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salora-rainriver · 4 months

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the lily orchard thing is weird because the primary callout for her that i've seen comes from a youtube channel with absolutely no sense of proportion, putting "wrote a shock fic years ago" and "featured as a character in feral furry porn" right next to "actually groomed minors" as though these are all equally bad and worthy of scorn. it makes me realize that even when we're right that someone is a bad person, we can still fall into transphobic ways of framing it

Okay full disclosure: i don’t know what youtube vid you’re talking about. I did watch A Videos on Orchard.

So first off I get the point about proportionality, theres absolutely a difference between writing stockholm and that whole stint where she encouraged a teen and an adult to “breed”, and I do agree that any callout should make the difference in severity clear,

But im not sure that, in this case, someone failing to make that distinction clear is A Transphobia. And that’s because… I’m not convinced Stockholm was intended to be a shock fic. I can definitely see where one may draw such a conclusion, I just personally feel otherwise, I feel like Stockholm is itself morally wrong. I feel the same way about it that I feel about “lolicon” art, and asking me to not mark the fic as a slight against Orchard feels odd to me, because I would be uncomfortable with Butch Hartman writing material like that. I would want to know that he wrote this, feels no remorse for writing it, intends to make media for children while having written that.

People draw their personal lines in the sand in different places, particularly when it comes to fictional depictions of That Shit. Someone’s Lolita (a harsh and uncomfortable work thats clearly not glorifying the act once you sit down and engage with it fairly) is going to be another’s [idk insert literal fucking CP here], and the wide diversity of art makes it nigh-impossible to be able to draw a line between Acceptable and Unacceptable.

And for what it’s worth, the above ^^^ is why Im frustrated with the binary framing of the pro-ship and anti-ship discourse. It just doesn’t work, even the most ardently pro-ship person is going to draw their line somewhere, and even the most ardently anti-ship is going to look at someone else’s judgement and go “but theres nothing wrong with this”. And ultimately, the two camps of pro and anti… don’t actually exist. Ask me honestly which camp I fall in and I genuinely wouldn’t be able to tell you, and if you interrogate your personal moral values and feelings about various dubious media honestly, you’ll realize that you can’t, either.

Sorry. This is a ramble. I’ll summarize:

- I think it’s important to know that Orchard wrote Stockholm, and to allow people to judge her for writing that, because many believe that works like these are morally wrong, period end of, and it’s not transmisogyny for one to judge this fic the same way they judge similar works from cishet writers.

- despite having that opinion, I do agree that the real grooming is much worse than the fic, and agree that making this distinction clear is important.

- I also think its dangerous to discuss the morality of fictional media from an all-or nothing binary framing, because the truth is we do not genuinely hold such extreme positions in real life, we all have a limit somewhere on the spectrum in either direction, which is my main frustration with pro-ship and anti-ship discourse, because you can never fully belong to either camp. Your position on the issue will be a mix of both. Pro some ships, anti other ships.

I hope thats clear? Thanks for the thoughtful ask. Also, mandatory “pls be gentle I’m the birthday girl”

#discourse #pls be gentle its my birthday #cw discussions of CSAM

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chellesdump · 7 months

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Getting In The Twilight Zone - JenLiChaeng

"Jisoo was out doing a schedule so Jennie had stayed home with their maknaes who had regressed since the previous night, when they woke up they realized that their home had to get into the Halloween spirit, so they begged Jennie to let them decorate the place up. Of course, Jen told them yes, who could resist puppy eyes"

word count ─ 1k

tags ─ little! rosé, little! lisa, cg! jennie, fluff, autumn, warm drinks, mention of autumn festivities

notes ─ This is for the Decorating prompt , enjoy :3

Jennie bid goodbye to Jisoo who had a schedule for the day before closing the door and going back to watching her show while cuddling the dogs, the day aimed to be a relaxing one, and of course she planned to enjoy it to the fullest, but what she hadn’t anticipated was for the hurricane that her two maknaes were bringing upon once they woke up. Jen had the luck of being able to watch a full episode of the drama she was watching before Hurricane LiChaeng struck, once awake they made their way to the living room searching for the unnies only finding Jennie there under a blanket with both Kuma and Dalgom snuggled against her.

Deciding that was good enough, they threw themselves next to Jen and began asking a bunch of questions, “Where Jisoo unnie? What you watchin’? Can eat waffles? Why ajumma crying on TV? Can cut doggie hair?”, after taking a couple of seconds to truly process the questions Jennie paused her show and turned towards the maknaes to answer them, “She had some work to do, I’m watching a show not meant for little ones like you, we can eat waffles, she’s crying cause something bad happened, and clearly you can’t cut their hair baby” responded Jennie finishing with a boop to each of their noses. Before going to the kitchen to prepare the breakfast that was asked Jennie put on some cartoons for the kids so they would be a little bit calmer and not make a huge disaster on the room.

When the waffles were cooked, some fruit was cut, diverse jams were out to try, some whipped cream, and some toppings Jen called the maknaes to come and eat, they came running like crazy while screaming about how they wanted their waffles. It was too early to deal with so much ruckus so Jen put a stop to it, “Okay you two calm down, first Rosie tell me what you want on your waffles baby” said Jen putting a couple of the waffles on a plate and getting them ready, “Umhh… Wan pe’simon jam and whipped c’eam an spinkles” described Rosie before being gave her plate saying a tiny fank u and pilling fruits on top of her plate, then came Lisa’s turn “Me want lotsa whipped c’eam an pink spinkles an mango jam, pwease” finished with a big smile, after thanking her she followed Rosé’s example and put lots of fruits on top of her waffles.

After Jennie prepared her own plate she sat down and began eating, thinking this would be a nice and calm breakfast but the girls wanted to tell her about the cartoon they were watching so she listened, “Mama we watch Kongsuni!! She funny an Lili wanna be wike Kongsuni!!” said Lisa, “Yeah Mama, Kongsuni pway wiff her fwiends an they have much fun!! They make cwafts wiff leaves from the twees!!” informed Rosé with a twinkle on her eye remembering the episode they had seen of ‘Kongusni and Friends’, they kept narrating everything that happened on TV, rambling on and on so Jen only paid half attention while focussing more on eating and making sure the girls ate.

Jennie inserted affirmative hums and some ‘really’ every once and then to let the kids know they weren’t being ignored, so she didn’t really hear what they asked her until the happy squeals of “Gomawo Mama, you da best! Saranghae Mama!” came from both littles. Gaining her full consciousness she dared to speak again, “Rosie! Lili! Can you tell Mama what she just agreed to? Please?” begged the Korean interrupting their little celebratory dance, with pouts and sad expressions they asked, “Was Mama ignoring Rosie an’ Lili?”, this broke Jen’s heart so she was quick to her response, “Oh no babies! Mama’s mind just decided to go away for a little and didn’t really hear what you asked. You know I would never ignore you on purpose” reassured Jennie while bringing the younguns on a hug.

Between tiny sobs, they asked again, “Kongsuni ask her eomma if they decorate house pwease, we wanna decorate the house like Kongsuni and Kongsuni eomma” retold Rosé, “Can we Mama, pwetty pwease? We wan pwetty house like Kongsuni” continued Lisa putting her hand together and making her best puppy eyes alongside Rosé. Of course, Jennie said yes, since she couldn’t resist those eyes begging, but she told them that first, they had to pick up all their toys and take their dogs out for a walk so they would get their energy (and go potty) before leaving them on their own at the house, after finishing the tasks they got dressed to go to the store and pick up the decorations they wanted.

The trip to the store was as chaotic as anyone would expect from the maknaes of Blackpink leading everything, they got out with a cart filled with a huge variety of decorations, and fitting everything into their car was a struggle but they succeeded at the end so happily made their way back home, not before stopping to buy some hot chocolate to drink while decorating their place. When they finished decorating it seemed as if an autumn monster had thrown up in there since the whole place was packed with decorations but somehow they made it work, there was a wreath on their front door, pumpkin light garlands around the windows, a bowl with tiny orange pumpkins were placed as a centerpiece on their table, some autumn-colored candles where placed on their coffee table in the living room, a tiny scarecrow welcomed you into the house, the cushions and blankets on their sofa were now in the same autumnal colors, and tiny bats hanging from the ceiling make the look complete.

Saying the day had been tiring was an understatement but Jennie couldn’t be any happier than watching her recently bathed babies babble about how much fun they had decorating the place for their Mommy, as soon as Jisoo had arrived they bombarded her with details about their day, so know that they had eaten dinner and were ready for bed Jennie could only feel blessed and content with her tiny family.

#chellesdump #age regression #sfw littlespace #blackpink agere #blackpink little space #blackpink #cg!jennie #cg jennie #little rosé #little lisa #little!rosé #little!lisa #ageretober #ageretober day 3

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softredrobin · 2 years

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Coming in hot, literally, our fire tsundere, Damien. Damien was, in some ways, a struggle. In other ways, extremely easy. The flowers were picked for Damien well ahead of time, but I did have some trouble with the quotes. These quotes are from Tsundere Fire Elemental Confesses His Feelings For You and Consoling (And Consoled By) Your Elemental Friends. The Aftershock quote, admittedly, had competition with “I don’t like the thought of something causing you... harm, or distress.” from Meeting Up With a Tsundere Fire Elemental (which is probably my favorite Damien video, actually).

Flowers below the cut! I implore you to look at them because these ones were picked very deliberately :-)

These four flowers:

Lily (red): lofty aspirations

Protea: courage, transformation, daring, resourcefulness, diversity

🔥 Let’s talk about Kelloggs’ Snapdragon , also known as twining snapdragon. This flower has your normal snapdragon meanings, graciousness and strength. However, twining snapdragon is a very particular snapdragon! Not only is this flower native to California, twining snapdragon is what is known as a fire follower flower. Fire followers are flowers which grow and bloom following wildfires. You can read more about them here. They are super cool and I just had to include one. I think this is a good nod to the way Damien aspires to destroy the antiquated and exclusive policies put forth by D.A.M.N. and D.U.M.P., and build something better in his wake.

Kelloggs’ Snapdragon: graciousness, strength. 🔥

Gladiolus: strength of character, honor, ambition

Gladiolus and red lilies, I think, are rather obvious, and also touch on that same ambition.

Protea, protea, protea. I want to touch really quick on the transformation meaning of protea. I listened to a lot of Damien audios to pick the quotes I did. He talks at length in his confession about how meeting Freelancer has changed his life for the better and changed the way he interacts with every(one/thing) around him. Several times it’s mentioned that he and Freelancer share some key traits -- particularly their drive and their tendency to overwork themselves. Damien and Freelancer, whether a platonic or romantic pairing, both have the ability to recognize that sort of negative habit in each other and see it reflected in themselves, and work to help each other better themselves. That kind of change is what I wanted to show with protea, and I think it’s the perfect flower for them given its other meanings :-)

If you got this far, thanks for reading until the end! Hardly my longest ramble so far, but still a decent length lmao.

#redacted asmr #redacted damien #redacted freelancer #rens redacted hand series #do i still have an art tag?#ren rambles #damien my beloved #can you see my struggle to keep FL's nails the same relative length and shape in each new FL set i do #also the confession quote hands gave me some trouble with positioning but im happy with the end result #perspective is hard w fingers and such!!!#edit to say the flowers are out of order in the list my bad

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opinated-user · 1 year

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In Lily's video on why The Legend of Korra is awful, she rants that Republic City is just like America because a mix of people of different cultures live there and that has created a unique place. In reality, Republic City is based off of Shanghai, which is a mixture of distinct Han Chinese cultures - Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan and Sichuan - and nine foreign ethnic groups that make up substantial populations, in addition to ethnic Russians who have lived in the city for four or five generations and Uyghurs.

Lily hates the US most of the time when she mentions it, but she doesn't care about Canadian politics or history even as anti-Native sentiment increases in many provinces and multiple Canadian conservatives propose anti-trans laws, so she's managed to convince herself that it's the center of the universe. She projects it onto everything. When presented with media based on Shanghai, she says it's just like America, because she thinks only the United States has diverse metropolitan areas. (The oldest city we have proof of having a diverse population, Ur, was established in 3800 BC, btw. She is literally ignoring 6000 years of history in order to pretend diversity = USA.) When presented with the idea of another country, Japan, she falls over herself to ramble about how Japan is just like the United States.

I've never seen someone this incapable of understanding the real world before. She genuinely cannot grasp that different places are different. She can't understand that more than one culture exists on Earth. She doesn't know that cities throughout the world have a long history of diversity and multiple ethnicities living in one place.

When she's screaming on YouTube, it's performative, reactionary panic and rage meant to draw in people who mistake talking quickly for being intelligent (the Fox News maneuver, basically). But when she's streaming, she's off the cuff, and off the cuff, she's so bafflingly stupid. Even when I was a little kid I understood that different places are different and not everywhere on Earth is just like the United States. Even when I was a little kid I understood that cities have people from different places.

When she goes full mask off, she's as racist as she is with the mask on. What I was not expecting was the utter and total inability not just to think, but to put together coherent thoughts to express her bad opinions.

I just cannot fathom what's wrong with her. I have some pretty severe mental illnesses, but even prior to medication and treatment, I still had the ability to think circles around her, uh... I don't even know how to describe what she's doing. Rambling implies a coherent through-line. This feels more akin to what my dad says when his Alzheimer's is particularly pronounced that day.

I don't understand how people follow her or look up to her. She's just so dumb. She didn't know that places other than the United States have diverse cities, ffs. What's the appeal?

i honestly don't know anymore. i had said before that she being angry at things worth getting angry about (homophobia, transphobia, etc) was what made me subscribe to her and even become her patreon, but lately even that has been lost among the bad awful comments that she can say with the same confidence as her own name.

#lily orchard #lily orchard is racist

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euphorial-docx · 1 year

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i personally love jegulily and also am so intrigued by just regulily too

and i've thought of it in terms of aus and canon and it all just like scratches my brain yknow! and the ramble you went on in another ask like i totally agree.

i think another part of people's distaste for regulily and jegulily comes from not being able to respect that people have different headcanons (this is something that bothers me a ton in the fandom in general) like i know tons of people bc regulus as gay and lily as a lesbian, which is perfectly fine and everyone is free to hc as they please! but! so often people actively hate and shit on regulily and jegulily based on their own hcs which is like... you don't have to like everything you can just ignore it but for some reason these are just insanely "controversial" ships that people think they should be able to just deem as bad and wrong just bc they aren't their own hcs

truly! like a popular argument against regulily is that regulus is gay which… isn’t true for everyone? i see less of the argument that regulily couldn’t happen because lily is a lesbian, but i feel like that’s a conversation for someone else to start and have.

it really does come down to accepting that other people don’t see all these characters the same exact way you do, and that’s okay! all the different headcannons is what makes this fandom so fucking cool! there have been numerous times where my mind was changed in this space because someone else saw something that i initially didn’t or refused to acknowledge.

a big thing that proves this is likeafuneral. likeafuneral likes snape a lot, and they don’t ship jegulus at all, and so many people were so butthurt about those things? like not everyone has to have the same perspective on everything as you. there is no mold you need to fit to be in this fandom and to like these characters and make art and all those wonderful things that keep us here. our diversity of headcanons is a beautiful thing and should also be a peaceful thing!

if we were all just respectful to each other, no matter who someone favorite character is or their favorite ship, this space would be so much better and as good as i know it could be.

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storms-path · 7 months

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FFXIV 2023 Day 30 - Amity

“...And so, it is my great pleasure,” Arashi managed to make it sound halfway sincere, “to introduce the esteemed Blade Hagen!” A polite ripple of applause echoed through the hall as Fareena took to the stage, looking smugger than she’d ever been and dressed in Bozja’s latest fashion.

It had all started with what should have been a good idea. A cross-cultural exchange of combat teaching between Bozja, Doma and Ala Mhigo, meant to nurture bonds between the three nations and encourage growth and diversity amongst their pupils. Arashi had entertained the idea over one too many glasses of wine with Y’sthola, Lyse and Krile, and soon one thing had led to another and letters were drafted and delivered. Doma’s response had been carefully worded, happy to hear the idea out but careful not to promise anything too much. It had her sister’s touch all over it. Bozja’s, on the other hand, had been rather more blunt.

“Swiving yes we’re doing this. I’ll see you soon.”

The response had been hand-delivered by a rather harried Hrothgar, followed mere minutes later by Fareena bursting through Arashi’s office doors and proclaiming herself guest speaker, teacher and resident arse-kicker. Arashi’s consent was apparently considered unimportant in the matter. It was an unpleasant but much-needed reminder of why, ten years after the Final Days had been averted, Arashi kept as much distance from her old adventuring companion as possible.

Fareena waited for the applause to die down and immediately launched into a long, rambling tirade about herself, her gunbreaking skills, her ability to “wipe the floor with all of you wet-eared saplings” and what inventive cruelties she would unleash on all those foolish enough to take up her offer of teaching. It sounded to Arashi like the worst possible way to advertise herself as a guest teacher, but looking over the assembled students Arashi could see the spark of interest alight in an unsettling amount of her students. I thought you were better than this!

Something in the crowd caught her eye. A familiar pair of eyes stood towards the back of the room, though not familiar for the right reasons. A large hood covered most of the figure’s face, but there was no mistaking her to someone who truly knew her. Sanda noticed her sister’s eyes on her and winked, then melted back into the shadows. How long has she been here? And why, more importantly, didn’t she just come and say hello? Arashi knew why even as she thought it. Sanda always did enjoy her little games.

Fareena seemed to be finishing up, from the way her gesticulations had slowly calmed down. Arashi resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the far-too-arrogant woman��s empty boasts. Then she felt a hand on her thigh, squeezing gently. To her left Lyse smiled sympathetically. To Lyse’s left Arashi could see the other teachers looking at anything else except for Fareena and her unending ramblings. Arashi tried to think of something encouraging to say to them, but the words died on her tongue. They’d learn to deal with Blade Hagen eventually. Or else they wouldn’t and they could collaborate on making Fareena’s stay as short as possible.

There was a sudden ripple in the crowd, a worried murmuring spreading through her students. Arashi stiffened, suddenly alert. Someone was moving towards the stage, moving with purpose. A slight figure, dressed in tight, black fabrics that covered every inch of their body. Fareena either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Lyse was already on her feet, Flowing Lily rising next to her with blade in hand. Then, in a single instant, all hells broke loose.

The figure leapt into the crowd, knives glinting in the lamplight. Aiming directly for Fareena’s throat. Just as quickly Fareena’s gunblade was ripped from her back and into her hand. Clashing against the knives with a resounding clang. The attacker leapt back into a crouch a few feet away on stage… then ripped off their mask, grinning. Fareena grinned back, extending a free hand towards her assailant. Sanda took her hand with a laugh, pulling it high into the air as the pair bowed elaborately. Arashi sunk back into her chair with a groan, barely registering Lyse making sure none of the other teachers tried to gut the headmaster’s wayward sister.

Of course they had planned this whole stunt together. Of course they had. Fareena had the crowd’s attention again, and she used it to its fullest. “You see? A good gunbreaker can stand against any foe, no matter when or how they strike! You want to learn? Then seek me out and I’ll teach you! But,” Fareena turned to gesture at Sanda beside her. “If you’d rather learn how to strike silently and swiftly at your enemies, my good friend Shinobi Washi will be glad to take you under her wing! Make your choice and make it wisely, sprouts! We’ll have you grow into adventurers yet!”

Arashi massaged her temples in a vain attempt to halt the blossoming headache. This was going to be a very long moon.

#ff14 #ffxiv #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy xiv #ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2023 #arashi washi #sanda washi #fareena hagen #lyse hext #getting most of the gang back together for the final prompt #and going back to the future again #arashi thought she'd be free of fareena's bullshit when she hung up her sword #arashi was a damned fool and should have known better

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rosesrambles · 3 months

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on barbie and the oscars

barbie was snubbed. and for people saying such a basic feminist movie didn't deserve to be nominated then you're wrong. greta gerwig and margot robbie were amazing. but there were so many movies snubbed, specifically movies with a poc cast.

the colour purple, origin, and more were ignored this season. but lucy gladstone is making history.

it's complicated because, yes, barbie is feminism 101 but so many people needed that. it got banned because of the feminism. but it is still almost the bare minimum and yet we needed the bare minimum. calling her a doll with big boobs when the movie was all about why she wasn't just that, people missing the point, calling it man hating, everything.

we win some. we lose some. but we lose so many. women, especially women of colour, deserve to be noticed and awarded for the amazing work they do. and not just as some diversity point. we aren't a quota to reach. we're talented and multi-faceted and we deserve just as much praise as the men this award season.

oppenheimer was good but it also ignored the fact the nuclear bomb destroyed so many people of colour's lives. sure, he regretted it but isn't that just realising the consequences for your own actions? and i understand that after he was against using it, he was called a communist. i understand the movie is about oppenheimer. i understand that. but it's just another movie in a long line of movies that ignores the suffering of people of colour. it risks glorifying the work of a white man while simultaneously ignoring the japanese victims and the indigenous people that are still suffering from the bomb tests to this day. but can we truly trust hollywood to represent those people's stories and do them justice? especially with hollywood's long history? probably not.

i think what i'm trying to say in my rambling is that barbie deserves recognition for what it is and what it has done but that so did the colour purple and origin and greta lee.

but you can say barbie was snubbed while also acknowledging so were others and that despite that lily gladstone is making history.

#barbie 2023 #oscars 2024 #oscar nominations #greta gerwig #oppenheimer

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lilytriestoexist · 4 years

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contrary to what popular white ya authors and their stans seem to think, writing good, respectful diversity is not hard. i keep hearing people defend authors like s/jm by saying that she's white and is just writing what she knows, but the time when that excuse would've been accepted is gone. she may be white, cis, and heterosexual, but some of her readers are not, and the world is not. her work should reflect that.

i will reiterate: writing good, respectful diversity is not hard. people only think it is because they misunderstand what we mean when we say we want white authors to include diversity and characters of colour.

we are not asking for white, straight authors to write stories about black characters experiencing fighting against police brutality. we are not asking for white, straight authors to write stories about a gay character withstanding oppression and homophobia and learning to accept themselves and come out. we are not asking for white, straight authors to tell the stories of minorities. that would be edging on disrespectful itself, because those stories and those sufferings are not for them to tell.

we don't want or need straight white authors telling poc and lgbt stories. we just want straight white authors to have poc and lgbt characters, who are written with respect and without stereotypes. and that's seriously not hard, even in fantasy. give this female character a girlfriend and this male character a boyfriend. make this character black or coded as black (not just through skin colour but also hair, facial features and structure, culture, etc) and make this character asian or coded as asian. steer away from stereotypes. ensure the characters are well developed and don't suffer from harmful racial tropes. be respectful.

there is no excuse for straight white authors to be unable to write good diversity into their stories. the internet is at their fingertips; if they choose not to research how to write characters of a certain race respectfully and instead avoid it or make them stereotypical, that's just wilful laziness, and should not be tolerated.

#anti sjm #anti tog #anti acotar #anti ccity #anti rick riordan #hm who else #probably a bunch of people LMAO #most of the straight white ya authors with a smidgen of popularity #ya critical #ya criticism #diversity #lily rambles about diversity

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slyther-ink · 2 years

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in response to @al-longbottom's post about what i would change if i wrote hp. here is the full explanation... (i might edit it a bit more later because this is a bit of a ramble oops)

1. more racial diversity and actually having that embedded into the story (having token characters with stereotypical names was very frustrating) i would definitely try and add more culture into backstories that influence even casual conversations etc.

2. more gender diversity especially with complex characters. more trans binary and nonbinary and honestly just well developed women characters too. we only had hermione as the main recurring character and i would love to explore her friendships with the folks in her dorm etc. as well as having some binary and nonbinary trans characters !!!! especially with the women and women adjacent side characters, they were portrayed quite shallowly sometimes. like the dislike of fleur, even though she was literally chosen from all of beaubaxtons, demonstrating her magical capability. it is possible to be feminine and powerful thank you. it was irrational of molly, ginny and hermione to all dislike her (for what seemed like her beauty?!?!) and i feel like it came back to the whole performative thing and that beautiful girls are always mean and the women jealousy thing or whatever and that was just ugh.

3. queer diversity of all kinds – deffo impossible that all the characters are straight and cis. sorry can’t accept that. i would write in my queers, lesbians, bis, pans, omnis, gays, aces, aros, demis, trans-mascs, trans-fems, nonbinary folk, genderfluid folk, sapphics, achilleans etc. etc. we exist sorry not sorry.

4. well developed character relationships. the golden trio independently making friends with other people. would love to see hermione and some study buds and ron playing chess with other folks.

5. give the full redemption arc to draco malfoy and not snape. it would have been so much more powerful to have draco redeemed (***not without him having to go through a gruelling self-discovery/self-reflection/my behaviours are wrong and i need to correct them and face the consequences of my bigotry***) because like harry, he was a child but on the other side of the war. i would write it in a way that away from his father’s shadow he gets to break out and unlearn the toxic stuff, even if that was ignited by voldemort's return (because the idea that you can unlearn your bigotry and become a better person is so so important). snape only did it because of lily and the whole toxic obsession thing, it doesn’t really count as unlearning bigotry imo

6. made it more explicit that dumbledore was a bad guy and the teachers very much enabled his behaviour. harry deserves some closure and its important not to romanticise asking a child to save the world. and also what happened with tom riddle and leaving kids abandoned until they reach hogwarts age is not ok. (i read a fic about it which i will recommend when i found it!)

7. showing mental health issues. even just school itself can be a struggle without all of the save the world pressure and only including mental health in ootp onwards where voldemort was invading harry's mind and then stuff happened. and also harry couldnt possibly be the only one.

8. having trans characters. sorry did i say that already? doesn’t matter. more trans characters please.

9. Maybe would’ve not had remus and tonks together *as it happened in the plot* because I feel like it was a little bit rushed so *if* I did keep them together then it would’ve been way more developed. however, I am slightly more partial to wolfstar so who knows….

10. show more explicitly that the houses aren't inherently good and bad!!!! that was honestly just so stupid.

#hp analysis #hp headcanon #what i would change about hp #anti dumbledore #anti snape #kind of

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clare-with-no-i · 3 years

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I don’t want to belabor the subject if its not something you want to continue discussion on so honestly feel free to ignore this, but I just wanted to say I really appreciate your point about avoiding an imbalance of power in their beginning sexual relationship and how their experience comes from something like social contexts rather than egregious presumption about what is deemed “attractive” on an extremely gendered basis. I can get on board with pretty much any level of variation in experience for either of them, but fics that emphasize James sleeping around (at Hogwarts specifically! Where other “candidates” likely know that he’s obviously into someone else!) while Lily is constantly portrayed as prudish or naive (despite canon evidence otherwise!) feel like an unfortunate byproduct of the YA genre in general. I definitely think that given his privilege/access/friendship with Sirius summer flings were most definitely on the table for him, but when he had such an obvious thing for Lily, the idea that girls were flocking to him always struck me as deeply flawed and an attempt to demoralize the other girls by showing that they’re still desperate for him despite his obvious crush on someone else (emphasizing that girls are always in “competition” for the same guy or some bullshit), and usually spur jealousy as the primary motivator in getting Jily together, rather than like…love? Sorry at this long rambled nature I just really appreciate the influx of incredible fic recently and in the last few years that feels so much more…idk realistic? Modern? Diverse? Not sure of the right word, but it’s definitely more up my alley than some Jily fics of old that treat sexual experience like a defining character trait! Looking at some of the early comments on Scriibble’s Voyeur (a FANTASTIC story) you can really see how much people shame Lily for any number of factors (multiple partners/knowing her body/etc) versus James when he’s done the exact same. It really comes down to character portrayal and my fav fics (like BaF!) have put effort into establishing their journey towards appreciation and growth rather than emphasizing societal constructs like “virginity.”

wow, what an amazing ask - this is such a rich and nuanced examination of the way sexuality is portrayed in young adult fiction, and it really speaks to the high level of perception and readership in Jily fandom. seriously, it is so cool to receive something like this and that you’d come to me to discuss it!

there are so many points I want to/could tackle from this, but I’ll start here: I absolutely agree that there’s an incredibly skewed portrayal of sexual experience based entirely upon gender. of course, we’re talking in terms of a cis heterosexual couple here, but even spanning different gender identities and sexualities, I’ve often come across the idea that a higher level of sexual experience denotes a ‘masculine’ trait while a lack of experience (read: purity, virginity) denotes ‘femininity’ (and I know I’m not the first, there are much smarter people who have unpacked these things).

this is troubling for so many reasons, not the least of which is assigning a gender binary to something that is incredibly personal and socially constructed, but as well--specifically in the case of hetero romance in a YA setting--you’re essentially propagating the concept that a woman’s worth decreases or she becomes less ‘feminine’ if she is liberated in her sexuality. which is, of course, absolute fucking bullshit.

in terms of Jily as a couple, I truly do remember Ye Olde Fics where Lily was essentially an ingenue with red hair and James was this Casanova heartbreaker guy who deigned to teach her the Ways Of Sex because he was The Guy That Fucked. it’s just tired, lol. I’m sure it can be done well if someone wants to see that, but it really did seem for a while that the one acceptable version of this couple was James batting away female suitors yet somehow also being this sex symbol yet ALSO being in love with Lily to the point that other women were accessory at best. like...hello? pick a dynamic?

to be honest, I don’t even really mind stories where James or Lily dates someone before each other - as long as the other person isn’t just some shitty attempt to highlight the other person’s jealousy, like you said. I think TLAT did this really wonderfully with Luke and (spoiler!) Carlotta, because we saw development and fallout independently of any petty jealousies between J and L. I don’t mean to shit on anyone’s fav trope because jealousy is super popular in fanfiction, but I just feel bad sidelining a whole character as a device just to see J and L realize their feelings in such an aggressive/negative way. that’s just me though!

I really do think that as the conversations around virginity and sexuality have evolved and become more mainstream in media in the past 10 years, people have been less willing to accept the incredibly limiting portrayal of a het teenage couple discussed above. I think this has traversed not only books and film but also, by proxy, fan works and fanfiction. I agree completely - there are SO many good canon fics being published; I can’t even keep up! it seems like every day I find a new long story that I’m desperate to read but must bookmark until after I finish BaF.

and as you mentioned in your ask: “Voyeur” by @scriibble-fics is such an incredible example of how not only to subvert the ‘virgin L experienced J’ trope from the get-go, but as well, how to artfully and effectively have those conversations within the fic and confront the problems of gender-based stereotyping and disparity in sexual experience. it’s done masterfully and with incredible finesse, and it doesn’t at all take away from the genuine development and excitement of Jily’s relationship. I haven’t had a chance to finish Voyeur as of rn but TRUST ME it is a holy grail fic. it sucks that people still are stuck in the mindset to comment negatively on Lily there, but I suppose that’s really indicative of the problem at hand.

AHHHH! there is so much more I want to dive into with this ask, because it really is just a great piece of discourse. but for the sake of not writing an entire thesis on Tumblr, I shall leave it here. thank you, anon, for this!

also: I want to make sure I’m being clear - I’m not shitting on people who write James as more sexually experienced. this is just about the fact that it was endemically the only way their relationship was written for a while, and how that spoke to a cultural understanding of women’s sexuality.

#ask #anon #discourse #TODAY HAS BEEN SO GREAT WITH DISCOURSE

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doodleimprovement · 3 years

Text

Ghostly Friend - An Entangled Fates Fanfic

Why yes, this IS a fanfic of a fanfic. I never said I had any shame

Because frankly, @ahatintimepieces made too fun a concept for me to pass up giving the two a little diversion.

Enjoy !

“Oh, this is the timeline with the cool blue ghost!”

Luka wasn’t sure what to think of the girl’s excitement as they trekked through the alternate Subcon, the two of them taking a detour from their adventure- albeit accidentally.

This Subcon Forest had a.. different.. air to it. Less lonely, but… somehow more ominous.

Hattie led the two of them out of the denser forests dank air and into a field of muted closed flowers and rather unusual plants that climbed so much taller than you’d expect. Off in the distance we’re some conspicuous shallow hills with no trees. Perhaps man-made?

“They’re here!” The girl squealed, running through the taller grasses that went all the way up to her waist

“Wait, Hattie, what are you talking about? There isn’t anyone-” He tried to keep up, yelling after her while stumbling through the field.

And then the scenery moved.

Those were not shallow hills

The being- whatever it was- rose from its laying position as if sitting up in bed, and stretched out, it’s curling hair constantly floating as if suspended in water, billowing like dark clouds.

They turned to face the sounds approaching them, revealing glowing, Cyan eyes and a gentle gaze - a far cry from Snatcher, whose yellow eyes nearly always betrayed some form of chaotic energy when Luka met the ghost in dreams.

“Hi!!” Hattie waved and grinned “I’m the Hattie from the other universe. I came here with a friend by accident!”

The large ghost tilted their head for a second, before giving a fanged smile and letting out a low chuckle, the echo in their voice feeling as if on a different level from Snatchers, rattling the young man to his bones

“Hello there, my dear” the ghost greeted, reaching over and offering their large hand “It is lovely to see you again, mistake or not.” Hattie motioned for Luka to join her, and he cautiously followed suit “Let me get a look at you and your friend, hm? I need to introduce myself to them”

The hand lifted the duo up towards the ghosts face and their eyes narrowed in scrutiny as they gazed at Luka

“Well, aren’t you familiar” the ghost commented, seeming more amused than anything else “I go by “the ghost of the flowers”, most days, but you may call me Nell”

… Where had he heard that name before?

“Luka. I go by Luka”

“Ah” the ghost responded “So what brings you to our forest, hm?”

“We were jumpin’ through universes and went to the wrong one” the girl explained succinctly “but it’s nice to see you too!”

Nell chuckled once again “And you are her guardian, I assume?”

Luka nodded “Yes, uh, well, someone has to”

The ghost leaned back against some sturdy trees “Indeed” they agreed, before placing their hand on a lower part of their body, where legs might have been “How about you tell me what you have been up to, hm?”

Luka didn’t say very much for the next few minutes, letting Hattie ramble and rave and storytell to her little hearts content about the perilous journey they’d been on. Once in a while she’d turn to him to get his affirmation on some of the more fantastical details (or what her definition of the word was, at least) and he'd give an encouraging nod, or a “yup, that happened” in response.

Her grin was worth the time they were wasting, it was the most excited she’d seemed in some time.

Nell, for their part, listened with what Luka assumed was interest. It was the kind of interest that reminded him of when the head college nurse would let people ramble about how they got hurt while she diligently treated -

… Wait.

“Luka?”

The man was jolted out of his realization

“You okay?” Hattie asked.

“Yeah uh, can I ask you a question, Nell?” He tittered.

“You may”

“Uh, would your full name happen to be uh, AnnaBella?”

There was a pause to their expression, a large chunk of their amusement gone. The expression now seemed surprised, but contemplative.

“Little Harriet” Their glowing eyes fell on the girl. “I need to speak with Luka. Can you go find My Yellelily basket? It’s by the lake”

Harriet- seeming to read the aura better than Luka could, and slid off of the ghost’s hand, disappearing behind foliage.

Luka very suddenly felt very, very nervous.

“I’m sorry, was that not supposed to be said? Was it rude?”

They didn’t respond at first, lifting his sitting form in her hand while scrutinizing him, eyes thin.

“Full name”

“Hm?”

“What do you think is my full name”

“Uh, uhm” Luka’s mind tried to remember the nurse’s last name. Something long.. Italian

“Uh, Bounatti? Close to that” He weakly answered… and they chuckled.

“Bounacci?”

“Yes, that!”

“The full name should be AnnaBella Gracia Buonacci” They corrected “And how do you know me, dear?”

“Uh, you’re the head nurse at the college medical center”

“Huh” They nodded “A nurse? That sounds accurate. I was an apothecary in life”

“... So, you’re a ghost?”

“What else might I be?”

Luka shrugged a bit helplessly. “I don’t know. I just wasn’t sure what could’ve happened to you. You seem very… mild-mannered, where I’m from.”

“Huh…” They moved him down onto the ground “Tell me… is there a “Vanessa” in your timeline?”

“Oh, yes!” He jumped a bit once he landed in the grasses. “She’s my girlfriend, she’s wonderful! Is she here in this universe? .. Is she a ghost like you?”

“.. In a manner of speaking” they vaguely answered, as they pulled themselves up and turned, their form twisted, like the smoke of a candle, and their form shrunk, taking on a more humanoid shape, though their hair remained flowing and ethereal.

“Heh… uh, what do you mean?”

Their eyes narrowed at him, approaching him.

“Heed my warning” They maintained eye contact “I loved her. The only person that loved her more was her husband”

His heart partially stopped beating at the idea of them marrying

“But be wary of her.”

That feeling left

“After all, if this was her kingdom, and she is all that is left of it’s legacy.. Who is to blame?”

There was a moment of pause between the two of them

“... My… My Vanessa isn’t like that” He responded.

“Mine wasn’t either” Was all the ghost responded with

“Ahem”

The two turned, seeing Hattie there with a wicker basket filled to the brim with beautiful, golden lilies

“I uh, picked more of them for you!”

A smile reappeared on Nell’s face. “Wonderful, dear” They reached and took it “Once refined, this will make the finest salve for Titter-Ivy” They explained “You two should probably get going, hm?”

Hattie nodded “Are ya ready, Luka?” She reached and grabbed his hand

“Oh, uhm, yeah” He nodded “Uh, thank you for your time, Nell”

They gave him a smile. It seemed… sad? Melancholy? It didn’t feel like a happy smile

“Tread carefully, you two. And Luka?”

“.. Yes?”

“Don’t be a stranger, hm?”

The man blinked, unsure what they meant, but before he could respond, the Ghost turned with their basket, and faded with a twist into smoke.

“.. Are you okay?” Hattie asked

“Yeah… let’s go, hm?”

The girl just nodded, pulling him back into the dense thicket of the forest.

But the ghost’s words couldn’t leave his mind

“Mine wasn’t either”

#ahatintimepieces #entangled fates #luka #hattie #ahit nell #ghost nell #antonia writes #this was fun #antonias fandoms

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mysticalmusicwhispers · 3 years

Note

free space to ramble about any pairing of your choice!

heya! Thanks for asking, and I’ve been inactive in hetalia for a hot minute so I’m sorry it’s been so long! (also I was kinda running out of pairings to discuss lol)

Ship asks!

I’ll do Iceliech for this one. I don’t ship it as much as I did when I got into hetalia, but it’s still one of my favorite rarepairs and I think they’d be very cute together. I’d love to see them in a high school or maybe even middle school AU (although the middle school one might be cutting the age line a little) where Emil has sort of grown into himself but still gets awkward really quick around unfamiliar people, and Lili being a little shy as well but amazingly good at getting to know people by virtue of being sweet and overall pretty friendly. I feel like they’d meet eventually by running in the same friend circles and it’s kinda just your cliche awkward teenage romance lol. But with less awkwardness because I get secondhand embarrassment, and a lot of accidental fluff.

Another random headcanon I’m kinda fond of is Iceland being really fascinated by insects. Maybe it’s their incredible diversity and how they’ve managed to carve out a home just about anywhere; maybe it’s how they seem so fragile—easily crushed by a stray thumb or shoe—but have thrived for so long, longer than humans have been alive; or maybe it’s because they’re everywhere, hidden in the most unexpected places and beautifying them; but they’ve always captivated him. He takes photos of them, zoomed-in crystal-clear macros that star fuzzy honeybees, elegant dragonflies, humble beetles, and he hopes that the people who look at his photography will be captivated by insects, and their strange, ethereal, sometimes grotesque beauty, the same way he is.

He’s also read up on how to pin/preserve insects but is hesitant to try it because he feels guilty for killing something for aesthetics only. For now, he’ll just keep taking photographs in order to show others the beauty of the world of insects. Meanwhile Lili has a hobby of pressing flowers; they either come from her garden or are a few common species plucked from a hillside or trailhead. So they go outside for slow walks in the setting sun, silent in the warm twilight, Emil taking occasional pictures of stray butterflies, and Lili admiring the flowers. They don’t talk, but they don’t need to. The time and the warmth is enough.

#whoops now i ship them too hard #anyways hope that answer was satisfactory?#also I think i know who sent this and if my guess is correct im so sorry for keeping you! dl;akfs for some reason i keep answering your asks #the latest and idk whyyyyy #its nothing against you tho but i really apologize for the delay #aph iceland #aph liechtenstein #iceliech #ask musings #anon ask #headcanon musings #musings #hws iceland #hws liechtenstein #hws iceliech #aph iceliech #hetalia #hws #aph #ship asks #answered #wow two (2) content posts in one (1) day???? O _ O #also why do my asks always turn into mini fics someone answer this question for me please #oh one last thing; for anyone wondering i was basically super inactive for like a week because i started getting back into star trek #and im still v interested in it rn so if you watched the thing please talk to me #about it #i mean talk to me in general but star trek asks are welcome #aph iceland musings #aph liechtenstein musings

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barefoot-pianist · 4 years

Text

Les Mis – Sondheim Theatre (New Production) – 28/01/20

** HUGE HUGE SPOILER ALERT! CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED**

**second disclaimer: it is nearly half midnight and I’ve been on the go since 5:30am, please forgive rambling, meta commentary to myself, and bad grammar. I just wanted to get this all out whilst it was still fresh**

General

YES the new staging was 90% a hit. I liked it. It was great to see Les Mis performed in a radically different way, I think, and enough was kept (like, for example, the basic structure of One Day More) that it didn’t feel totally alien and I didn’t miss the turntable all that much?. The opening scene is now on a ship, rather than in a mine. More on specific stagings below.

THE. SET. WAS. BEAUTIFUL. There is literally no other word for it. The original Les Mis set is quite minimalist, I think, whereas this one was lush – heavily centred on the idea of houses, which really gave more of a feel to the Paris streets. They had tenements and posh houses, the barricade was still huge, don’t worry, and they had a staircase which was in the café and the Thenardiers’ inn, etc. The scale really worked as well – like in Who Am I, the courtroom felt enormous as opposed to the little mobile thing they had before.

A preface to this point is that I don’t think I’m the right person to offer a critical commentary on race & the cast of Les Mis, but I think it is worth flagging – will 100% defer to folks with more experience/expertise. There were four black cast members – Éponine, Gavroche, and two of the chorus, which is way more than I’ve ever seen in the West End in this damn show. I’m under no illusions that Les Mis in the UK hasn’t got a bit of a problem with race. It is slowly inching its way better – when the Bishop came out and he was black right at the beginning I had a moment of “finally? Are they finally doing this right?” but the diversity wasn’t quite as much as I’d hoped. Especially as in my head, I’ve developed a huge, very multi-racial dream cast for the show, so…yeah. I’d love to see some of the characters who always get played by white people played by folks of colour – Enjolras, for example, Grantaire, Valjean himself. Or have both Éponine and Cosette be not white? For once? This would be great? Please let me know what you all think?? (this is West-End specific, I know there have been some productions working on this elsewhere).

The general mood seemed a bit darker? More violent? Perhaps that was the updated lights and set, idk, but more fake blood abounded I felt, and yeah – more actual deliberate fight scenes. It worked, ngl, the world feels like it’s gotten to a darker place, and the new Les Mis reflects that in a way, doesn’t gloss over the violence. Again, I think more thinking will let me know what I actually think about this, but we’ll see.

ONTO SPECIFIC CHARACTERS & SCENES!

Valjean

· Jon Robyns – he was brilliant, like, nearly as good as my holy grail (Killian Donnelly). Voice incredibly on-point – I’ve seen some Valjeans with really harsh voices which I don’t think fits the character – his Bring Him Home started so softly and gently and then really soared (until some twat decided to take a FLASH PHOTOGRAPH of him mid-song, whoever it was should have been ASHAMED of themselves).

· He was so sweet with little Cosette! At the end of the curtain call, he and the actress had their own mini bow and then hugged, and he carried her off into the wings.

· He really made more of Valjean’s physicality than other actors I’ve seen – perhaps to do with staging too – but his and Javert’s interactions were much more physical, violent, and in your face than they have been. It wasn’t OTT on his end I don’t think, but you definitely got the sense that he was trying to rein himself in and that the violence was still there? You know? But ofc NEVER towards Cosette or anyone unlike SOME adaptations I could mention (yes I am still bitter about the BBC trashfire, sorry to anyone who liked it but eh, imho, gross).

· At the end, he and the Bishop have a hug in heaven! It was very sweet!

Javert

· This is the second time I’ve seen Bradley Jaden in the role of Javert and I am a blessed human being (really want to take my Dad to see him too) because he has officially ruined every other Javert for me. Like ever. His characterisation feels very book Javert, very stern and uncompromising but more so than other Javerts, idk, it’s just his sheer stage presence as well, and his facial expressions and his general look…I can’t put my finger on it. He’s just phenomenal.

· Stars was on this beautiful Parisian bridge (fake stone balustrade-style complete with four hanging lanterns) that came down from the flies, incredible backdrop, and he just brought the house down again.

· Ngl – they have him actually holding a legit chain during the Confrontation and maybe I’ve read too much ship fic, but it certainly gives a whole new dimension to the line “Msieur le maire, you’ll wear a different chain!” Also especially as the Confrontation was so much more physical as well, they were properly fighting each other instead of just circling.

· He was much more bloodied at the barricade, and there was this moment where he was being taken offstage as a prisoner and he’s on his knees in front of Enjolras, who’s very blonde hair is all you could see from where I was sitting, and they’re both in a spotlight, and the mood just really reminded me of the dynamic in the fic Les Hommes de la Misericorde by Kchan88 (which is great and you should read if you want to).

· After the barricade, they incorporated that heartbreaking idea from the movie – Gavroche is lying dead in the front of the stage and Javert bends down to shut his eyes and crosses himself. There’s then a total reversal of the moment with Enjolras described above, but I’ll get to that in more detail in the Enjolras section.

· In Javert’s Suicide, he did the complete breakdown thing again – which worked as he actually had blood on his face and long hair loose everywhere from the barricade scenes. Back on the pretty bridge, which split in two and he legit FLEW for the drowning scenes, so was thrashing suspended in midair as the lights and backdrop swirled around and behind him. That was something special.

Fantine

· The one, the only, the Carrie Hope! She played a very understated Fantine? Which…I liked more than I thought I would? Like the voice came out at the end of I Dreamed a Dream, Lovely Ladies etc, but she was so…controlled? It perhaps felt odd after seeing her as Éponine and Veronica in Heathers where she let loose a lot more, but her Fantine just felt a little more mature, a little more resigned?

· Her Fantine also gets put through the bloody wringer, jeez – the fight with the factory woman is much more physical (and when I say more physical, I actually think they were properly choreographed?) and with Bamabatois, who is just as grim but less slimy than the last actor I saw play him?

· I’d kind of almost forgotten about her by the time she came out as a ghost at the end, but that bit was lovely, as it always is.

Éponine

· Shan Ako was a scene stealer. Bloody hell she can sing – she put some pretty riffs in On My Own (small, but noticeable if you know the song) and her belting voice was unbelievable.

· With the new set, you really get a feel of the Gorbeau tenement – she’s hanging around up there a bit. Also in Attack on the Rue Plumet, with the set the way it is (a house with a wrought iron balcony and a door, with the gate and fence extending out towards centre stage) you again get a feel for the scene in the book when Éponine basically says to her father and his gang that they’re dogs but she’s a wolf and she’s not afraid of them because she’s standing guarding the door with her arms wide…yeah, it really worked.

· She and Gavroche are either friends or it’s a subtle nod to their siblinghood, as they fist bump right when Gav introduces Éponine.

· On My Own was a tour de force – second standout of the night after Stars, for me.

· Her A Little Fall of Rain was also gorgeous, and she had a real fizz with Marius, which was cute.

· A rather large niggle – Shan Ako is black, and Young Éponine was white. Perhaps there was a last-minute emergency, but surely they could have got a little black actress to play Young Éponine? Idk, it just bothered me.

Cosette & Marius

· Oh my god, Harry Apps as Marius – he Pontmercied around the place, and was so awkward and adorable! In Éponine’s errand, when he tried to go up the stairs, he banged into the set! During his bit in Red and Black he gets up on the staircase and starts full on declaiming, arms wide etc. His scene with Cosette in Heart Full of Love was gorgeous – he chucks a stone at her window, and she comes out, sees him, and disappears and he’s like “oh god I’m doing everything all wrong” and then she comes hurtling out of the front door instead and then stops and they stare at each other and it’s so cute! And then he’s just so self-conscious for the entire scene? And what’s so interesting is in the reprise at the end and the wedding, he’s so much more sure of himself – I really loved all the little nuances like that?

· He’s also really young! He’s the complete unknown they cast off the open auditions for the UK tour, and he is bloody amazing – totally deserved that!

· Lily Kerhoas was very charming as Cosette. I adore the character, but sometimes actresses play her too girly, which drives me a bit nuts, but she managed to pull off young/innocent/naïve/very soprano with a bit of practicality, heart, and edge. And there was a great moment when she and Éponine are both in the garden after, and getting that look in at each other without the gate in the way was really powerful.

· Cosette and Marius had chemistry! It was lovely!

· Empty Chairs – wow. So basically Turning (my underrated fave) was a range of women dressed in black who leave candles dotted all over the stage. Marius sings Empty Chairs surrounded by them, and (you guessed it) the dead Amis come in and all pick one up and Marius does too, and then they blow them out and leave and Marius is left holding the only lit one and blows it out then raises it like a toast and WOW MY FEELINGS WERE NOT PREPARED.

Gavroche

· This kid STOLE THE SHOW. LITERALLY. He was black too (like Éponine) and they had a proper little thing going, it felt like it really drew on the brother-sister Brick canon. He also felt very book-Gavroche, so cheeky and so serious at times.

· They’ve changed his first set of lyrics in Look Down to be those from the movie, which…sure. Worked.

· OKAY – in The Robbery, when Javert is like “everyone about your business/clear this garbage off the street” everyone scatters APART FROM GAV who’s pootling around behind Javert yelling “go on! You heard the man! Go away, even you!” and then when Javert turns to face him, Gav just does this irreverent little salute and saunters offstage and Javert just…lets him?? It was a FANTASTIC moment.

· At the barricade when Gavroche busts Javert’s disguise, he goes right up to him and on “this only goes to show what little people can do” just cheerfully gives Javert a big old middle finger. Which was SO GREAT.

· When Éponine is dying, he spends most of a little fall of rain loitering next to Marius and not really knowing what to do and my heart just BROKE.

· He and Grantaire had a cute bromance going – after Drink With Me, when Grantaire nonverbally tells Enjolras to go fuck off and goes off to the side of the stage, Gavroche just goes over to him and starts hugging his back, and then they have a cuddle on the side of the stage together for Marius’ solo.

· Because no turntable – Gav didn’t die alone on the other side of the barricade, he makes it just back to the top, gets shot with the bright white light (which they kept) and then just falls over into Enjolras’ arms, who then carries him down the barricade and puts him in Grantaire’s arms who just stands there, centre-stage, cradling a dead Gavroche for a few minutes before lying him down at the front of the stage.

· At the end, Gavroche gets dumped unceremoniously into the cart with dead Enjolras and idk, it’s just a moment.

Enjolras

· Right – instant disclaimer that I am incredibly biased and Hyoie O’Grady is and will forever be my Enjolras and I measure everyone against his performance.

· This guy, Ashley Gilmour, – mostly had the look and the hair and general icy beauty. I was initially disappointed with his voice, but he did grow on me – he just really didn’t have the presence I associate with a great Enjolras. This was especially evident in the speech bits like in Red and Black?. Like, you know they’re not right for the role when you don’t particularly have much to write home about. Maybe I’m being unfair – other people who’ve seen him – what do you think?

· The one bit of changed staging I didn’t like was Do You Hear the People Sing. I think Enjolras being towed around on the cart (which did come back during the beginning of the barricade) gives the song the momentum it needs & deserves? Whereas they were just marching round a staircase they’d shoved in the middle of the stage which Feuilly got up on for his verse, so…

· Aside from a few handclasps, there was basically no E/R. Not even a hug during Drink With Me. It wasn’t even like “no homo” bullshit whatever, it just…didn’t happen. Actors didn’t have chemistry, and it’s a fair reading – this Enjolras read ace/too busy for romance quite strongly, I guess, and also very young, but yeah. After the joy that was Sam Edwards, even a bit more chemistry with Hyoie O’Grady (even though he said he didn’t really like that reading (I think??) which totally fair), and some actors I believe ACTUALLY KISSING OMG in other productions (one Enjolras also wore a Pride sash instead of a revolutionary one in Brazil, I think???) it really wasn’t anything. I would love a cast with an outwardly gay & together E/R, but I think the West End has a while to go before that becomes reality.

· Enjolras’ death: obviously no turntable, end of that iconic spin to reveal him draped across the front of the barricade with his flag. In this version, he basically yeets himself off the front of the barricade very dramatically (there is no other word for it, I promise I’m not using “yeet” gratuitously) and then when Javert comes back after the fall of the barricade, there’s a soldier with the cart from the building of the barricade with a very dead Enjolras on his flag, arms akimbo out the end. Which worked. It was more quiet and understated, but it worked. No complaints from me.

· At the curtain call he gave us a little hand heart, Taylor-Swift-circa-2010 style. It was cute and I should probably stop being a cow.

Les Amis

· They’ll never cast them as diverse as they are in my head (I can only hope one day, perhaps, PLEASE!) but they were a good bunch. Their Feuilly looked more like a Jehan to me, but eh. Again, just no real…buzz. Not in the way I’ve seen them performed before? And I think Les Amis depends on a good Enjolras and a good Grantaire, because as the two main Amis in the musical, they set the tone?

· When the soldiers’ final announcements were happening during the Dawn of Anguish, one of the boys (idk which, they were basically all blonde) was having a very obvious panic attack on the floor by the tables, and one of the others was comforting him and it was like that horrible powerful scene in the 2012 movie and I didn’t like it because it was heartbreaking but it was very effective.

· They all seemed a bit less tolerant of Grantaire, who wasn’t even that disruptive by other actors standards, which I didn’t like?

· Grantaire was, again, eh? Funny, fine, but didn’t have interesting things going for him (like Adam Filipe’s pacifism, for example, or any kind of chemistry with Enjolras) in the way others have done, but it was a solid performance.

The Thenardiers

· Yes, they were great! Master of the House built to Thenardier being given the birthday bumps, which was funny.

· Madame Thenardier’s solo in Master of the House was delivered in the kitchen all by herself as a bitter monologue, rather than the drunken rowdiness you used to get in the old show.

· They were a pretty typical funny Thenardier couple, and I’m getting tired, I might remember some more about them tomorrow.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts. Would love to hear what other people think, and I definitely want to go back and see it again, perhaps with a different cast (a different Enjolras, argh). I’m off to bed, I have class in ten hours. Oops.

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dcarhcarts · 5 years

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This.....is the 1000th post on this blog, and I definitely waited until that could be true to post it, and that’s honestly? Very fitting. Seriously, you guys are a m a z i n g and I have literally never done a milestone before so I can’t tell you what it’s supposed to look like?? But we’ve somehow Miraculously (tm) managed to reach 100 followers and - anyway, this is going to be me very unprofessionally gushing about everyone because....I love you all and you’re all amazing aaaaaa. I’m??? Literally so blessed to have made friends and write with all of you. Y’all with multiple blogs, I’m only tagging once so I don’t spam your feed ok? And - as usual, this is going to get Long, because everything I do gets Long apparently. I tried to do it chronologically but IDK how well it worked oops.

THE LOVES OF MY LIFE, THE SUN IN MY EYES, MY MOON AND STARS

@ccrrupticn / D!!!! you are?? literally the reason I made this blog?? Without you, this thing would n o t mcfreaking exist omg!! You’re such an amazing writer (seriously, you manage so many muses and you give them all such distinct voices??? witchcraft???) and also so ???ridiculously kind! I love gushing to you about our Kids and you’re honestly A Saint (tm) for dealing with all of my blog construction/life related breakdowns, my crazy crossover headcanons and crashing into your inbox rambling about musicals <3 I miss talking to you so hmu whenever you come back if you want!!

@personnages / Lynna!! You’re like an Actual Angel. I think you were the first person!! who talked to me?? And You were So Nice and Welcoming that you literally soothed half of my fears coming into rpc like immediately?? You basically helped me figure out how diminutives work and you’re responsible for me adding at least 3 of my muses and I cannot tell you how much I love you and every time you pop onto my dash/feed/discord/etc, it just makes me happy inside <3 Definitely 100000% will follow you to every blog (if you’ll have me lmao) regardless of fandom!! i’m super excited about all of our ship/friendship roulettes and you’re just an absolute joy to talk to.

@nikolacvnas / LYDIA goodness you are a W O N D E R. Probably the best? Historically based blog I’ve ever encountered, and definitely one of my favorite parts of the Anastasia rpc!! The care and research and attention to detail that goes into your portrayals are a s t o n i s h i n g? Your Tatya is divine, your Maria is So Lovely and I Cry For Joy that you write Dima honestly. I’d been eyeing your blog for a little bit before I made my own - and I was honestly a little scared of you when we started cause you are a GODDESS and I am a potato, but then we talked??? and you’re hilarious and a ridiculously kind person and I love you? And of course, I love your dog (the cutest in the universe).

@mythostold / LESLIE~ Different blog, same story~ Man, I’ve been following you since maybe day two of this blog being active? No matter which fandom you end up in and which muse you write, you have such!! good!!! takes!!! For one, I love reading your meta posts??? Like you’re just so incredibly passionate about your muses?? And your writing style is so good aaaaaaa it’s so atmospheric. And on top of all of that - you’re??? such a sweet and incredible??? person??? And I love talking to you boo <3

@lifeawoke / NAT BBYSWEET <3 <3 <3 I have told the story of how I did a victory dance when you followed me to d e a t h probably but it’s t r u e your writing is amazing and your blog is amazing and y o u are amazing! You are the Natasha to my Sonya, and literally every time you send me a musing I’m like immediate-goofy-grin-heart-eyes???? It’s honestly a crime we don’t have more threads but like you’re an absolute joy to talk to and meme with and I adore you/your portrayal of beautiful bratty Natasha even if she drives my Sonya up the wall <3 You are Definitely the Funny Mutual lololol I crack up so much talking to you <3

@valianceearned / CARP you’re an amazing person/writer and holy h e c k am I impressed by your OCs!! They’re all so well thought out and developed? Your bios are so detailed and so much love and care is put into all of your characters. And your writing is so Lovely and it’s also very aesthetically lovely like holy heck the amount of work you put into both the content and the formatting? I am agog, I am aghast!!

@gearsandlevers / Callie!!!!! YOU ROUND ALL THE CORNERS I STRAIGHTEN THE CURVES!! love your kids so much. Your Violet is a delightfully clever and likeable kid, your Evan might have literally walked off the stage two seconds ago, and you’ve put so much thought into your cinnabon stoner Henry. Your dialogue is amazing and I love our headcanon sessions lobbing ideas back and forth with you!!

@spareisms / HEY MAGGIE GUESS WHAT YOU’RE WORTH MELTING FOR!! You’re like the sweetest person alive??? How are you an Actual Real Life Disney Princess?? Your Anna is so well characterized and multi layered and I love how she an be so flawed but so brave and just how human she is. I’m very excited for your Anne Shirley too!! You’re a great writer (and a super sweet person aaaa) and I love you!!

@gcneralvaganov / Deanna, I have just one question: How? Have we only known each other for like 2 months???? It feels like my dash would literally be incomplete without you?? You play such deeply complex and incredibly flawed muses with such a great depth of respect and humanity. I love all of our AUs (we.....probably have a dozen by now), our long fix-canon tangents, and....look the inevitable conclusion to this whole thing is that we should....basically just write Anastasia tbh??? You’re incredibly funny and kind and talented and I’m so glad I yeeted myself into your IMs that first time 2 months ago! I love you, I love your muses, (Dima and Anya love their Dumb Boyfriend), and I love writing with you!

@ncvaflows / ALEXA YOU ABSOLUTE LEGEND YOU. You??? Unlocked Ultimate AU Mode Ro and it’s like I c a n ‘ t stop?? First off, I cannot believe we literally own the same books and like the same barbie movies. How are we not literally the same person?? (Maybe w e ’ r e Anneliese and Erika lmao). Honestly from day 1 you’ve been so welcoming and lovely and I’m so glad we crashed into each other’s IMs yelling at top volume about random ya lit/movies/aus!! I adore literally all of your OCs (is everyone a b s o l u t e l y sure they’re not canon??? hmmmmm a Mystery)???? In the words of Li Shang, “You WRITE GOOD????” Anyway you’re amazing and I love you <3

WHILE IT’S DEFINITELY MY FAULT FOR BEING AN ANXIOUS BEAN WE REALLY NEED TO TALK MORE OFTEN CAUSE I LOVE YOU

@curtainrisen / Rebekah, dude, you’re a wonder. Your muses??? So diverse, and your voices for them? Super on the nose and amazing. I love your Helene and how human she is, and I really gotta toss more of my kids at you (Super excited for Duke!!). You’re real chill to meme with and I love talking/writing with you!!

@heartlosttravelers / Tor!! I love that you stan Raoul de Chagny So Hard ( the pure cinnamon roll boy deserves it honestly) and you’re super cool and great to talk to! All your muses are a m a z i n g and I always love the read when you pop up on my dash!

@damerusse / Marie!! You’re hella chill. Your memes???? 10000000% actually legendary. Meming with you cracks me The Heck Up. Lily is forever the puppy dealer, that is all, thank you, gnight. Ok for real though - your Lily is pretty Legendary too and you really got all that Spark and Fire right down. You’re amazing, and I love stalking your threads on my dash!

@lionhvrted / Fortune, my buddy my pal, we really be Out Here making Jane Austen plots even m o r e rom-com. Like. How did we manage that??? We might be literally magical lmao. We don’t have a ton of stuff going on at the moment but I love our dumb pining kids and I love the justice and humanity you give to your Caroline, and Fitzy loves his (future) wife.

@guvernantka / P R U E I already love our Exasperated Big Sis / Annoying Lil Sis / LITERALLY WHO EVEN ARE YOU YOU SMELLY DUMBASS LIL BRO IN LAW dynamic. You have the Best Sense of Humor (tm) and I’m always catching you when it’s like 12 in the morning here so I’m always cracking up silently in bed trying not to wake my roommies up.

@anastcsie / I LOVE OUR ANGRY SMOL AND DIRTY TOL YOUNG-BUT-OLD MARRIED COUPLE AND THEIR OLDEST DAUGHTER NAMED MARIA ALREADY. I love your Anya and how feisty and fiery she is (Dima, needless to say, loves his wife) and I love how chill (and hilarious!!) you are as a person. We do have a tendency to turn into angst monsters 24/7 but honestly that’s half the fun!!

@asundrop / Polly!!!! ok so I know we haven’t really done anything w/ Raps (yet muahaha) BUT b o y was I hella excited when I found someone willing to yell about CDrama with me??? Thank you for being the Eternally Stoic/Always Annoyed Ancient God to my Tiny Dumb Fox Princess?? I love them and I love you (you’re hella cool) so there!

@moretreasurewithin / KAAAATE goodness it’s only been a couple of days but I’m So Comfortable talking to you already? You’re just honestly really amazingly kind and I love screaming about Anastasia with you. We gotta get more going but I love your Dima and Maria Already (tm) and I love your sense of humor (here’s to torturing Dima with ties!!) and I can’t wait to get to know you better!

@annastrxng / AAAA somehow I managed to chat with you and then?? We never got anything going and it’s definitely mostly my fault cause of that High Anxiety (and also the fact that I got Immediately Busy) but you are literally So Nice and The Most Understanding and super great to talk to!! I hope we get something going in the future!!

@soulcrossed / ROSE we have the same name I keep forgetting this lmao BUT ANYWAY. All your muses?? Amazing. You gotta throw more of them at me. Your Sophie?? Are you Actually Diana Wynn Jones in disguise?? I love our crazy au/headcanon sessions and I love/hate that you’re The Worst Enabler and I’m inevitably going to end up with the other two Hatter sisters on this blog lmao.

I HAVEN’T TALKED TO YOU TON YET BUT HI!!! YOU SEEM CHILL!!

@alonecour / @steeledstark / @professor-of-predators / @sclskinn / @dulcettc / @volaticoux / @frxncaise / @argelfrasterr / @i-wrote-myway / @zharptiitsa / @villainsfall / @anyaromanovarp / @agoodandloyalrussian / @aliquisinter

AND EVERY ONE OF Y’ALL AMAZING PEOPLE OUT THERE I’M ADMIRING SILENTLY FROM AFAR EVEN NOW BECAUSE I CHICKENED OUT OF TAGGING YOU LAST MINUTE CAUSE WHAT IF YOU’RE LIKE “LMAO WHO IS THIS WEIRDO TAGGING ME??” (p.s. this is 100000% permission to slide into my IMs/like a plotting call/etc. I honestly think y’all are hella cool and probably love you already)

#follow forever #( milestone )#( ooc ) ✵ ~ CHANDELIERS AND CAVIAR ~ /#((................you know i made more friends than i thought i would coming into rpc as an anxious smol))#((I LOVE YOU ALL YOU'RE ALL AMAZING))#((thanks for putting up w/ me & my Super Anxious Self))#((ok i'm just gonna post this before i forget and reblog something and miss the 1000th post))

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gellavonhamster · 5 years

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I finished reading Picnic at Hanging Rock yesterday, and I am positively in love with this book - beautiful prose that combines poetic descriptions with dialogues that feel real. And I decided instantly to rewatch the movie in order to determine, having finally read the novel, whether I like the movie or the show the most. So I did rewatch the movie, and I think I’ve seen the show recently enough to remember it well, and here are some ramblings about both. Obviously everything stated below is just my personal opinion.

With all due respect to the movie (which is lovely, I like it a lot), I think I still love the show more. The movie is closer to the novel in terms of aesthetic and mood - the show tried to be a horror film at times, and the book is not a horror novel. It has scary moments (like the girls attacking Irma when she comes to say goodbye, or Edith yelling at the rock), but their horror is not exactly that or horror movies. But the show made me care about the characters so much more. Not only its cast is more diverse (which is great and important), it also paid much more attention to the individual stories of each and every person affected by the College Mystery, which is, in my opinion, the main theme of the book. What the story is really about is not what happened to the girls and their governess but what impact it had on the fate of a great number of people, many of whom didn’t ever know this girls personally. Changing their jobs, their places of living, their lives; ending their lives, in some cases. The movie doesn’t show us how Dora Lumley’s termination of employment at the college led to her dying in a fire with her brother, or how Mike and Albert’s lives were affected by the events at the Hanging Rock in general and by them saving Irma in particular, or how Mlle de Poitiers tried to find out what really happened to Sara. Of course, some plot points of these stories were not in the book and therefore could be considered excessive: this is probably not a popular opinion, but I really didn’t care about show!Mrs Appleyard’s storyline. I also didn’t like that they made her younger (and Miss McCrow too, thus making the entire story revolve around young women only, which is not the case in the book) while more or less the same backstory and character arc could’ve easily been centered around an older woman. But the characters of the show grew on me more than the characters of the movie, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the show indeed includes many book moments that hadn’t made it into the film, not just the material of its own, such as Mrs Appleyard’s criminal past and Miss McCraw/Marion (that I liked, btw, though now I still feel like book!Greta is a more interesting character than show!Greta).

In particular, I think the show’s portrayal of Sara is much more faithful to the source material than that of the movie. It is constantly emphasized throughout the novel that Sara is the youngest student at the Appleyard College. She’s frequently referred to as “the child Sara“, it is mentioned more than once how small she is, and so on. Movie!Sara just seems the same age as Miranda to me, and making them the same age takes a lot of nuance out of their relationship. Watching Miranda and Sara in the movie, I saw two girls of the same age, one in love with the other. Sara’s feelings for Miranda in the book and in the show are, in my view, much more complicated. It’s a mix of friendly affection, first crush, hero worship, and, dare I say, even a child’s love for her mother. Naturally, part of the reason why the age difference between show!Sara and show!Miranda is obvious is that Lily Sullivan is not a schoolgirl in terms of age, which is also not great, I suppose, because unrealistic expectations for teenagers and whaveter, but the other part is that show!Sara is visibly really such a child. Not even a teen: a child. Which makes Irma’s comparison about the little deer (and possibly that moment in the show when Sara gets a pet wallaby but I don’t think I can analyze this in depth) and basically her entire storyline even more heart-wrenching. That is not to say I didn’t like movie!Sara completely - in fact, my favourite characters are the same across all versions of this story, and Sara is one of them. But the show still made me care about her so much more.

In the end, I think the TV show is my preferred adaption of this book. I wouldn’t have learned neither about the existence of the novel nor about the existence of the show if it wasn’t for the movie, but I still like the show more, despite some charges in relation to the source material and really not caring about one of the main storylines. And maggots. Jeez, why do so many filmmakers love using these close-ups of maggots? Do they hate me personally?

#picnic at hanging rock #sara waybourne #hester appleyard #miranda reid #talk talk talk #idk man I just wanted to talk about this and this is too long for twitter and no one'd care about this on my other blog

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