#what a brilliant trans actor

[tawus]

opla final thoughts: i want each and every one of them to ride my face

#im reobsessed with one park #as gintama calls it #but yeah #one piece #i'd stopped on Wano Kuni arc #time to continue #apparently ZoLu broship truly sails in Wano arc #the whole cast and not just straw hats is masterfully chosen #but the straw hats each one of them is so perfect #i was cheering for live action usopp the same way i was cheering for anime usopp #nami oh my heart what a deep character lest we ever forget #the nonchalance but deep humanity of sanji and his understanding of women #and morgan davies #what a brilliant trans actor #he nailed his role #made me forever remember a character that had completely slipped my mind #bloody iñaki just steals every scene #and mackenyu arata....BRO #had no idea hes the son of sonny chiba #what an icon #opla spoilers #opla #one piece netflix #one piece live action #straw hat pirates #straw hat crew #eichiro oda

[serpentarius]

been trying to wrap my head around the cancellation of "Our Flag Means Death" and why it hurts so fucking much. lots of folks who are much more eloquent than I have summed it up perfectly, but I still think it’s important I add my voice to the matter. 

It really, really sucks that the hurt is being compounded on us every time another queer/minority-led show gets prematurely cancelled. and for a long while, we also had to deal with the many shows that deliberately queerbaited us, which was a shitty and traumatic experience unto its own. And even though we’ve largely surpassed that early-‘00s-flavoured brand of queerbait now, mainstream queer media is still predominantly white-led. With the cancellation of OFMD, we've lost one of the very few intersectional queer shows in the mainstream. Shouldn’t we be beyond asking for crumbs at this point? Shouldn’t we get unabashedly intersectional shows helmed by and starring queer, BIPOC, and trans folks without them being axed for no rhyme or reason?

It’s exhausting at this point, honestly. OFMD has done so well in terms of viewership and engagement and fan response—almost entirely due to word of mouth and little thanks to the Max marketing team, mind you—and even still the show got cancelled? Can they make it make sense????

For me, the thing most akin to this OFMD situation was when Sense8 got cancelled. And yes, the fandom fought, and we eventually DID get a movie that wrapped things up years later! That gives me hope for OFMD, that maybe another network will pick it up, or maybe they’ll be able to make a movie someday. But what makes me sad about cases like Sense8 is knowing that the creators still had to force the narrative around the amount of time they were given. That the corporate overlords who only care about numbers and profit dictated how much time they had to wrap up their story.

And it fucking kills me that DJ only wanted one more season. One more season to complete the vision.

I'm just so mad that queer people are constantly being jerked around and used for profit and then left high and dry. And then we're given excuses like "oh there's no budget" or "oh there's not enough viewership, that's all it is". like, sure, maybe those are contributing factors, but then I look at all the useless garbage shows that have little viewership and high budgets that keep going forever and then I think "hmmmm, the math ain't mathing." It's fucking transparent; the corporations can spew all they want with their rainbow capitalism and talks about diversity, but the evidence is clear, and they can't convince me homophobia/racism/transphobia/etc. is not a factor in these decisions.

Anyways, back to OFMD. OFMD made me fall in love with fandom again. I drifted away from fandom for a while in my 20s, and while OFMD wasn't the first fandom that drew me back into the madness, it's certainly the largest. The sheer amount of creativity both within the show and outside of it has blown me away; I've read some of the best fics, seen some of the best art, and witnessed some of the most incredible creativity from people in this fandom.

And let's not forget the role of the show's creators and how they've interacted with us fans. They made us feel seen. And made us feel loved and valid, even when we were being weird and loud and horny. It's so fucking rare to see that. But they understood; understood that the show they made was for us, for any of us who've been marginalized or made to feel Othered or different or stuck in life or unsure of our identities. And they gave us so much love for it.

The story... man. The unique combination of quirky humour and bright visuals and dark, introspective moments, the gorgeous costumes and soft, lovely, unabashed queerness, and veteran actors and new actors all getting to shine, brilliant comedic actors getting to show off their dramatic chops and vice versa. For me, seeing Rhys Darby - an actor I've loved for a long time, but who I never thought I'd see in a leading role - getting to be the romantic lead in a queer role? And seeing acclaimed director/producer/screenwriter/actor Taika Waititi play opposite Rhys, as an indigenous Blackbeard? Fucking incredible. OFMD Edward Teach you will always be famous to me.

Anyways... despite my long ramblings here, I still don’t think I've been able to get to the root of WHY exactly this show has inched its way under my skin and stayed with me in the way it has. Maybe I'll spend years trying to understand it. But I DO know that it's in part to do with seeing both older queers AND a diverse range of queerness onscreen, in a way that I've never seen in media before. I DO know that OFMD has forced me to look inwardly, and allowed me to realize some important things about myself. About my own queerness, my own identity, things I'm still figuring out. I've cherished being able to see myself in Stede, in Ed, and each of the crew members. In Roach’s love for cooking, in Oluwande’s ability to mediate; in Jim’s quick temper, in the way Izzy builds walls to guard his heart. In Buttons’ quirkiness, in Wee John’s sass, in Frenchie’s ability to turn pain into humour; in The Swede’s silliness, in Lucius’ bluntness, in Pete’s soft heart beneath the skepticism. Lastly, OFMD has inspired me. To create, to write, to draw, to devour other peoples' works and worlds while I sit in sheer, overflowing joyousness at their talent.

so yeah. the news of this cancellation is upsetting and hurtful and disappointing. And it's making us cry, and it's making us grieve, and may make us hollow and numb at times because we've lost yet another thing we love so deeply before it was meant to go. It's so much more than "just a TV show". It means more to us than any passive mindless idiotic mind-numbing bullshit - because even though there's a time and a place and a purpose for that type of media, it's the thought-provoking work, the work that creators pour their entire hearts and souls into, that hit us deep in our own souls. The work that changes our lives. The work that has the ability to save lives, as I know OFMD has done for so many. 

please know I'm sending immense amounts of love and strength to those of you who are also hurting. we'll get through this, one way or another, and I'll keep up with the hope that we'll get more someday; but in the meantime, I'm holding you tight. ❤️️🫂

#our flag means death #ofmd #my thoughts #ofmd thoughts #sorry for the long rambles I just needed to scream into the void #I feel helpless right now but I also wanna fight #sending love ❤️

[jmdbjk]

Bangtan weekly report.

Hello everyone.

A sign of Yoongi! Literally! his signature on a wall at the grand opening of actor Ma Dong Seok's (or Don Lee) boxing gym. Is Yoongi doing boxing workouts now?

Even Chef Baek and Psy attended this grand opening. Yoongi's signature had its own separate panel on the wall...

Kookie finally came home to Weverse:

"ARMY, are you doing well? I'm good I'm working out a lot And I'm doing lots of cleaning too, just really cleaning it all, from floor to ceiling I'm making rice well too It's already mid-March I will come again I miss you a lot" (Trans cr; Aditi @ bts-trans)

I know they take aptitude tests etc. to discern what military specialty/occupation/job they would match better. It is fitting he's ended up in a job that keeps him indoors in a very methodical environment doing something he's already shown an interest in.

There's a chance those who work in the kitchen have to wake up a little earlier than the others to begin preparing the food.

And it tickles me to think there are probably many who surround him who address him as hyung.

AND! I know when he sees Jimin enter the cafeteria, he gets the hugest brightest smile on his face. If he has any say-so in the kitchen, he is making sure someone makes and serves the biggest pancake, best pork cutlet and gives Jimin a huge serving of pork and kimchi stew.

Taehyung sighting at a Compose Coffee in Chuncheon:

Looks like he's found his military version of wooga squad...

I think the organization of "promotions" for Fri(end)s was excellent. I am 100% sure Tae came up with the idea of having people he knows react to the MV. The fan meet that happened yesterday, scheduled Stationhead listening parties and the WKorea thing is pretty brilliant too where it appears he'll sing the song in a prerecorded clip to be posted soon.

I wasn't sure if we would be able to get the song to #1 on the iTunes Top Songs list but we did it! There were some big releases yesterday.

And Hobi posted this on his IG stories:

This Wednesday will be the 100 day mark for Jimin and Jungkook (Tuesday for Tae and Namjoon). I wonder if all soldiers reaching that mark immediately take their 3 days off (or however many days it is) or can they choose when they want to take it?

I'd like to think Jungkook would be able to squeeze in a little bit of time enjoying one of those $1000 bottles of whisky that we spied in his fridge. I would assume he'll also swing by the house construction to pick out colors and flooring and such. I hope they get to eat some really good food and see all the people they want to see.

I learned they've been conducting readiness training and drills this past week with the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea. The report I read said they've doubled the scale of their drills this go round. (big worried sigh).

If you are in the northern hemisphere, I hope your allergies are not bothering you too much.

#bangtan weekly report #jimin #jungkook #hobi #yoongi #namjoon #jin #taehyung #bts military service #Instagram

[sirius-bus1ness]

LETS TAL ABT MY CHARACCTERS @thinkingnot @radio-to-trenchcoat-demons @theverywest HELLO u guys were the one in That post yeah? safjgajsgfas its been months sorry for the very late but!!! I have new stuff now :333 (anyone who wants to be tagged in future updates for this story lmk below)(ill be realeasing some notes on how the game works, the compnay, the effects of the game and how big its impact really is, etc)(and,ofc, more characters later!!!)

FOR NOW THO

Characters are divided into three categories: the main character, who are often in the plot both irl and in the game, the side characters, who are players that are either solely in the game or in real life*, and npc, who are just. NPC in the game. They will be important, definitely, but they would never show up irl. They're not real (although they do have actors, but they are separate from npc)

ANYWAY!!!! These 5 are my main characters. First up, Ruth Hernandez aka RuthlessAce. Used to be KingofSpades in the game, before she left playing for college(which she didnt actually last long in, bc she was scouted by some weirdo to work in the government)(her deadname is June, which will have to be used in the start of the story cause it's abt her realizing she's a woman, and the journey of her transition. She's 25, and FIlipino(like me!!!)

She's very cheerful and chill, in the present. She wasn't always, back in elementary and highschool, and in fact is part of a trio that goes around towns and get into fights with other gangs/groups. They have good reason for getting into fights, but only sometimes. She's sporty and friendly and well-liked when she was a boy, and while not veyr good academically she was very personable and people smart.

SHE is the lady in the corner, with the braids and weird bangs. It slides down her face fr. like thatguy from bsd.

Second!

Trixie Dela Rosa, the love interest, aka ManicPixieDreamGirl!. She is. So blorbo. She have an old name, but she's not trans like Ruth, she's actually just lead really strange life. She was a genius born to a poor family, in an urban area (ruth is from rural). By the time she was five, she's fluent in english and tagalog(filipino language) and learning ilocano(another filipino language). In school, youre supposed to be in prep school for two years, at four and five.

She starts, instead, elementary at five skipping the second year. It was supposed to be just like, some sort of indulgent thing we refer to 'saling kitkit' or kitty is joining literally translated. you're there but you're not supposed to be actually there. Unfortunately, she IS too smart, and she is doing amazing so they can't just make her repeat the year to match with other kids her age.

I have a bunch of fun thoughts about her childhood exploits and why her 1st grade teacher HATES her. (not really, she was just really annoyed nad easily upset)

ANYWAY. She have multiple younger siblings. At six, she has two other siblings. It's around that time she met Mrs. Dela Rosa, an old school teacher who married a rich man. The teacher LOVES her, a lot, and finds her intellegence very delightful and her mischief endearing. At seven, Trixie - Sophie still, then - her parents had twins.

One day, she overheard her parents talking about Mrs. Dela Rosa wanting to adopt her. And well, she is a brilliant child, and an observant one. Her family is struggling. Her parents, at first, didn't wanna agree. But Trixie got a sharp tongue and good at getting what she wants, and Mrs. Dela Rosa was offering jobs with good income plus scholarship for the four kids, in exchange for Trixie(the old lady is desperate, and so is her husbadn. they can't have children and they Want trixie.)

Trixie gets adopted, and proves her genius, skips a bunch of grades, getting the official exams bc money can get her anything now. At 10 she can speak 5 languages and play 3 instruments. She's mostly tutored now, only going to school to socialize with other kids. she's not actually in any specific class, she just goes wherever she wants(power of money)

anyway, at 15 she got sick and started playing paraiso. she was sick for 5 years, and i have a legit list of all the things that made her sick. things go, she becomes a streamer as a hobby while joining her adoptive father in his work, and things are going brilliantly for her rn. except for the angst of technically being sold(even if she decided it, even if she chose it, she was a kid. she was a kid. she doesn't regret it, but she was a kid.)(she wishes someone woudl fight for her, just one).

AHAHAHA ITS OBVIOUS I HAVE A FAVOURITE HUH.

nEXT .

Arthur Prince. The man, the legend, the best friend ever. GHe is flamboyant and loud and shining star. Attention SHOULD always be on him, because he lacked it as a child deserves it!!! Him and Ruth had been friends since they were kids, and man do they adore each other. Tight, attached to the hip, probably would kill for each other, definitely committed crimes together. He is MadRukh in game, and YES it is a reference to rook, the chess piece. Ruth's name is a reference to a card game. It is matching, or so they claim. tbf, they were 15 youre honor.

He is half filipino half british, and his dad sends child support from the land of the queen. his mother remarried a japanese man and had two more children. He is in the Philippines, being raised by his uncle, because he felt out of place with his mother and his father's paretns are assholes! not that he told anyone but ruth that, lmaooooo.

He's just happy they send him money (and that he plays Paraiso with his younger siblings)

He lefthis uncle's home at 15 btw. because that man was taking the money his paretns were sending him for his own children. He's also a streamer, and in the same sort of group/guild with Trixie, called seven deadly sins. He's lust, she's pride, and a bunch of others. he is aroace and if he had pennies everytime he coparented a child he sees as his siblings with a lesbian who hates him, he'll get two pennies which is good, its just weird it happened twice. (this is trixie, who took under her wing his middle sibling and-)

AND ELIAS VIDARRRR

brilliant agender bitch who is arolesbian. they get ALL the ladies in the school, and has been the lesbian awakening of soooo many people. Her past? a mystery. her present? ALSO a mystery. where do they get the money? how does he blow up his place every few days? why did the governement not come to check the danger? NO ON EKNOWS!!! It is the last part of the trio of gangsters in their town, it and arthur and ruth. they beat up people who harass girls. and also everyone else, because they have NO mercy. or sense.

the only solid thing about elias is that she is brilliant innovator with a little brother who loves her very much and completely dedicated in keeping her alive, except for when he is with arthur and playing paraiso.

shes the spiky haired one, with the heart glasses and scientist coat.

and last bt certainly NOT the least,

Aeon Vidar, aka SeashellInAHole!! An AI whose body Elias constantly updates as years pass by. He is so so precious. Him, Arthur, and Arthur's little sister Amethyst (FuryInMyVeins) form a party in game and goes to shenanigans. family, you may say. he is content being spoiled by both arthur and elias, who often takes him to carnivals and shit just so they can compete on who takes care of him better. He does not Care abt it. In fact, he finds it hilarious and fun, because his favourite is Anthony, Ruth's older brother. he is only a little bit lying.

Him and Amy are 13, and they are so so siblings. twins, even.

Notice, my readers, that elias has no in game name. This is because she LOATHES PAraiso. the game, the company, the headset nad the pods adn EVERYTHING. the only reason she has the paraiso messenger app on it's phone is because she needs it for if Aeon needs to contact them while his kiddo's in game. and no, btw, elias did not make Aeon, she's a gift from their mom <333 who definitely exist and is not at all connected to paraiso, wink wink nudge nudge.

The fact that elias look so so similar to the Gardener, with the shade of red hair, and aeon has a braid styled just like that in game god is a coincidence and unconnected and people should not talk abotu it (foaming at the mouth SOMEONE ASK ME ABOUT IT)

#auriginals :3 #My VR Life (tentative title)

[cock-holliday]

“All lives matter” Putin fan-girl has got some real charmers in her notes

Yeah, Zelensky is an actor who is really being puppeted by (((George Soros))), I can’t wait to see what other brilliant insights can be learned from this person

Ah yes, trans panic, evil big pharma, it’s all coming together…

Starting to think this person’s support of Palestine has little to do with supporting genuine liberation for Palestinians and has more to do with fighting……(((the west))) cough cough wink wink yes I hate BLM and land back but love ‘liberty’ what do you mean I’m a white supremacist

[monstrousproductions]

Hi Hero! I am working on getting into voice acting and dealing with some transmasc voice dysphoria. HRT isn't an option for me, which is part of why I'm doing auditions and such for fiction podcasts to try to love my voice anyway. My question is, do you have any tips on gaining confidence in voice acting?

Thank you for everything you do with this show! I hope you have a great day.

Oh, big hug, pal! Voice dysphoria is no joke. Recording yourself and getting used to hearing your own voice back can be a brilliant way to get more comfortable with how you sound!

Remember, there's nothing wrong with your voice - it's a transmasc voice, because you're a transmasc person. Medical transition is just one way to express one's identity - it doesn't make the identity itself. You're just as transmasc as you need to be, exactly as you are 💖

I know for me, just the act of listening to my voice every week really helped me internalise the fact that this is a non-binary voice - and was a non-binary voice before I went on T, and will be a non-binary voice throughout that transition. It's got to the point where, if people misgender me because of my voice, I genuinely am like ??? where tf did you get that idea ??? can't you hear I'm extremely cool and hot and trans of gender ??? who is this "Miss Owen" of which you speak ??? 😂

Auditioning for podcasts is a brilliant idea, but remember, there's a lot of rejection involved in auditioning and it can be tough.

You might have fun practicing on your own, recording yourself reading aloud and editing it into a little audiobook. If you're into fanfiction, podficcing is a really fun way to splash around in audio and get your voice out to a supportive audience. Or, of course, you can start your own podcast!

At the same time though, it's totally alright if you just keep those recordings to yourself. It's more about exposing yourself to your own, natural voice as much as possible, and learning the ropes, from how to set up your equipment to how to use your voice to best effect.

One big thing with voice acting is that you really have to dial your performance up to 11. Your audience has no other cues to go off except your voice - they can't see your beautiful subtle facial expressions or read your simple yet eloquent body language lol It's something you really have to do yourself to understand - you can feel like you're putting SO much energy into a performance in front of the mic, and then listen back and its the flattest, saddest thing you ever heard 😅

Pay attention to other voice actors and how they work. Listen carefully to how they use their breath, where they pause, where they run words together. Don't just passively enjoy the performance - try to really pay attention to what they're doing and what effect it's having. Then you can play with those ideas in your own performance, and see what works for you.

I think that word "play" is really important, too. Animals learn through play and humans are no different! You're going to get way further, way faster if you throw yourself into a fun little project that lights you up, and treat it as something you can play with and enjoy, than if you treat it like some great, ponderous task you have to get right first time.

In short, the best way to build confidence is to hang out with your voice as much as possible. Play around with it, reading aloud in silly voices, recording voice notes for your friends, mimicking actors you admire, etc. The more you hear yourself, the more you'll understand your voice. That'll help you learn how to use it and how to make it work for you, but more importantly, it'll help you to internalise the fact that this is your voice. It's yours, and you're trans, and that means your voice is trans too. No bells or whistles needed.

#monstrous askbox

[defaultnaming]

WARNING: COULD BE CONSIDERED CRITICAL OR ANTI. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T LIKE DW CRITIQUE

First thoughts:

I'll be honest, I went into the episode a bit biased, 10 is nowhere close to a good doctor for me and I dislike the RTD era. But open minds and all that.

I DON'T like the mcu logo. MCUification of DW on main.

I need an in-depth explaination on what regeneration energy does after that ep. Like, how does it make a suit and long coat, ties, a new sonic screwdriver, perfectly fitting glasses and a judges wig (he didn't know he would need it so he would have to have it on him so... how??)

Okay, why the big exposition cold open if you're going to exposit the info in conversation, feels a bit like you wasted time there I'll be honest. Could've went to solving the ep problem cause that was rushed.

The old doctor is back.... and apparently has a personality like at least a couple thousand years haven't passed... okay....

The part about 'Why does everything have to be a big goodbye?' I mean, it seemed really wierd that he would refuse coming for a cuppa because he CAN do that. We've seen it over 15 years, the doctor has developed to do that stuff. Also, bar a few phrases, didn't really see much of 13's personality there and it's shame. DT is a good actor, he could pull it off (I mean, he also could've pulled off the outfit but....), you didn't need to do 10 on repeat .

I like rose! But is she 15 cause.... no? Also, how to tell your trans character is written by cis people: 'DiD YOu jUsT AssUMe tHEIr ProNOUnS!?'

Love the starting her business, didn't like that they made Donna a mum who doesn't respect boundaries but still the support and the plushies were cute and I guess being nosy is in character for her.

Meep was cute! Feel like the meep was suitably menacing and it was peak cheese. Also, Miriam Margoles was perfect for the voice. I also love the bit where the meep was clinging to Donna, brilliant. Also, tactically landing in a steel mill and not being really contrived was good! I also loved that 'living sun' hypnosis, it made sense to me. I also loved the cheesy bug things, they we cute as well and I love that they took the time to explain why the cab never got hit properly cause I was wondering.

Also, Sylvia wanting to KO the doctor on site to keep him from seeing Donna... accurate, funny and I wanted her to do it I'll be honest. Saun temple, absolute king, just drinking respsct wife juice. Like, if my partner gave away that much money I'd divource but he's just better than me.

I love UNIT as this alien first responder force, that was neat. I love that they were inclusive to disabilities and the characters were still suitably badass.

I love the (albiet clumsy) trans positivity in the episode. But let's not give them too much credit, the doctor has been trans and trans positive (with timelords mind) since about 2014.

Didn't like the implication that transmascs are inherently more dim/stupid than transfemmes. Also, that is literally what they said because the text was literally 'if you were female (still a woman) presenting, you'd understand'. I won't lie, as a transmasc person, it kind of hurt. I feel like we should be past the feminism that drags men instead of uplifting women but yeah.

I feel like they undercut the tradgedy of Donna's sacrifice by having her just... be alive. I get she... shared?... the metacrisis but it kind of ruins why Donna was such a tragic figure in DW. Also, gee DoctorDonna, why didn't you just think 'get rid of it' before? Could've saved a lot of trouble. The cracks through London just kind of disappearing when the ship was stopped was wierd but I get it, they need to move onto other things and that would be too big of a distraction.

Also, they're going to visit Wilf yay! Why did the TARDIS redecorate? Why did you then give a workable reason why she would need to reconfigure immediately afterward? I love the design, very retro but again, felt a bit contrived.

All in all, a cheesy, old nu!who episode vibes (I clarify, not my thing) that has some great building blocks and despite the problems, I am looking forward to new episodes to come!

#dw spoilers #doctor who #doctor who spoilers #doctor who special #dw critical #doctor who critical #donna noble #10th doctor #star beast #14th doctor #the doctor #possibly anti? #possibly critical #anti doctor who?

[cptapathy]

Do you feel your theatre experience impacts your d&d experience and vice versa? If so how?

An intricate one

I think poem first then full answer under the cut. It's long and indepth.

Does a shoe influence a dance?

Will the thread effect the weave?

Do I age with time?

Or does it age with me?

So, to try and determine how theatre has influenced anything in my life is incredibly difficult. But the biggest thing is helping to sus out when audiences may lose focus.

I have been in professional theatre since I was 7/8 I think, amateur theatre since I was about 6 maybe it's real hard to remember. So naturally everything I do is influenced by it.

My background varies from acting to dircting and lighting design so how theatre impacts is more identifiable.

Part 1 acting

So I was a good actor but not a great one and I think if a great actor were to play a ttrpg they wouldn't do well at it if they approached it how they approach acting.

When I would perform a role I would be thinking constantly about what my character would do right now, how I'm meant to move to this position, the next thing is a big moment so I need to prepare for it etc.

A great actor doesn't do that, they just do the stuff they don't think about it. It does mean that great actors can be terrible fits if the character I too different from them but if it's the right character it's seamless.

However the tendency to think in depth about each action is incredibly useful in ttrpgs especially combat focused ones like dnd or PF as the alienation of the mechanics fits nicely with the alienation of thinking though each action and intention.

Although apparently everyone does improv and everyone recommends improv I've never had a great experience with it and that is entirely because most aee comedic. I can't help but find it funny and feel the pressure to be funny.

However the few times I've done dramatic improv it's been brilliant and I've been able to hone that to a T in TTRPGs I've never before had the scope to perform dramatic improv like that before.

The final acting thing I can think of is my voices, I hated my voice after it broke for some reason, can't possibly imagine what would make me, a trans girl, hate her deep voice.

But because I hated my voice I inhabited a number of different voices and accents and would spend hours in the playground making weird noises just to stretch and flex my vocal skills. To this day it's really difficult for me to not slip into the accent of people talking to me.

Doing lost of different voices helped immensely with acting and has been invaluable in TTRPGs as a player and gm. Obviously no one needs to do a voice for TTRPGs but I can separate characters in my head by their voice and the wild thing is that similar characters will accidentally slip into each others voices more than similar voices do.

Part 2 Directing

This is easy, directing and GMing are almost a 121 parallel.

1. Organising a group of disorganised performers/players

2. Ensuring the table/rehearsal is safe and comfortable

3. Steering said disorganised group towards a conclusion, theme or ending that aligns with the script/adventure and each other

Like, running rpgs is how I get my theatre fix during the slow times.

There are a number of things that I have learnt from directing which I tend to apply in rpgs. A lot seem obvious but common sense ain't so common.

Dramatic irony: incredibly useful to engage the audience/player. Obviously this requires a game where secrets are a thing but if that is the case having some information that others don't can pull players in especially if they hold only a part of the puzzle and are trying to figure out the rest

I am a creative editor not dictator: in theatre there are directors who accept no challenges to their vision. I am not one of them, I believe in the inherent nature of actors/writers/designers as creative and that when we collaborate we make something better than we could have made alone. So when I GM or play I take that attitude with me. There is no right answer, most of the time I will have a number of idea of how to solve things but whatever the players suggest I am more inclined to enact that what my original plan may have been.

Part 3 theatrics/design

When I run in person games, I will narrate an opening cinematic, think game of thrones/civ 5 openings with camera cuts and transitions focusing on actions the characters have done in the last session and giving hints to what may come up in the story.

I will plot this narration to music, try my best to time it correctly, and spotlight moments from each character to make them all seem badass. Sometimes I will incorporate character backstory scenes to give background if we are going to be focusing on one characters arc over others for the session.

I think this has become my signature style as a GM and, personally, it makes for an epic opening. It also is a clear indication of "the game has begun" which is an issue I see with a lot of GMs where there isn't a hard start to the game and it can get a bit meandering and slow to start.

Another related element which is tough to enact in game is the rule of inverse (I just made up that phrase)

The rule of inverse is if you have slow slow fade to black or snap to black transitions through the entire play you maintain the one you use until THE MOMENT, the moment when everything changes, the tonal shift, the revelation, the denouement/climax etc. At that point you change how transitions happen snap transitions if you were fading or slow fades if you were snapping to black.

This highlights the "everything has changed" sense and sets the audience on edge.

In TTRPGs its very helpful to have a sudden shift in energy to let players know something has happened or changed, that we are now in another phase. This is generally changing the frequency of rolls and opportunities to act drastically.

If speeding things up it may result in limiting player agency in the moment if they are unsure of what to do but you can mitigate this by either adding an IRL timer and/or taking a moment to tell the players things are different now, (you can stop this being jarring and pulling players out of immersion by setting a key phrase to indicate that this is happening)

Anywho that's how I approach TTRPGs with a theatre background.

#jess answers #poetry #poem #long post #ttrpg #dnd #theatre #@serotoninswitch

[denimbex1986]

'David Tennant proved himself the ultimate trans ally once again after rejoicing at the news that his trans-themed TARDIS badge led to thousands of pounds being raised for an LGBTQ+ charity.

The Doctor Who star has long been a vocal supporter of trans rights, from wearing iconic pro-trans t-shirts to standing up for the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

In his latest show of solidarity, the 52-year-old actor was spotted wearing a TARDIS pin with the trans flag colours while appearing on The Last Leg and The One Show on 17 November. He was promoting his upcoming return as the Doctor for the trio of specials celebrating the Doctor Who 60th anniversary.

After eagle-eyed fans spotted the progressive badge, they flocked to social media to praise Tennant and to find out where they could also get hold of the Tardis pin.

Soon enough the creator of the badge, Dr Jamie Gallagher, announced on social media that all proceeds from the badge would be donated to LGBTQ+ homeless charity Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT), totalling at a whopping £18,000 (and counting).

During the Rolling Stone UK Awards on Thursday (23 November) Attitude magazine asked for Tennant’s reaction to the brilliant news, prompting the best response.

“That’s amazing,” he shared, before playing his down his involvement in helping to raise money.

“That’s really to do with the guy that makes it, he added.

“I can’t take any credit for that. It’s just something that I think is rather lovely and important and suits what Doctor Who is all about. So it feels that the fact that relevant charities are benefitting from it is something that I’m hugely pleased about but can’t take any of the credit for.”

His decision to wear a trans TARDIS badge comes after he caused a stir for donning a “Leave trans kids along you absolute freaks” top, which led to outrage and attacks from anti-trans activists such as Graham Linehan and Posie Parker.

While his wife, Georgia Tennant, made a loud and proud statement in support of trans rights in October after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched an attack on the community.

The star is certainly accurate when he says that supporting trans rights fits right into the ethos of Doctor Who. The new episodes – helmed by returning showrunner Russell T Davies – feature several trans actors including Yasmin Finney, Jinkx Monsoon, Mary Malone and Pete MacHale.

The 60th anniversary specials promise to put trans acceptance at the heart of the episodes, with Finney playing Donna’s (Catherine Tate) trans daughter Rose.

During a Q&A earlier this month, Davies eviscerated bigots looking to undermine the trans inclusivity in the upcoming season.

He admitted there are some people who are “full of absolute hate, and venom, and destruction and violence who would like to see that sort of thing wiped off the screen entirely.”

To those people, he said: “Shame on you and good luck to you in your lonely lives.”'

#David Tennant #Russell T. Davies #Doctor Who #Yasmin Finney #Jinkx Monsson #Mary Malone #Pete MacHale #The One Show #Dr. Jamie Gallagher #LGBTQ+ #Georgia Tennant #The Last Leg #Catherine Tate #Donna Noble #Rose Noble

[lindsay-lohannibal]

David Tennant is a goddamn gift to humanity and Good Omens 2 is some of his most delightfully unhinged acting since the Doctor Who era. We also don't deserve @neil-gaiman who wrote this sequel with so much love, not only for the source material but for his original co-writer Terry Pratchett. I never knew Terry, but based on everything people say about him, I imagine this season is everything he would have wanted it to be.

Most personally of all, this series is the best queer representation I've ever seen in a piece of media that isn't directly about queerness. The main couples/love interests are all queer, and anyone who refers to a relationship where the gender of someone's partner is unknown uses language that doesn't assume it. Trans actors are featured (I believe?) and their transness isn't drawn attention to, nor are they treated differently.

This series does not portray the realities of queer existence, but it does portray what we hope that existence can one day be. And in some ways, that's even more powerful to depict.

I don't know if Neil can engage with this, strike rules being what they are. But if you're reading this, know that Good Omens 2 has refreshed my hope for humanity at a time that refresh was achingly needed. It's the kind of hopeful outlook that reminds me of the best Doctor Who or Star Trek.

Everyone else, go watch this brilliant, triumphantly silly show.

#good omens #good omens 2 #go2 #gaimanverse #crowley #aziraphale #lgbtq community

[whoreviewswho]

Wokeness, Responsibility and if RTD is problematic - Rose Noble and Trans Identities in RTD2

Is Russell T. Davies a problematic figure? Is he too woke or not aware enough? Is he doing something wrong to illicit negative responses from the conservatives as well as the progressives? Is it something in the programme, something in the marketing or is he doing nothing particularly bad at all? Well, perhaps you and I, faithful reader, can come to some sort of conclusion. Let's find out together as we take a dive into the controversial choices behind RTD2 and the mind of the man behind them.

“Homophobia and transphobia happens when it’s something you’ve never seen before. You can temper that reaction and change it when you introduce these images to people happily and normally and calmly when they’re young. Then it just becomes normal.” - Russell T Davies, Doctor Who: Unleashed

Yasmin Finney, in the role of Rose Noble, was the cover star of Doctor Who Magazine #591. She became the first trans woman to feature on the front of the magazine, six months before she made her on-screen debut in The Star Beast. The anticipation and mystique regarding Finney's role had been building for some time – twelve months, in fact, since her announcement in May 2022 and the teasing reveal of her character's name. Below her, on the retail version of the magazine, read the text; "RUSSELL T DAVIES ON CASTING ROSE". Indeed, such comments from RTD could be found inside as part of a larger article discussing LGBTQ+ characters from Doctor Who's history. Regarding Rose, RTD wrote the following words;

"We're looking for good actors. That's the most fundamental line. Good acting, gay, straight, in between, whatever, the actor we choose has to be good. That's the only thing that matters. I find myself at the heart of a web - of my own making, okay! - discussing the rights and wrongs of casting, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ roles. And it's an evolving thing. My stance changes over the years, as I learn more and more. My opinions change, like they're meant to. When I express a preference for casting gay actors in gay roles, some critic will hold up Queer as Folk from 1999 and say, but you cast straight men in that! Yes, I say, and I owe them everything; their bravery allowed me to move forwards, but more significantly, that was 24 years ago. Do you still think the same as 24 years ago? And then they stick their dummies back in their mouths and I think, oh, you do. The joy of casting like this, is in making my own experience richer, and I hope the viewers' too. That's what's brilliant about working with Yasmin Finney - through contact with her, I've witnessed her ideals, her politics, her family, her fights, her triumphs, her life in this world. A life I might never have known. It's a journey and a joy. I love it, and I hope I can do more, more, more."

There is an important moment of self-reflection to be noted here – a direct acknowledgement from RTD that his values, attitudes and opinions in representing the LGBTQ+ is an evolving one. I am inclined to agree with this too. I am not wasting my time attempting to hold the RTD of a quarter of a century ago to the social standards of today. To hold any work or writer up in such a way is, in my opinion, a dangerous and flawed practice that necessitates a form of selective critical thinking to even be viable. Art does not exist in a vacuum and to divorce it of any cultural context is an ignorant and problematic way in which to engage with it. That does not mean you have to like that work or artist. I am not insisting upon you to approve of work that is produced from deeply offensive, ignorant and insensitive places simply because they were made in the past. I am merely agreeing with the school of thought presented by RTD that the individual's and society's moral compasses are constantly evolving beasts and that evolution is reflective in the art that comes out of them. This here is really the thesis of this whole series of articles. Feel free to turn away at this point if you find yourself disagreeing. If you're looking for somebody to validate your feelings that art which you disagree with in some respect is inherently bad, please go and virtue-signal somewhere else. 

Today's entry will chronicle the overall handling and reaction to the first openly trans character in televised Doctor Who and how these things are situated in the socio-political climate of 2023. Before we go any further, though, I would like to directly acknowledge a fact that you will likely have noticed which is that these writings are devoting comparatively little space to repeating the views of the 'anti-woke' crowd. This is due to the fact that this crowd offers next to nothing of value to say with any potentially valid criticisms about Rose's characterisation and Finney's performance being, at best, drowned out or, at worst, entirely non-existent. This leaves me with very little to say beyond acknowledging that these people exist and that they are hateful, transphobic bigots and should save a lot of embarrassment embracing their true identity of being fucking morons. What we will do, inevitably, is turn back to the progressive complaints because they are far more interesting to consider than the inane 'You ruined Doctor Who' crowd and much more important. 

But this is all still to come. Let's just take a moment to briefly contextualise queerness in Doctor Who as best we can without making that the whole article. Prior to 2005, Doctor Who was an incredibly gay programme. There was no question of it having a mainstream popularity and strong cultural presence throughout the 1960s and 1970s but following its sixteen years sabbatical from a regular television presence, the cult fanbase that remained primarily consisted of queer men*. Queerness in the original run of the show was always a matter of subtext. Indeed, a number of key creators across the show's history were queer identifying including the programme's first director Waris Hussein, writer/director Peter Grimwade and producer John Nathan-Turner. Jordan Shortman has written a terrific article titled A Look at LGBTQI+ Representation in Doctor Who which I strongly encourage you seek out. The article is wonderfully easy to read and excellently acknowledges and explains the relationship between the LGBTQI+ community and Doctor Who. I'll make sure to link it at the bottom of this post.

One of the key examples that Shortman cites is the nature of the Doctor as a character; "From the second televised story, there is a strong sense of justice about the Doctor, doing what’s right; treating all life in the universe with respect has been a large part of the Doctor’s character as well as a driving force for the show, even in times when LGBTQI+ themes couldn’t be included". The suggested asexual nature of the Doctor is also notable for their appeal as a queer icon. Other characters with a strong queer subtext include the companions Turlough and Ace, the latter of which has been confirmed to have a deliberate lesbian subtext in at least one of her serials. Coupled with the decidedly camp nature of the show's production, especially in the 1980s, it is not hard to pinpoint examples of where the show's queer fandom might have been accrued.

Shortman's article crosses the wilderness years and into the revival where one such queer fan, RTD, took over the reigns and ensured that that representation was no longer subtextual. His first series gave us an unabashedly pansexual companion with Captain Jack Harkness, portrayed by an openly gay man in John Barrowman. Jack and the Doctor shared the first ever same-sex kiss in the programme before the character left the show full-time to head up the spin-off series Torchwood where his relationship with Ianto Jones became a defining element of the show's fandom. Obviously we shall return to RTD himself but queer Doctor Who did not end with his initial departure. Steven Moffat, a cis straight man, introduced a similarly roguish, queer icon with part-time companion River Song and recurring allies Madame Vastra and her wife Jenny. Moffat also introduced the show's first openly queer female identifying companions with bisexual Clara Oswald and lesbian Bill Potts. Somewhat more divisive was Chris Chibnall's, also a straight cis man, presentation of a tragic romance between the Doctor and her bisexual companion Yaz. 

This brings us to 2023 and the debut of Rose on the 25th of November that year. In DWM #597, RTD and Finney discussed the character in Doctor Who with RTD's opening remarks being;

"You know me, I'm going to make my stuff as modern and as progressive as it can be [and] I thought it was joyous, to get a trans character in there. I thought that'd be a lovely 2023 thing to do. A blast of 2023! It makes you better, makes life richer, and makes the viewing experience better."

Rose’s first scene is, in fact, the first scene of The Star Beast (discounting the expository prologue) and it plays as well as one would hope. We glean something of her character, her interests and interests and her relationship with Donna. I feel obliged to mention that the lowest possible bar is met regarding representation in that the Doctor, our audience surrogate in this scene, does not deride, question or shame her in any way whatsoever. What caused some amount of uproar came in the character’s second scene which takes place outside the family home. Donna and Rose are walking back to the house together and a group of young boys ride past and recognise Rose. The group of them harass her, calling out the following;

LAD: Oi, Jason, you all right? LAD 2: Looking good, Jason! LAD: Give us a kiss, Jay Boy!

Donna responds furiously, later explicitly reaffirming her support and love for her daughter, prompting Rose's exhausted response; "Just leave it". In regards to this scene, Finney detailed in DWM that Russell's scripts "definitely, definitely don't sugarcoat" the trans experience – 'Rose gets some stick from kids at school - when she and Donna are walking home, boys shout some stuff - and that's a part of being trans, especially in high school," She goes on to clarify; "Well, not just in high school. It's the stick we get from everybody. People see an opportunity and take it and love to degrade and embarrass us. But Donna's having none of it, and neither is Rose. I'm proud of that. That's such great writing. And I love the fact that, with both Rose and Elle, it's not like being trans is all there is. There's so much more to Rose than being trans".

Finney revealed even more about the scene in the corresponding episode of Doctor Who: Unleashed; “It did kinda bring back some PTSD for me. Sadly, my high school experience was a lot of bullying and a lot of defending myself and having to put on a brave face”. In the same episode, RTD commented; “Those boys on bikes are watching Doctor Who. So I hope they’ll watch it and think ‘Oh, maybe I shouldn’t do that. Maybe that’s wrong.’ It’s true, that’s part of our audience”. Notably, elsewhere in the same interview, RTD (before disclaiming a trigger warning) refers to Rose by her deadname and specifies that that choice was made because of an etymological link to the Greek word for 'healer'. He defended the decision to include the scene further in The Official Doctor Who Podcast; “To get that across and to get the prejudice that’s being shown towards Rose by those bullies and thugs in the street, we actually have to have a scene of deadnaming. Is that a good thing to do? Is that a wise thing to do? Is that a difficult thing to do? I personally think we should stare into difficult stuff like this, but equally, what a nice easy life I’ve got, and I’m ready to be told otherwise.”

An important thing to understand about RTD as a queer storyteller is his relationship with trauma. When he was eighteen, the world saw the first diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. There is a reason why It's a Sin depicted the brutality and horror of the UK AIDS Crisis with such a palpable sense of tragedy and bitterness. The queer experiences that RTD had when he was at his most impressionable were overwhelmingly loaded with hatred, bigotry, neglect, shame, fear and death. When RTD reinvented the Doctor in 2005, he depicted him as a "lonely god"; somebody who feels like the last man standing after his people are gone, alone in the universe. When it came to Torchwood: Children of Earth, this queer trauma was depicted further when Ianto is killed by a virus leaving Jack to carry on without him. Throughout RTD's career, his representation of queer characters and the queer experience has been informed by tragedy and trauma which he makes no less apparent in his writing of Rose. This begs the question – does this depiction being realistic preclude it from being poor or unnecessary? Would it have been just as strong a choice to simply write a strong character, one who is not bullied or belittled, and they just happen to be trans? This is an opinion that somebody voiced to me in real life after the special aired, a queer man who expressed exhaustion and disappointment with high profile queer representation offering traumatic experiences and defining its characters primarily by their queerness.

Following a scene with Rose's grandmother where she slips on her pronouns ("When I say she looks gorgeous, is that right? I mean, is it sexist? Never said it to him when he was... Oh. Oh, sorry"), Rose befriends The Meep and thinks she forges a connection due to their both feeling isolated and "from another planet". Another suggestion of queer trauma. As the story goes on, Rose becomes the crux of a big reveal which is that the Time Lord brain, the Doctor's brain, that was inherited by Donna in Journey's End passed down into Rose when she was born. It is at this point that the representation becomes... muddled.

When the Doctor reverts Donna's conditioning, one of the trigger words is "binary". At this moment, it is revealed that Rose speaks a different word - "Non-binary". This leads to the following explanation; 

DOCTOR: We're binary. DONNA: She's not, because the Doctor's... DOCTOR: ..male... DONNA: ..and female. ROSE: And neither. And more.

There a number of things potentially going on here that are of note. The first is that ongoing queer trauma subtext in RTD's work and this story's suggestion that that is a shared burden. This seems to be a realisation that has evolved in Davies' work over time. It's a Sin, for all its harrowing realism, makes a point of depicting community and friendship as intrinsic to the queer experience. The trauma is still there but it is a shared experience. The three specials RTD wrote from The Star Beast to The Giggle present a new arc for the Doctor which includes his making peace with not needing to be alone. As Donna suggests, in a rather meta-fictional line; "[Y]ou've been given a second chance. You can do things different this time. So why don't you do something completely new, and have some friends?" This theme can be extended to Rose as one of three characters who bears the load of the Doctor's experiences. The Doctor used to carry the weight of his trauma on his shoulders, now he has an opportunity to change and realise that others can take on those burdens with him. Perhaps this might have been what RTD was going for with his use of the term 'non-binary' – Rose saves Donna's life by freeing her from the limitations of binary thinking. It was assumed that she would either embrace her true self and die or live a slightly unhappy life with years of built up repression. Via Rose, we come to realise that there are not only two options.

To my understanding, the problem with this scene insofar as representation is largely rooted in the terminology and potentially an enormous misunderstanding from RTD. As presented, RTD seems to use the term 'non-binary' interchangeably with 'trans'. This is a complicated subject to get into but, so far as I understand it, the two terms are not generally accepted as synonymous. In contemporary queer culture, 'non-binary' is employed as an umbrella term for any identity that sits outside the accepted gender binary (male or female). For example, an individual assigned female at birth who identifies as agender, genderless. Transgender is also an umbrella term and it refers to an individual whose gender identity does not correspond to the one which they were assigned at birth. For example, an individual assigned male at birth who identifies as a woman. If these above definitions are to be taken as wrote, this would suggest that non-binary people may be transgender but not all transgender people are non-binary. These are not strict definitions, of course, but an attempt to better clarify and explain how RTD's use of terminology in The Star Beast is flawed.

This all could have worked better with some very minor changes. As written, it is plausible to infer that RTD's understanding of gender theory has some basis in academia, specifically in the views and opinions of activists and theorists of a closer generation to his. Based on how it is presented in The Star Beast, it would not be unreasonable to conclude that RTD considers the forging of a trans identity as an inherent rejection of the social constructs that are firmly entrenched in our post-colonial lives. Indeed, in Doctor Who: Unleashed, he explicitly remarked that; “It becomes a vital part of the plot that Rose contains the ‘he’ and the ‘she’ and the neither and the both, and that’s a new future. Rose goes beyond words, beyond definitions.”

An example of this relationship with gender can be found from feminist activist Gloria Steinem in a 2015 article for Advocate titled 'Op-ed: On Working Together Over Time' suggested that western society is shifting "away from only the binary boxes of “masculine” or “feminine” and begin[ning] to live along the full human continuum of identity and expression". Prolific gender theorist Judith Butler has expressed agreement with this opinion and offered her own definition of gender as a performative act from the individual rather than a natural reality. To quote BigThink's 2023 article 'Berkeley philosopher Judith Butler’s theory of gender for the 21st century'; "Gender only exists to the extent that it is performed, meaning it is both fluid and capable of evolving beyond history and tradition... It would be a mistake to come up with a single definition of what a woman is. It would be parochial. It would be coming from a very specific perspective. It would be freezing a time and place into a definition and then imposing it on the rest of the world”. 

There is nothing inherently problematic or inappropriate about RTD's choice to depict a non-binary character. The problems lie solely in the fact that he did not do this for the larger part of the story's runtime. While Rose never explicitly describes her gender identity or her preferred pronouns, it is strongly suggested throughout The Star Beast that she is female identifying; her family only refer to her with she/her pronouns and repeatedly denote her as their daughter. Instead, the text repeatedly suggests that Rose's identity exists on the established gender binary of male/female making the choice ending a muddled and awkward pill to swallow.

A fan theory that emerged in the wake of this scene was that Rose's trans identity stemmed from her having two people inside of her – the one she was born as and the one she identifies as. I hate this theory and I think that it is quite a transphobic reading of what happens here. There is no need to create a convoluted sci-fi reason for trans people to exist because trans people do exist. If cis people have a hard time comprehending the idea that somebody's assigned gender is not a label that they comfortably align and identify with, then I see no reason to make that reality something that can be hand waved away. Suggesting that transness is because of an alien presence in somebody's brain is not something that I can get behind and the problem is that that read is entirely plausible. Intentionally or otherwise, RTD has written in an 'out' for transphobes to justify and rationalise the character's existence in their own minds. And I very much dislike that.

RTD's trans representation in The Star Beast lead to a mixed reception within the fandom. As fan Emily, @emilyXCVI, remarked on Twitter, "[RTD] absolutely nails it in the first half, Donna & Sylvia’s talk in the kitchen was brilliant. But then the “nonbinary” thing and implying that Rose is trans because of the meta crisis…not so much. I appreciate the sentiment but it could have been framed a lot better". The positive points of praise frequently arose as acclaim for RTD's decision to depict a trans character in such a positive role in a high-profile, BBC programme. As Dr Emily Garside, @EmiGarside, proclaimed; "Russell T Davies truly stood up and said Trans people are beautiful and we love to see it. (The Doctor doesn’t stand for transphobes and neither does the Whoniverse)". Fio Trethewey, @FioTrethewey, was another voice in the fandom that was resoundingly positive; "#DoctorWho was so great last night, a fun romp and well made. Most of all I was so happy to see Donna respect her trans daughter, and help her mother when she was clumsy with the details, just all the good representation. In times we live in right now it’s what we need to see " 

The detractors were, however, equally as vocal with many pointing to RTD's comments surrounding the deadnaming scene as problematic. As JaeWrites, @jae_writes_, expressed; “RTD: ‘I didn't want to give transphobes any more ammo by putting David in 13's outfit.’ Also RTD: ‘So I'm just gonna deadname my trans character, make that deadname important to the story, repeat that deadname in interviews, and heavily imply that being trans is a choice.’” Some fans were critical of the choice to share Rose’s deadname in any context, concerned that the detail would only offer ammunition for transphobic fans to be disrespectful to the character when discussing her (this did happen). The harsher critics even compared the depiction to RTD’s earlier character of Lady Cassandra O’Brien from 2005’s The End of the World. The real first openly trans character in televised Doctor Who. The hysterical, vain, arrogant aristocrat was the primary villain of two stories in RTD's original run and was primarily depicted as a large, flat piece of skin in a metal frame. The character claimed to have had more than 700 different cosmetic surgeries. Cassandra mentions that she was born a boy in a throwaway line in her debut story which was intended to play as transphobic comedy. Cassandra blatantly played into the 'deranged transsexual killer' trope and is seemingly killed on-screen at the end of both stories she appears in. 

Following The Star Beast's broadcast, RTD appeared on The Official Doctor Who Podcast. The show is hosted by a diverse trio of fans, one of which is Juno Dawson, a trans woman. Dawson first became involved with Doctor Who in a professional capacity in 2017 but made her most high-profile contribution to the franchise to date in 2022 as the lead writer on the first series of Doctor Who: Redacted for BBC Sounds. The ten episode series featured Jodie Whittaker and a host of alumni returning to reprise their roles alongside original character Cleo, a young trans woman. The series was renewed for a second season which aired in 2023, now attracted to the RTD2 version of the programme, but Dawson was replaced as lead writer by prolific Who writer James Goss, a cis man. In the podcast, Dawson praised RTD's writing, especially the deadnaming scene; "There is no point in trying to sugar the pill. Trans people face transphobia". As some fans have been quick to point out, it remains unconfirmed whether Dawson or anybody else close to the production was consulted about their experiences as a trans person during pre-pre-production. As of the time of writing, neither Dawson nor any other trans identifying person has been confirmed in any creative role for seasons one or two.

Two days after The Star Beast aired, the highly publicised trial of Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe commenced. Earlier that year, the pair were arrested on suspicion of murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey. The murder and subsequent trial generated much discussion and attention in the UK press drawing greater attention to the lives of transgender youth in Britain than ever before. In the midst of this event was Doctor Who, as written by a cis gay man, depicting a trans woman in the UK in 2023. Following the broadcast of The Star Beast, the BBC received 144 complaints about its choice to depict a trans character to which the corporation responded;  “As regular viewers of Doctor Who will be aware, the show has and will always continue to proudly celebrate diversity and reflect the world we live in. We are always mindful of the content within our episodes.” In 2023, its 60th year since initial broadcast, RTD ensured that Doctor Who, remained connected to the cultural conversation of the UK and its wider world.

But does that necessarily mean that he did it very well?

To be continued in part three; The First Black Doctor and the Meaning of Mavity

*See one of RTD's greatest ever in-jokes in Rose when our titular heroine meets up with Clive to talk about the Doctor and his wife remarks; "She? She's read a website about the Doctor? She's a she?"

A Look at LGBTQI+ Representation in Doctor Who - https://thedoctorwhocompanion.com/2023/06/01/a-look-at-lgbtqi-representation-in-doctor-who/ 

#doctor who #analysis #culture #tv #behind the scenes #actors #review #queer #queer community #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq community #lgbt pride #transgender #transgirl #nonbinary #transfem #trans joy #yasmin finney #rtdedit #rtd2 #rtd era #nuwho #new who #tenth doctor #the tenth doctor #fourteenth doctor #torchwood #donna noble #rose noble

[dervampireprince]

Have you ever thought about doing Sherlock? A bit taboo i know, old fandom and such, but I feel like you’d be brilliant at it. Just a suggestion from having some nostalgia here, non the less hope your having a wonderful day.

TW: homophobia, racism, albeism (specifically against autistic people), transphobia, mention of jokes about rape

if you don't want to read this entire answer because the TWs are uncomfortable for you, then tldr no because the show contains bigotry and the main cast are gross/have said gross things. i don't want any arguments about the show, i don't think you're a bad person if you like the show, i just personally am very uncomfortable with it and with the lead actors so i will not make any fan content of it and would ask for no one to request this fandom again. i can not like the show and you can like it and we can get along these things can coexist.

all of this post is /nm , i am not angry at you anon, i am just explaining why i have the feelings i have about the show which you do not have to read if you do not want too, no hard feelings.

full answer under the cut, read at your own discretion:

i assume you mean bbc sherlock since you said taboo? and if so, the answer is no. and i don't think it's appropriate to call sexism and homophobic 'taboo' like it's a guilty pleasure. i'm not going to voice for a show that is at worst bigoted and at best a really bad adaption of sherlock holmes as a character.

this isn't meant as a mean attack towards you. when i watched the show when it came out i was a young teen and didn't see the bad in the show. and then when i was older and i got more familiar with the writers and uncomfortable with them i looked back on the show and realised how terrible it was. and look it's fine if you like it as an adaption of sherlock or like certain scenes of the cinematography or acting performances that's all fine. but.

but. hey maybe you're saying 'taboo' because you just think the show is cringe because of how the fandom acted or because of superwholock so sorry to burst anyone's bubble but this show and the people associated makes me so uncomfortable and angry so sorry you opened a can of worms.

irene adler's story is adapted terribly. in the books she's the only person to best sherlock. in the show? she doesn't. she loses. and then is a damsel in distress. oh and also is treat with such lesbophobia as the male writers have her be gay, literally say she's gay, but then falls in love with sherlock cos i guess she just hadn't met the right guy yet. that's such a gross narrative. and the queerbaiting. i know that word gets thrown around a lot. let me remind people of what it actually means. when a work of fiction purposely baits that characters will be queer while knowing they will never make the characters queer. so many people make comments within the show about john and sherlock being boyfriends, john being gay, etc, etc, while the writers knew they were never going to make them gay.

also the actor who plays has said disgusting things about autistic people, the actor who plays john has a consistent history of making racist and sexist jokes as well as joking about rape, and his ex wife who played his wife mary watson on the show is a terf. so. i mean she's claiming she's not a terf but she's following so many terf accounts and you don't do that by accident, said she supports 'legitimate trans people' which is a transphobic phrase as theres no such thing as an unlegitimate trans person, and doesn't think trans women are women. so. and the head writer, also has a history of sexist comments but when i searched to see if i was right they're mostly old so maybe he's grown up since then idk i don't follow him and don't want too.

anyway if someone is interest in a critique of sherlock in terms of how it works as an adaption hbomberguy has a video called 'sherlock is garbage and here's why'. it doesn't talk about the actors and what they've done or said, it's purely pulling the show's writing apart and how it adapts the characters and while the title sounds click baiting it's a really informative and well made video essay.

this is not meant to be me saying if you like sherlock you're a bad person, because i don't believe that. this is me sharing my stance on the show, as someone who as a teen was a big fan but then grew up and reflected and more stuff came out about the people involved. if you can still find things to enjoy about the show despite what i've said, go ahead. doesn't bother me. but don't ask me to make fan content for the show.

#ah the age old fear of wanting to tag the transphobia trigger warning so people who have that blacklisted wont see this post #and wont get triggered but also theres transphobes who target posts tagged with the transphobia trigger warning or there must be #because theres a pattern of me getting really terrible transphobic asks and threats every time i make a post using the trigger warning tag #the vampire vents #the vampire answers #tw transphobia #tw abelism #tw rape mention #tw racism

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update

friends, I have no time for bullshit. this is gonna be a long one, I have a tremendous TBR pile waiting for me, and we need to just jump right in. remember how last month I said I was going to get back into comics in a big way? I've made good on my threat.

without further ado, here's what I've been reading:

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (Sabrina Strings, 2019) - maybe one of my favorite nonfiction books I've read so far this year. shockingly comprehensive despite the sheer breadth of time it tackles; it's genuinely a bit dizzying to see antiblackness and fatphobia traced so succinctly across centuries and straight into the 21st century. prepare to spit nails learning about all the ways that the English have invented the most heinous bullshit you've ever heard to justify why they're just naturally biologically better than Black people, Asians, Natives, Italians, Eastern Europeans, Jews, and the Irish. tremendous breakdown of race-making and how deeply, truly insidious so many ideas about bodies are.

Dead Collections (Isaac Fellman, 2022) - a quirky little oddball of a novel about a trans vampire working in an archive and a recently widowed fanfic writer who have a totally typical meet cute - obviously the best way to get back out there is to hook up with the archivist handling your dead wife's screenplays and letters, right? Dead Collections follows Our Protagonist, the aforementioned vampire Sol, as he struggles with pretty much everything; if you're a fan of the Guy Having An Elaborate Internal Monologue While Having A Pretty Bad Time genre, this one may be for you. I was a little underwhelmed by Dead Collections, but it's got a sharp and interesting take on vampires + a queer sexy little romance that's worth the while.

Siren Queen (Nghi Vo, 2022) - listen: I am a Nghi Vo stan first and a person second. she can do no wrong. Siren Queen was, to my understanding, actually the first novel Vo wrote even though it's hardly the first book she's published, and while I think it shows a bit of first novel overambition, Siren Queen is still dazzling in its atmosphere and creepy factor. Vo brilliantly blends fey mythos with the early days of Hollywood - changelings roam the movie lots, actors' true names are bartered and sold, and studio heads are inhuman monsters who treat their stars like playthings. one of my favorite details was an older actor being described as having the color actually bleached out of them, turning them literally black and white, from back in the day when cameras were hungrier. spooky! and a brilliant concept, which Vo plays with in all kinds of thrilling ways as her protagonist, Chinese-American lesbian Luli, fights to make a name for herself without having to compromise any part of who she is.

Real Hero Shit (Kendra Wells, 2022) - a real fun D&D-esque comic about a ditzy and horny tiefling prince running off with a party of hardened adventurers. absolutely worth the twelve bucks I spent to scoop it up at Pride! my only complaint is that we got to see some lovingly drawn tits but absolutely zero purple cock and/or balls, which just feels wildly unfair. it's about equality, Kendra.

The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka, 1915, trans. William Aaltonen) - hey gang, at risk of sounding like a dumbass, I did not know what actually happens in The Metamorphosis. my knowledge began and ended with Gregor Samsa waking up as a bug and going "ah heck how am I gonna get to work?" and I was like cool commentary on capitalism bro, I get it. but did I? because I had no idea that Gregor then proceeds to spend the rest of his life scuttling pathetically around his room while his family feeds him garbage and ignores him. I assumed he would put on a bug tie and go to work or something and the commentary would be about the absurdism of being expected to sit at your desk doing paperwork despite being a fucking giant insect. but instead it's about, like, taking on a form that's alien and inconvenient to your family and becoming an isolated and reviled burden through absolutely no fault of your own because something about your body has become disruptive to the familial peace. and then he just fucking DIES because he gives up on life and the family's RELIEVED and get on with their business thinking about how great it is that they can move now and how lucky they are to still have a daughter with a beautiful normal body. frankly really chilling stuff, Franz.

Batman and Robin Eternal, Vol. 1 (James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder) - first off in the name of proper credit, I'm extremely aware that Tynion and Snyder are NOT the only people who worked on this by a country mile. unfortunately, there are so many issues jammed into this trade paperback that I'd be here all day if I were to list every individual writer and artist; for my sanity, I'm defaulting credit to the names listed on the front cover even though I know that's technically wrong. anyway, having said that: I remember liking Batman and Robin Eternal pretty well when I started it a few years ago, but sweet lord it has not held up for me very well at all. the story is fine, it's your standard global espionage Bat-shenanigans and every sidekick from Dick to Duke puts in at least a cameo, but god. christ. it's just... it's so New 52. according to my own math, the Batfamily timeline proposed by this book seems to suggest that Bruce has inducted a new Robin every 18 months for YEARS, and Dick somehow can't be any older than 24 at most. it's messy out here, kids. on the plus side: if you like Harper Row and you're gonna get a lot of Harper Row, and she and Cass are definitely dating.

100 Boyfriends (Brontez Purnell) - god, WHAT a collection of stories. Purnell has put together a roller coaster of messy gay experiences - drugs, sex work, infidelity, sex addiction, cruising, etc - and tied them up in poignancy and humor. there's a man having sex with his co-worker's husband, an actor who's washed up after his days starring in a campy gay sitcom, a musician touring Europe in a whirlwind of hookups and drugs and cancelled plans. each story is whip sharp and crazy fast, hardly ever lingering more than a few pages, but they leave unforgettable impressions.

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes (Neil Gaiman, 1988) - so my mom is moving and consequently shipping me boxes full of my shit that she doesn't want to be responsible for anymore, including all the Sandman trade paperbacks that I almost bankrupted myself buying the first summer that I had a job. for me The Sandman very much falls under "things that everyone says are good and are, frustratingly, actually good" - and yes, that extends to Preludes & Nocturnes even though we all know it's the weakest part of the series! I know it's absolutely going to get better from here once Neilman starts abandoning the larger DC universe doing his own thing, and I'm looking forward to that, but for now it is kind of charming to watch him bend over backwards to get characters Martian Manhunter and the Scarecrow involved.

The Vegetarian (Han Kang, 2016, trans. Deborah Smith) - I checked this book out at the same time as The Metamorphosis because 1.) it was also short and 2.) the jacket described it as "Kafka-esque," and I can be persuaded to do almost anything by a sufficiently amount of serendipity. it's certainly also EXTREMELY UNSETTLING! the tl;dr is that a Korean woman decides to give up eating meat after having some sort of fucked up dream, only for her husband and family to lose their fucking minds. to her husband she's an embarrassment; to her brother-in-law, an object of sexual obsession; to her sister, an inconvenient obligation. I can definitely see thematic parallels to the Metamorphosis in terms of that looming question of whether your family will still love and care for you if you become someone they no longer recognize, but there's a major difference in the fact that all the narration comes from other perspectives. we have no idea what's happening in the titular vegetarian's head as she seems to grow more and more distant and passive, nor what she feels about the ways she's being (mis)treated. great book, hurt my head.

Batman: Year One (Frank Miller and David Mazzicchello, 1986) - straight up? excellent. delicious. NO notes. Gotham (the tv show) desperately wants what Year One has but is too cowardly to actually let Gordon run Flass off the road, beat him senseless, and leave him handcuffed butt naked in the woods in the middle of winter. grow up!!

Batman and Robin Eternal Volume 2 (James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder, 2016) - pretty much the same as Volume 1 but dumber and more chaotic; a story about the Batkids teaming up to take down a human trafficking ring that even Batman couldn't bust turns into just. a whole convoluted take over the world scheme that we can't call the Justice League for help with, For Some Reason. and yet. and yet. I am not immune to the scene in which Damian chews out his brothers for thinking they're failures for not being Batman clones and reminds them all that Bruce not only knows they aren't like him, but it proud of and grateful for it. or the reveal that Bruce has spent years trying to do right by Harper to give her as much control as possible over her own life. or the ending when he takes Cassandra on after getting his memory back (Bruce was an amnesiac for this entire story, I don't know why or care. comics are like that). I have feelings about daddy!Bats your honor.

Batman: King Tut's Tomb (Nunzio DeFillippis, Christina Weir, José Luis García-López, and Kevin Nowlan, 2009) - gamers, I'm not gonna lie: this is probably one of my favorite things I'm going to read this year. King Tut's Tomb collects issues #26-28 of Batman Confidential and employs possibly my favorite kind of Batman storyline: there's some weird-ass murders happening in Gotham again, and now Batman has to do something about it. in this case he teams up with the Riddler, because the insane white man doing brownface and calling himself King Tut while he kills people is also spewing riddles during his homicides, which is thematically a bit confusing and also pisses the Riddler right off. after Batman declines his first offer to help Eddie shimmies himself right out of Arkham anyway and proceeds to spend a full day cheerfully calling Bruce "partner," being rude to cops (based), and being right about pretty much everything. I really enjoy the way DeFillippis and Weir write the Riddler, employing sort of a "used car salesman" energy that really straddles the line between charming and insufferable, and Bruce makes a phenomenal straight man for him to play off. I would have read another 20 issues of this happily, but I respect a story that doesn't overstay its welcome.

#bookblr #reading updates

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Okay, so, I think I probably ought to get around to talking about my thoughts on the past two Casualty eps before yet another one airs! I’m not going to do a big recap-style commentary like I usually do, but I’ll discuss them a bit.

I’ve thought both of the latest eps were very good. I did prefer “Once Bitten” (the week before last’s) to “Armour-Plated” (last week’s), but that’s mostly because “Once Bitten” had more Jacob scenes. Whereas last week I felt there was too much Faith and not enough Jacob. I know my favourite character (well, he’s in my top 3 favourites, but that’s beside the point) can’t be the focus every week, but wouldn’t it be nice if he could??

More thoughts on “Once Bitten”:

I thought the snake was hilarious. I love that snake, and I don’t think I’m the only person who can’t stand Faith Cadogan and thinks the snake is an absolute icon, haha.

The Jacob scenes were absolutely brilliant. This storyline is being done so well. Jacob is becoming one of my favourite ever fictional portrayals of an abuse survivor. (While of course a lot of his actions at the moment are about trying to make up for Robyn, I think it goes back to Tina as well: the theme of Jacob trying to ‘save’ people was there in the coercive control storyline, too. And we had the episode a few months ago - I can’t remember the title - where we saw that he’s still affected by what happened with Tina, when he went on a date with his friend and he panicked and walked away.) I relate to him so much that that’s part of why I’ve been quiet about this episode for a while - I didn’t even know what to say because I was too emotional. So, yeah.

Incredibly well-written, and incredibly well-acted. Charles Venn is one of the very best actors Casualty has ever had IMO.

I loved the scene with Jacob and Charlie. I’m usually not interested in Charlie, but after I’d been feeling like “someone please realise that Jacob is in pain!!” for half the ep, it was a relief for me to see Charlie realise it and try to reach out to him. Didn’t Charlie used to be a mental health nurse, before the events of the show? Maybe that’s why he realised Jacob is struggling when others haven’t.

The patient storylines were very good. I always appreciate an episode with good patient storylines.

More thoughts on “Armour-Plated”:

It’s cool that Cam, Jodie, and Rida are all moving in together. That provides some great story potential, I think, and also potential for great comedy.

Iain’s storyline was very good. Iain is another character I’m usually not interested in, but I felt for him in this ep strongly. Michael Stevenson’s performance was excellent. And, of course, I loved Jacob being there and being supportive to him - although I’m also sad that Jacob is there being supportive and comforting to Iain, yet also thinking (as he said in the previous episode) he doesn’t deserve to have friends like that there for him himself. :( Oh, Jacob.

I still don’t care for Faith as a character and I can’t imagine I ever will. I don’t have much more to say about that.

The Jodie and Max dynamic is very interesting to me, and I loved the scene where Max stayed and sat with the lad with the bigoted father.  That scene made me wonder even more about Max’s backstory. Maybe it will turn out his parents were emotionally abusive to him or something, and that’s both why he bonded with the boy (he could relate to him), and why he didn’t want to raise Jodie (he thought he’d turn out like his parents). I think, whatever the reason he’s not been there for Jodie is, it’s going to be more complex than just being a bad father.

Yay for Sah! I love how Sah is just so casually, openly trans. It’s such a nice thing to see in a character.

And I’m very much enjoying the Teddy and Paige relationship so far. They’re great together, I’m interested to see what comes of their relationship.

That’s all I can think of to say. So, more of my thoughts about Jacob will come when the next ep airs. (I will talk about other characters too, but I’m kind of focused on Jacob at the moment, so my next episode commentary will probably be mostly about him.)

#BBC Casualty #Jacob Masters #tw;abuse mention

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #88

Glorious summer on the Côte d'Azur: La Piscine (The Swimming Pool), a 1969 psychological thriller, starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, and a very young Jane Birkin. A throwback to Delon’s breakthrough role as Tom Ripley in ‘Purple Noon’ 10 years earlier, where he also kills his same best friend Maurice Ronet in the Riviera’s sexy waters. First watch.

I loved Luca Guadagnino’s 2016 remake of this ‘A Bigger Splash’, with Dakota Johnson in the Jane Birkin role, but I find this original even more wistful and ambiguous. 7/10. (Photo Above).

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The Burglars, a 1971 crime noir starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. The genial opening scene with score by Ennio Morricone, and the initial part of a meticulous jewellery heist were very promising, but the movie quickly turn ridiculous. 60′s aesthetics of long car chases in Athens were not enough to offset the unfortunate story. The American version, where all the French and Italian spoke in Engrish, was jarring.

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First watch: Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1924 Michael, an early gay cinema classic. An unscrupulous young model exploits the love of his older benefactor, artist Benjamin Christensen. If it were to be remade today, Michael will surely be played by Timothée Chalamet.

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The Wild Pear Tree (2018) my 4th masterpiece by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, by now one of my all time favorite authors. Stunningly beautiful story about a young aspiring novelist who returns to his impoverished village. Highly recommended - 8/10.

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I haven’t seen too many ballet movies, and even fewer films about transsexuals, but the Cannes-winner Belgian film Girl (2018) is the best of the lot in my mind. It’s an incredible story of a 15-year-old trans girl who pushes herself too hard to become a professional ballerina, while at the same time undergoing gender reassignment. Brilliant on every level, with one truly-shocking scene at the end. There was some push back at the androgynous male actor who played the young girl, but it was a very difficult role, and he deserved all the accolades he received. 9/10

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2 by (new to me) Derek Cianfrance (who later wrote ‘Sound of Metal’) - both starring Ryan Gosling:

🍿 Sins are passed down through the generations from fathers to sons in the tragic, gripping story The place beyond the pines. It starts when laconic bad boy Gosling, who works as a Wall of Death stunt rider carnie, discovers that he has a 1-year-old son with a former fling. The story goes from there in various unexpected directions, and I don’t want to give out any spoilers, as this movie should be seen ‘cold’.

Star-studded, emotionally-charged and challenging narrative - The surprise discovery of the week!

🍿 In his sad Blue Valentine, hopelessly romantic Ryan Gosling falls for Michelle Williams, and after a life together as a family, they drift apart. Subtle, beautiful and heartbreaking. It also had some innovative end credits.

(All I have left of his is the period piece ‘The Light Between Oceans’, which received generally bad reviews). 

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What do you get when you combine Erik Satie and Japanese soft-core from the ‘Roman Porno’ period of the 1970′s? Aroused by Gymnopedies (2016), a strange meta-film about film-making a-la ‘Boogie Nights’. It tells of a has-been art director with insatiable sexual apatite (and a comatose wife) who reaches a dead end in his career, financial and personal life, and now has to resort to directing very cheap porn flicks. While at the same time many young women around him still desire him and are willing to do anything for him. A depressing black comedy. 4/10.

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Another womanizing arthouse director struggling with his behavior toward his female fans is Right Now, Wrong Then, my 9th by Hong Sang-soo. It’s brilliantly divided into two equal halves. The first part is similar to his other films: A famous “Director” meets the pretty Kim Min-hee by chance in a temple, invites her for coffee, then to Soju, and in the course of a day and night tries to seduce her by getting them both drunk. It doesn’t go well, and truthfully, that regular Sang-soo story line is getting banal and tiring, like a standard Woody Allen plot. But then, the whole first hour repeats itself from the beginning, a-la-Groundhog Day, and this time, he's honest with her, and their feelings for each other turn genuine and bittersweet. 7/10. 

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I was looking forward to see the original Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, but actually did not enjoy it as much as I should have. Yes, it was cutesy, and going for the heartwarming, clever touch, but the one-trick gimmick would have been better if it stayed a much shorter piece. It went self-referential 'meta’ too quickly. 🍿

Ingrid Bergman X 2: 

🍿 George Cukor’s 1944’s Gaslight, the film from which the phrase 'gaslighting’ was derived. A cruel and duplicitous husband isolates and psychologically tortures his young wife by manipulating her to question her reality. An unpleasant and ugly story of misogyny and domestic abuse. Part of the 1940′s cycle of 'Don't Trust Your Husband' films. Also, the film debut of 17-year-old Angela Lansbury.

🍿 Ingrid Bergman’s last role in Ingmar Bergman’s last film (not television productions), Autumn Sonata. The tortured relationship between self-centered world-famous pianist and her unloved, neglected daughter is hard to re-watch. The affected story was acted like a stage play and Ingrid Bergman looked as if she was still playing Golda Meir. The dubbing of the acting into English was a criminal act - This process should be illegal, and punishable by castration!

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Two men emerge from the sea onto the beach carrying a large wooden wardrobe with a mirror on its front in Roman Polański’s 1958 short silent film Two Men and a Wardrobe. 25-year-young Polanski himself plays (again!) one of the thugs.

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“Money is like Christ. It blesses you if you share it. Money enlightens those who use it to open the flower of the world and damn those that glorify it.”

Because I found Jodorowsky's The Dance of Reality (2013) so extraordinary last week, I had to watch it again. It still scores 10/10 in my book. The element of ‘Heart’ appears in it again and again, but what does it mean? 

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Tim Robinson X 2:

🍿 Laughing again with the absurd sketch comedy I Think You Should Leave. The humor is different, embarrassingly weird, awkward and sophomore: People behave badly, like a person who farts in a crowded elevator, and then blame it on others. The only immature running theme is scatological, and even though he is obsessed with ‘shit’, he keep calling them instead ‘mud pies’ and farts.

🍿 So I checked out his previous Comedy Central series, Detroiters, which he created together with buddy Sam Richardson (whom I will always remember as the TSA agent in ‘We’re The Millers’). It’s a combination of stupid ‘Mad Men’ in Detroit with the bromance of ‘Dumb and Dumber’. Same cringe-worthy toilet-obsessed humor as his later show, but more structured and less polished. 4/10.

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The only bad injuns... Don Siegel’s western Flaming Star, considered today as one of Elvis Presley 'better’ Hollywood movie. Elvis plays a biracial hero, half-white and half-Kiowa-Indian, in a tragic story about race and prejudices of 1950s America.

Wikipedia Fun Fact: The Andy Warhol silkscreens made of the Elvis publicity shots from the movie generated $380 million dollars (!) when they were sold.

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...They say i'm crazy, just a little bit out of whack, cuz they always like to act like me, now they call me a maniac...

The 1980 comedy Stir Crazy starts with a lovely song, sung by the lovable Gene Wilder, but quickly turns into an outdated, unfunny prison break yarn with a paper-thin plot. At least, Sidney Poitier who directed it, became the first black actor to earn a million dollars for a single film for it. 2/10.

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Know thy enemy: 2,000 Mules is an election-denial agitprop piece about the 2020 ‘ballot harvesting‘, made on the cheap by convicted felon and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D'Souza. As I remove myself more and more from following American politics, this was a little look back to see what I am missing: Grift masked as political discourse. Terrible on every level. 1/10.

Don’t kink-shame: I also watched Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda spectacle ‘Triumph des Willens', to learn what the Nazis were seeing, when Hitler consolidated his power.

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(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

[amphorographia]

This might be an unpopular opinion but I don't think LGBTQ+ characters need to be played by queer actors. That's not to say that queer (and particularly trans) actors shouldn't be given the same opportunities as their straight-cis peers but, ultimately, they're actors. It's literally their job to pretend to be someone else and portray experiences that aren't their own.

Plus, no matter how brilliant an actor is or how dedicated they are to their role, they don't control the narrative and they're not the ones responsible for the final product audiences eventually see.

What really matter is that these characters and their stories are shaped by LGBTQ+ writers, directors, producers, editors, cinematographers, designers, and so on. It's these perspectives that are the most important part of queer representation in media.

#representation #queer representation #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbt media #queer #media #film #television #tv #straight actors playing queer characters #opinion