#also I don’t actually know which of the other writers are playing big parts in percabeth’s story so threats why I put a focus on Riordan | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inbarfink · 3 months

Text

After all these years, ‘I Remember You’ is still one of the great highlights of Adventure Time Storytelling. And not just in the basic ‘what???? Silly children’s cartoon does something SAD??? HOLY SHIT MIND BLOWN’ way. But with the execution of that Something Sad. How it manages to pack so many Complex Emotions into just 11-minutes of television. And especially the way it utilizes the basic Adventure Time format for that purpose.

So Adventure Time is a Board-based show. Each episode has an outline pitched and written down by the writer’s room, and then this outline goes to a team of (usually) two Storyboard Artists who develop that simple outline into a full story. And with the show’s art-style deliberately eschewing staying perfectly ‘on-model’ in favor of having the animators take direct reference from how the different storyboarders draw the characters

And the show being generally extremely versatile in terms of themes and tone - AT has allowed a lot of their Storyboarders to really express themselves and their unique artistic vision as part of the Big Collaborative Narrative that is Adventure Time.

Now, the Boarders who worked on ‘I Remember You’ are Cole Sanchez and Rebecca Sugar. These two were a Storyboarding Duo from the start of S4 and until Sugar left the AT Crew during S5, and they always struck me as a curious combination. I think really from all of the individual boarders working on AT during that time, these two really are the closest to having like… Totally Opposite Artistic Sensibilities as boarders.

With Sugar favoring a style that is very loose and sketchy and also very rounded. Focusing on expressions and subtle body language and lighting. And being famous for going deep in depth into Big Moments of Emotional Catharsis

And Sanchez having a very clear art style that emphasizes strong silhouettes and clear lines that suggest flatness. Focusing more on major poses and the character’s positions in the space. And having just a really great eye for AT’s brand of silly humor.

Like, I almost kinda suspect these two were paired together so they can each cover for the other’s “weakspots” in writing ‘Adventure Time’.

And there were a few episodes that did some really interesting stuff with this very contrasting pair - ‘Jake the Dog’ is another example. Giving most of the Farmworld scenes to Sugar and most of the Time Room scenes to Sanchez both plays to their personal strengths as storyboarders and helps to emphasize the strong emotional contrast between these two scenarios.

And ‘I Remember You’ is actually kinda unique among Adventure Time episodes cause… Most episodes will have the two boarders alternate between working on the episode throughout it. Like you’d have Boarder A draw a bit and then Boarder B and then Boarder A again… But “I Remember You” is divided between Sanchez and Sugar… basically perfectly in the middle.

So the entirety of the first half of the episode was boarded by Sanchez

Until Ice King pushes Marceline and then leaves the room in shame.

And then, Sugar takes over.

And, like, even if you don’t know anything about the Behind the Scenes of Adventure Time or who Cole Sanchez and Rebecca Sugar even are - the Shift is noticeable. The shift in tone, in narrative focus, in the subtleties in which the characters are drawn.

The entire first half of the episode has this thin veneer of just being a Silly Goofy Ice King Episode. Sanchez’s talent for Adventure Time’s brand of comedy is on full display… but there is also this underlying feeling that Something is Happening just under the surface. And these hints of the Big Emotions of ‘IRY’ expressed via Sanchez’s kinda goofy style really create this balance between putting the audience into a false sense of security that this is just a Very Normal Episode about two characters hanging out and the Tension constantly brewing in the subtext.

And then it all comes to a blow.

And then the Shift happens. And now we are in Sugar’s court.

And this subtle shift in the artstyle and storytelling also coincide with Marceline finally openly expressing her feelings and the Reveal of Simon and Marcy's shared past. The episode changes focus from Ice King's silly antics to Marceline's feelings. Everything changes, everything in the first part of the episode gets recontextualized and... even on the most basic level, the episode is now Noticeably Different.

I would almost say that Sanchez’s half of the episode has Ice King define the tone, while Sugar’s half of the episode has Marceline define the tone. But more than anything it’s the catharsis. The reveal and release of those emotions that were building up so expertly through the Sanchez half of the episode. All of the Sugar-boarded scenes in this episode are really heartbreaking on their own, just through the tragedy of the story and Sugar’s expert knowledge of howto convey emotion in the visual medium - but it’s so enchanted by what came before it.

“I Remember You” is truly a great testament to how ‘Adventure Time’ could use every aspect of its medium to tell a great story in such a short time.

507 notes · View notes

slavghoul · 6 months

Text

Interview from Sweden Rock Magazine 10/2023

Hi, hi. There is an interview with Tobias in SRM’s newest issue, but it’s in the subscribers only section, so I thought I’d translate/share since I guess not many people will be able to get their hands on it. It is about Prequelle and it’s part of SRM’s „200 best Swedish hard rock albums of all time” series. Prequelle placed #68. The other albums may have scored higher, but for now we don’t know the whole list. Either way, enjoy. Very insightful.

„Do you think that "Prequelle" is Ghost's worst album?” Now that’s an unusual opening question. Especially when the interview is about an album that Sweden Rock Magazine's writers and qualified Swedish hard rock musicians (including Tobias Forge) have voted as one of the 200 best Swedish hard rock albums of all time. The question wasn’t planned, but comes spontaneously, as a reaction to the first thing Tobias Forge says when we sit down on opposite sofas in the record company office. I'm here for a two-part interview, partly about the EP "Phantomime" (published in #6 2023), partly about "Prequelle". Neither record companies, artists, voters, nor even our writers who conduct interviews for this series of articles have any idea what placement an album has received. Interviews are often done well in advance and we simply don't want placements to leak and become public long before publication.

No Ghost album has ever been on the list before. The idea is actually to end the day with the "Prequelle" talk, but when Tobias Forge suddenly starts with a funny little comment that this album is probably the one that those who have voted think is Ghost's worst or least popular album, I just have to take the opportunity to ask the question: Do you think that "Prequelle" is Ghost's worst album?

No, absolutely not, he says and laughs. If I'm going to be completely pragmatic, I'd say: "How many songs do we actually play from that record?" There are songs that work damn well live and sit where they should. So it's a pretty strong album.

But is this what you are basing it on? "Prequelle" was released after Ghost had become really big so it can't be compared to "Opus Eponymous" and "Infestissumam" which you don't play many songs from. I mean, no matter what kind of record you had released when "Prequelle" came out, you would still have played many songs from it and they would have worked precisely because Ghost's songs nowadays are moulded more to the arena format.

I don't know how to answer that, it's difficult. If the album had been different, it would have been. If I'm going to talk somehow both artistically and practically, I know that for every record we have become exponentially bigger. "Prequelle" was definitely no exception, but it also took us a big step forward and upwards and we became bigger and broader. To the extent that when we introduce old songs in the live set, you notice that there are elements on albums one and two that make some songs more difficult to play. Not technically, we can play the songs, but they don't work in quite the same way as the later songs, which means that there is a slight favouritism.

I asked the original question about whether you think it's Ghost's worst album only because you directly said that this means it's the least popular one.

I'm just so full of myself I assumed all the other albums are also in the top 200, which may actually be incorrect. This might be the best album and the others aren't even there, haha.

It wasn't long after "Prequelle" was released that you were self-critical of the album in interviews, saying that it was too ballad-heavy and a bit too soft. I haven't noticed that before, you being so self-critical shortly after the release.

Yes, but I still feel that way. If, as an artist, I am only going to look at the work with the criticism that one can feel towards one's own work, I think that if things had been different or if I had more time, I might have wished that I had managed to get maybe two more hard songs. Maybe one more hard song would have fit on the album and another harder song might have phased out one of the ballads. Now five years after the album came out, I know that the two ballads ("Pro Memoria" and "Life Eternal"), which I may not think are bad, are one too many. But I know that many of the people who like the band like both of them, so it's kind of a useless argument.

Who sets the length of an album? Have you set a limit, that it can't be longer than this and have no more songs than that?

No, but it must fit on an LP disc and there is a physical limit. I think the absolute pain threshold is 46 minutes and that's 23 minutes on each side. Now maybe Mikkey Dee (co-owner of Spinroad Vinyl Factory) will raise his hand here: "But I can make it longer!" And it's maybe 48 minutes, I don't know, but I do know that when a disc starts getting so full that you start getting close to the sticker, it starts to sound bad. Especially nowadays, because recordings today are so very maximalist in scope. It's one thing if you record 60s music with drums, a guitar and bass where the sound is cleaner and finer or if you play acoustic stuff with just vocals. Bob Dylan records could have eight songs on each side and it worked all the way through. But this kind of fairly compact music doesn't work well. Not only am I a militant vinyl advocate, I think we should respect the fact that most artists don't manage to create more than 45 minutes of good music on a regular basis. A lot of famous double records are not that good. I don't think the Rolling Stones "Exile On Main St" is very good. It might as well have been on one disc. And if I'm actually going to turn it into something completely mundane, I'd say that I think it's irresponsible to sit and make records with twelve songs if it results in the record being 63 minutes long and you automatically have to make a double record. It's pretty wasteful.

When you said that it's irresponsible, I thought you were going to say that it's irresponsible to print a double vinyl because of the environmental destruction that it entails.

Of course, if we're going to be completely straightforward and not do anything that harms nature, we shouldn't even release any records, so I say this with reservation. But with that in mind and for the sake of art, I think more people should embrace the actual given format that has been the most prevalent in rock history. There is a reason why a film is usually one hour and 30 minutes. You can’t take any more. There's a certain dramaturgical structure and there’s a certain comfort in it. Then the CDs came along they screwed that up, and suddenly there weren't two sides anymore but it started one way and ended another. Now that the CD is no longer important and we've gone back to vinyl, creators should follow suit and start embracing the physical rules.

Are there songs that have been rounded off just because you thought „I have to round off here, because if I continue, it won't fit on the vinyl disc"?

We actually had that problem on the last album. „Watcher In The Sky” ended the A-side and the outro is much longer on the CD and digitally. Two minutes longer I think. Much, much, much longer. It's long, noisy and has all these dives. It's a very chaotic soundscape. You get the feeling that it goes on and on, and on the vinyl it's just the beginning of an outro and then it drops almost immediately. I think that was a huge mistake.

So the overall sound quality was more important than vinyl buyers getting everything? Because you could have pressed the vinyl and it would have fit, but you would have had to compromise the sound quality.

Yes, exactly. You can get the song to just keep going until the vinyl simply runs out. Then it just starts spinning in the middle, depending on what kind of record player you have. But the problem then, if you want to anticipate events at a creative stage, is that people today buy and listen to vinyl records and are sensitive. It's quite common for people to complain that the record is broken. I don't just mean our records, but people complain a lot about the presses. If you make ten songs, it's therefore stupid to have a too thick soundscape towards the end of song number five and song number ten. If you want to be really good and old school, that's where you put a piano ballad because it's an easier sound to handle so far into the record. This is what I think about when I make records. But clearly sometimes I miscalculate.

This must cut right through the record collector Tobias Forge's whole body and soul, that "Watcher In The Sky” is shortened by two minutes on the vinyl of all versions.

Well... I don't toss and turn and wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it anymore. But when it happened, I was livid. Luckily it was just an outro. It would have been worse if it had continued with some kind of narrative into the next song. Now I can't remember in my head how long "Prequelle" is, but if I'd had to go back in time and just re-construct it, the re-construction wouldn't have had much to do with the existing material, I would have just wanted to add a scene. And it's not a scene that's missing, it's just for the sake of balance. It became asymmetrical in a way that bothers me a bit.

You've talked about this before, but it was before "Prequelle" that you really started to talk a lot about how you were thinking about what kind of new songs might suit the live show. Can you get stuck in that mindset, thinking more about what songs are needed live right now rather than creating an album that will last 30 years?

Hmm... (long pause)... The reason I'm sitting here thinking is because I'm trying to come up with examples of other bands that I think might have gone through something similar. I’m looking for examples to the answer I'm about to formulate and that is that: yes, I think there comes a point in the career when most bands make a record because they simply feel they need to… Because what we're talking about is that when you go from playing in small smoky clubs in front of an already inveterate audience that already understands the perhaps a little more chewy expression, that experience can change if you start playing in front of a larger and especially a different type of audience. When a different type of audience comes and you play in a different format, you discover that this song doesn't work very well, it doesn't sound very good and it's difficult to get the sound right. Then there's usually a record or two or three during your career when this transition happens where you start filling in with songs that work better live. Look at Piece of mind", "Powerslave" and "Somewhere in time". There's a reason why Iron Maiden didn't play a lot of the first two albums there and then, because it was easier to play the new songs. You get to that point somewhere in your career and it's very difficult to say when it is - there's no given rule and there are artists who continue to release relevant records and have an amazing ability to release new records and just play the whole new record. Well, now Iron Maiden does that and tests their audience a little bit in that way, but then they will always compensate by doing like a "best of" set the following year so everything is forgiven. Now we're in the middle of the "Impera" period here and have a very strong set, but I'm starting to feel that now that I'm about to start writing a new album, it feels like it's not really on my agenda to write three more albums that will change the live setlist ten years ahead. I think we already have the blueprint for what is Ghost's setlist, especially if you include the entire catalogue. After a while, each new record you make becomes a little less important. It's really hard to know when that point comes, but the truth is that new records don't matter in the same way. Slayer didn't have to release "Divine Intervention”. They definitely didn't have to release "Diabolus In Musica". I didn't care about it and I just wanted to hear the old stuff. If they had just come up and played "Reign In Blood" I would have been soooo happy. And that's the way it is with most bands. Nobody would be sad if the Rolling Stones came up and didn't play anything from "Emotional Rescue". And that's just the way it is. In the future, I can see a scenario where there is probably a basis to possibly build up an alternative setlist. There are so many songs that we do not play and that I have nothing against - I love them too! But it would almost be easier to build up a completely alternative setlist and run a show with only the odd songs. There are so many songs now. There's no reason not to build on that. But when I want to make a new record, it's irresponsible for me not to consider that there might have to be some songs that are a bit more direct. But it doesn't hurt me if we have more songs that we don't play live. I don't know if this answers your question...

I would actually like to ask exactly the same question again, because I wonder if you yourself feel that you get stuck during the making of the record. You said that you would have liked to include another hard song because "Prequelle" doesn't have the balance that you would have liked to have in retrospect.

Exactly, but the explanation for that has more to do with my mental capacity there and then. I simply couldn't cope. I felt that I had probably maxed out… It was probably about as much as I could do that year. That's the simple explanation. To get another song that would have fit and that would have fulfilled this requirement that I now in retrospect would have wished I had, it would have required something that I did not have there and then. The only thing that could have made it easier is if I had more time. It is difficult to reason about it, you see.

I was in the studio for a few days during the recording and it's one of the few times in all these years that I've done interviews where someone has started crying during an interview. It was quite obvious that everything that had happened with the split of the band affected you.

Yes. Of course. It did.

Is "Prequelle" a difficult album to listen to for you? Can you sit and listen to it all the way through?

Well, at the moment I have to do that from time to time, and listen to all the records, because we're just about to start rehearsing again and then I sometimes have to go back and just listen to the record to go: "Fuck, is that really how I sing?" Especially when we start rehearsing, I can be a bit like: "Damn, who changed this bit?” Then I usually sit down and it hits me: "Oh, it's me who has changed my song!" You simply do that over the years, you start singing it in a slightly different way. So sometimes I have to go back and listen, but it’s more practical. I don't think it's fun to listen them. I do it until they are finished. I listen over and over and over again and really try to listen with all the imaginary ears and all the imaginary perspectives you can have. "How would I have listened to this if I had heard it from this perspective?" Just to get as "objective" a perspective as I can until I'm satisfied, but then it's like „No, I don't want to hear this anymore". But I have to say that I think "Prequelle" is a very tolerable disc despite everything that interfered with the process. Therapeutically, it works quite well considering that we are still playing at least half of the album. For every artist there are songs that you want to play, and there are songs that you don’t want to play because they feel too personal. I don't feel that way about this one, it's more like: "Ah hell, they're part of the setlist and people like it and it sounds good. So that's what we're doing."

On a personal level, was Tom Dalgety the perfect producer for you, the way you were feeling at the time? Tom feels like the kindest, sweetest producer you can meet. He wasn't the kind of producer who pushed you very much, it was more of a nice atmosphere between you.

Yes, really, and it would have been different if Klas Åhlund, who is more confrontational, had been in the room. Now Klas and I are great mates, so it would certainly have been very therapeutic also, but it would have been a different process. If an artist comes in who is in such bad shape that they can't make a record, or a band where the main songwriter has just left them, then a Bob Ezrin goes in and says: "If you don't make the record, I'll make the record myself.” And he goes and makes Kiss "Destroyer" or Alice Cooper records. I'm not saying they didn't make them, just that you hear that Bob Ezrin made "Beth". It's a type of producer that's very different from a lot of other producers who maybe act a little bit more like buddies and cheerleaders and make the atmosphere good. Bob Ezrin doesn't care so much about the atmosphere in the room. Klas is somewhere in between, I would say. Given the condition I was in during "Prequelle", the result could probably have been different if Klas had come in. Ironically, there was actually talk of him doing it, but he didn't have the time and we'll never know how it would have turned out. I only know that it would have been different, but right there and then Tom was fantastic. I know that a lot of bands like to work with him because he is technically brilliant. He's really good at those typical sounds that people like: cool drums, guitar, bass, tone and clarity. He is also very "happy go lucky", a nice guy who sits and jokes all the time. Even if he has a bad day, it doesn't affect anyone else, which is convenient.

Let me compare it to when a writer contacts me after an interview and says "that was such a nice interview". For me, "nice" is not something positive in such a work situation and the result is often better when there is a little friction.

Mmm, and that is more Klas. There is more friction and more confrontation. And I was much better equipped for that at "Meliora" and later at "Impera". I felt better and was simply stronger. There wasn't the same survival instinct as on "Prequelle". If I think back, not about how the album turned out and how I have to live with it, but if I think back to the situation I was in, I was very anxious all the time. Even though I'm happy with the result, I wouldn't want to go through the recording again, even though Tom was great. Because it's hard to work when you're under attack. I realised that now when I made "Impera", when it was no longer like that. You are much more comfortable, it doesn't feel the same, you are more mature, you make better decisions, you are more controlled or dare to be uncontrolled. When things are this serious, you can end up in a freeze mode. Maybe that's also why there wasn't another song. The song that I miss doesn't exist because I simply squeezed out everything I had. If I had been in a different emotional state, I might have been more comfortable working out something at the last second from bits and pieces. But I felt that I really just wanted to get it done, deliver it, get back out on tour and start over again.

When you described being more mature during "Impera" you sounded like a 70-year-old, kind of like all the Aerosmith-like bands that have been fighting all their lives and now that they're in their 70s they say "we're soooo mature,” haha.

I think with all artists, especially when they're required to work in a group, there are many recordings that have been a collision with a wall because you're expected to function in a context all the time, whatever and whenever. But you do change and from one year to a few years down the line there can be a huge difference in a person's drive, hunger and priorities in life. Whether you have the same band structure as I do or whether you play in Metallica, people come in one state and they may end up in another, because you have different priorities at different times. It's unfortunately against the whole rock myth. I think that's the biggest problem for bands and businesses, that you always have this idea that if you just get to a certain stage - not just monetarily or career-wise, but you get to a certain stage of fun - then we've reached the status quo. But that is never the case! Never! There’s always something. Even in the best moments when everything is working, the band is awesome, everyone is working well, the crew is awesome, everyone is laughing, it's just a party all the time mentally, you have the world's best tour manager, everything is flowing and the tickets are selling, there will always be someone who doesn't like it and then has to break away and want to do their thing because it's no longer fun. It's usually somewhere in the lead-up to a stage where it's interesting and then once you've achieved it, it all becomes a bit boring. Just like in a relationship some people may eventually think, "well, that's a bit boring, I have to go out and do something else".

Since I was in the studio when you were laying down guitars on "Witch Image", my heart beats a little extra for that song and I thought it would be a great live song, but you've barely played it (at the time of writing it's Ghost's forty-fourth most played song live).

We did it during the "Prequelle" tour, or "A Pale Tour Named Death" as it was called. Then we did quite a few "an evening with" concerts, for better or worse. The advantage was that if you were a big fan of the band we actually played a lot of songs and actually a lot of the first albums, like "Idolatrine" - or "Witch Image". We did a set, a break and then a whole other set. That was a bit of a taste of what I was talking about earlier: doing a slightly larger set and then a slightly smaller one. You just shouldn't do it on the same night because it gets a bit stale. We played for two hours and 30 minutes or something and that wasn’t a good idea, haha. At least we did "Witch Image", but it has fallen behind a bit and it doesn't mean that we will never play it again, just that we don't do it right now. What I've been happy about is that there has been a feeling for the records that we've made recently, "Prequelle" and "Impera", that people still want to hear the new stuff. We haven't gotten to that stage that I talked about earlier when it doesn't matter anymore. Then it's very fun to try to find a new way to perform the songs, not technically, but suddenly a song like "Witch Image" might fulfill a very nice purpose between a completely new song and another song.

Let me speculate: in 30 years, I think "Rats" will be considered the great hard rock song, "Dance Macabre" the great hit and "Life Eternal" the great ballad. What do you think? Will this in the future be seen as the three big songs of the album?

Yes, that makes sense, I think. I understand that an instrumental song automatically ends up in the wake of a "best of" collection, in the sense that you do one in 30 years. I realise it's not a hit but the instrumental "Miasma" is a big part of our live show. It's strong and feels like such a keeper. Now we don't play "Life Eternal" very often actually, but it was very well received. For some reason people like to get married to it, I don’t know why, hehe. It's nice but it's also a bit like U2’s „I still haven't found what I'm looking for" and you don't use that one at a wedding. But people like it and I guess interpret it differently to me. It’s also a song that I don't think is fun to play live.

And why not?

Because I find it hard to play ballads. Physically, they don't feel the same as rock songs. I miss the "dunka dunka". Now everyone who plays music today knows what I mean - sorry, readers who don't play music - and it's that there's a small problem with having in-ear monitors. This means that you have to reach a certain frequency of beats in order to feel the music, unlike when you played at clubs with only a guitar amp behind you. You felt every single note you made and it just went through your body. Nowadays, I think it's sometimes hard when you play slow songs, because you have to trust that it sounds good, whereas when you play a rock song, you feel that it sounds good.

Does it also apply to "He Is” which is such a huge ballad, not least live?

Well, just the intro and then it gets going quite quickly and suddenly becomes a hard and rather fast-paced song. The classic ballad concept has always been that you play so-called edge beats to make it sound soft, while "He Is” is actually a rather hard-played song considering that it is a ballad. Once the drums come in – boom, boom – it's got AC/DC bite to it. It has a rock feel to it that "Life Eternal" doesn't really have. As I said, I don't think that "Life Eternal" is a lot of fun to perform, but that doesn't mean that it isn't quite good to listen to. It’s just that when I play "Dance Macabre" or "Mummy Dust" I feel that I can express myself physically more in line with what the text says and what it means.

#the band ghost #tobias forge #interview #prequelle era

554 notes · View notes

demi-shoggoth · 3 months

Text

2024 Reading Log, pt 2

006. Gardening Can Be Murder by Marta McDowell. I honestly thought that this book was going to be about something else. With the subtitle “how poisonous plants, sinister shovels and grim gardens have inspired mystery writers”, I thought it was going to be about, you know, that. True crime themed to gardens, discussions of poisonous plants, that sort of thing. The book is actually about the mystery books that have gardening as a theme. And while the author’s dedication to not spoiling anything (seriously, anything, even 150 year old stories like The Moonstone or “Rappacini’s Daughter”) is admirable in its own way, this leaves the book feeling like endless buildup without any payoff. Big fans of murder mysteries might enjoy this—especially the last chapter, which interviews writers about their gardens—but I found it more boring than anything else, and finished it only because it was very short.

007. Antimony, Gold and Jupiter’s Wolf by Peter Wothers. This book is about how the elements got their names, and most of it deals with the early modern period, as alchemy transitioned to chemistry and then into the 19th century, when chemistry was a real science, but things like atomic theory were not yet understood. The book goes into fascinating detail, and has a lot of quotes from primary sources, as scientists then were just like scientists now, that is, opinionated and bickering with each other over their preferred explanations. And names! Many of the splits between elements and their symbols (like Na for sodium) are due to compromise attempts to appease two different factions with their preferred names. A book covering arcane minutia of history always has the risk of feeling like a slog, but this is a fast and fun read.

008. Doctor Dhrolin’s Dictionary of Dinosaurs by Nathan T Barling and Michael O’Sullivan, illustrations by Mark P Witton. This book is an odd concept, but one that I was immediately on board with—a D&D book written by paleontologists with the intention of bringing accurate and interesting stats for prehistoric reptiles to the game. The fact that it’s mostly illustrated by Mark Witton definitely clinched my backing that Kickstarter. And this book is a lot of fun. So much so, that I read it all in a single sitting. I don’t know how accurate the stats are (like, a Hatzegopteryx has a higher CR than titanosaurs or T. rexes), but they seem like they’d be fun in play, and the writing does a good job of combining fantasy fun with actual education. Even for someone not running a 5e game, the stuff on how to run animals as not killing machines, and the mutation tables, could be useful. There are multiple types of playable dinosaurs, all of which seem like they’d work well at the table and avoid typical stereotypes, and a lot of in-jokes and pop culture references (like the cursed staff of unspared expense, which looks like Hammond’s cane in the Jurassic Park movie).

009. Romaine Wasn’t Built in a Day by Judith Tschann. I’m a sucker for books about etymology. And this one, on food etymology, is a pretty breezy read. I had fun with it, and it even busted some misconceptions that I had, etymologically speaking. Like, there’s no evidence that “bloody” as an explicative originated from “God’s blood”? Wild. Etymology books tend to be written in a sort of stream-of-consciousness style, where talking about one word may lead down a garden path to the next one. The book also has a couple of little matching quizzes, which is something I haven’t seen in a book since like the 90s.

010. The Lives of Octopuses and their Relatives by Danna Staaf. I was previously a little disappointed in The Lives of Beetles, another book in this series, but I knew I liked Staaf, who wrote the excellent book Squid Empire about cephalopod evolution and paleontology. I’m pleased to report that this book is also excellent. Staaf takes the “lives” part seriously, and the book is arranged by ecology, looking at different marine habitats, the challenges that they pose to living things, and the cephalopods that live there. Cuttlefish get slightly short shrift in this book compared to squids and octopuses, but that’s about the biggest complaint I had. I like how the species profiles cover more obscure taxa, and information about the best studied (like Pacific giant octopus and Humboldt squid) is kept to the chapters.

#reading log #marine biology #cephalopods #etymology #food history #tabletop rpgs #dinosaurs #D&D 5e #chemistry #periodic table #history of science #mystery #horticulture

74 notes · View notes

comic-relief-side-character · 3 months

Text

Dating Connor Stoll Headcanons

· This man. This gorgeous man. I love writing for him so much

· He’s literally so pretty

· And adorable

· The list goes on

· Anyways, moving on.

· I think at this point it’s just unanimously decided that Connor’s love language is physical touch. It’s also gift giving, but that’s more like a secondary thing.

· He constantly has his hand on you. If not his hand at least some part of his body is touching you.

· Like if you guys are just going somewhere, even to another room he has to grab your hand while you walk

· Also, loves linking pinkies with you.

· It seems like a pinkie promise that he’s right here and not going anywhere, which is good reassurance considering your lives

· Also…. Hugs. Lots and lots of hugs

· Hugs where you have your hands around his waist and your head is on his chest. (its easier to imagine if you’re kinda shorter than him)

· He likes those hugs because feels like he is protecting you

· Don’t get me wrong he knows dam well that you can protect yourself. He just feels better when he’s the one doing it

· He also loves the hugs when he wraps his hands around your waist and gets to lay his head on your chest

· He likes hearing your heartbeat in those moments

· LOVES it when you play with his hair

· Or just touch his hair

· Which is actually very soft

· Also be ready for back hugs. And also surprise back hugs

· Like you’d have just been talking to your friend and he sees you from a little far away and sprints towards you to give you a hug

· There have been incidents earlier where you punched him cuz you felt like you were being attacked

· He’s probably a very deep sleeper

· Like once he falls asleep it’s nearly impossible for anything to wake him up before he’s ready

· His sleep is extremely precious to him.

· But if you’re a person who gets inspiration at the most random times (like me) and absolutely NEED to do your work, he’ll stay awake with you even if his eyes are drooping and he barely can sit straight.

· But once you’re done, he’ll help you keep your things away and hold you tight causing both of you to go straight to sleep

· Also if you’re a type of artist (like writer, poet, musician, etc etc.) he’ll love it so much if you do something keeping him as a muse

· Like if you’re an artist and draw him, he’ll be so flustered

· Or if you write a poem, like dedicated to him, he’ll feel so freaking flustered

· He’s a huge blushing mess

· Can’t think straight for the next five minutes and has trouble breathing.

· Not gonna lie the first time you gave him an artwork (or written piece) he started tearing up because it was so dam beautiful and thoughtful and he never would’ve thought that somebody would do something like this for him

· You were so scared you thought he was crying because it was terrible

· He told you ‘no it’s beautiful’

· Didn’t let you go for the rest of the day

· Lowkey insecure, so be sure to tell him affirmations.

· And also he turns into a blushing mess whenever you compliment him and its very adorable to watch

· It’s a win win situation

· Ok hear me out, naps together.

· Because you get tired

· There also are days when he’s tired

· So you two just hold each other and try to sleep your problems away (me honestly)

· I feel like he’s more of a big spoon

· And if he’s spooning you he’ll probably have his hand up your shirt rubbing circles on your stomach

· There also are days when he’s the little spoon

· That’s mostly when he can’t sleep because of his nightmares

· Spooning him is a little hard considering how freaking tall he is, but you make do

· Sometimes Connor will just scoot a little lower and lay his head near you heart and go to sleep.

· It’s also the other way round a lot of times

° He absolutely loves it when you wear his shirt or just clothes in general. So cuddling while wearing his clothes

· KISSES

· Lots of kisses

· Cheek kisses

· Forehead kisses

· Hand kisses

· Kisses where he knows he has to stop but he really doesn’t want to

· Little pecks when one of you has to leave

· Kisses where both of you are smiling so hard because you make each other so so so happy

· Before ya’ll started dating and there was this constant tension in the air, you often caught Connor sneaking glances at your lips

· He just couldn’t help it

· He really wanted to kiss you and he hated that he couldn’t

· Also, surprise kisses

· At this point you’ve just trained yourself to be ready for surprise kisses

· Imagine you’re walking back to your cabin and you hear a “hey darling” with a little peck on your lips

· Also, he either calls you love or darling, with the occasional babe sprinkled here and there. You can’t convince me otherwise

· If you speak another language other than English, he’ll learn some nicknames in that language to call you.

· He loves how happy you get when he calls you ‘his love’ in your language

· This is sorta an au where you guys are allowed to use phones

· His phone is filled with multiple photos of you

· Some are really beautiful

· Some really are not. Or so you think

· “Connor please delete that photo.”

· “But you look so pretty in it.”

· “I look like an idiot. Delete it.”

· “No, you look like a cute idiot.”

· Despite many protest he still didn’t delete the pics

· He sometimes cooks for you, while you look cute on counters

· Although mostly the cooking is done by you

· After one too many incident with uncontrollable fire you both decided its best for you to cook

· He’ll probably also feed you while you’re very busy paying attention to the show you two are watching· Dancing together

· Its sometimes just stupid dances together where you’re too busy having fun

· Other times it’s really romantic with both of you swaying along with romantic love songs

· Stargazing dates

· If you don’t know a lot about constellations he’ll tell you stories about the stars

· If you do you just end up talking about life and everything between everything and nothing

· Long drives or walks together

· Kissing at the stop signs darling

· Connor seems like the type of guy who really likes 5 seconds of summer and arctic monkeys

· So there’s a lot of their music sprinkled throughout the drives

· There’s two ways to cheer Connor up when he’s upset

· Cuddles

· Or long drives

· And pranks

· Look just because you’re his lover, whom he loves very much, does not mean you get a free pass

· He’ll still prank you but it’s pretty mild stuff compared to the landmines set on the wrong hill

· There have been multiple occasions where you woke up with dyed hair

· And all the walls of your cabin painted the most ridiculous colors which didn’t match the aesthetic at all

· I don’t feel like he’s the kind of guy to get jealous really easily

· He trusts you

· He also supports anyone who gives you a genuine compliment

· ‘Yes. This is my gorgeous and talented partner and they deserve to be complimented.’

· Likes it when anyone lifts you up

· But if he sees a guy openly flirting with you and sees that you’re uncomfortable that’s when he gets mad.

· He gets so mad

· Won’t openly fight that person since he knows you’re more than capable of doing that and would have done it if you wanted to hurt them

· But he’ll purposefully get touchy and make it clear for them to back off and the glares he gives them are enough to kill

· And if that person still doesn’t get a hint Connor will probably somehow get you out of that conversation

· And the next day the first thing you hear is that the person who was flirting with you last night, has blue skin now

· But that’s only the beginning, Connor doesn’t stop there. For the next two day, that person gets the worst pranks

· He loves making you smile

· He also loves making you laugh

· Your laugh is pretty much his favourite sound in the world· And don’t tell me that your laugh sounds like a baby goat being strangled

· Or a car engine which won’t start

· He still loves it· He wants to get drunk on it every night

· Also whenever he’s like super tired, he’ll get so so so sappy· He’s literally telling you the cheesiest and sappiest things· Loves taking care of you

· He’ll constantly make sure that you ate enough, or that you drank enough water, and that you’re sleeping enough

· He isn’t the best with feelings

· So whenever he sees you upset he tries his ultimate best to cheer you up

· Or to hear out what’s making you upset

· He’ll give you a hug if you want

· He’ll give you space if that’s what you want

· Heck he’ll even kill someone if you want

· He doesn’t know that just the effort makes you feel better

· Did I mention that he looks at you like you literally are the most beautiful person on the planet (you are tho, he ain’t wrong)

· Travis teases him all the time

· Connor retorts saying that he isn’t any better and that he’s seen the way he looks at Katie

· Connor loves your hair

· Connor loves your eyes

· Connor loves your smile

· Connor loves your laugh

· Connor loves your hands

· Connor loves your personality

· Connor loves your body

· Connor loves you so freaking much that it genuinely shocks him sometimes, what he would do for you

#connor stoll x you #connor stoll imagine #i love connor stoll #connor stoll x reader #connor stoll #connor stoll x y/n #Connor stoll x you #connor stoll my beloved

82 notes · View notes

courtney-deserved-better · 4 months

Text

seeing as it’s now been one year since the last chapter of slippery slopes was posted, i decided to make a big sappy post talking about what this fic has meant to me over the last two and a half years

i started writing slippery slopes after a bolt of inspiration struck me on this post. i’d tried writing my fair share of long fics prior, most of them remaining unpublished and all of them unfinished. i’m not quite sure what made me think i could write slippery slopes other than a strong desire to write the alenoah fic i wanted to read but that didn’t exist at the time. slippery slopes was the 30th fic posted in the alenoah tag, which didn’t have any finished long fics at the time. i think if you told 2021 pj that in two years there would be over 600 alenoah fics, many of them tdwt rewrites, their head would explode.

i honestly had no idea what i was jumping into when i started writing slippery slopes. looking back, i was very insecure about my writing. i’d actually forgotten about that until i was reading some posts i’d made while i was still writing it, where i wondered if i was going to be able to pull off the miscommunication plotline and the unplanned alecourtney friendship. almost every announcement of a chapter draft being completed included me saying i felt weird about it, or thought it was bad. i felt incredibly uncomfortable writing serious angst and when that started playing an important role in the fic at around chapter seven i feared that my writing was awful and other people would dislike it the way i had. i genuinely don’t think it hit me that slippery slopes was a popular fic until a few months before it became the most kudosed fic on ao3.

back then, i was able to understand why other people liked slippery slopes, but i couldn’t read it without cringing. i’m not sure when exactly the switch flipped—probably after i finally finished it and was able to distance myself from the writing process—but it became a fic that i’m incredibly proud of. i can reread it now and enjoy it without cringing in the slightest. i was able to see my writing as good, and well-crafted. i will always appreciate slippery slopes as a fic where i grew incredibly as a writer. i understand how to plan out long fics while still allowing for spontaneity. i can comfortably write angst. i feel strong in my choices for characterization and friendship even if it may seem unconventional. i have so much more confidence in my writing now, and a lot of that is thanks to you all.

other than desperately wanting an alenoah tdwt rewrite fic, a huge part of why i wrote slippery slopes was because i felt lonely in the td fandom and was hoping that this fic could connect me with more people out there. and boy oh boy it sure has. and not just the plethora of alenoah shippers—way more than i expected—but there were also people who didn’t ship alenoah, but still stayed for the story, and people who had never considered alenoah but gave my fic a chance and ended up shipping it anyway. when i didn’t believe my writing was good, there were many, many kind commenters who showed my fic love and encouraged me to keep going with it. and even now, there are commenters whose fresh excitement make me feel like all the time i spent on this fic was so, so worth it. and they all inspire me to keep writing.

i may be a good writer, but i don’t think i can ever fully express what everyone’s support has done for me. i still struggle to wrap my mind around the fact that there are dozens of drawings of my fic that you all have made! that’s crazy! i am so, so lucky to have such wonderful readers, and i hope you all know how incredibly grateful i am. slippery slopes would not exist without you. this was a joint effort. it’s amazing to me how a spontaneously started fic for a crackship ended up changing the total drama fandom landscape the way it did. who would’ve guessed that a simple whim to write an alenoah fic could become quite the slippery slope.

#slippery slopes #alenoah #my fic

125 notes · View notes

insertdisc5 · 11 months

Text

Devlog #14: Big News Incoming and Illustrations

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, which is also the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!). You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!!

LET’S GET TO IT. This month has some Big News about Big News Incoming! And also some illustrations!

The Big News Incoming first: In Stars and Time will be a part of Future of Play Direct on June 10, 8:00am PT | 11:00am ET | 5:00 pm CET! Future of Play is part of the Summer Games Fest and showcases a lot of incredible indie games, so I hope you’ll tune in. There might be a little something for you to see :> And...

In Stars and Time will also be a part of The Mix on June 8th! The Mix is an amazing games showcase over in LA. There will be a lot of press there, so I’m very excited to get some eyes on ISAT! Please stop by the booth and say hi to the lovely people from my publisher, Armor Games Studios, if you get the chance!

Alright! That’s it for the big news. Now for other big news.

Porting the game to Switch seems to be close to done! Currently, the porting team is taking care of optimization thingy things. The game is playable, but tends to drop frames every so often, so the team is optimizing the game to make sure it’s playing smoothly so Switch players can have the best possible experience! And…

The (hopefully) final round of Japanese localization is underway! Last April, the localization team sent back a couple of sentences that should be reworded now that they have further context. Now that those changes are implemented, they are playing it one more time to make sure everything works as intended!

I sadly don’t have a Fun Gamedev Thing to talk about this month (or… last month either…) because I moved elsewhere back in April and have been taking care of many things so my move went smoothly. Did you know that moving and getting used to a new town is hard work? So, here’s some things I posted on social media in the last couple months!

Here’s an illustration I drew a while back but only posted recently! I imagine that during their journey, everyone must’ve shared a bed at least once. This is also an occasion to show everyone’s sleepytimes clothes. Siffrin on that honk shoo honk shoo fit

Like many people, I have seen the Barbie movie trailer. So of course I had to redraw these iconic frames.

And someone over on Tumblr asked me about how I picked everyone’s names! Here it is copy-pasted for your convenience.

Siffrin: i think. i will wait until the game comes out before saying how i picked their name. ask me again later (it’s not a spoiler its just silly)

Mirabelle: her name was actually Prunille for the longest time, but I kept mixing it up and calling her Bonnie… so I went looking for another fruit sounding name (prunille>prune>plum in french) and Mirabelle fit her perfectly :> (Mirabelle is a kind of plum!)

Isabeau: it’s just a nice name. It actually is a girl name but i refuse to accept it because “beau” is the masculine form for “beautiful”, but either way it fits his character pretty well…

Odile: old sounding french name. that’s it. when i was early in preproduction her name was Isabeau actually (and she had a WAY different personality)

Bonnie: it’s a nickname and not their full name. have i said their full name yet? (checks the wiki) i did. Boniface is just a name that I had never heard before, and I could easily imagine Bonnie not liking it because it sounds “old and lame”. i think as they get older they would like it more and more

This is also a reminder that In Stars and Time has a wiki page. I am so grateful that this is a thing someone made. You know you've made it when your game has a wiki page!!!

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

#in stars and time #devlog #game dev #indie game #game development #start again start again start again

176 notes · View notes

goldfish-or-smthing · 1 year

Text

The Tedependent Masterpost

Essentially my deluded ramblings as to why I’m a Tedependent truther 😊

DISCLAIMER: I love TL and no matter what direction the writers take S3 in I will be on board! This is just a theory from some lil' details I noticed 😊Also so that if I turn out to be right I can say I told you so :o but if I’m wrong uhhhh.. you never saw this

Some various important notes before we get into it:

Firstly, I think it’s pretty likely that sexuality will come up in some form in S3. It fits in really well with the previous themes of the show (masculinity, mental health, relationships with fathers etc). TL has tackled some other issues such as the portrayal of mental health in sport but they haven’t mentioned sexuality yet despite it being a big topic (there’s only 1 out gay footballer… which is INSANE.. there’s a LOT of homophobia in football). So it makes a lot of sense for this to come up during S3. A lot of people have also theorized that Colin is gay and although I’m not going to go into that now I think it’s pretty likely and considering that Colin was one of Nate’s main “victims” (for want of a better word) it’s also likely that he’ll be more prominent in S3, perhaps even being a big part of Nate’s comeuppance. There’s also various rumours of Trent (and some say Colin too?) being seen filming at a gay nightclub in Amsterdam…

Here's an excerpt from an article interviewing Cristo Fernández, the actor who plays Dani Rojas, about the themes of season 3:

Interesting stuff....

In terms of whether or not Ted will have a romantic relationship in S3 I think it’s pretty likely through the “rom-communism” speech and how generally wholesome the show is that Ted will end up in a relationship at the end- especially as it would be very satisfying for Ted to start the show in a bad relationship and end it in a healthy one. Also the teaser dropping on Valentines is very…… interesting. Despite this it could be argued that Ted has to go through more personal growth before he’s ready to be in a long term relationship and with Ted most likely leaving for Kansas at the end of S3 he might not be in a good position to get into a new relationship. This is probably one of the biggest holes in this theory- whether Ted is ready for a relationship in S3. If he is though, I can think of someone who would be a very good option…

Before we talk about Trent though (yes there still is more to address) we need to address the other main option- Rebecca. I think it’s pretty unlikely that Ted will end up with Rebecca. Firstly it’s very cliché and the writers know that people expect Ted and Rebecca to end up together. They teased it in S2 before the Sam bantr reveal which felt to me like the writers saying that they know it’s what people expect but that they’re choosing not to go that direction. Speaking of Sam, although he and Rebecca technically ended S2 not together it’s very clear that that arc is not over yet and that’s still something that has to be dealt with in S3. Ted and Rebecca’s relationship is an incredibly valuable representation of close friendships/platonic relationships between men and women, and I think the writers understand this too:

To be clear, I don’t have any problem with people shipping Tedbecca! I actually think it can be quite a cute ship, I just don’t think it’s likely to happen in canon.

Now onto the fun bit! All the evidence!

I don’t think it’s in question that Trent is gay so I’m not really going to cover that here apart from saying that he leaves the pub with a man he’s seemingly on a date with an if you’re still not sold that he’s gay… just uh…. Just look at him..

First some quickfire evidence:

Ted calls Trent “baby”! s2 ep3 3 mins in! crazy stuff

S2 ep1 at about 6:20 Ted says “Trent Crimm, bringin’ that heat”- a reference to the very spicy Indian food they ate together

They speak more often than we see off-screen- we have the iconic “love our chats!” line implying that they have conversations outside of the show and Ted makes Trent’s daughter biscuits (s1 ep9 27:40), showing that he’s not only met Trent’s daughter before but is meeting her again soon to give her the biscuits

Slightly less quickfire evidence:

There’s a lot of similarities between Trent and Rebecca- this post details some of them, but there’s also similarities in lines- in s1 ep3 Ted says to Trent “watch your back Gay Talese there’s a new iconic profile about to be typed up by one Trent Crimm” then on s1 ep9 Ted says to Rebecca “watch your back Kate Moss there’s a new bad girl on the British modelling scene”. They also have very similar hair (look at the first two gifs of the above post), and the only two people Ted makes biscuits for on the show are Rebecca and Trent’s daughter. I believe this is a way of twisting the expectation that Rebecca and Ted are going to end up together to have Ted end up with someone similar, but not who people expect.

Some silly little scene analysis:

The first scene I’ll be talking about is s2, ep7, at about 31 minutes in. Before I go into depth about the details of this scene I’d suggest you rewatch it first, but I couldn’t find a clip of it on Youtube so just go to that timestamp. The first line in this scene is very strange- it’s Mae saying “If music be the food of love play on, give me excess of it”. This line seems completely pointless- it’s not really a joke, nor does it serve to further the plot or develop Mae’s character. But as I will repeat many times and cannot emphasise enough- lines in this show don’t get used lightly. This line is actually the opening line to Shakespeare’s most famous romantic comedy, Twelfth Night. And this line is used at the beginning of a scene with Ted and Trent when there’s seemingly NO REASON for it…. (I’m not going to get into the Shakespeare analysis now but if you want me to I will make a post about it :D) We then see Trent saying goodbye to a man he’s on a date with- who has a moustache, no less. And THEN he says “of all the pub joints” which is a reference to the line “of all the gin joints” from the film Casablanca- and (mild spoilers for 3) the episode title of ep 8 is “We’ll never have Paris”, another reference to Casablanca. They end off this scene with Trent saying "Love our chats!". This line is reminiscent of when Ted asked Trent "What do you love?" in the Indian restaurant in s1 ep3, and also implies that they are closer than the show makes them seem.

Another very suspicious moment came at end of s2 ep12, which is the VERY LAST scene with Ted in the whole of S2. It’s also sandwiched in between the scenes about the other 2 major romantic relationships in the show- we get Sam and Rebecca, then Trent and Ted, then Roy and Keeley… Which in my opinion is a deliberate way of laying out these scenes to imply more about Trent and Ted’s relationship. Before I go on to talk about it here’s the clip for context: https://youtu.be/fF3A7XSk2HU (it’s pretty low quality so if you want to you can watch the clip at 44mins into s2 ep12). I think Trent waiting outside for Ted speaks for itself, but then there’s the line about the bike accident, where we learn that Trent doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Lines in this show are rarely used lightly and this is likely suggesting that we’ll get a scene of Trent learning how to ride a bike (potentially in Amsterdam?!). We then learn that Trent - and now I want you to listen closely on this part- has thrown away his entire career in journalism and his chance to ever work in journalism again by telling his boss that he revealed a source. And why did he do this? For Ted (...mostly. he has other reasons for leaving as well but...). Not only is this literally insane but by having Trent quit his job the writers have removed the only major barrier to Trent and Ted being in a relationship- whereas previously this might’ve been unethical because Trent was a journalist covering Richmond, that’s now no longer an issue. And then Trent has locked his keys in the car- which shows either how flustered he was when waiting to see Ted or could be implying that he’s here to stay.

Sorry for low quality but look at them. That is a normal way for two straight lads to look at another guy right?

Bits from some interviews:

Conclusion:

Some would say that I'm mad. I'd argue that if you look at the evidence there's a solid chance that Tedtrent could happen in Season 3- the sneaky little references to Casablanca and Shakespeare as well as literally the whole of their last scene together sold me the most tbh. It's hardly debatable that Trent has a crush on Ted, but I believe (hehe) that it could be reciprocal- there's not much evidence that Ted is bisexual, (references to queen and the frequent appearance of their songs as well as the choice of NSync's song "Bye bye bye" which is frequently used on the internet to mean "Bi bi bi") but then again, there's not much evidence that he's not. I feel like I could go on and I've definitely missed some things but this post is already far too long (1.6k words) and I need to stop!

I’d be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions, and feel free to drop a comment telling me how deluded I am because in all honestly I probably am…. Or am I………….. guess we’ll find out in season 3!

If I’ve missed anything please lmk!

EDIT: ohhh my god I forgot- The scene w/ Ted and Trent at the end of s2 happens in the Richmond car park- just like Roy and Keeley in s1. And Ted met Michelle in a car park :)

UPDATE

#this took ages to write #i hope you all enjoyed reading it #maybe i convinced some people....#ted lasso #ted lasso season 3 #trent crimm #tedependent #tred #tedtrent #rebecca welton #sam obisanya #colin hughes

238 notes · View notes

cloud-based-and-rainpilled · 8 months

Text

Staged 2 thoughts!! (this will take a Year because I have a Lot of feelings)

tl; dr at the end

Hmmm I don’t see how it’s a love story yet

Staged 1 works well enough on its own but the second season is really essential as a companion piece upping the emotional ante (which is exactly how I feel about Good Omens 1 & 2 lol)

The opening scene mindfuck; The meta! We have reached levels of irony not previously seen possible

Who do I thank for the tacky Zoom interview show background? It deserves top billing

HE DOESN’T WANT THE GOLDFISH TO BE LONELY (metaphor) and then it FUCKING DIES

Celeb cameos in season 1 being all “hey! I like you!” in season 2 like “you are tearing them apart. I hate you. scum

Also the themeing of Michael Sheen and David Tennant being on their own “side” VS everyone else……….. Simon Mr. Writer Sir i see u and unfortunately i am in your walls

The writing feeling less theater-y works for the meta and I’m wondering whether they always had a second season in mind or if it’s just that well written

Was really hoping for a Colin Firth & Hugh Grant cameo ngl :/

The music didn’t annoy me as much this season since it was more of the horn oomp-pah-pah than the piano. Idk maybe my mind just changed

I didn’t know Whoopie Goldberg could be terrifying but here we are (also I forgot her name isn’t Whoopie)

“I think the wizard fucked your ass” ???

Setting up the awards and the baby was peak *pops P* comedy 🤌 Definitely needed since it gets Sad as it goes on

Welsh kink spotted!!! And so fucking blantant I was scandalized

“I’ll shove it up my ass where the rest of the excrement goes” Michael casually asking David to peg him. Nice

More bad magic. More pls and ty

Also moar Nina pls. T’was but a brief beautiful bluster in the wind

Tbh missed a lot of Michael & David’s back-and-forths VS season 1 but I get that’s… the point

Everyone agreeing David is whiney and annoying lmao get wreck’t

Also I forgot they don’t have air conditioning in Englandland ‘cause my man is sweating in every scene he’s in (unless that was intentional in which case… go on…)

The ladies!! That meta ending with the Bechdel test… I see you…

Still love Georgia and Simon’s sister (who I apparently don’t respect enough to google her name); I like Anna now too! She’s got this kinda quiet sarcastic edge I didn’t notice the first time. They all played off each other well in their 3 some (phrasing) scenes

Big amongus sus react that Anna has better chemistry with the two of them than with Michael of which there is literally zero chemistry. Compared to Georgia and David who are just electric with each other it’s honestly distracting

Actual torture watching them break down as other actors play them and drive their friendship apart, it’s fascinating to watch especially on top of it being themselves but, like, not we swear

“Am I your best friend” “No” Fuckin REJECTED !! looser!!!

Oh huh I can see how this is a love story, interesting

The David Tennant fanboy (he is a Real actor I just can’t think of his name) served juicy vomiting SFX realness

“So you’ve made love with him” BROTHER

It took me 87 years to realize warthog and mongoose were in reference to Timon and Pumbah lol <- I am not looking up how to spell this

The bannister being part of the bookshelf why did this make me laugh this hard

Ken Jeong actually reaching into the heart of everything and casually tearing into it Temple of Doom style and leaving everything to ruin lmao

I miss people getting too close to me (feral noises)

Ewan McGregor is cute and I am shallow 🥰

AU where Simon Pegg and Nick Frost did Staged and honestly it would still work aside from being dangerously heterosexual

Simon & Nick doing the Staged 1 back and forth but literally? mmmm that’s sum gud meta

Oh right I forgot the actual writer Simon’s in it too. He’s still good. I like his Zoom tantrum

Jim Parsons unconvincingly looking for his phone after he casually tells David that he and Michael are obviously in love and everyone sees it lmao

David Tennant has the unique ability to make this absolutely insane face reserved specifically for the emotion “oh shit I’m in love with Michael Sheen” which like

I could kill the Good Omens costume department rn I stg take off those fucking sunglasses I’m so mad

Ohhhhhhhh yeah this is a love story

The Frozen snowman being the big bad final boss of cunt, oof you gotta love a good villain

Michael’s monologue the only one not in the kitchen area just breaking down completely I mean *claps until my hands fall off* he put his whole pussy into it. The frustration? The despair? I mean it felt like an audition monologue (in a good way) he walked through the valley in the shadow and death and came back a broken man with a fuzzier beard

CATE BLANCHETT ZOOM SNIPE

Apparently people didn’t like Phoebe Waller Bridge in the new Indiana Jones movie which I haven’t seen but idk I thought she was pretty funny and hot here. *ding*

MOOMIN MUG SPOTTED

The use of travel as a metaphor for feeling stuck emotionally *clenches fist*

“I like silence” *screaming from the other room*

“It’s like gas filling a room” <- fascinating way to describe their dynamic, it’s specifically referring to aimless conversations that snowball and “fill up a room” but it could also refer to the palpable energy between them— like even through the abstraction of a computer screen there’s this magnetic force that’s just riveting, it’s hard to describe

“We haven’t talked about love” > Seen at 2:17 PM LMAO

Michael alone with the black frame lingering shot. Acting and editing and directing choices so simple and on point. everything hurts

Struggling to say goodbye on Zoom physically reaching out unable to leave the frame that whole scene was just. You can just feel the love through the screen, it’s so layered and intimate despite essentially being “No you hang up first”

Zoom wedding! He stayed!!

I wonder if that’s Michael Sheen’s actual best friend. That would be cute

Anna whispering and telling him “nah I know your bestie is literally an hour away but he can’t come over lol” like??? why? let them love each other I cannot handle this villain arc

“I have to bring that one otherwise my tits will explode” Wait wasn’t she drinking earlier though? #ShivRoyMoment

“I was standing outside your job for four hours because I love you” <- dog from Up moment

Yes he is legally a Hobbit

The car window as an abstraction like the Zoom boxes *continued feral noises*

The direction of David putting his hand on the window and Michael walking away only then revealing Anna and the baby far in the background? We’re in 3 dimensions and they are all painful!!

Okay yeah I get it it’s a love story but I thought this was a comedy haha right guys why does everything hurt

It ends on that meta moment between David and Georgia which I can only assume is to set up for the third season although I dunno if that was planned at the time as well. It’s ambiguous but not distracting if they didn’t make another one

tl; dr: Staged 2 is a unique and excellent addition to Staged 1. The added meta textual layer of the other celebrities breaking down their relationship based on Staged 1 allows for a lot of “hiding behind my hands so embarrassed” moments, but also by pitting them against each other, it reveals their actual love for each other through the bickering. Season 1 on its own is a nice vignette of its time but season 2 with it adds a tension and intimacy that really takes both over the top

Kinda dreading watching Staged 3 since it seems like people overwhelmingly like it less than the other two because of the loss of the Zoom format and constant arguing, but I’m already in this far deep so I’ll stick the landing

To wit— awwwwwww, they love each other!

50 notes · View notes

jq37 · 4 months

Note

Please let us know if you solve this mystery!

OK! It’s the end of the year so let me compile everything I was able to come up with (with the help of everyone I dragged into this–you know who you are and thank you and I’m sorry).

To anyone who’s just seeing this and doesn’t have context, in November, right before the movie Wish came out, I made a longish post questioning who Allison Moore was (which, incidentally, is the first post that comes up when you Google “Allison Moore Disney”).

The reason I was curious about who this random writer is is because she’s credited as one of the co-writers of Wish, Disney’s 100th Anniversary Feature Film BUT she has no obvious experience writing for animation, children, or fantasy when everyone else on the main team has credits on stuff like Frozen and Encanto. I thought it was bizarre that there would be someone so green on a project so big so I went digging.

Here’s what I learned:

(1) Moore wasn’t originally announced as being attached to the project. Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Fawn Veersunthorn were all mentioned when the project was officially announced in Sept 2022 (for example). Moore was not. And you’d think they’d mention the *co-writer*, right? You don’t start to see her name until a year later in Sept 2023 when the trailer dropped (for example). So it seems like she was brought onto the project later. Of course, this could just be a normal quirk of the industry or something I’m misinterpreting, but I think it’s worth mentioning.

(2) Moore seems to have a lot more credits in stage writing than she does in screenwriting. I wasn’t able to 100% confirm it until recently (I’ll get to that in a second) but she’s written a bunch of plays and it seems like this is where she has most of her bona fides.

“Allison is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships, two McKnight Advancement Grants and the Bush Artist Fellowship.”

That sounds fancy. But it still doesn’t say “Top Choice for Disney Anniversary Movie” to me. That’s not a statement on writing quality. I haven’t read/seen any of her plays. It’s about the subject matter. Look at some of these synopses:

None of that really screams Disney. Which isn’t to say people can’t have range. George Miller wrote all the Mad Maxes but also Babe and both Happy Feet. But if I was hiring someone for a really big project, I wouldn’t want that project to be their first attempt at expanding into that genre.

(3) This isn’t actually inherently important but she was on an episode of Nailed it. That’s where this picture comes from:

She won the first round and the game ended in a three way tie for the first time in the show’s history.

The only reason this is noteworthy in the larger scale of things is that, until very recently, this was one of only two places online you could see Allison Moore talking. The other is this very short interview on the red carpet during the premiere.

youtube

There’s nothing in that interview that explains anything. It’s mainly her talking about how it was fun working on the movie and how good the movie is.

Honestly, good for her for not being Extremely Online, but it really felt like I could get a bit of a handle on everyone else who’d worked on this project in a high profile way but not her. Which is part of why I started down this rabbit hole to begin with. There was nothing to show where she might have had a connection or an interest or anything that would connect the dots.

For reference, Fawn (who was one of the Directors and story writers) has the kind of resume that I was expecting Moore to have when I initially Googled her:

Smaller jobs on other kids/animated movies (Hop, The Lorax, Despicable Me 2), some storyboard or art work on other Disney stuff (Frozen, Moana, Zootopia, Ralph), and then a big break (Raya and Wish). Based on my understanding of the industry (and I know a fair bit because it’s one I’m interested in professionally) that’s a very typical track to get to the writing side of animation.

A couple of people speculated that Moore got onto the project in a mentorship capacity. Now, I’m a Black woman who writes fiction professionally when I’m not on this hellsite (affectionate) with the rest of y’all. That means I have firsthand experience with what mentorship looks like in writing–both official Diversity and Inclusion type mentorship and more organic “Let me take you under my wing” type mentorship. I have *never* seen anyone get a job this high profile at the jump just due to mentorship alone. Going from zero to Disney’s 100th anniversary is kinda insane. This wasn’t some B project or something. It was a Big Deal Project. And this is Disney so they could have hired basically anyone they wanted. So you have to assume this was an active decision someone made and not just a thing that happened for lack of options. But in all my searching, Moore wasn’t mentioned except to just say she wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Lee. It was just the baking show and the Youtube clip.

Until today.

(4) I’m going to preface this by saying this doesn’t actually answer the question in a big AHA! way, but it is the only interview I’ve seen about Wish from Moore besides the red carpet clip.

On December 15th, Moore gave this interview with the San Antonio Current.

I stumbled across it while searching for a different piece of information and eagerly clicked to see what she had to say after three weeks of silence after the movie dropped on November 22.

Here are some highlights:

-In high school she was a theater kid and thought she wanted to pursue acting.

-I college she did playwriting and eventually she got her MFA from Iowa (which has a weirdly great MFA program btw, and also, this interview is how I confirmed she was the playwright Allison).

-When she started on the theater track at her college, she told them she was a playwright so she could study that too even though she’d never written a play before. So it sounds like Wish isn’t the first time she’s just jumped into a new thing without experience. You have to respect the hustle.

But this is the most important line in the interview because it’s like, an answer and a non-answer all in one. She’s asked, “How did you go from writing plays to writing for TV and film?”

And her answer is, “I had a whole career writing for theater, and then when my son was born, I realized I needed to make more money, so I started pitching for TV. I worked in television for about a decade. In the midst of working in TV, I continued playwriting. That's how I got on the radar at Disney.”

Which kind of sidesteps the most intriguing part of the question? Like, first of all, it’s not 100% clear if she means her playwriting or her TV writing caught Disney’s attention. I’m guessing playwriting, but I could be wrong. Secondly, who is “Disney” in this situation? A Disney recruiter? A Disney director? Did Jennifer Lee see a production of Slasher: A Horrifying comedy while passing through Texas and think, “Her. I want her to be my co-writer on this children’s film.” And what did she do to impress them so much that they right away put her on the the *Anniversary Project*? Like, I know I keep harping on this but I can’t stress enough how big of a deal this is. It’s hard enough to write for just your average sitcom or little movie. To just jump on something this big is baffling. I obviously don’t expect Disney to be justifying their every hiring decision publicly but, usually, when someone is doing something like this, it’s very obvious why they were chosen and, even with this sliver of explanation, it’s still frustratingly opaque. And with the strange post hoc timing of the interview (seriously, doesn’t promotion usually happen PRE movie release?) It almost reads like an interview that exists because someone realized the lack of any online presence was weird.

(5) When she was a kid, Allison Moore had a crush on Fox Robin Hood. That’s not at all important to the mystery, that’s just information she volunteered during the interview and that I’m now sharing with you. So when you search her name now, the top results are me wondering who she is, her IMDB, and her talking about how she liked Fox Robin Hood's little hat. Which isn't a LOT of information, but it’s more than we had before and that’s something.

#Wish #disney’s wish #wish 2023 #disney wish #I cannot stress enough that I don’t have anything against moore as a person #(if anything I'm impressed by how she managed to pull off what feels to me like a magic trick)#I just can’t resist a mystery #and as a writer this is a big one #i’ve had this in my inbox for a bit #but I was hoping new info would drop that I could include #and the interview did it #also just as a side note #speaking of mentorship #if they were going to bring a co-writer onto this project it might have been nice for them to pick someone with more cultural connection #you know to their Moorish lead from their Iberian setting #this movie is so culturally bland #and someone who could actually speak to the culture might have helped a lot!#like I know pete docter got a Black writer in on Soul part way through #and he talked about getting the barbershop scene just right #there was no moment like that in this movie #asks

24 notes · View notes

writingonjorvik · 4 months

Note

Ok but why is Pi bad but Mrs Holdsworth isn’t? And why are goblins bad? I know they’re antisemitic but I don’t understand why it’s only the one witch that’s bad then. Are witches antisemitic? /genq

I can do my best to answer this but I want to preface it heavily. I’m a gentile/not Jewish, so if there are Jewish folks who have spoken on this, you should talk to them first over what I have to say. Any research I have in this is because my book series has a dwarf as the MC (another commonly antisemitic fantasy race) and I have actively been doing my best to learn about these tropes by listening to Jewish folks in the topic to make sure I avoid promoting harmful content in my books, but that shouldn't replace talking to Jewish folks about it.

First, I want to say that none of these are just exclusively antisemitic. The problem lies in the common tropes used for them. Witches and dwarves are easier to talk about this on this point since they do have real world counterparts. Goblins get a little iffy, but you can write goblins that aren’t antisemitic, as vocalized by several Jewish members in the ttrpg community. It’s the how that’s the issue.

Let’s talk about witches for a second. We can’t just say witches are antisemitic because witchcraft is a living separate faith. Saying that you practice modern paganism doesn’t make you antisemitic, but there is an overlapped history there. Paganism just means “not Christian,” which means that the “old pagan tradition” included Judaism, and both what most people call “pagans” now a days and Jewish people were tried as pagans in ye olden days. And it’s also why there is a complicated history here to unpack.

Take the classic witch hat for example. There is a history of female brewsters using black pointed hats to help market their wares. There is also a history of the pointed hats being used to mark Jewish people in crowds. The combined purge of both groups actively blended the stereotypes because they were both tried for the same thing: witchcraft and satanic practices.

That doesn’t make witches antisemitic. What makes witches like Pi antisemitic is how they’re depicted. The rest of the tropes: evil magic, secret orders of practice, physical traits like beady eyes, hooked/prominent noses, and, the big one, green skin. Green skin was a trope used to other Jewish people consistently. One or two of these can be done without being antisemitic. People can be in secret orders or use shadow magic, but it’s the tandem use that’s the issue, the physical traits AND the practices that make is antisemitic.

That’s why too Mrs. Holdsworth isn’t. Sure, she’s in a coven, but she isn’t depicted with stereotyped physical traits of a Jewish person. Or why our Dark Riders aren’t antisemitic. They may use shadow magic, but they aren’t actively depicting these other traits. It’s the tandem use that’s the issue.

Similarly, let’s talk about dwarves. Dwarves often fall into antisemitic tropes. They’re greedy, they horde wealth, they’re isolationist. But they aren’t explicitly antisemitic as a race. The core problem here begins with Tolkien. Tolkien actually had a huge amount of respect for the Jewish people and researched Jewish diaspora that influenced how he wrote his dwarves. The dwarvish diaspora in Middle Earth reflects this. The problem is most fantasy writers saw Tolkien’s work, took the spark notes version of it, and didn’t explain these traits in setting, which fell into caricature as a result. They checked off the whole list without unpacking the why. Context matters here, and plays another part in what makes a depiction of a fantasy race antisemitic. Were these people hunted and now isolating to rebuild their culture? Is mining directly related to their primary trade as a nation? Is it one hat or are they multifaceted with a notable cultural practice?

This is where we get back to goblins. Goblins as a creature do predate their antisemitic tropes, but much like witches and dwarves, were blended in to centuries of antisemitism. Green skin, beady eyes, hooked noses, and greedy. Those are the issues with goblins. You don’t have to do all of them, the HP goblins don’t have green skin, but they do hit the rest of the list. The snow goblins hit all four of the big points here.

There was a Jewish creator I saw who had redrawn goblins to avoid the antisemitic tropes in D&D, which is where I’d first learned more about this. It’s been a while and I didn’t write down their name, so instead I’ll point out the goblins in the Hobbit. Largely, they’re little orcs, and pale from living under the mountains, but I’ve seen no claims they they’re antisemitic. Because the goblins in the Hobbit aren’t greedy, they don’t universally have hooked noses and green skin. They might have hordes but it’s more of a bandit horde than a wealth horde. They aren’t lingering near societies to hunt bad kids (notable Jewish people often couldn’t live in the cities and had camps near them), they lived in the mountains and are depicted like mountain bandits. Like Mrs. Holdsworth, they hit one or two tropes, but it’s not to that tandem use.

It can be done. But SSE didn’t. The caprans were in a similar boat as the Hobbit goblins, they hit a few tropes but their implementation fell closer to fae tropes. Beady eyes and hooked nosed. The conversion to the snow goblins though ticks all the boxes for them. It took a creature that could pass as goblin-like but not antisemitic and gave them all the traits that make goblins harmful in common depictions. Calling them goblins is arguably irrelevant to the problem. The term goblin can be used, and calling the snow goblins something else wouldn’t change the problems with them physically and the tropes they embody. The snow goblins need to be changed entirely because their characteristics represent a list of antisemitic tropes used in tandem, that the name goblin just amplifies. A different name wouldn’t change the greedy, green skinned creatures that they’re depicted as, and that’s the problem. And that’s why Pi needs to be changed too.

#star stable #star stable online #sso #starstableonline #starstable #woj analysis #ssoblr

25 notes · View notes

canonicallysoulmates · 11 months

Text

J2 Chicon Main Panel 2023

The panel starts with Jared telling us he’s finally getting his knee looked at to get it fixed! He's getting it treated by a doctor right there in Chicago. Actually, his appointment was today, Monday, so hopefully, that went well 🙏He's been putting it off for a while so I'm glad he's getting treatment and I wish him a full and speedy recovery.

On to questions, why did Dean decide to get killed at the end of the series? I’m typing it as it was asked people.

Jensen jokes that if you look closely, if you play it in slow motion you can see him steering and telling the guy where the nail was, telling him to put him on it and end this misery 😂 But seriously, no, he did not choose that and neither did Dean but it was something that was heavily talked about and discussed. They knew that ending when they started the season and it’s no secret that it took him a while to come around to it, he didn’t want to see Dean die either but something they were talking about earlier in their meet and greet is that when really important characters get killed in shows, movies, and stuff it unfortunately does suck sometimes but it does make for good storytelling and good drama and that’s what they’re in the business of doing.

Jared says that Jensen’s not joking between s14 and s15 they knew 15 was gonna be the final season and they met with Dabb and Singer in LA who kinda told them the short pitch, they didn’t know what every episode was about or what every scene was about but they told the boys what they were working towards, and it kinda caught them both off guard and Jared thinks probably every season of SPN in the writer's room started off with one idea and it changed but he thinks he and Jensen both chatted about it in the earlier parts of season 15 that it kinda made sense in the storyline because he thinks if Sam had died first and Dean knew he had taken Sam out of college to bring him back into the life that would have been the end of him he wouldn’t have been a very happy fellow. So, he thinks it happened for a reason but it is SPN they can have people come back to life. And hopefully, we get to see the boys ride again. x

Other than each other who were their fav actor or actress in the show to play against? That gave them a lot to work with

Jared says one of the people who gave the most did it in a weird way cause he gave so little and that person is MC 🤣

He says he's teasing...but for like 2 days a month the guy was on set but in seriousness he loved Sully, he feels Sully was to Sam like C was to Dean. There was stuff the boys shared with a confidant they wouldn’t share with each other not because they wanted to keep secrets which they did often but you get to see a different side of Dean with C, and a different side of Sam with Sully. He also really enjoyed working with the Marks both Pellegrino and Sheppard.

For Jensen there’s are a lot of characters and a lot of actors that were really fun to work with he names two off the top of his head: Ruth, he says she came every day and was one of those actresses that would show up on set and elevate everybody’s performance levels, and it was so fun to watch her work but also be in a scene with her, another one is Lisa Berry and the funny thing about her is that she’s actually a big fan of the show so when the cameras weren't rolling she'd be like 'oh this is so cool don’t tell me anything I gotta wait for it to come out' and then they would yell action and she’d snap right into character that she's so good and again so fun to work with.

Jared asks Jensen if he remembers the snake guy in Yellow Fever, and Jensen replies that how could he forget cause when the snake started to crawl over his shoulder, Jared got up and left the room and all he heard was Jared going 'nope nope nope nope' 😂 Meanwhile, he couldn’t move cause he had 180 pound snake on his shoulder but the reason they mentioned the guy is that the actor who played him was a fan of the show and he said that all he had read was his scene so not to tell him anything else cause he wanted to watch it when it came out. x

What made them get into directing, what made them want to do it, and does Jensen have a future in directing?

It was a natural progression for Jensen, he kinda took an interest in wanting to know why the director would put the camera in a certain place, why they would have it move, why that lens would help advance the story especially and he really just kinda became interested in knowing more about it because he thought it might help him with his performance in front of the camera. It didn’t but what it did do is got him interested in storytelling from the other side of it, and the questions and talking with Kim Manners and Bob and Phil and all these guys who were masters of their craft he just kinda naturally became interested in it, and it was actually Kim Manners who told him he would be directing one of the eps one day and Jensen's reaction was to scoff and be like 'what? no'. But it came to a point where he said that if he talk to the producers and feel comfortable enough with giving him this responsibility he would do everything in his power not to mess that up so they did; it wasn’t something he demanded in his contract, he said if you trust and believe in me enough I will do the best I can and they did so he did it 6 times. At this point, he doesn��t have any directing gigs lined up, he is certainly open to it but right now there’s nothing like that because there’s a strike going on. But he does enjoy it and hopes he gets to do it more in the future.

Jared says he came in and was a natural he was beyond a natural he was…supernatural. x

If they were to create a bucket list what would be on that list?

Jared immediately goes: words probably 🤣 He doesn’t think he gets a vote in this but he’d like to become a grandparent sometime, and he doesn’t know, there are a lot of things he'd like to do.

Jensen also doesn’t know, he says has more of a not bucket list but it rhymes with that which makes Jared say bucket fist- I can't with him.

Anyways, for Jensen it’s less like I really wanna do this and it’s more I’ll do it why not; he’s traveled to a lot of places, and he’s sure there are places he'd like to see but he hasn’t sat down and made a bucket list yet.

Jared mentions that he wanted to go to Poland and then he got to go, he was excited and it was a joy x

What cologne are they wearing?

Jared has four different colognes: BLEU de Chanel, he was gifted a Gucci Guilty and Salvatore Ferragamo, and he has a Tom Ford one as much as I tried I could not hear clearly which one he has but I think it might be Fucking Fabulous. And, yes that is a real name of a Tom Ford parfum.

Jensen's is just a beard balm that’s called spicy wood.

Jared cannot resist and starts to make a joke about Jensen liking wood on his- and then cuts himself off. No comment x

What do they remember best from each season?

Okay, so the answer to this was a little over the place, especially near the end cause they needed the fan's help to figure out things from the later seasons I'm gonna do my best to recap it but it is going to be condensed and paraphrased for the sake of clarity. If you wish to watch the full moment, which was fun, I always provide timestamps.

From s1 Jensen remembers having divers hold his feet and hold him underwater with a young child in Dead in the Water and that was a very freaky feeling being held underwater especially when you’re responsible for some other person's child. Jared remembers, from that episode, the hot tub they had set off camera because the lake they were filming in is super cold and they had to be in there so long there were concerns they could become hypothermic so they set up a hot tub so in between takes they could warm up.

From s2 Jared mentions cutting his scalp off but that was actually s3 so Jensen shares about s2 that in AHBL pt2 when Dean gets thrown against the tombstone by YED the tombstone had been foamed so he could really dive into it but it only covered the arch, the base was still stone and he was young and stupid and he gave it a little extra, he turned at the last second and his ulnar nerve also called the funny bone hit the corner of the stone and he says his whole arm went numb then felt like it was on fire. But he didn’t yell cut cause it was Fredric Lehne's coverage so he just slowly rolled over and his arm was vibrating it was one of the most grueling pains he’s ever experienced and to this day that elbow, which is his left one, is much more sensitive if he bumps it even slightly it’s like hitting his funny bone all over again. They continue, in s2 Jared also broke his wrist and in season 3 he ripped his scalp off. For s4 they mention Ruby being played by G, season 5 is Swan Song, Jensen mentions he had a thing on his eye like the prosthetic and the glue started to melt and that season was also assbutt and the bottle not breaking.

Season 6 was soulless!Sam and Jensen remembers the shirtless pull up scene cause of course he does, for s7 Jared mentions Dick Roman, turducken, and Bobby dying.

Jensen: Season 8

Jared: was great

Jensen: season 9 was fine 😂

They continue, and this is when fans really started helping them out cause these men were struggling, for 8 Jared remembers the trials, at 9 is where Jensen says it starts to get really fuzzy.

From s10 Jared remembers not from set but from Van the 200th episode party, and Jensen remembers there was a high school musical episode. They continue with the fans help at s14 Jensen recalls the "marionette fight" between Dean and Lucifer and does a hilarious demonstration, he says it was the worst moment in his and Pellegrino's career they were just holding each other in the air thinking they’ll never work again. Wrapping it up with s15 Jensen says rusty rebar, and Jared says the wig was his I’ll never work again moment. Jensen says he remembers watching that episode and going 'oof what dead animals did they put on his head?' when he saw the wig 😂

Is there a weapon they think they didn’t get to use enough or a weapon they wish they had?

Jared answers the throwing stars, they never got to use them and he always thought it’d be clever for them to put salt on them or something. Jensen always thought it would be like a scene where Sam walks out and Dean’s mounted a 50 cal to the roof. Jared thinks if they had that and hula hoops filled with salt they’d still be alive. Jensen also mentions if they put their pistols on a bungee.

Jensen will say this, the angel blades they had- they had many cause they would constantly break. They had several variations the real ones cast out of metal and then ones that are called rubber weapons but which are actually hard plastic those things would break if you looked at it wrong, they didn’t work very well but the metal cast ones had such an even weight distribution on it. He misses spinning them and doing tricks with them, they would get into trouble with Robin from props because they would be playing with them and she'd have to take them away. They would also play with their flashlights and I don't know how to describe the noise that Jared makes when talking about this but it is so funny 😂

In the Star Trek fandom there is a hand sign for when you recognize a fellow fan or even come across one of the actors, what is the SPN hand sign?

The boys have nothing. They throw some ideas around, and then someone in the crows says rock, paper, scissors which makes Jared remember and share that while he was on vacation in Mexico with his fam he had a dream that he and Jensen were playing rock, paper, scissors, that is funnny and cute x

Last question! In the 15 seasons of acting out constant trauma how did it affect them? And how did they take care of their mental health?

Jared says there’s so many ways to think about this, and he never thought about it, but because they were playing in a sci-fi world there are no boundaries, they got to explore and play multiple characters and they both had wins and losses so long term it helped him learn to be curious, short term there were days he would get home after a really hard emotional scene completely exhausted, they’d have whole days of doing fight sequences and they'd be sweaty and tired but get home and be feeling great but then they'd have days that were emotionally draining for Sam and Dean and get home and be like 'I can't move' and feeling like they'd rather run 10 miles. At which point, Jensen says that Jared would run.

They’d get home late, and even if they didn't have a lot of hours before they had to go back to set, Jared would still get up and run his 4 or 5 miles, and Jensen would be like did you run? And Jared would tell him yes. And Jensen says Jared did this not because of physicality but it was mental for him, he needed to get up and have that moment. Jensen sounds so domestic talking about Jared going on his morning runs, and knowing what he needs for his mental health 💕

Running didn’t work for Jensen, for him what worked was burying himself in the work every day, and if he wasn't working he was moving traveling somewhere, or doing something to keep busy, busy was his buddy. x

J2 Main Panel Chicon

#j2 tinhat #y'all remember before s15 aired how we thought the boys were going to meet up with the ep's #to discuss the season and have a say in what happened and it slowly became clear that had not been the case #they just got told what was gonna happen #mine #noniwtv #long post

55 notes · View notes