applepixls

[applepixls]

spoilers for longform 50 the off season

okay so i know sam addressing tom as the groom is just a height joke but it set me down a mental rabbit hole so have this dissection of gender thats really just an excuse for me to infodump

as this is all set off because of the wedding scene ill start there; there is a noticeably more progressive understanding of gender in this play universe than in reality 1895, and this has been going on for a while (eg. god himself or herself or themself, and the officiant/mrs daltrey saying shes late with this), still i think the characters of angelina and john (as these are the only ones whos clothing ill be talking about) are still dressed relatively within the standard of 1895.

now the 1890s were a time when womens wear started to take after mens fashion and bifurcated garments for women (such as split skirts and bloomers) came into fashion, and im personally of the opinion angelina might own and wear some of these, however since shes been set up on this date by her father, a proper earl whos friend and fellow earl did insist on john switching bottoms with him so john wearing "more appropriate trousers instead of his kilt", which leads me to belief that while shed still dress with male influences she wouldve put on a skirt (i imagine shes in a walking suit or something similar in this scene)

the scene progresses and john gets shot leading them to flee to france, obviously this is done in a haste and we dont see them going back and taking clothes, but since angelina has said she knows how to deal with this i presume she might have known that they would be staying there for a while and needed more clothes then they were wearing, which leads me to two option, one she went home really quickly and packed some clothes, or two that she bought new clothes in france. this second option while possible isnt the one my mind goes to, because while she does come from wealth she doesnt want to be associated with her father anymore, (the eulogy was probably already in print, but i think she telegrammed it from france to england), which leads me to belief she doesnt have much access to more funds then she had on her or couldve grabbed at a moments notice. so continueing with the first option, she wouldve grabbed womens clothing that might have tinges of masculinity but will like make them both read as woman (yes i know john has short hair, that was a trend for women in the 80s and again mrs daltrey is old)(for fellow trans angel truthers, i think that she might have some old clothes stocked away in a set place in her closet, which probably (going off luke and toms build) would fit in width but will be too long) also 1895 was when sleeves peaked in volume (they were massive) but she might have been wearing stuff slightly out of date, and with smaller sleeves (which ill get back to) now of course johns pant are still intact so he couldve been wearing them at the wedding, but that still leaves us with the top portion, now if hes wearing something slightly ages from agelina, (i mean a womans jacket or something) it would have some small poofs in the sleeves and a somewhat voluminous skirt which would be resemblant of 1830s mens fashion, which if we match that with angelina possibly wearing something bifurcated and somewhat outdated 1890s to wear, would make sense of mrs daltreys confusion, this would mean that shed likely be above the age of 75

i realise this has now become more of a hypothetical costume rant then a gender rant but i do still think its very intresting

[applepixls]

sfth’s youtube banner makes it very evident that theyre also aware of this, but as someone who needs to focus really hard to tell the difference between peoples faces at first glance, its always impressed me that they manage to be 4 white guys who look so distinctive that it is easy to distinguish between them

its like cartoon character design using different shapes as inspiration

tom is (both in vibes and looks) a tall, thin, green rectangle and he has thick dark hair that usually stays in relatively the same shape on his head

luke is like a yellow triangle with one point pointing down and even though he’s a shape shifter he is the only one with blonde hair

aj is kind of like an orange rectangle with a hemisphere on top (sorry bald joke)

and sam has very much red circle vibes and has slightly lighter hair, with a less definitive shape than tom’s

somehow they’ve collected as 4 very different looking white guys and its kind of impressive

[applepixls]

(Wait I'm curious, would submit this to the lovely polls account but it's got too many branching paths, so I'll just ask here:)

What was your first ever SFTH video (or show, if you saw them live before anything else) and which member of the group drew you in first?

I mean there's bound to be a connection, but it'd be fascinating to see how it affected everyone's initial impressions of the boys :-))

Edit: LOVING reading everyone's answers, it seems the boys were right when they called luke "charming" like damn! He's hooked almost everyone!

[applepixls]

HI ITS TIME FOR MORE HEADCANONS ABOUT THE OFF SEASON BECAUSE IT JUST GETS QUEERER EVERY TIME I REWATCH IT

t4t john jacob mcallister and angelina roland.

ill start with john jacob because he has SUCH A QUEER CHARACTER ARC (mostly in the picnic scene) he is told to hide who he truly is and convinced no one would love his true self (hence why he’s so alarmed when angelina notices him slip up with the english accent and switches back right away) but he really can’t hide it. in the text, (yes i realize its improv and im talking about it like im in english class but hush let me have my fun) there are a couple of little things that i think would be fun to hc as his being trans. first of all, earl geoffrey tells john jacob to take off his kilt and wear his trousers and asks lord clive roland “was it big” but clive doesnt say anything (which if his daughter was trans he would be careful about outing someone else). clive also bigs him up to angelina saying he is tall, strong, and handsome but angelina makes a point of calling him short, weak and mildly repulsive (not all trans men are short but as a short transmasc person let me have this lol). she points it out again when john jacob insists he’s not a little boy and that he’s fully grown at which point they hilariously compare height (tom is roughly 26.5 cm or 10.5 inches taller than luke by the way) and angelina backs down saying “i forgot im wearing my heels. and my other heels, and my third set of heels.” which im choosing to interpret as her backing down because of the Tension™️ and the 3 sets of heels thing being more of a joke than anything. it is also super trans that geoffrey thought he was called jacob but he called himself john and angelina had to ask “what is your name? you’ve given so many!” cause what trans person hasn’t tried multiple names. also bonus headcanon that he’s really good at bandaging the bullet wound without help hecause he binds with chest wrappings (WHICH IS NOT SAFE TO DO)

so now for angelina. she’s a young american woman who has recently moved to london and her only friend is her housekeeper, mrs daltrey, an older woman with bad sight and hearing. if she had just transitioned it would make sense that she would move far away to be able to start a new life, and this would explain her hesitance towards making new friends and insistence on keeping such odd company. she also has modern beliefs, disapproving of her family’s colonialism with essex (this isn’t necessarily a trans thing but usually people of marginalized groups are better at empathizing with other marginalized people and keeping an open mind), being a feminist, insisting on being an independent woman, and becoming a journalist. she forsakes her family name which is a very trans thing to do (even though in this headcanon her dad is actually accepting but a massive colonizer). she is also (again this doesnt apply to all trans women but im applying it here) incredibly tall, which is referenced in the text with john jacob making the “how is the weather up there?” joke and her calling herself “tall, svelte, and handsome” (handsome was not historically a masculine word, it being more exclusively masc is actually quite annoying to me because it means people will sometimes take it the wrong way if you say a woman is handsome but thats a side tangent). its again referenced with the physical comedy of her and john jacob comparing heights and the “3 sets of heels joke” which ive already referenced, and finally john jacob seems to find her height very attractive because he flirtily says that the height of the eiffel tower reminds him of her. also, during the wedding, when asked her full name she just says “yes” (also john jacob calls her “heavenly angel” because he doesn’t seem to know her name and i think she liked it and went with it and named herself angelina)

as a pair, its clear that angelina doesn’t like john jacob when he’s pretending to be a “posh british boy” (read: when he’s pretending to be cis) and only truly starts to like him when he reveals who he truly is (read: trans!). they also clearly seem unbothered by traditional gender roles, with angelina being the one to hail the cab and help john jacob around, and john jacob making the night cap (which i dont think is actually particularly gendered but the idea of making food or drink for your partner is traditionally a woman’s role). angelina is mistaken for the groom but they seem generally unbothered about correcting the priest who is clearly a queer priest because in the ceremony they say “hello, welcome today to the meeting of two hearts in one […] now, in front of all these witnesses, and God Himself, or Herself, or Themselves…” which is a very non-traditional wedding ceremony and such a modern sentiment and very funny of sam to have included. basically i headcanon that because neither of them were in contact with their family they found an underground queer community to witness and officiate their wedding because they probably couldnt be legally wed unless john jacob was the bride and angelina was the groom.

so yeah. please spread the t4t john jacob and angelina propaganda because i love them

[applepixls]

new john jacob mcallister headcanon incoming

he says this line:

which reminded me of the song ‘i am what i am’ from the musical la cage aux folles (which was incidentally released just less than a century after the off season is meant to take place) which was an anthem for gay men during the AIDS crisis

because of this very obscure connection, ive decided to headcanon john jacob as a bisexual man (although he wouldnt have used that exact wording because of the time period) which works FANTASTICALLY with his character

he spends the first half of the play pretending to be someone he isn’t, because other people are trying to ‘fix’ or ‘correct’ him. the marriage is arranged but he doesn’t stop being a romantic or a gentleman after revealing that he is ‘just a baker’s son from fife’. the parts of him that the earls/lords of essex and suffolk (geoffrey and clive) wanted to bring out (his chivalry, and gentlemanly nature—and in this metaphor liking women) were always there. however, the parts of him they wanted to suppress (his being scottish, and not of a wealthy upbringing—and in this metaphor liking men) were undeniable and even if he tried to hide them they’d end up slipping through. very sweetly, him and angelina are only able to fall in love after he tells her the truth.

another historical detail that would explain his eagerness to change and become more like who they wanted him to be is that 1895 was the year that the oscar wilde trials were happening in the old bailey in london (for anyone who doesnt know oscar wilde was tried and later imprisoned for sodomy by his boyfriend’s dad). meaning it would be terrifying to be a young bisexual man at the time, and he has just been taken to london for the first time, the exact place the trials are taking place.

also i headcanon that the off season takes place during spring (hence the rain) and the oscar wilde trials started on 26 april 1895 so :)

bonus thought, luke is dressed in a floral print shirt and skinny jeans which is a sort of more feminine (? i say with a pinch of monosodium glutamate cause all that is a social construct and im non-binary so fuck gendered clothing) outfit and oscar wilde was part of the aesthetic movement is actually considered one of the formative figures for what people think ‘dressing gay’ looks like so if john jacob mcallister dressed similar to luke then he would have been absolutely terrified about being himself in that time period

[applepixls]

im watching the off season again and this line will never not be funny to me

in literally the second scene they establish that it is 1895 and the boer war doesnt start until 1898 (if im not mistaken) so the reason geoffrey and clive can’t talk about it is because it hasn’t happened yet and theyre both dead by the time it starts

[applepixls]

Ship from the Hip

I've been keeping a list of all the canon relationships the guys are in throughout the long forms, here's the results as of posting Click for better quality, it's not that bad just zoom in lol (details under cut)

Here's a chart explaining in a little more detail the tally system

Total tallies:

Tom/Sam: 8.7

Tom/Luke: 11

Tom/AJ: 10

Sam/Luke: 8.2

Sam/AJ: 6.2

Sam/AJ: 9.7

Total relationships per person:

Tom: 29.2

Sam: 24.7

Luke: 30

AJ: 27.5

Bonus! The little doodles I did for each LF because they make me really happy

[applepixls]

sfth is consuming my brain

my sibling is talking about the plot of forrest gump and saying how jenny said she wanted to be a bird and be free

and my brain went ALEXA AND JANUSZ????

[applepixls]

my sibling got m&ms from its (platonic) wife and gave me one that said “princess kitten” and in the exact same tone as butch saying “i am a lesbian” i said “i am princess kitten”

bonus: the m&ms are the lesbian flag colours

edit: i was told you all need a picture

[applepixls]

I think we moved on from The Bard With a Scar too fast

I’m still thinking about Alan and Frankie

[applepixls]

biology nerd time:

theres a fun thing called osmosis and it causes a lot of fun things to work and its very important in the context of saltwater and freshwater marine creatures

basically, fish (or squid) have to be isotonic with their environments, meaning if they are saltwater creatures then their bodies have the same proportion of salt to water as the water they are in, and the same goes for freshwater creatures (they just have a lot less salt etc)

because salt particles are too large to pass through cell membranes, water has to go back and forth if the creature and its environment dont have the same proportions of salt and water

this means that if you put a freshwater creature into salt water, the water inside the creature starts leeching out into its environment in an attempt to equalize the concentrations of salt and water inside the creature and in its environment. this is super dark but the creature will eventually become incredibly dehydrated and shrivel up and die

the same goes for salt water creatures in freshwater environments, except that the water starts moving into the creature (because the salt can’t move) and eventually the creature becomes inflated with all this excess water and their cells just start popping like overfilled water balloons

so… falmouth is a silly guy and probably uses fantasy biology, but this is how it works in real world biology!

My headcanon is that, since Falmouth was built to live in the sea, he’s meant to consume salt water. He can stay alive with non-salt water, but the hydration doesn’t last nearly as long, which is why he’s dehydrated within a few minutes or even seconds of touching water.

.

[applepixls]

Insane actually that until I saw Hadestown live I'd never heard anyone talk about the candle. The candle that is hope?? The candle that's THE LAST THING YOU SEE as the stage goes dark at the end of the show. The candle that the Fates blow out, that Eurydice relights at the start of every performance? Kept safe by Hermes until the story is told again? That candle???

Well personally I'M never going to stop thinking about it

[applepixls]

i absolutely love Luke’s Laugh™️

[applepixls]

Janusz goes to fight in world war 2. Maybe he gets conscripted, maybe he wants to. ("Don't be used as a weapon of war", he had said. The words of a stupid child who thought they could avoid the conflicts of the world. Laughable, how innocent they were.) The tensions feel familiar, the danger more near and potent and real than they had seemed when they were 6. He understands now. He isn't sure if he'll return. He can't look his friend in the eye. He can't run away through a window because they are all shut and boarded and he isn't sure he knows how to open the windowpanes anymore.

There's an awful lack of birds in the smoke-filled sky.

Something in Alexa dies a little bit that day.

oh ow

[applepixls]

etho: i can't win with bdubs, i leave him and then he pouts, and if i'm by him, he says get lost already!

bdubs squeaking with laughter: ahhhhhhhh it's such an abusive relationship!

[applepixls]

Because the sapphic week is in two days and I'm excited, I present to you: the lesbian alignment chart, sfth edition

Og:

[applepixls]

OH WOW FANCY YOU SAYING THAT SAM 🤨