#idk this is very nuanced but it just irked me a little bit

[infizero]

listen i was guilty of this once upon a time too but dawg ppl GOTTA stop calling any platonic dynamic they like “siblings” without any precedence 

[kachinnate]

,,,,okay i know i just said i wasn’t going to talk about the deh movie but actually yeah imma talk about it for just a sec bc y’all actually make me legitimately distressed sajkfndsmjkgds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQ_A0H1otc i dont have the braincells to do a shot by shot analysis right now but here’s what we’re lookin at

under a readmore because ghhhhhhh

firstly, let me lead with this: yes, from what we know, there’s a lot of things wrong with this movie. 

the worst, in my humble opinion, being the bts treatment of the (very few) actors of color, and the lack altogether of any production team members of color. that’s something that should be acknowledged, talked about, and fucking dug into especially at the current fucking period of time we’re living in. it’s unsurprising, but disgusting nonetheless, and it set this movie up for failure from the very beginning. i’m a white person so by no means so i feel inclined or like i have any authority in saying what one should feel wrt all of that, however i will say if there’s to be a boycott in not watching this movie, that should 100% be the reason why. it’s fully poc’s choice whether or not to forgive the production team or give this movie a chance for the irredeemable shit it did in regards to handling the movie’s production. the movie imo definitely doesn’t deserve their forgiveness, but again, that is not for me to say. 

there’s some little things too that i can’t fully think of off the top of my head - like, the whole making larry connor’s stepdad thing fucking irks me, for example, but, like...... listen.

if you know me like at all, you know my favorite word is nuance.

so, i’m going to say it outright: the way you people are approaching this three minute trailer shows literally.... none?? no nuance ??? is it no-nuance november over here or ???? like i’m begging you i’m BEGGING YOU to put aside your pre-determined prejudices against this movie and like stop pretending to be a renowned film critic for ten seconds because it’s really not as outright fucking abysmal as you are saying!! and also it’s possible to have opinions that aren’t completely fucking polarized to one side because guess what, the deh movie? a piece of media! what is the shit y’all are constantly preaching about having the ability to consume media critically ? because you’re trying to cancel a fucking trailer based on the contents of the trailer alone !!!!! hello !!!!!!!!

media is bound to be problematic. if y’all were as quick to judge any movie as you did this one, guess what you wouldn’t be watching any movies like ever <3 

anyway lets get into the parts that are probably going to get me cancelled lmao 

ben platt - listen. LISTEN. listen i know he’s too old to be reprising evan we ALL know he’s too old to be reprising evan i’ve heard this same argument since the announcement was made we get it we all know. haha he’s a grandpa yes bestie ur so right ur so funny wow. i do agree that we should’ve maybe had a not-ben-platt evan moment but here’s some things to keep in mind: the arguments of “oooh ABF is right there !!!!!!” 1. who’s to say he was available? 2. the environment of a movie is so, SO much different than that of a musical -- as much as you wanna pretend you know everything from just a trailer, there’s no way of knowing what scenes were added that might’ve made the movie like.. idk possibly more intense story-wise not even COUNTING the fact that just inherently a movie set is different than a musical one? like yes ben platt might be just being used as a device but that’s probably not the sole and only reason. Also, if i see One (1) more comment about his FUCKING HAIR 😃 first of all it’s not that deep like... if you’re so distracted by an actor having their hair different that’s on you, but going as far as to call it bad or distracting or being like Vehemently a way about it? y’all i know it’s most likely not your intention but that is literally just ben platt’s natural fuckin ETHNICALLY JEWISH hair sajknfgkjds!!!! i’m not the first to make this point, but like dsjnfkjdsg!??! y’all are being so mean about it and for WHAT? again, maybe not intentional, but it reads as like high key Very antisemetic and you should.... maybe not 😳 be that way

connor. the thing about a trailer is that they don’t show you all the scenes because they want you to come see the movie. right? can we agree on that? all the connor scenes in the trailer had SEVERAL hard cuts, omitting a lot of the scene -- like the computer lab scene! we see the beginning of it, there’s a VERY obvious hard cut, and then he’s running out! in my opinion my first watch through of this trailer i had a very like “:// hmm all these actors feel a lil like dry”, but man oh man the comments ive seen about connor. holy shit guys. this boy gets 7 minutes of stage time in the actual musical, and the whole thing is we DON’T KNOW VERY MUCH ABOUT HIM. not to burst your bubble, and i by no means hate connor, i love me some good connor lives fics and stuff, but everything we write with connor being alive? that is !! speculation on our part !!!! those are headcanons and us using the little context we have!! connor doesn’t have any significant development IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL that is being adapted into a movie !!! you 1. can’t fully judge a character with already limited screentime in a 3 minute trailer, 2. can’t really call what connor has canonically in the musical as in depth character development !! what is his arc then !!!! he pushes evan, goes to the computer lab, has an outcast loner kid moment, gets upset, takes the letter, DIES. sorry stans, that’s just how it is !! and, AND, everything in between, all the idiosyncracies, that depends on the actor playing connor! speaking of, you know who the actor is playing connor in the movie? that’s right, colton ryan! so, i don’t know, maybe... have some trust in the process, in an actor who ALREADY has played connor on broadway???? and also trust that you will get more connor content then u are seeing from a 3 minute trailer!! dhgnijsdg and some of the comments on like his appearance specifically? like are you really made that he doesn’t have long hair?? they kept his nails and his rings but nahhh the hair was apparently a MUST HAVE (even though like.. not all connor actors on broadway always had/have long hair but w/e).. REGARDLESS. tldr on THAT , the movie would have to do a pretty shitty job if they want to take something from someone who doesn’t have much to begin with and i think y’all are being extremely harsh on this point 

jared. honestly i’m a bit worried too about the like... name change, because it does have the potential to be taking out some representation, but... they did change the name to fit the actor’s ethnicity? it’s a really [hmm] topic because, again, from a trailer and from what we have been told we don’t KNOW a lot of the context, but i think it’s important to remember that uh.. jewish people aren’t just? always white ?? there’s a possibility they changed the last name to fit with the [ethnicity] while keeping him jewish?? ofc there’s the possibility that they Didn’t and ... again hm that’s its own thing altogether but just reiterates the point that you can’t knock a whole movie just based on the trailer. you can’t talk about things you know nothing about. 

alana. same thing as before, you can’t.... completely bash a character based on a 3 minute trailer. there was discussion about how she seemed ‘shy’ when talking to evan, which like.. maybe she is but also that scene was them talking in a library like if u actually take notice of what’s happening in the scene jdskngsd though i do share the general consensus with many others that she won’t get a lot of screen-time but that’s neither here nor there 😔 moving on

scenes and the setting. one of the things i was most like.. tentative about in regards to a switch from a musical to a movie was how they were like... going to do certain scenes? naturally, a lot has to be different when we’re going from a minimal stage set to an entire movie with like.. settings. there are going to be new scenes because a movie lends to have like, physical places that aren’t just [evan’s bedroom] and [murphy kitchen] and [implied school]. so new scenes, new conversations, slightly different pacing.. this is all to be expected right like are y’all geneuinely surprised here or ........

there’s a lot we aren’t seeing yet because this is a TRAILER. again i already mentioned this re: connor but like... again, y’all are making some Claims that just... fucking outlandish. there are so many moments in the trailer that are very obvious Hard Cuts. you don’t have all the information yet. you are angry at a tiny fragment of something that is confusing you because you don’t have all the context. is there a chance that some of this shit is just genuinely Bad? yeah but you really cannot 100000% say it with your chest and gauge it without seeing the movie and understanding what that scene is in context. lowkey uhhh saw some jokes about the zoe scene in the car and :’))) ? jesus? christ????

concluding thoughts because my brain hurts but like. you don’t have to like the movie. you don’t have to WATCH the movie. like all media if you choose to consume the movie you should do so with some CRITICAL THOUGHT. but, just like the novel (and i do not want to have any discussions about that i don’t care if you think it’s good Or bad that’s not what this is about) you guys are going in this WANTING to believe it’s bad and completely polarizing your thoughts on what this is going to be. yeah, maybe there shouldn’t be a movie. i genuinely think we could’ve gone without. but it’s just a piece of media, it’s not a progression like all your (musical is good, novel is bad, MOVIE IS WORSE OH NO) posts are suggesting. they are all just. different pieces of media stemming from a source. at the end of the day it’s just a fucking movie. if you already hate it so much, guess what? you don’t have to watch it! you don’t have to put so much needless fucking hate into a 3 MINUTE TRAILER. you can stop being performative and dissing it for its poor treatment of POC while then going on to make fun of ben platt’s hair and just targeting a different group like! please !!!

i’m not trying to be a fuckin’ advocate for this movie because there’s so much opportunity for it to suck, i do Not have high hopes for it, and i’m not even really sure i want to watch it (i bought the novel when it came out and have yet to read it, and i’m sure the movie will like.. elicit very similar vibes from me lsdngjkdsg like im just not uhhh feeling it) but y’know what? watching the trailer did not bring forth the fucking onslaught of hatred in me that apparently has fuckin posessed all of y’all and like djnsgjksdg plagued my dashboard for this whole evening. don’t come into my inbox trying to like.. argue with me about this (preemptively im turning off anon because i like i Can’t lmao) this is just like... a rant i needed to get out of me real quick. 

SO. tldr for now: have critical thought about shit you consume, there’s no ethical consumption under [the film industry], you can’t judge a movie entirely on its trailer, and y’all need to calm the fuck down 

[majorxmaggiexboy]

the grinning man and/ or hadestown??

thanks, Ali! :D

- Hadestown -

Favourite Character: the tall worker/patron. ms. afra hines’ Tavern Patron. Ms. Jewelle Blackman’s Fate. Orpheus.

Least Favourite Character: not at all in terms of “I Don’t Like This Character” or “I dislike this character” but just in the sense of, “I Enjoy Every Other Character Just A Little Bit More”, it’s Hades  for me 😱

Favourite OBC Cast Member: i don’t actually know much about any of them, but i think Ms. Hines has great vibes and am also fond of Mr. Hughes and, of course Mr. de Shields.

Favourite Current Cast Member (If Applicable): i have Zero idea what’s even happening with the show rn so instead i’ll say that i really like what i’ve seen of Ms. Nabiyah Be’s work and enjoyed her as Eurydice

Favourite Song: that part in Lover’s Desire where Orpheus is going off on the La La La’s and it sounds like he should be flitting about like some kind of happy little Sprite. also If It’s True. also the part in Wait For Me when Orpheus sings “and I am not alone” and u can hear Hermes sing it with him. also the part in Wait For Me where there’s that kind of background/overlay of “I’M COMIIIIIIN” also If It’s True, also Wait For Me II, also Chant III

Least Favourite Song: i think it’s Hey Little Songbird? again not as in i dislike it at all, it’s just

Favourite Act (If Applicable): ooooooh...i...i think Act One? but...no it kinda depends on the day/mood, i think. Act One when i want some happyjoy and act 2 for angry depression with a lil hopeful streak thrown in.

Favourite Ship: i friend!ship Persephone with the Tall Worker. but also heck yeah Eurypheus

Least Favourite Ship: i don’t personally enjoy seeing Hades paired up with anyone in this musical who is not Persephone. Especially in certain contexts.

If There is Something I Would Change about The Musical: Papers.

Ratings: 10/10 for me. Maybe 9.5 if i’m nitpicking but, idk for me Hadestown, especially the Broadway one, is just really satisfying.

- The Grinning Man -

Favourite Character: i’m so weak for Bristol!Quake and honestly it’s so out of character for me and i have no excuse but. :/ Also, Gwynplaine is The Certified Primary Designated Favorite of the situation.

Least Favourite Character: i think i’m gonna have to go with Ursus? just bc the way things play out with him, while dangling in a similar manner to Jojo and Dirry-Moir,  irks me more in a character like Ursus than it does in characters like Dirry-Moir and Josiana

Favourite OBC Cast Member: so, Bristol? Probably Ms. Gloria Obianyo. I just love her Lady Trelaw and Quake. I also quite liked Mr. Angell as Mojo’s Head/Archbishop Kupsak :3 Ms. Brisson’s Dea is also my favorite Dea.

Favourite Current Cast Member (If Applicable): for London it’s gonna be Lady Trelaw/Quake again. Ms. Mackay’s Please Don’t Take My Little Boy reprise is intense and powerful in a completely different way.

Favourite Song: “The heart of our story is clear to me now/Oh, Dea, my love, it’s the fire in your heart/We found truth in the dark of the night/That shone bright on the darkest of nights/You always said pain would make us strong/And you were right, Dea, you were right./But noooow that I can seee my paaaain and Know the Hidden Face Of It I’m Grasping What Myy Mother And My Father tried to saaaaay to me/As they stood with stools beneath them and with nooses ‘round their necks the thing that they were fighting for was strength to look into the eyyyyyyyyyyyes of someone who is maiming you and SEEEEE THAT THEY’RE THE SAAAAAAME AS YOOOOOOOOOOOUEH/YOU DIDN’T CUT MY FAAAAAAAAACE/AND IN YOUR BURNING HEEEEEAAAART/URSUS DIDN’T CUT! MY! FAAAAAAACE/DEA YOU HAVE KNOWN THAT FROM THE STAAAAAART/AND WHEN I LOOK. IN THE EYYES. OF THE MAN. WHO. DID/AND WHEN I LOOK. AT THE MAN. WHO CUT. MY. FACE./I SEE MYSELF. AND WHEN I LOOOK IN THE EYYYYYYES OF THE WOMMMAN I LOVE. I see myself. there. tOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOUR KISS OF LOV” just. that whole bit.

also looooooove love love Laughter is the Best Medicine, By the Laws of Every Land, and every edition of Labyrinth. I have no standards when it comes to Labyrinth. I want them all. oh! and that part of born broken when they’re like “STRONG AS THE HEART/LOOK AT THE SMILE/OF YOUR MOTHERLESS *seagull meme* CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLD” i want to say Freak Show too but idk if it’s the song i like or if i’m just in love with that Thing mr. maskell does with his lack of bones in the london edition.

Least Favourite Song: I Have Never Seen A Face Like This. it’s good and fun and catchy but i get this weird sense of embarrassment and just don’t like the scene.

Favourite Act (If Applicable): Act Two! Mostly everything between the Wedding and them walking into the audience. But i also enjoy the dungeon scene for reasons that admittedly do include exactly what one would expect but also bc Gwyn just sitting there asking no questions and kind of dissociating through the whole thing and then just straight up fainting is a big mood and i respect it. and am gutted at not getting to see London’s take on it.

Favourite Ship: Dea/Gwyn

Least Favourite Ship: Josiana/Dirry-Moir

If There is Something I Would Change about The Musical: first of all and most importantly, crucially, critically and off utmost essentiality, at the part where he sees his mother after the duel and he goes and falls to his knees in front of her and she’s caressing his face and singing “please don’t take my little boy...” and he’s looking up at her with this utter exhaustion in his eyes, it is at that point that Gwynplaine Trelaw would address his mother as ‘mama’ in the most tender, exhausted, half-pleading and broken tone since the invention of speech, and it would be emotional devastating, so jot that down. either Ursus would know from the beginning that Dea’s his daughter, or it’d be like the book where she isn’t his biological daughter at all. Dea would get her own sort of ‘I Want’ song and would also sing the line “Surely I once had a mother” at some point, the “blood-red hair” thing would either not exist or just wouldn’t be tetris’d in so awkwardly, Dea and Gwyn’s kissing would be different- during the first Beauty and the Beast, she’d still kiss him on the mouth, over the bandages of course, bc Audience Perception, but outside of the performance, and especially for the Big Damn Kiss at the end, it would be shown that kissing has to work differently for the two of them. Dirry-Moir and Josiana wouldn’t wind up together in the end. They’d both show at least the beginnings of actual change in their character. Gwyn would have at least a couple lines about how messed-up society is and would have that going as a little background/secondary conflict. Probably handle his arrest differently and cut the meeting with Josiana/move it to later in the show and switch up the context a little. Let Dea go slam off at some point. Lord and Lady Trelaw sing the “strength to look into the eyes...” up through “...and see that they’re the same as you” with Gwyn and then walk offstage together, holding hands. hmmm...probably change up Please Don’t Take My Mother and The Drowning Song a little bit. Throw in a very short, dark reprise of Beauty and the Beast before Gwyn leaves Dea in the cart. He’d take the Beauty puppet with him, just kind of absently, and that would explain why “it was among your possessions” even tho Bark hadn’t yet swung by Ursus’ cart. I’d probably have Gwyn’s speaking voice, and his singing voice when addressing any character except Dea, be a bit chopped up. Maybe have him sing differently depending on whom he’s talking to, just to illustrate say during Freak Show how the audience is hearing him, vs. how Josiana’s feeling about him during Brand New World. Dea always gets his ‘real’ voice except in moments like the first Beauty and the Beast, which is an act. Ursus' arc would be treated differently in one of two ways. idk how exactly but the whole thing where Gwyn’s able to forgive Barkilphedro would be tweaked too just so the “I look at him and see myself” thing would make a little more sense. My version of this show would be like 3 hours long tbh also Gwyn would react to the realization that Ursus was there (thank you, London) and would have the decency for his voice to break on “when I look at the man who cut my face” (also thank you, London) while we’re thanking London, the proverbial third run in my heart also very much includes Gwyn’s hand-flapping and little noises. and would include some Shaky Trembly Acting from Gwyn as well at different parts of the show, especially toward the end, bc That Is One Tired Boy. and and and during the dungeon scene Gwyn would spend a lot of it looking specifically at Quake’s baton.

oh, and the otter on Josiana’s breakfast tray? there’d be a second one but it would be a whole Otter and it would be with Osric at all times bc i’ve decided that the Stokes-Croft kitten is actually an otter.

Ratings: 8/10 docked points for the stronger profanity since i personally am not a fan, and also the story has its definite flaws and things i don’t really care for. less overall technically satisfying than Hadestown BUT also caters to my exact interests in multiple ways, has excellent music, i love the story, Dea and Gwyn are beautiful together, it has definitely captured my heart and imagination and i absolutely thrive on all its layers and nuances. in my emotions it’s a 10.

[youngjustus]

how did you feel about young justice #7 and what are your thoughts on the upcoming issue?

i feel like a huge dickhole for feeling this way, but i’m really not, like, thrilled about this series. i’m putting this under a read more since i, as usual, had a lot more to say than expected.

so, i don’t think i’ve made this a secret or anything, but i’m not a huge fan of bendis’s writing style. mostly in terms of pacing, where he usually writes for the trade instead of the individual issue, as well as his excessive, quippy dialogue. 6 issues are spent on gemworld, with actually not a lot happening. 6 issues of so much talking and talking and talking, but barely any of it adding to anything. 6 issues of not knowing a character’s name!

i think you could probably swap out the core four for other teen characters and the whole comic would be virtually the same. they aren’t necessarily acting out of character, but they don’t feel entirely like themselves either. i’m very thankful for the group hug reunion scene, and i do like the new additions to the team, but i feel like way more time needed to be spent on both of those things for them to really feel… idk earned? i think there was more time spent with conner and lophi, a character who i doubt we will ever see again, than there was for how he and the other three feel about seeing their friends again. there’s a passing (joke) comment made about how jinny is conner’s “new favourite”, whatever that means, instead of them all really getting to know the new members.

there were a number of times in the gemworld arc where i thought the narrative would go one way, with me thinking ‘oh, that would be neat’, only for it to just do the most obvious thing, and have the characters tell you exactly how they’re feeling and what they’re doing. for example, i thought it would’ve been interesting if the rest of the team had a harder time trusting amethyst, since this is her realm and she’s the princess, and she’d have to really earn her place. instead, her meeting with tim is almost all off screen and when they find the other girls again, they’re all cool with her immediately, with cassie even making a joke about how she’s tim’s “new best friend”. it just felt like a little bit of wasted potential to me. moreover, defeating dark opal felt way too easy after 6 issues of build up. but maybe that’s just me!

with reference to writing for the trade (and actually getting into issue #7 like you asked about in the first place), i think you can see that here:

like i know this! i read the last issue. but last issue was #6, and the first trade paperback of this series will contain issues #1-6, warranting a recap for issue #7, or what will be the beginning of the second trade paperback. maybe this kind of seems dumb to complain about, but i’m reading these issues monthly as they are coming out, not waiting for the trade to read it all at once. i don’t like things being dragged out for the sake of being dragged out! but that also isn’t exclusive to this series or to bendis’s work as a whole.

as for the rest of issue #7, and kind of going back to what i was saying about dark opal, there’s sorta been a trend of setting something up only for it to be quickly and easily resolved, such as the altercation between the kids and the kingdom come jla. there was so much tension between the kids and this superman when they first meet, and then nothing happens with it. why? what’s the point? they fight them, cassie explains everything, they all fight the sons and daughters of the bat, and then the jla just gives the kids advice that feels extremely out of place and sends them on their way (but not before fucking it up because this arc needs to last at least 3-5 more issues). i don’t know, like, the tone and build up for nothing all just feels off and weird and rushed to me.

and that’s kind of how i feel about the entire series thus far. things just sort of happen.

also this is, like, the laziest way to set up a future plot point, imo:

my positive things to say about issue #7 is that i liked the guest artists and i thought the first few pages with them bouncing around to alternate earths was fun.

and regarding issues #8 and #9, we’ll be on the earth-three, or the crime syndicate earth, and i’m honestly just not interested in reading stories with my favourite characters, but hey, look, they’re evil! i expect bendis to handle all this with the nuance of a brick to the face. but i am looking forward to the guest artist in issue #8 who will be doing jinny’s backstory and then more of keli’s backstory in issue #9.

i’m sorry for a huge wall of text, and i feel like i worded this poorly, but i hope i answered your questions. i really don’t like being overly negative and nitpicky, and i am trying to be fair and give this series a fighting chance, but it’s continued to irk me in a number of different ways in every issue. anyways, thank you for your ask and giving me a chance to rant about this, haha.

[oppossums]

Been thinking about people using their mental illnesses as excuses for their actions. It’s something I think about a lot because I do it too, I’m much better now than I was before but idk it just really irks me when people try to excuse their hurtful words/actions by just saying like “well it’s my Anxiety/BPD/Depression/etc.”

I’m not saying that because it’s not valid because obviously mental illnesses come with less than stellar symptoms and those symptoms are often very visible and unpleasant to behold for anyone BUT I think it not only takes the nuance away from what people are actually experiencing AND gives those who would rather shove neurodivergent people aside the firepower they need to make their arguments.

I think it’s better to say like “I’m feeling really overwhelmed, sometimes I snap without thinking when I’m overwhelmed, maybe I need to go take a break by myself for a little bit.” We don’t need to pathologize every action. Sometimes it’s okay to just say exactly what’s going on but I also know that a lot of people simply refuse to sit with themselves and those feelings long enough to figure out where they might be coming from, or don’t have the tools to do it properly.

The people who actually care about you will respect what you’re saying AND they’ll have more information than just what flavor of mental illness is acting up today. Someone with anxiety might react differently to different types of support so if all you say is “it’s my anxiety” when symptoms arise it gives no one enough information to properly support you. Some people might react better to space, others might need someone to talk them out of an attack, these are things loved ones need to know if we ever want them to actually have the assets to help us when they can/are up for it.

It’s not just a matter of “making everyone else look bad” or whatever bs. It’s literally a matter of giving the people who care about you the information they need to actually show up for you, it’s about the f Communication.