#columbo is such a funny bastard i love him so much

[columboscreens]

[fismoll7secinv]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime, books, movies or tv series)? And why you like them?Thanks....

I don't mind at all! Only 10 is So Hard, I tried but gave up don’t count them

The order is not most fav to least fav, it’s absolutely random. Might’ve forgotten some but alas

columbo <3 - the sheer respect I have for this man, damn. One of the smartest characters ever, but not haughty and full of it like some other detectives in fiction. He’s kind, pleasant, and very easily underestimated, which plays to his advantage in investigations. Such a keen eye for details and reading people. Idk I could just go on ang on, I love him

amelie (movie amelie) - i’m just fond of this movie and its music, comptine d’un autre ete has been my favourite comfort piece to play on the piano for years. As for amelie herself I enjoyed her quirkiness and openness, how true she is to herself and to everyone around, how she enjoys life in such simple ways and shapes the reality around herself into something comforting

a-qing (mdzs) - very dangerous despite her frail appearance. Smart af, cunning and quick to adapt, turns her weaknesses into weapons, and her tenacity is incredible, especially when she’s facing something she can’t win with but can still hinder it significantly. She could’ve achieved so much...

kamina 😭 (gurren lagann), richard & kahlan (the sword of truth), eleanor (the good place), allen (d.gray-man), vi (arcane) - heart of gold, ready to sacrifice themselves for others, wit off the charts, cool AF, lowkey crushed on them lmao

wei wuxian (mdzs), xie lian (tgcf), alba (senyuu.) - same as the above except the crushing part, sweethearts 🥺 but also unhinged in some ways 🙃 (except alba, he’s just a sweetheart)

kusuriuri (mononoke), ross & teufel diabolos (senyuu.), sandra (pyre) - love their calm, resting bitch energy, sharp tongue and biting remarks, done with your bullshit™, “I’m an unmovable stone but piss me off and I’ll annihilate you”, cool AF, lowkey crushed as well

wen kexing (tyk), gojo (jujutsu kaisen), tyki (d.gray-man), hua cheng (tgcf), kuvira (tlok) - questionable bastards with a lot of sass, strength, and intelligence, easy-going and kinda mischievous, idk just cool and fun, might’ve crushed hhh

uncle iroh (atla), zedd (the sword of truth) - wise old men who held power and did questionable things in the past but since then grew wiser and gave up their position in order to focus solely on teaching the younger generation to be better

guillermo (wwdits) - just... everything?? The way he grew across the seasons, how cunning and strong and confident he became, the relatable christian guilt, the queerness, the need to protect his found family, on top of that he’s an absolute madman and possibly a sociopath, the LAYERS of this character. I love him

nie huaisang (mdzs) - to avoid spoilers let’s just say he shares some traits of other characters I listed. Those who read the novel/watched the drama know ;) fatal journey spin-off my beloved

zhou zishu (tyk), liu qingge (svsss) - the relatable inability to express feelings and the initial distrust but vulnerability once bonded, stubbornness, strong badasses, eyeroll™, for zzs also the bastard and gremlin inside of him

rorschach (watchmen) - I respect his tenacity and sticking to his ideals, I’m also weak for detective characters so yeah

baek (dr. frost) - tbh i haven’t read the comic in years and there wasn’t a lot of chapters back then so not much was known about him, but a lot of tropes I liked, the smarts, the calm but mysterious energy, kinda a detective vibe but in a psychological way (he’s a psychologist). I gotta go back to that webtoon

sokka (atla), barry allen (the flash), levi (d.gray-man), jim (the office), haida (aggretsuko) - funny, smart, good people

toph (atla), gina (brooklyn 9-9), gu xiang (tyk), nathan (misfits), shang qinghua (svsss) - the ultimate gremlin energy, their Sass and confidence is unparalleled, hella fun

yin yu (tgcf) - idk i just love him so much, he’s too ambitious for his own good but incredibly hard-working and loyal, relatable in some aspects

ooooof if i’m allowed to go on i could, so i’m gonna end now and possibly have regrets later lol

[billiewena]

for the 100k fic celebration, here a portion of the “what if 10x05 had a sastiel agenda?” AKA lil shit sam/jealous dean destiel fic I first shared a while back! been having a lot of fun basically rewriting and expanding on the entire musical episode with new songs (and lots of cute kristen & siobhan moments because OF COURSE they’re still a couple.) it was really encouraging to see the positive response to it back then and it's been taking forever because of work/other writing but I’m so excited to have this one be the first full-length fics I ever post.

It starts with costumed teenagers locked in a tight embrace with absolutely no room for Jesus.

“What are they doing?”

Marie glances over her shoulder for only a brief second.

“Kids these days call it hugging,” she says slowly. Geez, it would’ve been less insulting for her to just outright say Wow, you’re old.

Except it’s not just any of the show’s stars hugging over there. One of them is the “Dean” who’d been mid-rehearsal when they arrived and looked more like Bieber than him with the blonde wig. And the other? Well, he would recognize that Columbo coat anywhere.

“Is that in the show?” he asks, pointing their way.

Marie quickly shakes her head at the accusation. “Oh, no. Siobhan and Kristen are a couple in a real life.”

He nods and lower his hand. Got it. That’s all it was. Everything’s fine. Nothing to worry about—

“No, my play explores the nature of Sastiel.”

“The — wait, what?” he says, confused at once.

“Sastiel?” Marie pauses, giving him a second to figure it out. He doesn’t. “You know, the relationship between Sam and Castiel?”

Dean blinks.

“Sam and…C-Cas?”

“I know, I know. Edlund’s series never finished. I’m lucky I got these drafts. Ugh, it’s Midnight Sun all over again. But the love story is all in the subtext,” she says with confidence. “Can you believe there are people who still think Destiel is endgame? After everything that happened after the angels fell? After Gadreel? Please.”

He silently sounds out the word. Des-tiel? Wait…

“Ever since Cas came back from the dead and took on Sam’s pain, I knew. I just knew. Every one of their arcs had been parallel to each other’s from their fall from grace to the trials. And now with Dean gone, all they have…is each other.”

Marie sighs. “Besides, you can’t spell subtext without S-E-X.”

He coughs and nearly chokes on an asteroid-sized lump in his throat.

“I…uh. Yeah, th-that’s not…you know, I think I’ve seen enough,” Dean says with a forced smile. “Thank you for your, ah, time. I’ll, uh, we’ll follow up if we have questions about the missing persons case. I—alright.”

And with that he purses his lips, turns on his heel and walks away — nearly tripping over one of the stage chords as he does. Why are there are so many of them anyways? This is just some all-girls school production, not the goddamn West End.

He finds Sam in his natural nerd habitat (the tech booth) sifting through all the bins of A/V supplies.

“Yeah, not to interrupt the blast from the past here but it’s time for us to go,” he says, patting the door.

His brother shoots him an annoyed look but packs up and follows him out all the same. Not that Dean bothers to wait for him; no, he makes a beeline for the car as soon as he leaves the booth.

“Hey, what’s with the rush?” Sam calls after him as he runs to catch up with him at the school entrance.

“No rush,” he says shortly. “Just wanted to see what you found out before you got too lost in the nerd sauce over there.”

He doesn’t need to look back to know he’s on the receiving end of a Classic Sam Bitchface right now and continues to stomp his way through the parking lot.

“Well, no EMF, no hex bags. None of their props are remotely hinky. Talked to Maeve and all those extras in the auditorium.” Sam finally catches up and walks side-by-side with him now. “You have any more luck?”

“Nah. Ms. Chandler's office is just a pile of empty bottles and regret. She's probably just face down in a bar somewhere. Or a ditch. I did get to hear all about the director’s, ah, creative vision though,” Dean says, teeth gritted. “Apparently we go into space, I become a woman, and there’s even ninjas and robots!”

“Robots. Huh. Well, that’d definitely be a new one.”

“There’s no robots in Supernatural—”

“I-I know that,” Sam says in exasperation. “I just mean it’s, y’know, innovative. And Dean we’ve fought weirder. Remember the teddy bear? The fairies? The ballet shoes?”

“Well, you just wait until you hear about what she in store for you, Lover Boy,” he says.

And that makes Sam do an instant double-take.

“Uh, Lover Boy?”

“Yeah, your number one fan back there —” he says, gesturing back towards the school, “— was telling me all about the play’s, uh, love story between you and Cas. You got something you’ve been meaning to tell me or what?”

“The love story? Wait, what do you mean me and Cas?”

Dean scoffs, already in utter disbelief of the words he was about to say. “Like you and Cas, together. Together together? Romance of the ages the way she made it sound. Apparently it’s all in her play!”

To his surprise though, Sam just… laughs. “Well, I mean hey, that’s an improvement from the ones who wrote about me and you.”

“You got that right,” he agrees with a shudder. Meeting one Becky the Stalker was bad enough. Knowing she wasn’t alone and that she had an audience made it even worse. “She even had a portmanteau for you, dude. Like you’re some celebrities in a grocery store tabloid. Sass-tiel.”

“Sass-tiel?” He seems to seriously consider it but shrugs. “I don’t know. What about… Samstiel? CasSam? Cam? Mmm, maybe not that…”

Dean groans. “Really? That’s your issue with this?”

“Of course it’s not my issue,” Sam says. He stays pensive for a few more seconds until chuckling again to himself this time, as if he’s the only one in on a private joke. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Cas is great but…”

“Not your type?”

“Yeah, sure,” Sam says. No, it’s definitely more than that and he’s doing a piss-poor job of hiding his amused expression.

Dean turns and stares him down. “What?”

“I dunno,” he says, his smirk fully visible now. “I just think it’s funny they’re pairing me up with Cas when the one with the ‘profound bond’ with him is right there.”

“Oh, haha. You’re hilarious,” Dean retorts at once.

“Hey man, I’m not the one who stayed in Purgatory for a year to find him.”

His glare takes on a murderous edge.

“Okay. You know what? You’re going to do that thing where you just shut the hell up! Forever!”

Sam holds up his hands in either what’s either a show of innocence or surrender.

“Alright, alright. Well, other than the Charlie Kaufman of it all I got nothing.”

“So…what?” Dean says. “This-this all... This whole musical thing, everything, it's... it's all a coincidence? There is no case?”

“Unless you're seeing something I'm not, no, Dean. There's no case here,” he says sincerely this time.

“Come on. This has classic Trickster vibes all over it.” He almost wants to turn around and start yelling, Come on out Gabriel you bastard!

“Trickster’s dead, man. And he wasn’t just a trickster, he was an archangel. And they’re all gone too.”

“Could be a lower-rank angel?” Dean tries. “I mean, Zachariah pulled off an entire apocalypse world. And that place where we were both corporate drones. Before you know it, this’ll get all Buffy and it’ll be me and you singin’ and dancin’—“

“Dean…I think it’s just fans. Look, as long as they’re not putting another love spell on one of us I couldn’t really care less what they’re doing,” Sam says with some bitterness, clearly not looking back at that particular memory with any fondness. “Just writing some songs? I mean, it’s innocent enough.”

“Oh yeah, so innocent,” he scoffs. “They’re singing about our dead parents, your demon blood bender, the apocalypse, all of it! This is just…it’s make-believe for them! But it’s our lives!”

Sam runs a tired hand through his hair. “Look, I don’t get it either man. I wasn’t exactly thinking about the books’ entertainment value while Chuck was describing my sex life in vivid detail—“

“Don’t remind me,” he says, holding up a hand in disgust.  

“—but I dunno. There’s obviously something about it they connected to, right? Something they related to, something that moved them, inspired them? And I guess…I mean, what’s wrong with that?”

There is so, so much wrong with that.

“I don’t know what story they’re reading and what Sam and Dean they’re ‘connecting’ to here. But it sure as hell ain’t us. I mean…they even made me blonde, dude.”

“It’s a high school play, what can you expect?” Sam laughs. “It was probably the closest wig they could find at Party City.”

Dean ignores him, muttering aloud as he makes his way to the driver’s seat.

“The hair…the singing…the robots… the love story…”

“You really were bothered by that, weren’t you?” Sam gives his brother a curious look.

“SUPERNATURAL ISN’T A ROMANCE!” Dean snaps. “Look, these girls obviously don’t know what they’re talking about—“

“I dunno, Dean,” Sam said in a clearly taunting voice now. “Maybe you’re just jealous of what me and Cas have.”

He flushes. “W-what? I-I’m not—“

“We could give you two a name too, y’know? So you don’t feel left out? What about…Dee-stiel? CasDean?”

And he refuses to entertain this conversation any longer.

“Shut your face! Get in the car!”

Thankfully Sam notices the shift in tone and obliges at once.

Dean, meanwhile, takes a moment outside the car to glance around — almost as if checking to see if anyone overheard that comment. Not that it mattered. Who could overhear? No one even knew they were THE Sam and THE Dean. Who cared? He certainly didn’t care. He didn’t care at all...

(to be continued)

[ducktracy]

35. the queen was in the parlor (1932)

release date: july 9th, 1932

series: merrie melodies

director: rudolf ising

starring: n/a

another cartoon with goopy geer! the last merrie melody, moonlight for two, DID star goopy geer, but i was hesitant to say so, unsure of whether it was just a lookalike, but the fact that he’s in this merrie melody leads me to believe that he was a bit of an entity for awhile. as the title suggests, the king returns to his castle to find his queen in the parlor, refusing to see anyone else.

as all good cartoons do, this one opens with a swaggering king atop his mule, greeted to thunderous applause as he steps off and marches down the aisle, eating up the attention.

quickly he grows tired of the “long live the king!” chants, snarling “but where’s the queen?” a group of knights whisper “the queen!” to each other down the line (imagine “hermie doesn’t want to make toys” from the rudolph special. it’s basically that), including a stereotypical jewish king at the end of the line. that certainly didn’t age well and makes me cringe as i watch it, but i digress.

a group of squires launch into a call and response rendition of “the queen was in the parlor”, the king providing various interjections throughout. love the barbershop harmonies as always! gags including a mouse popping out of a knight’s helmet to interject a verse, and a dog (an actual dog) clad in armor itches itself through the armor and lets out a bunch of fleas that have been hiding.

look at the personality in that walk! you know me, i’m all about my walk cycles and how they’re great indicators of personality when executed properly. great example of a prideful, no-nonsense and ultimately hard-to-take-seriously walk! the king marches into the castle to see what the fuss is about.

it turns out the queen WAS in the parlor! who would’ve guessed? she’s knitting away at a sock, while the poodle from the goopy geer cartoons (and freddy the freshman) is riveting away at a suit of armor. the king enters as his throne takes a life of its own and scuttles up to him, ready to be sat on in an act of servitude.

the king summons his jester, who is none other than goopy geer. again, another great walk cycle! unfortunately, it doesn’t say too much about his personality: it seems he adapts to whatever setting he’s in, whether he’s a lounge piano player, a redneck, or a jester. gotta give him credit on his versatility, though!

goopy provides a few bars about the king (old king cole), who “called for his crooners three!” the dog on his jester stick(?) says “crosby, columbo, and vallee!”,

which prompts the rudy vallee caricature from crosby, columbo, and vallee to pop out of a jack in the box and sing “for you”. i love my caricatures, so i find this particularly amusing, especially when old king cole hits rudy on the head and gripes “I’D RATHER HEAR AMOS N’ ANDY!”, a reference to the popular radio comedy show hosted by freeman gosden (amos) and charles corell (andy). unfortunately, as you can probably guess, the comedy show was a minstrel show—but it was adapted to television in 1951 where actual black actors took the stage. you learn something everyday! even though i was oblivious to what amos ‘n andy was until a google search later, the delivery is spot on and the joke hits just as well. i’m loving this bastard of a king—finally, personality!

after a brief impression of amos ‘n andy (again, this aged poorly), goopy skips down through the parlor, pressing his ear to a door. a dog, doing an impression of tony wons, asks “are ya listenin’?” he raises his fist and asks “HMMM?” to which goopy stammers “yeah, i’m walter winchell”, referring to newspaper columnist and radio commentator walter winchell, known for trading gossip around. a few alcohol bottles explode and goopy runs towards the camera, yelling “OKAY, CHICAGO!”, another reference to winchell. even though these icons aren’t at all relevant or known today, these jokes still fascinate me and i can only imagine how funny they were to a relevant audience!

we have our standard merrie melodies dancing interlude, with goopy dancing around and bouncing his feet off of a few spittoons. fun synchronization as always! there’s also a shot of a cat (the one from it’s got me again!) hunting a mouse, but getting scared off once the mouse emerges from its hole, clad in armor.

once more, the villain enters! he slams the door in the face of the fan-faring trumpeter, who blows out a few notes (sounding like a car horn) on his crinkled horn. the trademark “harman-ising flameball spit” comes into play once the villain spits on a suit of armor, reducing it to nothing but bones.

the poodle girl who was riveting a suit of armor is singing, and the villain advances on her, ready to kidnap. he runs off with her captive, but goopy swoops in to save the day.

spittoons, flaming spit, villains, damsels in distress, all of the essentials to a harman-ising produced cartoon all in one! sword fights can also be added to that list as goopy and the kidnapper engage in combat. goopy momentarily gets thrown into a cabinet, the crash forming a suit of armor made of pots and pans. goopy charges are the villain, who swings at him. now, a stuffed goat’s head falls on goopy.

in the manner of a goat, goopy rams into the villain, forcing his armor to break. the villain is exposed in his long underwear, and in some delightful, melty, rubber hose goodness, he mixes the shrapnel in a cocktail shaker (just like bosko in ups ‘n downs) and pours himself a brand new suit of armor, iris out as he runs for the hills.

as for as merrie melodies go, this one wasn’t half bad! the highlight of the short was definitely old king cole. i love him! i wish he had a bigger role in the short, he’s oozing with personality and all sorts of great possibilities. no offense to goopy, but he doesn’t do much for me. he’s pretty bland and lacking in personality, maybe even moreso than foxy and piggy. he comes off as more of a plot vehicle than a standalone character. i enjoyed the celebrity references—i learned some interesting new information today (though goopy talking in a minstrel dialect doesn’t age well at all, even for a quick joke, and the jewish knight joke is in extremely poor taste). there are better merrie melodies out there, but there are worse ones, too. i’d give it a watch, just because the king amuses me so much, but it wouldn’t be a crime if you skipped it this time.

link!