I’ve been thinking for ages about the poets having their own Shakespeare company and performing (with the help of keating of course) but ,as it might be obvious, Much Ado About Nothing is my second favourite Shakespeare play ever (second only to Macbeth!) so I have come up with a crossover that’s either them performing it or a real cross over. I haven’t decided yet hehe. (I have not included the girls in this one but Ginny would be Margret as she is Neil’s bestie)

I’m meant to be writing a 5000 word for essay right now, oh well.

BUT cast!!

Charlie and Cameron as our favourite couple of verbal duelling idiots to lovers. Charlie as Beatrice and Cameron as Benedick. I think this is perfect! And this would tie into their closeness with Neil and Todd. Who you might have guessed are Hero and Claudio.

Neil as Hero and Todd as Claudio, here me out on this one lads! I know RSL has obviously played Claudio but I couldn’t get this idea out of my head. Importantly!! Jeffery Anderson as Don John, which would explain why Todd would EVER believe it as he’s being manipulated by his brother and Neil knows this and during the wedding scene looks over to Jeffery and realises that he’s deceived Todd against him.

Charlie saying kill Claudio and catching Neil when he faints ahendjekekjajwnhe

NOW time for funny because that’s enough angst.

Meeks as Verges and Pitts as Dogberry. Dogberry can’t count so that would be hilarious!

Chad as Borachio and his friends sharing the lines of Conrade.

Keating would be the level headed Antonio and OBVIOUSLY if Neil is Hero then Thomas Perry has to be Leonato! McAllister as the Friar.

And finally our boy Stick as Margret.

Neil and Charlie would plan the whole wedding together and Neil would wear a white suit with a lace and beaded shirt with a small flower on his suit that represents innocence (I don’t know flower language I’m sorry!)

Ah! Shakespeare and Dead Poets Society brainrot

So was anyone going to tell me Faust is a bigger menace than EVERYONE in the game put together or like. Was I supposed to play the Impossible Choices event (Vincent and Charles ver) myself. I LOVE that he's the definition of: 'being smarter doesn't make me more mature or helpful, it just makes my inherent lust for chaos/entropy all the more unstoppable' This shit FUCKS

I think this is the first time I've ever seen a character make Shakespeare's life a living hell and the latter didn't expect/see it coming, that was AMAZING. Mf was out here like "What the hell??? You lot don't make me suffer I make YOU suffer. Let a man obsess IN PRIVACY" and then nobody cared. Peak comedic interaction, no notes everyone pack it up

whenever i get sad i think of the 2005 adaptation of macbeth- macChef when macbeth was an overworked chef played by james mcavoy where he made out with banquo for a full minute

Idc anymore i think i'm a good enough writer that i can say that when i noticed the pattern in what exactly makes a book "good" on booktok (and, bc of that, what makes it popular and top bestseller lists), it feels almost demeaning and denigrating to the entire craft. Idk if i should blame the way tiktok-esque social media has utterly rotted everyone's ability to concentrate and read more than three sentences, but literally none of those books are objectively good.

(Yes, yes, art is subjective. HOWEVER. Art is subjective when you look at style, at themes, at motifs, at plots and characters. Art is still a craft, it still requires skill. I've seen beyond the tiktok quotes of these books. Not even their editors are good given the amount of typos/spelling mistakes. That is not something that you should find in a traditionally published book.)

You look at these books, and you know the only reason for their existence is to make money. I cannot and will not accept that as art.

(I'm on Tumblr, of course I have to explain every point. Artists who make money off their art =/= people who only create art meant to be profitable. There is a difference between an artist who hopes to monetise doing what they love, who creates what they wish to see more of and who happens to then create something that other people wish to see more of, and a person who looks at what's trending and decides that making an unholy frankenstein's monster of a book that mashes all those trending tropes and motifs together would get them rich quick. The fact that a lot of these booktok books become popular because of nepotism is just the cherry on top. It's soulless.)

And to finally say what I wanted to say, it's because none of these books have any deeper message or even artistic value to them. You will find a few out of context quotes or paragraphs, ones written specifically so they'd look deep and beautiful when taken out of context, so that people would post them, so that people would buy the books. Entire books written just so those few lines could become viral and make cash. It cannot even be compared to a hook line writers would post to get people interested in their works, because in booktok's case, those are the only lines of quality and in the context itself, they are often out of place and forced.

I just hate booktok, i hate what modern social media has done to art. It's all created to be quickly consumed, for the few ☆aesthetic☆ glances, and then discarded. Just to make more money for those who are already nepo babies. As if artists needed more obstacles to jump over.

Idk why y'all keep comparing Jason Todd to that motherfucker from the D///estiel show and other gross male characters when he's clearly Ichigo Kurosaki

Doctor who series 3 is just tbe height of bissexuality imo

slowly, slowly, slowly learning how to bridge the gap in my teaching between overexplaining and underexplaining so I hit that exact sweet spot of getting the kids to the place where they’re interacting with a text that is absolutely over their heads and out of their leagues but their excitement, generated by me but sustained by them, and the right amount of scaffolding and explanation lifts them up to be able to meet it, enjoy it, learn from it, be affected by it. 

The existence of this Rosaline movie makes me so MAD, because SHE WAS NEVER IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ROMEO. SHE TOOK A VOW OF CHASTITY, AND SAID THAT SHE WAS JUST GONNA NOT BE IN LOVE.

SHE. REJECTED. HIM.

SHE WAS NEVER INTERESTED IN BEING WITH HIM AT ALL.

And then they just...make a whole movie from her supposed perspective (which is loosely based on a book which...hoo boy we’ll get to that in a second), where the premise is that she’s jealous and wants to break him and Juliet up? That she’s so in love that she has to win him over again? (Also, how do they justify her knowing that they’re together? The entire point is that no one knows Romeo and Juliet are in love?? I know this is an adaptation, but Jesus Christ.)

WHY DID YOU PICK THIS CHARACTER. TO HAVE THIS STORY WITH. THE WHOLE POINT OF HER CHARACTER IS THAT SHE CHOOSES NOT TO BE WITH HIM. THAT’S WHAT OPENS THE DOOR TO HIM MEETING JULIET. IF ROSALINE IS DEEPLY INTO ROMEO, THE ENTIRE PLAY DOESN’T WORK.

Are we saying that she was just “““playing hard to get”””? That she was toying with his heart for fun? That when she told him no, she really meant “yes”?? I THOUGHT WE LEFT THAT BEHIND OVER THE COURSE OF THE LAST DECADE, I THOUGHT WE DECIDED THAT WAS BAD???!!?

Don’t even get me started on the book this is based on, where that general premise is that Rosaline is just an Innocent Average Girl, and her cousin who is Beautiful™ and vOLaTiLeLY uNsTAbLe and cRaZy comes and “takes” her poor unsuspecting boyfriend who is completely blameless for his own terrible behavior away from her while being called a “slut” the whole time. (I doubt much of this carried over into the actual movie, because that’s being billed as an ironic rom-com, and I highly doubt ANYONE would try to make that genre work while keeping this premise 100% intact.)

WHY WOULD YOU EXPAND THIS CHARACTER LIKE THIS. WHY. WE STUDY THIS PLAY IN SCHOOL AS AN EXAMPLE OF LITERARY STRUCTURE AND POETIC LANGUAGE AND FORESHADOWING AND HOW TO WRITE A TRAGIC NARRATIVE AND FOR WHAT. FOR PEOPLE TO NOT TAKE AWAY ANY OF THE INTENDED MEANING FROM THIS PLAY???!?!?!? I AM SCREAMING SO HARD I WILL BREAK THE EARTH’S CRUST UNTIL I AM SUBSUMED INTO HELL.

If you’re going to adapt something, you’ve gotta make it clear that you have some significant understanding of the original work. Retellings are fine! They can even have different functions or deconstruct tropes or be unexpectedly edgy! But it’s 1000% obvious when you don’t have any knowledge or engagement with the source material, and that is a problem. It’s ignorant, it’s lazy, and everyone involved deserves better.

I ADORE GEN INFORMATION AND HISTORY STUFF SOOO MUCH ... and etc etc etc and and and :(( <3 god i love the plethora of information ik and. etc.

I realized I’m a very big fan of Laertes. He had a genuine, intelligent speech to Ophelia at the beginning (he never told her she was crazy or that Hamlet didn’t love her, or that Hamlet had any sort of ill intentions, he was genuinely trying to protect her because of the way society worked). He was beloved by enough people he was able to enter the castle with them screaming for him to be king. He returned to find everyone he loved dead. His sister’s burial was treated like shit because it was a suicide, and on top of that was interrupted by her killer wailing that he was so much more sad than Laertes. Then he shows enough humility to apologize! He doesn’t try to make excuses or get any pity, he just tells Hamlet nothing was his fault and that he forgives him. Poor guy was just doing his best

MY MOM SAID THAT STEDE'S SECRET CLOSET IS JUST LIKE CAPTAIN SHAKESPEARES FROM STARDUST AKRDJWLX SJXBDKSK

WARM BODIES ONLY ROMCOM EVERRRR BTW!!!!!

i’m becoming acutely aware that me and my neurodivergent experiences are not universal,, my english class is wrapping up and so there’s been a lot of questions of “what were your favorite and least favorite things we read this year?” and “what were the most boring things you read in high school?” and the vast majority of people are like “hamlet was by far my least favorite thing we read, hamlet was so boring, etc.” and im just over here like. hi hello hamlet was by far the best thing i’ve read in all of high school and the only good part of this whole class.

he is babygirl. to me

this is a shakespeare adjacent blog run by someone who’s only seen like 4 shakespeare plays btw. (hamlet macbeth being in midsummer for a school play plus a .5 from ragad and part of much ado about nothing make 4). i used to have a complex about this

Every couple of years I rewatch Jungle Emperor Leo. I could write a whole goofy synopsis on what its about or an analysis on how Disney stole shot for shot scenes for The Lion King

But instead I’m just going to tell you its one of the best animated movies ever made. It makes me cry every time. I rented from a Blockbuster as a kid and its ruined my life ever since. Also it was made by the guy who created Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka so the lion has handsome man sideburns and its AWESOME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBSSFsHWpXk