#there's going to be more because my dvd showed up from the library and I am about as stoppable as a train with no brakes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hazashiovo · 28 days

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Father!figure Joel random headcanons with fem!reader?

(now that I'm reading my request again it sounds pretty vague :/ I'm gonna try to tell some ideas or details. So, would be cool to see how joel cares about reader's hobbies like bringing her new things, what does he do when reader gets sad, or when someone in town is messing with her, how does he reacts when reader shows him affection like making him a gift or hugs him or kisses his cheek, or how does he teases her when she's shy of some subject, etc)

I love this! Especially since I see Joel more in a platonic way.

Joel Miller father headcanons

Joel would be TERRIFIED to be a father again.

After losing Sara he kept living with the feeling that something bad is going to happen to you too.

Even so, nothing is going to harm you while Joel's there ,and he's always there for you.

He had a hard time accepting you as his newly adopted daughter,but once he made peace with himself? Best dad ever.

You like drawing? He left a box with a ton of art supplies.

He found them a while ago but didn't know at that time that you like art.

You enjoy music? He got you your own guitar,which also comes with music lessons only from him.

He knows how much you like listening to him singing,so it became a habit for him to sing to you,and once you gain more experience you'll be able to sing with him.

Maybe you like reading, Joel makes sure to bring you to this huge library,a bit far from Jackson but it's totally worth it.

You returned home with toons of books to occupy your time.

It doesn't matter which hobby you have, he will always be there to support it.

One thing I learned from the show,is that Joel likes hiking.

He used to do that with Sara when things were still okay, so when he started this with you it felt like a part of him healed.

When exploring a new place,he found an old shop full of video cameras and photo camera,and so he started collecting photos of you two. He even made an album where he keeps the photos with you.

If there was a fire that would be the main thing he would save.

When you got older he became more protective. He knew those Jackson boys barely wait for a new girl to get with. Well not this girl,not his little girl.

If you're queer,he would be completely oblivious. My man doesn't have a gaydar,not in the slightest.

If you would hang out with a girl pretty often he would just assume you're best friends or something along the lines.

Now if he accidentally saw you kiss with said girl? S-H-O-C-K.

Joel's not homophobic,don't get him wrong,but he just never expected it. And never actually saw it coming.

But if he saw you and a boy kiss,he's all protective father mode on.

Of course he's not a meat head, he'll understand that you have the right to a relationship just as much as anyone,but that doesn't mean he's also fond of the idea of a boy around you.

He'll only accept it for your happiness,but if that guy ever hurts you? Oh well, it's not his fault for what's about to happen.

Fortunately he trusts you can pick the right person, whether they're a girl or a boy.

At times when you're sick he can't help but remember Sara, he'd also remember how worried he would be for his daughter,the same worry that he feels for you.

He makes sure you stay inside and makes you drink and take the pills the doctor prescribed for you,even if you don't like it.

If you ever return from outside hurt, expect to never hear the end of it. For some time he wouldn't let you leave Jackson, mostly because of his fear of anything happening to you again.

But he's not that kind of Father,so after a while he will reluctantly give you permission to go outside Jackson again.

Movie nights.

Joel finds those old DVDs with movies he used to watch before the apocalypse,and he just loves rewatching them with you.

You'll be all snuggled up in his chest,head right where his heart beat, everything reminding him of his movie nights with Sara after a long shift at work.

Joel feels really happy and fulfilled that you trust him enough to be this vulnerable around him. Especially since this world is cruel and full of dangers.

He's dead set to never let anything or anyone lay a finger on you,even if it costs him his life.

My daddy issues are sueing me.

#joel tlou #joel miller #joel miller x reader #joel #joel tlou2 #joel headcanons #joel miller headcanon #tlou #tlou headcanons #reader #x reader #platonic #father x daughter #tlou2 #the last of us x reader #fluff #fluff headcanons #fluff imagine

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whalehouse1 · 2 years

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Since I still have time before his birthday is over and I am getting a kick out of this, Jason’s gifts from friends and family based on my own hc continuity cause why not:

Bruce: Donates a library under his name to Crime Alley

Alfred: A homemade dinner for just the two of them to chat and another dinner for him and his friends.

Dick: in public: tickets to a motor show. after everyone has left: SAT book set. Again my Dick and Jason hcs have gone so far off the deep end and I feel Jason wants to be able to go to college and Dick wants to finish it to find a way outside of being a cop and vigilante. I also blame this on the alternate Dick job post because give me acrobatic teacher to kids Dick, please!

Tim: The latest gaming computer and headset so he’ll stop stealing his. It will not work.

Barbara: an old set of western and detective noire movies. She knows he watches them with Steph and Cass and encourages their relationships growing stronger.

Damian: Signed editions of various first print books. No one dares asks how he got some of the signatures as the authors have been dead, but they don’t look forged…

Stephanie: A $100 gift card for Batburger. Their hangout spot for relaxing after patrol or during a slow one.

Cass: She has the right idea but when she asked people what guys his age would like she took the advice to heart. He had to tell her to return the stripper and porn she had bought for his gift. Tim and Duke glancing at the dvd was not hidden from her though.

Duke: a car calendar and literature themed planner.

Kate: A month of mixed martial arts training for fun.

Bette: Took him on a hike outside of Gotham. She gives him a scrapbook of the few pictures she could scrounge up of him with friends and family. It’s small but she just wants him to remember he will always have people who care for him.

Roy: Baseball cage time.

Kyle: a Green Lantern t-shirt. It’s signed by all of them to wear in front of Bruce.

Zan: Him and Janya are still newer to Earth so he’s doing what he thinks an earthling would like, he gets him a 6-pack of beer with a bottle of whiskey and a box of cigars. The outlaws make a poker night out of this.

Janya: She’s a bit more observant than her brother but still has a few issues and knows Jason likes books and cars. She ends up getting him two manuals on automobile repair and a motorcycle tank top. She is unsure if he likes the gifts since she has seen him wear the shirt but never read the manuals.

Rose: She was so excited when she had the idea, it took her two months to scrap out enough time for the lessons. The Outlaws come home to a giant birthday cake she made for him with all of the Outlaws figurines kicking a Joker figurine into the mint filled center Lazarus pit.

Zach: Oh Zach, you douchebag, you gave him a signed photo of you claiming it’ll be worth millions one day. It’s okay, he saw the message on the back hidden by the frame telling what a great friend you are to him.

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blazehedgehog · 3 months

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Thoughts on the Microsoft Third Party news?

I mean if Xbox is getting to be a big enough brand that people are raising questions of whether or not exclusivity means monopoly, then yeah, spreading more of your games out across multiple platforms makes legal sense.

More and more of the game industry is regrettably going to be moving in the direction of "account ecosystem" rather than hardware platform. Years ago there was talk about how one day there would be no Xbox or Playstation console, just an Xbox or Playstation App you launch on something like a Roku.

The final disgusting endpoint in all of this "no more sales, just service" drive. No discs, not even local data, just a monthly streaming subscription. Forever. No ownership, no ability to mod games, no way to play offline.

Even in the best case scenario, we're looking at a Netflix where you stream 90% of what you play and only "buy" the 10% of games you truly love.

The only thing that flies in the face of that is, like, Steam. The state of movie ownership is what it is because Netflix got there first. The streaming arm of Netflix is the entire reason the "Hollywood Streaming Industry" exists right now. It predates Prime Video, it predates Tubi, it predates everything.

Fewer people probably remember this, but the original premise of Hulu was to get TV networks signed on to simulcast their newest shows online, because none of them were doing that yet. "Netflix Instant" (the original name for Netflix streaming) even predates that. Hulu was trying to fill a need that Netflix could not because Netflix did not actually stream TV shows at first. Not even syndicated rerun stuff. It was just movies. Streaming Seinfeld or The Simpsons or The Office was just outright impossible.

Netflix got in there and shifted the direction of an entire industry, before borders had been staked out or consumers had built up substantial libraries they were protective of. So we went from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray to Streaming, where "Streaming" usually means a subscription service and not any form of ownership.

But that's not the case with games. Users expect backwards compatibility, they expect their libraries to carry forward, and in some cases people may own hundreds or even thousands of games in a digital library. I know on the Xbox 360, I own at least $200 worth of digital games, because I won a sweepstakes specifically for a $200 Xbox gift card. And my 19 year old Steam account will gladly tell the entire world I own over 1600 PC games.

That's just on Steam! Epic is still always giving away free games (200+), GOG is occasionally giving away free games and holding sales where you can get stuff for a couple bucks, etc. etc. etc. It's like the warehouse of mythical items from Indiana Jones over here.

People own gigantic libraries of digital games they expect to keep and willingly modify in perpetuity. It's a lot harder to push people to stream everything off the cloud as a result. It's why the big selling point for game streaming is "No downloads!" and it's why it's struggling to catch on. Sure, a 100gb+ game is huge, but if I take my download limiters off, it doesn't actually take that long. A 90 minute download for a 30+ hour game seems like a pretty fair exchange, all told.

But Microsoft is still going all-in on "account ecosystem." It's like, think of it this way: every game publisher is in a constant war to have the one big holiday game that everybody buys. And for guys like Microsoft, that one big game a year is their primary moneymaker. If they can get everyone to spend at least $60 on their game once a year, they stay in business.

Game Pass is $60 a year. They side step having to put out that holiday season's biggest game and get to say, "Well for the price of one game, you can get access to an entire library." It changes the perspective on so much of their business model. Suddenly they don't need the big flagship holiday blockbuster, they just need to get more people to pay for Game Pass.

And the ultimate end goal there is probably to get Game Pass in as many places as they can. There's already a PC Game Pass. If they can launch some version of Game Pass for Playstation? Game Pass for Switch? They'll do it. The Xbox almost doesn't matter anymore. The subscription and the ecosystem does. It's why Microsoft rebooted the Xbox app on PC a few years ago -- it used to be a "Companion App" for your console, but now the Xbox App on PC is where all of their PC gaming and Game Pass stuff lives. Xbox isn't hardware anymore, it's a service you subscribe to, and that's where the real money is. Especially considering what a gigantic money pit hardware is; I don't think Microsoft has ever, even once, turned a profit on Xbox hardware (and neither has Sony, as far as I know).

Get rid of the need for hardware and that $60/year looks even sweeter, doesn't it? Especially when you start to consider that something like Game Pass Ultimate is actually $180/year. If you can lure people in on the $60 but upsell them to the $180... well, gosh, that's almost the price of a whole new console every year, isn't it? That's a lot of constant cashflow without needing the years and years of deeply expensive research, development, and manufacturing.

Getting people to spend a console's worth of money on your service without actually needing the console itself is massively desirable. They'd be saving millions, if not billions of dollars while making millions more elsewhere. There's a chart out there some executive is drooling over where a line goes straight up by something like 900%.

The only problem is the whole consumer rights/ownership factor. Which I am not a fan of. I objectively refuse to support Game Pass for what it's obvious goals are. I will buy and own every game I want to play. No compromises. I will buy physical if space and money allows. I will not be bled dry by temporary access.

#questions #Anonymous #xbox #microsoft #game pass #subscription #streaming #stadia #amazon #netflix #hulu

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timelxrd-victorious · 3 months

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Good day. I have an idea for a short story based off of your muse and your AU. Though not interested in Roleplay, I would like some pointers about the character.

The premise is Teine deciding to mess with a mentally unstable supersoldier who helped him fight the cybermen during his seventh incarnation.

Given the involvment of seven, I am curious about how your Muse relates to seven as a past incarnation.

In this specific story, I am using a slightly altered design of the Muse in that rather than being Nyarlathotep directly, instead he was a normal gallifreyan, but started to mutate/change during his seventh incarnation. He doesn't know why. This will be mystery played with in the story.

Anyway, Any pointers/tips about this story concept?

For Teine's Seventh incarnation, I primarily go with Seven's TV era + the Virgin New Adventures novels written by Dave Stone.

It's very heavily implied in Classic Who with Seven that the Doctor had ties to the foundation of Time Lord society, back before they were the Doctor. (This mostly comes up in Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis.) Seven mutters "and didn't we have trouble with the prototype" regarding the Hand of Omega (before correcting himself when called on this by Ace), and flat-out tells Davros that he is "far more than just another Time Lord".

Lungbarrow by Marc Platt runs with this and reveals that the Doctor is basically the reincarnation (so to speak; it's complicated) of the Other, a Gallifreyan who might not have actually been a Gallifreyan, that was erased from Time Lord history and was one of the founding Triumvirate of Time Lord society along with Rassilon and Omega. After Rassilon became increasingly paranoid and power-hungry, the Other eventually threw themselves into the Loom and was reborn thousands (if not millions) of years later as the Gallifreyan who would go on to become the renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor.

The Seventh Doctor novels written by Dave Stone outright show that the Doctor is very much not an ordinary Gallifreyan and is this massive eldritch thing from another universe that goes exploring around the universe in a Gallifreyan form. It's heavily implied that the Doctor is Nyarlathotep, but this is never outright stated.

I go with Teine outright being Nyarlathotep because 1) I like eldritch cosmic horror in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft (without actually being written by Lovecraft, because fuck that guy); 2) it's fun for me to play around with.

Though, this was not how I originally wrote xem. I didn't find out about the whole Doctor Nyarlathotep concept until I'd been writing Teine for around a year, got deep into the expanded universe with the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels and Faction Paradox, and stumbled onto Dr. Nyarlathotep from there. Loved it, decided to incorporate it into my RP muse (and some of my Doctor Who fics). Before then I was primarily familiar with the revival series, the New Series Adventures novels with Nine and Ten, and some of the Classic serials with Four, Five, Three, and Seven that were on DVD at my local library.

The Doctor has so much other stuff in their biodata at this point that this is totally plausible. Faction Paradox fucks around with Eight's biodata at one point and alters his history from when he was a Loomling; they go back and kill Three on the planet Dust way before Three regenerates in TV canon, etc. The Master in the 1996 movie exclaims at one point that "The Doctor is half-human!" (this was mocked to no end in the expanded universe and revival series). One of the EDAs has Team TARDIS meeting a group of wartime Time Lords that look like Elder Things. Interference has a freak show made up of a Gallifreyan priest's 13 incarnations, and the last one is a sentient timeline.

Going back even earlier, there's the Doctor's fight with Mobius, and a whole bunch of unknown faces flash onscreen that are all but stated to be previous incarnations of the Doctor that he has zero memory of.

One through Six had no memory of their previous lives from before they were the Doctor. Seven is the only incarnation that really seems to remember it. As for why that is... it's anybody's guess.

#Out of Gallifrey ( OOC )#lennyinlordran

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pink-octopede64 · 1 year

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A Somehow Long Post About 2 Lost English Dubs of an Anime Adaptation of The Wind in the Willows Nobody Heard About

Hi! My name is Pinkoctopede and I’m a huge fan of The Wind in the Willows. While the book is a classic with many adaptations, what most people don’t know is that there was an anime adaptation made in the 90s. I’ll give a brief summary of what the anime’s is in general but I’m gonna go more in depth with its lost english dubs. And I’ll put it under the keep reading section so I won’t clog anything up.

What it is:

Tanoshii Willow Town (楽しいウイロータウン) is an anime series made in 1993 with 26 episodes lasting around 20 minutes. The first 3 episodes follows the original book but after that, it focuses on the other adventures of Ratty, Mole, and Toad which noticeably, they are now kids with Badger still being an adult.

Lost dub #1 (Saban):

In 1996, Saban Entertainment decided to get the rights to the show and dub it in English with some now known voice actors (Kathleen Barr, Janyse Jaud, etc). It only aired on Network 10 in Australia as a segment on a TV show called Cheez TV for 2 months from December 2000 to January 2001. Outside from the end credits, it’s completely lost with so little information nor footage.

2 other languages have dubbed the Saban version: Spanish (Pueblo de Sauces) only have 13 out of 26 episodes on Youtube while German (Abenteuer in den Weiden) is completely lost with only the audio of the opening theme being available. Strangely, German did release 3 cassette tapes which is basically the only home media release Saban has but still lost.

Lost dub #2 (Enoki Films USA):

Before Saban, Enoki Films attempted to dub Willow Town in 1996 but differently: instead of doing the whole series, they took the first few episodes and edited into a 75 minute movie simply titled The Wind in the Willows. Little is known about the dub since it was never released on VHS nor DVD. All that is out there is the opening theme on Youtube which was taken from the Greek copy of the film.

The only confirmed place it did came out however was on a defunct streaming service called Reeltime.com. Currently, its other locations is at 2 libraries in Malaysia as VCDs and Library of Congress.

Conclusion:

So my main goal is to find these dubs although it has been extremely difficult. Saban only aired for a short period of time on top that I’m not Australian and I cannot go to Malaysia nor LoC to get the Enoki Films USA version. It’s the shame because I do love the anime but it is hard to find a good way to watch it due to its general obscurity. Hell, even the Japanese dub is lost with no way to watch episodes nor getting the VHS tapes online.

You don’t have to but I really do appreciate help or at least spread some word about it (because let’s be real: spending a literal year looking for lost media and making little progress is exhausting).

If you actually read all this, thank you so much! This has been a lost media search of mine for a long time and I really do love it when people do hear me out despite not sounding as cool as other searches like Nintendo’s Slamfest 1999 or Clockman. Take care! 💝

#the wind in the willows #witw #tanoshii willow town #long post #lost media #there are other weird stuff that i couldn’t fit in #like how in the SEC filing of fox kids willow town have 23 episodes listed instead of 26 #or how the enoki films x reeltime collab article called wind in the willows a beloved film DESPITE LITERALLY NOBODY SEEING IT #it’s a very strange rabbit hole i gotten myself into #also if you’re gonna say something put it in reblog instead of notes/reply because tumblr is garbage and everytime i try to use it the post #would disappear entirely

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palimpsessed · 1 year

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The third annual! Questions by @captain-aralias .

Complete Fics for 2022:

I Can't Believe He's Not Butter

4,941 words

by any other name…

3,035 words

Simon Snow and Dracula's Curse, A Scooby Doo AU

46,064 words

In Progress Fics for 2022:

Slings and Eros

70,055 words added in 2022

Total:

4 complete fics, 1 fic in progress

Word count:

124,095

Thoughts:

I thought my output this year had really waned, but I only completed one more fic in 2020 and 2021. My word count has been pretty consistent, with this year's actually being higher than 2021 (107k) and 2020 (113k). So maybe I need to be kinder to myself. It's truly just having the specter of a massively long wip looming for a second year running.

Since I included SAE in last year's review, I'm going to stick with the three fics I haven't talked about yet. All I ever talk about is SAE anyway. However, I think this works better for writers with more fics to talk about because there would be less repetition in the answers.

best/worst title?

best:

I Can't Believe He's Not Butter

What else is there to say? This fic is about an emo syrup container watching an attractive tub of margarine being spread seductively over pancakes.

worst:

by any other name...

I like this but perhaps it doesn't pin down the point of the fic well enough. But I really couldn't lead with "dicknames" or "cocktail" so. Shakespeare it is.

best/worst summary?

best:

SSADC

"The gang is invited to spend Halloween weekend in famed seaside town Whitby, North Yorkshire. It's supposed to be a holiday filled with music, history, and more vampire fangs than Simon Snow has ever dreamed of. But when a flying fiend claiming to be Count Dracula himself shows up, warning tourists and locals alike to stay away from the famous ruins of Whitby Abbey, Simon and the rest of the Enigma Ltd. gang know they've got another mystery on their hands. Matters are only further complicated when Simon's longtime professional rival, Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Grimm-Pitch of Pitch Paranormal Investigations, swoops in with perfect hair to steal Enigma Ltd.'s case.

"Will the gang manage to solve the mystery in time to save Whitby from the Count and his Curse? And more importantly, will Simon solve the mystery of his very confusing feelings for Baz?"

I could see this one printed on the back of a Scooby Doo DVD clamshell. (I absolutely do check out Scooby Doo DVDs from my library every Halloween.)

worst:

BAON

"Baz has been making a new list and he’s decided it’s time to share it with his unsuspecting boyfriend."

Again, I was being coy. This probably should have been something like: "Baz decides to give Simon's cock a worthy nickname. Unapologetic puns ensue." You know, after I did this last year, I actually revised my worst summary to make the changes that I felt would improve it. Maybe I'll do that with this one, too. Maybe.

best/worst first line?

best:

ICBHNB

"The existence (if one can be so bold as to call it that) of a blue plate diner denizen holds all the shine one can find on a cloudy-water-spotted soup spoon. There are occasional flashes of warm, bright pink neon ("open 24 hours") to give you the sense of a rose-tinted view, but by and large, the days offer little more variety and adventure than stuck-on food and creeping rust stains.

"In this place, soup spoons are to solitary condiments like myself what reflecting pools are to Narcissus."

Okay, maybe this is a bit too long to consider a line, but oh well. I hate writing descriptions of physical places. I would much prefer my characters just float around in a void and have endless amounts of banter-laden dialogue. But the diner was integral to this story and I think I did a pretty good job with it, introducing it along with our narrator, pancake syrup!Baz, and using it to set the mood.

worst:

SSADC

"It was a dark and stormy night."

This was obviously intentionally done, so I'm okay with it. Except for the fact that somewhere along the way, the period disappeared without me noticing so it just sat there with no punctuation for weeks. The very first sentence. Off to a strong start.

best/worst last line?

best:

SSADC

"Hey, Baz," she said. "How come you're not in costume?"

You need the context for this one to make sense, but trust me. I love how punchy it turned out, and also that it wasn't planned. I just knew in the moment.

Also, ICBHNB is somewhat open-ended, but I do really like how the last sentence revisits the opening of the fic and shows how much Baz has changed his mind about his "life" now that Simon is in it.

worst

BAON

"We never do get back to Baz’s list."

It's okay, but it's a bit lacking in impact after the repartee immediately before it. This was just my way of fading to black so I didn't have to actually write the sex.

looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, fewer than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Fewer. I thought I'd finally wrap on SAE and be able to tackle more of my other ideas. I had been determined not to write anything else until it was complete, but at some point I decided it was healthier for me to indulge a side fic now and again for the sake of my creative sanity. I didn't want to start resenting SAE because I couldn't work on other things. More to look forward to next year…

what pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I didn't think I'd ever have cause to write pancake syrup/margarine. But here we are.

what's your favorite story this year? not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest?

It's so hard to choose. I'm really happy with all of them and they're all very different things. I suppose SSADC because I've been working on that concept off and on since I got into fandom and it was nowhere near as clever or funny in my early drafts and planning. I was frustrated with it for a long time, but then it ended up being so much better for the delay. And it's done!!!!! I'm incredibly proud of it.

okay, now your most popular story?

I never know what the best metric is to judge this by? I suppose kudos?

BAON leads in kudos for the year, so I'll say that. Which makes sense. It's the closest I came to smut.

story most underappreciated by the universe?

SSADC and ICBHNB are my least kudoesed(?) over all years so I think they just didn’t find their audience.

story that could have been better?

I know I said I wasn't going to talk about SAE, but damn it could be SHORTER. I find myself most critical of it because I've sat with it for so long. But I still wouldn't change any of it. I always kind of avoid this question.

sexiest story?

Hmm. It probably should be BAON since it is about cocks, but I kind of want to say ICBHNB because that margarine!Simon does spread on awfully smooth… How many fics can boast a completely appropriate use of the word 'nubbin' anyway?

saddest story?

None of my finished fics were sad, but SAE definitely goes there with the deep emotions, so that one gets the honor.

most fun?

SSADC

I wrote a theme song! Lucy the dog dashes into action against "Dracula" wearing a Dracula dog costume. Simon chucks bricks at creepy hooded cultists because Penny didn't let him bring his sword. Baz and Simon absolutely do not speedwalk race down the street to the Whitby library. Penny’s skirt has pockets! No one ever gives Baz a leaflet. BJ and the CUNTS! Penis window. I need to reread this fic.

story with the single sweetest moment?

SSADC

Simon feeds Baz pieces of mint Aero while they're sharing a bed. That was pretty sweet. (Get it, sweet?)

Honorable mention to ICBHNB for being sweetest fic overall, in that the narrator is literally pancake syrup.

hardest story to write?

SSADC

Which I've been trying to write unsuccessfully since very early 2020 (does anyone remember very early 2020?). This version of the fic did give me some hiccups along the way, but finally sorting out the POV and tone of the fic was key, as was the timely Dracula tie-in. It finally felt right this time and I look forward to continuing the adventures of Enigma Ltd. and Pitch Paranormal Investigations.

easiest/most fun story to write?

I'm being difficult and answering with all three fics!

Easiest is a tie between the one shots: ICBHNB and BAON. Short and also mostly crack. I'd had both ideas tossing around in my head for a while and once the mood hit for each of them, they came about pretty quickly.

Most fun: SSADC (for the reasons stated under the other kind of "most fun" above)

did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

I'm boring with this one and usually say 'no', but I will say that SSADC was my first time really writing the classic SnowBaz "enemies" to lovers dynamic. I think I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, because I tend to shy away from that. Not sure if that will inform fic writing decisions going forward, but considering that nearly all of my ideas at the moment are But-What-If-SnowBaz AUs, the dynamics are mostly determined by how I'm adapting the worlds of the various AUs.

most overdue story?

hahaha

I can finally say SSADC and know that it's DONE!!!!!

did you take any writing risks this year? what did you learn from them?

Everything felt like a risk while I had a 100k+ wip. Staying in more lighthearted and cracky territory wasn't necessarily a risk, but certainly something that took me out of my comfort zone as a fic writer. Really, I think I just needed to give myself permission for it.

this year's theme and the story that demonstrates it?

Perseverance.

SSADC and SAE

I finished one and am determined to finish the other.

what are your fic writing goals for next year?

See above.

Seriously, though, my main goal is to wrap SAE and make sure it's satisfying for all the build up—for me and its readers. Aside from that, I have a whole list of prompts for myself and I think I'm really just waiting to get inspired about which one to work on first. I have my Bond AU pretty much entirely plotted out, so you'd think it would be that one. But I also want to do a second part for my Scooby AU. And maybe finally write that The Holiday AU. Or Galaxy Quest. Or Troop Beverly Hills. Or Bell Book and Candle. Or or or…

Here's a good goal: I would like to not write any more dactylic hexameter.

If you read all this way, thanks for taking this journey with me. See you for more words and more fics in 2023!

#fanfic year in review 2022 #icbhnb #by any other name #simon snow and dracula’s curse #slings and eros

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leos-regression-cove · 1 year

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I found this old potty training video from the early 2000s the other day and decided to watch it because there's a video of 3 year old me screaming one of the songs from it (and also I needed to know if some of my memories were fever dreams or actually in this video since I watched in essentially on loop. They were in the video. I still think about "what do you do when you're sitting on the potty" almost daily).

But the point is: oh my god little!Thor would be insane over the in-universe littles version of this.

Little!Thor discussion below the cut :D It's essentially a free write chapter of All The Lessons I Never Learned (but you don't have to have read it).

All The Lessons I Never Learned has established that he's kind of perpetually of potty training age (between 2 and 5, occasionally reaching down to 15 months at lowest) so he's in a mix of diapers and pull-up training pants, but even though he wants to be a big kid, he's not very good at being consistent about it.

Loki obviously doesn't enjoy changing nappies if he can help it, and it's especially annoying because it can be hard to tell where Thor is going to be each day. Is he going to be able to tell Loki he has to go? Or is he not going to feel it at all and just go?

On one of their trips to the library, Loki is trying to get his brother to pick out some picture books with him, but Thor is skimming through the movies and he finds this one, which he pulls out and shows to Loki.

"I said no movies, brother," Loki says without looking.

But Thor insists, "Look, it's potty train-ing."

Loki is suddenly interested and takes a look over it. "Alright, fine, put it in my bag, ok?"

So a few days later when Loki's looking through his tote bag for another story he finds the dvd and decides to put it on, maybe it'll be helpful today now that Thor's at a malleable 2 and a half years old, and maybe it'll be a little easier than stopping his play time to read him a story, now he doesn't even need to put his toys down.

The video feels like it was meant to appeal to Thor, asking him questions that played on his insecurities like if he was a baby who still slept in a crib or a big kid who can make towers with blocks or walk on his own. Loki finds this distinction a bit arbitrary and silly, but Thor? He's absolutely invested and intent on proving himself as a strong big kid.

Unfortunately for Loki though, it's also filled with some obnoxious music about using the bathroom, songs he would actually really prefer his brother not to learn. Perhaps it wasn't as downright annoying as some of the music for children that was out there, but it was definitely just as, if not more embarrassing for Thor to sing in public. And to make things worse, it seems like Thor has already taken a liking to them as he stands up and does a wobbly little dance with his pacifier still in his mouth.

Loki tries to talk him into paying attention to the instructional aspects of it, but Thor's still humming the tunes. His focus is only restored due to a skit where there's a royal family and the princess is presented with her own potty chair. Thor's always had a soft spot for these fairy tale settings, more than he'd really like to admit.

Eventually, as the credits roll, Loki stands up, "Are you ready to try?" he asks Thor.

"Huh?"

"That was a really fun video, are you ready to try to use the potty?"

"Mh... No."

Loki is exasperated, but that's alright, he's small today, maybe tomorrow.

The next day, Thor asks to watch the video again, and Loki lets him. No harm in it, right? Thor's a little older, maybe he'll catch on.

This time, Loki tries his best to prep the bathroom while the video plays. He sets some picture books on the counter as well as some easily-washed toys. He even finally puts on the colorful plastic toilet seat cover that had been shoved under the sink since he was prepping for Thor's arrival. At this point, he felt that it didn't really matter if a guest saw it.

"Thor? All ready for your final big-kid-badge of honor?"

This time, Thor grins and enthusiastically runs up to his brother, absolutely ready for the challenge.

Was it worth it? Loki isn't sure, on one hand Thor was actually using the potty, and without Loki having to stand right next to him, but on the other, Loki now has some late fees on his library card and Thor hasn't stopped singing about he's proud to wear his underwear in a week...

#🎠chatter #agere fic inspo #fandom agere #loki agere #marvel agere #padded agere

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sailorbadger · 1 year

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re: my tags on this post, @psychicbluebirdmiracle wanted a list so here’s some of my favorite Robin Hood adaptations in no particular order:

Sidenote: most of these are either extremely niche and/or “you may think it’s bad but I think it’s good” because that’s just what my tastes are.

BBC’s Robin Hood: You all knew this one was going to be up here and if you didn’t, you haven’t been following me long enough. This is what gave birth to my brain worms. I’ve given a PowerPoint presentation about this which was three hours long. I have subjected other people to this show to the point that there is now a yearly celebration where we watch only one specific episode of this show and make memes about it. I am insufferable about this. The day I stop thinking about this show is the day I have lost all brain activity.

Back to Sherwood: I am once again reminding everyone that I have offered to exchange my firstborn child for the original English version of this show. The Vibes on this show are perfect and I will never forgive the people that cancelled it after only 13 episodes. Fun time-travel related hijinks? Sign me up.

Princess of Thieves: Who doesn’t love a Keira Knightley movie?

Disney’s Robin Hood: Listen, you just can’t go wrong with this one. Very solid all around. But there’s another reason I’m putting it on this list. My cousins (ages 6 and 4) were staying over with us on Easter and I put this movie on at one point to get them to sit down for a few minutes while my parents made lunch. My godson (the 6-year-old) asked me why I knew so much about what was going on in the movie and I explained that I watched it when I was young, and then my dad said that the movie is so old that he watched it when he was a child. It was a lovely inter-generational bonding moment over my special interest as my dad explained to my cousin about the different characters and how there’s a lot of different versions of the story.

Not really an adaptation but continuing from the last one, this YouTube video: Some of the best analysis on why most mainstream Robin Hood adaptations suck. This is why I mostly just like the versions that have good Vibes.

This soundtrack to a Swedish Robin Hood musical: I can’t even begin to explain how upset I am that I found out about this musical after it had already been cancelled due to the pandemic. I could have gone and seen it. There’s not even a DVD of it. At least we have the soundtrack which is full of bangers. Everything sounds as over-produced as you’d expect from the country that makes over-produced Eurovision songs, and I love every second of this. If you’re not going to listen to the whole thing, at least listen to Prince John’s song.

This even more obscure soundtrack to a Finnish Robin Hood play from 1997: Everything here is just Vibes. I wish I knew what the actual plot of the play was but these songs are great on their own. The fact that the singer from a famous Finnish band (Neon 2) sings a couple of the songs is just ?????A Choice???? but a perfect one at that.

Robin Hood: The Great Escape: My most vivid memories of listening to this play that’s a podcast is when my IBS was really bad and I was on the bathroom floor crying in pain, so I just put this on to distract me. Anyway, this one has good characters, interesting mix of different cultures and LGBT+ representation, and it all works seamlessly in a way that doesn’t feel forced. Definitely worth a listen.

Robin McKinley’s The Outlaws of Sherwood: I bought this book from my local library’s clearance about 15 years ago. It’s a solid fun adventure and that’s pretty much all I can say about it.

The Finnish opera adaptation of Robin Hood: The dogs in this are nightmare fuel and the whole thing is bordering on the “so bad it’s good” line. The lyrics are so weird at times, it’s awfully cringy sometimes but I love it so much. I own it on DVD and it has English subtitles so if anyone wants to watch it sometime let me know.

Carrie Vaughn’s The Ghosts of Sherwood and The Heirs of Locksley: I need a third part of this. These are a quick read, about 100 pages each, about the children of Robin Hood. And although the premise may sound cliché and childish, I swear these are so good and worth your time.

C.K. Brooke’s Marian: Princess Thief: Ah, yes, the “disappointingly heterosexual” one. Putting aside the fact that this book missed a great opportunity in making at least one of the characters gay, it has an amazing all-female-cast of characters (there’s a male love interest there too I guess, I don’t care about him). This book made me feel like how Sailor Moon made me feel in high school with it’s focus on the Power of Friendship.

That one Finnish audio drama that’s based on Finnemore’s version: Everyone sounds so horny in this one for some reason and the actual text is not helping. The theme song is a banger. It’s a shame the CDs were copy protected so I couldn’t rip the files for myself.

A black-and-white recording of a Finnish play from 1971: The fashion is so 70s it hurts my eyes. The songs are so bad. The plot is almost non-existent but I love every second of this. (I would have linked it but you can unfortunately only watch it in Finland)

The 2009 movie with a dragon in it?????: I don’t remember most of this except that it’s definitely in the “so bad it’s good” category. They just shouldn’t make high-budget versions of Robin Hood when low-budget productions are so much more entertaining.

Edale Lane’s Heart of Sherwood: I need to re-read this one because it had everything I could have asked for. A lesbian Robin Hood with a good story that was a fun adventure which still somehow made me very emotional. 10/10.

That one zoom-play on YouTube: I bought the novel that was made based on this play just because this was so entertaining. In a year I’ve only read about 20 pages of the book but the play was so good and at one point so full of twists I was staring at the screen with my mouth open for like 10 minutes.

I could probably include even more things from my List (I have a list where I collect all the different versions I’ve seen/read/listened to etc), but this is already too long and I ended up taking a few things out. I only included versions I’ve enjoyed the most but there’s still plenty of good ones out there.

#robin hood #I love weird robin hood retellings #please someone talk to me about them

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the-rewatch-rewind · 1 year

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Back after a week off!

Script below the break.

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind, the podcast where I count down my top 40 most rewatched movies. My name is Jane, and today I will be discussing number 31 on my list: RKO’s 1937 dramatic comedy, or comedic drama, Stage Door, directed by Gregory La Cava, written by Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller, from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Adolphe Menjou.

When heiress Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) decides to go into show business, she moves into a theatrical boarding house called the Footlights Club with other, significantly poorer, aspiring actresses. She keeps the details of her privileged background secret, but nevertheless struggles to fit in with the others, particularly her new roommate Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers), who see her as a snob. The conflict heats up even more when Terry is cast in a role that another Footlights Club resident, Kay Hamilton (Andrea Leeds) had her heart set on.

I can’t remember exactly how I first discovered this movie, but I assume it was because I love both Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, and I was trying to watch as many of their films as I could get my hands on. They are two of the four actors to make it into at least 4 of the movies that will be on this podcast, so it makes sense that I would keep revisiting a movie that featured both of them, even though they apparently didn’t get along very well offscreen. I think I might have seen Stage Door for the first time in 2002, I’m not sure, but once I started keeping track, I watched it 17 times: twice in 2003, three times in 2005, once in 2006, twice in 2008, twice in 2009, twice in 2011, once in 2013, once in 2014, once in 2015, once in 2016, and once in 2022. Back in 2013, I blogged about the movies I had watched at least 10 times in 10 years, and at the time Stage Door was the only one of those I didn’t own a copy of, so I know that at least all the views prior to then were because I borrowed it from the library. When I finally got it on DVD, it was part of a Katharine Hepburn collection that included the 1933 version of Little Women, which won Best Adapted Screenplay. When I was going through adapted screenplay winners in 2017, after I watched that one, the collection somehow fell under my bed without me realizing it, so the next time I wanted to watch Stage Door, I couldn’t find it, and it wasn’t until 2022 that I finally cleaned out under my bed and uncovered it. So Stage Door would be even higher on this list if I cleaned my room more often.

In my last episode, I mentioned that what I really wanted out of Newsies was more of the ensemble just hanging out, and that is exactly what Stage Door provides. There are so many great scenes featuring Footlights Club residents exchanging witty banter, without in any way hindering the plot. While some of that comes from the stars, particularly Ginger Rogers, the supporting cast is absolute gold and features several relative unknowns at the time who became quite famous later, such as future television stars Eve Arden and Lucille Ball, in addition to then-14-year-old Ann Miller, who used a fake birth certificate to pretend to be 18, and somehow managed to hold her own dancing with Ginger Rogers. Gail Patrick was already somewhat established as a master of the cold, calculating secondary character, and she continues that here as Linda, Jean’s main rival before Terry shows up, but she later became even more noteworthy for executive producing the Perry Mason TV show in the 1950s and 1960s, when she was the only female executive producer of a prime-time show. It’s so fun to see these soon-to-be household names so early in their careers hanging out and swapping jokes. But I think I would still enjoy the ensemble scenes at least almost as much if I’d never heard of any of the performers. One of my favorite moments is when the oldest resident who is now an acting coach, played by Constance Collier, is going on yet again about “Back in my day” and somebody who’s holding a book interjects, “when knighthood was in flower” and Constance Collier is all offended until she says, “I’m sorry, I was just reading aloud” and her face and delivery are so perfect, and I have no idea who that character or actress is but I love her.

I’ve read several different stories of how this script came to be. While it’s ostensibly based on a play, apart from the title, the setting, and some of the characters’ names, it’s barely recognizable as the same story. Playwright George S. Kaufman reportedly quipped that the title should have been changed to Screen Door to further distance itself from his play. One story claims that director Gregory La Cava sent an assistant to pose as an aspiring actress in a boarding house and write down what the residents said to use as dialogue in the film. Another version says that La Cava had the actresses from the film hang out together on the set prior to shooting and incorporated their interactions into the script. And yet a third version is that much of the dialogue was improvised while filming. I’m not sure which is true, and I suppose it could be a combination of all three, or none of them, but regardless, the banter is excellent and feels entirely natural. While the slang is, of course, rather outdated, the way they insert snarky comments into their conversations feels exactly like how friend groups – particularly those who are discouraged and fed up but laughing to keep from screaming – interact in real life even now. It’s unusual to see a movie with a primarily female ensemble being so witty together, and I can’t even begin to explain how fun it is to watch. Granted, some of it does get a bit stereotypically catty, but even the least-developed unnamed extra in this movie feels like a real person. Beneath their jovial facades lurks a deep longing for success on the stage, as well as frustration at how difficult that is to achieve, and they all convey that so brilliantly. Mad props to the entire cast.

Like many of the movies I’ve talked about so far, Stage Door has a rather complicated relationship with sex and romance. Because production codes of the time prohibited most sexual content, they had to leave it kind of vague, but it’s implied that the character of theatrical producer Anthony Powell, played by Adolphe Menjou, is providing Gail Patrick’s character, Linda, with expensive clothes and jewelry in return for sexual favors – although why she’s still living at the Footlights Club is rather a mystery – until Ginger Rogers’s character Jean catches his eye and he gets her a job dancing at his nightclub. Jean initially despises him, and only starts dating him because of how much she hates Linda. It’s not entirely clear whether Jean actually sleeps with him – there’s a scene of her in his apartment getting very drunk, but then she starts talking about marriage and Powell has his butler send her home. But they apparently keep seeing each other after that, and Jean does seem to develop feelings for Powell, for completely unfathomable reasons, but Katharine Hepburn’s character Terry sees through him. There’s a great scene when Powell takes Terry to his apartment to discuss the role she’s just been given and she resists his advances, but then when Jean shows up Terry pretends they were in the middle of something so that Jean will see that Powell is no good. This doesn’t help Jean and Terry’s relationship, and most of the characters at the Footlights Club probably think that Terry got the role by sleeping with Powell – although the audience knows it’s because her father said he would help finance the new play if she was the star, hoping that she would fail and return home. Jean already thinks that Terry has previously had a similar arrangement to the one Linda had with Powell because Terry also has expensive clothes and a photograph of an old man she claims to be her grandfather – but again, the audience knows that Terry comes from a rich family and that the man probably is her actual grandfather. I guess showing characters inferring that other characters were having illicit sex was okay with the censors as long as it wasn’t confirmed? Also Powell tells Jean in the scene when she’s drunk that he has a wife and son, but later Terry exposes this as a lie, so even if he is sleeping with any or all of the people that characters think he might be, at least he’s not committing adultery because he’s not really married. Maybe this is just me, but I find it so fascinating what was and wasn’t allowed under these production codes. Anyway, in a similar but perhaps more innocent vein, Lucille Ball’s character is from Seattle, which apparently means she knows every lumberman who visits New York, so she’s often going out on dates with them. Jean clearly despises their uncouth ways, but the food at the Footlights Club is notoriously almost inedible, so she’s willing to let them dance on her feet and bore her in exchange for dinner. Incidentally, one of these double dates is what Eve Arden’s character is referring to in the line I quoted at the end of last episode about “a pleasant little foursome” and predicting a hatchet murder. It doesn’t seem like there’s sex involved in this arrangement, although Lucy’s character does end up marrying one of the lumbermen at the end, but it feels similar to the Powell situation in that it shows women willing to give men what they want in exchange for security, luxury, or both.

The idea that men always want sex and women either tolerate or use sex is certainly not unique to this film – it’s a prevalent stereotype even now that is harmful in so many ways, encouraging and normalizing incredibly toxic relationship dynamics between straight allosexuals. And a side effect is that it makes things very confusing for asexuals. Those who are socialized as girls may not recognize their own asexuality because women aren’t supposed to really want sex that much anyway. And those who are socialized as boys are pressured to ignore their asexuality because men are supposedly defined by their obsession with sex. It’s not great and we need to stop spreading this false narrative. But in terms of this movie, when you remember that it’s from 1937, the same year as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and “Someday My Prince Will Come,” it almost feels progressive to at least show women taking control of their own lives, even if they’re forced to do so within the confines of an oppressive, patriarchal society. There are a few times throughout the film when it’s suggested that these women would be better off getting married and raising children and giving up on their acting dreams, but this is presented as the view of society at large, particularly men like Powell, and not necessarily the truth. It’s rather empowering to see these women stubbornly taking the path that feels right to them even when they’re constantly being told to give up and conform. So from that perspective, the message feels less problematic and more encouraging, and that aspect speaks to me.

This movie also addresses mental health struggles in a very interesting way that I want to discuss a bit. Trigger Warning: I will be talking about depression and suicide in this section, so I’ll put time codes in the show notes if you need to skip through that [skip this and the next paragraph on the script]. For its time, I feel like this movie actually does a pretty good job of distinguishing between feeling a bit down and actually suffering from depression. Most of the residents of the Footlights Club are struggling to find work, but they’re managing. Kay Hamilton, however, is clearly not. She’s behind on her rent and skipping meals but refuses to ask for or accept help. It’s established that she gave a highly acclaimed performance in Anthony Powell’s previous play but hasn’t been able to find work since. Kay desperately wants the leading role in his new play, both because she needs the work and because she relates to the part. When Terry is cast instead, Kay is devastated, but insists that none of the others inform Terry how much she wanted it. To add insult to injury, Terry is awful in rehearsals, refusing to take direction and reading the lines as emotionlessly as possible, so we can all see that Kay would have been a much better choice. On opening night, Kay gives Terry her good luck charm, and then jumps out the window, killing herself. Jean confronts Terry and blames her for Kay’s death. Terry is beside herself – Kay was basically the only one who was nice to Terry – and at first doesn’t want to perform at all, but her grief puts her in the perfect mindset to play the character whose feelings she’s never understood before. She’s clearly performing to honor Kay’s memory, and all of the Footlights Club residents in attendance recognize that, and afterwards Jean and Terry finally become friends.

The main thing I remember from the first time I watched this was how shocked I was by Kay’s suicide. It felt like such an abrupt and upsetting change of tone from what had been mostly a lighthearted comedy. But upon rewatch there are so many signs. When all the other residents of the boarding house are laughing off their troubles, Kay never joins in, only occasionally managing a weak smile to try to reassure her concerned friends that she’s fine. Nobody knows how to help her, and she doesn’t know how to accept the help that’s offered. It’s an upsetting but realistic portrayal of depression, and Andrea Leeds plays it so perfectly that she was even nominated for an Oscar. Considering that, even with all the recent advances made in mental health research and treatment, many people still consider depression just a period of sadness when you’re not trying hard enough to cheer yourself up, it’s astounding that a movie made 86 years ago does such an excellent job of conveying what it actually feels like. It’s not really sadness; it’s more of a void. A hopeless void that you feel like you’ll be stuck in forever. And that’s what Kay shows us. I don’t think I consciously realized this when I was watching Stage Door as a teenager suffering from depression, but I do think in a weird way it helped, to see what I was feeling from the outside. To see that Kay was surrounded by people who cared about and wanted to help her, that the void was lying when it told her there was no other way out except through the window. I wish there had been a way to save her, and I don’t love the implication that her death was necessary to make Terry a good actress, although I don’t think that was the message they were going for. I think the film is trying to say that art and storytelling can be used to channel pain into something beautiful, and while there are certainly better ways to convey this that don’t involve suicide, I still feel like this movie is surprisingly respectful of mental health struggles, particularly for its time, and I appreciate that.

I know I’ve been emphasizing some of the darker aspects, but it’s mostly an uplifting movie. It’s just also trying to be realistic about the hardships faced by women pursuing artistic careers, particularly during the Great Depression – not that things are much better now. I kind of think having this movie in the back of my mind has contributed to at least some of my decisions to support female actors and producers on Patreon. If only the residents of the Footlights Club had had access to the internet. Anyway, there are lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes Stage Door stories, and I’m not sure if any or all of them are actually true, but I want to mention some of them nonetheless. There was apparently a random cat on the RKO lot that took a liking to Eve Arden, so Gregory La Cava decided to make it part of the movie that her character was almost always holding or playing with the cat. Perhaps the most famous line in Stage Door is Terry’s speech in the play, which starts with “The calla lilies are in bloom again…” This was taken from a play called “The Lake” in which Katharine Hepburn had appeared on Broadway, and, in the words of critic Dorothy Parker, “ran the gamut of emotions – from A to B.” So Hepburn used this performance to redeem herself a bit. She certainly shows more emotional range than A to B, although I feel like she still had more to learn before becoming the truly excellent performer she’s remembered as. According to several accounts, Katharine Hepburn was extremely envious of Ginger Rogers, whose career at the time was going much better than her own. Rogers had a much easier time taking direction and getting along with people, and just seemed to generally have more natural talent for performing. So Hepburn resented her, and insisted on sharing top billing instead of taking second billing under her. Rogers was disappointed when Margaret Sullavan, who had played Terry Randall on Broadway and was originally cast in the film version, became pregnant and had to drop out. So neither of them were thrilled to be working together. Since I love both Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, it makes me a little sad that they didn’t actually like each other, but that was kind of perfect for their characters’ dynamic in this movie. A nicer story is that Ginger Rogers helped launch Ann Miller’s career by insisting she get the role of her dance partner even though the director thought she was too tall, and apparently Rogers and Miller became life-long friends. And one last fun piece of trivia that I recently stumbled upon is that the woman in the photograph of Anthony Powell’s pretend wife was Verree Teasdale, who was married to Adolphe Menjou – so the character’s fake wife was the actor’s actual wife.

Thank you for listening to me talk through another of my most frequently re-watched movies. We’re a quarter of the way through the list already! Remember to subscribe or follow on your podcast platform of choice for more, and rate or leave a review to let me know how you’re enjoying it so far. This episode is coming out on International Asexuality Day, so I hope my fellow aces out there are feeling particularly supported and celebrated today. As always, I will leave you with a quote from the next movie: “You promised me a zillion dollars! And a nickel!”

#stage door #the rewatch rewind #tw depression #tw suicide #ginger rogers #katharine hepburn

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cornsword · 1 year

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Hey there Netflix.

Yeah it’s me, User # 1 Billion and Eight probably.

I used to get you in the mail. You had every movie ever and a ton of new and old tv shows. I used you to go full immersion on genres and whole countries that a kid from Alabama never had a chance to explore before.

I remember after your teething troubles and your streaming library really blew up for the first time. You didn’t have everything but if it could be streamed digitally in those early days you probably had it. I got to see a ton of Hammer for the first time with you.

You decided at some point that you wanted to be a tv channel and not the home for movies. That bummed me out and I used you less and less as your movie library dwindled, seeming to fracture with every new competitor platform while you loaded up on millennial sitcoms. Hey it worked out for you right?

You even made some great shows. I loved Glow, I loved Tuca and Bertie, I really enjoyed a lot of Stranger Things, and you even brought back MST3K!

I watched 227 movies last Halloween and I think I used Netflix twice, once because I didn’t want to get up and find my dvd. All those shows are gone now, cut off at the knees, barring Stranger Things …which is ending.

Your own data tells you the bulk of your user base used you over the years as a Friends machine, or an Office machine, or a Stranger Things machine. That repetitive binge isn’t my bag but I see the appeal. But there are plenty of ways to watch those Netflix shows, and these days there’s oodles of Stranger Things content still to be had sans subscription.

All anyone needs in order to not use you is one reason. Almost any reason, any one, would do, and you’ve given people a stream of them these last few years. You’re not even a cheap date any more. And you’ve decided what’s really going to turn it around for you is to make you harder and way more expensive to use for millions of people?

That’s certainly A move. At a time when I need a reason to stay I hardly need another reason to leave. This ain’t a good bye, not now not yet, but a notice. Because when you see your numbers take a huge hit you’re going to blame it on people being too cheap or the ecoooonomy or these KIIIIDS TODAYYYY or whatever (we all know it) and the people who actually make your content are going to have to take the pipe for it. It won’t be any of that though really. It’ll be because YOU’VE been telling us to leave for a while now, and decided the way to turn around from that was to start YELLING IT.

#netflix #fuck netflix #stranger things #password sharing #netflix crackdown #it’s not just bad for horror either #on the waterfront #is one of my favorite movies #i can literally watch it anywhere but netflix #you’ve changed man

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keyrousse · 2 years

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So, I finished "The Sandman". Which is amazing because I don't remember when did I finish any show last. "Good Omens" maybe? I haven't even finished "Staged", which is 12 episodes of 15 minutes each and I have the DVD.

I haven't read the comics and I'm still debating (with myself) whether to do it. I'll probably take a look at a local library, although considering that the show is No 1 in Poland, too, if they even have the comics I'll probably have to get in line.

Anyway, 8/10.

Maybe it's because it started with the main character locked naked in a glass orb, looking like a piece of art and thus giving the fic writer in me a lot of scenarios for delicious hurt/comfort (I haven't written a fic for this - yet? - but a lot of other people did, which I greatly appreciate). After seeing those images, I could simply take joy from Tom Sturridge's acting - and then it got even better.

The cast is perfect. Acting is great. I enjoyed - and could easily follow! - the events, laughing, going 'awww!' or barely handling the tension (looking at you, ep5). Screencapping.

I don't know why on IMDb the notes tanked after ep6. Sure, the focus shifted from following Dream to Rose Walker, but that doesn't make episodes 7-10 bad. They're just different.

So. Anyway. I loved it and I hope we'll get s2. (and DVD/BluRay of s1, because I don't trust streaming services and prefer to have a physical copy of every medium I love. Yes, I still buy CDs, DVDs and BluRays. This is my way of showing love.)

(I still think one of the reasons the show's so good - and apparently a very faithful adaptation of the comics - is because Neil Gaiman was so passionate and closely involved. If only Andrzej Sapkowski cared about his world this much.)

Congrats to the whole team involved in the production of "The Sandman".

"I will build it again."

"No more ravens."

"Had a devil locked up in his basement."

I like your profile, sir. (I also loved that coat. I wouldn't wear it, but the leather parts looked like an armour)

I wonder if that was actually Tom Sturridge's hand. They removed the fingerprints and I'm sure he's grown his fingernails to look more claw-like, as seen especially in ep1, so it's possible it's not his hand.

I absolutely loved their dynamic here.

I still like your profile, sir.

Here comes the jerk! Up to that episode, I was wondering why people say Dream's an asshole. I was like, 'he's not human, he was hurt so he's angry, but a jerk? Naah.' Well, he is a jerk.

profile

"They're siblings, don't see that as erotic!" Yeah, well, if only Tom, Alexander, the writers, the director, the art department (or whoever is responsible for that setting) and the music department didn't make it look erotic. Because that scene was incredibly sexy.

I have about 280 screencaps. Sorry they're so dark, I'm lazy.

#The Sandman #screencaps #Tom Sturridge #Dream of the Endless

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vavandeveresfan · 1 year

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Why did no one TELL me that “Turning Red” is fucking brilliant?!

Yes, yes, I’m late to this film. I don’t have streaming so I couldn’t watch it on Disney+, and I no longer go to theaters because too often I pay $10 and hate the movie. I wait for things to come out on DVD, if they ever do. So I only just borrowed this from my library.

Holy fuck, do I love this movie.

I love middle-grade fiction (10-13 year olds). I’ve been really, really disappointed with MG novels the last few years. The writing has been shit. Authors know how to write “killer” first chapters, because that’s what writing teachers tell them they have to do, but they’re not good at middles and godawful at endings. It’s as if they’re following a Kid Lit 101 template for “How To Write A Middle-Grade Novel.” So I can read through a literal stack of MGS and each one has the exact same plot, with the same use of coincidence to give the MC a Happy Ending With a Lesson.

First, Turning Red surprised me by its time period and location: Toronto, 2002. Which was nice, because therefore the middle-school characters weren’t walking around with smartphones and earbuds.

Second, which should be first: The screenwriters depicted 13-year-old girls like real goddamn 13-year-old girls. Not teenagers in smaller bodies. The writers understood fannishness and depicted it accurately. And, most important, they didn’t mock it.

Nearly all goddamn entertainment media (with the exception of Miraculous Ladybug) shows kids creating fanart and fan content with a slight condescending sneer. “Oh, it’s really so cringe, but the kids like it.” TR depicts just how important fandom is to Mei and her friends, that it’s not a crutch or “coping mechanism.” It’s a stabilizing, life-affirming, integral part of growing up, of learning about yourself and your relationship with a difficult, unstable period of your life (that even, helLO, adults enjoy).

And the writing is just so fucking good. The way the characters react to Mei’s transformation, to a giant fucking panda running around Toronto, is handled so well, so consistently. Do they call the police or the FBI or some secret government Cryptozoology Unit? No. The people are shocked and surprised, but they accept it. That they do means the audience does, so there isn’t a belabored “Well, let’s explain this bizarre phenomenon so you’ll accept our world-building” exposition bullshit.

The plot moves forward with logical progression. The girls want to go to the concert. This means they need to raise money. They turn Mei’s transformation into a benefit. Because the kids act like kids would. They fucking LOVE Mei as a giant panda. These are kids who are into manga, anime, fanfics, fanart, and plushies. Real kids would see a giant, talking panda and run TO it, not from it. Of course they’d pay to take selfies with it, and buy merch. TR doesn’t laugh at the kids who wear panda ears and tails. It understands and celebrates them.

Of course the movie is too short to round out all the characters. But given its limited time each of Mei’s friends has a distinct personality. The screenwriters don’t explain why four such different girls have bonded so deeply. Watching their joy and camaraderie is more than enough for the audience to understand. They fill niches in each other, making them whole.

I love how Abby yells in Korean and they don’t have subtitles.

I also love that the girls’ crushes aren’t stereotypically handsome. The 17 year old cashier at the convenience store, the kid at his locker who Mei gapes at, they’re just regular-looking boys to the audience, but they’re special to the girls, and that’s refreshing.

I’m Hapa, but I didn’t grow up around other Asians. I’m not familiar with the pressure Mei gets from her mother, which some accused of being stereotypical of the “Tiger Mom.” But other Asian girls have said it’s fucking accurate. And god knows the pressure isn’t limited to Asian families. It’s a truism that the more specific your story the more universal it is. Most kids can identify with adults pushing them to goals they may or may not want. That we the audience experience a culture with which we may not be familiar is icing on the cake.

I LOVE that for once we see a religion that isn’t Christianity, and it’s treated with respect and sincerity, not as something exotic or weird.

The metaphor of Mei’s transformation isn’t heavy-handed, partly because of its humor. I absolutely adore how they treat a girl’s first menstruation with the alarm which many parents feel, but also as completely normal.

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I love that they don’t get into detail about exactly how Ming hurt her own mother. But we can guess it by Wu’s eyebrow scar, and how she touches it when she mentions how dangerous being a panda can be.

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The concert’s opening is a fantastic build-up. Mei has fled the ritual that would deny her her “red panda” and instead goes to the concert, a ritual in itself, the pacing, the sound, the reveal. This is Mei and her friends’ initiation into, as they say, being “women.” Even Tyler undergoes the ritual of admitting to others his own blossoming adolescence, and finds common ground with the girls. In 2002 it was still risky for a boy to openly show his crush for another boy.

Here Mei, her friends, Tyler, and all the other kids at the concert join in an open-air Communion. Notice there are no adults in sight. In fact, the liturgy is interrupted when an adult, Ming in panda form, bursts in. But the transformation -- Mei and her friends into “womanhood” -- continues and is an integral part of the Red moon ritual. This is some amazing metaphorical shit, and it’s done so smoothly, so unconsciously, so damn well, on a gut level.

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The screenwriters set up that any singing will work for the ceremony -- Mr. Gao, the shaman, says he loves Tony Bennett -- as long as it’s from the heart. So having 4 Town and their concert audience singing help the ritual absolutely works.

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The only thing I don’t like about TR is the closing speech by Mei. It’s preachy and unnecessary. But, that’s American animation, and fiction, for kids. They’re expected to Teach A Lesson. I just wish the writers and director had left it off.

Last but not least, Mei’s father. What can I say? A quiet figure, who any other movie would have turned into a weak nagged-to-death husband. Instead, he’s talented in his own right -- a great cook; we see it when he’s introduced, so we immediately know he’s an artist with food; it reminded me of Ratatouille. He speaks for Mei, and though his wife dominates their scenes together, it’s his kind, caring, common sense personality that helps Mei along. Her transformation, from girl to woman, isn’t his area of expertise. He knows it. But he’s there as her support.

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If I had to pick just one Disney-Pixar film to show middle-grade kids, Turning Red would be it. I want to show it to every middle-grade writer I know and tell them to fucking learn from it.

#Turning Red #Disney #Pixar #I fucking love this movie #middle-grade novels #MG books

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gremlinbehaviour · 4 months

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Amazon deciding to show ads on prime videos and such has convinced my parents to unsubscribe, and in signing up for alternatives for entertainment I've discovered several cool things.

Lots of libraries now let you stream videos and music as well as being able to check out CDs and DVDs! My hometown and college town public libraries both go through Hoopla, which has music, movies and TV as well as books, audiobooks, and comics! It even has things like binge passes that let you access other platforms like CuriosityStream for a week or so at a time! My account says I can check out 15 items per month, so I'll use it mostly for stuff that I can't get through the library regularly, but that's still one thing every other day, which is pretty awesome!

If you subscribe to certain 'channels' within Amazon, you don't have to go through Amazon to access them! I don't know everything that's available outside of Amazon, but I was surprised to see that you can just sign up for Britbox on its own website, so you should definitely google it just to check!

Okay this one is actually something I did know before but I'm including it here anyway because it's useful. You can stream videos from PBS for free at PBS.org or through their app! To stream on a browser you don't even have to make an account! You can also get an app for free, though that does require an account, or if you want access to more and older items through PBS Passport, you can pay for that through a charitable donation that helps support free and reliable programming and news.

In summary, there's a lot of ways to stream cool stuff that doesn't require paying for the ever-expanding list of expensive streaming platforms that will probably cancel your favorite shows or remove your favorite movies within the next year anyway. Obviously piracy is an option too, but if you're not very good with technology and are nervous about viruses like me, these might be safer, easier, and less anxiety-inducing. Anyway, go forth and stream things! I'll be off watching the Nature documentary I was obsessed with as a child about hippopotamuses

#anti amazon #public libraries #pbs #streaming #resources

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etaleah · 2 years

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I Watched the Animaniacs Reboot and I LOVE IT

When I first heard about it a few years ago, I was on the fence, thinking there was no way they’d be able to replicate the clever humor, how it wouldn’t be the same, etc. Then, after seeing a couple of clips on YouTube and liking what I saw, I borrowed the Season 1 and 2 DVDs from the library and gave it a go.

It. Was. PHENOMENAL.

Surpassed my expectations and left me eager for Season 3, which I believe is happening this year (which means I likely won’t be able to see it until next year since I don’t want a Hulu subscription). In a time when I’ve been feeling really depressed, this show made me laugh and cheered me up more than anything else has.

Here are all the reasons why the reboot succeeds and is well worth your time:

1. The original voice cast is back. Rob Paulsen, Tress MacNeille, Jess Harnell, and Maurice LaMarche are all reprising their roles, and you can really tell how much they love their characters. It bleeds into every sketch.

2. Despite being marketed as a family show for kids, this version of Animaniacs is clearly aimed at an older audience, mostly millennials like me who enjoyed it as kids and are grown up. There’s some slapstick for the young ones, but most of the jokes are wordplay, parodies, political/cultural satire, and barely-disguised sex jokes. I really dug it, and enjoy that kind of thing more than I do in the original because I actually understand it. I was so young in the 90′s that some of the bits about celebrities and pop culture went over my head and still aren’t all that clear to me, whereas now I understand everything.

3. Instead of having 15 different characters like the original, only the Warners and Pinky and the Brain feature in the reboot. This was, in my opinion, the best decision they could have made. With the exception of Slappy Squirrel, I really didn’t care for any of the other characters. They were boring, void of any personality beyond one or two basic traits, and just didn’t really add much. Tightening the focus to the best-loved of them all makes the writing much better since the creators aren’t spread too thin.

4. The reboot clearly had a much bigger budget than the original, which means the animation is more consistently good. Some of the older episodes look really dated and have mistakes in them, while the newer ones are well-drawn, more colorful, and just nicer to look at. This isn’t the original’s fault; it was made in an era where television wasn’t as respectable an art form and they didn’t have a built-in audience like the reboot does. But it’s still definitely a point in the new version’s favor.

5. The humor for the reboot has clearly been updated for the current social climate. One thing I didn’t care for in the original was how Yakko and Wakko would throw themselves all over any woman of childbearing age, and Dot did pretty much the same for any man while saying “Boys! Go fig.” This doesn’t happen in the reboot. Hello Nurse is gone, Warner Bros. has a woman CEO who Yakko and Wakko don’t flirt with, and Dot has more of a personality outside of simply being “the girl” or “the cute one.” There’s even a bit in the revamped theme song where they sing, “Gender-balanced, pronoun-neutral, and ethnically diverse!” And yes, that does feel a bit like pandering, but still. I like it.

6. FUCKING PINKY AND THE BRAIN. Whoever is writing them knows what they’re doing because just about every episode with those gay mice is pure gold. And speaking of gay mice, Season 2 really dials up the gay subtext between the characters. Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche have fully admitted there is love between the two and that they play them as kind of an elderly gay couple, and this dynamic is so delightful to watch. Season 1 is more similar to the original, but Season 2...man, they really threw the Brinky shippers a bone with Season 2. Brain is far less physically abusive with more cutesy facial expressions, there’s more hugging, and even a few episodes dedicated to showing how much they care about each other. For most of the season, the world domination plot takes a backseat to whatever is going on between them, and I just. Love it so much. The Christmas special of their ‘90s spinoff, the one where Brain cries over Pinky’s love for him in a letter to Santa, is the episode that won them the Emmy, and I think the writers learned from this and wisely decided to do more in that vein.

The fact that this is being made in the 2020s and not the 1990s means they can really go hard on the gay, and the result is that I actually enjoyed the mice even more than the Warners. There’s a super touching and emotional scene where you’re led to believe that Pinky has died, and Brain has tears in his eyes about it. Now, the audience knows Pinky can’t be dead because it isn’t that kind of show. Animaniacs is a silly cartoon full of satirical sketches, not the kind of media where characters get killed. So I knew Pinky was going to spring back to life at any second (which is of course what happens), but the important thing here was that Brain didn’t know that. He genuinely believed Pinky had died, and the tears in his eyes tugged at my heartstrings in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time. Then he does something I could not believe the creators were willing to have him do:

He kisses his hand and then caresses Pinky’s face with it in a loving gesture.

I about melted from sheer emotion at that scene. Not since Basil and Dawson have I had so many feels over cartoon gay mice.

There was a similar bit in Wakko’s Wish where we’re meant to think Dot is dead, only for her to snap back to life a minute later. That one didn’t work nearly as well because we’re told that Yakko knew she was acting the whole time and was only pretending to cry over her. The result here is that you feel cheated and manipulated because you were led to believe that Yakko was in emotional distress when he wasn’t. They were smart enough to avoid that with Pinky and the Brain by having Brain actually believe Pinky was dead, so the emotion feels genuine and sincere. They’re able to have moments like these that the Warners really can’t, so I think the mice have more potential. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we got a reboot of their spinoff as well. They’re just so damn good together.

All of this is not to say that the reboot is perfect. There are some sketches that are duds, a few god-awful ideas that don’t work like those stupid alien and gnome bits, and way too many fat jokes for comfort. Plus the songs aren’t quite as catchy and memorable as they were in the 90′s, though there are a few good ones.

But even with all of that said...anyone who loved Animaniacs should really give the reboot a chance. It kept what was good and scrapped what was bad from the original, and if they can keep that up in Season 3, I’ll be very happy.

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #brinky #yakko warner #wakko warner #dot warner #90s cartoons #personal #my thoughts #yakko wakko and dot #gay stuff

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life-in-the-monster-haus · 1 year

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When do you think the Monster High show will be on Paramount+ and other watching places? Apparently its not up anywhere, the live watching times have passed already. Does it have a different release on Paramount+ than Nick? (Just really curious. I really was the watch it lol)

I feel you! I don't have Cable so I purchased "The Monstering" on Youtube for $2 (I don't need to see it in HD)

I have Paramount + and according to the Nick Live website it SAYS that 17 Monster High titles are going to be added in October, WELP it's November 1st and as of right now the only Monster High media on Paramount + is A New Ghoul @ School and The Live Action Monster High Movie.

What is the truth Nickelodeon!?

The Movie aired pretty regularly all during October However, according to the TV Guide Website it is not airing on Nickelodeon in the next 14 days. So if you wanna watch the movie you might have get Paramount + (use the free trial f you got it) or buy the movie outright which might be a challenge because I don't think it will be getting a DVD release since studios hate physical media (I HOPE I am wrong, dear god let me be wrong.) Hulu has the movie as well but only with the Nickelodeon live TV add on, Regular Hulu won't help you.

The Monster High Animated series SHOULD be on Paramount +, it's a nickelodeon property and we are 2 episodes deep with a 3rd on the way Friday. The fact that it's not is very annoying. I shouldn't have to pay to watch it on YouTube when I am already paying for Paramount + but I did.

Now, I don't want to advocate for Piracy because it's "wrong" or whatever.

But sometimes piracy is your only viable option. And with it becoming increasingly obvious it will be our only option with Physical Media breathing it's last breath as more and more companies refuse to make DVDs and/or Blu-Rays and even more companies pulling content (that many have already purchased) from their libraries with no way of getting the content you purchased back. Did you like Final Space? No you didn't because currently? you can't buy it anywhere!... things are looking grim for a lot of shows.

So I don't want to tell you to download these things illegally. But at the same time... I'm not your parents.

THAT BEING SAID! if you chose this route (and I'm not saying you should) You are absolutely morally obligated to support the series in other ways. I don't like resorting to these methods, I'm a content creator myself as are many of my friends but sometimes our hand is forced. so IF you choose to go down this path, you absolutely must watch the show through proper channels as soon as you are able to, create fan art, stories, cosplay for the show, send some nice messages to the creators, buy the dolls, toys, merch, make up, anything! Bully Nickelodeon and tell them you want DVDs! Blow up Paramount + and demand they air the content you're paying for in a timely fashion! Harass Mattel and tell them to do better with their product!

Remember Kids: it's okay to bully soulless corporate entities! But do not under any circumstances bother the Actors or Voice Actors they don't have the power to change anything and they are real people with real feelings. I saw what y'all did to Lagoona's voice actor and that shite was wrong.

Now, I am going to watch "The Monstering" on my purchased youtube pass, Because despite the fact that I pay for Paramount + it's not on there. And if that is how I have to watch the show then so be it because I'm not waiting 9 months for them to add it to Paramount + all in one big drop the same way I have to wait for Rick and Morty on Hulu, I won't do it and I shouldn't have too. the rest of you?

Do what you gotta do, drink up me hearties yo-ho.

#Monster high

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