#But it SOUNDS absolutely amazing

[thecurioustale]

A Romance Story (No Not That Kind)

Tolkien considered "fantasy" to be different from "faerie-tales," namely in that he considered a fantasy to involve the sprawling and immersive development of what he called a "secondary world," i.e. a fictional world apart from our real one. Even if you didn't know that about his views, it should come as no surprise to you, given how deeply detailed Arda is, and how the few stories he wrote that were set in Arda were as much byproducts of the worldbuilding as endeavors in themselves.

I don't draw that same conceptual distinction myself but I see exactly what he's saying, and I do feel irrationally proud that my work would in fact qualify as a Tolkienian fantasy by his own criterion.

I feel very old-fashioned coming on Tumblr and talking over and over about JRR Tolkien, because I know a lot of people who see this are hip young things who are frankly Over It and are way more interested in contemporary stuff that's more inclusive / fits modern sensibilities better / etc. But I really never do seem to run out of things to say about Tolkien.

Today's saying is this: I too have an esoteric conceptual box that I set my work in. I consider After The Hero to be a "romance" in the vein of (but not identical to) the classical sense of the concept of literary romance: pomp and pageantry, a sweeping sprawl to the world, and epic adventures and quests within it. You might think of such a story as one that is told "for its own sake," as opposed to having a particular agenda in mind via the plot or a main character arc. There is a lot of spectacle all throughout The Curious Tale, with many scenes and moments being of the sort that would typically be omitted for length in most books. Last week, when I mentioned the scene of Sodish city runner Kayaju running alongside a bard as the bard sings her a song about the city's history as the Sun is rising, the reason I mentioned it is that it's just a really beautiful moment. But it doesn't do anything. There's no plot there. Kayaju is deep in the B-list of character importance. It's really just "Here's a beautiful moment I want to share." And that, for me, is the epitome of romance.

And it only works if the story is also a fantasy in the Tolkienian sense! 😂

I'm rereading one of my favorite novels of recent years, Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, and it's even better than I remember it and I'll probably have something to say about it in this space soon, but it's so very much self-excluded from being romantic. Too practical, too cynical, too down-to-Earth, and too attached to the rails of the plot. No scenic detours, other than establishing paragraphs here and there. It's all very well done; don't get me wrong! But it takes real flagrance to write romance. You have to be prepared to put your readers through thousands and thousands of words that don't do anything.

It's a sacrifice I am willing for you to make! 😁

[angelellipsis-devilofdots]

why are we not talking about the sounds of the words in chords??

"harmonize with echoes" / "with charcoal eyes, stilettos"

"you are your own magician" / "and by my own admission"

"they'd paint your eyes with sunsets" / "my saints, my sighs, my upsets"

"let the ocean give to you" / "had no notion what to do"

"we built our castles" / "they are my rascals"

[allegroghoul]

The ghoulettes vocals were ASTOUNDING btw . They truly have some of the most beautiful voices ever just. GAH. Ironically, they sound absolutely angelic hehe- And Swiss’s “Call me” during, well, Call Me Little Sunshine was insanely gorgeous as well!!! All of them are so so so talented!!!

[whiteshipnightjar]

Epicness ensues.

Some songs from Joanna Newsom’s Night 1 show at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever, Los Angeles, May 15, 2024

[merlinfromberlin]

Bumblebee & Ratchet Fic Recs

It's my birthday, so let me treat myself (and you) to some of my favourite fanfics exploring the dynamic between Ratchet & Bumblebee in TFP. Because I am a sucker for Ratchet and Bee and Ratchet having a soft spot for Bee.

Bumblebee & Ratchet Fics

Do You Like Bees? by @thinkingheron (Stardustjinn on AO3)

TFP. Ratchet needs a break from his Synth-En project, so Bumblebee takes it upon himself to make it happen. The Team is amused, Ratchet is not, and Bumblebee pays with a scratched paint and a dent. Oneshot. Warning we have an angry Ratchet.

I honestly love this story so much. It's incredibly creative and funny! :3 I love how cheeky and mischievous Bee is. I love how helpless everybody else is to stop his shenagigans. I love that, yeah, he's playing a prank and it's infuriating to Ratchet in the moment, but in the end it's not actually malicious. No one is hurt, it can be reverted easily and Ratchet recharges for a bit.

On another note: this fic is basically canon to me.

If Language Were Liquid by @equivocaleternity (equivocalEternity on AO3)

Bumblebee's voice box is malfunctioning again, and he joins Ratchet and Raf for a perfectly timed lesson on Cybertronian grammar.

This fic just hits all of my boxes: Ratchet, Bumblebee and an super interesting exploration of Cybertronian languages/linguistics/grammar. It's absolutely amazing! :3

Minus One by @gentle-hero-blog (carrot_top_monk on AO3)

A rewrite of the season 3 episode “Minus One”, in which the Autobots’ interrogation of Soundwave goes horribly wrong.

I almost wish that this was canon. It's such an interesting way to explore how Minus One could have gone differently. It's also a super interesting angle at a "Tyger Pax fic". I also honestly love the relationships between Ratchet, Optimus and Bumblebee in this fic so much.

And, maybe most impressively, it made me sympathetise with Smokescreen a little bit more than I did before. I still don't really vibe with him, but I feel like I understand him a little bit better now.

Spark of Courage also by @thinkingheron

TF:Prime, Aligned. Pre Earth. After a surprise Decepticon attack near the Well of AllSparks, Ratchet manages to save a sparkling from near death... or was it the other way around? Origin fic. Rated for mild violence.

Aaaahhh. I don't know how to even describe this fic but I honestly love it so, so much. Bee's immediate attachment to Ratchet is honestly so, so sweet. How Ratchet gets attached to Bee against his will. Bee's sparkling adventures are just absolutely amazing. He's got half the Autbot force exhausted with his shenanigans within the first three days without even trying to. And at the same time he's got all of them wrapped around his little finger. It's honestly one of the best portrayals of Bee I've ever read. I can only aspire to one day write such an adorable, fun and mischievous version of Bee. :3 Also: the background War politics/plot. And, Jazz is in it and he is absolutely glorious.

Honestly can't recommend this enough. <3

Dadchet Fics

Because, for some reason childhood trauma, grumpy old medic dad having a soft spot for his little yellow robot is my greatest weakness.

A glimpse in the Past by arctic_lotus on AO3

When they say you see your children before you die, it isn't always the good memories. ~ Ratchet seems to walk through the events leading to his deepest regret as a recon mission goes up in smoke.

Featuring lots of incredibly sweet vignettes of Bee's and Ratchet's relationship leading up to Tyger Pax. Sparkling Bee is absolutely adorable and Ratchet has a soft spot for him that is bigger than Cybertron itself. It's incredibly sweet. There is also some incredibly heart-warming Optiratch in there. ^^ It's a bit bittersweet but in the best of ways. :3

Autobots, Pass Out! by @yamiquietshadowflo (Quiet_Shadow on AO3)

Ratchet is far too busy and stressed to just drop everything he's doing and go to sleep, even Optimus gives him his best 'So-Disappointed-In-You Look'. Recharge? Who needs that when there is so much to fret about? (Un)Fortunately for the medic, Optimus isn't the type of mech who give up and he's not above for the most underhanded, sneaky tactic at his disposition: Sending in Bumblebee and Raf.

Adorable. Funny. Sweet. :3 I love that Ratchet knows exactly what Bee and Raf are doing, but is absolutely helpless to it anyways. Absolutely adore that it is implied that, now that this has happened once, Bee will keep making it happen. They deserve their cuddles. Optimus is absolutely hilarious, too. :D

Napping Spot by @keef-a-corn (Keef_A_Corn on AO3)

I have a soft spot for Bee and Ratchet. Sometimes you just gotta hold your little Bee. It's short and cute. I have nothing else to say.

Honestly, this is just utterly adorable. 10/10. Could read it every five minutes. I should probably read it every five minutes.

Promises and Failures by @theiceemperor (Windify on AO3)

He’d made up his mind the moment they found out that the scout’s T-Cog was missing. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to fix Bee.

Now this. Whenever I read this story, I just want to shake some sense into Ratchet because he ist just infuriatingly reckless. Because, yeah, he should definitely not have operated on himself and then not told anyone. At the same time, however, I absolutely get why he is doing it. That's his baby boy who's hurting, after all, and there's all that old medic guilt and self-consciousness and love for Bee that drives him to his decision. In the end I'd probably be too much of a sap to wrench him before hugging him. Even if he'd deserve it for endangering himself like that.

I also just love Bee and Ratchet's interaction at the end of the story. That just oozes their love for another. :3

Now go and read at least one of these fics, they are all absolutely amazing.

[i-earned-my-stripes]

You ever have a time that things with your music line up SOOOO well, it sounds like it could have been planned, and yet it WASN'T.

Example:

I was leaving a little late today to get to an appointment. I ran to the car, drove to our dumpster to throw out my room trash, and then immediately left for my appointment. GPS said I would be arriving 1 minute early, if lucky, so I was STRESSED!

As I take out the trash, my Bluetooth connects, so I get in the car to music playing. Autoplay pulled up Remember Them from Epic: The Cyclopes Saga as I am driving away to my appointment, which results in this:

Odysseus: We must move quickly

Me: I know.

Odysseus: We don't have much time.

Me: I KNOW ODYSSEUS! I CAN SEE THAT!

[shiraishi--kanade]

So I'm thinking about pjsk vocal directions and it's incredibly funny to me how on one end we have whatever it is Hirose doing with Tsukasa and on the other one is An Shiraishi. Which is just nerfed Jiena

[itsalwaysforyou]

just remembered a wip i had which was jay at uni meeting normal people and desperately trying to act cool and normal whilst internally screaming about being in a whole new place with all new people and not having his gang with him

[politemagic]

thread the needle & ariadne's thread

“Thread the Needle” marks Vessel’s first true interactions with Sleep. Sleep has been watching him for some time, noting his pain and struggles to craft a plan to bring him into Their service. Sleep recognizes that the thing Vessel needs most is comfort and uses that to begin gaining his trust. Vessel begins to long for the comfort of these dreams that Sleep is showing him, though he hasn’t yet realized that it is Sleep who is responsible. This song, however, is the first time that Sleep presents Themself to him.

While looking at the lyrics to this song, I couldn’t help but draw a lot of connections between Vessel and the Greek hero Theseus. I’m not sure if anyone has ever really explored this before, but I had a lot of fun tying the myth of the Theseus and the Minotaur into this song and so I figured I would share some of my thoughts!

Bury me inside this labyrinth bed

We can feel that time is dilated

As a very brief refresher, in Greek mythology King Minos ordered the architect Daedalus to design the Labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur beneath Knossos. The Labyrinth was an extremely vast, complex maze that was nearly impossible to navigate, and as a punishment for the murder of his son, King Minos ordered the King of Athens, King Aegeus, to sacrifice 7 boys and 7 girls to the minotaur every nine years. This continued until Aegeus’ son Theseus volunteered himself as one of the sacrifices with the intention of finally slaying the Minotaur. Upon his arrival, King Minos’ daughter Princess Ariadne fell in love with Theseus. In an act of betrayal against her father, Ariadne gave Thesus a spool of thread that he used to guide him and the other Athenians out of the labyrinth after he killed the Minotaur. On their voyage home, they stopped on the island of Naxos, where Theseus and his crew abandoned Ariadne while she slept.

For simplicity, these are the major parallels I found:

King Minos = Sleep

Theseus = Vessel

Minotaur = Trauma/pain

Labyrinth = Dreamworld (presented by Sleep)

Sleep is the one calling Vessel into these dreams, just as King Minos ordered the sacrifices into the Labyrinth. Though Sleep isn’t intending to sacrifice Vessel, They are using the labyrinth to trap him into Their influence. Unlike Theseus, Vessel doesn’t immediately leave the labyrinth after he defeats the Minotaur. Instead, he relishes in his victory for some time, the death of the monster bringing him a sense of relief from the burdens of his pain and trauma. It feels as if time doesn’t exist in this world, like he exists in perfect freedom. This is when Sleep finally decides to present Themself to him.

We can spend the night in fascination

You can thread the needle

Time and time again

Sleep is telling him that it was Them who gave him the power to overcome that monster. They allowed him to feel that strength and power first, and then revealed that it was Them who bestowed it upon him, promising to continue so long as he surrenders himself to Sleep. The phrase “thread the needle” most often means carefully navigating a difficult situation between opposing forces. Sleep is presenting Themself as the missing piece to allow Vessel to make it through this dark period of his life, so long as he spends his nights with Them, and he is more than willing.

You turn the lights down

Come on and find out

You turn the lights down

Come on and find out

In a bonus sprinkling of Greek mythology, this just feels like a siren’s call, Sleep luring Vessel to his downfall. The specific phrasing here of “you turn the lights down” sounds to me more as if Sleep is simply narrating, implying the Vessel is coming on his own free will as opposed to Sleep commanding him to turn the lights down.

Something to confide in

Something to erase

Just look at where we're lying

An invisible space

Sleep continues offering to ease Vessel’s pain, playing to his specific wants. Vessel feels alone in his life, isolated by traumas, and Sleep offers to listen to him. He is constantly trying to forget past events, and Sleep offers to erase them and let him forget. This dreamworld in which they are interacting is a place that isn’t real, “an invisible space”, where real pains don’t exist. As he remains within the labyrinth, he begins to lose his connection with his humanity, and this is something that will only continue as the story progresses. 

In losing touch with his humanity, he begins to lose his attachment to Eden. Eden plays a very similar role in Vessel’s story as Princess Ariadne does in the story of Theseus. She loves him and cares for him, giving him the real strength (the “thread”) that he needs in order to make his way out of Sleep’s influence. But he has been seduced by Sleep, and that affiliation causes Vessel to hurt Eden as that relationship intensifies. Just as Theseus abandons Ariadne on the island of Naxos, Vessel abandons Eden in pursuit of his relationship with Sleep.

There are a few different reasons people believe that Theseus abandons Ariadne. For this comparison, I’ll be operating under the interpretation that Theseus abandoned her because Athena told him that she was only a distraction, that he needed to focus on his new role as King of Athens. Sleep will encourage Vessel to do the same thing to Eden, abandoning his love for her in interest of furthering Sleep’s plans and influence.

We can spend the night in fascination

You can thread the needle

Time and time again

You turn the lights down

Come on and find out

You turn the lights down

Come on and find out

I’ve been too nervous to share any of my thoughts from my lyrical analysis before, but my brain ran away with this one and I felt like I put a little too much time into it to keep it all to myself. If there are any other parallels you picked up on, or any other thoughts in general, or even if you think this is ridiculous feel free to add on!! I’d love to hear your thoughts, there’s so much to unpack with Sleep Token’s discography and I love reading other people’s theories and analyses.

[beanghostprincess]

Omg your Sora/Banchina post is so good 😭 i loved read this, and like, Sanji's brothers (and sis) would be really protective of Sora and their brother, so when Sanuso start to date would be kinda a chaos

When Sanuso starts dating, it is the most chaotic thing in the world.

You see, the brothers are always being a bit mean to Sanji because he is a crybaby but it's just in the regular, normal, sane way siblings act. But if there is any possibility of Sanji being in danger/away from them, they get really protective.

They don't have any issues with Banchina and, in fact, they love her so much it's insane. They enjoy her company and help and they're always asking when she's coming over too because "Mommy looks happier when she is around, so we want her to come back!". Until one day they don't have to keep asking because she is constantly there. And they love her. They are... Intense and clingy with Sora, yes, and won't dare to leave her side either. And if they realize there is something romantic going on, they won't hesitate to be even more protective. But in general they accept Banchina right away because, again, she looks happier than when she is alone with her thoughts (<- Sora tries to hide it, but they did run away from Germa, after all. She is worried Judge might find them. Always thinking what would have happened to her little angels if she hadn't saved them. Always, always taking care of them).

But!!!!!! It's a different story with Usopp.

You know, when they meet, they are kids. And Sanji is a sweetie pie. And naive. And maybe Usopp gets a bit carried away with his lies and maybe Sanji believes all of them. But they're cute little lies and they always make Sanji happy, so it's fine. Basically, more storytelling than anything. And it's not that the siblings don't like him! In fact, Usopp's aiming/shooting skills are already pretty good and they're impressed by that. Always asking him if he can do tricks with them.

Buuuut. Usopp is younger and anxious and God the brothers love to tease him about Sanji and they try to make him stutter when he is lying/storytelling to make fun of him in front of Sanji. It's just silly and it's all kids games. Nothing cruel. But!!!!! But there is also the realization that "they like each other. Usopp likes Sanji". And at first, it's just a silly thing so they make fun of them, but as they grow up together, their crushes on each other also do and it's like,,, It's something they learn to live with. They get used to it.

They've been in love forever and they are 17/15 and haven't confessed yet and it is just their normal behavior. Everyone can see they're in love. And when the "they are actually in love and it's not only a crush thing" sinks in, the brothers do get a bit protective. Because Sanji knows how to defend himself thanks to them but, again, Zeff's influence is crucial for Sanji's character so I think here he'd be just a little tiny bit softer than usual? Not really. Same personality. But the sibs just feel like they need to take care of him. Not gonna explain this word for word but-- There is obviously the "we're so done with you pining over longnose, PLEASE just confess so we don't have to hear you anymore" conversation with Sanji and "if you hurt him we will kill you. We could do it. Eyes closed. No hesitation. Don't you even dare make him cry once-" with Usopp. They regret it immediately, tho, because when Sanji and Usopp start dating they become ever more annoying and clingy and it's,, Impossible.

They all share a room. Not really. Reiju has her own room and the brothers sleep on a different one. Bunkbeds and everything. And even if they didn't sleep there together, the house is small and the walls are thin and they can't have any privacy in there. And they're always eating together because of course they all love Sanji's cooking, but he is always so cheesy with Usopp they prefer to kick them out of there and eat leftovers. This starts when they're 17/15, right? So it's two... Whole years... Dealing with them... Until they go with Luffy.....

Oh!!!!!! And Reiju. She is the sweetest and gets along with Usopp SO well. She and Sora are always talking with him about Sanji and they're so so so supportive. Reiju is the one to always defend these two from the other 3 idiots.

But it's alright because the brothers always find ways of teasing their new brother-in-law ("I'm not married to Sanji, though-" / "With the way he looks at you, you might want to start preparing for the wedding already"). So at least they have fun. But sometimes they look at Usopp in a weird, defensive way and he gets,,,, Scared.

[eurydices-carnation]

apparently Solea Pfeiffer as Eurydice ripped the flower Orpheus gives to her in wedding song and as someone who analyzes everything in hadestown and knows when something is different...I don't like this choice

[maybeimamuppet]

OKAY MUPPETS IT IS TIIIIME FOR EZZYS OPINION HOUR

i saw the mean girls movie yesterday and i have THOUGHTS. spoilers below the cut but general thoughts up here

1. is it objectively not a super great movie? yes

2. is it my new favorite movie? yes

3. will i defend this movie tooth and nail from people who don’t like it just bc it’s a musical or bc they’re a 2004 purist? YES

4. did this movie make me feel so many conflicting emotions back to back i have now had a tummyache for 24 hours? YESSS

5. will i ever, ever, EVER IN MY LIFE forgive tina fey for the ending? no.

alright babes welcome to below the elementary school gym class parachute

last spoiler warning!!

these aren’t all in order and are most definitely not all the thoughts i had bc i have the memory storage of a flea and once an experience is over it is GONE FROM MY HEAD so this is the list of thoughts i struggled to put together when i got home lmao

overall thoughts:

it felt very gimmicky. the stage production felt gimmicky too but in a fun way, this was gimmicky in a way that kinda gave me a touch of the ick

it did not feel to me very much like a cohesive movie. it felt like browsing ig or tiktok and just seeing a hodgepodge of scenes stuck together. which is a cool idea but idk how well it worked in practice and i also don’t know if it was intentional.

this is not the word i’m looking for but in terms of personality they absolutely whitewashed all of the characters and i really don’t care for that. the visuals and the casting were so immaculate but in terms of personality they just made them all taste like unsweetened corn flakes.

i’m biased and didn’t care for most of the tweaks they made to the songs individually BUT i think they blended with each other more cohesively than they do in the stage production so that was cool. and i am able to understand why they made them more pop-esque than theatre-y it’s just not my personal vibe

it all felt very emma watson’s beauty and the beast. like. not deserving of much hate but also just not as good. it has its time and place but i still just. the changes they made were too much for me. that being said i am gonna be the #1 viewer whenever it’s released to streaming platforms was not kidding when i said this is a new favorite movie

the whole like. tiktok and iphone camera thing was an interesting??? idea. i really liked it for cautionary tale but the rest. i think it was a better idea than the way they executed it.

i miss do this thing!! i wish they had done like a mashup with it and the stupid with love reprise but i wasn’t mad at the reprise so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

fourth wall break was real cringe!!

thoughts abt cady:

angourie is so cute!!!!!!! she has the perfect look for cady. her costumes were kinda yikes but physically she’s mwah chefs kiss perfection

cady is so viscerally autistic in this version and it is DELIGHTFUL

but again i feel like they took so much from her. in the show she’s this overexcited little bubbly (autistic again but still) thing and she’s naive and then it’s revealed she’s conniving and manipulative and has this serious dark streak in her. in the movie it felt like she was just. awkward and then straight to conniving and manipulative. it was interesting but i miss my little jumping bean i wish they had given her some more spice

this movie has turned me into a cadina shipper of THE HIGHEST ORDER i’m already writing a fic for them and i call diiiiibs nobody else do it i write slow /j

i honestly really liked what ifs. i didn’t enjoy it as much as it roars but i think for the screen and for angourie’s voice it was a better fit. and i think it blended better with the new versions of the songs than it roars would have. not mad at it and the staging of it was really cool

cady being the one with a single parent is so interesting to me!! idk why they did that but i think it’s interesting. makes me wonder what happened to her dad but also go mom!!! women in stem!!!

her relationship with the art freaks was so???? weird??? it seemed like damian was the only one who really wanted all of them to be friends. i love this version of janis and damian together but when they were with cady it was all just so BLAND. it didn’t really feel like she and janis were friends at all which is what’s supposed to make the betrayal sting so much

whatever they were aiming for with someone gets hurt they missed hard bc holy cadina batman that shits gay dude BUT THE STAGING WAS SO COOL with everyone like frozen and then they all kick back in all crazy with the music it was great

janis thoughts:

THEY FUCKING RUINED HEEEEEEEER

AULI’I WAS SO PERFECT SHE WAS SO CUTE AND HER OUTFITS ARE SO COOL BUT THEY JUST TOOK AWAY ALL OF HER PERSONALITY

janis is supposed to be spunky and angry and hurt and vengeful and quirky and out there and firey and she’s meant to HAVE GRIT GOTDANGIT but again she just felt so whitewashed. like here’s a vaguely leftist lesbian in ripped jeans and cool eyeshadow that’s janis right?? LIKE NO IT IS NOT

i’d rather be me, while it had a little less vocal oomph behind it than the stage show, was as transcendent as i hoped for and i got chills multiple times. also the comedic timing of the bus was immaculate and the sound it made made me cackle

i can’t tell how i feel about the new middle school incident. i think it takes so much of the pain out of it for janis which is meant to be her main motivator. she was not supposed to be KICKED OUT she was PULLED OUT but i do kind of like that they clearly made it where regina kissed a girl and liked it and freaked out and that was the catalyst for everything

i do not ship this version of cadnis and that to me is unforgivable. they have sooo little chemistry as friends let alone lovers i just can’t stand it. janis doesn’t ever even seem like she wants cady around. it seems so much like they took away what makes janis janis just to turn her into another catalyst for regina and cady’s stories

apex predator was fun!! i honestly like it being janis and damian singing it better than janis and cady i think it works better as a warning and stuff! and also the band in the tree made me laugh so hard. i’m glad cady had them as her tour guides but again that’s all it felt like they were to each other and i miss them being a little posse

REVENGE PARTYYYYYYUH. i thought the staging was really fucking weird?? like all the pastels and shit didn’t really fit i would’ve much preferred it to start like that and then have blood dripping down the walls or something when they’re talking ABOUT PEOPLES HEADS ON SPIKES. but musically it was my favorite of everything!! i’m so happy they put the original verse back i almost screamed out loud in the theater when i heard it!!!!!

i never thought i would say this but i wish they had not canonically made her a lesbian. i will never forgive tina fey for having her end up with that random girl. no shade to the girl, she’s gorgeous and i’m glad we got some on screen, good, healthy queer rep. but in my eyes that is absolutely just a cop out because they know people wanted her to end up with cady or regina. they’re spitting on us and saying “here have your fucking lesbian and enjoy it this is what you get” and expect us to be happy with it. i get so angry every time i think about it and it honestly kind of ruined the whole thing for me. i would rather she have ended up with kevin g again. or like. honestly damian romantically would’ve made more sense in a twisted fucked up way. i just absolutely hate how they handled that.

damian thoughts:

HE! WAS! PERFECT! i am a grey henson stan first and a human being second but by golly he might be my new favorite. comedic timing on point and the fact we barely get to hear him sing is a FELONY. he was delightful and i love him also we love black queer rep!!! fuck yeah!!!! his bit with the fan before id rather be me. sent me into the dang stratosphere i love him so much

ALSO HIS DATE AT RHE END WE LOVE THESTRE BOYYYYY!!! ugh so cute i love

regina thoughts:

HOW DID THEY MAKE HER SUCH A COWARD???? HOW DO YOU TAKE A CHARACTER WITH SO MUCH POWER AND FUCK HER UP THIS BAD???

again everything that’s a core tenet of her personality was removed. i wasn’t afraid of her which is a CRIME bc renee on broadway’s regina was TERRIFYING. she just felt like one of those girls that every hs has like 7 of. they’re a dime a dozen, they’re rich and hot shit and they know it but you don’t care what they do because you know they’ll be divorced and broke and probably fat at your 10 year reunion. it’s giving peaked in high school and not queen bee which is really sad honestly

it made cady seem so much more evil tho?? like regina seemed. hurt. and cady was still so gung ho about taking her down. and it made janis seem much more manipulative too. i don’t care for either of those things

her costumes were so weird??? half that shit regina would not touch with a ten foot pole but it’s renee and she would and she’s hot so i do not care. also this isn’t a criticism but her halloween costume was giving gargoyle more than angel lol

plastics thoughts:

gretchen again felt really reductive. she was all anxiety. not that gretchen isn’t that onstage but it just felt like that was her entire personality. but bebe was adorable and i loved what’s wrong with me she did a great job

avantika was DELIGHTFUL. i loved her so much more than i was expecting to she was the only one where i never had a moment like “i am watching people acting in a movie they are repeating written lines” it felt much more like fluid with her. 10/10 beautifully done to her

aaron thoughts:

HOW DID THEY MAKE HIM MORE BORING????? MY GOD

he was already the most redundant character in the whole goddamn thing and they somehow made him even more useless. he could’ve been removed from the movie entirely and it would’ve changed NOTHING. he is white bread if he was a spice he’d be flour. didn’t think it was possible to make him more that but by golly they did it

HOW DID HE AND CADY END UP TOGETHER HE HAS THE CHEMISTRY OF A BRICK WALL. she has so much more romantic fire and chemistry with regina this is some of the most comphet shit i’ve ever seen. it’s giving wicked levels of comphet like gooooddamn.

misc. thoughts:

THAT LINDSAY LOHAN CAMEO HAD ME OUTBOF MY SEAT I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING BUT IT WAS AMAZING also that “i don’t know your life” was mwah

MS NORBURY SND MR DUVALLLL WERE SO CUUUUUTE i squealed ngl i love them

overall like 7/10 good movie i’m angry about a whole bunch but this is also amazing i’m so glad we got this new content and i am definitely hyperfixating on it now. so not that different from my stage show opinions lol

[pynkhues]

I'm really sorry you and your sister are dealing with that

(no pressure to publish this, not that there should ever be pressure to publish an ask if you don't want to, of course, but just wanted to say I hope you're doing okay)

Ah, thank you, anon, it's okay. It's been a while now (court moves slooow), but we're getting hopefully close to the end. She filed in Family Court December 2022, and we've had about five interim hearings with final trial (finally) scheduled over four days next month, so fingers crossed! But yeah, it's been A Time. He's financially and emotionally abusive against my sister, and both those things as well as medically negligent against their children (who are only six and eight and both have special needs), so it's been....rough. To say the least.

But on a lighter note, have one of my new favourite photos I took of my nephews at the jellyfish enclosure at the aquarium last month!

[ammoniteflesh]

I finally got around to ep1 of Vows & Vengeance. DA spin-offs sure do continue to have, uh, variable quality.

(I'm trying to find a nice way to say 'the writing was hilariously bad' and failing lol)

[synchlora]

bro I know we've all heard abt cloth mother vs wire mother but working in animal care its become so obvious everywhere

[kai-the-second]

"We were Gods (we were kids)

'Come at me, your blaggards!' you'd yell from the banks

Wielding words against make believe wizards and tanks

And by God, love, believe me, I wanted to play too, I did"

~ The Amazing Devil, Battle Cries