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honda-hatch · 9 months

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On Invincible "vs." The Boys

A ramble that is 100% subjective and in no way objective

It's kinda goofy how these two properties got melded together by the cultural zeitgeist that swept both of them up at similar times. Both were on Amazon, both were violent, both were seen as parodies of the current trend of superhero media (which, depending on who you ask, was starting its current downward slide in 2020 between the pandemic damaging theatre-going on top of 2019's Endgame).

Now, both Invincible and the Boys were originally post-9/11 comics, but frankly, I have no idea if these two would have been compared in their original release timeframe (with Invincible starting in 2003(?) and The Boys in 2006(?)). Now, the The Boys started in mid 2019 and Invincible in 2021, yet you'll still see memes of both used here and there (even if the Boys has three seasons and Invincible is only coming up on its second now), and I'll still see people trying to compare them, as if they're similar.

See, I never really saw it that way. The Boys (both versions of it, despite their differences) is a satire of comic book superheroes. Garth Ennis infamously hated them, and post-9/11 was full of jaded comics and media (particularly horror movies). Even if we were far from the comical violence of 80s action and horror, post-9/11 is when realistic violence and torture porn came into vogue. In my opinion, the comic is terrible. Nobody is particularly likable, it's jaded to the extreme, and is filled with lots of sexual violence, and a borderline pointless resolution. I watched and enjoyed the first two seasons of the show, but I never felt compelled to watch the third after seeing that they were going to be messing with compound V and everything (much like they did in the original comic). Now I'm not denouncing the show as overall bad because they made a creative decision or whatever, it just made me ponder why I opted to tear through all of the Invincible comics in three days instead of watching The Boys season 3.

I think, oftentimes, extended satire can kinda lose sight of what its doing. Either it just becomes self-parodying or just kinda burns itself out. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I think intense genre satire works better when its in a limited form, whether it be a limited series, a movie, or a oneshot issue/episode. It allows itself to covers everything it wants, make all the jokes it needs to, without requiring a greater investment.

I'm not saying that's a surefire way for things to work, of course. I'm barely a creative. Maybe I'm just spewing bullshit. But it does connect to why I enjoy Invincible so much in comparison to it.

Now, the Invincible comics are far from perfect. I am, admittedly, a Robert Kirkman fan, but I can't understand how he managed to write so many incredibly poor female characters in the series. There are plenty of flashes of brilliance (namely stuff like Eve's origin and a lot of Monster Girl material, but I digress),yet overall, the female characters come off as foolish and overly vulnerable, which is especially ridiculous in Eve's case. Still, Mark and his father are riveting characters. They make mistakes, they learn from them, they grow, and they have complete arcs. The comics do a great job slowly expanding the universe into something that feels like it could be expanded upon, and yet, it doesn't *need* to, and has a great ending. Even having an ending is an achievement for many pieces of serialized material, and Invincible's left me genuinely content.

The show, so far, is measurably better than the comic, with Kirkman seemingly growing from his previous experiences (or perhaps just having a clever writing room that knows how to polish his material well). Women are actually three-dimensional, and not just through breaking character! What a revelation. But the real wonder of it all is the fact that Invincible remained what it was, even in the current era: a more mature superhero story.

It's not really a satire overall. It pokes fun, parodies classic heroes, sure. But Mark's story is genuinely one of becoming an incredible superhero. Yeah, there's blood, there's gore, etc, etc. But ultimately, Mark's story is about becoming stronger to save people. Not just his whole planet, but the universe.

There is a more genuine tone to The Boys TV series. There is an idea of taking down The Man that seeks to screw over the commonfolk, but revenge takes center stage most of the time. The same idea of revenge that Ennis wanted to inflict back in 2006. Yeah, its more obvious that the human characters (or Hughie, at the very least) are more "Heroic" than most of the actual "Heroes." But that can only be displayed so many times over and over. I have no doubt that season 3 of the Boys is at least good, if not iconic, but I just find it easier these days to invest myself that have a more genuine core. I don't mind re-experiencing Mark's story because of that genuine story

Sure, both have an interesting "EVIL SUPERMAN" character (side note: 99% of the Invincible cast could instantly body homelander. Folks who think lasers are OP have not consumed Invincible). But as a good friend likes to point out, Omniman is more like "if Superman's dad was evil." Even if what made Omniman iconic to the public was his beatdown of Mark, that's just the starting point for an incredible character, one who does an excellent job of representing the story's message of hope. Homelander is interesting, but I can't find a lot of his stuff as compelling. I know its funny and cool to have so much of his freakishness culminate in perversion and cruelty, but eh. Omniman just works better for me.

I'm crazy, I'm nuts, I'm crazy, this isn't well-reseacrhed, yadda yadda. Shut up, I'm rambling about why I don't care to continue watching the Boys but I'm so jazzed about Invincible. I'll save genuine critical writing for my damn grad courses.

Anyway, this is probably all pretty dumb. Maybe I just get tired of self-referential humor. And like I said, there are great satires. But that's not what I'm rambling about right now. Fuck it

I want Mark's gloves

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transflynnscifo · 1 year

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Tales of Vesperia Blurays

hello to anyone who’s scrolling the vesperia tag! I have finally gone around to digitizing other vesperia materials I possess that aren’t.. really anywhere online. (i may have put this off for at least as early as when I scanned light novel stuff)

anyway. the drive folder im providing includes: the vesperia stage play!!, the 10th anniversary party!!, tales of homeroom: tov edition!!, first strike 2019 bluray version!!

just keep in mind the following: you’ll have to download the things to watch them. you’ll most likely need to watch them through VLC media too. and they’re all unsubbed because translation is really not my forte

if you’re seeing this post and havent in any form completed/seen the game then do beware spoilers being in there, proceed with your own discretion. other than that, have fun! if anyone wants to translate these (they are all RAWs after all) please feel free to :)

goes without saying that if there’s any errors (there’s only so much I can proof-watch at once), do let me know!

that all aside. here’s the Contents (details) :

-Tales of The Stage: Justice of Light and Shadow (2019). Includes disc 1 (the play itself), and disc 2 (bonus content included in the bluray itself. stuff with the actual stage actors and whatnot)

I have so many thoughts on the stage play and i consider it a worthwhile experience! its like a little treat (though the speedrun being done here to get as much main story content covered within 2.5 hours is a sight to behold LMAO) (and even then, the stage play diverts from the main story to a good degree :3c)

-Tales of Vesperia 10th Anniversary Party (2018), also known as the celebratory party that was done live with all the voice actors leading the show! it’s overall very sweet and charming. this includes 2 discs, each containing a recording of 2 different days when the party took place, if that makes sense. any other videos in the folder is the bonus segments included in the bluray too, in a similar fashion to the stage play

-Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ 10th Anniversary Edition (2019), and Yes, we do have the movie available online, but i figured i could provide the bluray version that you would get if you got the definitive edition of the game in Japan. could make use for some HD screenshots perhaps.

the plus to the new bluray: it INCLUDES a 30 minute skit present on the disc as a bonus. im also providing the menu animation for the bluray since I somehow could rip that too and it looks pretty neat (:

-Tales of Homeroom, the two tales of vesperia episodes that you could only get through, again, the first strike bluray (2019). If you’ve seen some of the tales of HR videos uploaded on youtube, then you’ll know what this is about. if not, no fret! it’s just 2 tiny episodes centered around the vesperia cast on a vacation :)

Link to the Bluray Stuff

Link to the post where I scanned light novel illustrations and the danzaisha no keifu manga

eventually i should get to finding a way to put out the drama cds i own too. hopefully i don’t stall as long as i have with these

EDIT 30th September: new masterpost as I don’t want to use gdrive

#tales of vesperia #woe joystick be upon ye

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renyen808 · 11 months

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The Little Mermaid Remake Deserves to Exist

Hello everyone!! I don’t say this often, but I adored the live action remake of the Little Mermaid, which was released late May.

(Credit: IMDb)

Now, I know how the internet itself feels about these remakes, so before we go into the review, I want to be transparent about my feelings when it comes to the live action remakes.

My feelings are mixed about it. I sometimes don’t think they’re that bad. I can hear the booing as I write this, but I don’t believe they’re that bad. I think they’re bad when they don’t tell a new story. For instance, the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, although it did a lot from the animated version, gave Belle’s mom some sort of story and made Beast a bit more sympathetic. The 2019 The Lion King told the story word for word, so in turn, the magic is gone. I watched both of these in the theater by the way, and may I just say, the Lion King is my favorite animated movie ever, so you can sense my disappointment.

The Little Mermaid is another favorite of mine. I loved the original, just the idea of being a mermaid amazed me. Especially living in Hawaii, I loved the water. Ariel’s voice was also incredible, being the best singer of all of the princesses. While Jodi Benson’s Ariel is timeless and will live on to inspire other girls to dream, Halle Bailey’s Ariel will do exactly the same thing, but for even more girls, girls that never saw the original and thought, that’s me.

(Credit: Digital Spy)

Halle Bailey as Ariel is the best part of the movie and it shows that director Rob Marshall made the best choice when it comes choosing our mermaid. She embodied Ariel so well, as this infectious, curious, adventurous girl who wanted to explore the above world. I love more so how the romance aspect was second to her true passion for the above world, exploration. Bailey did, in my opinion, the best job of elevating Ariel for newer audiences, showing that it is okay to explore on your own, take risks, and that you never need a man’s hand to be successful. In many ways, I prefer this interpretation of Ariel as opposed to the original because of its amazing message.

The other characters are all great! Daveed Diggs as Sebastian was amazing! I already love Diggs as it is, so I was not surprised that he was great here too. I also loved Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. I know people were skeptical about her and I’m still on the side of she should have been played by a drag queen, but McCarthy did a phenomenal job. By the way, for my choice of performer for Ursula, it would have to be Ginger Minj. Awkwafina was good as Scuttle, though I have to say I would not feel comfortable if they made Scuttle the same way as the original. Jacob Tremblay as Flounder was okay, I was a little put off by his design still, but it didn’t ruin the experience for me. I was happy to see Javier Bardem in a role where he wasn’t the villain. I saw people say he was too strict on Ariel, but he’s the same way in the animated version. Jonah Hauer-King is incredible as Eric, taking a mid-tier prince into the top-tier charming man that Ariel deserves. Overall, all of the side and villain characters are incredible!

Established in my first movie review post, I rate things on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the absolute best, and 1 being the absolute worst. I don’t do 1 to 5 because I am afraid I will do some dumb rating like 3.3 out of 5. So, for consistency, I will only use whole numbers to rate things.

(Credit: CNN)

For me, The Little Mermaid remake gets an 8 out of 10. The entire movie is magical, especially Halle Bailey as Ariel. From the minor characters to the changes to the story, and the timeless classics reimagined here, you will not have a bad time here. I will discuss some of my criticisms below, but it is mainly flow issues and drastic changes in character (*cough* Eric *cough), but I will share that with you later. Overall, it is a great watch for families and especially young girls and women, you will not regret it.

This is the end of my review, which means I am moving onto my spoiler summary below. For the remakes from Disney (and possibly DreamWorks), I will be doing something a little bit different. For these, I will be doing a Compare and Contrast with the original work. I want to do this because many argue that Disney doesn’t need to be making these remakes if the originals are still there. However, I believe that when we look at them side by side, sometimes the meaning is different, and in a way, they deserve to exist next to their animated counterpart. I know there will always be people that complain about not wanting to compare it to the original, but, this way I won’t be just retelling the whole story (since I am sure we all know the story) and that way, you can clearly see the differences between the two. So, with that, I am done with my explanation. If this is where you will be leaving us, I hope you enjoyed reading my review of The Little Mermaid remake. If you enjoyed reading it, share it with a friend who may also enjoy it. Comments are always welcome, but keep it nice. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and shouldn’t be attacked because of them. Thank you for reading! See you in the next post!

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

So, for our first difference, the remake starts out with a quote from the original story written by Hans Christian Anderson. It states “But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more”. This quote opening the movie gives us an insight as to why Ariel’s suffering throughout the movie is much more emotional than it was in the original. Benson’s Ariel was crying throughout the movie, and while you are upset for her, it never really showed how much it affected her because she was always crying. Bailey’s Ariel, however, never could cry, until the very end, when she was finally human. She suffered so much throughout, making her pain even more upsetting, showing that even though she feels heartbreak, she cannot show it, like a mask. In the end, she was able to shed a tear, and finally express her sadness. The movie also has Eric in the beginning as well, sailing the seas and stopping the men on board from killing an innocent dolphin.

(Credit: YouLoveIt.com)

The movie is pretty much the same up until Ariel’s sisters and Triton show up. The sisters’ names are different from the original sisters. In the original, all their names started with A: Attina, Alana, Adela, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina. They were, honestly, kinda snobbish. I didn’t really care for them in the original. I mean, they acted like sisters, but I don’t have any sisters. I am one, just I don’t have any myself, if that makes sense. Okay, moving on. In the remake, we have Perla, Indira, Karina, Caspia, Mala, and Tamika. Each mermaid has a different ethnicity and rules a different ocean, so they are not home in Atlantica all the time, unlike Ariel. The reason they are all there is different too, as in the original, Sebastian held a concert with all of Triton’s daughters, minus Ariel since she never showed up. Here, there is no concert, but they are there for the Coral Moon meeting. Ariel misses this as well.

Bailey’s rendition of Part of Your World is fantastic here as well. It shows off her playful spirit while also holding a sense of longing that Ariel desperately has for the above world. I cannot gush about her enough, she was just the best choice! If you have not listened to it before, DO IT! Everything is the same, she saves Eric and she climbs the rock while singing the reprise, but it is actually a bit different from the original. See, in the original, Eric was reviving while Ariel was just admiring him. In the remake, Ariel had to use her siren song to revive him, ultimately saving Eric from drowning.

(Credit: Classic FM)

Afterwards, we reach one of the most recognizable sequences from the original movie. The Under the Sea portion is one I had a few issues with. First off, the lyrics should have been changed here. We will see later that some of the original songs had their lyrics changed, so it was possible. However, here, they just chose to leave it in when none of it was happening. There is a part of the song, where Sebastian is listing off sea creatures playing instruments (i.e. newt play the flute, carp play the harp). None of that was happening on the screen though, and it was just Ariel riding a sea turtle’s shell. You could have done one of two things here: either replace the lyrics with something else, or you show the animals playing the instruments. We are not looking for realistic storytelling here, it is a story about a mermaid, nothing is realistic. Another thing is Ariel singing here. I know Bailey has an amazing voice, and I love hearing her, but this song is about trying to convince Ariel to stay, why would she just be singing along? It was just a weird character choice that I did not agree with.

(Credit: Digital Spy)

Eric, however, is one that made me very happy. He gets a huge expansion in the remake, and I love these changes. First off, Eric is not just some dull prince that is eye candy for Ariel. Here, he wants to help the people he is ruling over, wanting to make things better. He also has a sense of adventure and exploration, wanting to sail more than be a royal. He also has a mother here, an adopted mom, Queen Selina, played by Noma Dumezweni. His mother actually forbids him from sailing after the accident and in his dismay, he sings the first original song Wild Uncharted Waters. This song, on first listen, was just a mid tier song for me, but after listening to it more and more, it actually helps to see and understand Eric. With Ariel’s voice stuck in his head, he cannot seem to shake her and return to the life he once knew. He has a control over him that is unlike anything he has experienced before, it’s new and it is the key to him escaping this life he feels trapped in. Hauer-King’s performance as Eric is another great casting choice, he not only played Eric perfectly, he exceeded expectations.

During the scene with Ariel and her sisters, instead of them getting ready, they’re all clear debris from a fallen ship. Ariel’s absent mindedness is apparent to her sisters, and this plays out like in the original, except after Triton destroys Ariel’s stuff, the remake Ariel does not cry, though she is clearly in despair.

Ursula in the remake is also different. Here, it is clear from the get go that Triton and Ursula are related, and that she was banished from Atlantica for fifteen years. McCarthy’s rendition of Poor Unfortunate Souls lives up to the original’s sung by the late Pat Carroll. This rendition, however, is not as sexualized and demeaning as the original was, with the remake choosing to omit that entire portion about men not wanting to hear women talk, or the importance of body language, which I was fine with. That is not the story they are trying to tell, and I can respect choosing to leave that out. Also, instead of signing a contract, Ariel was forced to pick a scale from her tail and throw it into Ursula’s cauldron. Another thing that was sneaky but also an intelligent way to get Ariel to not try to kiss Eric all the time was to give her a spell to make her forget. I love this twist because Ariel wasn’t just trying to kiss Eric the entire time, which I enjoyed, but it was aggravating at times to see her not try to kiss him.

When she gets her legs, Ariel is actually caught in the net of a local fisherman and taken to the castle as she sings an original song in her head called For the First Time. This song is an adventurous one, one that shows Ariel’s curiosity of this world that she has just been thrown into. She is getting ready to meet Eric, who has been frantically searching for the woman who saved him (i.e. Ariel), but when they finally meet, he is initially turned away due to her lack of voice. She is shown being upset, again not shedding a tear, and is initially heartbroken. Later on, she explores the castle and runs into Eric in his room full of items he himself has collected over the years, and they spend time together, with Eric explaining everything and Ariel showing him the secrets hidden underneath some of his collection.

(Credit: Empire Online)

She and Eric go out, like in the original, where Ariel steers a carriage, and they make it to a market, where Jodi Benson ‘passes the torch’ to Halle herself. This scene made me tear up a bit, I am not going to lie. They also buy Eric a hat, and they dance with people in the courtyard. As they were making their way back, Scuttle steals Eric’s hat and leads them to a boat, where they row as Sebastian sings Kiss the Girl. Due to the forgetting spell, Sebastian is trying to convince Eric to kiss Ariel without Ariel realizing what is going on. We all know what happens here, and this is where I begin to have some issues. I know Scuttlebutt is here, and it is fine. That’s all I will say.

First off, before I talk about Vanessa, Ariel sings another reprise of Part of Your World here, and I think this is placed in the wrong part of the movie. I get that this song is supposed to show her heartbreak since she is seeing the guy she likes about to be engaged to someone else, but I honestly think it would have been better at the very end, when she was a mermaid watching Eric from afar. The lyrics fit better, it seems more sad because more than ever they are separated, and it just fits better here than right after learning about Vanessa. All in all, this was a misstep, and I feel it should be moved to where I suggested.

Vanessa here is played by the wonderful Jessica Alexander, who makes herself very memorable for such little screen time. However, I am confused for so many reasons with her inclusion. First off, we have already seen how much Eric enjoyed having Ariel with him, and it is very clear that he is off put by this. I don’t really buy that he is hypnotized. In fact, I think when he first sees her, he is initially confused. I mean, I can relate bro so don’t worry. Secondly, her skin tone is nothing like Bailey’s skin tone, and I know he did not get a good look at her, but why couldn’t they choose an actress with a similar tone? I know it is cruel, but Halle has a sister. Overall, I felt Vanessa was way more forced here than in the original, and it just does not fit this story.

(Credit: Twitter User @aficianad0__)

I just have to bring up how much a king Hauer-King (ha!) is in this one compared to the original. As Ariel transformed back, he held her in his arms and tried to protect her, while the animated one just stood and looked at her, like what the heck dude? Protect her! You just found out she saved you and you just look at her like, Oh snap! You a fish, girl? What should I do?” Animated Ariel deserved better, ugh.

(Credit: The Canberra Times)

Anyway, everything happens the same from here on out, except, Ariel is the one to kill Ursula, not Eric. She is actually on the boat while Eric is being shot at from below, and I really enjoy this change. Remember, Ariel has her tail now, so she has to think of a way to use the momentum around her being out of the water to try and steer the boat. By the way, this sequence and Ariel saving Eric earlier was very hard for me to watch due to the strobing lightning effects.

Everything happens the same, and my disappointment cannot be measured when I saw they did not give Ariel a new DRESS!! What the heck?! She only gets one dress from the movie when the animated one got three?! Ugh, I was so disappointed, but this ending did not disappoint. In fact, I’d argue it is better than the original.

In the original, we all know that she marries Eric and lives close to home in Eric’s castle. In the remake, however, I am not sure if they get married, I have no idea, but there is a ceremony, before Eric and Ariel begin to explore the world together. As they board the boat, Triton and Ariel’s sisters breach the surface to say goodbye, and I love this line from Javier Bardem, which says “You shouldn’t have had to give up your voice to be heard.” And at that moment, I cried. I cried so hard. Ariel finally sheds a tear, saddened about leaving her home and her family behind, but grateful that her father is on her side now. She embraces Triton before he pushes the boat away from them towards their ship, and that is the end. I love that they ended the remake this way as opposed to the wedding. The wedding would have actually been an insult to this rendition of Ariel and Eric and I really enjoyed that they get to explore now and live life the way they want to instead of living the ways of their parents.

(Credit: DeviantArt User mintmovi3)

All in all, The Little Mermaid remake deserves to exist amongst the others. I have seen many people for different reasons trying to boycott this movie, whether that be for racist reasons, hating the remakes, and so forth. I will not tolerate racism in any fashion, and to everyone hating on the remakes, let’s not die on this hill where a fantastic actress of color just performed the best live action Disney Princess performance ever. Let’s not die on this hill, alright? Support this film, support Halle Bailey, support the amazing story they have made here! It is better than the rest, I promise!

With that, it is the end of my comparison and I thank you for reading this far! If you enjoyed reading my stuff, share it with a friend who may also like it as well. Comments are always welcome, but keep it nice. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and shouldn’t be attacked because of them. Thank you for reading! See you in the next post!

#the little mermaid #disney live action #halle bailey #jonah hauer king

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analyzen · 3 years

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Italian Fandom Meta | Most Popular Types of Pairings on EFP vs. AO3

EFP (2001–, Fanlore) is the most popular writing archive in Italy, and it hosts both fanfic and original fiction. Under the cut you’ll find a breakdown of the most popular types of pairings on EFP in comparison to the most popular types of pairings in the Italian section of AO3.

The Italian version of this analysis can be found here.

TL;DR:

53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted

49% of the registered users on EFP have deleted their accounts

M/F works amount to 60% of the whole website

EFP’s three most popular fandoms (Harry Potter, One Direction, Original Fiction – Romantic) all have a majority of M/F works

On AO3, most Italian works are M/M (56%)

F/F doesn’t have much content on either site (4-5%)

Methodology

I’ve followed @olderthannetfic’s methodology from this earlier Fanfiction.net analysis. Basically, I picked a sample size of 666 chapters and organized them in four categories (M/M, M/F, F/F, Not tagged; more on this later).

Why I chose chapters instead of stories

On EFP you don’t have specific links for every single story. Instead, every chapter you post gets a unique id, which can be seen in the link itself. For example, at the time of writing this the last updated chapter on EFP was this one:

viewstory.php?sid=3974099

Which means that this was the 3'974'009th chapter ever posted on EFP.

Ids follow the usual numerical order, so if a link reads id=3, then there have to be id=1 and id=2, and the next link will have id=4.

So I’ve used a randomizer to select ~1200 unique ids to analyse.

Weren’t 666 chapters enough?

I started out with 700 chapters, but half of them weren’t working. That’s because 53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted from the website.

Thanks to the link of the last updated chapter, we know that almost 4 millions chapters have been posted on the EFP. But EFP's homepage shows different stats:

Registered users: 602395, 205974 of which are authors Last registered user: [blacked out] Total of stories: 517083 Total of chapters: 1869573 chapters Total of reviews: 6222695 Online users: 17 logged in and 53 visitors

While we should have almost 4 million chapters, the stats show ~2 million chapters. Why? Because the stats only show the stories, chapters and users that are still on the website, and they don’t show the stories, chapters and users that have been deleted.

(Sorry, I forgot to translate this one. It reads: Total of chapters posted on EFP between 2001 and today. Orange: deleted chapters. Blue: chapters that are still online.)

Thanks to the stats on the homepage we also have a link to the last registered user. User ids follow the same numerical order as chapter ids, so once again we know that 49% of the users ever registered on EFP have deleted their accounts. That's a lot of deleted accounts.

Categorization

After selecting 666 (accessible) chapters, I organized them into 4 categories:

M/M: contains all stories tagged as “yaoi”, shounen ai” and “slash”

M/F: contains all stories tagged as “het”

F/F: contains all stories tagged as “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash”

Not tagged: which contains a) poetry, b) stories tagged as “no pairing”, and c) untagged het stories.

As for the untagged het stories, there are two issues:

Many M/F fics simply aren’t tagged

Many gen fics include untagged M/F ships

If the description made it clear that the story included a heterosexual relationship, I added the story under the M/F tag. Otherwise I left it under not tagged.

Also, on EFP “yaoi”, “shounen ai” and “slash”, and “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash” actually mean different things.

This screenshot here is from the posting page on EFP. It reads:

Pairings * You must select at least one tag from the list, and you can choose up to three tags. Het: for heterosexual relationships Shonen-ai: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Shojo-ai: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Yaoi: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Yuri: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Slash: for male/male relationships from TV shows/movies/books FemSlash: for female/female relationships from TV shows/movies/books

The thing is. People either respect the rules and use different tags for different kinds of stories, or they use these tags interchangeably to maximise the chance to appear in other users' searches. Which means that you’ll find RPF tagged with “shoujo ai”, and Attack on Titan fics tagged as “slash”. (More info on this later.)

Findings

On EFP, the majority of the stories are M/F.

To confirm this, I checked some specific fandoms:

Some notes:

Because EFP doesn't have metatags like AO3, what I did was: 1) go to a specific fandom, 2) filter through every single tag, and 3) jot down the number of pages per search. Every page contains up to 15 stories, so for example searching for het in Original Fiction – Romantic gives you 846 pages, which amounts to around ~12690 stories.

The tag in red, “Nessuna”, means “no pairing”. It is used for gen fics but also for untagged M/F fics. This is especially true in some fandoms, ie. Original Fiction – Romantic, and Harry Potter.

EFP’s filtering system sucks. You can only filter through stories with specific relationship tags, but you can’t filter out relationships tag. So what you see in the graph is how often a tag is used... which brings us to some issues. For example, Harry Potter is the biggest fandom on EFP, so much that Harry Potter stories amount to 11% (!) of the whole website. But in the graph it looks like the One Direction fandom has more stories—wrong. Actually, One Direction has many stories tagged as both slash and het, while Harry Potter stories tend to be either one or the other.

EFP’s filtering system sucks, part 2. Because “shounen ai”, “yaoi” and “slash” are often used at the same time, you can't really smash together all three of the tags to get a total amount of stories. I'd say that around 50% of the stories tagged as shounen ai and yaoi probably overlap, but there is no easy way to find out because, again, EFP’s filtering system sucks. The same goes for “shoujo ai”, “yuri” and “femslash”.

Fandoms with a majority of M/M stories

While there are some fandoms with more M/M stories (ie. Death Note, Hetalia, Glee, Sherlock, Supernatural, Teen Wolf), these fandoms are simply extremely small in comparison to other bigger fandoms full of M/F fics. Which obviously skews the numbers in favor of M/F fics.

What about femslash?

EFP suffers from the same lack of femslash as AO3 as a whole. In the fandoms I've analysed, only two have a big enough number of F/F. The fandoms are Glee (which has more F/F stories than M/F stories) and Grey's Anatomy (which has as much F/F as M/F stories, with little M/M).

Original Fiction

I thought it might be interesting to explore the original sections too, especially because Original Fiction – Romantic is the third biggest fandom on EFP after Harry Potter and One Direction. These Big 3 all have a disproportionate amount of M/F stories.

By logic, this would mean the the majority of the userbase on EFP prefers M/F stories. But then, aren't fans always complaining about “too much slash”? If “Any Two Guys” were enough to find slash appealing, wouldn't it be easier to simply write original M/M?

I think that looking at original stories might help us understand why people might prefer slash over het in some fandoms. For example, the amount of M/F stories in Original Fiction – Romantic implies that, when authors have to chance to choose what types of stories to create from scratch, they might prefer M/F stories.

This would support the theory that many people might prefer slash because of the lack of (well written/primary) canonical female characters + how well M/M relationships, both platonic and romantic, are written in canon texts in comparison to M/F or F/F relationships.

Obviously, we have to keep in mind that not all fanfic writers write original fiction and viceversa, so I'm not trying to find a universal explanation here. Also because not every website has a majority of M/F stories.

Which brings us to...

AO3 vs. EFP

As per today 20/04/21, the Italian section of AO3 contains “only” 24777 stories, divided between many different fandoms. To make a comparison, the Italian stories on AO3 amount to 5% of all the stories available on EFP. To make another comparison, the whole Naruto fandom on EFP has 20129 stories in total.

EFP has also been active for 20 years, while the boom of Italian fics on AO3 only started around 2018. We can't really make a 1:1 comparison between the two archives, but we can still try to understand the preferences of their users.

M/M and M/F stories on EFP vs. AO3

EFP: 60% M/F, 25% M/M

AO3: 56% M/M, 23% M/F

The percentages are almost swapped.

This might be because of the archives themselves. EFP has always been the general website for any Italian fandom (and actually at first it mostly hosted M/F content), while AO3 has always had a big M/M userbase. I'm basing this statement on this AO3 analysis from 2013, in comparison to this FFN analysis from 2018 which showed a majority of M/F fanworks, and finally this AO3 vs. FFN vs. Wattpad analysis from 2019, which showed that AO3 has always been the outlier for its majority of M/M content.

Then again, M/M stories on EFP have always been subject to the “usual” type of borderline-to-direct harassment that M/M fans are used to, which is something that still happens to this day especially in certain writing groups on Facebook, where the Italian writing community is pretty active. It wouldn't be weird for slashers to move to AO3, where they know they'll find more like-minded people and less headaches. (Also, the Italian section of AO3 has a lot of M/M RPF that's banned on EFP.)

The “Multi” tag on EFP

The only thing that barely resembles a multi tag on EFP is threesome, which for some reason is often used as a synonym for love triangle. So from the tags it isn't easy to understand if a fic includes an actual threesome (as in, a sex scene), a polyamorous relationship, or a simple love triangle.

This doesn't mean that there aren't poly stories on EFP—it simply means that they're impossible to find using the search system.

And that's all, I think!

#italian fandom meta #efp analysis #ao3 analysis #fandom meta

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twh-news · 3 years

Text

To land ‘Loki,’ Kate Herron had to pull out all the stops. How she won over Marvel

As a teenager, Kate Herron was obsessed with the “Lord of the Rings” films.

In particular, she recalls heading to theaters repeatedly with friends who shared her passion to see “The Two Towers” (2002), the second installment in director Peter Jackson’s trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel. She even wrote “Lord of the Rings” fan fiction.

“It was very silly,” the British filmmaker insists, revealing that one of her stories saw the heroic Fellowship traveling through a magical fountain and getting trapped in New York. “Honestly, I was just writing the stories to make my friends laugh. I guess it was kind of that first foray for me: ‘How do I tell a story?’”

Years later, Herron is again involved in telling a story about a protagonist displaced from the world he knows. But this time, her audience is much bigger.

Herron, 33, is the director of “Loki,” the Marvel Studios series that follows the adventures of the titular god of mischief after he has been plucked out of time by an agency charged with maintaining the sanctity of the timeline. Thus, the six-episode series, which premiered earlier this month on Disney+, features a slightly different version of Loki than the fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have grown to love since his first appearance in “Thor” (2011) through “Avengers: Endgame” (2019).

“I love villains,” says Herron during a recent video call from Atlanta, where she is putting the final touches on “Loki.” “I think that if a villain’s done right, you don’t necessarily have to like their actions, but you have to understand them. And I think that Tom [Hiddleston], in the last decade, has brought such empathy and wit and pain to a very real character for so many people. I just wanted to be part of whatever [Loki’s] next chapter was going to be.”

The series, on which the self-described Loki fan also serves as an executive producer, is Herron’s highest-profile project to date. Her previous credits include directing on Netflix’s “Sex Education,” as well as “Five by Five,” a series of short films executive produced by Idris Elba.

While growing up in South East London, Herron never considered filmmaking as a career. Her love of movies manifested as the aspiration to become an actor, and she often goaded her peers into putting on plays or making movies using a friend’s father’s camcorder. It wasn’t until some astute and encouraging teachers at Herron’s secondary school pointed out that she seemed more interested in storytelling that she changed course.

By introducing Herron to new texts, these teachers — as well as a film studies class that covered films directed by Stanley Kubrick and Akira Kurosawa — helped expand her perspective.

“I just didn’t know that you could have a voice and an authorship over a film, which probably sounds a bit silly. But I just hadn’t really thought about films in that way,” says Herron. Soon enough, she was on the path to film school at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, England, where she graduated with a degree in film production.

Herron laughs as she remembers how she believed she would just go off and find work in film straight out of school. “Obviously that did not happen,” she says.

With no post-graduate roadmap (or job offer) to help her break into the industry, Herron eventually started writing and directing short films with “no money” while juggling a day job as a temp. Both experiences provided Herron with material for “Loki,” which introduces a new bureaucratic agency called the Time Variance Authority to the MCU.

“I’ve worked at a lot of random places, which weirdly has influenced ‘Loki’ in some ways because we have this office culture kind of running through it,” says Herron. “I’ve worked in a lot of offices.”

In order to give the retro-futuristic offices of the TVA “a real lived-[in], breathed-in office” feel, Herron incorporated details that viewers could recognize from the real world — from paper files to the posters on the walls — and gave them a fantastical twist befitting the superhero series.

“One of the most exciting things to me about Kate is she has this amazing attention to detail,” says “Loki” co-executive producer Kevin Wright. “That was something that we saw on her very first pitch [and] it works its way into every frame of the show. Every monitor, every piece of paper in the TVA … she has looked over and approved everything you see.”

In an email, “Loki” star Hiddleston described Herron as “a dream collaborator” who possesses “a unique combination of extraordinary diligence, stamina, energy, respect and kindness.”

“Her affection for and understanding of Loki was so deep, profound and wide-ranging,” Hiddleston wrote. “She built a new world for these characters to play in with incredible precision, but she was also acutely sensitive to their emotional journey.”

Herron’s affinity for outsiders is apparent throughout the course of our conversation. There is of course her love for Loki — the heir to the king of Frost Giants raised as the prince of Asgard who has become one of the MCU’s most beloved villain-turned-antiheroes. Herron’s first introduction to the world of Marvel as a kid was through “X-Men: The Animated Series,” about the superhero team with mutant powers that set them apart from average humans. Herron cites Lisa Simpson — the overachieving, opinionated middle child from the animated sitcom “The Simpsons” — as the reason she is a vegetarian who can play the saxophone.

And although Herron describes herself as shy, it’s no match for the passion she brings to discussing film and television.

She calls Wes Anderson’s 2001 film “The Royal Tenenbaums,” co-written by “Loki” actor Owen Wilson, “a perfect movie.” In addition to being obsessed with “The Simpsons,” Herron gravitated toward genre shows such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the updated “Battlestar Galactica” and “The X-Files” when growing up.

As Herron enthusiastically dives into “Loki’s” influences — which include “Alien” (1979), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Brazil” (1985), “Metropolis” (1927) and, yes, even “Teletubbies” — it’s easy to see why Wright knew she was the right person to bring “Loki” to life from their very first meeting.

Upon learning that Marvel was developing a show about Loki, Herron tasked her agents with calling Marvel every day until they would meet with her. And it worked.

“I was just so excited that somebody was chasing the project,” says Wright. “Which sounds crazy, that Marvel would be excited somebody’s chasing us. But it was the early days of us trying to get this Disney+ streaming stuff off the ground, so people were very hesitant … they didn’t know what it was yet.”

Herron’s enthusiasm for the show landed her a video meeting with Wright and executive producer Stephen Broussard. Believing it might be her only shot at the project, Herron came armed with so many stills and clips to illustrate her discussion of the scripts she’d been sent that a simple meet-and-greet turned into a four-hour conversation.

“Over the course of the next week or so,” Wright explains, “it was really figuring out how to set Kate up to succeed when we got her in front of Kevin Feige to pitch this.”

Herron put together a 60-page bible of ideas for the characters, the story, the visual references and more. The rest is Marvel history.

She learned not to wait for permission, she says, after graduating from film school and becoming involved with improv and stand-up to both develop her comedy chops and to meet funny collaborators to be in her short films.

“I think I’d always find excuses, almost, [to not do it],” says Herron. “It was that thing of being like, ‘Oh, well, I’m not ready. So I’ll wait. I’ll wait until I’m perfect at it and then I’ll go do it.’”

Taking inspiration from Robert Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without a Crew” and a SXSW keynote speech by Mark Duplass, Herron realized that she just needed to start making things. She told herself it was OK if the films were messy. If a short was bad, nobody had to see it. If a short was “halfway to good,” she would submit them to festivals.

It’s this tenacious creativity that connects the dots between her early fan fiction, her short films, her pitch presentations — and now “Loki” itself. It’s a trait that has helped her navigate the industry to her current success, even during the periods it’s been most frustrating. As a female director, “I got asked crazy stuff in interviews sometimes,” she says of life on the festival circuit. “I remember being asked, ‘Are you sure you’re ready? Are you sure you’re ready?’ And male colleagues of mine were never asked that in interviews. I think that’s probably why I was so driven to just go out and make stuff.”

#loki #loki series #kate herron #interview #los angeles times #article

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dramarising-replacement · 3 years

Text

Hey! It seems like there’s been a Lot of Confusion about the crow subspecies. The subspecies creator wrote a blog post off dr a while back clearing up some of that misinformation. It didn’t get seen by many people since it was in a reblog to one of the many crow drama posts here. I’ve reposted the relevant parts here: to read the rest or doublecheck that I didn’t make it up, just find the original post. Like the author or hate the author: those with firsthand knowledge of the subspecies can agree on all the parts reposted here. Several sections of the original post have been snipped as it speculated on the reasons behind the confusion. That section was removed because this post is not about who did what, it’s about keeping more people like T from Ice from being caught in the crossfire. From their replies on DR, the subject of that speculation seems to have that same goal as me and has been defending 99.9% of crow owners in their DR replies. That makes them no enemy of mine. Full disclosure: Like some other anons here, I own crows and the idea of getting caught in the drama crossfire (unless it’s from my own mistakes!) is exhausting. I don’t want to break any rules by saying my name so: I’m that person with the crow lineage project threads who used to raffle off lore hatchlings. Even though I don’t use Chinese inspired lore, I’ve been revamping my own projects based on some comments from the poc commenters here so thanks for your wisdom. tl;dr for long post: The asian crow subspecies actually has no connection to any Asian cultures. Some people in it make personal lore that’s inspired by fantasy genres, real life cultures, or even cowboys: but it is not an ‘Asian’ subspecies. All known allegations (and anyone with allegations to levy pls correct me if I am wrong) are against 2-3 people and don’t reflect the many many more with the subspecies in their dens. ————————— Hello, I am the creator of the Crow subspecies that is currently being discussed. I want to clear up some of the confusion that has been surfacing over it due to the overwhelming number of misunderstandings arising from the subject. Regarding Subspecies Owner: There is one subspecies creator and that is myself. Neither T from Ice nor C from Earth (anon note: nor FJ from Fire or me for that matter) are creators of the subspecies. Any mentioned excluding myself have played no part in the creation of the subspecies lore. Any other user’s personal lore likewise has had no involvement in the subspecies lore itself, and are separate entities. Regarding Subspecies + Racism/Other: There seems to be misinformation saying that the subspecies is inspired by one or multiple Asian cultures. The subspecies itself is a blank slate that has no cultural inspiration and is meant as a springboard for other people to develop their lore with. There is no real-world culture involved nor even humans in the subspecies lore. Some members enjoy gijinka art and that is their personal choice: humanizations which occur due to personal lore preference is entirely separate from the subspecies lore as a whole. The subspecies lore itself focuses solely on dragons as reflected in their representations on-site on Flight Rising, following theming from the Plague Flight. The subspecies lore has been used as a starting block for users to write their own lore, taking inspiration from a combination of their own cultures and experiences, fantasy genres and historical novels that they've enjoyed, and more often from their imaginations. In my awareness, no one is looking to recreate much less condense a culture more than it is a few members taking respectful inspiration from real-world cultures. Some of the accusations of racism may be the result of misconceptions about the naming theme that I use with my personal dragons. Most users have a common theme for how they choose their dragon names. Mine are named after various types of fictional and real weapons. Some of these weapons have English-specific names like the scythe or the sickle. Some weapons don't have an English-specific version of their names like the kukri or the kujang. And some of my dragons depart from this naming system and are named after the naming systems of the FR users who gave them to me/whose lore stories they participate in. If this naming system has caused any confusion then I hope this provides further clarification. As for dark/disease themes: Nothing about the subspecies lore requires dark themes. The subspecies lore itself only mentions a viral as a result of being inspired by the Plague Flight, with no attribution to people. The subspecies dragons themselves are exceptionally healthy and while their claws have different “venom types,” this is not meant as an allegory for people spreading diseases or plagues. The original abilities are based on the “Contaminate” battle stone and its description. (anon note: The subspecies was created in early 2019 and is not a reference to recent real life events. That would be abominable. The disease-spreading element is based entirely on the Plague Flight and that battle stone.) Regarding Personal Clan Lore: The FR users involved in the subspecies are as varied as any other group of FR users. Some users don't write lore and just like the look of the dragons. Others write their subspecies lore based on fairytales they read as a child, after famous novels or popular games. A few of the users who like the subspecies happen to draw inspiration from real-life cultures. As stated above, this isn't unusual for FR users. I've found that many of these users do their best to draw from personal experiences, cultural studies, and books or movies created by those cultures. If someone finds something offensive with the writings of those who use my subspecies lore, I encourage you to contact them over FR and discuss it with them. Likewise, if anything in my lore is offensive then I would be more than happy for you to contact me over PMs to talk about it. But before doing so, I suggest reading it for yourself over making any judgments based on secondhand information. (anon notes: A section here was removed because it called out a former discord member.) Other minor clarifications: Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation that seems to have led to misunderstandings which have resulted in innocent people being accused or made needlessly uncomfortable. If there are any continued concerns about racism/fetishism, I encourage you to read through the subspecies lore and people’s contributions to it. It’s less exciting than secondhand rumors but the truth usually is. If there remain any grievances outside of this, I still welcome you to contact me privately over PM to discuss. ————————— anon notes: If you made it this far: wow you have a lot of patience! All words left in the reposting of V’s post reflect my own experiences as well. I might make a tumblr to respond to any questions that people might have: but as the main people bringing up allegations against members of the crow subspecies have firsthand experience with the subspecies, maybe they can help confirm that this information is true too. tl;dr is at top of post

#Drama #Rant #Flight Rising #Lore #Long post #submission

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aceofshitposts · 3 years

Note

I saw that you like CATS the musical. What are your thoughts on the movie?

AAAAH AHHAHA oh man oh boy y'all should BUCKLE IN cuz it's a ride

my simple thoughts? it's entertaining if only because it butchered the stage show so badly in an attempt to idk modernize it? Well, modernization is one part of it I think. The other part I'll go into below lol. I don't necessarily hate some of the more modern renditions of the songs (mostly the ensemble sets like Jellicle Song for Jellicle Cats) but then others are just... so poorly done it's insulting.

I've said this at the end of this whole rant too but I'm gonna put it up here in case people don't (justifiably) wanna see me go on and on about it:

The movie wasn't made for fans of the musical. It was made to make money and I believe they choose, at least partially, to do that through making it the weirdest and worst possible adaptation they could so that people would want to go see the train wreck. Which, really, worked! It was all people could talk about for a good while so like... Goal achieved, I guess.

A MUCH MORE COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT cuz i don't wanna. flood your dash with... this

ALRIGHT SO. Most of my friends know I'm actually a huge fan of new adaptations of things. I love remakes (provided the people making it are coming at it with some form of heart and not just... cash grabbing which is more often the case) I love seeing other peoples interpretations of characters, or changing settings. It's one of the reasons I like American comics so much, getting to see different writers takes is fascinating.

I think musical movies can be wonderful ways to introduce people to a stage show that might have been unavailable to them otherwise! Chicago, for example, is one of the BEST musical to movie adaptations in my opinion. It kept the heart of the show, it's funny and the song numbers are done really well.

There are of course other famous examples, such as Grease or Bye Bye Birdie. Hairspray was also a wonderful take. These are simply off the top of my head, there are of course more.

CATS in particular has a history. If you go through my CATS tag you may see a few posts from @catsnonreplica which posts photos from non broadway productions of CATS! It's a fascinating read and I love, love, love looking at the other interpretations of the characters! CATS is a musical full of fun and wonderful characters if you take the time to see past the ridiculousness haha and the Korean and Japanese runs of CATS especially have some of my favourites.

How does this relate to the movie, I hear you say well. As you might has noticed the movie's interpretations of the characters is........ lackluster at best and downright uncanny valley at best.

CATS is, at its core, a ridiculous thing. I will fully admit that! But it's fun, it's entertaining and if you pay a little attention you can actually get the plot. (Honestly I don't understand when people complain it has no plot but that's a whole other rant for another day)

The movie was... obsessed with this idea of like... semi realism? Like obviously, as a fan, I think they should have leaned into the over the top character designs but instead we got...w ell:

Bombalurina:

Demeter left and Bomba right. Demeter was actually cut! From the movie which is. upsetting lmao.

Macavity is one of the worst offenders for me:

Macavity was... I wish I could know what the hell they were thinking there cuz it's even in his song? Ginger cat??? THAT IS NOT... A GINGER CAT...... but I digress. I would show more examples but I think you get the point.

So. We've butchered the characters appearances. Okay that's fine but what about their personalities?

ALSO BUTCHERED.

There's... there's a lot to unpack here. Just for context: the Jellicle Ball happens once a year and the Jellicle leader chooses a single cat to be reborn into a new life. In the stage play all the cats who are nominated for this honour are on the older side (Jenny-Any-Dots, Bustopher Jones, Skimbleshanks, Gus The Theatre Cat, and eventually Grizzabella) AND are always nominated by another cat. Not themself, unlike the movie where they all seem to nominate themselves.

Jenny-Any-Dots went from a doting grandmother figure who's celebrated for her selfless volunteering and tireless work into a conceited, vain younger cat who is obsessed with fame.

It's an incredibly strange dichotomy. I don't doubt some of it isn't the result of the uh people playing the characters honestly. I do think some of them did the best they could! I don't really blame Jason Derulo, for example, for Tugger. And honestly, Tugger was probably closest to his stage version (while being a trouble maker, he's shown to show Deuteronomy an immense amount of respect)

Speaking of Tugger! This will bring us to one of the biggest grievances with the movie and that is how they handled Mr Mistoffelees.

So... Ugh. So. We have Victoria as the pov character, which imo is like whatever in the grand scheme of things, and then we have Misto who they have decided will be get live interest cuz... Of course. Misto is shown throughout the musical to be awkward, unsure of himself and well. Really, kinda incompetent. Which is Wild cuz in the stage show he might be aloof but he's fairly confident in his powers.

So, Old Deuts gets kidnapped. In the stage show Tugger is the one to bring Misto forward! It's really quite sweet, imo, and I'm showing myself as a Tuggoffelees shipper here, but again Tugger is previously shown to be pretty conceited but then here he is boosting and hyping up Misto to bring Deuteronomy back. My friends and I have lovingly dubbed this the boyfriend hype song.

SOMEHOW. The movie manages to make this, easily, the MOST BORING number in the whole thing. Which, again, WILD. Misto awkwardly stumbles through his whole song, which again is... Boasting of his supreme magical powers which movie Misto clearly. Does not have or believe to have. The song, to me, feels super awkward and unnecessarily drawn out in the movie which sucks cuz it's one of my favourites in the show.

The declawing (heh) of Mr Mistoffelees actually reminds me strongly of how they changed Gaston in the live action Beauty and the Beast movie. He's gone from a beloved figure in the animated movie to someone so disliked in the town that Le Fou has to pay people off to say nice things about him. It's just. Wild character choices were made!!

Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat is probably my favourite in movie non ensemble number. It feels the most... Genuine? Compared to the other nomination songs.

Other problems include but are not limited to:

The inconsistent size scale of the CATS which throws me off constantly.

The weirdly overt sexual overtones added to MANY of the songs (Jenny and Bustopher being the worst)

This is just a personal gripe and opinion but I don't like that they used the UK version of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. The American version is both better known and tbh way more fun. Teazer's giggle? Adds ten years to my life every time.

Victoria's added solo song, Beautiful Ghosts, while I like the song as a song it doesn't fit the style of message of the musical. In the movie she's singing directly to Grizzabella who's being an outcast for years that she should be grateful she even has memories of being part of the tribe?? What?? But I know they had to add an original song to be able to be nominated for awards in like the Grammys n shit (which is why all musical movies will have an original song, fun fact!!) kinda funny they went to the effort though considering........... I don't think anyone could have genuinely believed CATS 2019 was gonna win anything but golden rhaspberries.

Movie Mr Mistoffelees has made repeated appearances as my sleep paralysis demon

The various cut characters, shout outs to Jemima, Demeter and Jellylorum especially

Bombalurina being a henchman to Macavity rubs me the wrong way

God I've written... So much. You probably get it by now haha. Like I said at the beginning, I try to go into any adaptation with an open mind but... Let's be honest, this movie wasn't marketed to people who are fans of the musical.

It was marketed, and made, to make money. And they choose to do that through, I think, intentionally making the worst possible version ever. Bad press is still press and the more outrageous people said the movie was the more people wanted to go see exactly what kind of train wreck it was.

Which is a disservice to the stage show, honestly, and all the people who've worked on it over the years.

But what can we do, right?

And besides all that, I do... Still own the movie version and I do still rewatch it on occasion. It is entertaining even if it's in a train wreck kind of way. I usually end up watching the 1998 version, then 2019 and then various tour runs that are on YouTube. (I highly recommend the 2016 tour, it's very good)

So in conclusion. It's fun (?) to watch. I enjoy picking things apart and doing analysis (if you couldn't tell!) so like... I don't hate it?

It did what it set out to do, I guess, and I can't fault it for that but. It's not a fair metre with which to judge the stage show imo. But I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, haha.

Jazz hands. I'm more than happy to elaborate or just chat about CATS if anyone wants! I grew up listening to the Broadway CD since I was a toddler so it's been! A very long standing obsession haha. Probably the only other thing on par with CATS is my obsession with Jurassic Park which I've also been a fan of since I was 3 (but that's a whole story in and of itself)

#astrix thoughts #cats the musical #Thanks for the opportunity to talk about one of my hyperfixations anon!#And to anyone who reads this whole mess lmao

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turtlycute · 4 years

Note

do you have an anime watch list for beginners like the best animes of all time

Hello Nonny, thank you so much for your question. This is going to be a long post so get comfortable.

Like any anime lover, I have my own ideas of what some of the best animes for beginners might be. Unfortunatly, a lot of the "best of all time" type anime is not really the best for newer viewers. Like for so many others, my first animes were epic series like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Sailor Moon and Inuyasha. These all hold special places in my heart and are all fun nostalgic or first watches.

The anime genres I tend to gravitate towards now are slice of life, comedy, drama, romance and shoujo with some sports, supernatural and mystery animes thrown in. So, keep that in mind as you read this list. If those are not your kinda things, then this is not the list for you. A lot of shows on this list are classics or highly popular in these genres. I've also choosen anime that comes in both English sub and dubbed versions because, for beginners, dubbed is sometimes easier to follow and enjoy. Subbed or dubbed, there is no judgment here as long as you are enjoying what you watch. Finally, I tried to stick to anime with mostly 1-3 seasons only. There is nothing wrong with the more epic long running series and many of these fall under "the best of all time" heading but seeing that an anime has 100+ episodes can be kinda daunting for a novice viewer. Now to the list...

First of all, if you are just wanting to try anime but, not wanting to commit to a whole series, I would recommend starting with a movie or two. Some classic films I would recommend would be Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle from Studio Ghibli. Some more contemporary films like, Your Name, Weathering With You, A Silent Voice and Wolf Children, would also be great anime starting points. These films are staples for any anime collection.

Now, as for anime series, here is just a list of 10 that I think quality animes and would be great beginner watches.

Ouran High School Host Club:

Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student at the elite Ouran High School. One day, Haruhi becomes accidentally indebted to the school host club. Now she must work off her debt by playing the role of a male host to the female student clientele. Hilarity ensues.

This reverse harem show is a much loved modern classic for a reason. It's full of fun characters and lighthearted comedy moments with just enough drama and romance to keep you coming back for more.

Maid Sama:

Misaki Ayuzawathe is the first female student council president for a previously all boys school. Now, her life is busy with maintaining top grades, keeping the male students in line, recruiting more girls to the school and keeping her part-time job at a maid cafe a secret. When one day Takumi Usui, the most popular boy in school, discovers her secret job, Misaki finds herself doing everything she can to keep him from revealing the truth to the whole school.

This shoujo has enough of comedy, romance and drama to satisfy anyone's appetite.

Fruits Basket:

After finding herself orphaned and homeless, high schooler Tohru Honda makes a new home with classmates Yuki and Kyo Sohma along with there guardian Shigure Sohma. But the Sohma's have a dark secret, they are under a curse that causes them to change into animals from the Chinese zodiac when hugged by members of the opposite sex. Now, Tohru must keep their secret as she learns more about this family and their curse.

There are actually 2 different versions of this show. Many people would recommend that you start with the completed classic 2001 version but, I'm going to say it's okay to skip that for later and dive into the 2019 reboot and ongoing series. The newer series is so beautifully animated and has a more detailed version of the story than its predecessor. This shoujo is full of drama, comedy, romance, supernatural mysteries and inspirational moments. You'll definitely need a kleenex box when watch this one.

Kamisama Kiss:

One day high school student Nanami Momozono finds herself abandoned by her father, penniless and homeless. After she saves a mysterious man in the park, he offers to help her by giving his home to her. She soon discovers that this gift home is really a rundown shrine and she has magically become local land god. Now, she must learn to juggle her school life and her new position as a land god. Luckily for her, a reluctant fox familiar named Tomoe comes with the shine and has to give her assistance with it all.

This classic is part shoujo comedy and part supernatural adventure. I definitely recommend this in the English dub if for no other reason than to enjoy J. Michael Tatum's voice work as Tomoe.

The Morose Mononokean:

Hanae Ashiya spends his first week of high school with a mystery illness that has left him feeling increasingly weak. He eventually discovers that the cause of his illness is a large fluffy creature that has attached itself to his back. When Hanae comes across a flyer advertising an exorcist who expels youkai, he decides that exorcism might be just the thing to remove the creature. The flyer leads him to the Mononokean and a magical tea room which suddenly appears. The Mononokean turns out to be a fellow classmate, Haruitsuki Abeno, who reluctantly helps Hanae but, demands that Hanae work as his assistant to repay him for the exorcism. Now, Hanae spends his free time working to learn about yokai spirits and how to best help the yokai that live in the mundane world.

This supernatural comedy is just fun to watch, with enough drama to keep you interested. It really has that classic Saturday morning anime adventure feel but, for a slightly older audience.

The Devil is a Part-Timer:

Just as Demon Lord Satan, a.k.a the Devil has nearly conquered the world of Ente Isla and destroyed his enemies, a hero named Emilia corners him and forces him and his top general to escape through a portal to modern day Earth. Emilia, of course, follows him determined to finally defeat the Devil. But now they all find themselves on Earth with no powers, they must discover how to survive even if that means the Devil must get a part-time job at Mc Ronald's just to pay the rent.

What can I say about this show... It starts out with an almost stereotypical supernatural action/adventure anime feel only to turn into a comedic slice of life with a little romance and the ocational fight sequence thrown in. This show is one of the best examples of how versatile anime can be and a great way to get a little taste of a lot of genres.

Death Note:

High school student Light Yagami stumbles upon a supernatural notebook that allows its owner to kill by simply writing someone's name down. Light soon sees the death notebook as a way to reform society's ills by killing criminals and undesirables to create world without crime. Once the police discover that a mysterious serial killer is targeting criminals, they bring in the worlds greatest detective, L, to find and capture this serial killer. This begins a epic battle of witts between Light and L.

This classic anime is a lot darker than anything else on the list but, it's definitely worth mentioning. It was one of the earlier animes I watched and I'm still a fan to this day. It falls mostly into the categories of thriller, supernatural, mystery, horror and crime drama. It is also another one that I'd strongly recommend the English dub over the subbed version. So, if you want to take little walk on the anime dark side, this is a good place to start.

Yuri On Ice:

After a disastrous performance and coming in last place at the Grand Prix, ice skater Yuri Katsuki is thinking about retiring. That is until his skating idol and living legend Victor Nikiforov shows up to his home offering to be his coach. Now, with Victor's help Yuri works to rebuild his career and fight his way to a gold medal at the Grand Prix Final.

Yuri On Ice is my all time favorite anime so, of course it's going to make the list. So much about the struggles and perseverance of the characters in this sports anime is inspiring. Then, when you add in a little romance, flashy skating routines to a great original soundtrack and the drama of competition, everything about this show gets a gold medal.

Free!-Iwatobi Swim Club:

Haruka Nanase has always had a strong connection to the water and a passion for swimming. As he starts high school, Haruka is reunited with childhood friends from a youth swim team, Nagisa Hazuki and Makoto Tachibana. The three decide to start a school swim team. Now, they must recruit a fourth member and train to be able compete in their first swim meet. Watch to see these guys bond as a team and friends and as they pursue their goal to compete at Nationals.

There are a lot of great sports anime out there but, this one is a good one to start with. Free! exemplifies so many standard tropes within this genre and does in an engaging way with an easy to understand sport. There are multiple seasons and movies for this series but, the first season, Free! -Iwatobi Swim Club, is satisfying enough as a stand alone.

My Roommate is a Cat:

Subaru Mikazuki, an introvert writer with social anxiety, adopts a stray cat after a chance encounter. Together they both learn they are not as alone as each of them believed.

This slice of life anime is sooooo relatable, cute and funny. If you're looking for something that's low key and will make you feel all warm inside, than this is the show you should start with.

Here are some honorable mention animes to also consider: Toradora, ReLife, Princess Jellyfish (I just love this show and think everyone should watch it), Black Butler (if you're willing to sort out the correct viewing order it can be worth it), the classic Avatar: The Last Airbender (yeah, yeah, yeah is it anime or isn't, doesn't matter it's a great gateway) and Kakuriyo- Bed and Breakfast for Spirits

So here are some of my top favorite anime for beginners recommendations. A nice mix of classic standards and a few newer shows that really show off specific genres. These are just my opinions, I'm sure there are many other animes that should probably make this list. As always, if anyone wants to add to this list or make some different suggestions please feel welcome to add your own favorites in the comments or as a reblog. Thank you Nonny for the ask and I hope you find this list helpful.

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subjecta5newtella · 3 years

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thoughts on newtmas :) go on :) i’m listening :)

sami rly said ok time for violence. this is going to be so long sorry everyone.

if we’re talking newtmas itself as a ship in itself, outside of any other influence (and specifically in the movie version, which is generally what people are talking about), I think it’s a good ship. I would have to be the most unobservant motherfucker alive to not see what people see in it, and I am not, in fact, the most unobservant motherfucker alive. it’s a good dynamic with good chemistry and realistically I think if I’d started with the movies rather than the books, I would’ve gone all in for it.

however. I personally am incapable about talking about it in isolation.

I realize from that segue it sounds like I’m about to lead into some grand moral point, but mostly I just liked how dramatic it sounded. anyway. I feel like I need to start with a disclaimer that the easiest, simplest part of this is that you tend to get attached to your first ships in a fandom, as well as your initial feelings about the characters. obviously you can change your mind about any of those things, but it does stick with you. if we’re going to be kind and skip my internalized homophobia era (please be kind), I shipped thominho and nalby because that’s what was big at the time. I also just... did not like book thomas very much, so I wasn’t about to ship him with my favorite character.

(complete and utter tangent: it’s interesting to me that people read the books now and overwhelmingly see newtmas. I recognize that every time I start a sentence with “it’s interesting that” it automatically sounds shady, but i genuinely just love Analyzing. anyway some of it’s definitely people seeing the movie first or having fandom content as a first exposure even in passing, all of which are valid ways to engage, but I do kind of find it fascinating when people talk about book!newtmas as some massive presence because then... theoretically we all should’ve seen it pre-movies? the ship existed, usually among people who hardcore multishipped, but it wasn’t anything like it is today. not at all to say that reading it like that is invalid, it’s just interesting to me the way some people talk about that interpretation, rather than the interpretation itself)

anyway. with that all out of the way, i do have some actual issues with newtmas, although it really doesn’t have anything to do with the characters or the ship itself. these are things that surround the ship and affect my feelings about it, meaning that I never bought in despite, like I said, Seeing It. my main issue with it is how much the roles of other characters have been reduced to create the ship in its current form. I’ve talked at far too much length about the way minho was adapted and honestly will probably talk about it more, because that’s the big one to me (that post can be found here, for those who don’t keep up with every rant I’ve ever gone on for some reason). I will not go so far as to say that’s required reading to fully understand this post, but I would recommend it since I don’t want to just repeat myself. so much of newtmas being the major ship feels like it’s predicated on minho not being there and not having anywhere near as strong a relationship with thomas and newt as he did in the books, and that will never sit right with me.

newt’s relationship with alby is his other most significant dynamic outside thomas and minho, and i feel like it might be surprising to hear me say this, but i get why that one was reduced for the movie. there’s only so much time in the film, so you want to focus on the characters who are going to make it past the first one. I do have a problem here, but it has more to do with dashner and with some fandom bullshit. with dashner, i think the crank palace is the worst of it (I could’ve just stopped that sentence at “I think the crank palace is the worst” but whatever). since all my rants lead back to each other, I’ll link the relevant one here, but the general gist is that my biggest problem was that newt does not seem to have any more of a post-swipe past than thomas does despite theoretically having two more years of memories. given that fact, I don’t know about you, but I would kind of expect alby to be more of a presence in his consciousness. that’s true of pretty much any of the original gladers, but newt and alby are clearly very close in the first book, and again, alby saved his fucking life. he’s literally mentioned once. dashner prioritized the newt/thomas dynamic so much that newt seemingly had no meaningful relationships with anyone else. tcp isn’t immune to treating minho badly either; like I said in that post, it sounds like newt read the wikipedia page on minho. is any of this the fault of the ship itself? does this change anything that came before it? no, but the whole thing feels massively disingenuous, and also kind of disrespectful to people who actually, like, gave a shit about the other characters. also, the way he’s retconning makes me real nervous.

the other part, like I mentioned, is the fandom more than any of the actual content. I’m aware that part of this is just a statistics game and also that’s it’s not representative of all newtmas shippers, but most of the alby bashing I’ve seen comes from newtmas people. it’s... baffling to me, honestly. what’s the point in putting down a ship being kept alive by me and like 3 other people? what do you gain by misrepresenting a character to the point of maliciousness when you could easily just not engage with them? again, I know it’s not everyone and it doesn’t have anything to do with the ship, but I’d be lying if I said things like this don’t color my perception. if someone goes out of their way to put down a ship I like, I’m not really gonna want to associate myself with their ship. I’m gonna cling to my own harder out of spite, actually.

also.... okay. so I peaced out to go do other shit between earlyish 2015 and mid 2019. and it was very weird to temporarily leave the fandom while the two main (in my recollection at least, which could be biased by who i was friends with) mlm ships each included one of the explicitly non-white characters, and come back to find it almost entirely dominated by white boy/white boy... like. I don’t wanna make a statement as simple as “the fandom is racist” because a) it’s not my place to say that, b) if we want to go into that, there are other examples of fandom racism where it’s Blatant and there really is no excuse, whereas this is a bit more complicated imo because c) like. that’s the dynamic the movies gave us. the movies focused very heavily on the newt and thomas dynamic, so of course that’s what the fandom is going to focus on. there’s a lot to say there, but that’s a different issue. it does.... still contribute to the bad taste in my mouth, though, and also contributes to me feeling like I need to keep those ships alive. it’s not about who has the Most Progressive Ship, I just feel weird about the particular shift I’ve seen here.

on a note that sounds less like I’m leveling accusations, New Relationships just aren’t my vibe. you look at my ao3 and it’s like. friends of many years to lovers. established relationship. friends to lovers to exes and back again. just from a dynamics perspective, there are other ships that are more interesting for me to explore. there. this is a lighter reason.

idk overall I don’t wanna sound like I’m on some Moral Crusade here, even though i know some of my points made it sound like that. this is really just me putting all of my thoughts that I can currently round up in one place in order to... idk, explain myself? and like it’s stupid that i feel the need to explain myself, but I know it’s weird not to ship it at this point, and I know if I did I would have so much more content to choose from and a much wider audience for my own content. there’s just baggage there thats entirely separate from the ship itself, having seen the shift and knowing what had to change in order to center newtmas. I’m not trying to sound like I’m better than anyone; I just think maybe I have a different perspective on things having been here for long enough to qualify it as a new mental illness, and that’s ultimately why I feel the way I do.

#and honestly maybe all of that is bullshit and I’m just a contrarian asshole at heart. who’s to say. not me.#why did I write so much about this. they’re literally fake people who gives a fuck #ask game

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spiritualdirections · 3 years

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Abby Johnson is a hero, whose insights about how Planned Parenthood works have been guiding pro-life activism for years now. But she just violated (what my convert friends tell me is) an important rule for Catholic converts: that one should wait about a decade after converting before telling the Church what it should do. Spend that time studying and learning and digesting the doctrines of the faith. Start to see how doctrines are related to other doctrines. See how doctrines interact with prudential judgments. It’s not to be condescending that I recommend this rule (which, again a number of converts have told me they’d adopted), or because the Catholic Church’s leaders are above criticism. It’s because if you don’t, you can be wrong and cause the sin of scandal.

In her Facebook video attacking the US Council of Catholic Bishops for their guidance on the Covid vaccines (the Bishops’ memo-length version is here, longer version here), Abby Johnson misrepresents the USCCB’s position, not out of bad will, but because she doesn’t get the Catholic (really, natural law) doctrine about cooperation with evil.

At around the 9 minute mark, she declares that Catholic doctrine is that “we should never cooperate with evil”. That’s not exactly true. The Catholic doctrine is that one should not cooperate with evil... except when the cooperation is remote, when there aren’t easily available alternatives that accomplish the same end and don’t cooperate at all or as closely, and when the costs of not doing so are outweighed by the benefits of doing so.

It’s really hard not to cooperate with evil. For example, Abby Johnson’s Facebook presence cooperates with the evil of abortion. She is a well-known public figure, who has been the subject of a major movie based on her memoir. She has a following in the millions, meaning that Facebook profits from the millions of people who use its platform to follow her. Those profits go in part to pay the salary of Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who in 2019 donated $1 million to Planned Parenthood Action’s efforts to lobby for abortion friendly laws. So by posting a video on Facebook, Abby Johnson cooperates in the evil work of Planned Parenthood, the very organization she has been criticizing ever since she resigned from it in 2009.

Abby Johnson can justify her presence on Facebook by saying that Facebook is a good platform for distributing pro-life ideas, that Facebook itself doesn’t perform abortions or even donate to Planned Parenthood corporately, that it doesn’t make that much money from her, that most of her followers probably would be on Facebook anyway even had she never joined, and so her cooperation with Planned Parenthood’s evil activities is... relatively remote, and on balance outweighed by the good her Facebook posts do. Nobody thinks that Abby Johnson is in favor of Planned Parenthood’s evil actions, because of her activism against them, so her remote cooperation with evil wouldn’t lead to scandal.

All of the defenses Abby Johnson can make for cooperating in Planned Parenthood’s evil are the sort of things the US Council of Catholic Bishops is teaching the faithful. Because they’re sensible things to say! I’ve written at length in other posts about how the vaccines cooperate with evil. Tl;dr: the vaccine’s cooperation with the evil of abortion is remote (the relevant cell line comes from a child killed in a 1960s abortion); the potential good is significant (the end of the pandemic); since some of the vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer) cooperate even more remotely than others because they didn’t use aborted cell lines in the vaccine itself, we should prefer those. And the USCCB is clear that we wish there were vaccines that didn’t have any connection with abortion.

Abby Johnson fixates on the Bishops’ directive that Catholics should publicly criticize the vaccines’ connection with abortion and lobby for other vaccines made without that connection, while at the same time that we take the vaccines. But criticizing the evil is just what one should do when cooperating remotely with evil. (As Abby does by criticizing Planned Parenthood at the same time she cooperates remotely with them.) Criticizing can be instructive, and it can be constructive. If we say that these vaccines are neither morally pure nor morally prohibited, and if we ask that next time they try to make vaccines that are morally pure, we’re 1) signaling our formal disagreement with the evil of abortion (in order to avoid scandal), and 2) explaining that there’s a market for vaccines that aren’t connected with abortion at all.

She also is confused about why the laity are instructed to express their moral disapproval with the vaccines. Partly that’s because it’s a lot more effective if the laity do so than if the bishops alone do so. Partly that’s because the bishops are competent to make moral judgments about the various options, but they aren’t competent to make (binding, obligatory) medical judgments about the vaccine, nor would we want them to make (binding, obligatory) political judgments about how best to persuade policymakers to make future vaccines differently. The bishops are trying to stay in their lane! That’s a good thing!

Catholic teaching on cooperation with evil is nuanced, because the reality of living in a fallen world is nuanced. The cancel culture and boycott culture are not nuanced. So Catholics should teach about these nuances. The hope is that once they’d internalized this really helpful framework, Abby Johnson and other laypeople would then engage in pro-life politics with all their zeal and energy, making all the prudential calculations they think right, without having to limit their effectiveness by not using Facebook, or for that matter, the internet, because of a remote cooperation with evil.

#covid vaccine #cooperation in evil #cooperation with evil #abby johnson #Planned Parenthood #USCCB #facebook

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jcisthebestfightme · 4 years

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BJYX Song #14: The Things You Don’t Know

BJYX Song List

Disclaimer: Fake story brewed in fake tea house.

Can finally write a long post again after I got a new keyboard! This is a song I struggled with whether to write about. So on 8/4/20, the day before dd’s birthday, on QQ music, under gg’s name, a song was posted as #95 on the list (see this post for significance of 95, although it’s unclear if gg will know the significance of 95). The song was a clip from a vlog he did in his X-Nine days on 4/24/16. The full length of the vlog is 4:38 but the QQ version only has the song itself. The QQ version was cut to be exactly 1:28 (for us delulu kadian fans, that’s 1=want 2= love 8=bo). If you listen to this trimmed version (will post Youtube at the bottom), there is at least 1 second after the song has already ended where there is a silence and then a laugh. This make me think that it is possible the song length may be significant because it would’ve made more sentence to trim the song to 1:26 or even 1:27 cuz it’s weird to leave a bit of a laugh. But coincidence, of course!

What was controversial about the song is that it was deleted after being posted for a few hours. Some fans were worried that it may not have been posted by gg himself and that someone else posted it to try to link gg to dd for dd’s birthday (possibly with malicious intent.) Indeed, this version of the song was copied and reposted by third party (fans probably) onto Youku. However, 1 very dedicated bxg messaged QQ music’s customer service directly and asked if a song by an artist would show up under their name if they sang it but was uploaded by a third party and QQ claimed that no, only song uploaded by the artist directly will be under that artist’s name. This post with the conversation with customer service has since been deleted (there was a lot of silencing people around dd’s birthday because people worried about attracting too much attention) but I promise I’ve seen it and the girl seem really genuine in her inquiry. So I personally do believe that either gg or his team uploaded this song and that it wasn’t a third party. Because of the silencing around this post though, I was worried about writing about it but then I thought, well the original clip from 2016 is definitely something gg wanted to share publicly so it’s definitely a song he want to share with us.

Some people said that gg deleted the song in a few hours because he didn’t upload it. But alternatively, I think he may have wanted to share this song with us to tell the world he wanted to wish dd “happy birthday” but can’t due to circumstances. It must be very painful not to be able to even publicly say happy birthday to the person you love most, especially with all the negative rumor being spread about them being enemies. So this was his only way of somehow conveying that he wish dd well on his birthday. And him deleting the post before 8/5 was also something I think is very in character of him. If he had left it on dd’s birthday, people beyond fans (gossip sites, news, etc.) might pick it up and associate it with dd’s birthday and say that “gg is trying to use dd’s birthday to draw attention to himself blah blah blah.” This is also what makes me believe that maybe gg was the one who post it and not a third party with malicious intent because a third party will probably just post directly on 8/5.

On to the background of the song, the song is “The Things You Don’t Know (你不知道的事)” by Leehom Wang. Dd has mentioned more than once that he likes to listen to Leehom when he was a kid and that he really like this artist. The title is also interesting. It’s almost like gg telling us “I may not be able to wish dd a happy birthday publicly but there are many things you guys don’t know.” This song actually came from a movie Love in Disguise where Leehom plays a guy that is a famous celebrity and the female lead is a student of a music academy. The guy had a secret crush on the girl and this song is to describe his longing for her. (I didn’t actually watch this movie so correct me if I’m wrong.)

This is the version exactly that was posted on QQ music: (Someone took it and posted it on Youtube)

youtube

The lyrics may sound originally like a breakup song but here’s why I don’t think ggdd broke up around his birthday and this is why gg posted this song:

1) That idea is ridiculous if you look at how happy dd is and plus all the commotion around his new necklace.

2) gg sang this song in 2016 when he didn’t know dd so it’s not like this song was dedicated to him 100%

3) the context of the song is from a very cute and sweet romantic movie

4) dd said before he liked bitter love songs and I think both ggdd kinda like not super cheerful love songs because honestly, some of these bitter ones have more depth to them and also it makes their relationship seem more realistic and grounded

So please don’t get upset if it sounds like a breakup song.

蝴蝶擦几次眼睛 (How many times does the butterfly blink its eyes)

才学会飞行 (Before it learn to fly)

This part is talking about having many failures before you can succeed. In a relationship, this is probably like having other past relationships but when you meet the right person, everything is completely different. In the context of ggdd, they both have past relationship but what I see in them is almost like a “first love” in a sense that it’s the first time they’ve ever love anyone that way.

夜空洒满了星星 (The night sky is full of stars)

但几颗会落地 (But a couple will fall to the ground)

我飞行但你坠落之际 (I’m soaring but you’re falling)

想靠近还听见呼吸 (Want to be close, can even hear your breathing)

对不起我却没捉紧你 (I’m sorry, I didn’t catch you)

The “star” motif resurfaces! It’s even more significant now with the star on the new necklace. This part of the song is probably describing the famous star in the movie who is soaring high in fame but can’t help the female student. For ggdd in the current situation, it’s not really the case that gg is famous and dd is a non-celebrity. Instead, I just think it’s trying to convey the pain of I want to protect you but I don’t think I have the ability right now to do it well.

你不知道我为什么离开你 (You don’t know why I left you)

我坚持不能说放任你哭泣 (I insist on not leaving you to cry)

你的泪滴像倾盆大雨 (Your tears are like pouring rain)

碎落满地在心里清晰 (Shattered all over the flow, clear in my heart)

Like I mentioned, I don’t think gg is talking about actually leaving dd. I think this can relate to not being able to wish him “happy birthday” in public. He may feel guilt and sadness from it because he knows how much dd would love to beam to the public about their relationship. So this may convey feeling like he have to let dd down this time because he had no choice. This part of the song also alludes to the fact that while the singer can’t do everything for the other person, he still loves this person very deeply and it pains him to see them upset.

你不知道我为什么狠下心 (You don’t know why I cruelly made this decision)

盘旋在你看不见那高空里 (Hovering over you in a far away sky)

多的是你不知道的事 (There’s more, the things you don’t know)

This part talks about the singer deciding to just watch over the person he loves from far away in order to protect them. And that they want to tell them that in his hear, he loves them very very much and there’s a lot of things, thing beyond words that he cannot convey. I think this part really fits gg’d personality. First, for the birthday, gg had to stay far away and watch dd be showered by all his friends. Second, I think that gg’s love is really the type to be full of care, so much that it can’t even be contained and it’s in so many small detailed that you can’t explain it. He’s just there, protecting him.

Conveying love and feelings is definitely something I think gg does. We’ve seen him change lyrics, kadian post time with the times in a song (which he did for dd’s birthday in 2019, see my post on Nan Hai for more), and talk about his feelings when choosing songs so I don’t think it’s a super stretch to say this may be gg’s way of wishing dd a happy 23rd birthday. This is my personal bias but conveying feelings through song lyrics is something I do a lot so I can totally empathize and visually gg doing this. I’m the type that will post bits of song title publicly to convey my feelings to someone, hoping that person will get it. I’m the type when messaging that person give them a line or two from the song and hope they pick up the hidden meaning. Why do I do this? Because I can really relate to that line of the song and I want to share it. Also, I want to be semi-mysterious and have you decipher why I think this part of the song reminds me of you.

So while this is all just my own interpretation and analysis, giving dd a song by one of his favorite artist with the kadian 1:28 for his birthday isn’t completely impossible.

#bjyx #yizhan

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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From Man of Steel to Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Complete DCEU Timeline

https://ift.tt/3eYjG5C

This article contains spoilers for Zack Snyder’s Justice League and other DC movies.

The timeline of the DC Extended Universe began in a fairly clear manner, with most of the events of Man of Steel set in 2013. As more films were released, containing flashbacks, or lacking a clear chronological setting, things became increasingly complicated. And by the time we got to Birds of Prey film, its precise placement in the DCEU is downright murky. But there are contextual in-universe clues in the form of media, gravestones, mugshot photos, or throwaway lines of dialogue that provide some clarity.

With the long-awaited release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League hitting HBO Max, it’s a good time to break down what we know so far about when some significant moments in DCEU history took place.

100,000 B.C.

The Kryptonian Expansion: Krypton begins interstellar exploration and launches scout ships into the void of space. They colonize and flourish for 100 thousand years until artificial population control is introduced. (Man of Steel)

18,000 B.C.

A Kryptonian scout ship crash lands on Earth; one Kryptonian escapes the craft, leaving behind an empty pod. (Man of Steel) According to a Man of Steel prequel comic that may may not still be canon, her name was Kara Zor-El.

Thousands of Years Ago

Darkseid seeks to conquer Earth, but is foiled by the combined forces of man, Atlanteans, Themyscirans, Olympian gods, and at least one member of the Green Lantern Corps, Yalan Gur. Three Mother Boxes are hidden across the planet: in Atlantis, on Themyscira, and with mankind. (Zack Snyder’s Justice League)

Millennia after the Amazons are created, Ares goes to war with the Olympian gods, and kills all of them, including Zeus. Themyscira is created with Zeus’ remaining power. Somewhere during this period, Atlantis sinks beneath the waves. (Wonder Woman)

The ancient wizard Shazam imbues a champion with the powers of six mythological figures, only for him to become corrupted by the power. (Shazam!)

Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Queen Hippolyta, grows up on the hidden island, and trains to become a warrior under General Antiope. (Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984)

1918

Diana saves Steve Trevor who has crashed on Themyscira. He warns her of the great war, World War I, raging across the globe. She joins him in the world of man, and together they seek to stop the evil Dr. Maru and General Ludendorff (who Diana incorrectly believes is the God of War, Ares). Steve Trevor dies. (Wonder Woman)

Comics

Wonder Woman Movie: Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Does Zack Snyder’s Justice League Set Up Wonder Woman 3?

By David Crow

1974

Thaddeus Sivana is magically transported to the Rock of Eternity and fails the test of worthiness conducted by the wizard Shazam. (Shazam!)

1980

After the explosion of his homeworld, Kal-El of Krypton crash lands on Earth, and is taken in by Jonathan and Martha Kent of Smallville, Kansas. This date is approximate, but while being interrogated in Man of Steel, Superman says he’s been on the planet for 33 years. (Man of Steel)

1981

Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered in Gotham City, leaving their young song Bruce an orphan with a serious grudge against criminals. (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)

1984

Diana Prince operates in secret as the heroine Wonder Woman, while also working by day at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. After unwittingly using the Dreamstone, she resurrects Steve Trevor (who inhabits another man’s body). Barbara Ann Minerva, also through the use of the Dreamstone, gains superpowers and is ultimately transformed into Cheetah. Businessman Max Lord wishes to become the stone itself, and uses his powers to create global chaos. (Wonder Woman 1984)

Movies

Wonder Woman 1984: DC Comics Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

By Delia Harrington

Movies

Wonder Woman 1984 Post Credits Scene Explained

By Mike Cecchini

1985

Lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry rescues and falls in love with Atlantean queen Atlanna; Arthur Curry, aka, Aquaman is born shortly thereafter. (Aquaman)

Circa 1995

Bruce Wayne begins operating in Gotham as the vigilante Batman.

1997

Jonathan Kent dies in a tornado after discouraging Clark from using his powers to save him. (Man of Steel)

2013

This is a bat-signal in the dark, but this is a reasonable estimate on when both Dr. Harlene Quinzel becomes Harley Quinn, and when Dick Grayson, Batman’s partner Robin, is murdered. Suicide Squad lists Quinzel’s date of birth as July 1990. It seems unlikely she would have become a psychiatrist, and assigned to the Joker in Arkham before age 23. Still, Robin is dead by October 2014 (and presumably dead by the Black Zero Event in late 2013, as shown in Man of Steel). This allows for about a year for Harleen to help Joker escape Arkham, take a transformational acid bath, and help the Clown Prince kill Grayson.

Movies

Man of Steel: Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and References Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Superman Movies Ranked: The Best and Worst of the Man of Steel

By Mike Cecchini

Batman apprehends Floyd Lawton, aka the hitman known as Deadshot, while he’s Christmas shopping with his daughter. (Suicide Squad)

General Zod invades Earth, and Superman reveals himself to the world. Bruce Wayne witnesses the battle between the two, and sees the Wayne Financial Building in Metropolis collapse. (Man of Steel)

2014

Harley Quinn is captured by Batman after Joker drives their car into the harbor, and abandons her. When she is introduced in Suicide Squad, she is listed as an accomplice to Robin’s murder, which is what leads to her arrival at Belle Reve prison. (Suicide Squad)

2015

Victor Stone and his mother are in a car accident which kills her, and puts him on death’s door. Victor’s father uses Mother Box technology to keep him alive and transform him into an incredibly powerful cyborg. (Justice League)

2016

The holy trinity of DC meet! Batman and Superman duke it out before joining forces against Lex Luthor’s Doomsday creature. Meanwhile, Diana joins the action, and dons her Wonder Woman suit in battle. Sadly, Superman dies, but Bruce and Diana decide to form a league of heroes. (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)

Comics

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Suicide Squad: Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and Character Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Amanda Waller establishes the government sanctioned Task Force X, also known as the Suicide Squade, to respond to metahuman threats (and following the death of Superman). Enchantress enslaves Midway City, but is ultimately thwarted by the squad. (Suicide Squad)

2017

Bruce Wayne and Diana assemble a team including Barry Allen, Vic Stone, and Arthur Curry to battle Steppenwolf, who has returned to Earth. Superman is resurrected, and ultimately joins the fight. Shortly after Superman’s return, Lex Luthor breaks out of Arkham and reveals Batman’s secret identity to Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke. (Justice League)

2018

After defeating his half-brother Orm and stopping a war between the underwater kingdoms and the surface world, Arthur Curry ascends the throne as king of Atlantis, wielder of the Trident of Atlan, and ruler of the seven seas. (Aquaman)

2019

Billy Batson is granted the powers of Shazam, and thwarts Dr. Sivana’s evil plans. While this could take place a little earlier, it is pretty well established within the film the events occur after those of Justice League, so we’ll just default to year of release here. (Shazam!)

Comics

Shazam: DC Comics Easter Eggs and References Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Shazam 2 Will Have a Sinbad Cameo and a Cool Title

By Delia Harrington

Barry Allen encounters a parallel universe version of himself in STAR Labs. Though it is unclear when in his timeline the encounter occurs, it is before he has adopted the moniker of The Flash — which is given to him by the Arrowverse’s Barry. Based on his reaction to the meeting, it can be assumed this takes place before Barry has explored other realities via the Speed Force. (Crisis on Infinite Earths)

2020

Harley Quinn and Joker break up, and she establishes a new life in Gotham. She goes to war with Roman Sionis, and the Birds of Prey are formed. The events of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) take place after both Suicide Squad and Justice League — and at a time when Batman has gone missing. (Birds of Prey)

202?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

As seen in the epilogue of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, in a potential future, Superman has succumbed to Darkseid’s anti-life equation following the death of Lois Lane. As a result, he becomes a powerful weapon wielded against humanity, and his former teammates, including Batman and Flash, as well as Mera, Slade Wilson, and Joker. Many heroes of the past, meanwhile, have perished. (Zack Snyder’s Justice League)

The post From Man of Steel to Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Complete DCEU Timeline appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2OTXe2G

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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fuel-your-wanderlust · 3 years

Text

Isle Royale is Wildly Unique

Isle Royale is where nature runs wild. It is in Lake Superior, and it is the fourth-largest lake island in the world. It is 45 miles long and 9 miles wide. There are no roads on the island, and no vehicles are allowed. People don't live on the isle yearlong. Isle Royale was home to the Ojibwe and was called Minong. The island is known for its fisheries, and it was mined for its large amounts of copper. Isle Royale National Park was created in 1931. I went to the island when I was a girl in the early '90s. My experience on the island was unique. I mistook the Loon’s wail for wolf howls which are another species native to the island. The beauty of Isle Royale is unforgettable. Many rules made the island special too. You can’t leave any trash there. The packing for the trip alone was unlike any camping trip I've been on. Whatever you pack in has to be packed out. At that time, there was one little store and a couple of homes. Now they have the Rock Harbor Lodge, a full-service lodging facility, and two restaurants on the island. We have seen what happens when places begin to get overpopulated with tourists and the effects of overtourism on the world.

This image was found on a blog called Travelling Jezebel which is a great blog about tackling overtourism.

Overtourism is like cancer that spreads and destroys the most beautiful parts of the world. People are traveling to major tourist cities and pushing the people that live there out. It is changing the culture of these towns. As best described in the very informative YouTube video, Crowded Out: The Story of Overtourism, one interviewee says the city of Venice is becoming a Disneyland. Overtourism is causing property tax inflation, and Airbnb is destroying communities.

Along with overtourism comes pollution. There is an estimated 8,000,000 tons of plastic litter put in the ocean each year. With rising climate changes, global warming is causing the Great Barrier Reef to dye. Coral bleaching is when the coral expels the algae living on it. This can lead to mortality, and it is said that the Great Barrier Reef could disappear by 2050. It's one example of the tragedy unfolding on our beautiful planet due to human's push for greed. Isle Royale is a special place that shouldn't be ruined by overtourism. The wildlife gets to live freely without fear of hunters. We have to protect the vulnerable and fight for their existence.

This image shows the coral reef’s devastating reality of before and after a bleaching event.

"Every organism that devours more resources than can be restored eventually starves one day," wrote blog writer David Lauterwasser. We have seen the future from the past, yet we continue to follow to pretty path with blinders on ignoring the truth. As seen in the movie 180° South, we have learned how we are repeating the same mistakes we have made in the past. For example, the island in Chile called Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, is a reminder of how societies rise and fall due to their own demise. The island has gone through civil war, cannibalism, disease, and environmental collapse. The people depleted their resources, and the downfall effect has been a sad version of what is to come for our planet worldwide.

This photo is a depiction of what happened on Easter Island. This image was found on a blog by David Lauterwasser. Please check out his work.

The following quote is by Oscar Chapman, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, at the dedication of Isle Royale National Park in 1946:

"What we are protecting and preserving here, so far as it is possible and practical to do so, are actually the processes of nature in which the only permanent thing is change, - change which is permitted to take place with the very minimum of human guidance or control. The essence of place is its wild beauty..."

According to National Park Service Stats, the number of annual visitors to Isle Royale was under 3,000 when it opened, and that number has grown to over 26,000 in 2019. The island is an economic booster for the surrounding areas and keeping it a tourist attraction isn't going to go away. The National Park Service needs to make sure they are strict about their rules. They understand the importance of keeping a low human impact on the island. Although, there is talk of making more lodges on a different parts of the island, so people aren't crowded. That sounds like a slippery slope. It will double the people that they bring in, making it more marketable to the tourists. I hope they won't continuing building on the island. It is unique because of its wild beauty, and more people will strip that from the island. The island was recently named the "Best of the World 2021" list by National Geographic. This is a list of the 25 best places to visit in the world. What will this mean to Isle Royale? Sometimes travel writers and making the best of lists is a curse more than a blessing. Should I even be writing this blog, or should I keep my little Michigan paradise island a secret?

Metta McLeod

June 1, 2021

Trending Now:

Isle Royale National Park Opens Back Up to Visitors with Some Restrictions

https://www.michiganradio.org/post/isle-royale-national-park-opens-back-visitors-some-restrictions

Venice Control Room Will Monitor Tourists to Combat Overtourism

https://globetrender.com/2021/03/15/venice-control-room-will-monitor-tourists-to-combat-overtourism/

For Plant Earth, No Tourism is a Curse and a Blessing

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/travel/covid-pandemic-environmental-impact.html

Sources:

https://medium.com/@FeunFooPermaKra/history-repeats-itself-as-the-story-of-the-easter-islands-downfall-begins-to-unfold-globally-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_Royale

https://irma.nps.gov/STATS/SSRSReports/Park

https://travellingjezebel.com/overtourism/

https://www.businessinsider.com/great-barrier-reef-could-disappear-by-2050-why-2019-10

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/06/08/georgia-aquarium-world-ocean-day-kinkade-intv.cnn

https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/whats-killing-coral-reefs-and-how-can-we-stop-it/

https://www.mlive.com/news/2020/11/isle-royale-named-in-national-geographics-best-of-the-world-2021-list.html

https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/historyculture/index.htm

#gvsu #htmindustry #travel #overtourism #isle royale #michigan #pollution #easter island #puremichigan

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she-toadmask · 3 years

Text

I’m in a mood tonight so have me rambling about my music tastes below the cut

Eclectic is a good word for my music tastes like

In theory I like musical theater, in practice I have a few shows I know and like, a few songs that came on a tv radio thing from a musical I have heard nothing else from, and little to no opinion on anything else. Chicago? Great. Sweeney Todd? Haven’t listened in a while, has a couple of no-no songs, pretty good. Little Shop of Horrors? Haven’t found a recording I like for Dentist but the music is great. CATS? 2019 fucked up the music, London cast recording is where it’s at, shame that Growltiger is so racist because the parts that aren’t being racist are great fun (London not Broadway). There are definitely others (Mean Girls is fun, Be More Chill is pretty fun too, I really like the junior version of Seussical’s music, Something Rotten has a lot of fun songs), and while I’m not a Disney stan or anything I do like the style of a lot of the music, especially villain songs, sometimes I want songs that are like Disney villain songs in style but aren’t those songs specifically and it is so hard to figure out how to look that up and it is frustrating. Most things not on that list...I probably haven’t listened to and therefore have no opinion. (Phantom of the Opera is not my vibe though I’m sorry it is important because it’s been running for so long but that is just not my type of music)

I like late 2000s to mid 2010s pop music, that was when my dad got some CDs for a birthday or something and then I ended up listening to them a lot for some reason, also when I liked Just Dance a lot and listened to the radio in the car going places. There are definitely older songs I like and probably a few more recent ones but really that’s the time frame where I liked the most mainstream music. Not that that’s a good or bad thing, it’s just a thing.

Specific artists, when it comes to music that isn’t fan music, Voltaire and Creature Feature are my favorites. Most songs of theirs I’ve listened to, I like.

There are also probably some other artists that I like a lot of their songs but don’t pay enough attention to recognize they’re the same group in those songs, mostly thanks to this one Creepypasta-themed playlist that obviously had a lot of edgy music. Lots of MCR, Set it Off is a group that I’ve heard a number of good songs from, Hollywood Undead (apparently maybe there was some member drama, idk I just like what I’ve heard both pre- and post-whatever happened), probably some other groups with multiple songs.

And then there’s fan content. Random Encounters is my long-term favorite, the tone of the music is generally pretty light, idk they do a slight musical theater style (they call their songs ‘musicals’ so yeah that’s a vibe), and while their members have changed, the music is still really fun. The Stupendium! I found him pretty recently and boy I’m glad I did, he does more rap-style content, like a number of his songs are raps, but don’t let that turn you off before giving it a listen. Even outside of being about the game itself, a few of his songs just slap really hard, a few being very very anti-capitalist or just social commentary because of the source game, and just very very good. The Fine Print is a really really really good one that is also ‘capitalism sucks’, It’s A Joy isn’t really capitalism-related but someone could probably write a thinkpiece about societal stuff with it, I haven’t listened to it as much but A Matter of Factories (not to be confused with the similarly named A Matter of Facts, a rap that is just a bunch of trivia, sparked by a challenge by another channel) is also pretty anti-capitalist and anti-imperialism, another that isn’t exactly anti-capitalist but more an examination of society and stuff is Vault Number 76. I don’t even know much about any of the source games (aside from 76 being a glitchy nightmare lmao) but the songs all still slap. I almost forgot about Nook Line and Sinker, another wonderful anti-capitalism song. (Adding in A Purpose for New London. More social examination. I like the other guy’s ending better on a vocal level, but both are very very good.) (somehow I forgot Doctor! Doctor! which has its humor from the game it’s about but also has bits about how private healthcare is fucked up. The Stupendium is British BTW) If you just want some fun shit, he’s got that too. The Most Fashionable Faction is just a fun TF2 rap, An Impostor Calls is one of the collab songs he did with another guy and it’s pretty fun, I only have heard one ending of the Lego vs Minecraft rap battle but it seems pretty fun, These Hallowed Wings is a lighthearted one, Why Did I Say Okie Doki? is DDLC vibes of course so creepy but also with some upbeat to it (does that even make sense), Losing My Patients is kinda fucked up because Surgeon Simulator but it’s also really fun, What A Fowl Day is a very very good one, Way Deeper Down is good if you like Undertale (it’s also just genuinely good and fun). Honestly the only two I would rather skip when listening to him on shuffle are the two that have him partnering with SquigglyDigg, neither of the songs have anything wrong with them particularly I just. remember Squiggly’s awful takes on Lilo and Stitch and how she is the kind of person that’s like ‘you can call yourself whatever you want but there are only two genders’ and is miffed when people don’t recognize she’s a girl from her (drawn) profile pic like she gets upset about people trying to be polite because she disagrees with them being respectful to nb people or some shit

Also I like lyrics a lot and sometimes I can just go off vibes (like I don’t really like the really really heavy metal stuff like it’s really annoying when I’m like ‘I want a song about a deal with another power’ and all that comes up is either really heavy metal that is just loud and I don’t know what they’re saying (I’M NOT DISSING IT IT JUST ISN’T MY TYPE OF MUSIC) or a type of blues or something that also isn’t usually what I’m after at that time) but I also have a lot of appreciation for good lyrics and lyrics about stuff I like (which led to my friend being weirded out because she doesn’t listen as closely to lyrics as I do so when I tried to share some Stupendium songs she was just listening to the vibes and was like ‘you listen to weird music’) so like what it’s about matters

Also Biggering slaps. That is very tangential but it just slaps, go listen to it. How Bad Can I Be is fine I guess, like it’s catchy and all, but Biggering is just so much better. (The fact that multiple people have written video essays about Biggering and that movie should speak to how good it is. At least go listen once you can look it up on YouTube it’s just really good)

Also mental animatics are a thing. They just are. So that also can affect how I feel about a song.

Oh and The Cog Is Dead has a lot of good songs, how did I forget them

#untagged #delete later

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go-events · 4 years

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GO Rom Com Spotlight: @princip1914

The marvelous @princip1914 has claimed Latter Days to adapt for Good Omens in the Good Omens Rom Com Event.

For reference, here’s some information about the source material!

Synopsis of Latter Days: Aaron Davis (Steve Sandvoss), a young Mormon, arrives in Los Angeles with three fellow missionaries to evangelize. The group’s promiscuous gay neighbor, Christian (Wes Ramsey), makes a bet he can seduce and sleep with one of them, and his flirtatious ways help Aaron realize he is actually gay. Returning home to small-town Idaho in shame, Aaron is sent to a faith-based center to be cured of his homosexuality – while Christian, who’s fallen in love with him, desperately tries to find him.

We spent some time chatting about how the adaptation is coming so far, as well as future plans for it! Now, get to know @princip1914 (also here on Ao3) a little better!

goromcom: You know how if you open a Tumblr chat with someone you haven’t chatted to before, Tumblr tells you two things they post about? Yours reports that you “post about #good omens and #crowley"–which seems legit.

princip1914: I didn’t know tumblr did that but yes, that’s 100% of my content right now, lol.

goromcom: You chose to adapt Latter Days as your rom com. Has this movie been a favorite of yours, or is there some other reason you chose it?

princip1914: I picked Latter Days because I remembered it fondly from my high school days when I was a baby gay unsure of myself or my place in the world. It was one of the first gay romance films I ever saw, but I definitely did not rewatch it before I picked it. Upon re-watching it now…wow, it has not really held up. The acting is cheesy, the characters fall in love, like instantaneously, there’s a Black Best Friend™️ character, and there’s a whole lot of ways in which the movie just uses AIDS, homophobia, suicide, and straight up torture as a plot device [ed: which we will talk about later under the cut, to make it easily avoidable for those heeding the content warnings that will be listed above the cut.] That really grosses me out. But I love working with flawed source material! I think it’s fun to see what I can do with it. The most recent fic I wrote was verrryyy loosely based on some tropes from Groundhog Day, which honestly on a rewatch in 2019 also contains problematic elements. So I think taking these old, somewhat flawed, properties and transforming them is a great feeling!

That said, Latter Days also has some elements that really speak to me even though it is a bit cheesy/cringy at the end. One thing I loved about it growing up is that it really tries to engage with big questions about belief, faith, and being a good person in an authentic way you don’t usually see in Rom Coms. Its storyline–“Mormon and gay playboy fall in love, Mormon learns you can be a good person without organized religion, gay playboy learns how to confront his fear that everything is meaningless and make his own meaning in the world through relationships”–is actually pretty similar to Good Omens, although dressed up very differently.

goromcom: What’s your favorite moment of your chosen rom com, and are you looking forward to presenting it in your adaptation? Any loose plans for that scene that you can share?

princip1914: I have a lot of favorite moments from the movie, it’s hard to pick just one, but here goes. [Spoiler alert for Latter Days and the upcoming GO adaptation fic] In the movie, there’s a character whose long-term partner has just died and the Mormon character (who will be Aziraphale in my version) is comforting her. He asks her if it was her husband who died and she says, “He wasn’t my husband. He was my best friend.” And let me tell you, I CANNOT WAIT to devastate Aziraphale with that line in my fic. [end spoilers] I’m also pretty excited to adapt the sex scenes to be honest. That movie earned an R for a reason.

goromcom: :waggles eyebrows:

Do you plan to stick very closely to the story beats of the original movie, or make bigger changes? And will this be a human AU, or will you fit it into canon?

princip1914: I think it’s funny because Latter Days already feels like a Good Omens AU. As I mentioned, the themes are very similar and the Mormon character, in the first two acts of the movie especially, has a very similar character arc to Aziraphale.

I think I could stick closely to the movie if I wanted to do a simple human AU. However, the more I thought about it, I realized the more difficult and more interesting fic would be one that works within both the bounds of canon and the tropes of the movie, and actually ends quite differently than the movie. I’m not sure I can keep the apocalypse in play with the ending I’m shooting for, so my guess is this fic is going to end up being a canon divergence fic set somewhere in the ‘90s, which feels about as early as I could go without losing the early 2000s vibe of Latter Days.

Trying to adapt elements of the movie to Good Omens canon and not vice versa, has been a really interesting challenge. It meant figuring out what is essential to Latter Days and what can be changed without losing the shape or recognizablity of the source material. I’m keeping the setting in LA. I’m keeping the central philosophical question of the movie (which is arguably also the central philosophical question of Good Omens). One thing that obviously had to be changed for this story to fit into canon is that while Aziraphale and Crowley have a long history, Latter Days is essentially a meet cute. So, what I’m saying here is that the first lines of my fic are: “What the fuck,” hissed Crowley, “Aziraphale, you’re a Mormon now?” and it just goes downhill from there.

goromcom: That sounds great!

(I’m asking my closing question early, as we will be putting the answer for another question under the cut.)

I am blatantly stealing this question from The Good Place: The Podcast, but here goes: Tell me something “good”. It can be something big or small. It can be a charity you think is doing good work, or you can talk about how great your pet is.

princip1914: Well, my pet is amazing. Her name is D'Arcy, she’s a mutt terrier/lab mix and gives the best cuddles. But, since not everyone can cuddle with my dog, I think I’d like to just mention a charity that I started working with this year. It’s called Back on My Feet. Basically, it’s just an organization that sets up running groups in cities in the US northeast and south that connect people who are recovering from addiction or recently experienced homelessness or incarceration with other people in the area who like to run. It meets 3 days a week and we just go on runs and talk.

goromcom: Exercise and helping people! It sounds amazing. :)

Okay, so other than NOT doing an AU, what’s an interesting decision you’ve made in your planning so far–a notable casting decision, a changing of venue, or some other plan you have to paint Good Omens all over your rom com?

[ content warning for discussion of conversion therapy under the cut–discussion is firmly anti conversion therapy. ]

princip1914: I think that this is more of a general change to the plot, but one which I do feel is in keeping with Good Omens rather than the source material. I don’t really like to write (or read) dark fic or whump type stuff (totally fine if others are into that, but it’s just not my cup of tea!). The end of the movie has some very intense stuff that sort of uses horrible things like electroshock therapy to “cure” homosexuality as a plot device/obstacle to getting the two leads together and…yeah I am probably going to signficantly change a lot of that. Even if I wanted to keep it, I think it wouldn’t be appropriate for the Good Omens elements of the story. I think Aziraphale’s character arc is more about his internalized fear of heaven (which can, of course, be read sort of as internalized homophobia) rather than external fear of punishment. That’s the main difference between heaven and hell, right? Heaven punishes through guilt, and hell punishes through pain. I think it just wouldn’t work for Aziraphale’s character to have to go through a series of external tortures, so you can absolutely expect a lot of the 3rd act of the movie will be changed. If I can, I’d like to take it up through canon and have the third act of the fic feature the notapocalypse, but that might be too much of a tall order. We will see…

I’m also going to make full use of the LA setting! I really like LA and I have some complicated yet fond memories of not-dates I went on in various places in LA with a person who was unattainable romantically but a lovely friend. I think the movie definitely had a tiny budget, which is why the “LA setting” is basically just reduced to the character’s apartments, but damn it, if I want Aziraphale and Crowley to have tense not-conversations about their relationship while watching the skaters at Venice beach, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

goromcom: Looking forward to reading an adaptation that fits itself into near canon! Should be really thought-provoking.

#goromcom #good omens #goromcom spotlight #princip1914 #latter days #cw: conversion therapy

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