#but enough of that...we're getting a proshot!!!

[bpenn]

A NEXT TO NORMAL PROSHOT! YES!

but what about that rumoured broadway transfer? that's still in the cards right? Right?!

[oacest]

for someone whos about to have a lot of time on their hands what would you recommend as top oasis gigs to watch (excluding knebworth, corestates, the whiskey, wembley as obvious ones) as you guys seem to have seen a lot of them

YESSSS what a glorious request! we've been training our whole lives 13 months for this moment. gonna take this opportunity to make a general rec list for anyone who might be interested, so pls forgive the inclusion of ones you've already mentioned.

(DISCLAIMER btw that some of these shows were filmed by an audience member with a heinous 90s camcorder, so prepare yourself to endure and eventually enjoy some potato quality recordings. the proshot ones aren't usually much better tbh. accept it, embrace it, love it.)

VITAL OASIS GIG WATCHING (an inexhaustive primer)

knebworth [night one] [night two]. self explanatory. if you haven't seen knebworth idek what to tell you. god tier. they weren't just sipping the good juice this weekend they were chugging it in a competitive keg stand. HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend watching both nights ofc but if you only watch one, make it the second. they pop off juuuust a little harder, the vibes are flawless, and also liam's wearing patsy's huge white sweater because he's a fashion queen he supposedly forgot to pack enough clothes for the weekend <3 <3 <3

g-mex, 1997. this is the show that made me fall crazy in love with bhn. it's the sweatiest liam's ever been and that's saying a LOT. contains this classic moment of liam tenderly toweling the sweat from noel's face between songs. liam's vocals on don't go away literally drove bal to tears.

wembley night one, 2000. let's not speak of night two, but night one was unbelievably good, they both looked the hottest they've ever looked, and noel was flirting haaaardcore with someone (sara???) sidestage/in the audience between songs the whole time.

maine road night one, 1996. both nights are superb and should definitely be watched, but if we're narrowing it down to one or the other, night one contains liam teasing noel about dedicating wonderwall to meg and noel retorting that liam's just peeved bc it's not for him. which could mean nothing.

earl's court, 1995. of "we had sex last night" + afterparty kissing fame. also liam does (for, as far as we know, the first and only time ever) octopus's garden during whatever, which is sooooo important.

corestates, 1996, aka drunk philly. theeee gig of all time in our opinion. an absolute disaster from start to finish 😍. they roll onstage so drunk they can barely walk, much less remember how any of the songs go, and it only gets better from there. not necessarily recommending this one for beginners bc it's more fun if you're familiar with all the songs/interpreting mancunian slurring/their normal onstage behaviour so that the true insanity of what transpires can hit you in full. you may already be familiar with liam getting scared by noel's woos, giving noel a kiss between songs, or noel playing guitar on his knees to liam's utter delight, but every single minute of this show contains something equally as ridiculous, hilarious, and endearing. best viewed with friends imo. and very important to remember that it took place a mere three weeks after knebworth lmao.

radio city music hall, 2000. this one's solid in general but it's included here largely bc noel is high as absolute fuck and basically having sex with his guitar the entire show. particularly during gas panic.

the white room, 1995. competes with g-mex for liam sweatiness factor. everyone here is thirsty beyond belief, most of all the camera operator and editing team. from the general aura it seems likely liam and noel were in the middle of a furious fucking fight immediately beforehand. liam's entire existence in this one defies description. it's less than half an hour, so well worth a quick watch.

glastonbury, 1994. can only find this incomplete version online, so it's also less than half an hour. classic for a reason! liam is so cute in his preppy little sweater with the buttondown collar underneath that andy, who was there with ride at the time, imprinted on it immediately and recalled it years later. mood.

jools holland, 2000. absolute thirst trap of a show. features liam reminding everyone to wear a condom. 👍

nyc hammerstein, 1997. fun fact, any proshot film release of fade in-out from this era features the dubbed audio from this gig, because it's just that fucking good. plus liam's wearing a very silly newsboy cap.

lille, 1997. aka drunk france. very charming, very fun, less chaotic than drunk philly but contains some excellent groping, and liam falling over 🥰.

barrowlands, 2001. really fucking great. noel looks like this. (can't find the full show on youtube but bilibili.com is your best friend when it comes to locating slightly obscure gigs and interviews. let's all say thank you to chinese fans, who work harder than god.)

nippon budokan, 1998. noel does the most astonishing acoustic set you've ever heard in your life, including this unbelievable setting sun/fade in-out combo that will change your brain chemistry fundamentally.

manchester, 2005. despite liam's truly hideous ensemble and the generally evil vibes, this is a solid one. one of the few later years ones we've been able to bring ourselves to watch tbh. contains An Incident that compelled me to make this.

live by the sea, 1995. excellent all around and it feels unreal to have such good footage from so early. liam is unspeakably beautiful, and they get the football score delivered to them halfway through the gig bc they're embarrassing nerds.

Rock in Rio 2001. extremely solid gig, with an absolutely stunning noel solo during gas panic that builds and builds and builds...

this is only a small handful of the amazing shows out there that can and should be watched, but quite honestly you can't miss with oasis gigs. we have yet to find a single one that doesn't contain some kind of weird horniness, particularly exquisite song performance, or mindshatteringly cute moment. it's well worth just looking up "oasis live [year]" and choosing one at random. (tread carefully with anything after 2002 though lol, shit tends to get miserable.)

godspeed, happy watching!

[lunatic-fandom-space]

I was thinking about my big Elisabeth: das Musical post where I talked about all the versions I had seen and I realized that I barely talked about Rudolf even though hes basically my favorite character, so now I wanted to make a quick post to rectify that

I mean to be fair to myself for not talking about him that much, that post ended up being mostly me comparing different productions and what I thought they did better or worse than others, and I feel like Rudolf fundamentally always stays the same so theres not too much to compare. Its a classic case of 'if it aint broke, dont fix it' yknow? Its not like thats hard to do at all, he only has three songs (in the og prod, but even in later ones he only gets one as a child and two as an adult and while I love them and love when theyre included, I wouldnt consider them vitally important (although.... I mean Kind oder Nicht does such a phenomal job at communicating Rudolfs relationship to the monarchy while also being great foreshadowing, but we're not talking abt rn)) plus the mayerling walzer, and as long as you have those and as long as you have Tod kiss him on the mouth, Im pretty much satisfied. I wouldd be beyond satisfied if the non-Vienna productions could also put Tod in a dress, but you cant win em all I suppose

The fact that its so easy to get him right is what pisses me off about the 1999 Scheveningen prod btw, because its like, all you needed to do was let him have his second song but they DIDNT because it was too political i guess, so now hes just this weird fucking guy whos there for a bit and he doesnt really do anything for the story and you dont really know why hes there and then hes just gone again. hes like herbert von krolock if he killed himself

But enough about that, lets talk about the various versions of Rudolf now

If youve read my other post, Im sure you can guess that Andreas Bieber of the 92 proshot is my favorite. Hes just so pathetic and sad and he has such a lovely soft little voice and Im absolutely obsessed with the way uwe!tod just fucking GRIPS him during Die Schatten werden länger Reprise, mwah. 10/10, no notes. Markus Neubauer is also my favorite actor for child!rudolf because he just does such a good job acting like a little boy, and I know that sounds stupid because he is a little boy, but idk. The way he sings "ich kann hart und bös wie die Welt sein" in particular is just so good, I feel like none of the other child actors Ive heard for this part really act like that, I feel like theyre mostly focused on just sounding nice, which I do appreciate but idk, I just prefer this

Im not looking up the name of the guy from the 1998 Vienna proshot (sorry) because I just really dont care about that one, its overwhelmingly just a slightly worse version of the 1992 proshot, and thats also how I would describe this guys performance. Yknow, its not terrible or anything but hes less sad and suffering than andreas!rudolf so I just dont find him as compelling. Also I do not remember child!rudolf's performance at all, Im sorry

I also did not remember 1999!Scheveningen!Rudolf at all, but I didnt want to just leave it at that for this post, so I did rewatch his songs for this and hes alright, I feel similarly about him as the guy from the 1998 prod, although I do really like the choice of having him speak more directly to Elisabeth in Wenn ich dein Spiegel wär. Like, Elisabeth is sitting at her desk and shes facing him the whole and theres parts where they touch each other's cheeks and then at the very end he goes down on his knees and hugs her and oughhhhhh its really good. I really enjoy this strained sense of intimacy here, but I think thats mostly just because its novel because the point of this song is that Rudolf and Elisabeth are fundamentally the same and yet theres this intense disconnect between them, and I think the more typical staging where theyre far apart or seperated by a mirror or some other barrier works better for that symbollically. Unfortunately I cant say that I enjoy the novelty of having Rudolf stand infront of Elisabeth's door in Mama, wo bist du? instead of being in his bedroom, but the actor was fine. I was also going to watch the mayerling walzer but theres a kindof skip that happens in the copy that I have whre it just jumps straight to Rudolf, wo bist du? so I went to look for another upload of this proshot, and all the ones that I can find are two hours long while the one that have is around an hour and 40 minutes long (its the one from the internet archive) and now Im questioning everything ive ever said about this production because what if I didnt actually watch it in full and it doesnt have all these massive flaws. i guess i'll worry about that later

Moving on to Dolhai Attila from the 2004 Budapest proshot, whom I just love. Hes so pathetic, he has this incredible air of just being scared during Wenn ich dein Spiegel wär and hes just crawling around and begging for Elisabeth to pay attention to him and Im obsessed with it. I also like that they actually had a dancer to represent Mary during the mayerling walzer but then at the end she kindof gives him over to der Tod and they kiss, its like my favorite sex move. I thought the actor playing child!rudolf was fine, although he was noticeably focused on his singing over his acting imo. Also, during Mama, wo bist du? hes wearing a white undershirt and that blue uniform jacket-thing that he wears in most productions was either laying on his bed or hung up somewhere near his bed and very clearly visible, and I thought Tod was gonna put it on him towards the end of the song, but he didnt, and I thought that was a missed opportunity

I think Fritz Schmid in the 2005 Vienna proshot is pretty good, but hes simply not pathetic enough for me. Ive seen other people say that its because of Rudolf, ich bin außer mir, but I dont think thats the case. Like, I havent seen any footage of the 2012 Vienna production, but Ive listened to the cd and the guy playing Rudolf there definitely sounds sufficently pathetic enough for me, so it is possible for him as a character to be pathetic in this moment where hes standing up to his father, but this guy is simply not playing him like that, which is a shame. Johann Erbert as child!Rudolf is also very good, he has what I can only describe as an angelic choirboy-voice which sounds absolutely lovely, although I think it lacks the humanity of the technically rougher 1992 performance or even the 1999 performance, so I like it a little less than those

God, the 2016 Toho White prod does so much good shit with Rudolf. First of all, Furuwaka Yuta's performance was absolutely wonderful, his voice is just the right amount of soft and I love it. He is unfortunately lacking a bit in the patheticness-department but is very sad and he has this repressed anger which shines through at a couple key moments that I find really compelling. I love the choice of having Rudolf give the exposition about the german nationalists, and I love him and FJ standing on top of those giant coffins during Rudolf, ich bin außer mir. Also, during the conspiracy song everyone is also standing giant coffins and I think thats great; idk, its such a simple thing that I feel kinda stupid for enjoying it as much as I do, but then again, how can you possibls argue against the sheer evocativeness of having a bunch of people singing about societal change while standing on top of these gigantic coffins? Thats right, you cant. I will say, I found the way they did Eljen reprise extremely disappointing compared to the takarazuka version, but I'll talk more about that when we get to those productions. I love the choreography during Die Schatten werden länger Reprise, Rudolf and der Tod dont touch each other as much or as intensely as in other versions, which is unfortunate, but I like that there are these parts where Tod seems to be controlling his body, i think its a great way to show that he feels like hes losing control. And while they dont touch other that much, there is a part where Rudolf is laying on the ground and Tod is crawling towards him like some manner of predator, which scratches a similar itch in my brain. And ohhhhhhh dont even get me started on the mayerling walzer. The choreography is really good, I think it strikes a great balance between the kindof uncoordinated panic of the original Vienna choreo and the more deliberate interpretive dance-y Takarazuka choreo, and I love love love Rudolf initiating the kiss at the end. And godddddd, the way they linger on it and the way Tod gently caresses his face afterwards makes me crazy. If you care about todolf at all, I think this one is required viewing for you

I really dont have too much to say about child!rudold in this one, I think his actor (whose name I unfortunately couldnt find) does a very good job in both the singing and the acting department and hes just so cute, I feel like crying every time I think about him. I think its because hes just so small, like its been a little while since ive seen this proshot so maybe Im misremembering a little, but istg during Kind oder Nicht when hes standing next to Sophie, it looks like hes only as tall her her skirt, like he could hide inside the hoopskirt while standng fully upright and it makes me crazy. Speaking of Kind oder Nicht, I liked that Count Gondrecourt was there instead of the lady-in-waiting, I think thats a neat choice. And I really liked Rudolf being surrounded by these armour sets holding weapons during Mama, wo bist du? and the way they collapsed when der Tod properly entered the song. One of the armour sets was holding a gun and when Rudolf starts singing about killing the cat he takes it and kindof gesticulates with it, and Tod is just staring him in this intense way and its so good. mwah, 10/10

Okay, before I can really get into the things I like about Rudolf in the takarazuka productions, I need to briefly talk about the fact that I used to really dislike him in these. And I thought that it was because of the way that he was written, but then I was like "well no, I mean theyve obviously made a lot of changes to all of the songs during the whole takarazukification process, but Rudolf's actually seem to be the ones that are the most similar to the original german ones", so after realising that I thought "oh, its the conspiracy song and éljen reprise, those were obviously added later and so that part feels incongruent with the rest of his character and thats the reason his writing bothers me" but then I actually thought about those songs more, specifically éljen reprise, and I realized that theyre essentially expressing the same thing as Die Schatten werden länger Reprise except optimistic, yknow what I mean? Die Schatten werden länger Reprise is the depression and the conspiracy song/éljen reprise is the mania, thats the best way I can sum it up. And thats when I finally realized that the thing that was bothering me about Rudolf wasnt the writing at all, it was the acting – I did not like a single one of the actresses in this role, which is wild because by the time I came to this realization I had seen like dozen proshots already, but its the truth. But then I actually did find a Rudolf-performer that I liked, which further bolstered my realisation that it was the acting I had an issue, whose name I unfortunately cant remember because when it comes to zukabeth I dont pay all that much attention to the actresses that arent playing Tod or Elisabeth ToT I dont remember exactly which production they were in either, so shes just gonna have to be my lost cinderella until I decide to burn through all of these proshots again

I unfortunately cant tell you what exactly it is that makes me dislike all of these Rudolf-performances because its kindof all-encompassing I feel like, so idk, if you feel similarly and you can describe what it is, please tell me and we can see if I feel the same. However, what I can tell you is who my least favorite zuka!Rudolf is, and its Ryouga Haruhi from the 2009 Moon Troupe production. While shes clearly a very good singer, I dont really like the tone of her voice (atleast here, shes probably good in other musicals) and, Im not sure if this is a conscious acting choice or just the way her face normally moves, but shes constantly doing this grimace of a nervous smile and I really dont like that. I do not think that Rudolf is a nervous smiler, its unfitting imo

I was gonna jump into everything I like about adult!Rudolf in this version at this point and then talk about child!Rudolf after, but I think I would rather just get all the negatives out of the way first, so heres everything I dislike about child!Rudolf in this production: hes not played by a child which I find kind of offputting, especially when the actresses try too hard to project this sense of child-ness and innocence. And like, I know how the takarazuka revue operates (you essentially have to go a performing arts university preparing you to perform for this specific company and its very competive) so they obviously cant have child actors, but still. Also, the bowlcut wigs they put on them look so bad, I literally cannot believe theyve stuck with them for over 30 years now. And the thing that makes me even more frustrated with them is that they have different wigs in some of the shinjinkoen prods and they look a thousand times better! agh

Okay thats it, onto the positives: I noticed that the stage is a lot more abstract during the Rudolf/Tod scenes and I think thats very interesting. Like, the takarazuka sets can be quite minimalistic at times but theyre ultimately still very literal (unless theyre portraying purgatory like in the prologue or Am Deck der sinkenden Welt), but Mama, wo bist du? and die Schatten werden länger Reprise both take place in these voids full of marble columns and I think thats pretty neat. I really like the little moment after Mama, wo bist du? ends and Rudolf runs offstage while Tod does a little flourish of his hand thats kinda like a bow, I think its very cute and Im always upset when they dont do a closeup of it. During the instrumental portion of Die Schatten werden länger Reprise before they start singing, Rudolf sits down on the ground and starts saddrammatically vogueing and its peak takarazuka goofysilliness, and Im in a goofysillines-enjoyer mood so I really like that. And the absolute best Rudolf-bit in all of these productions is Eljen Reprise, which I guess is technically part of the conspiracy song herebut I like to call it that to better isolate the exact part I mean. So, Rudolf is in this cafe with the hungarian conspirators, theres a whole set there and everything, and theyve talked a bit but then theres a beat and the set suddenly splits gets wheeled offstage and people flood onto the stage and hungarian flags fall from the ceiling and they bring our this little church-podest-thing that we've seen in Eljen proper and Elisabeth is standing on it and smiling and waving, and the previously dimmed lights have suddenly turned bright and warm, giving the whole thing this fantastical triumphant glow (and all of this happens within seconds, its crazy), and Rudolf runs up to the podest to get crowned king of Hungary by Elisabeth while everyone is cheering for him, but as hes walking back to the front, some Todesengel steal the crown. After that we're essentially back in the conspiracy-sing tone-wise for a bit, but then we're back in Eljen Reprise Land where we get this big group dance number set to this fun triumphant music, but then theres suddenly gunshots those flags fall down and all of those people are afraid for their lives and fleeing, and GOD i love it so much. I lohed it even when I had issues without it because I thought it was incongruent with Rudolf's character because of the sheer emotions that it makes me feel and the way it makes my heartrate spike

And the Toho version is. very much not that. I get that those bigass coffins take up a lot of the stagespace so you cant really have it flood with people, and I dont think you could move those coffins offstage in only a couple seconds the way they move the cafe-set in the takarazuka prods because they seem pretty heavy and even if they arent, theres people standing on them so I feel like that would pretty dangerous, but idk. could they not atleast have the hungarian flags fall from the ceiling instead of just having them on the screen? Its much less effective because the visuals are not as fast and its not emotionally janking the audience around as much. I also think Lucheni putting the crown on Rudolf's head is inferior to Elisabeth putting the crown on Rudolf's head, although it is a pretty interesting choice when you consider the idea/interpretation of this musical's story, and particularly the fact that Rudolf's side of things is shown in a very sympathetic way, being influenced by Lucheni as a narrator, and when you co sider the fact that the real life Luigi Lucheni apparently quite liked Rudolf

Anyway thats it, I hope you enjoyed my Rudolf-thoughts! If you have any Rudolf-thoughts, please share them with me, I always appreciate it

[thewickedbohemian]

Dream Animated Movie Musical Tournament Quarterfinals Match 1

After many matches with some surprise successes (I'm surprised at the run Starlight Express is having or that City Of Angels made the freaking top 16 and is only getting eliminated this round) and some surprise early eliminations (I honestly expected more out of Hamilton or at least Be More Chill but such is luck of seeding) we're now at the quarterfinals with eight musicals remaining in this tournament

Starlight Express

Why this deserves to be an animated movie musical: because since a non-proshot movie wouldn't really be able to capture the skating gimmick of the stage show why not just have it animated with actual talking/singing trains, it's not like animated movie musicals starring animate inanimate objects is a new thing. Also because one Andrew Lloyd Webber show with nonhuman characters deserves to have its movie stick the landing

Ideal animation style (at least imho): something similar to the style of Disney's Cars and Planes movies (as opposed to the Thomas The Tank Engine shit many people imagine) but I don't know which studio should do it as despite me referencing their style Disney doing it would just confuse the heck out of people as this is its own thing not Trains

Additional notes: this would have to be a cast of relatively big names to get more butts in seats than just the existing Starlight Express fandom but between having actors that can sing and could work for those parts and the desire to avoid the whole "just cast the big-name to sell tickets talent schmalent" syndrome a lot of people complain about in animated movies these days coming up with a voice-cast would be a delicate balance

Beetlejuice

Why this deserves to be an animated movie musical: its musical deserves a movie (even if that means you'd have to retool "The Whole Being Dead Thing" for fourth-wall-breaking to a movie audience instead of a stage audience but that just helps it be distinct) and animation would help distinguish it from the existing movies as well as just be able to really amp things up visually from what you can depict on stage (imho movie adaptations of fantasy or sci-fi musicals should always be animated unless you're using a majority of practical effects instead of so much CGI a live-action movie of them might as well be animated)

Ideal animation style (at least imho): Laika Studios's style but I'm not just saying that because of Coraline, I just feel like that visual style would kinda "match its freak" if you get what I mean and we haven't really seen that style with a musical yet

Additional notes: as I said last round I do have a partial dream-voice-cast but I'm completely freaking stuck on who should voice Beetlejuice as I feel like Alex Brightman isn't a big enough name outside certain circles for him returning to be worth it unless everyone else was a big enough name to sell tickets and a lot of the more-mainstream actors I think would work are almost-there-but-not-quite (e.g. while I may love dream-voice-casting NPH as trickster figures I feel like he doesn't have enough edge to pull off Beetlejuice)

[droughtofapathy]

do you know anything about the suffs proshot rumors? my favorite show from this year so really hoping they're true

I have heard absolutely nothing about that from anywhere. Which isn't to say it's not possible, but given that the show has about three-and-a-half weeks to go, and most of that is holiday-based, I don't see it having the time before closing. Filming would happen over the course of at least one, if not two tapings. I've gone to a proshot filming before, and it's a long process. They don't just prop a few cameras up in the back and hit record like the NYPL theatre archive. The cast and crew are working major overtime in the coming weeks, and then it's curtains. I'd say it's too late for even an angel investor to step in. They could film the tour, of course, Newsies-style, but that's a different can of worms. If there had been filming already, we'd have known.

Proshots are wildly expensive and are usually only done with shows that have the money (Diana notwithstanding...) to actually fund the expenses up front. And this one wasn't even making enough money to stay open past January. Unless Hillary Clinton herself is footing the bill (and if so, why did she not simply add to the cash reserves to keep the show running through the dry slump?), making this proshot would be throwing millions of dollars into the fire (and tea) for the sole purpose of artistic and historical significance. Hamilton was reportedly $12.5 million to film. Even if we conservatively estimate this one at $10 million, the show's initial capitalization was $19.5 million and almost all of that has been lost. Maybe Great Performances will take it, but PBS doesn't pick up the tab.

I'd be nice to have a proshot, but getting one is about as likely as winning the lottery for any show. And of course, even having one fully filmed and edited doesn't guarantee an airdate. It's been almost three years since they filmed Girl from the North Country, and we're only just now getting a limited screening in the UK and no word on a US airdate. And that was a Bob Dylan-affiliated piece.

[a-court-of-moonlight-and-ire]

Hey! I feel like Ive been at this for a goddamn eternity so in an attempt to speed things up I shall read 3 chapters today, how exciting. Im motivating myself by telling me that Im gonna get to watch the 2007 Takarazuka Snow Troupe Production of Elisabeth when Im done, specifically my favorite song because. okay so, when I talk about watching any Takarazuka production of Elisabeth what I actually mean is, I have pretty much all the proshots and a bunch of english subtitle files, but theres not a subtitle file for every existing proshot, so for example, theres a subtitle file for the 1996 Star Troupe Production but not the 1996 Snow Troupe Production which isnt a big deal since the diaogue and lyrics are all the same, but you cant just put the Star subtitle file over the Snow video because itll be completely out of sync, so what I do is, I put the Star subtitles into my subtitle editor with the Snow video and I manually re-sync every line to create Snow subtitles, and while I do that Im effectively just watching my favorite musical over and over again except very slowly. So yeah, in case you were wondering what your favorite acotar complainer does for fun, now you know

Anyway, enough of my life, now its time for my liveblog, last time Feyre and Rhysand got ambushed by some of Hyberns soldiers and Rhys got shot atleast 7 times and kidnapped and tortured, but Feyre was fine and she saved him and she pulled all the arrows out of him and now hes probably gonna be perfectly fine. I know this isnt gonna affect him in any meaningful way, like his wings are gonna bd fine and his back isnt gonna hurt, but I do hope that he atleast suffers for the duration of the 3 chapters im gonna read because otherwise whats the point

Chapter 50

Rhysands wounds are only healing very slowly and hes got a fever, we're off to a good start

idk why but I really hate Feyre kissing him on the forehead. the narrative has not earned such a tender gesture

THE SURIEL 🎉🎉

Oh, i hadnt noticed this before but I like the alliteration we get with the german translation of Feyre Cursebreaker, Feyre Fluchbrecher. 10/10 very fun to say

its been ONE year since Feyre first came to Prythian, Sarah im begging you, please stop pointing out the passage of time youre activel making it harder for me to get invested in this stupid romange

They translate 'Mate' as 'Seelengefährte' ['Soulmate'] and oh, you have no idea how happy I am about that, this and the fact that they dont say male and female but just man and woman/masculine and feminine makes this series about a million times better, once again, thank you Alexandra Ernst

I dont understand why Feyre being Rhysands mate is such a big deal anyway, she didnt grow up in this culture, and pretty much all she has at this point is Tamlin's vague explanation of it being a bond that goes beyond marriage and the fact that his and Rhysand's parents, both infamously horrible couples, were mates

'"He is the most powerful High Lord to have ever walked the earth. You are... new. You were created by all seven High Lords. Different than anything that existed before you. Does that not make you the same? Equal?"' ewww i hate that. If this is supposed to be romantic somehow why would you make it all about power, why wouldnt the Suriel say smth like "You both suffered in the same ways. He is the is the only one to ever truly understand you"

But also. Rhysand and Feyre are not even the same though ? Like yeah, Rhys is powerful, but wasnt Feyre special because shes capital-m Made, which he is not? If the logic behind mates is the two people being 'the same' in some way, then Feyre should really be Amren's mate methinks

Im not gonna lie, Feyre angrily forcing Rhys to drink her blood is pretty hot

'Deep down I hated myself for speaking to him like this.' No girl dont hate yourself, this is the first time in over 600 pages Ive found the feysand dynamic even remotely compelling

'I stared at him, this Illyrian half-blood whose soul was bound to mine.' what the hell? Top Ten Feyre Archeron Racist Moments

This mf really told his cousin and his weird freaky eldritch creatures whose apartment he pays for that he and Feyre are mates before he told Feyre

I just zoned out thinking about a version of Feysand where Feyre is basically constantly telling Rhys stuff like 'youre just a burden' or whatever she said during that one argument because shes starting to figure out his weak spots the more time she spends with him and she wants to like, break him emotionally as revenge for UTM and Rhysand doesnt do anything about it because he just represses all his emotions and he cant just stop spending time with her because theyre mates and he feels like he needs to be close to her all the time. Idk, abusive relationships have been my favorite angst fanfic premise lately

Its so wild how Feyre is super angry with Rhys for keeping the mating bond from her when literally everyone else already knew and not only is he gonna do the exact same thing with the baby in acosf, Feyre is just gonna be fine with it then even though its arguably much much worse

Chapter 51

Okay so I guess Cassian, Azriel and Mor have just been hanging out in Rhysand's warcamp house, do they not have anything better to do

god i wish being all pathetic laying in the dirt was Rhysand's default state instead of him always being the manliest man to ever man

Oh, so I guess Mor used to get locked up in this cabin in the middle of nowhere whenever she 'misbehaved'. you would think she'd have more sympathy for Nesta in acosf but from everything ive seen.....

this chapter was extremely short

I completely forgot that this book was split into parts, i guess its The House of Mist time now

Chapter 52

god the anachronistic clothing in this series is gonna be the death of me, why is feyre always wearing leggings and a cremecolored swester istg

Full offense, but if the mating bond is soooooo much stronger than marriage, Rhysand should not have been earnestly worried about Feylin getting married

This part where Feyre is relieved because it turned out that her relationship with Tamlin was always doomed to fail because she had a soulmate is pretty interesting, but it also feels like complete bullshit for reasons that Im struggling to articulate

I would just like to reiterate that I am so relieved that they just call it soulmates in the german version, I cannot imagine how insufferable this must be to read in english

Feyre started painting again hoorayyyyyyy. i feel like this wouldve been more impactful if she wasnt constantly thinking about wanting to paint whatever she sees, but hey

I actually think this part where Mor comes in and just goes around complimenting all the stuff Feyre painted everywhere is quite nice, I think i would enjoy it more if this whole story wasnt pissing me off rn

waiiiiiit ive never seen people talk about Mor's mother even though shes apparently alive and well, whats their relationship? Whats her role at the CoN if Mor is supposed to be the queen of the Hewn City??

Mor being like "Rhysand gave me his permission to kill my abusers but I dont do it even though I have pretty much no reason not to, but Cassian and Azriel really want to do it and would do it without hesitation so maybe I'll let them do it" is somehow a perfect summary of SJM's shallow wannabe feminism

Feyre still barely understands the relationships between individual members of the inner circle but sure, theyre the family she never had

[badsalmonella]

So I watched the filmed version of an older production of Camelot on Youtube and I have taken away:

- I find the first act's pacing in the revival is so good, I felt like that first act went by so breezily compared to this. Maybe it was the actors but the scenes felt stiffer? Made it kind of drag for me.

-I miss the song Follow Me. We couldn't have like incorporated the tune into Merlin death more???

-Actually the whole Nimue scene popped off good for you girlie

-This might get me beheaded on the streets of Arthurian tumblr butttttttt..........I don't mind the lack of magic in the revival because tbh other than 1 scene there isn't reallyyyy a strong magic presence in the OG Camelot either 👀👀👀and even that one scene feels like kind of out of place Merlin and Nimue just come and go SO quickly.

-but I do love the more elaborate sets. Dude WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SETS AT THE LINCOLN CENTER?? 😭

-Young king Arthur was the right choice. I stand by that. Seeing an older King Arthur (with this characterization) is just kind of odd to me.

-no??? Sword fight?????

- I liked act 2 of this old version though. There were some really banger scenes and quotes I wish made it into the revival.

-I also like that Guinevere and Lancelot got a moment to be like "I don't like Mordred get rid of him" 😐

-Okay I know I just said I don't mind the lack of magic, but I also do like the motif of Arthur wanting to be turned into a bird. It makes me 🥺

-I actually like the catalyst for Arthur leaving the castle in both versions. In this one it was more of a choice and it makes it sad when he puts his trust in Lance and Genny to not betray him (and they do). But I also like in the revival how it's purely Mordred's manipulation and scheming. I just love a good scheme and I love seeing Arthur piecing together that he got GOT.

-Actually this proshot I watched cut out Fie On Goodness and Take Me To The Fair. WAR CRIMES.

-I miss Morgan Le Fay :(((

-ALSO THE STAGING OF THIS VERSION OF THE SONG GUINEVERE WAS COOL. Stan.

-It made me miss Andrew, Pippa and Jordan. What a dream team. Bring them back.

-There wasn't enough crazy sexual tension. I just think those three should want to fuck nasty. It just feels right. If they don't it loses something for me. I gotta be honest. Maybe I'm just a lil sicko 😔🤷🏻‍♀️

-But with that being said Aaron Sorkin why did you write out all lines where Arthur states love for Genny AND Lance???? Don't no homo my Camelot you bastard. Oh Jordan Donica, bisexual Lancelot truther, we're really in it now 😔

[margridarnauds]

Hello, please talk about some TV show and song recommendations. :)

I've actually been wondering for ages if you've heard of the concept musical, Lady M, which has been releasing promo songs here and there. I want to emphasize that I'm not SOLD on it, not 100%, since (1) They've only released three songs and (2) They talk about inventing "an original backstory to Lady Macbeth's villainy and downfall" and they how "chilling flashbacks of her haunted past are woven into this reimagining of the famous tale", and that sort of thing can go either really, really well or really, really badly (I am begging people, she doesn't NEED a tragic backstory, especially if it ends up being trauma porn), BUT Lady Macbeth's song, "What Must Be Done", DOES fuck. If the rest of the musical ends up being garbage, I'll still have this song.

Another concept musical that I've been really impressed with (and now has had a concert performance that was recorded and is available on Spotify, so I can judge it more accurately) is Treason: The Musical. I've been supporting this musical since 2021, so I've been very interested to see whether this would do well or whether it would be one of those musicals that get a bit of traction and then burn out. It seems, at first glance, to be one more cynical Hamilton rip-off (not to name names...but. You know. You Know™), and I think that it WAS born from the Hamiltrend, in the sense that I don't think it would have been created without it. But it has its own unique folk sound that sets it apart; it isn't mindlessly following the trend, and honestly I would say that the weakest parts of the show are the moments where it DOES sound like Hamilton (namely, James (V)I's parts). They even use the lyrics to one of my folk songs, "The Unquiet Grave/Cold Blows the Wind" as a bookend to the musical -- and it's impressive that I LIKED it since I'm a die hard proponent for the "Dives and Lazarus" musical setting for the song (most non-D&L settings are...boring, which is criminal in a song about a ghost coming from the grave to tell her boyfriend to stop crying over her.) Favorite songs include: When Will I See You Again, Blind Faith, Burn, The Day Elizabeth Died, No Happy Ending.

Finally, no song/musical recommendations list of mine would be itself without me plugging my beloved Marie Antoinette: The Musical, specifically the 2.0 version (DO NOT watch the German, I BEG you, if you want to have any affection for the musical left). It features my favorite feral gremlin musical lady protagonist, Margrid Arnaud, who we're first introduced to when she splashes champagne on the Queen of France, and she only gets more unhinged from there. She's everything that people say they want from a female Blorbo -- She's pathetic, she cries on stage over a situation she absolutely partially caused, she might or might not be fucking the king's scheming goth cousin while pining for Marie Antoinette's boytoy, she has daddy issues, she has mommy issues, she has half-sibling issues, she leads a mob to Versailles, she commits perjury and gets off free during the height of the Reign of Terror, she calls down the wrath of God on the aristocrats. She's like Madame Defarge on speed with positive character development. Literally no one is doing it like her. Have some of Margrid in her natural element, from the Korean proshot (which I'm not legally allowed to say whether I have a copy of it.)

Speaking of Storming Versailles, have some Je Veux le Monde from 1789 -- every single production of 1789 has had Woman Problems in some capacity (hilariously enough, NEVER the same Woman Problems, so you get to pick your poison), but the song fucks.