you feel the original text under the translation, not in a good way

(English -> French) In the French translation of Hugh Howey’s Sand (Outresable), the word “robe” at one point was mistranslated as... robe. Come on! In French that’s a dress, the English “robe” is what we call a robe de chambre. And it matters! The protagonist is knocking at his mother’s door and she opens it wearing a robe rather than clothes, which (in context) suggests that she was having sex; when you translate it as opening the door in a dress, the reader pictures her looking put together and wonders why her teenage son is feeling angrily embarrassed. Sure there will be more context clues in the rest of the paragraph, but your translation is not supposed to make it harder for the reader to form an accurate mental picture.

Category II - clunky sentences that make the text unpleasant or confusing to read

(I almost used the French translation of Julian Fellowes’ Past Imperfect as an example, but I suspect the original of being clunkily written as well. Still I gave a couple of examples of clumsy sentences at the end of my review that really should have been noticed and fixed.)

(Japanese -> French) Some sentences in the French translation of Masuji Ibuse’s 黒い雨 (Pluie noire) were so clumsy I had to re-read them several times, including the very first sentence. In English it is translated very neatly as: “For several years past, S. Shizuma had been aware of his niece Yasuko as a weight on his mind. What was worse, he had a presentiment that the weight was going to remain with him for still more years to come.”

In French we get this: “S. Shizuma avait depuis plusieurs années le cœur lourd au sujet de sa nièce Yasuko ; et pas seulement depuis plusieurs années, car il sentait bien que ce poids indicible doublerait, triplerait avec le temps.”

If the idea is that this past worry is likely to persist or worsen in the future, “et pas seulement depuis plusieurs années” is a confusing (and repetitive!) way of phrasing it. It suggests something that extends further into the past, not the future... In contrast, the Spanish translation uses the exact same “what was worse” phrasing as the English one: “Y, lo que era peor, tenía el presentimiento de que esta carga seguiría agobiándole indeciblemente aún durante muchos años.”

Another example (among many) where both the English and Spanish translations use the same simple phrasing while the French translator seems to get tangled up in her own syntax:

EN: “In the event, though, he proved to have shown more care than wisdom.”

SP: “Sea como sea, el caso es que demostró tener más prudencia que sabiduría.”

FR: “Or, ces doubles précautions avaient produit un effet en quelque sorte aussi stupide qu’elles avaient été avisées [...]” This character tried to do the wise / cautious thing and it resulted in something bad, I get it. But the English & Spanish translations are objectively neater and less syntactically muddled than “his double precautions produced an effect in some way as stupid as they had been wise.”

Category III (the worst) - mistranslations that actually influence the way the reader experiences the story or characters

(French -> English) The English translator of Valérie Perrin’s Trois (Three) seemed either confused by or not able to recognise a lot of French slang, which she translated literally. At one point the word “pisseuses”, a derogatory term for girls (yeah it comes from piss) is translated very literally as girls “who wet themselves.” It’s like if the English word “bitches” was translated as “female dogs” in another language where the term is neutral, instead of using a word with equivalent sexist connotations. The word ‘pisseuses’ here is part of a misogynistic character’s internal narration. He’s an adult man thinking of teenage girls as bitches; instead the inexplicable translation “girls who wet themselves” just leaves you baffled.

The same issue pops up again later on, when the same character thinks of an old woman as “la vieille bigote”—bigot means very religious in French, but here it’s not to be taken literally, it’s used as a generic derogatory term for an old woman. The English translation is “the pious old woman”—too literal ! It sounds almost respectful? Or at the very least neutral, when actually the male narrator is thinking of the woman as “this old hag.” Also their exchange had nothing at all to do with religion so you’re left confused as to how he came to think that she was pious.

It sounds like nitpicking but these are pretty big mistakes in that they not only make things confusing but also impact characterisation. You’re not supposed to turn a character’s negative thoughts into neutral ones. The translator does it again to a female character later on, this time with the opposite effect—making her less sympathetic. She is describing her life (married to a rich but controlling man) as “des vacances à perpétuité.” In English, her life becomes “a never-ending vacation”, thus erasing the very strong connotation of prison carried by the French phrase 'in perpetuity’. You could have found some phrasing around the idea of a “life sentence” maybe—we’re supposed to empathise with this character who consciously experiences her life as a gilded cage, and softening the phrase in the translation reduces the reader’s ability to do that by making it sound like this rich woman is just bored with her life of leisure. Sometimes even small mistranslations can end up having a significant impact on how the reader reacts to a story and its characters.

None of the above are awful translations if you take the book as a whole, but all four of these books are by best-selling authors so if they get so many poorly-translated words or sentences what hope is there for the rest...!

Sometimes I’ll have a character concept in my head but as soon as I start introducing the character, they turn into a completely different person and it is delightful

I am working on a scene (daydreaming it in my head) and I want you all to know that it is a CRIME that Arthur Holmwood was born in the wrong time period to be able to do a goofy face accompanied by jazz hands.

you don't get well no more

Azriel is delivering reports to the River House when he accidentally walks in on a tryst (and stays to watch). It inadvertently provokes some revelations for him.

3K words, one shot

Featuring:

secret Elucien relationship ✅

voyeur kink ✅

defiling yet another dining room ✅

Lucien on his knees for Elain ✅

Az realizing he maybe has some issues to work out around falling for unavailable women ✅

Read on AO3.

Y'all, writing smut is HARD.

For my first smut ever, I accidentally gave myself the extra challenge of writing voyeur smut from the POV of the voyeur, which means I couldn't get in the head of the people actually experiencing said smut, and the voyeur is way too in his own head to be thinking too many sexy thoughts. But the couple is Elucien, so hopefully their inherent sexiness helps.

Title comes from a Fiona Apple's cover of an old Elvis Costello song that came up on my shuffle one day and inspired this fic.

Because I’ve been feeling brave lately (maybe TOO brave time will tell) I’m gonna ask an earnest question like I am truly curious where this comes from…does anyone understand the frequent jackie body shames shauna trope in yj fic? I am not coming for anyone okay I just can’t figure it out for the life of me, like I am 99.99% certain the only time we see jackie discuss shauna’s body is with boob dress and that’s like…her wanting shauna to show more skin. And then she backs down immediately when shauna gets upset. It’s very much an indicator that she loves her body to me. So I can absolutely see where a hyperawareness or her body around jackie just based on like her Body Being Perceived exists!! Or shauna wondering if jackie was judging her in a negative way in the other clothes or whatever!! I just…body shaming is such a really very cruel thing and I’m very confused by where the explicit and extreme verbal body shaming thing comes from, like is there a moment where people infer it cause I’m at such a LOSS on this one. Like obviously characterization is largely based on how you read a text I fully get that!! And that’s okay!! All of this is creative prerogative!! I’m just constantly confused by how frequently people write jackie just tearing into shauna’s body because it’s so specific and so next level mean.

domestic and stablished stonathan having a night in watching movies (it's jonathan's pick this week and steve is not looking forward to the horror movie his boyfriend most definitely picked) when mike wheeler knocks on the byers front door and, because jonathan is busy with the popcorn and will is yelling from his room for someone to get the door, steve is the one that opens and has to see mike's face falling from full excitement to a rather flat expression that, not gonna lie, bruises steve's ego just a tiny bit.

"steve."

"wheeler."

before any of them are forced to attempt small talk, jonathan appears by steve's shoulder and will rushes down the hall. it's funny and great material, that look mike has the moment his eyes land on will, but steve decides to save the mockery for later, maybe prompted by the slight pinch jonathan gives him at his hip, probably knowing his intentions somehow.

"have fun, guys," jonathan says with that sweet smirk of his that makes steve want to kiss him stupid right then and there. but he saves that for later two, when the house is kids-free.

mike and will are climbing down the porch when steve puts both hands on his hips and yells, "hey, wheeler! bring him back not past ten, got it?"

mike throws him a face with too much attitude, but before steve can call him a dipshit, they both have already climbed the car and are driving away. steve frowns and turns only to see jonathan smirking at steve with that sassiness that, honestly, is pretty damn attractive, that is if it wasn't aimed at steve and his already bruised ego.

"what?"

"not past ten? really?"

"yes, really! i don't trust that wheeler guy." jonathan rolls his eyes and pinches him again.

"it's nice to see you care about will, you know?"

"of course i care about him," steve huffs and pretends he isn't delighted with how jonathan's expression softens.

"who would've said steve harrington has a soft spot for kids?" jonathan teases and steve frowns harder.

"shut up."

jonathan laughs and drops a quick peck on steve's cheek that has steve wanting to reach for more of that, but he won't show weakness here. not when jonathan looks so satisfied with himself, the asshole.

"i think our popcorn is burning, by the way," steve says with a flat tone, hands still on his hips.

"shit!"

jonathan rushes back to the kitchen and this time it's steve's turn to laugh.

i think ds9 isn't be allowed to be my favorite trek because otherwise i would spend three years writing another novel length thesis fic about the linearity of time and predestination and what it's like to be made into a villain by your own gods and thrown aside by the narrative because someone else was created to be a hero of a story they don't deserve served by the metafiction of the writers themselves never allowing them to achieve their own potential. and. i just can't commit to that again i'm sorry.

Live Action Last Airbender really said in order to get rid of the sexism, some other sexism had to take its place but unlike Sokka learning sexism was bad, the new sexism is never addressed and treated like its okay.

I have a gift for y'all today !!! 😊 Ever wanted to find a line in Re:Kinder in a single place for the sake of reference?? How about multiple chunks of lines. how about all the little variations that arise in the text with it's many endings, item descriptions, text that comes from interacting with the enviroment, and character info from the menu without having to boot up the game and go through it at long minutes!!???

well i sure did😊 Since I do a lot of fanart and think up my own silly theories and thoughts that need me to reference the game lines a lot, i have made a transcript for it for convenience's sake. A weirdly thorough transcript handwritten and proofread by me including all character lines available in-game. And I'm sharing it with you all today for anyone that wants it !!! :3 To use as a reference for creative fanworks or a quick search for a line in-game, whatever you wish to use it for!!

It uses the english translation of the game by vgperson. So naturally all credit for the game lines available in here is to her and Parun who made the game.

I did my best to organize it in a way easy to digest. Do note that I'm still human, and there's still the chance for mistake in it no matter how much I've proofread it, since I'm not even an english native speaker ^^. But I hope it serves you well nonetheless if you wish to use it.

That's my gift for today!!! Not the usual art, but still a project I'm proud of. Enjoy!!! 😊

Girl like. The reason he said "this is how it should be" and faced death with a smile....is cuz he wanted to die. For 2 years he sat there thinking he was worthless and deserved to die. If he hadn’t be shot, his death would’ve been suicide, he was fully planning to die in a gutter somewhere undetected. When saying "this is how it should be" hes literally saying "don’t cry because I’m dying, my death is a good thing actually because I fucking suck and you are better off without me". I don’t think that’s badass even slightly, it’s actually really sad and really shitty. Shinjiro is so convinced that he deserves to die and hates the idea of anyone giving a shit about him because he literally can’t wrap his mind around the idea that he will be missed when he’s gone, that his death is a bad thing actually. And his last words were meant to be comforting because he fully did not intend for anyone to be there when he died, he intended to die alone, so he says them as a reminder that he’s not worth crying over

Personally, if it were me, if I was holding my dying best friend in my arms who was deeply depressed and suicidal and he said "this is how it should be" uh. I wouldn’t admire him for it??? Like am I losing my mind when I say the way this game handles Shinji is bad or is anyone else seeing this too 😰

Swiss historian, Johannes Müller, friend of Goethe, Schiller, Herder & Voltaire, describing a special "friendship" in a letter to his family (January 28, 1797)

In August 1802 he wrote in a letter to another "friend":

"I am so proud of whatever I said about my deep love for you. ... I won't hide it."

ok imagine dean is an old veteran pitcher who threw gas in his prime but is losing velo and now gets by on pinpoint accuracy and finesse

like his name still strikes fear in rookies bc they’re going up against Dean Winchester who’s been pitching since they were playing tee ball

now imagine his team signs this young new flamethrower (cas-something, dean didn’t watch the press conference) coming over from a foreign league who not only throws nasty pitches but also hits with power

and he’s quiet and standoffish and people assume he doesn’t speak any english bc he always goes through his translator

and dean doesn’t want to like him bc he sees the end of the road ahead like retirement is coming for him and cas is just another young up-and-comer trying to replace him

and despite all the press (and there’s a LOT of press) cas never says much until one day after dean’s had a bad outing, got dinged up bc he just didn’t have his curveball and god he doesn’t wanna do the postgame press conference bc they’ll never say it to his face but they’ll sure as shit hint about it and put it in the articles that he’s washed up even though sometimes your stuff just isn’t there

and maybe someone’s just asked a question dean doesn’t have an answer for but then cas is suddenly in the room sans interpreter and all the attention swings his way and he’s saying that it’s normal to have bad outings and where were all these questions when he blew up last week and gave up 4 runs in the first to the fucking a’s of all teams

right afterwards cas gets squirreled away by his handlers so dean doesn’t have a chance to thank him but he corners him in the locker room the next day and asks if he’d like to grab a coffee sometime and before the interpreter can even translate the question cas says yes (balthazar just throws his hands up like jfc you’re gonna put me out of a job here)

anyway blahblahblah cas plays it cool as long as he can but eventually dean finds out cas was like his biggest fan and watched every game of dean’s that he could find and the only reason he signed with the team is bc dean was there and he just wanted to like breathe the same air as him

bonus sam doesn’t even watch baseball but he’s dean’s agent bc like hell is dean gonna pay some money grubbing middleman to negotiate his contracts when little bro is a lawyer (i specialize in criminal law, dean! but you still speak legalese, don’t you?)

When your maladaptive daydreaming has been so intense again for a while, that your brain tricks you into missing things that literally never happened in the first place 🗿👍

Just had that and was like "🥺🥺😪😔...🤨🤔😀❓❓"