#harriet watches stuff

[enbysiriusblack]

just watched high school musical. sharpay and ryan are the only good characters. also they're so narcissa and kingsley to me.

[whenthegoldrays]

I don’t know what it is about the Jane Austen adaptations I’ve seen recently, but they just have so much trouble sticking the landing.

[bunnygirlism]

some oc icons I guess idk

[louderfade]

eleanor bron played ahme in the beatles movie help! and this is to what yo la tengo refers with all that business about the needle. i found two articles talking about how they're alluding to drug use, and they might be, but primarily they are clearly referencing this, do your hw music journalism:

eleanor bron has done some wonderful stage work apparently. she did oedipus and uncle vanya. and she was in heartbreak house!

[drchucktingle]

listen bud hbo has some great stuff but making a harry potter show when HARRIET PORBER is right there is just bad business

how could you not watch? thats event television

[hadesoftheladies]

FEMALE MOVIE/TV RECS (PART 2 / HISTORICAL FICTION/NON-FICTION)

got inspired from a recommendation post so decided to make a list of movies and shows with female-centric stories/female protagonists. since i can't post all of the genres in one post, i'll split it into multiple posts and y'all can save or add to the list as you wish. (disclaimer: i have watched most of these, but i only know about the existence of others. not every movie/show on these lists will be my recommendation. my recommendations will be beneath the list with reasons. also some of these are way better than others in terms of storytelling/performance--which is why i'll list my faves separately):

Common Themes of Media in the List:

-Workplace/general sexist discrimination

-Husband being pieces of shit and whiners

-Strong emphasis on sisterhood

-Romance plays a large part (both hetero and homo)

-Female genius and triumph

-Scheming mothers (always scheming)

-Grief, loss, and growth

-Motherhood is difficult but we pull through TM

HAVEN'T WATCHED:

Mozart's Sister

Lessons in Chemistry

The Conductor

Lizzie

Radioactive

Cable Girls

The Great

The Queen's Gambit

Britannia

Harriet

Mary Queen of Scots

ONES I LOVEDDDD:

A League of Their Own (9/10) (a favorite!)

Hidden Figures (8/10)

The Woman King (8/10) (a favorite!)

Anne With An E (9/10) (a favorite!)

Dickinson (8.5/10)

The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel (9/10) (a favorite!)

Gentleman Jack (8/10)

The Gilded Age (7.5/10)

HONORABLE (NON-LISTED MENTIONS)

The English (an english woman teams up with a native american cowboy to take revenge on the men who hurt them)

The World to Come (two women isolated by the wilderness and their husbands fall in love)

The Pursuit of Love

Colette

PERSONAL NOTES:

The Buccaneers is pretty feminist and wholesome, although oftentimes childish and full of Netflix cliches (even though it's an Apple TV original). It tries very hard to be Dickinson and Little Women but is a far cry away from Dickinson's edge and fierceness and Little Women's maturity and realism. It's more interested in appealing to Bridgerton audiences and its worse for it. But it's still full of the nice stuff, like strong female friendships and sisterhoods. Ooh, and lesbians! It's adamantly female-centric.

As for Little Women, I prefer the 90s version with Winona Ryder, but Greta did more justice to the source material than Louisa May Alcott herself in the new version.

The Book Thief and The World to Come are also tragedies, so you know. Ammonite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Summerland and The Favourite are lesbians and bisexuals in their full glory, although all of them have vastly different tones (The Favourite is a dark comedy, I believe).

Speaking of The Favourite, Mary & George is like that but it's men vying for the affections of the king. Don't get it twisted though, Mary, George's mom, is the protagonist and primary mover of the show. It starts and ends with her. Also, more lesbianism! (I don't get tired of pointing that out.)

Belle is one of the few autobiographical historical fictions of a black woman. My dad and I love it. It, however, does not surpass The Woman King. The Woman King is like . . . one of the best historical movies on African women I've ever watched! Or just in general! It gives so much agency to African people in the colonial age and tells the story with nuance and perspective--it is a decolonized view on the slave trade that places West African people at the center. It's pretty intense and gory, though. Like it's dark, but like the performances are insanely good, and so is the story. Real life Wakanda and all that!

[friendly-neighborhood-system]

yesterday I talked to our therapist about my evil, bad bad no good thoughts, and she blamed it on p0rnography.

Like, no, I had those thoughts way before I even knew how babies were made, p0rn didn't rot my mind (in this sense).

And she also told me that the content I consume online is influencing me to have these violent thoughts and urges. Just like a mother who blames videogames on her kid's bad behaviour. No, my violent urges are not caused by the fact I watch bad stuff. I watch bad stuff as an outlet for my evil urges.

She also called us us "alter-egos" when I introduced our system and my headmates as "alters".

Should I look for another therapist?

-Harriet and Lillian

[waystarresourceco]

Harriet Walter on how Caroline has influenced or realtes to each of the golden trio.

“She probably is a bit frightened by Siobhan because she’s quite like her dad and is very very smart about stuff that maybe Caroline isn’t. I don’t think she resents – I think she’s quite competitive for her affection because she admires her. I think it’s very possible for a mother to look up to her daughter if she’s not very like her, because I don’t think they are very alike.

I think If anything, funnily enough I think the one who’s most like – Caroline has flowed a bit into Kendall in that I think she has more depths than we’ve seen. A bit more inside torture than we’ve seen. And I think she’s also flowed into Roman because she’s got that glib “ha ha ha” every line is a joke defense mechanism. So I think those are the people she’s influnced or influenced by – I think Shiv is very different from her and very much her own thing and I think she’s quite scared of her really. And of course Shiv probably wants big affection too but just really doesn’t beg for it in the same way that Caroline probably never begged for it from her parents. It’s a terrible kind of poisoned challice, all that welath and power if you’re born into it.”

Excerpt from Excerpt from Still Watching: Succession Season 2 "Dundee" with Dame Harriet Walter – Sept. 29, 2019

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

So I will say it would might be hard but what about Harriet as the Rusted Knight stand in. Spending years dealing with guilt and horror of her willing to nuke a city just because she was told too. She could call the Lighting Trailer or something.

(Fun fact! When initially thinking about the major plot threads for the Sharc AU, I was actually going to have Harriet fall into the Ever After, find the time fruit and become the Juniper of the Sharc Universe. I have since decided against that, and feel safe sharing it.)

Blake: My Gods! It's the-

The Galvanic Squall: You kids have been getting up to a lot, huh?

Blake: Y- Yeah? Wait, how do you know we've been up to stuff?

Yang: Have you been watching us or-

The Galvanic Squall: That was one of the things I was meant to do, among all the other-

The Woman wrenches her face mask down while pulling off her goggles and hood.

Harriet Bree stood before them, her face wrinkled with old scars covering her face and ears, her hair pulled back into a mess of cable-like dreads, all streaked with dull gray and Electric Yellow.

Harriet: A Shit that Ironwood was ordering us to do- What the fuck happened!

Ruby: HARRIET?

Harriet: Yes! HELLO! I've been stuck here for-Fucking-ever!

Harriet: I mean, fuck I lost count after about the second month here, but I've been looking for- look, what was the last thing that happened to you?

RWBY: *Share worried looks*

Harriet: Okay, I get it, I'm in rough shape, just answer, alright!?

Weiss: uhm ... We only woke up here a day ago. before getting here, We evicted Atlas and Mantle to Vacuo using the Staff of Creation.

Harriet: Uh huh, Caused Atlas to sink, I'm aware.

Blake: Cinder Fall and one of her Cronies followed us into the In-between, and made us fall.

Harriet: Yep. I was Running Civies to the exit because Flame Girl and Polendina were fighting.

Yang: We all got knocked down here, obviously, and Salem got the Relic, but we know she doesn't have the maiden powers.

Harriet: Well. That doesn't sound great.

Ruby: Well, Neo, 'Cinder's Crony' fell with us. She hates my guts and ... It ... isn't good. Penny died. For real this time, no rebuilding, no recovering she's just ... gone.

Harriet: ... Oh. I- I uh.

Harriet: Wow. That's- I'm sorry. I know you two were close- she would never shut up- Er, Stop talking about you.

Ruby: We've all lost people. We can't sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. You Didn't.

_WBY: *look worriedly between each other and Ruby, who doesn't notice*

Harriet: Yeah, Well, I did my best to. Hell, I figured out how to dye my hair, gave me something to do while I waited.

Harriet: Also if you see a technicolor Cat, Don't Trust it. A couple kids Ran through years back and uh ... I couldn't find them. They just disappeared. If that Girl hadn't poisoned me I'd be certain they were just delusions.

Blake: A Girl? Was her name Alyx?

Harriet: *Squinting Suspiciously at Blake* ... How'd you know that?

Yang: It's a Book. The Girl that Fell Through the World. It's a classic!

Weiss: But there was only Alyx in the Story.

Harriet: The girl I met had a Brother. Lewis, and he was a lot more nervous and forward-thinking. And a hell of a lot more level headed. Lewis could stub his toe on a rock and he'd apologize to it. Alyx would stub her toe and make a guillotine for whatever tripped her up.

Blake: It sounds like we have a lot to talk about. Uh, do you have a place to stay or ...

Harriet: Yeah, I've got a cottage, let's move out.

Weiss: Well I'm glad you're not angry at us.

Harriet: Well, if it means anything ... I think you did the right thing standing up to the General. I know I made a mistake listening to him. *She beings walking*

Harriet: Come on, we might make it before sundown.

[casasupernovas]

10 is a complete and utter arsehole and RTD *mostly* gets this (obviously all the Time Lord Victorious stuff, but also his 10/Rose in S2 is a cautionary tale of two people who get so obsessively caught up with each other they endanger others and themselves until they eventually cause their own separation, like a precursor to 12/Clara, except he then undoes all his good work by bringing Rose back to give her a ‘happy ending’ with clone 10) but the fandom at large never really got that and I’m not sure why. Because Tennant’s pretty? Because he and Piper looked good together?

I don't think 10 is a *complete arsehole*

But the fandom doesn't acknowledge how s2 was a cautionary tale retconned to star crossed lovers in s3 & 4 because they are more attached to the ship rather than the actualy reality of 10 and Rose as a duo.

The legacy for 10 and Rose is Torchwood. I personally think most 10/Rose fans never watched Torchwood and that is why they don't get why 10 and Rose as a cautionary tale is a thing. I think they get to a degree the more immediate effects of the 10/Rose duo, e.g. how it affects Mickey and Jackie, but not the bigger picture.

But if you have seen Torchwood, I honestly don't know why anyone would ship 10 and Rose, or at least only give the ship space to actually acknowledge the gravity of their actions.

Now, most of the responsibility falls on the Doctor's shoulders here, not Rose, but at the end of the day, the insitute was founded to defend from alien *threat.* The Queen's impression of the Doctor was of someone who could not someone to be trusted. Now, we've seen people mistrust him off of one meeting, but it's doubly bad when Rose is involved because the companion is supposed to be the moral compass.

Captain Jack was the one who rebuilt it in Wales. Which is a whole can of worms in itself, because what did it say that someone who essentially was turned into a freak of nature who could not die (10 romanticises it by saying the final act of the Time War was life before hastily saying she couldn't control it and therefore Jack was stuck because of it) and was forced to work there, to the point where his morals began to erode and after the death of all the Torchwood members in the 90s, finally is free. He then proceeds to work with operatives while Torchwood One in London thrives and drives the city towards disaster. The Doctor interferes again and deposes Harriet - and who gave him the right? He's too arrogant and self righteous for his own good and highkey proved Yvonne Hartman right here.

I don't wanna make this ask longer than it is but honestly that's my answer. They didn't force Torchwood to act the way it did, but they are the root cause of it.

The Tenth Doctor and Rose's legacy is Torchwood. It affects every companion also (Martha and Adeola, Donna and HC Clements) and shapes everything but the show will be damned if they ever addressed this.

[saffricatrice]

What r ur oc stories about?

OMG HIHI I NEVER HAD SOMEONE OUTSIDE OF MY CURRENT FRIENDS ACTUALLY ASK BEFORE UMMMM OKAY SO. i have 3! main oc stories that i Really care about at the moment but im Deeply fixated on mainly 1 of them but im gonna start with the one ive been liek "promoting" the most in a sense!! under read more cuz im gonna try to exlain all three of them bless. sorry if i seem overly passionate oops i was TRYING to summarise im sorry its so long u rlly dont Have to read All of it

Forgotten Man's Symphony

his (louis manoir) character is basically a spin off from a character mentioned in the novel frankensetin exactly (1) time by name in elizabeth's letter and by far he is the most organised oc of mine cuz we do actually have a clean, understandable summary doc (thought it is a tad bit outdated but its okay). shes like the most Normal narrative-wise i suppose so i'm not exactly sure on how to explain the plot of forgotten man's symphony it's just like??? him ruining his life in front of the reader and then #Healing?? i guess?? the story is an epistolary that starts with louis' Suicide Letter. so like. yeah. BUT!! i suppose i would say his story very much concerns the concept of like identity (including gender and such she would be considred either transfemme/bigender by the modern world but also idfk cuz i made her complicated and confusing on purpose) and also the lack thereof + the negative impact that comes with trying so hard to fit into the societal norms and what people Want you to be but you just Can't be, cutting away bits of yourself to fit through some sort of hole representing the perfect version of you until theres nothing left of Who You Are expect a palatable and small version yk?? and the the endless pursuit of wanting to be loved that leads yourself to changing and changing for people who just wont care or love you for realsies + @rosaniruby 's words "making it even like that so its not YOU who is loving and being loved but the dim visage of a version of you that fits the picture of what society loves; that it's not a love between individuals, it's the love for a society that cannot ever love anything because it was made to hate. and who believes that portrayal of love will not find it and forever be stuck. smth like society loves what it deems as perfect and hates the imperfect, since perfect doesn't exist it can only do the second one. and louis wanted to love perfect victor, hated his own imperfect self. but the perfect victor doesnt exists, and neither does any version of louis."

i like her he's great. sorry if that was less telling u WHAT his story is and more like Explaining the "themes" as theyre called of the story but idrk how to describe nromal stuff so TAKE WHAT U CAN GET!!! anyways,

Domus Carnis: The Transmutation of Guinevere Manor

idk if you're aware but i have a hyperfix on architectural horror and i DON'T MEAN SCARY GHOSTS AND SERIAL ILLERS IN AN ABANDONED HOUSE I MEAN HAUNTED HOUSES THAT ARE ALIVE THAT IS A METAPHOR FOR PTSD FROM CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ETC ETC!! this story By making it started my whole obsession with the House it's crazy... scary even.. (i recommend you watch jacob geller's video essay about houses) i really do like domus carnis but it's. Messy to say the least. i do feel as if i ought to change the time period it's set in to avoid talking about the wars going on in the time period i accidentally set it in without realising but im procrastinating on that rn. it was Suppose to be late 1800s to early 1900s..

in a few simple words: flesh-and-bone made lesbian sex house. does that get your attention yet. bless

domus carnis (which literally means flesh house in latin or something) will be written in the POV of a 40ish year old widowed woman by the name of harriet wren's diary entries, occasionally switching to the POV of her 20-something year old godson percival who is like old timey jake paul and hes like either a journalistt or a radio host depending if i choose to change the time period or not. we follow them after harriet's husband dies of whatever and they find out he has a large property in a foreign country of which they had not known of prior

somewhere in germany there is a house of ex-aristocrats that no longer live there that is Alive. the House becomes alive because it is in a sense "possesed" (not haunted) the ghost of kathryna von guinevere who was the last one to die in the house, who, in life, was incredibly obsessed with The House for reasons that i fear are too long to explain without boring you and going into info pre-story?? anyways, when she "posseses" the house, the materials of the house shift to flesh, blood and bone because it Materially becomes her body. now, it would be hard to accurately label what represents what body part, because it's all strangely jumbled up and isn't like really human anatomy either cuz kathryna Can in fact see inside herself?? anyways whatever. now, the house is now both her body AND her mind. i have taken the phrase "haunted by memories/trauma" and turned it literal. the house IS haunted, but most of the ghosts aren't ghosts, theyre mostly all manifestation of Memory from her life because she actively is replaying the speech and actions of other people IN her mind to process the (typically traumatic) events of which she's seen or experienced. the ghosts CANNOT do as they please because they only exist at all Due to kathryna remembering them in these specific scenes. the hauntings include scenes of people, sounds, and shadows. unless the "scene" has a mirror, you cannot see kathy directly because you are witnessin things through HER eyes, which makes memories from wee childhood interesting because im wondering if i should make the "people" seem wayy bigger than the viewer if stuff is replayed from childhood..

i really like the fact that a lot of this is based on memory because it opens a lot of doors to me when it comes to the appearance of hauntings. my friend showed me this video depicting neurons forgetting how a face looks like, and i feel as if i could use that in the story because well, realistically kathy isnt going to have a Pristine memory cuz she Was just a human before, not to mention the fact shes already suppose to have issues on facial recognition/rememberance (my friend with these sisues suggetsed htis). the alteration of the ghosts' bodies could be fucked with even more if i try to make use and research into the way that people (mostly children) can in fact like.... change the image of something traumatic in their brain and make it less scary bc the brain is trying to protect them? yeah. AND ALSO the fact that a lot of people forgets certain aspects of their trauma due to their brain trying to protect them as well but still have this feeling of Unease when it comes o specific things that they cant explain, i could incorporate this feeling in certain areas of the House, the strange uneasiness. i experience that myself so i hope ill portray it right!!

i Think that's it?? at least that should be the bare bones of the story... i have a pin board tho if u want to check it out!!

The Epinicium

THIS is the stupid fucking thnag thats ruining my entire life rn. i love it i hate it whagever man. THIS ONE ill keep short and simple because im too fucking mentally ill about it to explain in depth without being asked questions

so basically its fantasy world but not like. Completely new high fantasy i very loosely based the countries off of like real countries and stuff bc lazy as shite so its like mid fantasy maybe HOWEVER

basically its set in this world where theres a shit ton of religions and gods and shit and theres three categories of religions (the world is veyr uhnm. Categorical idk): earth, science and the arts. basically the arts religions are the majority and the gods of those religions are called the muses so thats what i'll be calling them from now on. the basic plot of epinicium is about the muses of the music religion declaring that humanity doesnt treat music as "holy enough" anymore and taking it away as a whole (songbirds go extinct as well which is importnat) which also fucks up the other arts religionsdue to the fact that artforms are very connected but they still exist yk and centuries later our main cast attempts to bring it back!!! we have this server with a channel that has the "summary" but its not a real summary its just an already outdated infodump but we are Trying to fill this doc but we're failing really hard but friendship is magic idk.

fin.

anyways thats. pretty much it i think im sorry its too long once again 😭😭 feel free to ask question esp on the epinicium!! id love to hear abt ur ocs btw ive yapped so much oops

[billpottsismygf]

The Legend of Ruby Sunday

Well that was certainly dramatic! A lot of questions answered, but more questions created. It's hard to have a conclusive opinion on this episode because it's so definitively only half of the story, but I certainly had fun throughout. There were lots of really funny bits of dialogue and good character moments, and a lot of drama.

I'd seen a couple of people speculating about Sutekh but I hadn't looked into why and, although I have watched The Pyramids of Mars, I don't remember an awful lot of what goes on in it! From what I recall, he wasn't that impressive a villain so the huge majesty and fanfare he's presented with here is quite interesting. He was a guy with a silly mask on in the 70s and here he's a somewhat ugly CGI dog, but I'm open to seeing how they connect these two versions of the character.

So, we have several people, all women, running around at the moment who have something to do with the mystery. 1) There's Ruby's birth mother. Why can't they see her face? Why was she pointing? 2) Mrs Flood, who turns out to be pretty unpleasant if she's refusing Cherry a cup of tea. Unlike the two I'm about to mention, she seemed to know what was coming and obviously about the TARDIS (and the camera) from the christmas special. 3) Harriet Arbinger, who is a harbinger of Sutekh. 4) Susan Twist, who is... another harbinger of Sutekh? It seems like Kate's chrysalis theory was right with her, at least. Does she serve the same role as Harriet? Is the little boy who was Maestro's harbinger have anything to do with either of them or did he just serve the same role?

Sutekh is apparently the mother and father and other of the gods, which could mean a bunch of things. For one it implies variation of gender, or at least an existence outside of it, which is interesting with the he/him pronouns and yet all these women who seem wrapped up with the plot, as well as the ongoing theme of abandoned children. Carla also called him the Beast before he'd even fully manifested, which of course brought to mind The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, especially with the soldier who died saying he was in hell. Probably no connection, but who knows! He is also specifically name checked as being Set and Seth from Egyptian mythology. What does it all mean!

Also, how did Sutekh latch onto the TARDIS in the first place? Does the fact that the Doctor mallet whacked the TARDIS to double it in The Giggle have anything to do with the present situation? I didn't like that at the time because she's a living being and he just cloned her(?) or split her(?) or something, but now I'm thinking it would make sense if it connects to how she got infested with Sutekh in the first place.

Speaking of the TARDIS-Sutekh connection, I loved that the TARDIS anagram was so obvious the UNIT team laughed at the Doctor explaining it, which makes the "wrong anagram" reveal even better. RTD knew the fans would work out the TARDIS anagram immediately (which they did) and that it would be a red herring for us just as much as for UNIT! Though not that much of a red herring, since the TARDIS is involved. Is it perhaps a little silly to create your evil secret corporation under a name that might give away your evil secret plan? Yeah, but I like it at the moment.

I'm so glad Susan Triad isn't Susan Foreman (at least, it seems that way). It's another big old red herring. I've been desperate for Susan to return for so long - and I would still love her to, and maybe she even will in this arc - but I don't want her to return like this! Not as a villain and not as someone other than Carole Ann Ford. While we still have her, let her play Susan again! Please!

I am fascinated by this stuff about the Doctor having her before having children... It's been established in the past that the Doctor did have children and that he lost them all (eg. in The Doctor's Daughter), but here Fifteen seems to be implying that he hasn't yet. How does that all add up? I love the idea of having children out of order, and have always somewhat rebelled at the assumption that Time Lords have children in the same way as humans (ie. sexual reproduction between two parents of "opposite" sexes). Gimme Looms or something equally bizarre or nothing, so I'm definitely down for this; I just wonder how it actually makes sense for the Doctor.

I'm so happy to see Rose again! Obviously we knew she'd be in this, but she's a great character and I adored her dynamic with Ruby. Very cute! I loved the Doctor's line about them being two shades of red. I hope they'll develop the stuff of her not being given much to do, as I guess basically a nepotism hire, because I want her to get to do exciting things! On that note, it is odd if she's so kept out of things that she stays in the room after everyone who is not necessary is made to leave. I know she's necessary in that she's a UNIT employee who is important to us, the viewers, but it doesn't quite make sense with what is apparently her role in the organisation.

Saving perhaps the most interesting for last, the CCTV of the night Ruby was abandoned was 66 metres away. Otherwise known as 73 yards. My ears pricked up the moment they said that, though I needed to check afterwards that they were the same, and that surely can't be a coincidence. I don't know if I need anything more about 73 yards, despite my many questions at the end of it, but it could be very interesting if the events of that episode have something to do with the bigger picture.

Overall, fun and engaging episode in its own right, but I'll have to withhold final judgement until next week!

Misc things

Rose says it's been ages since she last saw the Doctor, so we're a while after the specials. Also there was mention of 2004 being 19 years ago so we're currently in 2023.

It's interesting we have two characters in this story (Susan and Rose) who are named after important companions, each the original companion of their run of Doctor Who.

I love that the Trickster got a mention. So many people seemed convinced the Trickster would be the big bad coming up, but at least he got a name check.

I loved Carla's energy in this one! True Donna vibes. She only had to hear of the existence of Rose's mum at UNIT and decided she was also going to be involved.

Susan Triad says she remembers worlds with orange skies, which certainly sounds like Gallifrey, so could there be a Susan connection after all? I noted down that her father was a postman and her mother a dinner lady, but so far have gleaned nothing from this.

I love Lenny Rush! I've seen him in lots of things at this point and he's so charismatic and funny, especially for a fifteen year old. I hope Morris will stay on for a while yet!

It seems strange that UNIT didn't know about Susan (Foreman), since I'm pretty sure we've seen in the past that they have files on all the Doctors, including One.

[drovvninq]

ch season 2 opinions

design::

i don't like the new characters' color schemes other than frida. i think the colors work well with her and her character.

confucius' character was wasted, i wish he had more screen time with jfk other than the keyboard warriors scene, plus his bright colors make me want to scream:(

HARRIET TUBMAN'S DESIGN DRIVES ME CRAZY. i understand the whole "ohh her old design wasn't important and the only scene she had was a canceled test scene" stuff but like i wish they'd kept it. she looks like a highlighter to me and i wish they'd given her SOMETHING to make her look more like harriet, maybe the old hair design. she could be any black historical female figure and it wouldn't be surprising.

the new principal girl is fine, idrc about her that much. she isn't too out there but i also think it's really stupid they made her related to joan it just seems like a way for them to get her more screen time

*gulp* ships::

they ruined joanfk, joan didnt act anything like the sarcastic gothy teen she used to be, she was obsessed with being popular and looking cool (ex. cleocoming), and jfk only made sex jokes. no war puns, no funny magic man-esque one liners, nothing. plus he became super clingy and just not the jock he used to be. the whole reason they worked was because they felt open with each other and told each other everything, but in the reboot they hide all sorts of stuff from each other.

i hate harriet and jfk. they should've used that time to develop frida and cleo, who are

the most random ship ever. cleo gave me such homophobic vibes in the first season and to see her date another woman with NO ARC is terrible. she AT LEAST couldve had a "i can date girls?" gag. but no, nothing. it feels so cash grabby and shallow.

i have no sentimental attachment to harriet and confucius, so them dating meant nothing to me. it felt like watching two random people make out: weird, strangely random, and confusing.

it's so scudworth coded to have him in love with a woman that wants him dead.

plot::

cleo had no important points except for cleocoming where she didnt even act like herself. i assume this was to hide the fact that she got a brand new voice actor, but i think she's doing fine. the script is the issue. she's no longer manipulative. she's just mean. the old cleo would've thrown the blood pumpkin rumor right back in joan's face.

the "clone leader test" plot sucked. should've made another cloney island plotline.

booo topher i hate him

[petermorwood]

Hello! I was watching this Adam Savage video on youtube and it's about antique swords at the MET, so naturally I thought of you. It's a rather recent one titled "Adam Savage Meets Real Ancient Swords!" on Adam Savage's Tested channel. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it, because it was so interesting. Sadly, I can't add a link, but it should be easy to find with the title. Hope you're having a great day!

I've actually already seen this, but many thanks for thinking of me; that\s how I get to see / hear / read stuff I'd otherwise miss!

it's a great video, and I immediately showed it to @dduane because Adam reacted in the same way I would have done - even to the sword he liked best, which of course indicates his excellent taste in weapons...

:-D

Here's the link:

Conservator Sean Belair mentions (at 6:17) "...another identical one floating around..." This photo shows several; Darksword Armoury, Albion Swords and Ronin Katana repros, and two museum originals.

The one Sean refers to, given his use of "identical", is probably the "Harriet Dean" sword which reappeared a few years ago.

These "Dean" swords were a pair acquired by Dr Bashford Dean, the Met's first curator of arms and armour, one of which he donated to the museum. The second was held by his sister Harriet and, on her death, was auctioned off and vanished (probably into a private collection) for three-quarters of a century before turning up at Christies in 2015.

Its value was estimated at £70-100,000 and it went for £386,500 (!) - but where it went, to a museum collection or back into private hands, I have no idea...

[joesalw]

kinda sick of all the taylor stuff (in media rn) so!

What made you a joe fan, and what would you recommend to someone who recently found out about joe? :))

I was introduced to joe by taylor. and with her lyrics, i started wondering how amazing this dude might be! so then i started watching his interviews and movies and honestly fell in love with his calm, sorted out personality. and the way he answers certain questions with so much depth and how he interprets things...it's just very sexy how his mind works. i became even a bigger fan with how he handled the whole chaos in 2023 and still now. It's rare to find men with such integrity these days. and If we talk about movies, "the favourite" is on top of my list. I also recommend watching conversation with friends for more screen time, and then operation finale, catherine called birdy, stars at noon, harriet...his cameo is small but they leave you with an impact. his interviews are very fun to watch as well, i love the ones with nick, paul and andrew the most. i hope you’ll enjoy :)

[velvetvexations]

i refuse to watch the clone high revival.

IT AIN'T GOOD

This is my full review I posted in a server back when it aired:

The cast changes are one of the biggest issues. It completely throws the whole dynamic off because they lost Ghandi, who, admittedly, was inconsequential in terms of long term character relationships even if he was like half the show, but they add THREE new people who are all supposed to be way more relevant to the serialized story. Two fall very flat and one is okay but still misplaced. Let's talk about that. Confucius, at first, seems like the obvious 1:1 replacement for Gandhi because he's a cheery dude who partakes in silly antics. He's not a full Gandhi clone [copy] because unlike Gandhi, who had a habit of just assuming he was cool and proceeded to act like it, Confucious is, like, trying to get popular on Tikstagram, I guess? That honestly didn't really come up a lot, he just sort of drifts around being there whenever they need a guy who's not JFK or Abe. Then near the end he ends up in a relationship with Harriet Tubman, which is like, okay, because she's the only character even more generic than he is. Seriously, there is NOTHING about Harriet, absolutely nothing, I can say about her personality beyond "once was briefly concerned about turning into a wine mom". Her design being completely unrecognizable as a historical figure really plagues her whole character, like I truly in my heart of hearts believe that if you read the scripts they would all say "TBD Woman of Color".

Which brings us to the sidelining of Cleo. In the first season, Cleo was a major character and focus of several episodes. She was the person JFK was dating, that Abe wanted to date, and that Joan was rivals with. The entire show revolved around that relationship chain. So it's super fucking weird that Cleo goes several episodes into the second season before she gets more than a handful of lines. Here's why I think that is: Obviously, the second season had to be finished or very nearly finished by the time the Cleopatra [Queen Cleopatra (2023)] stuff blew up recently, but I think even before that we've hit a point where people are a lot more aware that Cleopatra was not Egyptian Egyptian and that her portrayal as such in the first season would get a little more side-eyed. This is even more true considering the mandated loss of Gandhi, as she and him were the only non-white leads. Adding two or three more PoC characters made sense! But being so awkward with the handling of Cleo, who did at least manage to wiggle back into the main plot a little, was still weird, and it sucks that two of the three added PoC characters were so badly handled. So which one worked? Frida Kahlo was pretty cool. I don't know nearly enough about the IRL person, but I can at least define her character on the show as the hyper-chill laid back girl and she had several funny jokes, and based on the little I do know of who she is, they referenced her being an artist several times as well as her distinctive physical appearance. Also, apparently her bisexuality, because Frida ends up with Cleo. And, you know, that's fine, but fucking Cleo? Can I please get an episode or three or six or an entire season just about Cleo realizing she's gay, because fucking what? It comes out (ha) that Frida likes Cleo and from there it's like, cool, she just has to have the courage to tell her, but that makes no sense. Even in this season Cleo has multiple jokes about being The Girl Who Is Hyper-Competitive And Puts Down Other Girls, like from top to bottom the stereotypical cheerleader of 2003, because, hey, the whole premise is that the clones were frozen in 2003 and were just unfrozen! can I get anything dealing with that beyond Abe almost saying the r-word in the first episode? *The old clones are from 2003, the new characters were raised since then and that generation gap is actually interesting when properly explored which it barely fucking is.

Okay. Moving on. There's another new character, Christopher Columbus's clone who goes by Topher Bus because he doesn't want to be attacked for it, and that's the first of several funny jokes we get from him that make him way more likable than the show wants him to be. He's given the early flaw that he's a dick online, but not even in a racist way or anything like that? In fact, he's generally shown to be pretty woke, and the main cast casually shove him out of the way when he tries to get involved with things! If they wanted to depict someone who like, pretends to be woke but really is an asshole or something, they do a terrible job of it and have him come off more like someone who's trying but keeps getting kicked for literally zero reasons. "Oh, but he's mean online!" Yeah, to JFK, who was an asshole like literally last week from the perspectives of the older clones. I don't mind JFK getting hit with the likability stick, but like with Cleo being into women it comes out of nowhere aside from the Abe Says a Slur joke where that contrasts JFK being told he's so sex positive for a lame cringe reference to wanting to fuck and you're clearly meant to think "ah, the roles have been reversed, now JFK is just a confidant bro while Abe is in danger of being an angry loser incel", but it just! Needs! More! Development than that! One interesting part of that dynamic flip is that now instead of Joan secretly pining for Abe while Abe openly pines for Cleo, Abe is secretly pining for Joan while she continues to date JFK as in the first season's finale. It gets kind of lost in the politics of the gender swap, though. Like, Abe is now in that incel space, and he tries to manipulate Joan and then feels real bad about it and stops, but taking the way that's framed with other things that happen this season it's like, oh, it's bad for a guy to manipulate a girl like this, even though Joan did that exact kinna thing back in season one and it was more just "lol wacky hi-jinx!". I'm not trying to be all Misandry Double Standard here, but it's one more reason why it would always be really hard to modernize this show in the first place. Another thing about Abe along similar lines is the musical episode, where a big deal is made of Abe having White Guy Confidence, and that is fucking astounding to me. Like, what? Abe is a constantly anxious loser who is fully aware of that fact, I get that White Guy Confidence is a thing but why the hell is Abe getting tagged with it and not JFK, who absolutely has always suffered White Guy Confidence? Beyond the fact that JFK is now a cinnamon roll out of thin air and Abe's new arc is about avoiding the MRA trap?

In that same subplot you had Sacagawea, George Washington Carver, and Kublai Khan fighting to be exceptional enough to shine despite Abe's white mediocracy, and again like with the primary additions nothing is ever done with either who they were or who they are now. They are literally just there because Non-White, which I want to stress I'm not railing against as a concept, but their lines could be given to literally anyone. GWC was actually in the first season, I'm not sure about the others, and there were some Goddamn peanut jokes! Maybe boiling him down to peanuts is an unconsciously racist meme, as is boiling down all of Black science to "the peanut guy", but if the new series is above that then maybe use fucking someone else you are comfortable reflecting in a humorous cartoon fashion that people will understand? It's not necessarily a race thing, like "oh they were overly cautious with the PoC characters". I can think of one joke offhand - not that it was the only one, just the only one I can think of - where the minor characters had a reference to their historical selves, and that was technically delivered by JFK. Between that and how generic Confucius and Harriet are, I feel like the whole idea, the first word in the title, just completely went out the window. In the first season, beyond spear-carrying "some bit character in this large crowd needs to provide a reaction to something", you'd never have an extended scene where a minor character wasn't making a historical reference. It might seem logical to allow them to be more than that, but think about it: these are, after all, minor characters. With the main cast, not every line has to be Nothing Bad Ever Happens to the Kennedys, but it's like when The Flintstones has everyone go to New Rock City to see The Rockles play a 60s pop song. It's like, what in God's name is the point then?

A few days later:

Okay. I think I've mediated on it enough. I can now give my opinion on a reworked season two. Here's what I would have done, assuming only that the mandate Gandhi be absent is absolute: The group dynamic more or less starts the same, with Joan dating JFK and Abe pining for her, it's a great reversed setup. Abe starts to drift in an incel direction, but Topher is there to provide the "don't get this bad" warning that keeps him on the straight and narrow. Joan and JFK quickly realize they aren't working out, and Joan figures maybe she wants to try lesbianism, because she just seems so much like she would be a WLW. She starts to go out with Frida while JFK teams up with Abe and basically acts as the new Gandhi in terms of silly comic relief who's often hanging out with the protagonist. They support each other in Abe getting with Joan and JFK getting back with Cleo, who's started going out with Topher partly because she's desperate for a boyfriend she actually enjoys being with and partly because she really hates having lost both Abe and JFK to Joan, but Topher is actually also in love with Joan, which puts him at odds with both Abe and JFK. Eventually Joan realizes she isn't gay but Cleo realizes she is and Cleo and Frida get together, which is extra emotionally satisfying because Joan lost someone to her this time. The wacky misadventures of Principle Scudworth and Butlertron are basically the same as they are in season two as it exists, the addition of Candide Sampson wasn't bad at all and overall those b-plots were pretty good with the exception of the really terrible Butlertron origin episode, but the end result in the season finale is all the clones being frozen again just as Joan is about to pick between JFK and Abe. Confucious and Harriet Tubman are not present.

At the time I did not propose further characters of color to replace either Confucious and Harriet and would have to think on it a lot to figure something out. Probably people other than me would be better at selecting good fits that are recognizable to an American audience. I also didn't solve the issue of Cleopatra not being Egyptian, but maybe they find out she's actually the clone of a less well-known Egyptian woman who started claiming to be Cleopatra for the clout? That's certainly something Cleo would do.