#because the last instalment isn't necessarily popular

[softquietsteadylove]

AND you did it again, life interrupted is now my favorite AU thank you so much for writing more of it!! Gil is so sweet and Druig just wants whats best for his big sister 🥹 would love love love to see something where Thena is having a Bad Day and Gil is just being extra kind and gentle and soft w her, maybe even it gets to the point where Thena explains what happened to her and why she’s lost her way a bit. Sorry I cannot stop thinking about this AU but as usual anything you write will make me lose my mind with its perfection!!!

Thena sniffed, sitting at Gil's kitchen as he poured her a glass of water. Her hands still had a slight shake to them, even though it had taken them fifteen minutes to walk to his place.

Gil still didn't know exactly what had happened. Just that one minute she was fine and the next she was trembling with her arms wrapped around herself. He had thrown his coat around her shoulders and gotten her home without further incident. He hadn't asked about it yet, either.

From the moment they walked in, all he'd done was whisper sweet nothings and reassurances and been nice and gentle with her. All he'd done was be perfect.

"Hey," Gil whispered as she took a sip without the glass shaking too badly. He leaned his head down to get a look at her, eyes searching for anything wrong and what he might be able to do about it. "Better?"

Thena gulped, nodding. How did she ever find such a perfect soul as Gilgamesh?

"I'm gonna name off a few things," Gil said softly, hovering close but not too close. "You tell me what sounds good, okay?"

Thena nodded again. Maybe she wanted to tell him he didn't have to coddle her. Maybe she wanted to pretend everything was fine. Maybe she wanted to lie down on his floor and sob until Druig came to pick her up.

"Something to eat?" God, no, she couldn't bear the thought of food (not even Gil's). "Nap?...couch?"

Gil smiled as she nodded. He tilted his brows up at her, "want me to carry you?"

Thena's eyes watered, and it seemed as good as a 'yes' in Gil's eyes, because he didn't hesitate to scoop her up bridal style and carry her to his living room. She pressed her tears into his shirt. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he said as sure as anything. He sat himself down, letting her curl up against him on his lap. He held her gently, but firmly.

"I didn't want..." Thena trailed off. There were a lot of things she didn't want, and having a panic attack in the middle of their date was definitely pretty high on that list.

"It's okay, Thena," Gil whispered, running his hand over her hair and holding her around the waist. "All that matters to me is that you're feeling better."

Thena sighed, burying her face against his shoulder again. He was perfect--too perfect. "Too good for me."

"No," he was quick to deny. He twisted her hair over her shoulder so he could bury his nose against the side of her neck. "You deserve to be taken care of, Thena."

She wished she felt that way.

"You are so important to me," Gil whispered against her cheek, leaving light kisses there. "I asked you out for the same reason I started saving lunch for you."

Thena pulled away now just to look at him curiously.

He smiled that same smile that had first stolen her heart back in the psych ward. It was warm, and gentle, and even when she'd been medicated to heaven and back, she'd been able to feel her heart beating faster at the sight of it. It was all the medicine she needed.

"I did it to see that smile," he said gently, running his thumb along her jaw line, as if to pull her lips into a smile like smoothing a crease out of a fitted sheet. Her smile did appear, and his doubled in size. "There it is!"

Thena let out a small, shaky, watery sounding laugh. But Gil pulled her closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead to express how pleased he was by it, no matter how fragile it was. She sighed, letting his warmth and the smell of his aftershave swim around in her head.

Gil let her take her time, happy to hold her--to have her safe in his arms. He nuzzled her gently, tapped his fingers against her leg, rubbed her back and petted her hair.

Thena pressed her forehead under his chin. "Druig asked me to go with him to tell our father and step-mother that he wanted--wants to propose."

Gil waited for her to go on at her own pace.

Thena resettled herself in his arms. He was so comfy. "I told him he shouldn't try to involve them, but I imagine he still has some slight desire to feel like a family."

"I agreed to go with him, but our father didn't take the news particularly well. He's always been hard on Druig, and this time his temper was just...I had never seen them like that."

Gil ran his fingers through her hair as her breath hitched.

"They were so angry, and they started shouting," she continued, voice pulled thinner until it was a whisper. "Ajak told them to stop, but it just made it worse. Druig isn't big enough to fight him."

Her sentences were becoming fractured again--something she hadn't been able to completely break herself of after being in the psych ward those three months.

"I was scared," she whimpered, and Gil responded by holding her tighter. "I thought they were going to kill each other."

"You got in between them?"

She nodded, and Gil's hand gripped her shoulder. It was just short of too tight, but she could imagine it wasn't pleasant to imagine for him. "I pulled our father off of Druig, clawing at him. He turned around and..."

Gil sucked in a breath through his nose and held it, but he said nothing. She had more to say, and he wasn't about to interrupt her.

"Ajak ended up calling the police," Thena regained some strength in her voice, deep, deep in the memory of the fateful night. "It was agreed that no charges would be pressed if Druig took some time off work, Father performed some community service, and I-"

"Got checked into the hospital?" Gil asked, sounding more baffled than when he'd guessed she had gotten involved in their fight. "Why were you the only one with that punishment?"

Thena shrugged. "I'm sure they were more likely to believe in my hysteria than their anger."

Gil scoffed.

"I suppose in fairness to them," Thena shrugged, "they did arrive to me telling our father I would kill him."

"Well," Gil shrugged as well to match her lighter tone, "it sounds like he deserved it."

Thena let out another - stronger - laugh. How as he so perfect.? She emerged from the memory to look at him properly. He brushed some hair back from her face and let the hand drift over her cheek. She leaned into his touch achingly. "I'm afraid it's not very pleasant. But that's how I ended up meeting you."

"Well, I hate to say anything good came of that," Gil mumbled, as if sharing a secret with her. "But...I'm still glad you ended up in my lunch line."

She laughed again, smiling through the last of her unshed tears.

"I guess that's pretty selfish of me," he whispered, still looking at her with those eyes and that smile--the only things that would bring her comfort when she was in that hellhole.

"It's okay," she whispered back, "you can be selfish."

Gil closed his eyes as she leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"That wasn't the first time they'd ended up like that, just the worst of them," Thena continued, somewhat easier now. "I've always been spooked by shouting and loud noises ever since my father's first truly bad display of temper."

Gil just nodded, pulling her head against his again. There had been a scuffle in the crowd outside the cinema--that was what had triggered her. "I'm sorry."

Thena shook her head, pursing her lips. "Every time, I think I can move past it-"

"You don't have to," he gripped her shoulder. "I know you might not like it, but it's a part of you. And we don't have to like it all the time to accept it--that it comes with you as a package deal."

Thena wilted against him. "Are you sure you're not a therapist from the psych ward disguised as a cook?"

Gil laughed, his chest vibrating against her shoulder in a very comforting way. "Guess I've heard enough group sessions in the cafeteria to have picked up some things."

Thena stretched out in his embrace like a cat in front of a fire. She was positively worn out from all the events of the day. "You're perfect."

"No one's perfect," he corrected softly, "but I guess...I really want you to feel like you can be yourself around me."

Gil changed his position as well, lying on his side with her still curled up against him. He budged the throw pillow more under her head than his. "I know we didn't meet in a...traditional way."

What an understatement.

"But," he threaded their fingers together, his breath hitting her face as he whispered, "I want this to work, Thena. I want to be here to make you smile every single day--just once, if you don't want to too much."

Thena laughed, her forehead bumping against his in their proximity.

Gil inhaled, looking like her laughter was something that could be injected into his veins for energy. "Maybe a laugh once a day--it is the best medicine."

Thena, lying on her side, staring at this wonderful, perfect man, shook her head. He blinked at her denial, but she smiled so wide her cheeks hurt, "you."

Gil's eyes slid closed as she leaned forward, touching her lips to his ever so gently. He returned the kiss, soft and sweet as it was--nothing demanding or intense. Just a little exchange of affection. His eyes fluttered open and he had this dopey smile on his face.

Thena let her eyes drift down between them to their connected hands. She flexed them a little, to test if it was really real. But his fingers slid down to clasp around her hand more firmly.

Gil pressed a kiss to her forehead, "tired now?"

Thena nodded, shimmying to properly nestle herself into him.

Gil wrapped an arm around her, letting his hand spread over her back as if that alone could protect her from today and every one to come. "I'll be right here."

Thena smiled against his shirt, drinking in the scent of his detergent and the warmth of his arm around her. "Perfect."

[kifu]

Heya thank you so much for the art advice earlier! I was wondering if you had any specific suggestions for programs and/or brushes (you know specifically for someone whose only fine art experience has been in pencil and charcoal 😭) .

I’m currently using iArtbook because it’s free. I know Procreate is probably the most popular program but I’m literally -$300+ in my bank account right now, so that isn’t a current option 😅.

However I do believe you can upload brushes to the iArtBook app, honestly I’m not sure, I haven’t tried but you can edit the brushes in a very similar fashion to Adobe Photoshop. So I’m assuming you can also download and upload brushes. I actually really like this program because it has a similar feel to Adobe programs and as a Photographer I’m very experienced with Adobe (I have an Adobe Cloud Account).

In all honesty I’ve never been a good illustrator (since my main focus in my fine arts education was always photography) , but I find the activity meditative and I’m ALWAYS looking to improve.

(Also I was gonna DM you but cant so sorry for the long question 😅)

Yo, it's all good. No apology necessary.

I can only suggest what I know. I've never used Procreate, and I've never even heard of iArtbook. I'm also one of those that absolutely will torrent my art program of choice. And have.

A long, long time ago (like probably thirteen years), I got a copy of Corel (Coral? Idek anymore) free with the purchase of my Wacom bamboo tablet. I didn't know what I was doing yet and I hated it. My laptop hated it. It was very heavy and lagged big time.

I switch to Gimp, which is legally free and open source. I used Gimp for years with zero problems. You can import a lot of Photoshop brushes into Gimp without issue. Compared to Photoshop and Paint Studio, it's incredibly underpowered. Looking back at the art I made, however, I was not poorly off.

From Gimp, wanting more, I then switched to Photoshop CS5. It was incredibly easy to find and install. Personally, I say screw Adobe, since their current model is subscription based. I hate that. I used PS for yearsssssss, up until last year, I believe. It wasn't too heavy for my laptop to handle unless I used too big of a brush. It allowed me to expand my knowledge of digital art programs. It has way more to offer than I'll ever use. But as i mentioned before, the natural art brushes are ... okay, and the blending tool is awful. I learned to NOT ever use the blending tool because of PS.

Throughout time in my PS years, I switched from a Wacom Bamboo tablet to a Huion pen tablet (three different ones) to a Huion Kamvas 16 Pro tablet. With my family's help, I put money towards improving my art by way of hardware, and each tablet became significantly better. A good tablet will help TREMENDOUSLY, but by no means does anyone *need* to splurge on a screen tablet like the Kamvas series. I recommend Huion. It's hard to go wrong with them. In case that ever tickles your fancy.

Like, I'm pulling examples of art I've done with these programs and tablets, specifically unshaded pieces, to show that the software and hardware doesn't necessarily make the piece.

Now, I'm using Clip Studio Paint because it comes with so many native traditional brushes. Again, the company switched or threatened to switch to a subscription pay, so I have no qualms in resorting to circumventing their purchase page.

I will say, I think I love Clip Studio more than I ever did Photoshop. The brushes are just ... perfect.

Like this. This isn't pencil and paper! It's the pencil brush that comes with Clip Studio. It draws JUST like a pencil and I feel like I'm in my natural element when I get to use it.

If you do decide to use PS, or a program that is PS brush compatible, I'll have to find that set of brushes that works similarly to these.

These pictures both used one of the pencil brushes from that set in PS. The horse was painted with a watercolor wash brush; the human with a chalk brush. It's nowhere near as versatile as what can be used in Clip, though.

But I'm sure you could find many brushes through dA and gumroad to use until you find the one that works for you, too!

[shezzaspeare]

Pilot/Episode 1: Patching Things Up With Pastiche & Fanfiction

Hi, hello, and the wait is finally over! My name is Blessie, and welcome to the first episode webisode log installation I've decided to call these things an episode for now because why not also let me know what do you actually call these things episode of The Science of Fanfiction, where we take a closer look into our beloved works of fanon because we've all got plenty of time to spare till Season 5. Before I continue, I would like to thank everyone who's liked and reblogged the last few posts before this one. It means a lot for a small and growing Tumblr user like me, and your support is something I cherish more than my modules. You guys rock!

Anyways, like with most things, we have to talk about the boring and bland stuff before we proceed with the fun stuff. For today, we are going to settle the difference between a couple of things: first being the confusion between pastiche and fanfiction; then the distinctions between tropes, clichés, and stereotypes, which we'll tackle the next time. It's important for us to establish their true meanings in order for us to really understand what fanfiction truly is, even if it's merely just a work done for the fandom. I know – it's boring, it's something that shouldn't be expounded that much, but I believe that all forms of writing (unless it's plagiarised) is a work of art — and fanfiction is not something we always talk about. I hope that by the end of this, you'll learn about what they really are as much as I did. Let's begin to talk about the—

[Image ID: A flashback of John (left) and Sherlock (right) finding an elephant (not in the screen) in a room in The Sign of Three. End ID]

. . . I did say that this GIF will always have to make an appearance here, didn't I?

So, just as with Sherlock Holmes, all other works of fiction have their own pastiches and fanfiction, and many more original works out there have taken inspiration from them to create their own books. Although they've gained popular attention, this will not be possible if they did not have taken inspiration from the materials their writers had at the time.

[Image ID: Various actors as Dracula. Jeremy Brett in 'Dracula' (1978) (upper left), Adam Sandler in a voice role for 'Hotel Transylvania' (2012) (upper right), Gary Oldman in 'Dracula' (1992) (lower left), and Bela Lugosi in 'Dracula' (1933) (lower right). End ID]

For instance, Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' (the second most adapted literary character, next to the consulting detective himself) has been portrayed on the screen over 200 times — from Gary Oldman to Adam Sandler — and has spawned off numerous books and pastiches of its own such as Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot'. Its cultural impact served as a basis of how we see vampires today, since some characteristics of the Count were made by Stoker himself. Stoker's creation is the brainchild of his predecessors and inspirations.

[Image ID: Vlad the Impaler (left) and a book cover of 'Carmilla' by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (right). End ID]

Other than the ongoing hysteria over dead back then and the existing vampire folklore, Stoker also took his inspirations from the published books on vampires he had at hand. He is said to have taken inspiration from Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian national hero known allegedly for having impalement as his favourite method of torture. He is also said to have been inspired by the J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla', a Gothic lesbian vampire novella that predates Dracula by 26 years. I could go on, but hey, we're going back to Sherlock Holmes now before I deviate any further. However, if you want to know about Dracula's literary origins, I suggest you watch Ted-ED's videos about the subject matter such as this one or this one.

Very much like Stoker, ACD didn't just conceive Holmes on his own. He took his own inspirations from what he had available at the time.

[Image ID: Dr Joseph Bell (left) and Edgar Allan Poe (right). End ID]

As we all know, ACD's biggest inspiration for Sherlock Holmes was one of his teachers at the Edinburgh University, Joseph Bell. He was famous for his powers of deduction, and he was also interested in forensic science — both characteristics which Holmes is greatly known for. He also drew inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe's sleuth, C. Auguste Dupin ('The Purloined Letter' & 'Murders in Rue Morgue'). As ACD himself has said at the 1909 Poe Centennial Dinner: "Where was the detective story until Poe breathed life into it?" Some other writers he took after are Wilkie Collins, Émile Gaboriau, and Oscar Wilde.

Now, what does this say about us Sherlockians/Holmesians (depending if you're the coloniser or the one that was colonised)? Basically, ACD laid the groundwork for us with Sherlock Holmes: his humble abode 221B that he shares with his flatmate Dr. John Watson, his adventures, memoirs, return, casebook, last vow, and all that. Now that we have this material at hand, we can now make our own versions, takes, or even original stories featuring the characters of the Canon. Our inspiration comes from ACD's Sherlock Holmes, and we now get the chance to make our very own stories/conspiracy theories about them.

As I have mentioned earlier, Sherlock Holmes is the most adapted literary character in history. He has been adapted in over 200 films, more than 750 radio adaptations, a ballet, 2 musicals; and he's become a mouse, a woman, a dog, even a bloody cucumber. On top of all that are numerous pastiches and fanfics, and finally, we have arrived at the main topic of our post!

Fanfiction and pastiche are often confused together since they have three common elements: they take after the original work, they usually use the characters in that original work, and more often than not do are they set in that same time frame/period or not long after that. The common misconception is that pastiche are printed fanfiction, which is only partly true. While pastiche is definitely fanfiction in some ways and vice versa, there are fanfictions out there that aren't necessarily classified as pastiche that have been published.

Let's get on with our definition of terms to clear up the confusion a little more. Pastiche, according to Literary Terms, is:

. . . a creative work that imitates another author or genre. It’s a way of paying respect, or honor, to great works of the past. Pastiche differs from parody in that pastiche isn’t making fun of the works it imitates – however, the tone of pastiche is often humorous.

A good example of a pastiche is Sophie Hannah's 'The Monogram Murders', which is her take from Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.

[Image ID: A book cover of 'The Monogram Murders' by Sophie Hannah. End ID.]

Although this was a commission from Christie's estate, it's still considered as a pastiche as:

It's takes after Christie's writing style;

It is set in the early years of Poirot's career (1929), which is still within the time frame that the author wrote him in;

It features Poirot and;

It pays respect to Christie in a sense that it stays true to her (Christie) characters and way of storytelling.

Meanwhile, our good and slightly unreliable friend Wikipedia defines fanfiction as:

. . . is fictional writing written by fans, commonly of an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual property from the original creator(s) as a basis for their writing. [It] ranges from a couple of sentences to an entire novel, and fans can both keep the creator's characters and settings and/or add their own. [ . . . ] [It] can be based on any fictional (and sometimes non-fictional) subject. Common bases for fanfiction include novels, movies, bands, and video games.

To avoid any copyright infringement issues if I ever use a popular fanfic in the fandom, we'll use my (unfinished and unpopular) Sherlock Wattpad fic, 'Play Pretend'. You can read it here.

[Image ID: The second self-made book cover of Blessie/shezzaspeare's 'Play Pretend'. End ID]

Why is it considered a fanfiction and not a pastiche?

It takes after an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Sherlock) which is a TV show, not the ACD canon itself;

The author (in this case myself) uses her own writing style and does not take after the original story's style;

Although it is set well in modern-day London and after Season 4, it also features scenes decades before the actual fanfic is set and outside of London;

I added a considerable number of characters, i.e. siblings to canon characters;

I had my own take some of the canon characters' personality especially after the events of Sherrinford;

It is written by a fan – myself. It is a work of fan labour and;

It is only a work of fanon, and isn't likely going to be considered by the show as its writing style is different from the actual show.

To put it simply, you can have more freedom in a fanfiction as it does not necessarily restrict you to follow or take after the original stories. Alternate universes (AUs) such as Unilock and Teenlock are perfect examples of this thing.

So can a pastiche be classified as fanfiction? Yes.

Can a fanfiction be classified as pastiche? Not all the time.

What's the difference? While yes, they share the basics, pastiche is technically leans more onto the original work's fundamental elements whereas fanfiction is a broader range of works inspired by the original work but doesn't necessarily follow all or any of its fundamental elements.

In order for us to understand it more, I'll give another example.

[Image ID: The 'Enola Holmes' title card (upper left) and Henry Cavill as its Sherlock holmes (upper right). Underneath it is a a scene from the opening titles of BBC Sherlock (lower left) and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal In Belgravia. (lower right) End ID]

Most of you are familiar with these 21st-century adaptations of Holmes: the 2020 adaptation of Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books and BBC Sherlock, which needs no further explanation – but for those who don't know, it's basically Holmes and the gang if they were alive today. I specifically chose these two as they are the ones that I believe would get my points across best. Though both are considered as wonderful pastiches with a well-rounded cast and awesome visuals, if we break them down bit by bit, we'll see which one is more of a pastiche and which one is more of a fanfic. (Yes, I know they're both screen adaptations. However, as Enola Holmes was based on the books and BBC Sherlock's fanfiction has the show's scenes written out in most fanfics, hear me out.)

They share these characteristics of a pastiche:

They feature characters from the Canon (Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, and Lestrade);

They have additional characters added by the writers (Including but not limited to Molly Hooper, Eurus Holmes, and Philip Anderson for BBC Sherlock while Enola Holmes has Lord Tewkesbury, Eudoria Holmes, and Enola herself) and;

They pay respect to the original Canon as their stories are based on the cases (BBC Sherlock) or simply what was going on around them (Enola Holmes).

They also share these characteristics of a fanfic:

They are made by enthusiasts of Sherlock Holmes (Moffat has called himself and Mark Gatiss 'Sherlock Holmes geeks', while Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books are not just one or two but six);

They follow a common trope (we'll discuss these tropes in the following episodes) that goes on in the fandom (Sherlock's Sister & Modern AU)

They are based on a fictional subject (Sherlock Holmes);

They used characters and story elements that are copyrighted by the author/author's estate (fun fact: prior to the production of Enola Holmes, the Conan Doyle Estate filed a lawsuit against Springer & Netflix over Sherlock's emotions since he was more 'sympathetic' than he was portrayed in the Canon – this was later dismissed by both parties) and;

Their writing styles don't necessarily follow ACD's.

Despite these similarities, there are very obvious differences between the two that separates them from being a pastiche and a fanfiction.

Enola Holmes embodies pastiche more as it doesn't stray far away from the original elements of the Canon. It's still set in Victorian England. While Springer added characters of her own and definitely twisted the Canon to suit her series, she didn't necessarily place them out of the social construct that was going on around the characters. It follows ACD's writing style more as Enola Holmes' setting still remains within the Canon's original setting.

Meanwhile, we can safely say that BBC Sherlock is a work of fanfiction. While it did give us The Abominable Bride, the main series focused on Holmes and Watson in 21st-century England, which is drastically different from Victorian England. There are phones, black cabs, and cellphones — things which ACD Sherlock Holmes doesn't have. It also diverted from the Canon in the characters themselves, which is mostly seen in the names: Henry Baskerville became Henry Knight, Charles Augustus Milverton became Charles Augustus Magnussen, the H in Dr Watson's name stood for Hamish and Sherlock's full name is actually William Sherlock Scott Holmes. They also changed the personalities of some Canon characters: Mary was actually an ex-assassin, Mrs Hudson was an exotic dancer who drove a kick-ass sports car, Irene Adler is a dominatrix, to name a few. Moffat and Gatiss created a world of their own featuring the characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is really what most of us fanfic writers do with Mofftiss' rendition of Holmes.

In conclusion: while pastiche and fanfiction could have been the same thing, they're actually not. There's more to them that just printed fanfiction or pastiche e-books, and we all should take some time to see and observe them in a closer perspective.

And that's it for our first episode! I hope you enjoyed it. It was a lot fun for me to write this, especially now that I'm only starting. I would also like to note that while intensive research has been done on this series, some parts of this comes from my own observation and opinion, which may vary from yours. I am very much open to criticism, as long as it is said in a polite and civil manner. I'm still young, and to be educated as I go is something that could really help me with this series.

Like and reblog this you like it. It helps out a lot. Be sure to follow me as well and the tags underneath if you want to see more of TSoF.

See you soon!

Blessie presents – The Science of Fanfiction: A Study In Sherlock (2021) • Next

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SOURCES • Pinterest, Google Images, Wikipedia, Literary Terms, Conan Doyle Estate, Definitions, The Sherlock Holmes Book, and Google

[appendingfic]

Disney doesn't know meta. Meta doesn't mean just stringing a bunch of characters on screen for half a second each. Meta isn't just lampshade hanging (commenting in-character on the existence of a cliche or trope as it's being used).

So lemme take a shot on what a properly meta Chip and Dale would've been:

Chip meets Ellie out in the world - she is a huge fan, and she takes an offhand comment from him out of context that causes her Facebook fanpage to blow up with the possibility of a Rescue Rangers reboot. Disney sits up and take notice and call Dale's agent to tell him to get the original cast onboard for a reboot. The first act is just Dale getting the gang together - probably asking Chip first, and then getting told Chip won't go for it unless everyone else is in first.

The next act is about the work of making this reboot, and the continuing interference of a "brand consultant" who is "here to make sure this reboot within community standards".

Filming includes many unpleasant discoveries about how things have changed. Instead of getting a full script, they get the day's scenes delivered by the creepiest spy-looking character imaginable. Backgrounds and even major props will be "CGI in post" (Gadget is incredibly disappointed because she really enjoyed building the gadgets in the original show - even got a producer's credit for it. Chip complains about the laziness of replacing real set-building with "cheap CGI tricks" which upsets Dale).

Chip: And what's with this line? Disney liaison: Oh, we've decided to hint Fat Cat is gay and is attracted to Chip - Disney's first LGBT character! Chip: Oh, is it June already?

The whole thing is a soulless mashup of pointless references and gratuitous crossovers, and worse there's a leak in the studio that is awakening a lot of negative chatter online. Ellie, who got the part of the unnecessary human tagalong character, is the prime suspect.

Of particular concern is the Last Page of the script, which the studio liaison indicates would be a disaster if it leaked.

Dale has been trying to get everyone to relax and lean into the movie - "Dude, it's just a movie. Stop acting like it needs to be Shakespeare", but Chip is suspicious, and eventually gets in to read the last page.

Chip: ...Dale dies? What sort of an ending is that? Disney Liaison: The sort of ending no one would expect. At least as long as no one spoils it. Chip: This is a terrible ending! Disney Liaison: For Dale, sure. But...not necessarily for you. This can set you up for your own franchise. Double-O Dale failed because it had no connection to his most popular character. Here - you can be the star of a new, edgy franchise. Chip and His Rescue Rangers. Chip: I don't- Disney Liaison: And it's so much cleaner this way. With your different art styles, you don't...match. Chip: Yeah, the CGI is a little awkward to work with. Disney Liaison: Better to cut loose the dead weight and have a fresh start...right?

Dale of course overhears most of this and decides to leak the ending to tank the movie - going to a huge gathering of Chip and Dale fans at Comicon.

Chip tries to stop him, and instead of his big announcement, Chip and Dale have an awkward gratuitous rap battle about the show and actually work through some of their own frustrations with each other.

Afterward, though-

Chip: That felt gratuitous Bystander: You've got a ton of views of the video of you two already - that's all that matters. Chip: ...All that matters is...the views. Chip: Holy - Dale we gotta go!

They finally corner the liaison

Chip: You're the leaker, aren't you? You're making everyone hate the movie before it comes out! For - clickbait! Disney Liaison: What does it matter? Chip: You're ruining the movie on purpose! Why - why would you do that? Disney Liaison: Look, three weeks after your movie comes out, we've got the next installment of the MCU, and buzz has been - lackluster. So I figured if we released a terrible movie beforehand, people would want to see it more in comparison. Dale: You're wasting millions of dollars to make a movie you intend to fail? Disney Liaison: Who said it would fail? Dale: ...What? Disney Liaison: People are TALKING about it, boys. And if there's enough chatter, people are going to WANT to see how bad it is. Chip: Come on - once people see the reviews that it's unwatchable- Disney Liaison: The director sends a tweet accusing the Hollywood elite attacking the movie for not pandering to their "woke" politics. Disney Liaison: See, movie making isn't about "telling a story" or whatever you've been complaining about. It's about controlling the media narrative to encourage people to SEE the movie...whatever it takes. Chip: I know one thing that'll make it so NO ONE wants to see this movie. Disney Liaison: What? Dale: *holds up his phone showing the leaked last page on his twitter* Dale: Spoilers.

In the end, because all they've done is film in front of a bunch of green screens and haven't contracted the CGI yet almost no money has been spent and they're able to wrangle a new script (I wanted to describe a plot point where Ellie is a writer and there's been hints also that she'd been working on a script for years - possibly even post the last couple of pages of the script on her fanpage to hype the new script).