Please note that Mei Changsu is automatically excluded from this poll by virtue of him being able to blow every single one of them out of the water with his scheming :')

Poll Below

So, I saw someone say yesterday that "most people skim watch Chinese dramas", and that honestly blew my mind. If it has subtitles, I have to watch it and focus on it.

But then several thoughts occurred to me. You see, right now, my friend and I are watching The Longest Promise and The Screen Foxes. To us, The Longest Promise is painfully slow. We thought it was a little slower than most Chinese dramas, but most Chinese dramas are a little bit slow, and The Longest Promise actually feels much slower to us because we hate the main character and, like, half the story decisions so much, we thought. (Sorry, no offense to Longest Promise fans.) We thought that if we actually liked the main character and were invested in her story, the way the show dilly-dallied on every one of her scenes - having her say the same things over and over again, showing a dozen different angles on some magical moment in her life, having her express feelings about something that happened in a previous episode that she had made very clear at the time - would be enjoyable. Meanwhile, before we started The Screen Foxes, I read three different reviews that said the plot moved lightning-fast, bounced all over the place, and didn't make any sense. And ... none of that is true (so far). The plot moves at a normal pace. A thing happens, and then, something else happens as a consequence. There ARE several different interconnected story threads, and we do bounce back and forth between them, but it all makes sense. And last night, it hit me that maybe The Longest Promise is so slow because you're supposed to "skim watch" it. Certainly, if you dip in and out, you can follow the plot very easily. Scenes are long enough that it's hard to miss a whole one if you're checking back in frequently, repetitive enough that you can understand the point of the scene even if you miss three-quarters of it, and the same points are repeated in multiple scenes, so there are very few details you can miss even if you don't watch it too closely. (Plus, the plot is predictable enough that it's easy to follow.) Meanwhile, because The Screen Foxes doesn't dawdle on any points, if you're not actually sitting down and watching, it must seem chaotic and nonsensical. Why are they fighting this green monster now? Wasn't the show about painting a minute ago? The green monster is being used by a Taoist to body-guard a rich family. The Taoist is actually the one who made the family rich. Why? That's the mystery we need to find out. In the meantime, this family used its wealth to cheat in the painting contest from the last episode, so fighting their body guard is advancing that painting plotline too. But if you looked away from the screen during the two minutes where they were explaining all that, then yeah, it would be super confusing why this show just went from a painting contest to a demon fight.

If Chinese dramas are MEANT to be watched in the background, and that's the reason so many of them are so long and slow, then, honestly, my whole worldview has been changed.

So, TLDR: I have to know now: DO most people actually "skim watch" Chinese dramas????

PROPAGANDA UNDER THE CUT: [SPOILERS AHEAD]

EZEKIEL:

C!VITALASY:

okay you know what i'm seeing too many occurrences for this to be a coincidence (i think) so research time:

(if you vote pls reblog for visibility, duoxie)

"where's the loyalty" listen I was already looking at royal (and still am tbh...) what loyalty are you talking about how can I think about jax when royal and echo are right there

is jaxnation about to be deserted fr... fave ro WHOMST we only know royal and echo now

INSANE CHARACTER TOURNAMENT: ROUND 4, BRACKET C

PROPAGANDA FOR MICHAEL DISTORTION.

PROPAGANDA FOR IZZY.

[ID: Background is a gradient of yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue. On top, there's the pictures of the contestants, separated by a “VS” sign. Above it, reads “ROUND 4” in bold black letters. /End ID.]

Female Characters Poll Tournament

This blog will be running a female characters tournament this year. When, exactly, I’m not 100% sure yet. More on that later.

For now, though, let’s go over submissions. Submit a female character along with which piece of fiction they’re from to this blog (whether through ask or submit a post). Add propaganda, if you wish.

The first 64 submissions (though this number may be lowered depending on how submissions go) will be entered into the tournament. Note that I would like a variety so if a character from one show, novel, etc. is already submitted a second will not be allowed. All submissions will be anonymous.

Edit: Lowering the number from 64 to 32.

Once I have all the submissions I need I will make a post going over every submission and who they'll be up against (which will be randomized). I will also be going over when the tournament will start.

You can follow this poll with the tag FemaleCharactersPollTournament.

Look what you've all done to him.... 😔

drama platforms

Propaganda

Hermione Baddeley (Brighton Rock, Passport to Pimlico, Mary Poppins)— An absolute mainstay of British films from this period. She’s an icon who never takes shit from anyone in any of her movies, dresses for the occasion, and has the best line delivery! Also she started out in silent movies, and was a close friend of Noel Coward. In a desperate attempt to appeal to a large tumblr fandom, I will also point out that her first husband and one of her children were both called David Tennant. You like that name, don’t you tumblr??

Glynis Johns (Mary Poppins, The Court Jester)—LISTEN, I'd let that woman's voice with all its gravely hoarseness (positive) wash over me all goddamn day, but if that's not enough she managed to play the straight woman to Danny Kaye's jester, all with her cleavage so plunging it might as well have been catapulted into the ocean right after Basil Rathbone

This is round 1 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Glynis Johns propaganda:

She walks the line between sexy and cute. Her best role for me is in "The Court Jester as Maid Jean. She's fantastic as the soft but tough captain of the outlaw band and she looks stunning in every gown she wears throughout the film. And of course we can't forget her iconic turn as the suffragette mother, Mrs. Banks, in Mary Poppins! Also shoutout to her distinctive and beautiful voice, kind of smoky and husky. Extremely hot and set her apart from many of her peers."

"Listen, listen. I was raised on Mary Poppins and "Votes for women! (step in time)" single-handedly taught me how to be a feminist. Also The Court Jester is one of my favourite movies of all time and she is UNBELIEVABLY gorgeous, charismatic, funny, and clever in it. She knocks several men out. Absolute icon."

"Like Bette Davis she has eyes to die for. Unlike Bette Davis you felt comforted by them, even when she was batting her eyelashes at you. Would glady go to Downing Street with her and throw things at the Prime minister"

"She had this wonderful wit and charm to her no matter the role and the most distinctive, striking voice!"

"She was amazing in Mary Poppins (the Suffragette song is severely underrated) and apparently she was Welsh? National pride! And she advocated for arts funding in Wales, which is very cool. Also, she died recently (RIP) making her one of the last survivors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, according to Wikipedia. Also also, she just has a cheeky energy I like? And her eyes are beautiful!"

"I mean, incredibly beautiful and talented, can do drama can do comedy. And she was a mermaid."

"I love Glynis Johns. Most of the reason is The Court Jester where she's a sensible and capable foil to whatever what going on with Danny Kaye at the time. She was also the first star I based an OC on. An OC that I still have to this day! Anyway here have some YouTube links love u bye"

Mermaid clip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1jUEA03mYTk

Court Jester (sharing a bed trope): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d_qG9i054U

Court Jester (seducing the king): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-GuqFYElKg

"VOTES FOR WOMEN! Well, votes for this woman. Please."

Hermione Baddeley propaganda:

Propaganda for both Hermione and Glynis:

Feeling spicy today...

So you got this "SPN fandom polls" account that gives no shits about any sort of earnest outcome; all they want is to block Sam fans and "win" any poll that frontlines Dean, Cas and Destiel. Like, why not just make all your polls Destiel-centric and distribute only to Destiel shippers, if what you really want to do is pretend Sam doesn't exist? Oh, wait, it's to piss off Sam fans and start ship wars. Ahhh, okay. What are you? Twelve? This one is particularly hilaribad, given that canonically, Cas is the third wheel. Literally, anyone that comes between Sam and Dean is eventually third-wheeled, once the show's writers are done with the drama, but Cas was third-wheeled in text. On the show. Like, legit. We gone done knew that a good chunk of D/C shippers think third-wheeling Sam is adorable. It's all over their fics. But does it really feel like actual success to win a rigged poll?

If you've gotta cheat to win, you aren't really winning. Go write your fics, my babies. That's what they're there for. You're not gonna change canon, as much as you try. Alternative facts? Yeah, nah.

WINNER WILL ADVANCE TO ROUND 2

Period dramas dresses tournament: Orange dresses Round 4 Bracket!- Wil be updating with the links once esch poll is posted

Group A

Bahaar Begum, Kalank vs Countess Marie Larisch von Moennich, Mayerling

Group B

Christine Daae, The phantom of the opera vs Tatyana Larina, Onegin

Group C

Viola de Lesseps, Shakespeare in love vs Giulia Farnese, The Borgias

Group D

Vanathi, Ponniyin Selvan vs Empress Phoenix, Curse of the golden flower

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3

Endgame

I stopped blogging this drama some time ago because nothing new seemed to be happening. Oh, there was tons of telenovela drama, but none of it was "moving the needle" to quote Meghan. Even the Lady C and Tom Bower books were not very interesting, at least to me. I think they were significant in that they shone a spotlight on the various lies and misinterpretations, which I think helped flip the narrative on these two idiots, but if you've been following the shenanigans closely, as I have, they had few surprises.

I do have posts on the Netflix documentary because those had real revelations. However, I think this The Hill article is the real game changer. The Eye of Sauron has turned itself upon them, so to speak.

Those are pretty strong words, and so are these:

"U.S. national security." Wowza.

What's interesting is that a few days ago, this was The Hill's viewpoint:

Way back in December 19th this was a "you" problem in the eyes of the Washington establishment (which is what The Hill represents), now suddenly it's an "us" problem. What changed?

Well, this IPSO poll came out in the UK, showing that the documentary did not affect royal popularity at all. The Brits are calling it inaccurate and the personal popularity numbers were not affected at all.

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/britons-more-likely-judge-harry-and-meghan-documentary-inaccurate-depiction-events-crown

YouGov also got positive results for the monarchy.

I haven't seen similar polls regarding the Commonwealth though, but I bet they were done and I bet the results weren't good. The documentary got strong international ratings and the Harkles are going to find out that success is a double-edged sword.

It's going to be interesting to see where this goes. So far, the results are encouraging. Hello, Colonel Kate!

Trooping isn't until June but that got announced in December, which is fascinating.

And Charles' coronation was budget friendly back in October, but it will now be "glorious" pomp and pageantry showcasing UK plc and, no doubt, the Commonwealth.

Harry effed around and now he is going to find out that attacking the family is fun gossip that important people don't care about but attacking an institution that is part of the US national security establishment is a different matter altogether. A lot of people are now going to reassess their tacit support of the Harkles.

It will take a while because no one will admit Harry's Invictus role was axed because of a Netflix drama or internet trolling during the Wales' Caribbean tour, but that will be the eventual result. It will take years and it will be camouflaged as a "reorganization" or "rethinking" of the organization (everything military is now in flux as the establishment analyzes the implications of the Ukraine war) but he's going to be out. Notice that Sunshine Sachs leapt out of the sinking ship way back in September. That was likely the canary in the coal mine.

https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/20220924150955/meghan-markle-parts-ways-sunshine-sachs-pr-firm/

I doubt anyone reads this blog anymore since so many fantastic people are covering this drama now, but I'm compulsive about completing tasks so I'll be covering the endgame (as Scobie would put it, although the monarchy will not be the one losing this game).