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lazytitans-world · 3 months

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My research findings on the production of Wish

Never have I seen a fan community do so much with so little than I have with Wish. And to start off, I want to say that you should watch the movie first before going into this and the Starboy fandom as I believe it to be important on forming your own opinion before moving on as I find most of the fandom to have a negative view of the movie, one I do not really share. I found Wish to be fine. I did not hate it, but I did not love it like I do other Disney animated films. But the many rewrites, drawings and animatics featuring character designs that did not make it far in production have become icons in this community inspired me to do a deep dive to see if I could find where in production these concepts died and why.

To save you a read, this production was a victim of simplicity. I feel that many concepts and story ideas were tossed away due to complicating the story, which was always going to focus on Asha trying to save the wishes of her fellow kingdom citizens with the help of a wishing star. I have read many articles and watched a few deleted scenes from the home release and here are my findings.

Starboy never got far in development as the book states that the team went down "a few blind alleys" that lead them to star having a human design for a period. This is probably the period in time where all the Starboy concept art came from and where a potential romantic subplot with Asha was kicked around. It was.

What did Starboy in was the team's choice to make them a shapeshifter as the team thought the character was way overpowered and thus the story lost a lot of dramatic tension (a choice I kind of agree with). It was here where the design team decided that Star needed an overhaul and brought the Story Development artists in and this is where Starboy died and plush Star was finalized.

There are no official storyboards that feature the Starboy designs.

At the start of Wish's production, Frozen 2 was entering it's final stage of production (this would be either late 2018 or early 2019) and was obviously the main focus for Disney animation not to mention projects like Raya and the Last Dragon, Strange World and Encanto were entering their mid development stages before the shutdown.

The effects of the global shutdown were not mentioned in the book, but I would not be shocked if production was affected by it.

Ariana DeBose has said that Wish did not need a love story as she said that,

“I think we live in a time where things are cyclical, right? And so, it’s good for variance and perspective. Not every female Disney character needs to have a go and ambition of simply finding a man to love her. There are more stories to tell.

"And especially in the world we live in today I think something like Wish, that has a broader outlook that talks about community, is just as important as talking about love. And there are so many different ways to love."

"You do see familiar love, love of friendship" in the movie, including the relationship between Asha and Star. Star and Asha have this beautiful connection with each other and so I think it’s good reminding people that not only we can tell different stories, we can also talk about love in different ways.”(source: Exclusive: Wish’s Ariana DeBose defends lack of romance in recent Disney movies (yahoo.com)) whether Ariana had any say on story or character development is unknown.

7. From what I read from the Art of Wish book, the story was always meant to be about Asha defying Magnifico to fight for the people of Rosas and their wishes.

8. As it pertains to "At All Costs", a song that many are saying was meant to be a love song between Asha and Star, in an article by Variety(Julia Michaels Wrote 'Wish' Theme Before the Script Even Existed (variety.com), it states that a love song was not in the film at the time of production and songwriter Julia Michaels "wanted to write a song that as a standalone sounded like a love song that could be played at weddings."

Michaels would go on to say, "How cool would it be if we wrote a song that if you listened to on its own, it sounds like a love song, it could be something you could play at your wedding, or be a lullaby to your kids, just something really beautiful, but when you watch the film, it’s the heroine and it’s the villain.” She continues, “You realize they’re coming about this both from various points, one from a very selfless standpoint and one from a selfish standpoint.”

9. In the same Variety article, it was revealed that for some time in 2020, no script existed for the movie, but Julia Michaels was asked to be the songwriter for the movie and that is where she pitched "This Wish" which would go on to be one of the first songs revealed for the movie.

10. the Variety article also had Jennifer Lee, head of Disney Animation and one of the writers on Wish, say that she wanted a song that showed "it felt like to hold someone’s wish in your hand. How do we viscerally understand that when you’re with them, you feel like you’re holding someone’s raison d’être?” that song would end it being "At All Costs"

11. September 9, 2022, D23 Expo in Anaheim California. This is where certain members of the public got a glimpse of the production of Wish. Jennifer Lee, writer and director Chris Buck, and co-director Fawn Veerasunthorn spoke about the movie and showed the first look of the finalized design of Star which ended up being the mute plush model that ended up in the movie. This means there was a 3-year gap where Starboy and the romance side plot were discussed then shelved.

It was also during this show where the public would learn that Ariana DeBuse would voice Asha and that Alan Tudyk, a staple of past Disney animated films, would have a featured role in the movie as Asha's pet goat Valentino, who would be able to talk thanks to Star's magic. It was also at that show where DuBose came out to sing "This Wish" but at the time the song was called "More for Us".

Magnifico was not revealed at the event but was teased as "one of the most formidable foes in Disney history" which is debatable to say the least.

12. 5 deleted scenes in total appear on the Wish digital and disc copies each introduced by head of story Mark Kennedy where he would describe why the scene got cut. One scene shows Amaya assisting Magnifico in his plan, tying into an early concept where she was a villain alongside him.

Another scene had Asha, Star (who in this scene could shape shift and talk) and Valentino try to sneak into Rosas before being spotted and chased by Amaya, once again acting antagonistic to Asha.

A scene had Magnifco gather the people of Rosas to demand Star be given to him, as he had never seen Star in this version, and Asha her friends try to distract him by having Valentino, who in this version had a more Steve Carell like voice, pretend to be Star while the real Star, who was voiced in this version and was designed as ball of light with eyes and mouth, was trying to free the captured wishes. This scene was changed because they wanted Magnifco to be more threatening and instead of asking the people for Star, he would capture Star. Kennedy would go on to say that they wanted Asha and Magnifico to be smart and that Asha would not do a plan that silly, and they wanted the climax to be Magnifico and Asha alone, so they set it on a platform high above Rosas.

The next scene featured an ally of Asha's named Flazino that was cut out in order to shrink her friend group and tied the group back to the seven dwarfs from Snow White.

Finally, there was a scene where Asha and her grandfather scaled a wishing tree with her grandfather Sabino that showcased their bond but also Sabino's insistence that Asha take down Magnifico.

Each of these scenes felt completely different to the movie that ended up being released.

13. It should be noted that Wish released only a short while after the 2023 Writers and Actors strikes, which meant that for most of the summer and fall of that year, the actors could not do any press for the movie and all marketing was done through ads, trailers and merchandise.

14. As revealed in an article for Disney twenty-three, a magazine for gold members of the Disney D23 Fanclub, in the early visual development stage, there was a test scene that Asha was briefly transported to the village from Pinocchio. This was done to see how the 3D character designs would match with the hand drawn, watercolor backgrounds of classic Disney movies.

15. In that same article, Chris Buck said that in regard to Magnifico's character development that they wanted the audience "to see the evolution of a villain, so he's not a monster from frame one". From what becomes of Magnifico I get what they tried to do, they wanted to show how a character falls into villainy even if they're intentions are good. It also stands with the modern writing style of Disney animation films trying to update classics, this time by having audiences start off by kind of liking the villain through their personality alone.

18. The article also briefly mentions that Star "went through many iterations" another hint of Starboy being considered as a final design.

19. In the Art of Wish book, there is a page that shows the script where Asha meets Star and Star is described as a "cuddly, 3D, five-pointed star." This would indicate that the Starboy concept never got to the scripting stages.

20. In Art of Wish, the reason why Star does not speak is because the film makers wanted to stick to a tenet of film making, show don't tell.

21. Star's face was inspired by the mask like face of early Mickey Mouse cartoons.

22. From all readings, it is safe to say that Asha was NEVER considered to be a princess in any of the iterations of the story as some writers felt it to be too safe of a choice and liked the idea of an ordinary citizen going against the established power of the king.

23. During production, the Disney CEO position changed twice as Bob Iger left the company in early 2020 and named Bob Chapek as his replacement before returning to the company in mid 2023. It is unknown if these changes had any effects of Wish's production as it was it stated development as Iger's first tenure was ending but took place during a majority of Chapek's time.

24. When Angelique Cabal, who voiced Amaya in Wish, first auditioned for the role the character in 2022 Amaya was written as a villain while Magnifico was supposed to be the good king. It was when she returned for the callback that Amaya was changed to what she ended up being in the movie. Source https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/how-one-character-disney-wish-completely-changed-during-production

In closing, for fans of the Starboy concept, it saddens me to say that it looks the idea only made it as far as concept art as at the time of writing this, no animated sequences, scripts or storyboards have been released that had Star in a human design or discussed a romantic relationship with Asha. I believe the writing team found a romantic relationship between Star and Asha too complicated for the story and decided to simplify the relationship and design of Star to better suit the plot of Asha going against Magnifico. I am disappointed Wish did not go with the more interesting concepts but maybe down the line we'll get that cosmic Disney romance and a villain couple, it just has to work with the story.

I want to say thank you for those that made it to the end, this movie has been on my mind for quite a while and seeing all the re-writes, drawings and animations people have done for Starboy and Asha has been amazing to see. These works have inspired me to rewatch Wish at some point to see if Starboy could have worked in the movie with the story as is, and even share how I would have changed a few things in the story to fit the character and a romantic subplot with Asha plus an idea on how to bring in Starboy while still staying true to the established cannon.

I do hope others watch and enjoy Wish as from what I have read the team did put a lot of effort to makes this movie worthy of not only the high standards Disney animation has set, but as a piece of the 100-year story telling of the Walt Disney company. Film making is already hard enough as it is, especially in animation, but having to make a movie with an original concept and characters that still pays tribute to 100 years of storytelling is a daunting task and I understand and respect the choices they made when making the film and you should as well.

#disney #disney wish #asha x star #starboy #wish reimagined #wish rewrite #wish 2023 #wish #disney star

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frodo-with-glasses · 9 months

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25 Questions with Phil Dragash: YES, SERIOUSLY!

So y'all know how I was reviewing Phil Dragash's audiobook of LotR last year, but kinda fell off somewhere in the middle of Rohan?? Well, guess what! A couple weeks ago, I received a tumblr message from the man himself, saying he'd read through all my reviews, had really enjoyed the little blast from the past, and was open to answering questions if I had any!

So of course, I had LOTS of questions.

The first one being: "Are you actually the real Phil Dragash??"

But I'm delighted to say that after exchanging emails with the work email listed on his website, I can confidently say that it is the real dude, and I've had a blast chatting with him! So for those of you who urged I listen to this audiobook—especially @laurelindorenan for her glowing recommendation—and for everyone else who likes the audiobook and/or enjoyed my reviews: I am delighted to present, ladies and gentlehobbits, this peek behind the curtain!

But of course I'm putting it all below the cut, because this man rambles like I do 🤣

Obligatory disclaimer: All opinions presented by Mr. Dragash are his own, I am not necessarily condoning any of them; please do not come after me for his opinions regarding pineapple on pizza.

25 QUESTIONS, LET'S GO!

1. Tell me how you got into Lord of the Rings!

I was ten years old when my dad took me to the library, and found a VHS copy of Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated Lord of the Rings film. I was already a fan of the “Chronicles of Narnia” and my dad just handed the tape to me and said “Look, C.S. Lewis’s friend made this”. I watched it, and had no idea what was going on. It was so hard to understand.

Fast forward to the year 2002 when “Fellowship” was out on DVD, and we had a movie night at my older cousin’s place, and watched the film for the first time. My 13 year old self was enraptured by it. Dad bought the DVD first thing the next day, and I’ve been a fan ever since! I, my brother, and our dad watched “Return of the King” in theaters four times, which was saying something, considering we only ever saw a movie once in cinemas. Between “The Return of the King” opening in December ‘03, I picked up the books and read (as well as I could) through them. A lot of friends kept joking “tell us how the damn story ends!”, good times.

2. When and how did you decide to make this audiobook? What’s the story behind the entire project?

I was a very ambitious lad, and my first and biggest interest was filmmaking. I used to direct short films with my friends ever since my 11th birthday, and was the youngest in class at the filmschool I attended a few years later. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I had massive ambitions to direct “the Hobbit”, which is silly in retrospect considering I was 16 years old at the time. I even sent my portfolio and DVDs of my films to Peter Jackson’s manager (who actually got back to me with a wonderful response, despite not being able to accept my ‘completely reasonable’ offer) When I was heartbroken and torn to pieces knowing I wouldn’t be directing the movie, a few more years went by, and I decided to reread some chapters of the “Lord of the Rings” books. I remember really well that this was late at night, laying in bed, and going through “King of the Golden Hall” and seeing how close to the movies it was, but also far more expanded. I thought “my extensive home-made short movies experience with sound design and sound mixing could work here, and I could just read a few chapters and try to make the soundscape as realistic as possible. Why not try it?”

So, the next day I tried. The first two chapters I tried were “King of the Golden Hall” and “A Journey in the Dark” (which partly answers your other question about that chapter). I was so absolutely surprised by how well it was going, that I decided to upload them onto YouTube in March 2010 I think. I got a fairly good response, and I was planning on doing a few more random chapters. I never intended to do the whole thing. But this one comment on YouTube I’ll always remember, it said: “I think you should go from start to finish, because you’ll probably get used to the characters and sounds and people can also follow along in the story gradually”.

Taking that suggestion to heart, in August 2010 I went from Chapter 1 onward.

3. Were you inspired by any other audiobook versions of LotR (such as the BBC radio drama)?

I was not, I actually haven’t listened to the BBC Radio drama until far ahead into the project I was doing. I did some research on what other audio productions anyone did with LOTR, from The Mind’s Eye edition, to the ‘60s Hobbit Radio Play; so I felt pretty confident. I just fell in love with the way the films brought Middle-Earth to life and seeing their incredible dedication for authenticity (from the props department, to the music), you really couldn’t do any better than that visually or audibly - at least in my opinion. I just wanted to hear Tolkien’s text but with the realisation of the films.

However, if you listen to Chapter 1 of TTT, and hear how Legolas laments their absence from not being there to help Boromir at Amon Hen, you can clearly hear the inflection from the BBC Radio play’s version. I just lifted that because I thought it was a fantastic way to deliver the line.

4. Did you have any rituals for “getting into character” before recording?

If I were to show you the raw unedited recording sessions, you’d probably be surprised at how underdeveloped it is! I had no real rituals or warmups, I just went for it. Usually went in cold, and tried reading the entire chapter and doing all the voices at once. Then I’d be exhausted, and afterwards start cutting all the mistakes, and separating each character into different tracks – and then re-recording 50%-70% of it, as I was laying in the sounds.

I think any character just needs a few words for me to say in their voice, and that helps for the rest of their dialogue. For Aragorn it was usually: “You cannot wield it! None of us can.” for Pippin it was: “Sometimes”, just random things that make things ‘click’ in my head. If I got lost or didn’t feel like the performances were working, I’d simply just watch scenes from the films to hear the real actors again!

5. Who was your favorite character to voice? Who was your least favorite? And why?

People who know me, know I love doing the villains. Sauron, the orcs, the Nazgûl, etc. I just love the idea of personifying things that scare you. Something completely the opposite of who you are. Always a fun time! Any character I can nail extremely accurately always makes me happy, but I’m always very critical of my own work, so it’s a rare thing.

My least favorite characters to voice are: Imrahil, Denethor, Arwen, Celeborn, Galadriel, Erestor, Lindir, Haldir, Goldberry, Gildor… I think the pattern is pretty obvious if you realize that I am incapable of providing a satisfactory voice that feels unique enough. They just sound to me like “I wish I had a broader range. They weren’t done justice.” I have feelings for most of the characters in this situation, but I’m a mere mortal. I can’t do all of them as well as I wish I could. I wish Aragorn was more like Viggo Mortensen’s voice (I tried with the nasally yells you mentioned!), I wish Gandalf had a richer tone, I wish Saruman sounded more majestic, and I wish Frodo was - in retrospect- more older sounding, too. There’s so much I wish I could do better, but to hell with it, I tried.

Fun fact: my least-favorite to voice are also Orcs because they destroy my throat after a while. Which is ironic, because of my first statement.

6. I noticed that you gave the men of Rohan and Gondor slightly different dialects! Are you pulling from any real-world accents to make that happen?

I did try to listen to Anglo-Saxon, and ancient norse but I just tried to make Rohan and Gondor slightly distinct in any way I could. I never really tried to make things too obvious, but admittedly, I think I just used my intuition (smoothing the R’s for the Rohirrim, making the Gondorians more ‘proper’, etc.). I do want to emphasize that this was a one-person project and keeping things together or consistent is definitely an extraneous exercise when you’re just trying to get something finished by yourself!

7. Some characters (like Beregond and Quickbeam, to name a couple of my favorites) aren’t in the movies, so they don’t have an actor for you to imitate. How did you decide what they would sound like?

Well, in the case of Beregond, I realized he was just “your ordinary guy”, and seeing Minas Tirith through his eyes (and Pippin’s) is such an amazing and interesting opportunity. It made the city feel so real, and I wanted to take advantage of that. I think I started with a ‘generic’ voice, but when I re-recorded him knowing more and more of the context and what he was saying to Pippin, and as a result who he is, made me adjust what I felt were more his personality. But still that ‘ordinary guy’ idea was the bedrock, and it’s been years since I heard that chapter, but I hope it holds up! (I just remembered Bergil is in that too, another voice I wish I could have done better)

Another fun fact: when Pippin scares the kids in Minas Tirith, the audio was from something I videotaped when I was 10 years old with my friends, it had the perfect “kids-going-aaah!” sound.

If I had it my way, I’d have a cast of dozens in this Audiobook, so a lot of times I never felt like my voice was enough to truly capture the “We’re in Middle-Earth, we just have microphones to record it” idea. So I have to make compromises since I was the only one doing the voices. That being said, Quickbeam was a fun surprise because he felt like, as you said “young treebeard”, and these things just worked out through experimentation! I think Quickbeam turned out pretty nice. I like Quickbeam.

8. HOW—I ask with great enthusiasm—DID YOU DO TREEBEARD’S VOICE? How did you get that resonance and woody sound? Did you send your voice through a wooden box and re-record it on the other side like they did in the movies?

It’s really great that you know all the behind the scenes stories from the films! Especially what Ethan Van der Ryn, David Farmer, and the late Michael Hopkins have done with their incredible creativity. I had no such resources to produce Treebeard’s sound. What I did was a digital facsimile: a special ‘room’ reverb, with some other equalizing effects to boost the bass and (maybe, I can’t remember) another higher pitched track of the same voice faintly in there.

You won’t believe this, but I was not going to do The Two Towers audiobook unless I could do a good Treebeard voice. In 2011 after finishing “Fellowship”, I was on the fence about continuing, and only committed once I knew I could do Treebeard right. Treebeard was the key to all this. This should come to no surprise to the ones who played the game, but I used a lot of sound effects from ‘Battle for Middle-Earth’ which contained a lot of clean sounds for ents, trolls, the balrog, the ringwraiths, and other monsters from the films. I used the ent’s footsteps from the games, and recorded my own foley for some of the trees snapping and leaves rustling as well. The “fart” sounds were the low creaking of tree branches, and - as they stated in the making-of for the films - very pitched down cow moos.

9. Tell me about the foley work! Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been that nerd who watched the Behind The Scenes featurettes for fun, so I’m very interested to hear how you made the sound effects for footsteps and whistling arrows and jangling horse harnesses and such.

I’m glad you are! I’ve collected sound libraries (ripped from video games, and finding and buying sound packs) for a literal decade, because I always needed sounds for the short films I made when I was younger. I just kept learning about how to mix sounds together, and it’s very creative and very enjoyable! That being said, the foley work itself is mostly recorded by me. If I can’t find a sound in the library I have, I will record it. Clothing rustles, and touch are all recorded while I listen to the audiobook playback and ‘perform’ each character. It’s a really arduous process, but I think it adds so much life into the sound.

I went out into the woods (or backyard) with my mic to record footsteps, sometimes I would listen to the audiobook with headphones while performing the footsteps. When I would have traveled somewhere with different terrain I would be sure to record more foley (rocks being moved, or pebbles being stepped on) knowing I’ll use it for certain chapters. I do not want to reveal a huge secret about the predominant foley for the character's clothes, but an old backpack I used were 90% of the characters’ ‘movements’. Some wingflaps of the fell beasts were just my jeans. It’s a really creative process trying to find things that ‘sound’ right for an environment or action. The magic is putting them all together and hearing the result. Also, yes Sam’s pan is my grandma’s frying pan, and I know it’s sometimes annoying, but - look - Sam has a lot of stuff to carry.

I start with the background sounds (wind, tree rustles, water if there is any, etc.) lots of layers of them just to make them sound unique and not the same. Then I move to selective and nearer environmental background sounds. Then, the ‘hero’ sounds, the effects that are integral to the story (if it’s sword clashes, or an explosion, or who knows what), and finally the foley (footsteps, clothing rustles, breaths, etc.) - I had a friend record her own horses breathing and moving for a lot of closeups of the horses in the audiobooks. I think even if you can’t really hear some of their low breaths, their presence is still ‘there’. I personally think I got a lot better by the end of LOTR than when I started!

I wanted to add, the sounds for little Elanor in the very last scene of “The Return of the King” (the baby sounds), I was not happy with the stock baby sounds I had, and asked my older cousin (an audio person too!) to send me recordings he made of his then-1-year-old daughter in a studio. So, my first-cousin-once-removed is Elanor! She’s 22 now. I feel old.

10. Do you have a favorite sound effect from this project? Mine is the “pat-pat” against cloth that’s used to denote a hug.

Absolutely, do you remember the two “watchers” before the tower of Cirith Ungol? The vulture-like statues that block the hobbit’s path out? The alarm sound is a wholly original sound design I did, and I’m really happy with it. It’s just ugly sounding, and that’s the point. I always wished I had more Nazgul, and I think the worst moments I had with mixing were the battle scenes. There’s just too much to handle and make it sound good. But I really tried.

I’m very glad you heard the ‘pat-pat’s. I try my best to perform every character when recording foley, and want even some of the sounds to convey something in the telling of the story.

11. What's the thought process behind your use of the various musical motifs from Howard Shore's score? (Read: Why do you use the Shire theme so often, and why does it get me in the heart every single time?)

I want everyone to know that this is a really important and valuable question, and one I never really get to talk about: To me, Howard Shore’s music is one of the very best things to come out of the films. He truly made an opera out of the story, and all his leitmotifs and orchestrations are a stroke of genius. They work on their own, and when reading the books as well, and as a nerd for films and all that stuff, I wanted to put a lot of care into how I’m placing the score, and for what scene, emotionally and leitmotivically, if that’s a word.

The Audiobook I did is obviously a ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ situation, so I can’t credit myself for the majority of the Audiobook I did, but I wanted to use all my filmmaking intuition to properly use the music to enhance the telling of the story. So, just like the filmmakers had to change and mix lines from the book, or make changes to make it work as a film, I felt like a lot of instances happened with the music for the audiobook. Obviously, I used the score when applicable to the intended scenes, but there are very often cases where they won’t work. I read as much as I could in the past about what the motifs were and where Shore used them in the movies, so I followed that trajectory for the most part. Gondor is Gondor, Rohan is Rohan, Mordor is Mordor, etc.

Changes happen when I feel the emotions for a scene in the books do not match up to the ones in the films, and then there are brand new scenes and characters not in the movies at all, that I have to figure out! Take the pause from music between Gandalf falling into the chasm with the Balrog, and the fellowship successfully escaping. It’s perfect in the film, but I knew I couldn’t put the lamenting heartbreaking music in there yet, since the descriptions all drive the idea that escape is paramount. So I treated it as a ‘shock’ moment. No music until they’re completely out of the mountain, then the grief comes in. Things like that, a lot of fun creative thinking to get those emotions working!

I recall you mentioning the ‘Gimli / Legolas drinking game’ statement and how I used the hell out of it throughout the Audiobook, which is a good example. I pitched it up and down, for different moments, and it just has that hobbit mundane and jolly quality to it. So, in it goes to fill moments from the books.

I also edited and modified existing motifs for completely different scenes and ideas. One of my favorites is when Treebeard talks about the Entwives. I needed this melancholy yearning sound that was really essential, and found it by reversing Eowyn’s theme, and pitching it down so the violin sounds like a cello/bass. To me it just felt extremely appropriate for the sound of a long-lost relationship while portraying a larger-than-life creature.

Let’s also say Bombadil. I made up the idea that the last statement in the credits for “Return of the King”, was Bombadil’s theme. It’s actually just a reference to Der Ring des Nibelungen by Wagner, a very verbose beautiful crescendo, but I thought “I’ll pretend like it’s Bombadil, he’s last in the score even though he’s the first in Arda”. So I used that musical progression in his songs, that’s his leitmotif now (to me, anyway) He sings in that wavy up-and-down melody. Which is why you hear a lot of that in those chapters.

I also try to use recordings not from the original score: I looked far and wide for alternative recordings, predominantly the album by the Royal Prague Philharmonic, and the “LOTR Symphony”, just to make the Audiobooks feel different. I pitched down and moved and reassembled a lot of different cues for different scenes as well.

There are not a lot of instances of music from other movies, however, they do exist! I used music from “Battle for Middle-Earth”, the game “War in the North”, and for the last few chapters, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” since it just came out at the time. I used a lot of music from Howard Shore’s “Seven” and “The Game” during Shelob (I think), and for the Barrow-Downs. I used a tiny bit of underscore from the brilliant Don Davis’s “The Matrix Reloaded”, it had a really eerie choir which made me feel like it would be perfect for the fatigue and dizzying unreality of Mordor when Sam and Frodo were on their last leg, trying to get to Mt. Doom. Lastly, I used a little bit of music from Howard Shore’s “Twilight: Eclipse” for some dialogue scenes during Return of the King! And music from the independent film “Mongol” by Tuomas Kantelinen for the Woses when Theoden has to get help from Ghan-Buri-Ghan. Also the ending of ROTK has a few cues from “The Lord of the Rings musical”, lovely stuff.

It may surprise you that there is a small amount of score I actually ‘wrote’ with help from my brother (he’s a musician). It’s in the coronation of Elessar. It’s not very good but I needed something. There is also a cello version of “to the edge of night”, which I kindly asked permission to use by YouTube celloist, but I sadly don't think that video is up anymore.

Lastly, I use the Shire music so much because - just like Howard Shore said - it becomes a ‘hymn’ or an ‘anthem’ for the hobbits as they leave their comforts behind and are in a wide and unfamiliar world. Every little bit that reminds them of home, or relates to each of them, usually deserves a little ‘shire’ statement here and there. I feel if it’s in the characters’ hearts and minds, it has to be expressed in the music!

12. Out of all the chapters I’ve listened to so far on the Internet Archive, “A Journey in the Dark” is the one most plagued with editing issues; Sam’s temper tantrum over leaving Bill the Pony is cut out entirely. Which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to hearing your take on that. (Is it strange to say that I wanted to hear you break down into blubbering tears? Probably. Let’s ignore that and move on.) Is there any chance that you have a cleaner edit of that chapter somewhere?

I think you’ll be very unsurprised to know that “A Journey in the Dark” is the first chapter I ever recorded. I think you’ll also need to know that I did FOTR when I was 21 years old, and my grasp on doing better sound mixing or even getting the characters right was still a work in progress. I learned so much going chapter-by-chapter and felt that each succeeding one improves from the former. As a demo-run, I did “King of the Golden Hall '' and “Journey in the Dark” in early 2010 (in fact, I did only the first half of “JITD” back then. Stopping right after they are barred inside the mines, as the Watcher destroys the gate. I did the second half once I caught up with the story going chapter-by-chapter.)

There are so many issues with it, and I haven’t listened to it since. If you have headphones you’ll also notice that none of the voices really pan from left to right, or feel like they’re ever anywhere else except the dead-center. I was lazy back then.

When I read the chapters, at the time, I was sharing an ‘office room’ with my younger brother, and as a teenaged younger brother does - continues strumming his guitar no matter what the other brother is doing. It was really fun, and funny and I was extremely sloppy with editing things out, and taking it too seriously. So, for sure you can hear ‘someone’ in the background during the early parts of FOTR, and I was too lazy to re-record or edit out the noises that weren’t supposed to be there.

Forgive me if this part is a lot longer, but now that you mention it, I want to get on my soap-box and rant about how many things I agree with about the Audiobook’s shortcomings and how many things have changed since the wee days of 2010:

I didn’t really get a grasp on the characters, and I had no idea I was going to do the entire book. I did not take enough care with sound mixing (it’s a highly technical and rigorous practice, I’ve discovered. Even now, ten plus years later - it’s too technical for me to fully understand yet), and I did not thoroughly re-listen to the chapter when I was done with an edit or a sound-effects pass. Therefore there’s always been mistakes still in there, and just unpleasantly careless placement of sounds and music. I have often thought about re-recording it to get it up to scratch, but it’s been over a decade and I haven’t properly preserved all the sound stems without having to re-sound-mix the whole chapter again, and there is that little thing called ‘burnout’ which is hard to ignore. So, I apologize to everyone who has to suffer through that huge drop in quality with “A Journey in the Dark”. It quite literally was my first attempt, and it definitely shows.

The good news is that a fan asked me the same thing about the missing piece in that chapter (the one you mentioned! With Sam and Bill!), and I’ve heard the same comments about it throughout the years. Why is it missing? I don’t know why! I recorded it, but in my loose run-and-gun past when I was a wee lad, I was careless, and just had the mp3 with that part missing. A rendering error, perhaps! Stupid 21 year old Phil just hodgepoging everything.

A Few months ago, I did get another email about that missing piece. I thought “okay, once and for all, I’m going to find that missing part.” - and I searched my old harddrives for some kind of archival copy with that part in it. Amazingly, it was a lot harder to find than I thought. Every rendered version of JITD either stopped right before that scene, or had it omitted. I actually found one half of it as a ‘demo’ piece I rendered years ago for a ‘sound trailer’, and then I finally found the original YouTube video I made - which had it intact! Now the hardest part was stitching it together with the rest. Took longer than I thought, but I finally amended this horrible incompetence. And yes, I will share the link to you! And be prepared to be disappointed at the 2010-era quality!

I don’t know if anyone knows this, but with the mp3s circling around, I have taken the liberty of re-recording and re-working some chapters from their original versions. I try my best to preserve the originals, but I also wish people to listen to the re-records. I have actually re-recorded and re-mastered “A Long-Expected Party” three times. 2011, 2013, and 2014. I re-recorded “King of the Golden Hall” in 2013, and “Shadow of the Past” in 2014. I usually try labelling the dates on the mp3 files themselves. The one I’m most proud of re-recording bits of, is “The Pyre of Denethor” as the first time I had Denethor say his last words he was mildly raising his voice, but I listened to it again one day and went “this man should be at the edge of sanity.” - so he absolutely yells now, and it’s such a night-and-day comparison.

Another addendum: I completely understand the complaints about ‘the sound/music drowning out the dialogue’. It’s been the #1 complaint over the decade. I completely understand. I never had professional sound mixing gear, nor did I have proper mixing headphones or speakers or a proper studio (most of the audiobook was recorded at my grandmother’s house!). The balance of the audio making it sound immersive, (like you are there!) and having clear dialogue to hear is - like I said - an extremely technical and complex process that I’ve never had the ability or tech to master. Let alone for a book that’s 48 hours long, and has so much sound and music to it. Nothing would bring me more joy than to work with an experienced sound mixer, and find all my audio stems, and for us to work together to clear up any and all issues. But as this project was a simple fan-made work, and I haven’t distributed it myself for a decade, who knows?

This is also why I never went on to do “The Hobbit”. Burnout is real, and I’ve never recovered from LOTR. The burnout… “it’s never really healed, Sam.”

13. What was your favorite scene to record and mix?

Mount Doom. Can’t get better than trying to make the climax as horrible and eucatastrophic as that. It all led up to this, and it was such a rush to work on. I remember how I was at the edge of my seat watching ROTK in cinemas for the first time, and how amazingly they pulled it off, and I wanted to definitely imitate that, but using Tolkien’s own writing. Just so cool.

I have two favorite chapters: The first one is “The Scouring of the Shire”. I remember well, when I was working on it, I realized this has never been ‘dramatized’ before. At least not in full. I felt so special being the first one (probably) to do it. I could imagine the entire chapter in my head like a film, and I could bring it to life with very little outside influence. Such a poignant and shocking chapter.

I don’t think I would have done it as well without the experience I gained doing the rest of the Audiobook. Showing the strength of the four hobbits, portraying the dignity and resolve of their kind, giving that pathetic yet dangerous authenticity to Sharkey, and the ruffians, illustrating the battle of bywater with sound… this was done in 2013, so we all were able to listen to new music by Howard Shore (for The Hobbit), and I would be able to transpose motifs from that, into “Scouring”, and honestly I wouldn’t know how it would have worked out if the Hobbit films didn’t come out just at the right time. I think the score fits so well with the events of “Scouring”, there is a ‘mordor’ theme but it feels ‘unfinished’, like the remnant of an old defeated foe; there’s that wily progression for Radagast in the films, that I used for the hobbit’s rebellion and the conflict, and there’s a new ‘hobbit/shire’ motif that worked so perfectly for a ‘wounded, but recovering’ Shire. I feel so silly talking about decisions I made for this, but I always wanted to share some thoughts I had!

Fun fact: I had a wonderful person ask if she would be able to play Rosie Cotton back in 2013, and I asked her to perform her lines. She was great, but I realized a very strange thing: when I put her in the audio mix, it would actually break the immersion, because you can hear a voice that wasn’t mine, and as a result - I couldn’t help but keep thinking - my voice for Rosie’s mother sounded like a Monty Python skit in comparison! And thus her lines had to be unused. It kind of just opened the fourth wall, breaking the illusion. Which is a shame, because I always dream of having a fully-cast LOTR Audiobook, maybe someday officially.

The other favorite is “The Tower of Cirith Ungol” just because I listened to it one day in 2014, and heard no errors. I was so proud. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to change substantially. No one dislikes all the errors more than I do!

14. What’s your best memory from this entire project?

My late dad drove me and my brother out into a clearing at midnight in the forest. The sky was so clear and starry. And we were here simply to just yell at the top of our lungs to record material for “Helm’s Deep”. All the clear yells: “Elendil!!!” “Gúthwinë! Gúthwinë For the Mark!”etc. Etc. - I lost my voice, it was a fun time. He held the microphone for me as I splashed around a stream (for Gollum), once again at midnight since there were fewer background sounds.

I also tell this story a lot: A friend of mine who was listening to the chapters as I finished them - she hated the sound of knuckles cracking. And hated spiders. So, obviously, Shelob would have to have knuckle-cracking sounds for her limbs. So I recorded my own knuckles cracking and tried using it as much as I could for Shelob’s legs moving about. My friend was soooo ecstatic to know this fact.

15. If you could do it all again today, what would you change?

I would consider doing a ground-up re-recording of everything. With a budget, with a cast, with a lot more understanding of the story and intentions behind them. With VR sound options. With extra original music. That’s the dream.

If we’re back to reality, I guess I’d just re-record a bunch of chapters since they could always be better, and tighten all the technical errors. But that would require a lot of assembling of the raw archived files, and re-building of sounds, and re-recording of lines. Also, as I stated before, I do not want to distribute my unofficial fan work just because I know that it’s a copyright nightmare. And burnout… “it’s never really healed, Sam.”

I like taking other people’s opinions to heart, such as the issues with Frodo’s youth or inflections and intonations for certain scenes that I didn’t quite fully grasp the first time. I would love to adjust things and make it closer to the book now.

- - - - -

And now! The Silly Questions Lightning Round!

(With thoughts from Lady Glasses in parentheses and italics!)

1. In Fellowship, long stretches of dialogue would often have someone randomly cough in the background. Tell me about the Cough. Why is the Cough there?

No one hates the coughs more than me. That’s either my brother minding his own business in the other end of our ‘office room’. I think you now know I was 21, I didn’t care, so these things are just left in because I was careless. However, sometimes there are intentional coughs to make it feel more realistic. It’s been years since I listened to it, so unless I somehow do a massive commentary stream someday (thinking about it), your guess will be as good as mine! The coughs heavily subsided once I did Two Towers, since I was by myself.

2. During the dinner scene with Farmer Cotton, someone burps. Who was that?

Mine. I have no regrets with that one. Or Pippin. I guess it could be Pippin.

(Darn! And here I thought it was Farmer Cotton, LOL)

3. How did you manage to make Bill Ferny’s voice so perfectly obnoxious?

I imagined Bill as an obnoxious guy. The image in my head gives me a good idea of what he’d sound like, and I’m so glad he’s so obnoxious that you had to mention it.

(He sounds perfectly punchable. Thanks, I hate it.)

4. Did you crack yourself up at any point in the recording?

Oh yes, in fact I have a whole outtake reel just for you!

(Warning to anyone who clicks the link: the April Fool's audio had me ON THE FLOOR)

5. Voice acting aside, who is your favorite character in LotR and why?

If you asked me in 2002 it would be the Balrog, if you asked me now it would be difficult because so many of them mean so much to me, and each of their aspects have something to aspire to. Gandalf, Aragorn, Sam, Frodo, Galadriel, the list goes on and on.

(That's beautiful, and so true. The story really grows with us, doesn't it?)

6. What’s your favorite color?

Blue. Always has been.

(Blue is a good color! 💙)

7. Political question: Pineapples on pizza, yes or no?

Yes, I still don’t get what the fuss is about

(Oooh, controversial)

8. Is a hotdog a sandwich?

No, it’s a hotdog!

(Counterpoint: A hotdog is a taco.)

9. What’s your opinion on geese?

They’re racist

(Racist against the entire human race, apparently)

10. How much would I have to pay you to say “I love boats!” in Merry’s voice? (It’s an inside joke with my friends.)

Nothing, it’s on the house!

(HOLY CRAP I LOVE YOU)

- - - - -

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us! What are you working on nowadays?

I’ve actually had a few people ask me if I’ll ever do more audiobooks like this, and I seem to have tapped something. Yes, in fact! I’m working with a few creative collaborators on a small company to do the exact same sonic experience with other books! Since we’re very small, we are starting with stories in the Public Domain, and have successfully kickstarted (and finished) “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling. Which will be out (hopefully, officially) by early September! I’m really excited and hope this will lead to more projects, and - hopefully- back to Tolkien someday, in an official manner. Please follow my Instagram or Facebook for more info about it. (I also have a Twitter and Tumblr and more, but they’re all completely unrelated to LOTR and are just me drawing doodles and being a nerd, very unlike the Audiobooks I did, which is a bit confusing, I admit.)

- - - - -

And that concludes our interview! As I told Phil, it was so much fun to discuss a fellow fan's passion project like this. The more I read about it, the more I realized just how similar it was to my own experiences as a fan creator. We all start out as just a noob with a few unpolished skills, making something because we love it, and we learn and grow and hone our talents along the way. It's legitimately inspiring.

Needless to say, I am stoked to finish listening to the rest of this audiobook! Is it a bit weird knowing the creator of the thing might drop in and read my reviews?? Yes. Yes it is. But I'm gonna do it anyway. No holds barred! If I hear another cough, you're gonna know about it, Phil!

Also I may or may not do something with that audio of Merry because I'M STILL DYING OF LAUGHTER HELP

Anyway! If you made it to the end of this, you deserve a cookie! Everybody say thank you to Mr. Dragash, and go check out the other stuff he's doing nowadays! Namárië!

#phil dragash #audiobook #lotr audiobook #interview #CATCH ME SCREAMING ABOUT THIS FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS

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bunnymajo · 7 months

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Time to fill out that OC questionnaire but for Thistle this time!

He'll be in the @sonic-oc-showdown so be sure to give him a vote!

Name: Thistle the Tenrec

Species: Highland Streaked Tenrec

Home: Central City

✨How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Since he’s inspired by Amy I wanted to pick another prickly flower name. Thistle flowers can have a lot of negative connotations in flower language just as much as positive ones (aggressiveness, unwanted intrusion). If roses are known for being noble and lovely, thistles are more wild but pesky, they’re also hard to let go if you end up stuck by one. The image of thistle flower suited him the more I thought about it.

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

Same age as Surge.

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Currently Surge and only Surge. He’s had previous partners but they usually don’t last very long. Current record is 1 month.

(The only tragic thing about Thistle is that he's not trying to be the worst boyfriend ever. He really wants to do good but he's too self-centered and stupid to realize that he's the problem)

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Key Lime Pie, he likes anything tart but sweet.

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Works part time at a flower shop in central city, he’s actually quite popular with customers.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

Flower arrangement and astrology charting. Loves reading romance novels and watching old classic movies even if he gets the meaning of them completely wrong. He’s good at baking and also spends a lot of time online on social media. He’s a jack of all trades and always ready to learn something new to get closer with people in his life. He’s here for you. What more could you want from a guy :)

🎯 -What do they do best?

Anything that’s considered traditionally feminine Thistle excels at. Baking, shopping, event planning, crushing your enemies. But even with all of that he’s incredibly good at finding information. Does his new crush have a favorite band? Well Thistle just doxxed every band member and knows the rest of their schedule for the next 3 months.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Thistle likes doing anything that will get him lots of compliments and attention, especially if it’s something he already finds fun. He’s the type to get really wrapped up in tedious side project so probably mapping out his and Surge’s life together via astrology

Hates doing something that doesn’t serve him in some way, like doing volunteer work for strangers. He also isn’t much of an adventuring type unless it’s to chase Surge down, he’d rather not though, he’d rather keep her tied down close to him and they can live a cozy domestic life.

Running around beating up robots getting sweaty and gross and for what? just to protect the masses? Awful, blech, Sonic can have that.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

One time he and Surge accidentally shared a soda, therefore doing the incredibly scandalous “indirect kiss”. She vaporized the soda can to destroy the evidence and then punched him in the gut when he told her. He passed out for about two days.

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

His first relationship was an online one where the other person ended up blocking him and then publicly warned other people about his creepy behavior.

Thistle made one of those “am I the asshole?” posts about their relationship and everyone in the forum went “yeah, you were totally the asshole.”

Thistle deleted all his accounts and started over. He learned nothing. “It’s the forum that was wrong, they were all just jealous.”

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

There’s a few initial sketches I did to get the overall idea going and there’s a few minor tweaks but he’s basically the same design as when I started.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

It was a bumblekast question asking about what a glitch Amy would be like and I liked the answer so much I wanted to develop it into a real character.

I really like aggressively-in-love characters like this in media actually, something about them being not shy at all about the person they’re in love with leads to a lot of funny or interesting situations, also since Surge is my favorite sonic character at the moment it’s fun thinking about how she would react to someone like this too. It’s a win-win situation for me lol.

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

The villain in a shoujo romance manga

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Identifies as male, Pan, he/him/they pronouns

🙌 - How many siblings does your OC have?

Zero. Probably for the best because he’s terrible with children.

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

He’s an absolute mama’s boy when she’s around. (It should be noted that Thistle doesn’t really have a tragic backstory or bad childhood. He really is just like that for some reason.)

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

Thistle can be a lot of things I like about male characters (a goober in love, not afraid to appear “feminine”, a polite good boy, twisted priorities) and also be the worst person I’ve ever wanted to write thoughts for. He’s a very fun punching bag.

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Probably too much haha, I don’t usually write a lot of actual terrible people so he’s a refreshingly fun rom-com villain.

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

It’s funnier if he stays alive imo. If Surge ever changes her ways in canon or something drastic happens to her he might lose interest in her and move on to his next victim, that’s about as close as I’d ever get to “killing him”. It would have to be a very drastic personality change though.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

Whatever the fear of being unloved is.

To him, being loved by someone is the ultimate goal. “I can love so easily, why is it so hard for someone to stay in love with me? I must not be loving hard enough, I need to love someone who craves love just as much as I do. Yes, then it would be the ultimate romance” - is basically the rationalization here.

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

I mean probably Amy, not just for Surge’s sake, Amy will fight anyone she finds being a selfish creep in the name of love.

In Thistle's mind anyone who even smiles in Surge's direction is a rival. She's spoken for, who do they think they are??

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

A little over a year!

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

#hey hey it's that time again #thistle the tenrec #my ocs #sonic ocs

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kyokikia · 5 months

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Im curious, do people even write for uta? Do people like uta at all?? If you cant tell, she's my favorite female character! I dont see anyone talking about her 😭😭

i might write for her if someone requests it (when requests are back open) but she might be the only one piece female i would ever write for so, sorry for that

Has anyone else on here watched film red? I wanna talk about it with someone because its one of my favorite movies, currently listening to new genesis as i speak (ado's singing was HEAVENLY in the movie)

Ado's singing is so heavenly, and she honestly captured the supposed greatness of uta's voice PERFECTLY. I watched the movie in sub so i couldnt hear amalee dubbing uts, but honestly, i listened to amalee's covers of the songs, and i think the dub watchers were robbed from hearing amalee's covers. She covered all the songs PERFECTLY! She did the spell part of tot musica perfectly aswell and i adore Amalee's and Ado's works so much!

SPOILERS UNDER KEEP READING FOR ONE PIECE: FILM RED

I think she's a little crazy but i love her a lot, what she did in the movie is honestly justifiable. I love her design so much, i wanna cosplay her but i got my bills to pay 😭 i'll do it once i get extra money tho, anyway, i feel so bad for her because for years she thought that shanks had abandoned her but turns out she was manipulated into singing tot musica by the people of Elegia 😭 i feel so bad knowing on how much she probably blamed herself for what happened but it wasnt her fault at all

Shanks is so selfless i swear, the way he just chose to take the blame instead so uta wouldn't blame herself and so she could make other people happy with her voice aswell 😭♥️

Watching uta descend into madness, as her mental health and physical state reach its absolute lowest was so heartbreaking (but the movie was so cool to watch!)

As you probably know, the wakeshrooms cause the person who eats them to stay awake until they die, and makes them more aggravated and brings out their negative emotions more, so i can see why she became more deranged as the movie went on. i feel so bad for her she deserves better 😭 i see why she was driven into madness after meeting shanks after all those years

Being kept on that island for so many years mustve been so depressing, so she was in a bad mental state most of her life. Kept alone, isolated with the entire world other than Gordon, not knowing anything going on in the world is so sad

I can see why she hates pirates so much, seeing as she cares so much about her fans (that she would trap them in the sing sing world just so they wouldnt have to deal with pirates anymore and for a 'new era' which she had good intentions with, but honestly it wasnt that great of an idea) she had the idea that all pirates were bad, and seeing all her fans sending her video mail about it probably amplified her hatred.

I took notice on how by the time uta had to sing tot musica, she was in her absolute worst mental and physical state, some of the words were linked together some words were messed up, i think ado captured on how much of a terrible state uta was in by the time she was forced to sing the song perfectly, i adore ado's singing in film red so much

I might've misunderstood uta honestly, i might've done her wrong in this post, i also realize this entire post is a rant but oh well i honestly just wanted to talk about her, anyone wanna tell me their thoughts on film red?

#uta x reader #uta film red #one piece #one piece x reader #one piece rant #kyokikia #uta one piece #op x reader #uta #ado #one piece film red #one piece imagine #one piece x you #one piece fluff #amalee

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fabuloustrash05 · 10 months

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My Review of Mutant Mayhem

Warning: SPOILERS

The animation was AMAZING!! From the colors to the facial expressions to the fight choreography, it all looks so good!

It took me a while for me to get used to the Turtles designs and voices but after finally seeing the movie and watching them talk and move, I can say now that I do love them, though I'm still not crazy about Raph's design…

If you know me then you know I'm not too big of a fan of the idea of Splinter not being a human at all, but for this movie it makes sense as to why he was always a rat and never human. Him being a rat from the start and hating humans ties in with the movies message about being accepted and even has a little connection/parallel with the main villain Superfly. I am still kind of upset that Splinter has no connection to Hamato Yoshi (that we know of rn).

Another reason why I don’t like the idea of Splinter never being a human or Hamato Yoshi is because I feel like it takes away the ninja aspect of their story, but the way they explain why they’ve ninjas was actually hilarious. Splinter and the boys learned how to be ninjas through YouTube tutorials, which makes so much sense for this day and age with how many people claim they are experts at something simply because they read or watch something online.

Leo was my favorite turtle in this movie, I loved his personality/character and how serious but dorky he was. He’s trying so hard, I love his hopeless romantic side, and how he wants to listen to his dad but also have fun with his brothers, so he’s stuck in a tug or war with himself. He was precious and I love him.

Leo having a crush on April actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. His crush on her was genuinely sweet and it wasn't shoved down our throats like in other versions *cough* 2012 & Bayverse *cough* I like that he asks her to prom, which I thought was very cute and a nice ending for Leo.

I'm surprised how quickly they killed off Baxter Stockman, but his "son" Superfly was a really cool villain to take his place. Ice Cube did an amazing job! But I’m not full convinced Stockman is dead. There’s no evidence that he’s still alive but knows. Maybe they’ll pull an 03 Stockman and make come back as a robot in the sequel.

The other mutants were also really fun, but I wish they had more screen time. And truth I felt like they added too many Mutants and I felt like a few of them could've been removed from the film but overall they were a fun cast!

Mondo Gecko and Mikey instantly becoming besties was nice. And I loved Bebop and Rocksteady's Bromance.

Mikey twerking was NOT needed in this film.

I like how the "milking" joke actually came full circle when the turtles were kidnapped by Cynthia.

Splinter vs the TCRI soldiers was my second favorite part of the movie, The animation was so well done in the choreography of the fight was amazing and had great detail.

My overall favorite part was the sequence of the Turtles confronting each one of Superfly’s leads. How the scene would sync up and cut back-and-forth to each brother fighting different gang members. The music during the scene was so well done and the animation with how it tied in with each brother was peak cinema.

April’s little arc of getting over being camera shy was cool and actually helped save the Turtles and NYC. But the April puking joke went on for too long. The fact they showed it longer than I excepted felt wrong.

I’m happy that Splinter got a girlfriend by the end but please don’t ever show us him making out with Scumbug ever again. *flashbacks to 2012 Raph making out with an ant*

My favorite joke was when the Turtles were like “Eventually Superfly will run out of cars to throw at us, right??” *Superfly turns to see he’s right new to a parking garage* LMFAO XD

There was a lot of modern day references and slang in this movie and a lot of people say this movie is gonna be outdated in 5-10 years but I feel that’s gonna be part of the movies charm. We’ll have to see in 5-10 years…

Superfly’s mutant army (Mondo Gecko, Bebop, Rocksteady, Leatherhead etc) got redeemed way too quick. All it took was one heartfelt speech and suddenly they weren’t down to kill all humans. Like they seemed really excited about it during the bowling scene?? Gave me Shrek 3 vibes. I was confident that Mondo Gecko was gonna change but all of them was unexpected but I’m happy regardless by the end that the Turtles have a bigger family.

I loved the sequence of the people of New York helping the Turtles and their mutant friends stop Superfly. I feel we’ve never seen that done before and in truth, New Yorkers ramming their cars into a giant kaiju Superfly IS something New Yorkers would do! XD

The ending I did not expect, the Turtles actually being excepted by all of New York, and actually getting to go to high school. This was so new and fresh, and I absolutely loved it and I can't wait to see more of it in the TV show and the sequel.

Also there’s a mid credit scene.

It starts off very cute with the Turtles doing high school shenanigans: Mikey in joining improv, Donnie with his “people” (lol), Raph joining the wrestling team, Leo and April starting a conspiracy vlog, and finally them at prom, but then it cuts to Cynthia, who it’s revealed she is secretly watching them. She talks to her second in command about wanting to catch the Turtles and get revenge. She then basically says that she “knows a guy” that can help and it cuts to a shot of someone outside the city….

SHREDDER IS COMING

But sadly no Casey…

#FabTrash review #my thoughts #review #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt: mutant mayhem #mutant mayhem #tmnt 2023 #Nickelodeon #tmnt leonardo #tmnt raphael #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt donatello #april o'neil #master splinter

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gubbins-turtledove · 7 months

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I have too many thoughts about lilo and stitch

One of them is that the whole experiment hunting wacky alien adventures angle was unnecessary, don't get me wrong I love the lil dudes, they got some great designs in there, but the whole Idea of the first movie is, put most simply, Reality, every character including stitch is too rounded?? I guess? To be put into the boxes that you Have to have for Adventure Cartoon. I feel like there was So Much Potential for a series where they're just navigating Life, lilo going to school, Nani going to work, jumba pleakly and stitch just trying to Learn about how to live on this planet Without the lasers and the alien technology and everything. I know Why they went in the direction they went in, and I know it's much harder to sell an animated slice of life where the aliens don't do a whole lot of alien-ing but watching the original and the cartoon back to back makes me yearn for what could have been. Also stitch should be able to speak, he does this whole speech at the end of the movie and doesn't have to hunt for words or anything, him progressively speaking more and walking on two legs more often over the course of the movie is like a visual representation of his arc, he should act more as a brother to lilo than her dog that can say words

#i have more but its hard to write them down yknow

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franki-lew-yo · 3 months

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I kinda hate Dreamworks-stans (

No, not Dreamworks films persay, especially the ones I haven’t seen that everyone is so hyped that I do see (The Last Wish, Rise of the Guardians, Kung Fu Panda 2-3). It’s just...

The attitude -some- Dreamworks fans have about these franchises is a real turn off for me. They mostly say only good things about these movies but...they're kinda...snooty? I don’t want another Paranorman situation, is all. Before I go any further I will say, I definitely think Dreamworks films objectively look better than Disney’s modern movies-.Dreamworks’ artists are more at home with cgi where Disney’s fantasy films don’t look or feel right in that medium, compared to How to Train Your Dragon, that is. And yet...

I’ve really never liked Kung Fu Panda as a series. I disliked the first and didn’t feel anything for it all, so I've never watched the second even though everyone assures me it's better. Yeah. I'm sure it is. Part of this is all because of inner-fandom petty nonsense; baby-faced KFP stans were saying Skunk Fu! is a ripoff of KFP. Objectively YES, KFP is a better moviestory but what if I just straight up don't like it or feel obligated to like it ((this debate was always stupid regardless of what franchise was 'better' or 'worse' than the other. The idea of furries doing martial arts is a popular trope in animation cuz different styles or martial arts are even NAMED after animals sometimes.)). Either way, despite it looking cool and having a peacock as the main villain I have no desire to give KFP any attention kind of BECAUSE you all are so obsessed with it being "JUST SO GOOD".

But the thing that really irks me about Dreamworks fans is how obsessed they are with design and aesthitics >> character development and appeal.

While I liked How to Train Your Dragon a lot, I really didn’t like the second movie. That film had WAY too much going on in it. It was overstuffed and gave me a headache. It had no room to develop itself properly and sns I hate the character of Valka. I hate how she’s written to be this actually a loving mother to Hiccup and really loved Stoic deep down. To me, that cheapens her character and her son’s uniqueness for bonding with Toothless if it’s really just that his mom is just like him. I read somewhere that she was actually supposed to be a distant, kind of “wild” character who was more interested in dragons and didn’t feel that natural maternal instinct because not all women are motherly and that’s fine, and now with Stoic changed (and then dead) and Hiccup needing her she’s got to face her past and connect her dragonrider side with her family. No idea if any of that's true but WOW. I would have like that way more. But instead- I found Valka really bland and kind of awfully written, just like the rest of her movie. Oh, but everyone just "LOVED" that movie because Stoic died or whatever. I didn’t feel anything for Stoic’s death despite me liking him in the first film. I thought the second movie was a good story in theory, BUT the execution was so bad I'm sorry. It all went by so fast and so clunk that I didn't actually feel anything for this shocking and dramatic character from the first film at the hand of his son's hypnotized dragon. Believe me, I GET where people are coming from about this scene. Again I get what the emotions were supposed to be. I’m saying I found the storytelling and pacing horrid and it, by virtue, ruined the character(s). Just to add salt in my wound, everyone and their mom seems to love Valka cuz she doesn’t have same-face syndrome like the modern Disney women all have. Again, objectively Dreamworks has a better eye for style. BUT YA KNOW WHAT? I really think some of you are way too locked into this “looks generic/basic pretty woman = bad character” philosophy which kinda makes me want to scream.

Sns Moana, Maribel and Elsa > characters than Valka and that girl from the Croods.

You don’t have to love or even like them or those movies, but I mean objectively I think they’re better written story-wise. To better explain it’s the same logic that badfaith reviewers apply to Illumination: people hate the characters for their made-to-be-appealing designs and grafted personalities as opposed to their actual shortcomings as characters in the writing. Same face syndrome, manic pixie dream protagonists and EVERY Disney movie being about a man and a woman going on a wacky three-day long adventure is annoying, but if the blowback from Wish is any kind of indication, people are not going to love it “no matter what” and Disney-adults aren't sheeple.

I’ll believe fans when they tell me How to Train your Dragon 3 is awful. Yeah, I don't doubt that. Bu,t can you all kindly eff off with the implication that everything wrong with that movie stems from how Toothless’s mate is a pretty girl whitedragon version of him? Can you all shut up about how the 'Light Fury' (stupid name) ruined your life?

I too hate the trope of “girl = lighter and pretty”, but of what I’ve read that’s not the problem with her, character wise. Frankly, given how some of you act, I’m not convinced you would have any of these hang ups about her had she been better designed and not just white-Toothless. From the way some of you sound, it kinda feels like if her design was actually good, you would be stanning her character even after her movie/character turned out to be bad. It's why I also don't trust ya'll when it comes to that Elsa-looking fox girl in the new KFP 4 movie and how 'bad' she looks. Yeah, she DOES look bad...but I don't know by what margin you're talking about.

In the end, where Disney adults are their own kind of hivemind of shallow - believe me, I know - I kinda hate the unself-awareness of Dreamworks fans. They remind me of that side character in Mean Girls who gets the main character to spy on the Plastics because she hates them. They’re their own kind of shallow and mean. I wish they would at least be aware of that.

Also, Jeffry Katzenberg is NOT your friend. He's an AI-advocate and it's his fault Disney made Pocahontas.

#franki's features #dreamworks critical #dreamworks #httyd criticism #kung fu panda criticism #self-reblogs coming

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starchildrenofdustand-ashes · 2 months

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your incentive to read to the bottom of this post is ✨Ben Vereen in a thong✨

In honor of yesterday being Good Friday and Easter being on Sunday, let me tell you about my current hyperfixation: Tim O’Horgans, original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

This version is notoriously hated by Andrew Lloyd Webber- opening night being described as “the worst night of his life” but that’s only because even as a young man he was clearly a curmudgeon who hated fun.

This production is campy, it’s busy, and its clear it relies a lot on the spectacle pillar of theatre, but I love it nonetheless. my favorite version of JSC is the OBC recording consisting of: Jeff Fenholt as Jesus, Ben Vereen as Judas, Yvonne Elimen as Mary, Barry Dennin as Pilot, Bob Bingham as Caiaphus and Paul Ainsley as Herod. Some of the names you’ll recognize reprises their role for the 1973 movie.

I’m gonna tell you a few my of favorite fun facts/ things I noticed based on images and what I’ve read in Nassirs Rock Opera. Without further ado:

Overture: There are many descriptions of the overture, and they're very wild and I have no idea how to verbalize it. But I can tell you that Jesus rode in on a golden chalice with this opulent cape on lol.

You can learn more abt the staging for the overture here. The next pic is of him in his chalice chariot thing lol

Heaven on Their Minds: These are images of Judas and his tormentors. Now, Judas is usually played by a very strong actor, so a visual representation of what he’s going through isn’t really necessary, but I love the concept. They’re these hooded, shadow figures who follow him around and push him about on the stage. They chronically torment him and he fights them throughout the show until it’s time for his death where they lifthim up so he can get the rope to hang himself.

This Jesus Must Die: this one gets me really excited. So the High Priests are on this brige that’s meant to look like dinosaur fossils; and have you seen their costumes?? Like I have so many questions, this is such an interesting take. They keep their elaborate head pieces in the 1973 film, and they also give them a scaffold as a lair, but their costumes/set is so campy here. Really giving off Disney villain. Their part in the show received a lot of criticism because they’re portrayed kinda smarmy, and slinking in the shadows; the portrayal was deemed anti-semantic.

In the 1973 movie, they added the song “Then We are Decided,” between Caiaphus and Anna’s to portray a more human side to the Sanhedrin. That song is never performed, so you can imagine how well that went.

Hosanna

This is probably my least favorite song in the whole album but visually? I have no idea what's going on in this picture, but I love it. So it's a processional and the priests are watching from their lair. Apparently the props are supposed to look like microbes, and I know there was an insane thought process behind this, it's giving protozoa, amoeba realness. Like someone is carrying a giant set of dentures, can you find them?

Pilate's Dream

Costume Design for Pilate, and also Pilates Dream

The Temple: This is another wild one:

No Words, simply watch the Tony performance:

I Don’t Know How to Love Him:

She's so cute, I love her. This song was apparently one of the biggest applause of number, justifiably. I think one of the biggest complaints with this production as a whole, was the use of the gaudy mics. They're interesting. You can watch her performance at the tony's too.

Gethsemane: Apparently, Gethsemane was one of the biggest flops of the night, such a flop that people were laughing lol. It was staged with Jeff Fenholt, alone, center stage. There was this thing that dropped down behind him, O'Horgan dubbed 'The Universe Box'. It was suppose to look like Jesus was singing this song at the precipice of the universe with a galaxy of stars around him. In Rock Opera, Nassir refers to it as 'O'Horgans oversized toy', and there were several things that compared it to decorative boxes and toys from the 80's. I tried really hard to visualize this, because the concept of it sounds super cool. Instead, it looked silly to viewers and apparently Jeff Fenholt (who sings my favorite rendition of Gethsemane) didn't have the acting chops to pull away from the failure of the concept. YOU! DO! NOT! UNDERSTAND! THE! ANGST! I WENT! THROUGH! TO! GET! AN! IMAGE! OF !! THIS!!! DAMMED!!!!! BOX!!!!

Okay, I have to agree, it does look... strange and I would not have guessed it was supposed to represent the universe.

I'm not quite sure what is looks like. 💀💀

(I found the image from a person on TikTok! The account has lots of JCS OBC tidbits )

Pilate and Christ:

There was this really cool set piece that acted as the door to Pilates palace, it was ceasers head, and when the doors opened, it would expand to reveal 6 more eyes and pilate would sashay out lol.

King Herod

This number also got a lot of applause, it was definitely comedic relief, as Herod is often used for. Apparently he was wheeled in inside a giant, green dragons head and it opened to reveal him sitting in like a shell type thing. I'm still trying to find pictures of this prop- after finding the universe box, I am determined! He was in full drag with nails, the dress, the headdress and those fabulous platforms. Those platforms slay, btw.

Apparently there were a lot of high kicks and they did the Charleston lol.

Could We Start Again Please

There was some criticism about this songs placement in the show.This number was said to be not memorable at all because people were still reeling from the show Herod put on I think it's placed perfectly, because it kinda brings you back to the gravity of the situation. Had this song been placed before Herods Song, right after this Judas would hang himself. That's just too much too soon if you ask me. This provided a nice buffer, to settle down and get ready for the angst to come

Judas Death: Here are images of Judas' tormentors helping him take his life.

Trial With Pilate: Apparently this number flopped too. People said it was too long and the positioning of Dennen's mic caused him issues as his voice would cut in and out when he moved. Also, I have no idea what to make of the Roman guards costumes

I love the images of Barry Dennen going feral, pls best Pilate!!

Superstar: aaah,, the titular song. This was another stand out and y'all, If you thought Carl Andersons white fringe was extra? Any Judas getting bedazzled, wearing sparkles or glam during this song??? Yeah, none of that holds a Candle to Ben Vereen fucking coming out and performing this song in a gold thong. I can't make this shit up.

Now, I think this part is pretty cool. Jesus rises out of the ground wearing what's been dubbed 'the chrysalis'. It starts out thin, but each ensemble member grabs a pillar and spread the cape out across the stage. Judas sing this song on a butterfly set piece behind him. Okay metaphor 😩

For the opulence that was displayed throughout the entire show, the crucification was rather simple; he's simply stripped out of the 'chrysalis ' and put on a triangle.

Pls. Anyway. I love this show and we need a revival of this exact production! I'll wait until ALW expires and then find a producer lmfao 😌 There are a few updates that need to be made, but it is absolutely possible with todays technology?? Image updated gethsemane?? Tom O'Horgan your mind, sir!!!! Anyway. I love this production.

If you made it this far, thank you, I hope you now love this production as much as I do. 🫶🏾

#jesus christ superstar #Ted Neely #Carl Anderson #Jesus Christ superstar obc #easter #musical #jesus christ superstar 1973 #ben vereen #she speaks #she reviews #long post #Jesus #Judas #Jeff fenholt #barry dennen #bob bingam #Paul Ainsley

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musicfeedsmysoul12 · 1 year

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A Scooby Re-Write Inspired by Me and My Brother talking

After reblogging that, I got reminded of a discussion my brother and I had over Scooby-Doo. Basically we were talking about how Velma, while not the worst idea, is failing HARD at delivering anything. There's plenty of people on YouTube explaining WHY the show isn't doing well, so I won't bore you. Instead I'll talk about what me and my brother discussed.

First thought: Watch this Video. It's a good talk and honestly was the basis for our thoughts.

Most of this is mine with some thoughts of my brother.

First, I'd have them be college kids. Shaggy is the eldest at 21, and Velma is the baby at 18. Note as well: this follows my Canadian understanding of college and university.

Shaggy is a rich kid whose parents shoved him into all sorts of programs, and he killed it in theater club and culinary classes. Scooby is his dog he rescued at fourteen from an abusive relative. His parents actually helped to. His parents weren't neglectful, and fully support his dreams. They just really wanted him to find a hobby that wasn't eating. They're rich but also kinda hippies who own their own farm where they get fresh food, have chickens and also humanely butcher their animals. Shaggy is only vegetarian when he doesn't have access to meat he knows is ethically sourced. He believes in protecting the planet and might, a few times after catching eco-villains, buy the land they we were worried about to protect. He also is personally rich after creating a snack he calls 'Scooby Snacks' that are healthy and delicious.

Daphne is also a rich kid who knows Shaggy in the 'our parents do business together so we sat at dinners with each other'. Her parents also shoved her into programs a lot, but her interest ended up being fashion and judo. Like Shaggy, her parents aren't neglectful. They're just very busy and wanted her in programs to limit her alone time. Daphne and Shaggy are kind of friend. They get along, and when they see each other in class sit next to each other. But Daphne isn't that interest in spending time with him outside of class, mostly because she's busy with her designs and judo classes. And her boyfriend, Fred.

Fred isn't a rich kid. I like how his dad was mayor in Mystery Incorporated, and I like his trap obsession, so I want to keep that. His mom is a former socialite who became a social worker and is always busy like his dad. He ended up hanging out with his uncle, who is a stunts and props expert for movies. Traps came from this, and so Fred developed an obsession with it. Fred is a good kid, and he owns the mystery van that he painted like it is on a dare. He liked it though! He and Daphne went to the same school cause his mom used some of her money to pay for a private school.

Velma is a genius kid who graduated at age 15. She's in her third year, and striving to go into criminology. Her parents are the type who PUSH and PUSH to have her work harder and harder on school. They imagine her as a famous doctor who will make millions and have them in a life of luxury. She in turn has been working towards her criminology degree and when she turned 18, moved out and now lives in the dorms, where she is Daphne's roommate.

Daphne and Velma ended up close when Velma's parents tried to force their way into the dorm. Daphne prevented this, and they became very good friends. Daphne is in fashion studies, but takes a couple of justice courses for fun. Mostly due to Fred who has an interest thanks to learning his mother was disowned for blowing the whistle on her cousin's criminal life. Fred wants to go into movie making but takes the other stuff for fun.

Shaggy is kind of the odd man out, here. But it doesn't last. One summer, a really good university for future criminology students offers a scholarship for someone who can have a video where the student talks about famous crimes. Bonus if you actually go to these places.

Velma really wants this, but isn't sure if she can afford it. Daphne suggests going with her, and Fred can work the camera/drive. But they honestly don't have enough money. Daphne's parents firmly believe in their daughter making her own way. They pay for school, send her 500 every two weeks for food/gas, but do NOT pay for extra stuff. This, while nice, isn't something they would pay for.

Shaggy comes in. He's bored and overhears them as he's at Daphne's dorm for a group project they have in their costuming class as he's taking theater and culinary classes out of mostly boredom. He offers to pay cause 'I don't have anything to do over the summer and my extended family will be around cause of *reasons* and I hate them'.

So they all go off for Velma! And then of course, they start to find various supernatural crimes going on. Velma is secretly a ghost junkie, so is Fred. They have time, and go off to see it. And that is how them busting crimes start.

They go through about ten crimes, and there is some joking about how 'what the fuck, why is there so many people doing this shit' before they meet a REAL witch who has been terrifying people away from an area due to another witch trying to murder people. They team up to stop the evil witch, and in thanks, the witch casts a spell to give each of them a true desire.

Fred gets a book about ALL traps in the world that is self updating. Daphne gets a suitcase that has the perfect outfit for any occasion. Velma gets a book all about the supernatural that also updates or tells them things they need to know. Shaggy? Shaggy truly wants his dog to live as long as he does. And Scooby? He wants to talk.

After this, they keep going and end up finding real supernatrual mixed in with regular. Daphne begins posting it online, the police know of them...

And at the end of the summer, Velma gets her scholarship. But also is allowed to do her classes online thanks to a wish granted by a grateful genie. They keep going, all over the world, happy as can be.

Notes:

-Velma is a lesbian and ends up with a new love interest every few episodes who keeps being the villain. She's teased for having crushes on felons.

-Scooby turns out to be a fae dog who stays with them.

-Shaggy I feel has a long distance girlfriend who ends up appearing once in a while and is brought up each episode so she is a major character but not around cause she is busy like... discovering the cure for cancer.

-Fred and Daphne get married in Vegas.

-While mostly episodic, there is a few long arching plots (IE: The scholarship and then later probably something like an apocolypse)

-Shaggy and Scooby are both still cowards but Shaggy will also punch a ghost for his friends and Scooby will run back to save them.

-Shaggy ends up getting magic.

-One gets bitten by a werewolf that that's a sub plot for like ten episodes or a season looking for a cure. Either they get cured or stay like it cause why not.

#scooby doo

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talesmaniac89 · 1 year

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Charity Heist 8 - aka. B is for Boredom, Bad Decisions and Bobo the Clown

A Supernatural Heist AU - Masterlist

Pairing: Hitter!Dean x Thief!Reader

Summary: The Singer & Winchester Retrieval Agency is the best group of con artists in the world. But even though Y/N can crack safes, scale buildings and infiltrate even the most secure locations, she still can't find a way to deal with her all consuming feelings for the group's greek god of a hitter; Dean Winchester. How will she handle their next big heist, when she's forced to get up close and personal with the man of her dreams?

Warnings: Idiots in love, smutty thoughts, a lot of swearing and a ton of bad jokes.

Watch the trailer here

A/N: This story is 50% jokes and 50% dirty thoughts. No deep angst, just fun and action! Inspired by the series Leverage.

Y/N = Your Name

Start Here - Last - Next

Running to your room to hide for perpetuity had seemed like a good idea.

That was until you remembered that you had the attention span of a toddler and needed to be entertained at all times. And, all that time in your room just meant a ton of silent, contemplative time to go over what had happened in the closet. To the point that the word ‘closet’ was close to becoming the dirtiest word you knew.

Your brain was just one looped gif. Carefully going over every salacious dirty detail of Dean’s body against yours. His tongue wetting his lips. Strong, safe arms keeping you close to him as you subconsciously rolled your hips against him. The feel of him, clearly just as turned on as you were, pushing against your hip. The hard look in his eyes, paired with that teasing grin that told you he was a man who enjoyed being in control…

Over, and over, and over, and… Fuck.

After less than an hour locked in your own room, you needed to get out. You needed something, anything, to take your mind off of Dean. Plus, you were 99.9% sure that boredom could actually kill you. You just hadn’t let yourself be bored for long enough to test your theory out. And you weren’t planning to start now.

Sure, you might be a thief, and a wanted criminal. But your only real crime was that you were down to clown. And, though you knew it was safest to hide in your room. You couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit bored. What with no one other than yourself to make fun of, or clown around with, in the windowless room.

So, against your better judgment, you’d decided to sneak back out to watch Sam and Charlie do their thing, play your designated role of class clown, and maybe suggest some fitting titles for the break-in job. Though you knew any naming ideas, no matter how brilliant, would be nixed in a heartbeat, since your team chose to go the boring case file route. Every. Single. Time.

Though you still had names for all the team’s jobs. Even if the rest of your team members didn’t appreciate them.

You were still bitter that they’d all vetoed your name for the Met Gala con. “Paint by numbers” had been a perfect fit as far as a con job name went. It covered all the bases; the big money, the crooked accountant AND all the paint.

Still bored, but now also a little miffed at your underappreciated talent for naming heists, you’d tip toed out of your room like the super thief you were. Looking left and right for arms-to-die-for Dean, before quickly hurrying to Brainiac HQ. Not even daring to pop into the kitchen to grab some snacks and a beer before you joined your two resident nerds in their office. Even though you knew you’d come to regret not stocking up...

Hacking wasn’t like in the movies after all.

Usually it was slow and tedious. Like an endless waiting game for the rest of you, as Sam and Charlie attacked their keyboards looking for weak points and breaking down firewalls. Or whatever it was they did in their office. You’d never really been what one would call ‘technologically savvy’.

It was a big day for you when you figured out how to use the grill function on the microwave on your own.

So, pairing your lack of tech savviness with your inability to sit still. You knew the smart thing would’ve been to stop by the kitchen to make yourself a boredom survival kit. For some good ol’ fashioned boredom munchies. But hey…

No one had ever accused you of doing the smart thing.

“Hey IT, I think there’s something wrong with my WiFi…” You chirped as you fully entered the tech twins’ lair. Hiding your messy thoughts behind well practiced jabs that you knew would push your best friends’ collective buttons.

“Careful (Y/N), or I’ll actually lock you out from the bunker network completely,” Sam shot back without even looking in your direction. Completely missing the shit-eating grin you threw him as you lifted yourself up on Charlie’s desk picking up one of the many printouts littering her desk to read about…

One of the party participants, who would soon find himself in a jail cell thanks to your little group of do-gooders. This one was apparently the mobster’s chosen tech wiz. A hacker who went by the handle ‘Metatron’. Huh...

Whomever this Metatron guy was, he sounded like a douche canoe. And one that clearly wasn’t in the same league as your girl. Since Charlie had already dug up all his dirty deeds, including some fanfiction he’d been writing about a guy called Chuck.

Good riddance.

Letting the paper fall back down into the pile, you turned your attention to your redheaded best friend. Who was busy eyeing you with both wary anticipation and exasperation in equal measures.

“How can I help Char?” You spoke up before she could go all She Hulk on you and kick you out of her lair if you didn’t have a good reason to be there. Because honestly, you needed something, anything, to do.

“Oh! Alright, could you help me map out the office? Made a rough sketch on our software when you briefed Bobby, but we’ll need details for the actual job,”

Charlie’s surprise wasn’t misplaced. Though you would do anything for your main girl. You normally, wisely, stayed out of her way when it came to what she was best at. Or at least came prepared with things you could do for her.

Years alone on the run didn’t exactly make you a team player. Though you were working on it. You no longer hip tossed anyone who as much as tapped you on the shoulder without warning. Now you checked to see if they were friend or foe first before hip tossing them. Which was definitely progress.

Hopping back down from the front of the desk, you slid around to Charlie’s side instead. Leaning in to watch the layout she had built on the screen, you frowned at the little rectangle in the corner signifying the closet you were actively trying to forget. Before mentally shaking your head and refocusing on the pool table.

“Pool table was a little more to the left, and Dean’s listening device was placed more towards the center pocket,” You corrected as you pointed your finger towards the screen. Careful not to touch the monitor in fear of facing the full wrath of the 5-foot-4-inch techie in the chair next to you.

“Alright, anything else?” Charlie’s fingers flew across the keyboard, easily correcting everything at lightning speed as you pointed it out.

“The bar cart, it was closer to the desk, just enough space between ‘em for a full grown man to walk comfortably to the desk. Add bolts to the desk legs. It’s stuck to the floor. Safe location looks spot on. Other than that…” You contemplated the digital mockup of the room carefully, cringing when you were once again forced to look at the closet.

“The closet, it wasn’t that deep. Cut it down by a few inches,” You added after just a second of hesitation, before continuing to make little, minute changes to the layout on the screen. Ensuring your team had the full visual to build any plans and backup plans, while doing your absolute darndest to ignore the closet as Charlie did her magic on the screen.

“Thanks (Y/N). Damn, how did you even manage to hide from the bad guys in here? For someone so set on showing off his wealth, his office is pretty… Minimalistic. If you don’t count the stuff he’s got hanging on the walls,” Charlie sighed and rolled her shoulders after you finally okayed the layout and offered up the best possible entry and exit strategies.

“Oh… You know,” You started, really wishing you had a damn beer as you had to stop to clear your throat when your voice cracked over the words.

“We just hid from the heavily armed mafia goons in the closet…. As you do,”

“Nobody does that (Y/N). How did you even fit?” Charlie’s surprised laugh was followed by her zooming in on the very closet you’d been avoiding looking at. Clearly already doing the mental mathematics in her head to work out how two grown adults could fit into the laughably small space.

“We… Managed,” You said, pushing yourself away from the desk and walking back around it to cut off the view of the closet and hopefully put an end to Charlie’s questions.

“Plus, it was probably why they didn’t even bother checking. We were… Lucky, I guess?”

---

Though you’d done all you could to help, which wasn’t much, you didn’t feel like returning to your room and brooding over a certain someone again. So, instead you stayed and annoyed your friends watched the two geniuses work.

They were making quick work of a lot of the preparations. Which was easier with all the extra info your team had acquired during the party. A full chart of the big honcho’s organization was already up on the main screen, including bullet pointed entries for each and every member’s dark history. Your geniuses probably knew more about these guys than their own families.

While the smaller screens surrounding the main display were filled to the brim with code as they found, and marked, the network backdoors needed for infiltration and extraction of information and money on the day. Each smaller screen another backdoor, firewall or network that they were currently in the process of hacking.

All while at the same time slowly but surely sourcing the account details of the many shell corporations and personal bank accounts of the whole organization.

With your two geniuses on the case, your team was nearly ready to completely empty the wallets of everyone involved and throw them in jail as soon as you got into the safe. Once you had the paperwork for the charity, the list of donators and the pen drive hiding the nefarious use of the money, you’d destroy them at the click of a button.

Well… Sam and Charlie would be doing the button clicking. You’d be too busy breaking into whatever safe set up the mobster had. And getting the hell out of dodge if shit hit the fan. Which, considering your track record, it often did.

Meanwhile… So far your only contribution to the ongoing techie work had been to suggest the name ‘The Donation Drive” for the job. Much to the exasperation of everyone in the room. Which, at that moment, had only been Charlie, Sam and you. A small audience for your brilliant name, sure, but one that could still appreciate your talent. If by ‘appreciate’ you meant groan and reward you with easily won eyerolls of absolute disgust and exasperation.

Which of course was what you meant.

Though, just as soon as you’d decided those annoyed groans were better than applause… Your victorious laughter had died in your throat once the door opened and Dean walked into the office. Choking you on your sweet victory like some form of unfair karmic justice.

He was still wearing those damned gray sweatpants, which… Of course he was. It had only been… What? Two hours since he changed out of his suit? There was no way in hell he’d make a quick costume change just to save you from imagining the oh so many dirty things wreaking havoc on your heart and your libido. It wasn’t like he could read your mind.

And thank fuck for that.

Shouldering the door the rest of the way open, Dean hadn’t noticed you right away. Too focused on balancing the armful of beers he’d brought with him. Choosing to do the smart thing, unlike you, and bring in an offering to the tech Gods whose office you were currently failing to hide out in.

Yet, as green eyes lifted to greet the room, the smile on his lips had fallen a little as he spotted you. Which, though fully warranted, stung like a bitch for a split second. Before the older Winchester once again soothed that same sting as he replaced the former smile with another, softer, yet somewhat awkward crooked grin in your direction.

“I thought you guys might be getting thirsty,” Dean said, after taking a second to clear his throat. Before gently putting down the beer haul on one of the free desks not filled to the brim with paperwork, and grabbing four bottles from the stash…

Four.

Damn it. Your escape route was closing fast, and your brain was still too hung up on the sight of him in those low hanging sweatpants to haul ass back to the safety, and boredom, of your bedroom.

Plus, seeing him standing there; boyish grin in place and two beer bottles left in his hand after quickly depositing one in both Charlie and Sam’s waiting grasps – offering up a thirst quenching bribe to stop you from running. It was… Familiar. In a way that made you simultaneously happy to see him and terrified at how easily he could put your paranoid self at ease. Happy because of the beers, of course... Not the sweatpants.

Oh.. Who were you kidding? It was totally the sweatpants.

Walking over to where you were still seated, half frozen, on the edge of Charlie’s desk, Dean slid in next to you. Leaning against the sturdy wood and scooting closer; close enough for you to smell the slightly spiced scent of his body wash.

Quickly uncapping both beers, he gave you another small, careful smile before handing you one of the two chilled bottles. Which, effectively cut off any quick retreat you could make without it coming off as equal parts bitchy and weird.

Sure, you were used to being seen as weird. It was kinda on-brand for you. But ‘bitchy’ was something you reserved for the bad guys. Not the people you worked and lived with. And definitely not for your infuriatingly handsome crush.

So, instead, you busied yourself with some much needed dosages of liquid courage while throwing sneaky glances at the mercenary next to you over the edge of your bottle. Following his beer bottle to his lips, and nearly choking on your own beer from the sight of those tempting droplets wetting lips you’d been so damned close to tasting only hours earlier.

Damn it all to the seventh circle of hell, that man looked good doing anything. And was also clearly solely responsible for your own recent oral fixation. And arm fixation… Not to mention thighs, hands, freckles, eyes…

Fuck it, you were just fixated on the whole damned man. He was too stupidly perfect for his own good. And it always turned you into a bumbling idiot. Not that that was particularly hard. What with your mind always going a mile a minute while your mouth struggled to keep up…

Aaaaand, you were staring again.

You caught yourself just as Dean’s eyes locked with yours over his beer bottle. That tempting mouth curling up in a small smile against the lip of his bottle as you hurriedly refocused on the beer in your own hands. Once more, resigning yourself to stripping yet another poor bottle of its precious label as you tore on a corner of the paper to avoid meeting his eye.

Yet, keeping your eyes down didn’t mean you were free from the actual human drug that was Dean Winchester leaving you feeling dizzy and intoxicated. Even with your current vantage point being 70% bottle; you could still see him out of the corner of your eye. There was no way you could kick him - he was just too damned addictive.

His toned and muscular body, leaning nonchalantly against the desk, had caused his t-shirt to ride back up again. By now you were damned sure he was doing it on purpose. To show off that sinful v shape where his sweatpants were resting low on his hips and a flash of the well trained upper body that you could remember perfectly from your close encounter in the closet.

Which… Of-fucking-course, sent you reeling back into that very same closet as you relived every heated second. Now with the added bonus of feeling Dean’s body heat where his arm brushed up against yours, and having the spiced scent of him fill your senses, sending you reeling back in time to that adrenaline fuelled moment. Leaving you nearly unable to tell reality from memory or dirty daydreams.

Your own overactive mind, and the many, many dirty versions of that moment that your brain could think up on the spot, had you so lost in thought that you almost missed it when Dean finally spoke up, past some simple pleasantries with his brother and Charlie.

If it wasn’t for the electrifying feeling of his eyes on you, and the way his deep voice always had pleasurable little shivers run up your spine, you would have missed the close call altogether. As Dean had clearly given up on getting you alone, and instead seemed ready to broach the subject you had been actively avoiding right in front of Sam and Charlie. Whom you knew where totally ready to listen in. No matter how busy they looked.

As your best friend and adoptive younger brother, both had been the butt of many a joke told by you. And you knew they wouldn’t miss any salacious details that could be turned into ammunition in future back and forths. Both already knew that the quickest way to shut up your endless parade of snarky comments was to mention Dean. So if they had more detailed information to use against you…

You mentally shuddered just thinking about it.

“(Y/N), I think we…” Dean started, his voice low, though still very audible in the quiet room. Yet before he could complete his sentence you awkwardly cut him off. Saying the first non-sexy thing that came to mind to stop him from talking you into a corner where you were forced to face your own heartbreak in the middle of Brainiac HQ.

“Sam was talking about the entry strategy!” Your voice was about two pitches higher than usual, and broke over the final syllable. So, totally not as smooth as you wanted it to be, but hell you were too panicked to care.

“Especially since I’ll need my full toolkit with me… For the safe,” You continued, reeling your panic back in with a quick sip of beer and playing off the ending as if you were the literal definition of chill. If the meaning of chill had changed since the last time you picked up a dictionary. Which it might have, since the last time you picked up a dictionary was… Well... Never.

Smooth, (Y/N). Now you just needed to ignore Sam’s raised eyebrow, plus the most likely just as elevated eyebrow of Charlie, and hope it was enough.

Luckily, your not-so-smooth diversion, no matter how awkward and obvious, still worked. As Dean dropped the subject of needing to talk with a tired sigh. His dark chocolate and whiskey voice once more became all business as he turned his attention back to the case.

“Yeah, we might need to rethink using a covert entry strategy…”

Though you’d successfully changed the subject, you couldn’t focus on a single word Sam or Dean said. Not when the weapon specialist’s eyes still blazed like a forest fire; sending searing waves of heat through your body and into your core.

Which only burned hotter as he covertly placed his free hand over yours. As if he was afraid you’d run away again. Which, in fairness, he had every reason to be. You were a fucking roadrunner…

Meep meep motherfucker.

No way you were staying to have that conversation with him. Or going anywhere else to have it with him for that matter.

Thief rule #1: Always run away from danger. No matter what.

Those eyes, paired with the way the wet droplets of delicious beer rested on his pillowy bottom lip in a way that forced you to bite your tongue to keep from leaning in for a taste. And the feel of his calloused fingers on the back of your hand, unconsciously tracing circles against your skin…

Yeah, there was no way you could pay attention to a word of what the Winchester brothers were discussing. Past dully nodding along and adding in small sounds of agreement, in fear that your voice would break again if you tried to string actual words together.

At least you could comfort yourself with the fact that you’d bought your heart a little more time before a certain Mr. Dean Winchester broke it into a million tiny pieces.

You knew there was no way you could keep running from the conversation that the stubborn weapon’s specialist seemed dead set on having. You just wished he’d give you a little time first. Just one night to have a cold shower, and revel like a school girl in the almost-kiss before he broke your heart.

You just needed time to steel yourself for it. Maybe prepare a few semi-dirty jokes to hide your hurt. Or just literal clown paint… That could work too. Maybe Amazon could overnight you a few months’ worth of grease paint if you managed to keep running from Dean’s rejection for a few more hours?

Because you couldn’t fool yourself into believing he wanted to talk to do anything other than breaking your heart. He needed to talk things through with you to keep the peace in the bunker, that was all. For Dean Winchester, family and the job always came first. And that was all you were. A part of the family; a part of the business.

There was no way THE Dean Winchester liked you… He wasn’t stupid.

In fact you’d reckon he was one of the smartest men you’d ever met. You didn’t survive long in his line of business without a good head on your shoulders.

“... I think it’s our best bet for entry plan A. What do you think (Y/N)?”

The mention of your name falling from Dean’s lips was enough to pull you back into the real world again and out of the strange cocktail of sinful thoughts about his proximity mixed with self-loathing and early heartbreak preparations. Though, you’d clearly been checked out for far too long. Since you had no fucking clue what ‘Entry plan A’ was all about.

“Yeah… Uhm. It sounds good,” You croaked, fooling absolutely no one. Especially not the eagle eyed former mercenary next to you that raised a cocked eyebrow and hid a smirk behind his beer bottle. Letting you know that he had noticed your not-so-secret glances in his direction when you’d used the shop talk to allow yourself to once more zone out and let the 50% of your brain reserved for thinking of the oldest Winchester take over.

“Just… Could you get me a copy of the details tomorrow so I can read through and digest it Sam? Might be some kinks that need working out,” You added, cringing as you swore you could feel Charlie roll her eyes at you from behind her many screens.

The biggest kink being your damned brain.

“Alright, sounds like the plan’s coming together,” Dean said with a clearly fake yawn, pushing away from the desk and grabbing your empty beer bottle from your hand. Before taking a quick step over to one of the empty desks to place them next to the rest of the beer haul, much to Charlie’s chagrin. Though short, the distance still gave your mind, and heart, some much needed breathing room after having every single nerve in your body hyper focused on the mercenary for… Hell you didn’t even know how long it had been since he first walked into the room.

Yet, the reprieve was short lived, as the fast-as-lightning soldier was right back at your side before your brain could even signal for your feet to bolt for the door. His hand, that had just moments ago stopped resting against yours, reaching for you and easily grasping yours again. As if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“We’ll leave you guys to it then…” He started, letting his thumb once again paint circles against the back of your hand as he got ready to drag you out of the room and into a heartbreak you still weren’t prepared enough to face.

Yet, with the direct contact of Dean’s skin against yours, your brain had short circuited to the point of not being able to even think up a single weak excuse as you looked down at where his hand was swallowing up your much smaller one. The dirty little devil on your shoulder once more whispering sweet little nothings about how those hands would feel on your body into your ear and turning you into a tongue tied mess.

“Wait, Dean… Since you’re here…” Sam’s voice had never sounded as sweet as it did at that moment. Like a literal angel. If angels wore a fuck-ton of flannel and had more hair products than you. Which, hey… Who knew? They might? You’d never met an angel, and you were pretty sure you never would.

What with your line of work and all. You doubted you’d be met with pearly gates when your reckless personality and bad ideas finally caught up to you and bit you in the ass.

“What’s up?” Dean sounded slightly annoyed at his younger brother’s interruption as his hand squeezed yours. As if to make sure you hadn’t somehow managed to Houdini your way out of his grasp in the split second when Sam spoke up.

Sure, you were an expert escape artist. Kinda came with the job. But even you couldn’t think of a way out of your current conundrum.

“I was working the security details you’d mentioned during the debrief earlier into our plans… And I’d been meaning to double check the model of guns you saw the guards packing. Mind just coming over here and double checking the list for me?”

Sam’s eyes were focused on the screen in front of him as he spoke. Which meant he completely missed the exasperated look Dean shot him. As well as the look of total reverence you threw his way at the same time.

Sam’s need to have every detail ironed out before bed had just temporarily saved you from having your heart ripped out of your chest… Metaphorically of course. At least you hoped it was metaphoric. Since Dean didn’t look all too happy at the interruption. You however...

God, you could’ve kissed the giant folder loving fool! If that hadn’t just felt… Icky. You saw him as your little brother. Yeah, no, that was just… Weird. You could’ve high-fived him. You could’ve high fived the hell out of him. If you hadn’t been too busy eyeing the door, ready to bolt the moment Dean dropped your hand.

With an annoyed sigh, Dean let go of you to walk over to his brother’s desk as you stood perfectly still where he left you. Waiting for him to walk around the desk and give you some much needed space to make your escape. As Dean walked around the desk and leaned in to look at Sam’s screen, he threw a quick look up at you through thick eyelashes. As if he could hypnotize you to stay right there until he was done.

But, unfortunately for the expert marksman… Unlike his perfect 20/20 vision, you couldn’t see all that well, all of a sudden. It was the weirdest thing…

So, you chose to completely miss the silent warning in his eyes as you took a careful step backwards. Before clearing your throat and keeping your eyes focused on the door as you made your escape with a quick little wave of your hands and a jumbled and messy goodbye.

“Well, you won’t need me for gun talk. I’m more of a stabby stabby girl, instead of… Y’know pew pew,” The words came out at a mile a minute as you hurried out of the room after throwing up some awkward finger guns. All the while pretending you couldn’t hear Dean calling out to you, asking you to wait up.

Smoothest exit ever, you should change professions. You’d make an excellent clown.

Actually, a career change might not be the worst idea.

You could run away, join a circus. Get a stage name and put those under appreciated naming skills to good use. Since you doubted you’d survive much longer as a member of the Scooby Crew anyway. Not when Dean didn’t seem likely to drop the subject of your upcoming heartbreak.

Time to go buy some fucking clown makeup.

---

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