#RLS Performance

[yankaze]

that's how popee the performer zine i worked on together with other amazing artists look in my copy of it

[anghraine]

The household Star Trek watch just hit The Wrath of Khan! I've seen it multiple times before, but it was really different to watch it so shortly after watching TOS and TMP.

My feelings are ... more complex now. Where Spock's character growth was randomly rewound in TMP for unexplained reasons, Wrath of Khan!Spock feels so much more the Spock he was becoming in TOS. He's older, steadier, and far less repressed while still retaining the composure and dignity that are so personally and culturally important to him. His sense of humor is still dry but less buried and harsh, he's reserved and unflinching in a very Spock way but it feels healthier and more integrated than anything he was capable of in TOS. I don't get the impression that he's at all ashamed of what he feels for Kirk at this point, nor ashamed of the strain of human qualities in himself.

I feel like we see how far Spock has come from his early shame and denial, for instance, when Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik go to beam to the research base. There's this less-repressed-than-formerly-but-still-powerful intensity between Kirk and Spock that, as ever, gives the distinct sense that everyone else just ceased to exist for them. Spock says outright, "Be careful, Jim" and it's very adorable and relatively open by Spock standards. And then professional hater McCoy is like ... oh, so am I chopped liver? while Saavik is just ????? and it's hilarious and just feels very recognizable.

I do think this film is kinder to McCoy than TMP and I appreciate seeing him quietly do his work as a doctor instead of haunting the bridge and needling Kirk and Spock, but he's a fairly muted presence in the film and still finds time to be a bigot. Not going to lie, it's incredibly cathartic when Spock uses his own prejudices against him and then tricks him into... uh, well, everything that's going to happen.

After all these years, Wrath of Khan!Saavik remains an absolute delight. She's trying so hard and Alley gives this great sense of a million thoughts going through her head at all times. It's really fun to see a very young Vulcan who isn't even pretending to have it all figured out, despite her rattling off rules and regulations. One of my favorite Saavik moments is when she's like "*gasp* You lied" in the most classic gifted-student-discovering-the-world way and Spock serenely replies, "I exaggerated."

(Spock is truly living his best life. I do not think this Spock has the slightest desire to be anywhere but where he is or anything but what he is, and it makes me very happy until aghghghhhhhaghhghgh.)

But anyway, Spock and Saavik have this really charming and understated mentor-protégée relationship that I like best in this iteration. (I don't care for the direction it goes in later for uhhh related reasons, but Alley's Saavik plays off of Nimoy—especially—and Shatner very enjoyably.)

Kirk is difficult for me, because the Kirk of the films in general just feels so far removed from TOS Kirk to me when he's not interacting with Spock. Yes, there's a familiarity evoked by Shatner's performances, and Kirk is compelling in this film, but ... it's a better film for Shatner than Kirk, if that makes sense? Shatner is genuinely quite good in it!

For one, I always forget that the hammy KHAN!!!!! is part of a cunning scheme in which Kirk is much more subtly slipping information to Spock and the frustrated rage is a performance for Khan, hammiest man in the universe. In reality, Kirk has a bunch of dialed-down emotional moments—the way he's quietly frustrated with Carol excising him from their son's life but still maintaining an amicable-exes relationship with her, for instance. But of course, the big one is Spock's death scene, especially that dreadful moment after Spock dies when Kirk just slumps against the radiation chamber looking almost confused in the way that grief really can just daze someone into that "puppet with the strings cut" quality. It's genuinely a heartrending moment.

For my ultra-Trekkie best friend J, Kirk's eulogy for Spock is the part that affects him most of all. And I get it! People tend to point to the twitchy "the most... human" part of it, but the most effective part for me is when Kirk is quoting Spock in the eulogy and saying he won't disrespect Spock's profound greatness by disputing his argument now, and he's clearly trying to be dignified and professional in a way Spock merits despite his own devastation, and then there's this shudder in his voice that is fantastic (and just, agggh). And I think "the most human" is pretty clearly not meant as a denial of Spock's Vulcanness, but an absolute rejection of virtually everyone's incessant treatment of Spock as subhuman for the crime of being biracial. Lots of good Shatner moments all around, though.

But.

So much of what's going on with Kirk's character arc seems grounded in what's established internally in the films and just overwriting major aspects of his TOS characterization and history. I dislike David Marcus for a ... lot of the film, and like, I appreciate him taking the initiative to set things right and acknowledge his misjudgment of his unexpectedly cool and newly bereaved father. But the approach being "I guess you never have really faced death before and having to process it is new for you" is extremely WTF when Kirk at this point has survived a genocide, lost much of his family including a brother and sister-in-law he seemed to be quite close to, has lost various good friends, there was the whole Edith Keeler thing among other losses he just had to keep powering through, and then at this point the person he has acknowledged as the closest person to him in the universe (one who had a significantly longer natural lifespan than him!) is also now dead.

And movie Kirk is like—yeah, I always came up with some trick to avoid ever facing death directly and I'm like WHAT. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. THIS IS OBJECTIVELY FALSE. But the movie absolutely does not treat it that way! I do like David nervously turning back and acknowledging that he's proud of Kirk and the hug after such a monumental loss, but ... at what price.

This feels especially glaring because of the moments where we do get a pragmatic, reasonable Kirk whose priorities make perfect sense for his previous backstory, like:

DAVID: We appear to have plenty of time. KIRK: Is there anything to eat? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm starved. MCCOY: How can you think of food at a time like this? KIRK: First order of business, survival.

But it's important to his arc in the film that he's constitutionally unwilling to endure the weight of unwinnable scenarios, and is almost defined by being all about winning against any odds, and that's very weird to me. Kirk has always been determined and resourceful and cunning, yes—and we do get some of that here; he plays Khan like a fucking fiddle almost the whole time—but the possibility of loss never struck me as something he was refusing to contemplate.

Carol's dry line about how Kirk has never been a Boy Scout feels pretty specific to movie Kirk and pop culture Kirk, too. TOS Kirk is repeatedly described as having been solemn and bookish in early adulthood. Even in his thirties, he's not generally a maverick IMO; he won't subordinate all critical thinking and judgment to regulations, but he prefers to find some way to reconcile them if he can. His overriding driving motive is most often his sense of responsibility—to his crew, their ship, their mission, and the principles of the Federation and his brand of philosophical humanism. If he's got to break regulations to fulfill his deeper responsibilities, he will, but he'd much rather not!

You know who in TOS very much does have it in him to jeopardize everything out of loose cannon determination to blast through every obstacle unlucky enough to get in the way of his absolute refusal to accept loss? Spock. Spock risks the lives of hundreds of people in desperate and improbable attempts to get Kirk back, multiple times! In the context of his culture and even of Starfleet, he is far more of a maverick than Kirk ever was in TOS.

I know this sounds more negative than I want to be, because I'm very fond of this movie in its own right, and Kirk does have some fantastic Kirk-ly moments. We do get a strong sense of Kirk's intelligence and resourcefulness without TMP's device of everyone ganging up on him for reasons presented as sort of justifiable despite his completely accurate judgment of the urgency of the situation. But I'm reminded of the "Kirk drift" article about how post-TOS representations of Kirk seem to become increasingly representations of the idea of who Kirk was in TOS rather than having much to do with any particular details of Kirk's actual characterization in TOS.

[winchesterian]

everything #They ascribe to dean being a secret kinsey 6 (who's constructed an extremely elaborate mind palace for himself to make having frequent and enthusiastic sex with women, with no external pressure by anyone specific, Bearable) actually comes down to 1. gender issues and/or 2. csa trauma response. many many MANY such cases.

[teafiend]

GIFs credited to @Nungchae (Twitter/X)

[94erz]

Hoseok rapping Joon's 'baby, watch your mouth' in MIC Drop 🫦🥴🥵

[muraenide]

At the time of writing this, I'm very sleepy, but consider this a "Joan's late night thought" post (It's around 11pm where I'm at).

As my rping career gets more mature I've realized I started to care less about basic stuff like being "ooc" or focused on follower counts or blog aesthetics or trying to get along with everyone's muses on tumblr bc that's nigh impossible. I'm so lazy my theme/rules/graphics are the bare minimum or 90% are copy-pasted from my other blogs or recycled.

Instead, what's more important to me now is *how* I write my replies/threads. Have I cramped too much information in one reply and have made it difficult for rp partners to make their next reply focus on one single direction? Do I leave enough information in one reply to allow my rp partners to continue the thread based on it? Have I picked the best word choices that suit my muse? (Particularly for Jade, he always uses polite forms of every word. So he rarely swears, but here's the fun part. There are ways to make him cuss and still appear faithful to the canon character, but that's EXACTLY a writer's job to make that work even if he never swore on screen to reference from). If we've plotted, did my reply push the plot forward or was it just beating around the bush? Did 10 paragraphs of writing successfully convey what I wanted to show/tell the reader or were they just ramblings that only had a vague meaning of the message I wanted to bring -

I feel that shifting my priority to these concerns rather than the other aspects of rp has made writing really enjoyable for me again (that I haven't felt in years bc I was too caught up with restricting my muse since I tend to have a preference to really stick to the source material, 99% of the times I only write canons, the other "phase" was being too focus on making the writing pretty, but using the right words which doesn't always have to be difficult is far more important than pretty writing) but I can't believe it took me this long to realize that this is not what rp is about.

[malachitezmeyka]

For once the fact that I, aged 11 through 15, spent most of my free time locking myself in the bathroom to mouth along to songs while practising expressions in the mirror was actually useful

[ralcotyres]

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[pynkhues]

do you any recommendations of what to look out for/things you're excited for for melbourne fringe? i missed it last year because i was working crazy hours but im hoping to see a few things this year but i dont know where to start

Oh, man, yeah, the program is enormous, as it is every year, and honestly it's a challenge to navigate even being a part of the industry, so I totally feel you on not knowing where to start. Ultimately, what you want to see is going to depend on what you're into, so I'm going to put the comedy and cabaret performances to one side, and focus on the theatre program, if that's okay? Just because I can probably speak to it a little better, haha.

SO! Places to start:

Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship) - love the creative team on this, and I've yet to see anything Liv's been involved in that hasn't blown me away. She is, I think, one of the most exciting emerging theatremakers in Australia right now. Her work tends to run the gamut of emotion from genuinely very funny to gutwrenchingly devastating, and her focus tends to be on specific moments in youth that change, well, everything. I'm really excited to see this one.

I Once Was a Tree - this is puppet theatre, so full disclaimer if that's not your vibe, haha, but I've worked with some of the artists from Bonkel Thetare before and I just love the creative team there too. They're really a great bunch of people and immensely talented, so I think this will be pretty special.

I saw Patrick Livesey in Sirens a couple of years ago (a play he actually did with Liv) and he was really incredible, he's just a really, really talented performer, so I'm really excited to see him in I Hope This Means Something.

Smother's also got a really exciting creative team and sounds really interesting, so I'm hoping to get to that this week.

There's a lot of Sydney talent involved in After Rebecca. I haven't seen it or worked with anyone on it, but I've heard positive things through the grapevine + it's had very good reviews. I love Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca too, so I'm curious as to what this one might be like.

A bit expensive for Fringe (although it's on at the Arts Centre), but I'm hearing quite a bit of buzz about Werewolf. Written by Van Badham too, which is exciting. Her stuff's often very good.

Not All Men - this is being run by a newer company (they were only established last year), but it got some good reviews and hype at Adelaide Fringe earlier in the year, so it sounds like it could be worth checking out.

The We the People x Yarra art exhibit / social history looks awesome and like one of the more exciting free events they're doing.

And just to keep things a little gothic, haha, the adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat got really good reviews out of Adelaide Fringe too and has been nominated for a few awards already this year. I'm hearing really good things about it, and apparently the music in particular is off the hook.

Hopefully some of these take your fancy!

[chososcamgirl]

(SHE’S) JUST A PHASE CHAPTER THREE: lesbian digresser

masterlist

extras!

• ynmegumi don’t follow eachother on twitter but they stalk and subtweet eachother.. a LOT

• megumi listened to the maneater once before soundmates and he actually enjoyed it (god forbid anyone found out about it)

• gojo is tridents manager! and sugurus bf (stsg in every universe guys.)

• don’t be fooled they actually all love gojo

• gojo does have favourites tho… megumi

• the venue gojo booked holds like 20k people which is quite large but not their largest performance

• tickets sold out in like an hour help

• plan squirtathon was a backup plan created by the group when they found out there’s a bounty on panda on the dark web (it was like ¥10,000)

• the plan was that if panda mysteriously disappears or gets murdered; maki, nobara and yn would run off to hawaii and open a divebar in honour of him

• megumi is in fact a lesbian digresser

• does yn find him attractive question mark …

• yn does NAWT have a contact photo for megumi bc she still hasn’t seen him in rl and refuses to use paparazzi photos of him (plus she lowkey doesn’t want panda to find out she has his contact saved)

• megumi’s contact name for yn is “yn (std plug)”

a/n: thank u to my beloved ree for inspiring the last texts between megumi and yn :p

taglist: @shokosbunny @luvvmae @catobsessedlady @satoryaa @prozacprinc3ss @essjujutsu @therealsatorugojo @yeehawslap @gojodickbig @dawnisatotalqueen @j2upiters @nappingnai @lalalasillybilly3000 @totallytatum @3cst4syy @lysaray @saltypuffin1040 @zumicho @noodles-icetea @makeshiftproject @kurtcobaingirlie @kokoiinuts @renbittt @dashingaurries @slvttycorpse @cuupidsss @mochroialainn @tenjikusstuff4 @oroborosttheiii @ichcocat @iiwaijime @drugzforyou @sugurubabe @allthestarsarecloserrrrrrr @tyigerz @yoyo-yui @megoomies @yizmiu @jasminasblog22 @yomamablazeit @marst4rz @guitarstringed-scars @qtnfer @kalulakunundrum @lovefrominaya @beepbopzlorp @iheartlindz @itsdragonius @meguemii @chilichopsticks @7kn0wn @starantulas @1l-ynn @bonitoflakez @rcveriees @solaqes @starrysho @sukunaspillow @evry1luvssm

*if i can't tag you please change your tag settings otherwise i will remove you from the list!

[scarefox]

Haven't watched anything KristSingto recently but he's right

You can think of fanservice what you want. But the moment you want to police or censor it, it turns into something really problematic. And this stance comes from 2 or even 3 different oppinioned sides but they ironically melt into the same outcome.

But at the end of the day most people forget / ignore, regardless of anything, fanservice still helps normalising public queer affection. And let's be real, most of the stuff in those stage and event shows are that... a show or even a performance! Do you protest at your local theater when they have queer characters kissing? Do you notice how this sounds in a sentence? Yes actors are real people and not characters but especially BL actors & idols still perform stage shows and kind of have a public enertainer persona. You notice how different they are on stage vs. in their personal live streams + nowadays most actors are even very honest about just doing fs for show & fun and often genuine (platonic) affection towards their acting partner but don't pretend to be actual dating (and the ones who do will most likely not lightheartedly come out with it like that... apparently there are exceptions but I have not enough insight on them to judge). You should watch some serious interviews or live stream (translations) of your favs now and then maybe to learn more about them and the industry, they are more than just pretty faces... Actors in just my bubble who talked open about the fanservice topic as far as legally possible at least: JamesSu, Perth Nakhun and I guess we can count Pavel and Nut as well.

What fans make out of it is a whole different story.... and one of the reasons people want to shut down fanservice as a whole. But imagine how lighthearted, fun and easy going this whole thing could be if we didn't had all these toxic naive fans who think every interaction is proof of actors dating (or worse: cheating) in RL. That mindset of "we are BL fans of course we are delulu" is not a joke anymore among some of them. They srsly take pride in that... babes you are part of the problem, stop encouraging it!

Then on the other side, being critical of some of the practices of the industry is one thing but it should not lead into backwards queer censoring... but that's what some are swaying to with their "real people queerbait" agenda or getting the cringes when (samesex) people interact romantically or erotically during live events (that's a bit of a you thing my dears. not necessarily in a queerphobic way but in a purity / shy way and that is a you problem to deal with not anyone elses problem)....

And a lot of people don't even understand or get what most people criticise about fanservice and just jump onto the ban-fanservice train. Without understanding the nuances nor the actual industry circumstances. Like one main argument here isn't even true. Lot of people assume actors get forced into fs. Which is not true (source: one of Perth Nakhuns Q&A vids, the 2. vid i think). BL actors usually know what they get into by entering the industry, decide with eo how much they want to do. Now that can still cause internal personal conflicts like one going over board or not playing enough but that's human miscommunication. Or companies can still be bastards but it's unfair to generalise it over the whole industry when we nowadays have companies who give their actors that freedom.

There are still some points to criticise, definitely. Like I personally dislike how MCs and sponsors sometimes treat actors during events or how fans scream at every little move or glance like crazy.... But the topic is a bit more nuanced (as always in this world) than how most people look at it. I just mean it really always sticks out when you talk with people about their reasons why they are anti fanservice that they just repeat after another with no sources or without actual up to date information or only look at it from one side.

I personally am in the middle. I only like fs when the actors have fun with it and are transparent about it. In the end it comes down to actors consent what they want to give to the audience (reason why it annoys me when people write "i feel like i am interrupting something here / am intuding their privacy" the actors consented! they want you to watch if you want to see it! consent babes! it is fine)

(when i see someone coming in with "but Krist is a homophobe" I will bite you. I am not even his fan and already researched what happened back then when I first saw those accusations when I got into BL 2021ish. It is really not that hard to look up the source and reports of people who were live pressent at the time to understand what went down back then. Ya know instead of believing rumors that twist and lie for rage bait)

[velvet-midnight]

Also last month, the Company had a meeting to discuss the future. The current heads (a sibling duo who started it 25 years ago) are retiring and it is up to the Members to step up.

Amidst all the statements of how the Company had collected us all like misfit toys and given us a chosen family, another Member I look up to said something that knocked the wind out of me.

"Most of us were alone when we came here - and many of us are not alone anymore."

The difference between her statement and the tearful testimonies of how important our lil group is for our survival - is that she was talking about how she started as a directionless college kid who made bad decisions for good stories and now she has a spouse and a child and job.

This isn't actually about the nuclear family vs the chosen community.

It is a statement of how our lives may have altered from the time we began.

I have been with the Company on and off for over half my life. The time between when I started and now could vote in last year's election.

The teenager I was then could not have conceived of the woman I would become.

I am not alone anymore.

At the end of last year, I got headhunted by a member of my acting crew (who was formative for me when I was a teenager in teaching me the ropes and how to be a cool-nerd adult and for whom I hold special fondness) for a lead role in a play she is directing this spring.

My ego loved it so I considered it, but I have been burnt out for a while now and I privately knew it was likely not feasible. And that was before 2025 went to shit personally and publicly. So, last month, I declined and wished her well.

Auditions were this week and the cast list has been posted.

The internal response was immediate: great casting, can't wait to see what they do with the role, so glad I'm not in it

[owepossum]

I'm really looking forward to how you'll write post river Vander, to see him when he's finally done one of his most regrettable actions yet and finally becoming someone who DOES work to control his anger more

Question though; Is Vander, right now in Devotions, less interested in controlling his rage because he has Benzo/Connol/Felicia and Silco there to help him snap out of it? Or is it more of a thing where he just looses himself, no matter what?

He’s a fascinating character for sure, so many arcane characters are lovely and grey to explore.

Re young Vander, I don’t think it’s a lack of willingness. I think it’s more a combo of pressures growing up and being constantly valued / lauded *for* his physicality and violence. So much so that it’s becoming a defining thing for him and his self worth. This has led to a lack of incentive to actually be LESS physical.

They’re also so young! I think they haven’t ever had the chance to really grow up or see different role models. So it’s a mix (as such things often are).

This is why I expressly showed Silco encouraging the violence (since it’s usually performed on his behalf / a protective thing) but it does mean the boundaries of emotional expression are so blurry and difficult.

Dealing with anger / negative emotions takes practice. And if practice reinforces that violence is the answer, it’s hard to change that. It’s reflexive :(

I’m in a lot of pain rn in RL so this kinda incoherent haha but I hope it makes a little sense. In short, toxic masculinity hurts men as well as women (and everyone in between).

[dangermousie]

I can take or leave the plot BUT THOSE MAKE OUT SCENES ARE INSANE!!!! Were the censors dead?

And then he removes his shirt and literally hoists her up MY GOD.

My God.

Or this scene where it starts out with his falling on his knees literally begging her...

And then it progresses to...

I genuinely did not know this was allowed outside of minis!

(This is a younger man - older woman romance to boot; the actors are 12 years apart in RL and their age difference in the drama is not made clear but it's clear he's younger than she is...)

The story itself is nothing to write home about but the chemistry is out of the world and the performances are stellar (I have not seen Deng Jia Jia since Infernal Lover over a decade ago but she's great and Zhang Xincheng has never given a bad performance in his life and he's his usual amazing self here. Supportings are all so solid too!)

Anyway, would I recommend? No, the script is mid at best. Did I enjoy the hell out of it? You bet.

[doctormead]

Another "Danny is a singer at the Iceberg Lounge" prompt.

Every now and then, we get a prompt where Danny Fenton (fleeing Amity Park for whatever reason) gets a job as a singer/performer at the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge. So here's a twist inspired by a RL band. If you've never heard of Postmodern Jukebox, they are a band with a fluctuating cast that do jazz/swing covers of popular songs of other genres. Look them up on YouTube. It's a treat! Anyway, PMJ doesn't exist in the DC universe, so Danny gets the bright idea of adapting modern popular tunes to a style more in line with what Mr. Cobblepot requires for the atmosphere of his club. The band (mostly to humor the kid) goes along with it and helps with the adaptation.

When Danny debuts the slow jazz cover of Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", his voice all but rips the paint off the walls. The band's tip jar overflowed that night, so, not being one to pass up a good thing, they set to working on more covers/adaptations.

After a few skeptical looks, the Penguin has to admit this is a good thing. Not only is the atmosphere he desires for his establishment maintained, but, as word gets out, a larger and more diverse clientele is coming through the doors. News gets around and, of course, the Bats feel the need to investigate.

Who goes in "undercover" in civilian persona? Take your pick. He/she/they settle in with a drink they expertly pretend to sip as the lights come up on the 5 piece jazz band and a twink in a fedora behind an old timey microphone and THIS song starts playing...