#so if it was a team song it would be sung in third

[no1ryomafan]

ALSO AS A UPDATE: I have not forgotten about the lyric analysis stuff cause I want to do it and I definitely want to do Saga, I’ve just been busy with school so motivation for anything is low right now.

and also uh- I won’t spoil it but the analysis for Saga is going to be less about figuring out who the song is about and actually debating that cause looking at the lyrics its fucking obvious which team member it’s focused on.

[fiastomatocheek]

THREE MONTHS IN

requested: yes | req: i live for angsty marital issues bc that’s real life!! I feel like maybe the main argument in their relationship would be about him not showing up for lucy or reader. i think it’d definitely cause massive tension between the two of them.

pair: dad!luke hughes x f!reader.

genre: domestic angst, emotional hurt/comfort, slice-of-life, romance, parenthood.

warnings: postpartum exhaustion, emotional vulnerability, soft confrontation, miscommunication, no yelling or aggression, themes of loneliness and readjusting to new parenthood.

summary: three months in with a three and a half months old baby, lucy, you told yourself you were prepared for the hard parts. you told yourself you could be steady while luke was gone for practice and games when the season begin, that you didn’t need help if you just planned enough. but exhaustion has a way of creeping in, and so does silence.

fia’s note: at first, i was planning to write this with the reader experiencing a bit of postpartum depression not something too heavy, just a subtle version. but after thinking it through, i decided not to include it, since i don’t have personal experience with it, nor do i know someone close who has gone through it. out of respect, i chose to leave it out. and to any young or new mothers out there who may be dealing with postpartum depression: just a little reminder that you’re doing your best and that’s more than enough. please take care of yourself, stay gentle with your heart, and know that you’re doing amazing!! love ya!!

tagging team fia ! — @iloveyoutodeathbutimdrowning @dancerbailey3 @mashmashi @hopefulsuitcasemoneyzonk @kell9rs @alwaysclassyeagle @nokiaholland @macka @silvenyy @bd147ms @voidvannie

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Angry? No, not really.

That was what you told yourself, over and over again, as the clock now past 22:30 and Luke still hadn’t walked through the door.

You weren’t mad. You were just tired. Really tired. And a little lonely. And a bit disappointed.

Lucy had gone down for the night at 19:04. You remembered the exact minute because she’d finally fallen asleep without fussing, her tiny fingers curled around yours as you sang her lullaby. It was supposed to be Luke’s song, the one he always sang, off-key but full of love. You’d sung it instead tonight. And last night. And the night before that.

You used to count down the hours until Luke came home. Not out of desperation, just out of hope. Out of the aching need to share the weight of a day. To say, ‘Here. This was heavy. Will you hold it with me for a while?’

And he used to walk in like he’d been counting down too. With tired eyes and a smile and always, always with a kiss to your forehead and a whispered, ‘Did she miss me?’

But the season had started. And lately, that kiss came later and later, if at all.

Luke finally home, shaking off his jacket with the same absent ease he always did. He looked exhausted but still, infuriatingly, beautiful.

“Hey, babe,”

He greeted, leaning down to kiss your lips. You let him. You kissed back. But it wasn’t quite the same.

“How’s Luce?” he asked, dropping his bag by the door.

“She’s asleep. She went down a little over an hour ago.”

He nodded and stretched his arms behind his back with a groan.

“That’s good. She give you a hard time?”

You shrugged. “No more than usual. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

He didn’t notice the way your voice thinned on that last part. Or maybe he did, but he was too distracted to ask.

“Did you eat yet?”

You nodded. “Yeah. I made pasta. There’s some left if you’re hungry.”

“Nah, I grabbed dinner with Jack. We were going over some film at his place.”

And there it was. Again.

“Did you mean to tell me that?” you asked gently.

Luke blinked, eyebrows pinching in concern.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… this is the third time you’ve eaten out without saying anything. I’ve made dinner every night this week, thinking you’d be home. And I get that things come up. I really do. But a text takes ten seconds, Luke.”

You didn’t mean for it to come out this sharp and it wasn’t, well not really. It was just true.

He rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish.

“I know. I meant to. We got caught up in film and then started eating and I, forgot, I guess.”

You nodded slowly. “Can we talk?”

Now he looked alarmed. “Yeah, of.. of course. Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” you said quietly. “I just need to talk. And I want you to listen.”

Luke sat down beside you, close but cautious. Like he was trying to read you before you spoke.

You took a breath, your eyes drifting to the monitor where Lucy’s tiny form shifted in her crib.

“I know what we signed up for. I know what it means to be with someone during the season. I knew it before Luce was born, and I especially knew it after.” You turned your head, looking at him.

“But knowing doesn’t make it easier. It doesn’t make it less lonely when I’m rocking her alone at 3 a.m. or warming up leftovers because I thought I’d be eating with you.”

Luke’s face fell, and he reached for your hand.

“I’m not saying you’re a bad partner, Luke. You’re an amazing dad when you’re here. But I don’t think you realize how much your presence, even just a text helps me get through the day. I’m not asking for much. I just need to feel like I’m not doing this completely alone.”

Luke lacing his fingers through yours.

“I didn’t know it felt like that. I thought as long as I made it home for bedtime, I was doing enough.”

“And some days it is enough,” you admitted.

“But other days it’s not. And I feel guilty even saying that, because I know you’re working hard, too. But I can’t be the steady one all the time. I can’t keep telling myself I’m fine when I’m not.”

Luke leaned forward, resting his forehead against your hand.

“I hate that I made you feel alone,” he said.

“You’re doing so much. More than I can even begin to understand. I should’ve seen it. I should’ve been more careful. I think I got so wrapped up in trying to keep everything running that I forgot the most important thing is being here. With you.”

Your throat tightened. “You don’t have to fix everything, Luke. I just want you to check in, to come home and want to be here, not because you have to be, but because you miss us.”

He nodded, “I do miss you,” he said, fingers tightening around yours.

“All the time. But I stopped showing it, and that’s on me. You’re not just Luce’s mom, you’re my wife, my person. And I never want you to feel like I’ve forgotten that.”

“Can we make some small changes?” you asked.

“Like… one night a week that’s just ours. And maybe tomorrow morning, you take her for her first nap so I can sleep in.”

Luke nodded immediately.

“Absolutely. Wednesdays are ours. And tomorrow, I’m on nap duty. All day, if you want.”

You smiled, tired but relieved. “You say that now. Let’s see how you do when she only wants the yellow pacifier, not the pink one.”

“I’m gonna learn,” he promised, kissing the tip of your nose.

“Because I want to. Because I love you. And I love being her dad but I need to be your partner first.”

The tears that had been threatening finally slipped free, but they weren’t from sadness anymore. Just release.

You let him hold you. Let yourself lean into his warmth and his quiet apologies and the steady beat of his heart against yours.

Maybe things wouldn’t always be perfectly balanced. But at least now, you knew you weren’t the only one carrying it.

[hopefulidiocy]

Writers block..? SAME! I’ve had this idea for WEEKS and just never write it lol.

So imagine there’s this like legend of The Great Targaryen (reader) who lived before Rhanerya and them and she was called The Great Targaryen because she commanded like 4 dragons instead of one. (kinda like Daenerys)

So maybe she was like so powerful or whatnot a witch (idk if they rly had those back then but like, there’s dragons so bare with me lol) cast her to sleep, saying she’ll only awake in 100 years OR SOMETHING IDK YET.

But anyways, team black realizes that if they want to win they’ll need her or something so they go looking.

The find her asleep in a cave off the coast somewhere and somehow she wakes up (haven’t rly gotten there yet) and they’re all like woahhhh but she has no dragons?

They get to the top of the cliff and she kinda just faces out towards the ocean and stands there, everyone is confused. She raises her arms like A GODDESS and BOOM flying out of the ocean is DRAGONS!!!

Idk it’s a really weird concept but I had a dream like that and that’s where this came from lol.

Watcha think???

The Dragon Tamer

House of the Dragon x OC!Female!Character

Warnings: mentions of child loss, death, destruction and disease.

Characters that are my own: Efflestead the Warrior, Alina the Dragon Tamer/Demon Queen, Jocelyn the Great

A/N: I have never written something like this before and I looooved doing it <3 part two?

MINORS DNI 18+

🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉

🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉

Many tales graced the darkened walls of Westeros. They flew, invisibly, through the air as folk songs or poems; they were words, spoken from generation to generation. Efflestead’s siege on the North, battling it to great victory until all that was left was rubble and dirt and dead bodies. He was celebrated, a day commemorated to him and how he savagely killed thousands of innocents for being in his war path to the Iron Throne. He was crowned on the 10th of the Third Month, creating catastrophe and violence in his stead. But no one remembers that part. They don’t remember how he killed his way to the top, tortured those who dared to whisper in the corners of every house, how he employed spies who could’ve well been your father or brother and they would let loose their secrets and you’d be on the Wall within the hour. Most people remember him as Efflestead the Warrior King, a family man with fifteen children of his own, all just as ghastly as he was, a man of great honour - being with his wife for more than 40 years, but everyone forgot he had mistresses and often beat his wife to the point she lost more than five children. No, people forget the bad parts because they want a story they can be proud of. Efflestead’s children went on to become monarchs, Heiron being the first and rather boring King, contracting Green Fever before the Winter. Jocelyn became Queen after he died, she was a beauty, to all accounts of people who knew her but, of course, when she was murdered in the comfort of her own bed; her own brother, Aegon, was the one who distributed horrific lies and propaganda. She was a witch and bewitched a plague amongst the Smallfolk with her sixth finger and long, hanging nose that drooped over her upper lip. No one remembers that she was kind and generous to the Smallfolk, no one remembers that she cared for the health of her people and sought to change all of it.

History and myth are not kind to those who actually do good, they would rather remember those with an intriguing story that they can pick apart and leave out the bad bits.

There was one though, no recollection in any chronicle of history, no written records, just a song. Sung in the streets of the Red Keep.

A dragon descended upon the River;

His claws long and his mind clever;

A woman with eyes so black;

Came onto the shore with a crack;

She said, “Who hath come to fight?”;

When one man stepped forth, she cackled to the night;

“Is that all you have?” And so she unleashed her fury onto the innocence;

Letting them have her anguish and misguidance;

Four wild beasts arose from the dark;

Fire, blood and fury from their violent arc;

She tried, as she must, to fight with her life;

But the Smallfolk were full of strife;

They killed her with one switch of a blade;

And off her head rolled in the shade;

They rejoiced and called out;

“At last, the Demon Queen is dead! And so she will be forever at rest!”

Of course, the Smallfolk only knew the lines to a wretched song that kids would learn as they grew up in the parks and the bakeries. They would be told the Demon Queen will have you for supper! If they forbade any law. But, of course, the Demon Queen was more than a ruthless woman. First of all, she had a name… Alina Targaryen. Born to the bastard grandson of Efflestead. She was known to be a beauty, long white hair always in a braided crown, dresses that puffed around her and always glided along with her. She was kind, generous and full of wit. Many men wanted to have a slice of her, but she never allowed it, she kept herself neat and tidy for any man that would marry her.

She never did marry.

Instead found her love elsewhere. With multicoloured eggs that she grew with affection and suddenly… she was the most powerful woman in Westeros.

Being so powerful, she became a target. A target for war, for assassination, for love and temptation. But she hid out in the caves, away from human life and settled with her dragons. The song got one thing right, she did tame four dragons, she loyally loved each dragon.

Fate is a funny thing. It is what’s meant for you, even if it’s not what you want. Alina didn’t want to sleep for one hundred years, she was completely oblivious to it until the day came when the waves crashed harshly against the cave, the dragons looked at her with perplexity and so, being the brave soul she was, she opted to explore on foot. The grey waves curled up into the sky with every crash against the rock, she clung to the edge as she watched spurts of water form a woman, no eyes and no mouth, just a plain black face with wispy hair like a witch. Alone and cold, the witch whispered under her breath that sent Alina into a sleep, never to be heard from again. Until Westeros went to shit.

Around the Queens’ table at Dragonstone, Daemon sat with his elbows propped up, chewing onto his fingernails as Rhaenyra stood, stoic and strangely calm whilst Rhaeyna spoke of the dangerous plans the Greens have for Dragonstone.

“He will surely arrive with Vhagar, even with the three dragons we have cannot take her on. We all know that.” She said, sitting straight. Daemon looked up at her worried face before switching to Rhaenyra’s face, she was deep in thought, Jace behind her, pacing up and down.

“Jace, stop. I can’t think right now.” Daemon ordered, but Jace didn’t stop. He rarely answered to his step father, he was deep in thought like the rest of the room. A hanging shadow was hanging over Dragonstone with Aemond’s threat to burn it to the ground. The Blacks may have the Dragon Queen but the Gods themselves couldn’t defend Dragonstone against Vhagar.

“You know…” Jace trailed off, Daemon looked at him disinterested. Rhaenyra turned her head slightly towards him, as he thought of his next words.

“What is it, Jace?” Rhaenyra spoke, slightly impatient.

“Alina Targaryen.” He said. Everyone exchanged glances, some confused, some surprised. They hadn’t heard that name in ages and perhaps some people had never heard it before.

“She’s been dead for 130 years.” Daemon said, matter of fact.

There had been a grumbling amongst the smallfolk, something was occurring and no one had the answer and it was something bigger than Aemond and Vhagar. The grumbling was like something was rising, coming alive and word on the street was Alina was planning to come back to slay all the sinners. She had not yet made an appearance.

“The prophecy. There was a prophecy.” Jace pointed out even though he couldn’t remember the full details of said prophecy.

“Yes. They said Alina was to die amongst her dragons, safe within the caves in the North, to protect the eggs of the future but if she was to come alive we would have to gain dragon fire.” Rhaenyra said impatiently, crossing her arms and not looking at her son. “It could never work, Jace.”

Later that night, Jace awoke in his bed from a fitful dream of Vhagar tearing his home to shreds and he knew he had to do something about it. The prophecy of Alina Targaryen was difficult but it was not impossible. Many people at the time did not own dragons or their dragons weren’t used for warfare, just simple fun, so of course the prophecy would be hard. He wrapped a warm robe around his body, keeping the cold chill at bay, thinking over his plans as his bare feet slapped against the stone flooring. His mind was on Alina, the beautiful blonde that was etched into law scriptures, there had even been an execution method in her style for those less fortunate: partially burned by dragon fire and then strangled over several days. It was a gruesome way to end and many people had been subjected to it.

Vermax was asleep when Jace entered the Dragon Pit, he watched him for a while before whistling to awaken him. Vermax was always grumpy when he woke up but actively being woke up was a whole new level of grumpy so Jace was in for a long, long night. In High Velarian, he told Vermax of the old prophecy, of the High and Mighty Alina Targaryen who could help them from being torn into pieces.

Deep within the breathing caves, Alina was still, flat on her back on a spacious rock table; her hands clasped at her stomach, still in her riding gear; her peach coloured mouth relaxed into a soft line; her halo hair scattered around her like a wave as Jace began commanding Vermax’s fire, miles away from the caves. The walls began to move, shaking ever so slightly at every will Jace gave to his dragon and with that push, Alina began to rouse. Not awaking properly, her eyes hadn’t opened but her toes squeezed against her leather sandals as Vermax breathed his hot rage into a vat of iron; quickly, Jace covered the top, burning himself but keeping the fire closed within the jar. He could’ve sworn Vermax rolled his eyes when he thanked him and ran off.

Rhaenyra hardly slept. It wasn’t uncommon. There was much to think about. She was sat at her desk, rifling through some parchments when her eldest son came battling through the door; evidently struggling with his barrel.

“What in the Seven Gods have you got there?” Rhaenyra asked, standing up.

“It’s a vat of fire, Lady Mother. For the prophecy.” He was so unfit.

“The prophecy won’t work, Jace. Don’t be a fool and fall for it. Alina was killed by a Sea Devil. It is in the history books.” She batted her hand away and sat down, not wishing to listen to him.

“Mother, when I was commanding Vermax, it felt like something awoke within me. I could feel this cold chill run right through me, I’m telling you, I don’t think this prophecy is fake.”

“You felt the cold chill because it’s midnight and it’s cold and you’re wearing nothing. Go to bed. I don’t want to hear about it anymore.” Defeated, Jace dragged his vat of fire back to his room.

Defeated by his mother he may be. But something happened and it was unmistakable. So when day broke, he climbed onto the back of Vermax and rode off into the North.

The cave was located amongst a rocky terrain, hidden behind a jagged rock that had dried blood, possibly Alina’s, coated over the tips. The waves crashed against the rocks as Vermax flew onto the hanging cliff, denying to put himself and his rider in danger on the rocks. Jace sighed, noticing the jagged rock, his vat of fire on his back as he slowly, incredibly slowly, bum shuffled down onto a flat rock just to the side of the cave, trying to find a different way to enter but the gap between the rocks was too small, even though he was a particularly skinny young man, he could not fit between them. So he had to go around, the wind whipped around his hair, flowing it into all directions as he clutched onto the sharp edge of the jagged rock, cutting diagonally across his palm as he hauled himself onto a small foot cove when his toes fit perfectly. The waves crashed against him, throwing him into the rock at full speed, cutting the side of his face. He groaned into the cup of his hand, trying to keep his composure as the pain seared through him. Once the waves had ceased for just a moment, adrenaline shot through him and he jumped from the foot cove onto the flat surface at the entrance of the cave.

There was a few spots of water, deep enough to drown in, due to the land shifting over the century she had been dead. At first it was dark, he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face but slowly a light was forming in front of him. Two fawn columns created an archway where a beam of yellow light flooded onto a flat rock, washing over the body of a still woman who was wiggling her toes and small groans escaping her pursed mouth.

“Alina.” He whispered, running towards the rock and finding a beautiful woman, forever twenty three in front of him. The Great Dragon Tamer. Alina Targaryen. He opened the vat ever so slowly, wondering what would happen if the fire was to consume her surroundings, whether she would come to life again. The fire cascaded up and above, touching stalactites and flowing over, somehow it did not touch Alina or Jace and he watched as the Dragon Tamer twitched her eyes. He knelt down beside her, watching her intently as her pale grey eyes opened and took in the fire above her.

The prophecy had worked. The second Alina saw Jace, she shot to her feet, her hand on the sword attached to her leather belt.

“Who are you?” She asked, her voice rough after a century of non speaking.

“I’m Jace… Jace Velarion.” He stumbled across his words, straightening to his feet. Her face was thunderous, her lips straight and almost snarling as she took him in.

“You work at sea.” She spat. “Have you come to kill me once and for all, Jace Velarion?” She unsheathed her sword, the glinting point at his face.

“No, it’s not like that.” He cleared his throat. “I am the son of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen. I have come to ask for help.” Her sword lowered ever so gently as she inquired him with her eyes, narrowing them and looking him up and down.

“A Targaryen Queen? You must be a bastard. Where’s your white hair?” She was vaguely amused by this. In normal circumstances, Jace would not be able to control his anger and although he could feel it bubbling, he didn’t want to say anything; this moment couldn’t be ruined.

“We are under threat. It’s complicated but Queen Rhaenyra is technically Queen of Dragonstone but she is the rightful Queen of Westeros, in the Red Keep. But her younger half brother plotted against her, the Hightowers, and now he is on the throne and there’s a threat Vhagar and his bastard rider will detonate us all. We need you.”

“The Hightowers.” She spat, tucking her sword back into her sheath. “I’ve always hated them.” She slapped her thighs, she was incredibly masculine, and drove herself to the entrance of the cave. Jace watched in awe as she screamed in Old Valyrian, something he couldn’t understand himself and saw four dragons rise from the rocks. They had been disguised for 130 years as these jagged rocks, the ones that Jace cut himself on, they roared and they were ten times bigger than Vermax. The wind blew in at a high speed when Alina turned around, a mischievous glint in her eye and the first smile he had seen.

“Are you ready, Prince Jace?”

[themousefromfantasyland]

Was Star really supposed to be Asha's love interest in the beginning of the development of Disney's Wish?

I keep seeing this being brought up everywhere, appearing even on Trivia TikTok videos about the movie, but as far as I know this is coming from a deeply misunderstanding of the development process.

The main idea is that Star-boy was supposed to be Asha's love interest and that At All Costs was supposed to be their love song.

Seeing the concept arts of Star-boy I can see where most people are coming from. I'm also think that Asha and him are definitely shippable.

However, in the Art of Wish, Star-boy was just the third stage of the character development, and on that stage he was meant to be Asha's deceased grandfather reborn. On the first stage he was supposed to be a shapeshifter and on the final stage a ball of pure energy.

You can say they missed the opportunity of having Star stay as a magical boy like Peter Pan, but it's clear that on that stage his relationship with Asha was probably going to be platonic. No romance here.

Then why do At All Costs sound so much like a love song?

Luckily for us, Jennifer Lee, one of the writers for the film and chief creative officer of the Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Julia Michaels, the songwriter for the movie, gave an interview to Variety explaining their reasons.

The song “At All Costs,” sung by Asha and King Magnifico, was important to Lee. The song navigates the importance of the wishes to each of them, and the two are emotionally aligned here. Lee pushed for a song expressing this. “You had to understand what it felt like to hold someone’s wish in your hand. How do we viscerally understand that when you’re with them, you feel like you’re holding someone’s raison d’être?” she says. “You can’t do this in any other way but song.

Since there was no love song in the film, Michaels wanted to write a song that as a standalone sounded like a love song that could be played at weddings. Yet in the context of the film, it’s about the heroine and villain. Says Michaels, “How cool would it be if we wrote a song that if you listened to on its own, it sounds like a love song, it could be something you could play at your wedding, or be a lullaby to your kids, just something really beautiful, but when you watch the film, it’s the heroine and it’s the villain.” She continues, “You realize they’re coming about this both from various points, one from a very selfless standpoint and one from a selfish standpoint.”

Basically Jennifer Lee wanted a song about the importance of the the wishes for both Asha and Magnifico, but Julia Michaels wanted to write a love song. As there were no opportunities to write a love song, Michaels wrote At All Costs to sound like one.

But in the demo, they sing "Love you, as one does", instead of "Promise, as one does"?

Probably Julia Michaels wanted to write a love song, but had to tone it down so as to not confuse the audience. Clearly, it didn't work that well.

Disney is lying!

Why would Disney lie about the development of Wish? As far as I know, there's nothing to hide, no scandals, no controversies.

Jenifer Lee is literally the chief creative officer, the highest ranking position of the creative team within the Walt Disney Animation Studios. She along Allison Moore WROTE the screenplay and she is part of the team that came up with that story. Wish was her brainchild. Why would she need to lie?

Maybe higher ups like Bob Iger and Bob Chapek screwed with the project. That's completely possible. Maybe we learn later some big and super shady controversy in the development of the movie.

But, by the time being, with all the evidences available, Wish seems to be the story she and others of the studio wanted to tell, even if general audiences reacted badly.

And so far, no evidence of romance.

Unless someone comes out with some legitimate evidence of the contrary, Star was never supposed to be Asha's love interest, and everything else is consequence of fans being dissatisfied with the end product and wanting for something more Disney-like.

[queen-scribbles]

18. excitedly grabbing each other’s hands during a concert, jumping up and down together [Janine & Tina]

"You have the tickets, right?"

"For the third time in ten minutes, Tina, yes, I have the tickets."

Tina held up her hands in a gesture of grinning innocence. "Hey, they weren't cheap, and combined with the number of hoops we had to jump to both have tonight and tomorrow off, can you blame me for triple-checking?"

"S'ppose not," Janine laughed, patting her small crossbody purse. "They're safe and sound. Ready to go?"

Tina gave herself a last once-over in the hall mirror, adjusting her cropped tie-front t-shirt and fluffing her curls. "Let's boogie."

A giggle bubbled from Janine's throat as she pulled out her keys. "'Let's boogie'? What're you, from the 70's?"

"Yes, I came to reclaim that shirt," Tina teased right back.

Janine grinned and gasped in mock-offense, hands pressed to the front of her cornflower-patterned peasant blouse. "Well, you can't have it, it looks too good on me." She stuck out the tip of her tongue. "The 70's shall remain disappointed."

"Well, hopefully we won't," Tina hinted, tugging Janine toward the door. "C'mon, the City's not exactly a short drive."

Giddy anticipation rising, Janine followed her friend into the hall. "Just let me lock up..."

"You're sure you have the ticket?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die."

---

The warm-up music filtered out of the venue, the line shuffled forward, and Janine dug a second pass through her purse. "I swear they're here..."

"Janine," Tina hissed, hand on her arm to move them with the flow of the crowd. "I asked five times!"

Janine didn't reply, biting her lip and shuffling past a credit card, loose cash, hair bands, her license, gum....

"Are you serious-?!"

"Of course not." Janine grinned and produced the envelope with a pair of pristine purple and white tickets. "I'd think you know that well by now," she teased.

"Tina rolled her eyes and laughed. "Oh, that's mean, Elder. I may have to wreak vengeance."

"Bring it, Poname," Janine giggled, sliding out the tickets to hand to the bouncer. One went to Tina when she got them back.

Lacking pockets, Tina stuffed the ticket stub in her bra. "Maybe I'll ask Captain Sung for a new partner...."

"When we make such a good team?" Janine said with a grin, the adrenaline of being here started to kick in. She linked arms with Tina and started for the main floor. "Plot revenge later, enjoy front row seats now!"

"Yeah, look at this place!" Tina gestured at the other concert-goers, the lights and decoration. There was an energy buzzing already.

By the time they reached their place, linked arms had turned to linked hands, and they were just in time for the houselights to go down. The lead singer swaggered onstage, gesturing for crowd interaction as he belted out a greeting.

Tina and Janine squeezed each other's hand, grinning ear to ear and jumping excitedly as the first chords were struck.

The energy of the show didn't flag and neither did theirs, so it was a motion repeated more than once. Janine let out a giddy whoop jumping to one of her favorite songs, Tina echoed it, and both would have fallen over in gleeful laughter had they not been holding hands.

---

"What's this one, babe?" Felix freed one hand from his jeans pocket to point to a photo on her wall at the mouth of the hallway.

Janine smiled as she joined him. "Oh, first concert I went to with Tina after we became friends." She folded her arm over his shoulder and leaned against him absently as she reminisced. "That was a fun night."

"Looks like it," Felix grinned, taking in the shimmering pink and purple paint smudged along Tina's cheekbones, the blue glitter in Janine's hair and eyeshadow, their matching grins. "You two went all out."

"Mmm. We practically had to sell our souls to get shifts covered," Janine said. "And Tina almost strangled me because I pretended I forgot the tickets."

Felix snickered. "I'm glad it was almost."

"Me, too." Janine kissed his check. "C'mon, the team's waiting."

She glanced back at the photo, still almost able to hear the music, feel the rush of adrenaline. It had definitely been a fun night, she mused, grinning as she closed the door.

[allol12]

Songs from The Oh Hellos that would work well in Arcane fanfics:

I'm doing The Oh Hellos first just because I've been listening to them more recently. Buckle in, this is a long list.

Dear Wormwood:

Bitter Water: About a toxic relationship!! Great for angsty pairings.

Lyric Spotlight: “Even now you mark my steps, lovely bitter water, all the days of our delights are poison in my veins, I know I shouldn't love you, I know”

Exeunt: About a toxic relationship!! Great for angsty pairings. Especially if one of them leaves the other.

Lyric Spotlight: “So, my little dove, I'm afraid I am leaving” “I will not abide all your raging and reaving, I have set my mind and my will, I am leaving.”

Dear Wormwood: About a toxic relationship except it’s not a romantic one it’s about a human telling a demon to screw off basically. In the wise words of Maggie and Tyler Heath, the singers and songwriters, this is a Screwtape Letters fanfiction. Great for fics where a character is battling with their own metaphorical demons, looking at you Jinx.

Lyric Spotlight: “I know who I am now, and all that you've made of me, I know who you are now, and I name you my enemy”

Through The Deep Dark Valley (If I’m being completely honest here I struggled to not put the entire album because very song in this album fits at least one character.):

The Valley: According to Genius, “’The Valley’ is a song about the struggle and confusion caused by being born into wickedness.”There is one very simple reason why I included this song in this list. It feels like Piltover vs. Zaun from the point of view of Zaunite children. The whole song is about a generation of people having to pay for the decisions and crimes of those who came before them.

Lyric Spotlight: “We were born in the shadow of the crimes of our fathers, blood was our inheritance, no, we did not ask for this”

Like the Dawn: This one is about Adam meeting Eve. It’s pretty interesting though cause it’s sung by a woman (Maggie Heath) from the perspective of Adam. It’s a pretty romantic song so it can be for any ship, especially if it’s one that’s doomed by the narrative.

Lyric Spotlight: “You were the brightest shade of sun I had ever seen” “And you will surely be the death of me, but how could I have known?”

Second Child Restless Child: This one has too much lore so I won’t go too much into it. Think of it as the troubled younger sibling anthem. Looking at you again, Jinx.

Lyric Spotlight: “See, I was born a second child, with a spirit running wild, running free, and they saw trouble in my eyes, they were quick to recognize the devil in me”

The Lament of Eustace Scrubb: This song is once again C.S. Lewis fanfiction. Idk much about Narnia so I can't explain this much but think of this song as another instance of battling inner demons. Looking at you for a third time, Jinx. And honestly? Viktor too.

Lyric Spotlight: “Father, have mercy, I know that I have gone astray, 'cause when I saw my reflection, it was a stranger beneath my face”

In Memoriam: Yet ANOTHER song with too much lore. It can be interpreted as romantic, but I don’t think the original version was romantic by any means. Nevertheless, it’s very good for fanfic especially for smth like caitvi, you’ll see why in the lyric spotlight.

Lyric Spotlight: “But I've never been a wealthy one before, I got holes in my pocket burned by liars' gold, and I think I'm far too poor for you to want me”

Notos:

Constellations: According to genius, “’Constellations’ explores what it feels like to have your own perception of the universe challenged and ultimately fall apart” If I’m being honest with myself… I put this here for Jayvik, skyvik, or literally any ship regarding the hextech team.

Lyric Spotlight: “Like constellations imploding in the night, everything is turning, everything is turning, and the shapes that you drew may change beneath a different light, everything you thought you knew will fall apart, but you'll be all right”

Eurus:

O’ Sleeper: Genius only tells me where the name comes from so if I’m being honest I have no idea what this song is truly about, but it does have a very nice domestic opening scene.

Lyric Spotlight: “While the weary nations weep, awakening me from a dream, I see the moonlight steal across my sheets, my love is lying fast asleep, chasing its beams, she stirs, and then she turns her back to me”

Boreas:

Rose: This song is about the change that needs to happen within Christianity. If you look this song up on genius, do not be fooled by the first commenter explaining what this song is about. They are wrong. ANYWHO, this song has banger lyrics that can work for angsty ships.

Lyric Spotlight: “No, love’ll get you slaughtered, like a ram at the altar, what is safe ain’t the same as what is good”

Zephyrus:

Soap: In my own personal interpretation, this song is about a couple who although may be different, and although may have their own personal issues, are still trying to make it work. Look me in the eyes and tell me this isn’t caitvi. The song literally has oil and water in the lyrics. I rest my case.

Lyric Spotlight: “I've heard, since I was younger, that oil and water don't mix, they're polar opposites, with a molecular rift you can't fix”

The Oh Hellos Ep:

Hello My Old Heart: According to genius, “The narrator of “Hello My Old Heart” addresses his broken heart.” Great for any angsty ship/character especially those who guard their heart.

Lyric Spotlight: “Hello, my old heart, how have you been? How is it being locked away? Don't you worry, in there, you're safe, and it's true, you'll never beat, but you'll never break”

Lay Me Down: According to genius, “’Lay Me Down’ is a song about leaving the beliefs you grew up with and pursuing the truth.” One specific lyric does intrigue me though, as it makes the narrator sound like an adventurous child who wants more than the cards they were dealt.

Lyric Spotlight: “See, I was born a restless, wayward child, I could hear the whole world calling me outside, of the masses I routinely sat behind, and Lord, I had to see with my own eyes”

These are just some examples! I highly recommend listening to The Oh Hellos, they are amazing!!

[cto10121]

RetJ Meta—Un Jour, Where Are You

So I’ve been thinking about RetJ song orders from different productions and how some songs just get fucked over for no good reason (“Par Amour” especially disappears and reappears depending on the production). But Un Jour is definitely a special case, since its changing placement throughout the productions reveals something more than just practical time-saving measures. To whit:

Original French

The original production had Un Jour after La Haine and the Benvolio-Lady Montague conversation, third in the show overall. This makes sense as a point of thematic and musical contrast from the dramatics of both “Vérone” and “La Haine.” There is also the dramatic contrast between Juliette’s world of Capulet propriety and duty and Romeo’s world of Montague license and revelry.

Also, RetJ are very much are protagonists (see title of the show), so it makes sense for their I Am/I Want song to come early. It’s their intros, after all. Naturally, most productions have followed suit, not just replica productions but the Takarazuka and Toho. The productions that have departed from this, though...is strange.

Hungarian

So the first production that departs from the original French order is the Hungarian. “Un Jour/Egy nap” here comes after “Tu Dois Te Marier.” It’s still number 3 overall, but the context has changed quite a bit. Instead of being alone, RésJ sing about their longing for love to Benvolio and the Nurse.

It lessens the contrast and tension between RetJ’s world and Verona’s, to be sure. But also, RetJ should not at this point be willing to confess something they know would not be taken seriously even by their intimates and would be downright dangerous if their parents knew. The Hungarian may have been following the original play, where Romeo does tell Benvolio about his “love” for Rosaline...but that’s because Romeo isn’t all that into her to begin with. It’s a relatively safe thing to confess. It would have made more sense had Rómeó played his bro part with Benvolio and then, after he left, confess his deeper feelings. That way, we would have seen both Romeo with his friends and alone, which would’ve been powerful.

“Un Jour” is further weakened by a too-fast tempo (they also cut a refrain for brevity). It is also followed by the high-spirited showstopper, “Les Rois du Monde/Lehetsz Király.” Which makes Rómeó forced to go from wanting true love to bro-ing it up with his bros in a gym. Okay.

Revival

Things also get even weird with this one. The Revival decided to take a page from the Hungarian book and place “Un Jour” after “Tu Dois Te Marier.” This Tu Dois, however, is completely different from the original, much more dramatic and boring as hell. “Un Jour” comes directly after and sung first by Juliette. Thus “Un Jour” here becomes RetJ’s response to the pressure of expectations and Verona’s loveless culture in general.

Makes sense dramatically, sure, even though musically hearing Juliette’s high part first and then Romeo’s is not ideal. Even the CD version did not invert the parts. That said, there is no reason why this couldn’t be done with the high-spirited Tu Dois instead of this new dirge, keeping the original dialogue. But there is more of a musical continuation of this dark theme.

“Les Rois du Monde” also follows Un Jour, but with a new transition on the part of the Prince, who sings a line from it mockingly (“Kings of the world do everything they want / They have everyone around them, but they are alone...”). It’s a better transition, definitely, and it isn’t as abrupt as the Hungarian. But again, not ideal.

Italian

Now this is strange. The Italian ReG decided to move “Un Jour” after “La Demande en Mariage” and before the new “Tu Dois Te Marier.” The Italian is the first to break up the dream team of “La Demande” and “Tu Dois,” for honestly not a very good reason.

Yes, it is better than having “Les Rois du Monde” follow “Un Jour” by a long mile. It’s not ideal, but transitioning from Lady Capulet’s tragic backstory to Montacrew shenanigans is still better than forcing poor Romeo into this emotional whiplash with Un Jour-and-then-Les-Rois-du-Monde (I do miss the Prince’s sung transition, though).

But alas, the Italian decided to keep the original Rosaline and have Romeo sing about her with “J’ai Peur” (🤮). So “Un Jour” is not just redundant, but contradictory. This “J’ai Peur” comes before even “La Haine.” Because the Italian couldn’t decide between its Shakespeare and its Presgurvic, so damn it, it kept both.

In Sum

I don’t know about you guys, but I have never, in my life, wanted to listen to “Les Rois du Monde” after listening to “Un Jour.” Never. Not even with the Hungarian versions. It doesn’t even flow dramatically. Going from “Un Jour” to “La Demande en Mariage,” though? Happens all the time.

I’m not sure why the other productions decided to mix it up a bit. Did they wish to avoid the heaviness of the Vérone-La-Haine-Un-Jour configuration? It is heavy, I’ll grant you. Did they dislike the sameness of the high-spirited original “Tu Dois Te Marier” followed by the up-tempo “Les Rois du Monde”? The original had the Nurse-Juliette dialogue and an instrumental instance of the song. The Dutch and Austrian also used an “Un Jour” reprise to make the transition even smoother. It’s only rough when you listen to the CD versions (even so, there have been times when I did go from Tu Dois to Les Rois because yeah, why not?). Is it a stage thing? The original’s concert grid staging may make the transition from TDTM to LRdM much easier than a regular theater stage.

“Un Jour” is pretty important in establishing the RetJ connection early on and getting the audience to buy into the love-at-first-sight scene during the ball, a notoriously hard sell for modern audiences these days. So I would not mess with its placement much at all or drive it further down the Act 1 list than it need be.

[blondebibliophiliac]

EPIC: The Musical

I want to give Jorge Rivera-Herrans a big smooch because, my gods, EPIC: The Musical was a masterpiece. I'm going to break this down into just the saga playlist and then the animatic(s) that I've seen. When I tell you I sobbed at the end, I am not exaggerating. I would invest so much of my money into the team who created this so that it can become a fully realized animated film or show.

The Saga Playlist:

I have loved musicals since I was a child. Grease was the first musical I ever saw, I was in concert choir during high school, and I was part of a group of friends who were in theater (which included a lot of musical theatre). I was part of the first sopranos during my first two years of choir. In my third year, I dropped down to second soprano. I can get to the high notes, but it kills me to do it. As I got older, I continued to love musicals, and the introduction of shows like Hazbin Hotel ignited my love for them all over again. I'm also a lover of mythology, and I grew up with a love for Greek and Norse mythology specifically. So when I finally sat down to watch the animatic with the music, I fell in love. For reference, this is the video that I watched for the first time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K-eMKjo1bs&list=WL&index=26). I have seen multiple versions since then and each one seems to be better than the last.

Since watching the animatic, I have listened to the playlist over 34 times (yes, I counted in my Spotify). Every time I listen to it I hear more from a song that I didn't hear the first time. It is such a wonderful experience and I never get over some of the songs. The music is so heart-wrenching, and I don't always mean that in a negative way. Music is such a key part of my life, and I'm brought to chills at the sound of the right song. I never lost my chills. The ensemble in the background of every song really adds to the depth of each one, and each person sang their part as if they were speaking with their soul. Jorge assembled an amazing cast of voices for these roles. The way that everything just flows together and the story that is told in the underlying messages of the songs.

The first song of the saga, "Just a Man", subtly tells the listener that they're talking about the infant and Odysseus, not just one or the other. This is a recurring reference throughout the saga and it always hits right in the feels because the listener is always reminded that Odysseus is literally just a man, a human, yet he's been forced to go through all of these trials and tribulations.

In "Ruthlessness", it includes the ensemble singing the line "Captain" as they did in the song "Polyphemus" (for those that don't know Greek mythology, Polyphemus is the Cyclops Odysseus and his crew blinded). I just love how each song includes lines sung in the tune that they were sung in previous songs. It overlaps constantly. Additionally in "Ruthlessness", Poseidon says "Remember me" just as Odysseus told Polyphemus to remember him, which ultimately led to the events of The Odyssey.

I mean, there are so many mic-drop moments in this album. Like, hello? This moment: Poseidon: Tell me, how will you sleep at night? Odysseus: Next to my wife. I can never emotionally recover from the moments in this album.

Many of these songs became trending on TikTok, and I'm glad I waited until now to invest my time in it because it has consumed my soul. "Would You Fall in Love with Me Again" has gripped so many hearts, and I want to talk about that one in the next section again. But when Odysseus claims that he's not the same man, and Penelope tests this by asking him to move their wedding bed, it's clear that he's the same because he becomes so angry at her request. It feels like a regular argument between a married couple even though it's sung. Also, round of applause for Troy Doherty for his role as Hermes. I read the story of "Baucis and Philemon" and listening to this playlist has given a new way to look at Hermes.

The Animatics:

I cannot commend the artists enough on the work they've done on these animatics and animations. The emotions you can read are just so intense. In the one I watched specifically, there are so many moments when you're able to see the emotion as they sing it. In "Would You Fall in Love..." the emotions are so raw, and the animators have done such a flawless job of capturing the feelings of the songs in the way they've drawn and animated the characters. I can't comprehend the amount of time that it has taken people to create these extremely detailed animations and I love to see that it has inspired other artists to create. As an artist myself, I know that it takes something special to inspire you to create art.

I could rave about this for hours. But I hope that this gives some insight into how amazing EPIC: The Musical is. There have been other adaptations of the stories of Homer's The Odyssey, but this is truly the best I have seen.

[colorfuldreamsmkg]

First Note - Ch1 Battle of the Bands Theme

April 3rd, 2:45 PM. A day and a half since the announcement of your haunting situation within the abandoned structure (school?). At least by now you had explored the new areas and had enough space to move around without bumping into less savory characters on the regular. The fact that you could still enter your SEKAIs easily most certainly helped, too. Still, this was no replacement for the safety of home.

Much to the general dismay of the situation, a text reached your phones, bearing the name Hatsune Miku as the sender. What now?

🎵 Wow, it’s been two days already, hasn’t it? I have an update on your team-building activities! Wouldn’t you like to hear about how the Battle of the Bands is going to go? If you head to the orchestra room within 15 minutes, I’ll be handing out your theme!

Going out to meetings was met with less general enthusiasm before, but there was the sentiment that people had little choice in the matter. After all, how bad could it be? It wasn’t like you were being expected to write music about murder, too, right? Or something else dark and horrible.

The footsteps felt heavy on the dusty carpets of the orchestra room, with some opting to sit and some standing to avoid the dust. There was no requirement to sit, after all. A glow flicked from the digital clock of this room, Hatsune Miku standing at about a foot and a half tall to be seen by even the people less-inclined to be perceived in the back. With a bright smile and a wave, she proceeded to take mental roll call before greeting you properly.

“Hello again, everyone! It’s so nice to see you all, truly. I’m glad you made it! It would be a shame if I had to help someone get here myself. That takes some extra steps, doesn’t it?” 

“Anyway… As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve brought you here for the Battle of the Bands theme! I’d really like everyone to get closer, so… I picked an easier theme for our first round. So this time it will be… Dundundundundundun…”

Miku mimicked the sound of a drumroll, stomping in place with excitement to build anticipation. It was up in the air as to how much this actually worked, though.

“Love Songs!! Specifically, this love song must be a Cover of a Virtual Singer song! It doesn’t have to be originally sung by ME, but I would be tickled if it was. Wouldn’t that be cute? Oh! And if you don’t know any virtual singer songs yourself, understandable if you don’t, I’ve been so kind as to leave a bunch of songs to reference in the music library, and CDs with instrumentals for those of you that can’t play any instruments right now! Your performance is flexible, and I’m not judgemental, I promise.”

Well… That wouldn’t be TOO hard, right? At least for the people who actually had performance experience. The rest of you might end up having a major disadvantage here. Still, Miku herself seemed perfectly satisfied with the announcement, what with her emphasis on team-building this entire time.

“Now that the theme’s revealed, I should talk a little about the format we’re doing this in! After everyone performs, I’ll be ranking your performances from first to fifth place. The first through third place winners will all receive prizes in the means of crystals for each of you, and first place will also receive a bit of relief from what’s to come as an added bonus. Fourth place will simply be ‘safe’, and fifth place will receive a penalty regarding what’s to come. I can promise you’ll want to participate! It will be worth your time.”

“Oh, and… Every person in your group needs to contribute in some way, or else your entire group will be automatically disqualified. And I’m willing to have more than one group in fifth place, if I must! And no top three places, too. I truly want you all to become closer through this! Both in collaboration and in friendly competition.”

Only time would tell if this would actually help build any bonds like miss Miku claimed she wanted. After all, it was harder to make friends under the threat that any one of the people here could kill you at any moment (not that that was deterring some of the folks present, either). Best steel yourselves and rehearse, if the reward was truly as worth it as she claimed it would be. Best hope the others on your team would be open to helping, too.

“Oh! But I know some of you enjoy music in a way that doesn’t involve performing yourself, of course! It would be unfair to force all of you to perform directly if it’s not your specialty, so know that I’d only like for you all to CONTRIBUTE in some way! The more you contribute, the better. But if you aren’t singing or playing something… Maybe you can be in charge of special effects, costumes, A/V, composing a rearrangement, or choreography. Things like that would all work, but if you’re doing backstage help, make sure your contribution is still major! Simply picking out premade costumes and doing nothing else isn’t much for a contribution, right? But don’t worry, you don’t need to inform me of what you’re doing to help. I’ll know!”

“Oh… but doesn’t that also mean you might be short performers? Hmm… Well! You can ask your SEKAI’s virtual singers to help you by playing something or singing with you as you need to, also! Or whatever else. So how about we at least host this round in everyone’s personal SEKAIs? We can do a grand tour to everyone’s stage! That would be wonderful, don’t you think?”

That certainly would be an aid. At least thus far, everyone’s virtual singers have been quite eager to help their units out, to some of your annoyances. And the lessened pressure of not needing to be the person on the stage would help out those who were more hesitant to perform.

“Just keep your eyes on the prizes! Hard work and caring consideration will be rewarded, even for performances that are weaker than what professionals might put on. Good luck, and have fun! We’ll be performing in four days from now. I hope that’s enough time for everyone to rehearse…”

Four days? Yeah that was a tight timeline for anyone who was less familiar with performing. But it was better than nothing. You’d just have to get to work on deciding the song sooner rather than later if you wanted enough time to practice.

“Oh, but before the performance time… you’ll be seeing me again for something MUCH more fun the day before then. I think of it as another stepping stone to getting to know the people around you! After all… Getting to know things about others is a great way to become friends someday. Look forward to it! Goodbye, dear friends, I’ll see you again soon!”

And thus, Miku’s form flickered out of visibility. It was time to roll up your sleeves and get to work!

[huskynotwolf]

Icarus

-song by the Crane Wives

-fanfic by The Crazy Husky

No. 5

(Violin: Gem; Drums: Impulse)

Pearl seemed to get over her black cloud and was back to her constant murderous rage.

Gem had also practised several songs with Impulse, so the two were ready. She, apparently, also owns a violin. Scott seemed really troubled by the fact that Pearl had basically cried to How to Rest.

Tango and Jimmy, who last had heard Gem and Pearl (who were somehow on the roof), tried asking them to sing a Crane Wives song that would suit them, and Pearl broke Jimmy’s leg out of frustration.

Grain also seems slightly troubled by something. He keeps yelling at random things and telling ‘it’ to “leave him alone, he’s perfectly fine”. Of course, Scott’s been having weird dreams as well.

He was talking to Gem about how much he enjoys listening to music when Skizz crashed straight through the roof and fell on the deer lady. She shrieked in surprise and backed up, so instead of landing on her Skizz face-planted on the floor with a sickening thud.

“Skizz?” Scott asked, poking his side. He said nothing, but was still breathing. Then they heard a loud, “You should learn to respect personal space, Skizz!” From the third floor of the base. Gem looked up to see Joel arched over the window and smiling triumphantly. “Joel, I think you killed him.” Gem yelled back. He sniggered and disappeared from the window.

Scott sighed, cradled Skizz in his arms and dragged him into the infirmary, while Gem charged up the stairs to confront Joel. Scott soon learnt that not only Joel was nowhere to be found, she just completely wrecked his room instead.

Scott found Pearl playing the guitar by the windowsill on the second floor, while humming. Gem was next to her, playing the violin. “~~~” Impulse, who’s drums were just nearby, immediately took his seat and began playing along with the girls.

“Climb ye higher and higher and higher, ‘til you’re far away and breathing cleaner air.” Pearl sung while tapping her foot against the ground to make a steady beat. “Oh my brother, my brother, my brother, who have you become in the wake of all that's happened here?”

“They're burning down the orchard, to the soil. To the soil, to the grave.” Scott joined in. Pearl seemed relived she wasn’t alone. “Spreading out the ashes of a love, that only gave and gave.” Gem sung. She had put her violin aside and was playing the electric guitar. “~~~”

“Climb ye higher, and higher, and higher, there’s no room for all the hearts who will not stay.” Tango, who was passing by, noticed the commotion and sat down by the window opposite of the four and listened. “Oh my brother, my brother, my brother, the horses are running, the horses are running away.”

“Our hands are pulling everything apart, fall apart, falling back. Tell yourself there's no more need to lie, we don't have time for that.” Pearl half sung, half yelled the lyrics. “~~~” Impulse went for it on the drums, while Gem manipulated the strings. Pearl’s guitar was on her lap, as she wasn’t playing it. “It's okay, it's okay.” Scott sung. “My love will fall with grace.”

“~~~” Tango and Etho sat on the windowsill, watching them as they had a great time. “I wish BEST was like this. Just us homies jamming.” Etho murmured. Tango slapped him and snapped, “when have you ever learned how to jam?” Etho hissed and turned back to watching Impulse. “Seems unfair that we already broke team TIES. And Skizz isn’t here to witness this.” Bdubs pointed. He tried getting on the windowsill but failed. “Short,” Tango joked. Ren, who was passing by, heard that as well and snickered. Bdubs shot them both a glare and snapped, “Giraffe.”

“Climb ye higher, and higher, and higher, leave our footprints to be lost along the ground. Oh my brother, my brother, my brother, there is nothing left to bring me back down.” Pearl sung, while glancing at Tango, Etho and Bdubs yelling at each other, then noticed Ren was glancing at her. She said nothing and sung the last verse. “Spreading out our ashes in the sun, in the sun, in the sun.” Scott joined in. “Spreading out our ashes in the sun, in the sun, in the sun.”

Gem struck the last note, and they squealed in excitement. “Yeah! Icarus is off the list!” Impulse smiled. Then he noticed Tango and Etho looking at him, and he could feel guilt building up in his throat.

Does Team TIES exist anymore at this point?

(Couldn’t find the Spotify link; sorry)

Next

Previous

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 4, Very Very Very (IOI) Challenge

Welcome back to the thing I’m doing for some reason: The Great Produce48 Rewatch Recap-ma-jig! When we left off, we saw the penultimate teams perform Twice’s Like Ooh Ah. In this post, we’ll focus on the two performances of Very Very Very, featuring many future members of Iz*one, IVE,  Purplekiss, and Le Sserafim. Let’s do it!

Lee Seungki announces the next song as being “meaningful” -- and it is. Very Very Very was the song that made I.O.I. into what they were, and paved the way for IZ*one. He calls the two teams up on stage as the Avengers theme plays, I assume in the theater itself. Jeremy is like, “Wow, Sakura is in one of those teams.” Hey, Jeremy? Sakura is ranked 5th, which is respectable, but Yujin is ranked SECOND and Kwon Eunbi is ranked THIRD and I don’t see you mention either of them. And when Gaeun went up for Peekaboo, you didn’t mention her at all, even though she’s ranked FIRST. I know, I know, the filming was a little ahead of the voting, so they didn’t know what people would be ranked, and Sakura was the center, but she was the center, not like, actually Iron Man. 

It’s so weird the way these shows pick a person to be the whole show. I got it when it was Sung Hanbin from Boys Planet, as he is not just perfect looking but also an excellent dancer and a great singer and someone whose tears crystalize into diamonds that could refract light itself into champagne. But Sakura, despite being a sweet, cute, hardworking girl, isn't unusually talented or charming as far as I can tell. 

Anyway! To get us back up to speed, here are two teams. 

Yujin’s team, which was formed second overall introduces themselves as “Mixed Fruits”.

Left to right:

Honda Hitomi, 16, the super cutey who worked her way up from C to A and is currently ranked 47th.

An Yujin, 14, future member of  IVE who rose from B to A and is currently ranked 2nd overall. Wow! And she’s 14, you guys. I always forget how young she is here. 

Jang Wonyoung, future Wonyoung, known for being Wonyoung but currently with her original face, who has stayed in B and is ranked 4th.

Choi Yena, 18, friendly Yena from Yuehua who kept us company for a lot of episode 1, fell from A to B, and is currently ranked 6th. 

Shiroma Miru, 20, future visitor to Queendom Puzzle, who fell from B to D but is ranked 22nd. 

Na Goeun, 18, future Purplekiss, A class girl, and ranked 20th. 

Sakura’s team, which was formed first overall, introduces themselves a “Very Raspberry” (in English). It’s weird how many pairs of teams ended up with thematically similar names. 

Left to right:

Kwon Eunbi, 22, the future soloist, fell from A to C, is currently ranked 3rd

Motomura Aoi,  21, sweet faced Aoi from Never Ending Ferris Wheel, who rose from D to B and is ranked 42nd. 

Kim Minju, 17, a Very Pretty Girl, rose from D to C, ranked 17 

Kim Choyeon, 16, fire-eyes girl and future Bugaboo, fell from A to C, ranked 75 

Miyawaki Sakura, 20, THE SAKURA, future member of Le Sserafim who stayed in A and is ranked 5th. 

Lee Chaeyeon, 18, future soloist, who stayed in A and is ranked 10th.

Clearly, both teams are pretty stacked. But Yunjin’s team is just maybe that little bit more stacked, despite being formed second. I actually don’t remember who wins, but my 2024 knowledge implies it might have something to do with Wonyoung. 

Red Team’s Miru says, in Japanese, that their cute members will blend to make the sweetest juice, so bring it on! Blue team’s Sakura says that their team is the closest and that will make their performance best, and throws in a “fighting!” at the end. 

We jump back to Red team’s dance practice with Dance Bae, but this will be more about Blue team. Give it a moment.

Original face Wonyoung’s cute wiggling and winking earns a smile from Dance Bae, and it looks like everyone is doing a good and cute job. Dance Bae mentions the center, then after a pause says that they chose the right girl for it. 

We see Kim Choyeon, who is the center of the other team, reacting with concern to how good Wonyoung is. Poor Choyeon. Imagine having to go up against Wonyoung? In ANYTHING? It just wouldn’t go well. And the fact that Choyeon doesn’t quite meet Korean beauty standards -- despite being, in my opinion, a striking looking girl -- doesn’t help. 

Choyeon interviews, “Wonyoung’s facial expressions are all so natural. She’s so pretty and she does a good job standing at the center. I’m a bit anxious.”

It’s group 2’s turn, and Dance Bae tells them that she’s happy to see all of them since this is a team with a lot of skilled members. She expresses a bit of surprise that Choyeon is the center.

Center: Choyeon  Left of Choyeon: Aoi Right of Choyeon: Lee Chaeyon Behind Choyeon: Kim Minju Kneeling, left to right: Eunbi, Sakura

The editors present us with a weird-face-off between Choyeon and Dance Bae. (I mean a weird-face off, not a weird face-off, if you feel me.) 

When they’re done, Dance Bae says, “Choyeon, I’m sorry, but you were overacting. You made me feel so uncomfortable, I had to look at someone else.” Choyeon nods. I think she kinda knew. 

The editors keep doing that “swallowing” noise thing and I hate it nomu nomu nomu nomu much. 

Bae goes on, and she really, really lets them have it. She says, “What’s ironic is, you guys dance better than the other group. You have more famous members, too. But I sense that there’s a different vibe. You guys aren’t so fresh compared to Group One. I think it could be a problem of the center member. For the team, I think it’s better to select a new center member. Girls, you have to be careful choosing a center member. Why don’t you all think rationally? Don’t be swayed by what other people think.”

Afterwards, there is a lot of crying. Motherly Eunbi holds Choyeon while she sobs. Everyone else hovers nearby, patting her vaguely. 

Cut to dress rehearsal and we see that now, Sakura is in the center. Ahn Yujin voice overs that it makes sense to her that Sakura would be in the center, and really, it makes sense to all of us.

Soyou asks about it, and almost sounds angry, but that might just be her shouting to be heard from the distance. Kwon Eunbi explains that they decided to change to Sakura recently. 

Side note: Doesn’t Choyeon look pretty with her hair like this? 

Her face is one of those interesting faces that can go either way, and I think that’s cool. A lot of runway models are like that. She just needs, I don’t know, the right hair and the right styling and the right attitude to be like yeah, my eyes are lasers, get into it!

Cut back to the group meeting -- one of those Criss-cross-Applesauce-Crescent-Moons of Doom. It’s a CACMOD, if you will. 

Eunbi asks the group who should be the center, and Aoi sweetly says, “Choyeon,” which makes Choyeon smile for a second before immediately starting to cry. Even in her interview she is overcome with sobs. She tries to smile, though. She wants to do what’s best for the group.

The group smartly decides to record themselves six times, each time with a different person in the center, and then watch the recordings. Afterward, Lee Chaeyon says she thinks that Sakura should be the center. And at that moment, a thousand ‘ships were launched! Everyone nods, and Choyeon herself speaks up to agree that yes, Sakura should be the center. Pretty Eunbi agrees, and the decision is made.

They applaud, but Sakura is full of mixed emotions about taking over her friend’s part. 

She also has to learn the rap. We see that she has the rap written in katakana, the Japanese writing system designed for foreign words. 

She’s learning it phonetically, basically, and it’s not going to be easy, but she sits with the others and practices the pronunciation and dance as hard as she can. 

We cut back to dress rehearsal and Sakura is making a lot of mistakes with the words. When they’re done, Cheetah lets her have it, which I just think is mean.

 “That wasn’t good. I can’t hear anything. I can’t make out what you’re saying. Why did you have to change positions and make the rap part horrible?” 

Like, she doesn’t speak Korean, lady. It’s obvious she’s having trouble. I’d just say, “Well, it’s obvious you need a lot more work on the words. What is your plan to learn the lyrics by performance day?” And then, AND THEN, Soyou of all fucking people says, “Because of Sakura, everything was ruined. Her pronunciation was bad, and her dance was offbeat.” She goes on and on and on, and Sakura begins literally flinching as the words hit her in the face. 

Ugh. I think a lot of this is production interference. They know that they want to show a lot of both of these teams, so they need as much drama as they can get, and they want a lot of it to center on Sakura so they can put Sakura’s face in the middle of people’s TV screens. 

It must be so hard for Sakura. She seems to genuinely want to learn, and then she gets alternately praised and lambasted for roughly equivalently good performances. Audition offkey and with extremely simple choreo? Into A class! Not learn a 20 second rap in a foreign language in 2 days? MAKE HER FEEL LIKE SCUM YOU FOUND ON YOUR SHOE. 

Thanks, judges. Thudges. 

Kindly Jeremy asks, in Japanese, do you think you can do ok tomorrow? She answers, “I think Choyeon should be in the center.” 

Commercial break! In the Spanish video you can see this inexplicable advertisement featuring AI idols dancing to Nekoya. (23:30 or so)

In an interview, she cries as she says that she feels bad that Choyeon missed out on her chance to be center, but I’d argue that this isn’t entirely Sakura’s fault. Choyeon couldn’t figure out how to smile naturally, Sakura. I mean, harsh, but like… true.  

Now, in this interview, she’s wearing her actual performance outfit, not the outfit she was wearing in dress rehearsal, which had a blue collar. I can’t help but wonder if this interview, in which she says that Choyeon would have had more time to rehearse as center if it weren’t for her -- I wonder if this interview was recorded AFTER their performance. Because it would make sense if it were. It would put a different cast on it when she says that she thinks everything is her fault. 

Side note: I wonder why Eunbi was never really floated as a center for the performance? She looks a little like Irene from Red Velvet, in my opinion, and she can sing and dance. She would have been a great center. Maybe it’s because she’s not quite as twig-thin as the other girls….? IDK. 

Anyway, they decide to switch back to Choyeon, and Sakura voice overs that she feels much better about it. Eunbi voice overs that the team has gotten really close and they work well together. Minju voiceovers that she wants to make the performance perfect, and I’m like, “oh, is that what your voice sounds like, Minju? I had forgotten.”

And then it’s time for the performance. 

Here’s PD48 Editing’s blessed edit.

Standing: Aoi, Sakura, Lee Chaeyon Kneeling: Minju, Choyeon, Eunbi

My thoughts: 

Overall, they did great. Some of the vocals weren’t perfect, and not every facial expression exactly worked, but overall, great. 

Choyeon must have practiced a lot in the mirror because she was definitely much better than she’d been in that first rehearsal, expression wise. It still was a little awkward, alas. She is a great dancer and a decent singer (though I don’t love her vocal color), but she just isn’t a gifted smiler. It’s a bummer for her because I know she really wants this. 

Eunbi was flawless. No notes. She should have been the center. I don’t get it.

Lee Chaeyon was main vocal, ya’ll. Let that sink in -- the girl known for her excellent dancing was the main vocal on the team. Facial expressions, mini dance break, ad libs, all on point. Who is she, Kang Seulgi over here? I think she should have worn her hair down or curled or something maybe, and had a brighter closer to her face, but that’s the stylist unnie screwing her over. She’s just a queen when it comes to performance. 

Aoi was frickin’ adorable, of course. 

Smiles, pouts, finger wiggles… she gives Nako a run for her money. Dancing looked fine, and her one or two lines of vocals were fine. And the little part at the end when she blows the glitter at everyone -- seamless. She’s good at this, ya’ll. And it seems, for the record, that the audience appreciates her too, even if MNET gives her zero time or attention.

Minju just looked kind of scared a lot of the time. 

Use your finger to cover up her mouth in this picture and just look at her eyes and I think you’ll see what I mean. Her rapping vocal color is kind of offputting, too. She was on beat and I think she did it correctly but it didn’t work for me. Someone had to rap I guess. But she did the thing and was pretty, and that’s what she was there for. 

Sakura was super cute and had great facial expressions. She vocals were on key, though her vocal color remains unpleasant to me. Still, she did her Sakura thing and it was fine. I just don’t quite get why she’s the one that everyone is obsessed with compared to some of the others on the team. Nothing against her. I mean, it’s not just the MNET edit that makes her seem important -- when she sings her first few notes, you can hear a reaction in the live audience.

The MNET edit is about what you’d expect. There’s a cute moment when Jeremy says, “Chaeyeon is stable at everything,” which, yes, she is. The judges also praise Minju, which is their prerogative. I guess. No kind words for Eunbi or Aoi though, because MNET hates them I guess. 

Afterward, it’s all smiles and applause from everyone, and we see some signs in the audience for Choyeon, so that’s great! The judges are relieved that they changed the center back.

We cut almost immediately to Team 1, and all the way back to day 1, when they’re distributing parts. 

So you don’t have to scroll up, this team is made up of (left to right around the circle)

An Yujin, 14, future member of  IVE who rose from B to A and is currently ranked 2nd overall. 

Honda Hitomi, 16, the super cutey who worked her way up from C to A and is currently ranked 47th.

Shiroma Miru, 20, future visitor to Queendom Puzzle, who fell from B to D but is ranked 22nd. 

Na Goeun, 18, future Purplekiss, A class girl, and ranked 20th. 

Choi Yena, 18, friendly Yena from Yuehua who kept us company for a lot of episode 1, fell from A to B, and is currently ranked 6th. 

Jang Wonyoung, 14, future Wonyoung, known for being Wonyoung but currently with her original face, who has stayed in B and is ranked 4th.

They are having trouble figuring out who could do the rap, and Na Goeun wonders aloud if the rap should be done in Japanese (at least according to the on-screen captions in Korean). Maybe if a Japanese member did the rap, she’d be allowed to do it in Japanese…..? Not sure. Regardless, the Japanese members don’t want to do the rap. 

An Yujin volunteers to try, and then she does a pretty perfect job on her first try. Wonyoung teases her, “I thought she went to the back to practice first.” She ends up with the part, and is laughing about it in her interview before she adds, with mock seriousness, “I’m good at everything.”

It’s obviously a joke, and I really, really, really hope she didn’t get shit for that. But people are the way they are I guess. Also, she’s not wrong. 

We join them at an early vocal/rap rehearsal, with long-hair Cheetah. Yujin gets a little in her head for the rap and messes it up a bit, but Cheetah cuts her slack for trying to do it without looking at the lyrics. 

We go to dance rehearsal, where Dance Bae praises their performance and says they suit the song. They’re all happy to hear the praise. 

It looks like their rehearsal is fairly relaxed and they have time to joke around. 

A few of the girls interview that they think they can win. 

And it’s time for the performance! 

PD48 Editing’s blessed edit 

My thoughts:

Well, obviously this was basically perfect. 

From Wonyoung’s very first wiggle and “Sorichira!” (scream!), it was clear that this girl was born to be a Kpop girl group center. What would she have done in cave man days? Unclear. But in 2018 and 2024, she can wink at us and wiggle around cutely and voila! A star is born. Do I love her vocal color? Not really. Is she that great at dancing? The editing makes it impossible to tell. But she’s Wonyoung, and is somehow super engrossing. 

Na Goeun held down the fort as sub vocal 1. A lot of the time sub-1 sings more lines than the main vocal does and kind of sets the tone for the song. Think Nayeon as opposed to Jihyo in Twice, for example. Goeun kept the overall vocals good, and also pulls off all the aegyo with aplomb. 

I’m kind of surprised that Yena ended up the main vocal, with Goeun on the team, but she does a great job. I do think that her makeup doesn’t do her any favors, and I think this hair style is wrong for the shape of her face. She’s normally a super pretty girl, and I blame the stylist unnies for that. Perhaps because she was styled wrong, or maybe for some other reason, her facial expressions don’t quite work as well as those of her teammates, which is weird because she’s naturally super cute in normal life. She doesn’t do a bad job or anything, don't get me wrong, and her vocals are sweet and on key, but there was just something a little off about this.

But I live for this ending fairy. 

Yujin is wasted in this concept, but she can do anything she sets her mind to, and she does this, too. I don’t think the pigtails suit her though. 

Miru and Hitomi both fade into the back a little, with small parts, but they’re both cute in a super natural and straightforward way, and as far as I could tell, did the choreo well. Miru in particular has never had my favorite vocal color but they were both on key and seemed happy to be there. They both contributed in their way by bringing energy and cuteness, which is what this performance called for.

I actually don’t have any serious criticism for any of them. I’d like to have a word with stylist unnie, but that’s the main thing.

The MNET edit is in love with them. I mean, they were even left for last, even though they obviously performed before the other team. We see the audience and the other girls cheering for them. When they’re done, the judges sigh and say it’s really close because both teams did so well. 

Then Dance Bae says something really foolish: “One of these groups will not receive extra votes and not make it through.” As if those 1000 votes MATTER when you’re Sakura or Wonyoung? Come on. These benefit votes only ever matter for the people on the bubble -- people within say two spots of the cut off point, plus or minus.

The girls head to the results restroom to learn whether they will literally live or literally die!

Naturally, super cute Yena beats the not preferred Lee Chaeyeon. That’s how people do.

Surprisingly, Na Goeun beats Kwon Eunbi, which just is a factor of there being so many awesome girls on both teams and people only getting one vote. Maybe Eunbi looked a little too old for the concept…? She looks like a woman in a group of girls. Not that Goeun did badly at all. In fact, I’d have wanted both of them to get more votes, but that’s how life is. Poor Eunbi is like, “I failed,” and no. No, you were great, girl. 

Miru is up against Sakura, and they both do amazing. I don’t know why you’re looking unhappy, Miru-chan! You got 112 votes! That’s a lot higher than the average, which, by the way, is 69. (Wooooooooooooo!) 

Hitomi wins over Aoi and Yoojin wins over Minju. So far, except for Sakura beating Miru, red has beaten blue in every match up. 

At that moment, before they can reveal the results of the center battle -- Kim Choyeon versus Jang Wonyoung -- Choyeon over on blue team says, “Congratulations.” Red’s Yujin shakes her head to disagree, but Choyeon says, “Group one won. I’m not confident.” This makes everyone on red team look over sadly, shaking their heads��� 

…. but Choyeon just looks down at her hands. 

She voice overs that this could be her last stage, as sad piano music plays. 

And then bam! Bam! They quickly reveal the final points -- Choyeon got a respectable 54 votes, second highest on her team and quite a lot considering her immediate competition amongst these 12 talented and popular trainees. But Wonyoung got 90, and red team won, 440 to 356.

Red Team: Choi Yena 64 Na Goeun 42 Shiroma Miru 112 Honda Hitomi 70 An Yujin 62 Jang Wonyoung  90

Blue Team: Lee Chaeyeon 34 Kwon Eunbi 24 Miyawaki Sakura  164 Motomura Aoi 46 Kim Minju 34 Kim Choyeon 54

That’s Wonyoung hugging Choyeon.

The girls all hug and applaud each other, and Wonyoung voiceovers, “I felt bad because we all worked hard together.” They do all rehearse together in the same training room, even though they’re two different teams, and probably all get to be at least sort of friends. So in a way, this was a proto-IZ*one challenge. 

Most of the blue team is crying now, including Minju. But Choyeon voiceovers that she doesn’t have regrets because she knows they all did their best. 

Ok, friends! That’s about it for this post. In my next one, I’m going to finish out episode 4 and do a bit of analysis of the challenge overall, including my personal rankings and some math. After that, I think I’m going to pause the P48 recaps for a bit while I watch Build Up, but I guess we’ll see about that either way. 

Also, as a side note: Here’s Kep1er doing Very Very! They do a great job, I think.

Thanks, chingus and dongsaengs, for reading! I’ll see you soon. 

Xoxo BPR Unnie

[catch-me-hello]

BOSS RIIZE, Episode 7: The First RIIZE Olympiad

Time to see the beginning of Won Bin’s reign. If this goes the way I think it will, he will begin with a depleted budget and a band that will be greeting its fourth BOSS in less than two days. Let’s do this.

The teams for the next Battle for the Ballots have been chosen. They will start with a tube relay, a race in which two teammates push a third, who is riding in an innertube. The winning team members will get two ballots each.

This relay is fun to watch, especially since each team is allowed to sabotage the other as much as possible.

Huge props to the camera crew for getting such great footage. This is my favorite segment of the series so far.

Eun Seok really is the hero for his teammates Won Bin and Sung Chan. They win the relay after he repeatedly knocks the other team out of their innertube.

My favorite part of this relay is watching these guys having fun together as the band brothers they are. It’s like they’ve forgotten about the cameras, the show, and the stresses of the K-pop industry. They’re just six friends having crazy fun at the pool. They’re having so much fun, they’re ready for the next game, which is water rugby. The first team to get to five points wins. Again, the winning team members get two ballots each.

Some viewers in the posts are overanalyzing this just a bit.

I just think Won Bin’s team is better. His team wins again, 5-0. Another two ballots for each team member. This episode is going by way too fast. I could watch this for a full hour.

The crew offers the losing team one last chance to win through a final round. Won Bin’s team wins yet again. This has to be embarrassing for Anton – he’s the water sport king, and his team has lost every round. Because Sung Chan made the winning goal, he alone gets two more ballots, for a total of six.

The boys are bummed that the water sports are over, and so am I. That was so much fun.

Night falls over RIIZE Village. The boys dry off and regroup in the café next to the pool. The crew tells them about a mysterious legend in the area. Our band will have to solve a scary mystery. Or do a scavenger hunt. (The translation is kind of all over the place.) There are three missions involved, and the member who successfully completes all three in the shortest amount of time wins five ballots. The current BOSS, Shotaro, will get 30 seconds taken off his time.

The group volunteers Won Bin to go first, because they’re all scared, and this will probably be a horror story thing with someone dressed as a ghost, because that’s another popular thing in these K-pop shows.

Won Bin steps outside into the darkness with his lantern. He’s scared to death, talking nervously to himself. He makes it to the first marker, where he finds the message, “I lost a shoe … I want to leave … find it and put it here.” Okay, this is kind of creepy. Especially since that looks like a child’s shoe.

Misunderstanding the instructions, Won Bin puts the one shoe on the marker and moves on, not realizing he’s supposed to look for the other missing shoe. My bias, ladies and gentlemen.

He dashes over to the second marker, and on the way, a ghost appears in his path.  I like the dramatics here. Our ghosts whips open a fan and tells him to guess the title of a song that’s about to play.

A song starts playing, but it’s been drastically slowed down. Won Bin is able to make out some of the lyrics and recognizes it as the RIIZE song “Siren.” I would have loved for it to be a more appropriate scary song, with Won Bin standing there in complete confusion, saying, “What the hell is a monster mash?” But he gets it right, and now he’s sent along to his next mission.

Meanwhile, back at the house, the others start shuffling fate cards, which work kind of like a Magic 8-ball. Sung Chan asks if he will be able to complete the missions quickly, and he pulls a card that says, “Haste Makes Waste.” So Hee asks if he will be the next BOSS, and he pulls a card that says, “Follow Your Heart.” The correct answer in this case would have been, “Depends. How many extra ballots did you NOT WIN today?”

We go back to Won Bin, now approaching his third and final mission site, which looks like a sauna. He goes inside, and suddenly that chick from The Ring enters behind him, scaring the daylights out of him.

The chick hands him a scroll. What I think is going to be a frightening proposition instead is just a challenge to a game of Rock Paper Scissors. What is Korea’s obsession with that game? They play a few rounds, and he wins. That’s it. He’s done. He blew the first mission but won the other two. Back to the house he runs, where he rejoins his bandmates.

The episode ends here. I can’t wait to see the look on Won Bin’s face when he finds out he only completed two missions.

This was my favorite episode yet. I’d be fine if the series did away with the whole BOSS thing and just had them play sports for the remaining five episodes. But we do have another election coming up, along with more scheming and missions.

So until next time, remember, if you’re told to find the missing shoe, and there’s already one shoe there,  THE OTHER ONE IS STILL MISSING.

Sheesh.

See you next episode.

[annabelle--cane]

if I'm allowed to be a bit dramatic for a second, I think "you oughta know" was the source of rot that slowly claimed the entire show. lauren patten did a very good performance of that song in that specific story context, that number was one of the first things to start getting real press buzz, and the production team was clearly angling to get her a tony for it from quite early on.

this immediately presents two problems:

1. jo, as originally written, is nonbinary, that's what their whole arc is about, but patten is cis and whoopsie it looks like the show's progressive target audience isn't taking to that kind of casting very well anymore. they can't be seen to be doing that, they can't admit to fixing it in the script because that would necessarily imply they'd made that kind of mistake, and they can't recast jo because patten is the critical darling, so they chose the most flummoxing option of hastily rewriting the character's gender and pretending it was actually that way the whole time. I take a stance against using "gaslighting" to describe PR campaigns but like. what.

2. "you oughta know" is, inescapably, a song about eviscerating a duplicitous lying ex, with a couple of lines laying into them about their sexual behavior. this is one thing when sung by a woman to a man who left her for another woman, this is another thing when sung by a nonbinary person to a girl who cheated on them with a cis guy, and it's a third different thing when sung by a white cis girl to a black bisexual teenage girl who cheated on her with a guy. like, the decision to have the character it's directed towards be a black bi girl was always going to be racist and biphobic and misogynistic, but at least when jo was trans it was about something other than just "you slutty lying cheater," it was "you slutty lying cheater who doesn't respect me as a person because I'm trans." when you remove the transphobia angle it just becomes the stereotype of bi girls not taking relationships with women seriously. for which she is then righteously sexually humiliated and assaulted in the most lauded power ballad of the show.

suddenly violently remembered that the jagged little pill musical exists. medium strength concept with thee single worst possible execution. how did any fucking part of the whole "you oughta know" scene make it past previews without anyone realizing what they were doinggggg.

[jada-lockwood]

THE 9 TIMES REGULUS BLACK WANTED HIS BROTHER AND THE ONE TIME HIS BROTHER WANTED HIM

Not proof read but oh well. I had an idea and ran with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1-

The first time Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was three. Walburga had found sticky handprints over an otherwise pristine glass cabinet. She had lashed at him with the cane that sat by the fireplace. Regulus cried for his brother. His brother would never hurt him like this. And he didn’t. Sirius sung songs to him as Regulus calmed down, and then he had cleaned off any remaining marks left on the cabinet before their parents saw them. Sirius was home to Regulus now.

2-

The second time Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was seven. Sirius had been bought a broom by their Uncle Alphard. Regulus was not allowed one as his uncle believed him too young. So Regulus decided to sit by the window and watch Sirius try out the broom from a distance. Regulus wanted his brother then. Wanted him to look up and beckon him down. Wanted him to sneak Regulus out to have a go on the broom. Or maybe he wanted Sirius to pay as much attention to him as he did the broom.

3-

The third time Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was ten. Sirius had gone to Hogwarts this year and been sorted into Gryffindor. Regulus received a beating that night, so that he knew that Slytherin was the only acceptable house. Regulus wanted Sirius to come home to wipe away the blood, to tell him that it didn’t matter what house he got into because Sirius would love him either way. Regulus wanted Sirius to come home for Christmas. But he didn’t that year.

4-

The fourth time Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was 12. He had tried out for the quidditch team and gotten a place as seeker. He so desperately wanted to turn and see Sirius’ proud look on his face when he realised his little brother had become a seeker. But Sirius wasn’t there. He was with his friends instead, probably playing pranks, possibly getting detention. So Regulus turned to Evan Rosier instead.

5-

The fifth time that Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was fourteen. He had been studying in the library with Rosier and Crouch Jr when he overheard Sirius. He had been boasting that him and James had pulled off a foolproof prank on a Slytherin in the year above for hexing a first year. Sirius looked so proud of James. Regulus wished Sirius could be proud of him, to boast about him that way, but he wouldn’t. Regulus wanted Sirius to be proud of him, wanted him to sling his arm over Regulus’ shoulder instead of James’. But he didn’t.

6-

The sixth time Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was fifteen. Sirius had told his brother that he would leave the house that night, that he’d go to the Potter’s mansion instead. That Regulus could go with him, away from their parents. Regulus wanted his brother to stay, or maybe to persuade him to leave as well. But Sirius just sighed and walked out. Regulus cried into Sirius’ pillow that night, and every night for the next two weeks. Regulus wanted his brother back so he could tell him he had packed a bag to leave. But Sirius never returned.

7-

The seventh time Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was 16. His mother had dragged him out to a meeting. He thought it would be dull until he saw Rosier. But then Orion had grabbed them both by the shoulders and led them into a second room. This room haunted Regulus for months to come. As he looked down at the swirling ink forced upon his left wrist, he wished for his brother. Regulus wanted Sirius to storm in and save him from this fate, but it never happened. His chest aches this time, more than but ever had before. Regulus wanted his brother, but Sirius would never want Regulus now that he had this mark.

8-

The eighth time Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was seventeen. Sirius had left Hogwarts and was still living at the Potter’s. Regulus heard he had been learning to become an auror and hoped he never had to run into him during his outings with fellow death eaters. Regulus had heard one day that the Dark Lord had become immortal. Horcruxes he had overheard. Nasty bit of dark magic that was, but now Regulus had a plan. He wanted his brother to find him. Just so he could pass on a message about his findings. Just so he could be proud that his brother was finally defying their parents like Sirius did all those years ago. But he never crossed paths with him.

9-

The ninth time Regulus Black wanted his brother was when he was eighteen. June 28th, 1979. Three days after his birthday, Regulus wanted his brother. Earlier that week, the Dark Lord had asked for a house elf. Earlier that week, Kreacher almost died. But now, Regulus knew where one of those nasty horcruxes was hiding. June 28th, Regulus had a plan. Kreacher took Regulus to the place that the Dark Lord had taken him, stupidly thinking the house elf would have died or been killed by the Black heir for his weaknesses now. June 28th, Regulus sliced his hand open, and boarded that little boat over to the island in the centre of that cave. June 28th, Regulus had drank that potion. He saw visions of his life, every time that Sirius had left him for James. Every time that Sirius had looked at him in disappointment. Every time his brother looked at Potter, his new brother, and his new family. Inferi were closing in quickly now, and with a simple command, he sent Kreacher away with the locket to return to Grimmauld Place. Regulus lay there, quiet and peaceful then. His job was done and his brother would be proud. His brother. Regulus had scrawled a quick note and deposited it in the basin where the locket used to sit. (R.A.B.) Sirius would know it was him. Sirius would be proud. Sirius. He wanted Sirius. Sirius was home. He would make it all better. Regulus couldn’t feel when the tears slipped down his cheeks, couldn’t feel when the inferi ripped at his skin and pulled him below the water. Regulus wanted his brother to see the note, to see that he hadn’t disappointed Sirius. Sirius could look at him like he did James. Like a brother again. Regulus’ last thought was that he had done is brother proud, finally. But Sirius never found out what Regulus had done and was never proud.

+1

Sirius Black wanted his brother when he was 19. He had seen in the Daily Prophet that Regulus Black had gone missing as was presumed dead. He had cried into James’ arms that night. He wished he had spoken to Regulus more, that maybe he could have prevented this death. Sirius Black wanted his brother again, wanted to ruffle his unruly hair, wanted to swing an arm around his shoulders again, wanted to smile at him once more. Sirius held out hope that Regulus wasn’t really dead because then he could tell him that he was proud, so very proud of him and that he could come and live with the Potter’s too. But Regulus was not found while Sirius lived. And when he killed Peter for betraying James and Lily, he hoped he could die too so that he could see his brothers one last time.

[tanoraqui]

[BuzzFeed]’s Top 5 Maglor Fëanorion Songs and, as always, heroes and villains of river city?

Heroes and Villains...: [sobs] I'll get back to it some day, I swear!!

Honor Guard: Origins — Iron Thorn

The office of Caldane Caineron, President and CEO of Caineron Inustries, was about what Brier might’ve expected, if she’d bothered to spend time imagining it. The desk was edged in gilt, awards and news clippings from Caineron’s superhero days decorated the walls, and an indiscreet gold bust graced one corner.

(this one would then be Caineron offering Brier a job, while unwantedly and unwarrentedly hitting on her, and Brier being like, "Fascinating how you wouldn't shell out worker's comp for my lab accident and you gave me about 2 cents when my mother died on your superhero team, and now that my discoveries might be useful or interesting you come crawling back with...3 pennies and name exposure? Wow. FUCK you. I might join the Honor Guard out of SPITE. [leaves])

-

[BuzzFeed]’s Top 5 Maglor Fëanorion Songs would probably be one for Stray Scraps of Melody, or maybe stand on its own? It's basically what it sounds like on the tin. Premise: Fourth Age Valinorian BuzzFeed did a poll on top songs by Maglor son of Fëanor, now sometimes called Gildil, and now provides the results with quotes on each from the composer and other musical experts (or friends and family who butted their heads in on the interview.)

5. [I haven't decided if this is some sort of pre-Darkening operetta or "so many people wrote in different Songs of Warding and Warning that we've decided to credit him with the genre Northern Beleriandic Warding Songs"]

4. Noldolantë, Extended Edition - the FULL story, from Finwë to the fading Third Age (but mostly the disasters of the First); composed over nearly 6,500 years of depressed wandering on mortal shores, which is also sung of toward the end. Takes at least a week to sing in full with no breaks. Evokes tears at least once in even the hardest hearts.

3. Noldolantë, original version - Alqualondë: what happened, why, and what we're going to do about it (move forward and fight Morgoth, mostly). Full length takes a couple hours to sing. "Surprisingly factual and earnestly apologetic, for all its spin." –Eärwen Olwiel. "I still hum it sometimes. I hate how good at this he is." –Finrod.

2. The Song That Never Ends - composed pre-Darkening. "This is SECOND PLACE? I should've killed you when I had the chance." –Maedhros. "I genuinely regret this one." –Maglor. "I should've killed him when I had the chance. I had so many chances... I really thought about it, when I visited Celebrian when the twins had just discovered this monstrosity." –Galadriel. "Oh you think YOU had problems with twins and this 'song.'" –Maedhros. "What? We thought it was annoying, too!" –Amrod. "Not you. You never had genuine, justified reason to despise us." –Maedhros. "[innocent whistling while walking by]" –Elrond

1. Ardamirë (subtitle: It's Not Only Ours Anymore, Father) - elements composed and gathered over nearly 6,500 years of depressed wandering on mortal shores; arranged into a proper song a few decades after return to Valinor. Full length takes about four hours to sing. Reduces most listeners to mostly-joyful tears. "Good choice, people - this one is my favorite." –Maglor.  "...I'm thinking about it." –Fëanor.

[codegeassfacts]

Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Sound Episode 3 // Not Canon (Crack)

For More information about the Sound Drama, check the post for the First Sound episode over there

1 - REGENERATION (C.C.'s second character song) 2 - Short Drama "Mr. Geass Academy Rebellion" 3 - Short Drama "A Hundred Geass Ghost Stories" 4 - REGENERATION (Instrumental)

Regeneration, Lelouch's second character song, sung by Jun Fukuyama

Audio Drama "Mr. Geass Academy Rebellion" Many thanks to the lovely @natsuhikira for this Drama

Charles speaks his usual bullshit about our world not being one and only and about the past, present and future all existing blablabla, he is basically warning you what's coming after is bullshit. Lelouch comes in and is welcomed by Nunnally, who is the principal of the school, he was awaited as the new professor, they heard of his doing and wanted him here. He introduces himself as Lelouch Lamperouge, a teacher whose job is to deal with delinquants school after school. Nunnally wants him to fix things with the delinquants in her school so it gets back to being a worthy britannian school.

Lelouch asks if that's this bad and Nunnally say it is, as no one act like a person anymore, they can't hold themselves, they have no education and it's like a zoo.

Lelouch is confident about being able to deal with them, but Nunally warns him to not underestimate them, his class is like the worst and previous teachers ended up in hospitals. Lelouch says he can handle that, and he asks Nunnally to stop talking of them like that, as they could hear that and that would be hurtful. Lelouch then goes in his first class, the third beast class, and there is only one student in there; Cecile. They do their introductions, Cecile is very cheerful. Lelouch notices she looks very normal; Eventually, Cecile says that no one came today, to Lelouch's lack of luck, so she proposes him to bring him where they are, to which he agrees. She then brings him to the campus and …Delinquant Orange welcome them. He wants to know who dares to step in there; Lelouch reminds him they are outside and introduces himself before asking him who he is. He is the caid of this place and his name is Jeremiah Gottwald. As they argue about stuff, Lelouch kind of calls Orange….tangerine, which drives Jeremiah super crazy over the nickname, yelling "Mikan /Tangerine) everywhere and getting insane at it, he tries to murder Lelouch. Lelouch then uses his geass to calm Jeremiah. Cecile blames him for using it and Lelouch wonders who she knows about it, as it's a secret Then they meet Lloyd, he is the shadow of the caid; After things get a little out of hand, Lelouch geasses Lloyd and, as he seemingly promised before, leaves the choice of the order to Cecile, she then asks Lloyd to date her;

Lloyd then dutifully agrees and propose to Cecile, leading her to yell in joy and being super flustered, she then thanks Lelouch, asking him to bring back peace in this insane school. Now we move to the third encounter ; As Lelouch and Cecile kees going on and notice how everything is wrecked they hear the sound of broken things; The Glaston team are destroying everything, Lelouch then geass them to stay quiet ; They then hear a roaring sound and Cecile notices Guilford has just stolen a bike; Lelouch geass him into bringing it back, then Diethard is the next one and Lelouch geass him and Odysseus and so on (it's quite funny cause they use various line from the anime during the sound drama, and Cecile being hysterically cute will never not be funny just like Lelouch yelling この 犯罪 者 ) Cecile then notices how everyone is right now and Lelouch makes a speech about things going right ; Moving on; They arrive on the roof; Cornelia is there and she welcomes them and congratulates him for making it till there; She introduces herself as delinquant Cornelia, and she warns him she is a whole different level from others.Lelouch snaps back for it's the same for him as he is a special one, so which Cornelia says she knows about that, She heard rumors about Lelouch Lamperouge, also known under the "Geass teacher" surname. She knows about geass and has a counter for it, for she has…glasses ! She thought about this counter strike and now wants to take all her time to punish him. She then strikes him, but Cecile comes in and beat Cornelia's ass with various attack like Cecile punch or Cecile beam cause she forbids her to hit Lelouch ; Cornelia is beaten thanks to Cecile. She then warns Lelouch one opponent is still left.

And Charles speaks (his theme begins to play ), he introduces himself as the delinquant of all delinquant, Charles di Bancho da (this introduction is insane) Lelouch understands he really is the ultimate bancho and he has to stop him; Charles tease him about being fearful and Lelouch obviously denies it; Lelouch tells him once he'll have him bend into his will, he'll have the whole school acting as robot and executing his orders and bowing to him; Cecile notices he went over the toEtsy c, meanwhile Charles keeps on mentioning how Lelouch is no match for him and there are rules he has no idea of; Lelouch then freaks out as Charles'eyes shows up his geass and Charles eventually cast it on him ;

A phone is beeping. Lelouch introduces himself, He is the CEO of the Aera eleven compagny, and also known as the Geass president. Nunnally comes in, panicked, cause the Britannia compagny is coming ; we understand that Lelouch plans to use/swallow them and geass

We then jump to Charles who asks Nunnally what it is they are about to make Lelouch do this time, to which Nunnally tells him that's enough (We understand that it's all been Charles playing with his Geass and Lelouch's head)

Audio Drama "A Hundred Geass Ghost Stories"

I didn't hear this drama so i'm merely giving you a small summary from a friend who heard it;

This drama is set up around most of the R2 Student council who are gathered in some (scary) place and tells each other some scary stories; (Hyaku Monogatari, the title of this sound drama, means the hundred stories, it's a way to call ghost stories in Japan) It seems that most of them just tells some unfortunate or crazy events which happened to them, not understanding the whole concept of scary stories, until Suzaku takes the lead and tells them a real scary story, which keeps them on the edge and eventually really frighten thems; Eventually Viletta arrives as they put an end to the session and it all ends up as they notice something strange and realize there is a real ghost amongst them, leading them all to run away while screaming.

That's about it For this Sound episode, always more and more crack, moving on to the next one .