oh happy world opera day by the way!!! <3

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

it's immensely funny to me how andrew lloyd webber read this passage from the book and was like yeah the journey down to the phantom's lair is this really breathtaking magical gondola ride where christine is just captivated by the strange and fantastical beauty of it all (see below)

when in the novel they're both like in a rowboat in the dark with christine scared out of her mind and confused as hell while erik is paddling like he's out for an extreme day of fishing and just staring christine down for the entire duration of the journey without blinking once . like mind you his eyes quite literally GLOW in the DARK and he's just fucking staring into her soul and silently rowing and probably not even breathing like

it got complicated really quickly

OH? OHOHOHO

Eddie diaz was not content with watching a telenovela he decided he needed to be his own telenovela and I for one love that for him

i think we as a society need to return to campy movies. i wanna see more "ghostbusters," more "repo! the genetic opera," more "rocky horror picture show." i wanna see more movies where you can see the effects, where it's all over the place and insane, where the music isn't something you'd find in an opera house, but you can tell that the people behind it put their whole chests, their blood, sweat, and tears into it. you don't need avatar level special effects to make a good project. you don't need marvel level complexity to make a good story. you don't need john williams making your soundtrack to have good music. we should be less afraid of movies being seen as "flawed" or "imperfect" because imo, that just makes them all the more fun and heartfelt.

long live unauthorized horror musicals (and horror musicals in general)

[A silent watcher]

Of the many legends told by the spationauts of the Eternal Warden, the story of the dragons is the most famous. It says : there are beings in the void between the stars, older than the oldest planets in the star cluster. The spationaut who catches their gaze will see their deepest wishes come true. Many crews were lost searching for traces of the existence of these creatures, all in vain. Yet, when one finds themselves alone in space, one can't help but feel watched, by thousands upon thousands of unblinking eyes.

Braindead au where they are both adults and married.

Danny deals with the burdens of being a house husband and the only Capable Adult (tm) in the family after Alfred passed away. May he rest in peace.

Since they never hired another butler no one can replace Alfred Danny decided to fill the roll. At first it was hard, feeling a bit silly not working a normal job, but he soon realized this was a lot harder than any job he's had before. Ancients, he loves cooking and baking and especially loves caring for Tim, bit this...was a lot.

Not to mention the harpies that flirt with Tim and the others trying to get access to the Wayne fortune. Usually someone flirting with his significant other didn't bother him, he wasn't the jealous type. He trusted Tim but he always looks so uncomfortable when they refused to take a hint. And what sort of husband would he be if he didn't rescue his beloved?

There were also a bunch of supernatural creatures in Gotham just casually going about thier lives in peace. Danny liked chatting with them sometimes. They knew he was some sort of supernatural being, but not what. He planned to keep it that way.

Sometimes his own former rogues gallery would pop in to hang out with him and catch up while he's meal prepping or cleaning. They usually did something nice for him- Ember would recommend musical instruments for Nightwing and Starfires daughter, Technus would ghost proof or upgrade tech (which Tim loved) Princess Dora liked to help him clean and meal prep while they chatted, ect- but they would always cause just a tiny amount of chaos before leaving.

His former ghostly enemies were nothing compared to his new living ones. Erica, the stay at home mom and wife of some high up person in Gothams elites had it out for him personally for some reason. Appearently she had been trying to set each of her kids up with one of the Waynes for years. Her bratty daughter Vexi had had a crush on Tim for a long long time but it was never reciprocated.

Long story short? Dannys life had turned into a supernatural semi-soap opera.

At least he managed to accidentally reform the riddler. Nigma was great company and he loved the riddles and jokes he would tell. Plus the puns.

Tim wasn't comfortable with it at first, but as life went on he befriended more and more of Gothams baddies and reformed them (mostly by accident mind you) to the point it became noticeable to the public.

And the Joker.

DP x DC Prompt #68

Barbara has found love in a lot of things, but one thing she has kept to herself is her love of the opera. She knows the rest of the bats find it boring, she’s seen them fall asleep at performances before. Even Bruce! So no, she doesn’t tell them she loves opera. She doesn’t even tell them her love to perform opera. 

Yet, her coworker, Danny, keeps encouraging her to come to her performances. Telling her they’d love and support it. She’s not so sure about it, though.

“All I Ask of You”- a piece from my BFA project “The Phantom of the Opera”- Concept Art for an Animated Film

did you know… the phantom’s alias in phantom of the opera, the phantom of the opera, is a reference to the fact that he is a phantom living under the opera (the phantom of the opera).

season 1 louis telling his family he dipped from the opera cause he was bored and got hungry & then lestat afterwards calling him on acting like he didn't enjoy the opera when he very much did; season 2 louis telling armand he doesn't want to come to the theatre because he had enough of that back in the states... 35 years and still lying about the theatre to hide how much he loves lestat huh

"THE BALLET!"

Adam Linstead (Andre), Janet Mooney (Wardrobe Mistress), Maiya Hikasa (Meg Giry) and the ballet chorus in The Phantom of the Opera, West End Revival, 2023. (@or-what-you-will and @hyperfixatra, masters)