#i distinctly remember reading this back in 2021

[sugucidal]

i need to find that blog that helps you find fanfics cause my MIND has been plagued with this angst fic of the reader being with getou after a freak accident involving gojo, yet she still yearns for him. and we find out in the end that getou is the one that killed gojo so he could take satorus place in order to be with the reader. and i think gojo even appears as a ghost too?? this fic is a fever dream

[diesmercurii]

homestuck fans who started reading after the comic ended, reblog and share when you started reading and why. I’m curious how many of us there are

[notbecauseofvictories]

Okay I’m not sure if this was you or not, but a really long time ago you (unless it was some other acc) posted the number of books you’ve read in a year (among those was Hench, I distinctly remember) and the number was a staggering amount in the hundreds? Not sure if this was you, but it left an impression on me, and I’m wondering how you managed to read so many books in a single year?

In my defense, that was 2021. Reading a truly absurd amount of books was definitely my way of coping with....2021.

However, I am still a substantial reader! I've re-read the whole Discworld series this year, plus I just finished Octavia Butler's Bloodchild and Wild Seed. My bookclubs just finished The Default World (a fun and unsettling send up, with Talented Mr. Ripley echoes) and Fantasticland (solid and interesting, but ironically I think I've read better horror on reddit). Previously, we read Bad Girls, which I deeply adored, since magical realism always finds me where I live.

Since then it's been mostly novellas---I think the last substantial book I read was Vintner's Luck, which I devoured on the plane back from Switzerland.

Anyway, the answer to "how do you read so much?" is "I love to read, I get bored easily, and news sites only update a few times a day." It's also worth noting that I haven't read that many books any year since---like I said, something was happening to me in 2021, and maybe someday I'll figure out what it was.

The answer to "how do you, anonymous internet commenter, read more?" is a bit trickier. So let's instead focus on the fact that each year, I took the time to talk about all the books I loved and why. That's much more interesting.

Books of 2020 | Books of 2021 | Books of 2022 | Books of 2023

[quillyfied]

Hi, tumblr old and ace here, having a thought finally manifest so might as well try to get it down properly:

Tumblr used to have (and hopefully does still and maybe I’m just missing it) a thriving asexual community, in the 2012-2015 range of years according to my memory. I remember ace cakes and space ace and dragon ace, I remember the assignation of different subsections of the asexual spectrum to card suits, I remember tentatively finding common ground with other asexuals and the quiet joy of finding people like me—and a color scheme of a flag that also fit wonderfully.

I didn’t notice when the ace community, such as it was, dissolved. I didn’t see the harassment and the bigotry. One day, the fun ace aesthetic posts and silly celebration posts were just gone. Maybe gradually. I didn’t remember any one event until it was 2021 and I was finally realizing that the sense of community and fun and joy for asexuals wasn’t on my dash anymore. I heard the aftermath, read anecdotes about acephobes bullying the aspec community off the map again, but I thought I hadn’t seen it.

Until I went back through my asexuality tag, just for fun.

I wish now that I’d screencapped it, but probably while I was still in college, I reblogged a post chastising aces for calling themselves queer when the label and the spaces weren’t for them but for real queer people. I had tagged it with an apology, my own quiet “oh. Okay” moment. Apparently I had reblogged the post again with people coming to aspec folks’ defense, but I had completely forgotten my own little personal moment of defeat and subsequent acceptance that I didn’t really belong in the space, so I wouldn’t occupy it. This is something I still struggle with, that I know a lot of aces (especially aces who were brought up religious and with modesty and chastity rules, and aces who are heteroromantic, and every other flavor of ace frankly) grapple with sometimes.

I’m older and wiser now, and more secure not just in my identity but in the place my identity occupies in the queer community, so to reiterate: asexuals have always been here, asexuals are not basically straight, asexuals are queer and that is a complete sentence. The ace experience is a wide and colorful and varied one, and it is distinctly queer.

[yourlastbraincell-kiwi]

A/N: This a Bill and Ted story I wrote a couple years ago. I changed up some of the words and everything, and thought it would be good to post it. Enjoy!

The story starts off in the third-person, but switches to the readers pov for the rest!

This also has mention of the events of 2020/2021, if that is something you don’t wish to read about please skip over this one.

Pairing: Ted “Theodore” Logan x Black!Fem!Reader

——————🫶🏽——————

"Ooo, what about here?" Ted picked up the book that said Circuits Of Time and went to the very back of the book and read a number, and pushed the buttons on the dial.

"Ooh, nope. Nope," Rufus said, moving Ted away from the buttons. "Do not. And I repeat, do not push those buttons." Rufus said hanging up the phone.

"But I just wanted to go to the year 2020, we've never heard of it before." Ted said.

"Yeah, why can't we go there?" Bill asked.

"It's best, if you don't know, what happened in that year." Rufus said putting the book down.

Ted looked at him, confused before smiling and taking the book back into his hands. "What about this one?" Ted said reaching for the buttons, that was supposed to take them to 2021. "I’m sorry, did you not hear what I said?”

"I did, but I don’t remember what you said.” Ted responded and Rufus sighed and put his hand on his head. “So… Can I press it?" Ted said reaching for the last button, with Bill looking over Ted's shoulder as equally intrigued as him.

"Of course not! You're here to learn about subjects, that do with your history report." The both of them looked at Rufus trying to make puppy dog eyes, trying to convince him.

"Look, I don't know what those faces were, but they were not convincing. Now let's go to-"

"Come on, please Rufus!"

"Yeah, come on!" The both of them begged and pleaded.

"Fine! But do NOT, mess up that timeline."  They both did an air guitar and Rufus pushed the last button and they began to travel to the year 2021.

—————

"Hey, have you seen my phone? I've been looking since yesterday." I said asking my friend, Tiffany, as she painted her toe nails.

"No, maybe you left it at that dudes house." She said with a smirk.

"Oh, please. I distinctly remember, putting it in my- Oh! Here it is!" I said with a sigh of relief, one because I didn't have to go to school without it, and two, having to call 'him' up, to see if he had it.

"Saved by the bell this time, I guess." She said blowing on her toe nails, to dry them faster.

"Most definitely." I said grabbing my stuff, before walking outside. And then something that looked like an off-brand TARDIS, popped up in front of me. I was going to scream, until three guys walked out. One older than the other two, and the two looked real young.

"Woah.." Said the both of the younger ones. "This is totally bodacious." Said the shorter one.

"Hey, do you know when the Mongols ruled China?"

"1297? I'm pretty sure."

"Woah… Thanks, dude!"

"Wait, what was that, that just happened?" I asked as the older guy, named Rufus, explained to me everything. I was still trying to wrap my head around this, but I just went along with it.

"So what are you guys doing here then?"

"They wanted to know what 2021, was like."

"Hey, can you tell us what happened in 2020?" One of them had asked and I avoided, both the of their eyes. "Or not?" Ted said.

"I apologize on their behalf, what's your name?" Asked Rufus.

"(Y/N)." I replied plainly, still trying to process all of this.

"Nice to meet you, as you already know, I'm Rufus, and this is Bill," He said pointing to the shorter guy. "And this is Ted." He finished motioning towards the taller guy.

"Hi!" They said in-sync.

"Hi." I said admiring Ted, and his facial features.

"(Y/N)! Your forgot your...who are they?" Tiffany said trailing off as she handed me something.

"Bill, Ted. This is my roommate and best friend Tiffany. Tiffany, this is Bill and Ted, and that's Rufus, over there." I pointed and introduced them, as she admired Bill.

"Look, I'd really like to stay and chat, but I've gotta- SHIT! I'm late!" I said rushing to get into my car. "Tiff!" She didn't respond, still ogling Bill.

"TIFF!"

"Huh?" She said turning towards me.

"Keep them here! I'll be back in a couple hours! Bye!" I said driving off to class.

—————

"Now, that we've established what is happening, the question is WHY, it's happening now can anyone-" I barged into the room, disrupting the lecture.

"Look, who it is." I heard one of the girls, in the mid-row say. I rolled my eyes and quietly walked past.

"Miss. (Y/L/N). See me after class." I sighed nodding and walked over to my preferred seat in the back, as the lecture continued.

A couple minutes into the lecture, I took out my phone out of pure boredom. Making sure it was on silent and the brightness was down.

"Miss. (Y/L/N)!" I looked up immediately, and people started to laugh. "Can you answer the question for us, please?"

I looked around as someone tried to mouth the answer to me, I looked at them like 'I can't understand you.'

"Miss. (Y/L/N). Do you have an answer?"

"No, sir." I said looking down.

"Well then maybe you should start paying attention to the lesson, and not your phone, if you will." I nod. "This is college, not high school." I nod, putting my phone away and he resumed the lesson.

————

Ding!

I looked towards the direction of my phone and tried to cover it up, but there it is again.

Ding! Ding!

Practically everyone was looking at me now. And I knew my teacher was on his last straw. I took it out and tried to see why it was dinging and my eyes widened.

'It's not on vibrate. I switched it off of vibrate..' I mentally wanted to slap my self across the face, as my teacher gave me the look he's given previous students in the past for disrupting his class.

He didn't even have to say a word and I just got up and gave him my phone. No words needed. This caused some of the girls laughed and pointed at me. As I sat down, someone barged into the room, that person being Ted.

'Ted?! What on earth?'

I packed my things and grabbing my stuff and running towards him. "Where are you going, class hasn't been dismissed yet?!"

"Sorry, but I gotta go!" I exclaimed grabbing my phone from his desk, on the way out.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, Bill and Riff-"

"Tiff."

"-her. They’re doing they're own thing and Rufus left, so I thought I'd look for you." He said, scratching the side of his head. I smiled and walked over to my car.

"Well, that was nice of you to do. And I needed the break from school anyway." I said putting my stuff in the the car, before getting in. Ted just stood there, not knowing what to do. "Come on!" I said, and he instantly had that wide grin on his face and got in.

I started to drive off. "Where are we going?" He said, and I felt my smile grow wide. "I'm going to take you to best places, in the city!"

"Excellent!" He exclaimed, doing an air guitar, and I drove off.

[lostdrarryfics]

THE BIG FIND 2023: Day 7

The Big Find is a 10-day long Drarry fic-finding marathon to celebrate the blog’s anniversary. Below is the Day 7 compilation of lost fics, both old and new, that we’ve been unable to find. Our aim is to get as much attention to these lost fics as possible, to help people finally find their missing fics! Anyone can participate by reblogging, reading through each list, providing additional fic details, and informing us the title, author, or link of a fic, and their respective number in the comment section. Happy finding!

7.1 I’m looking for a fic in which attacks keep occurring on death eaters and their relatives, by a vigilante group called Phoenix Tears. Harry was at the right place at the right time when Draco is attacked (in Diagon Alley) so he saves him and insists Draco stay with him for safety reasons and also while he recovers. Obviously feelings happen. Attack on Draco happens again, and it turns out it was Ginny who leads that group. It’s a bunch of ex DA members doing the “good” work. She says the reason for naming themselves Phoenix tears was  because they’re curing the society from the disease of death eaters - kinda that logic, and also as an extension of Dumbledores Army as well, because he had the Phoenix… She is sent away, Drarry happens, all is well. The attacks are extremely dangerous and time sensitive. Not regular spell casting, but something like a completely newly invented spell or potions or gases, that act extremely quick. Dangerous on the same level of sectumsempra. If Harry wasn’t there at that exact moment, Draco would have 100% died. I think Harry was an auror. I read it on ao3 sometime late 2021. I didn’t have my ao3 account back then, so it wasn’t saved in my history! The fic is not Phoenix tears by magic8ballz. The one I’m looking for was completed and I 100% read it around October-November 2021.

7.2 I remember reading this once fic where harry is a waiter (I think) and he’s basically serving st dracos engagement party with daphane or Astoria ( I can’t remember much) then harry is all jealous the entire night and he finds it difficult to concentrate. Eventually they get together but that’s all I can remember.

7.3 looking for a completed fic that I read on A03. In it a group of vigilantes are attacking Death Eaters and Harry asks Draco to stay with him to keep him safe. I don’t think he is an auror. Ginny is involved in the group doing the attacks.

7.4 ao3 fic where draco is a healer and there’s a scene where he’s sprinting down a white hallway to heal harry, who’s seriously injured. i think after this draco tries to avoid harry bc they’ve broken up recently, although that may be a different fic.

7.5 i remember this one scene distinctly in an eighth year fic where harry went to wake draco up (think he was having a nightmare or something? not sure) and draco without waking up pulled him into the bed and like wrapped himself around harry. i thought it might be from “nice things” and there’s a similar scene but it’s not that. i feel like it was a short fic but honestly can’t be sure

7.6 Au Post war (or in the midst of the war) Harry and Draco, are on opposite sides of the conflict. Angsty, and Explicit. The nice guys are kind of losing I think. In this fic , I think Harry tells something about how he’s tired of being a savior, or how his friends don’t understand him or do not care about him. Hermione and Ron are briefly mentioned. Draco is a vampire (unsure?) Harry is a werewolf(unsure?) It's very rare to find Vampire x werewolf fics so thats why I’m unsure. I know for sure one of them is a mytical creature and their bite is dangerous/venomous to the other.(But I could be wrong), there’s something special that I think makes it necessary for one of them to be restrained, because their bite, or claws, or something about them is dangerous to the other. Harry and Draco are on opposite sides, and in this story its Harry who stumbles/is brought prior to the start of the fic in Draco’s place, idk if its the Manor or some other abandoned place. I think he’s brought to The Malfoy’s Manor because Lucius is mentioned at some point in the fic. Im not sure exactly how the fic goes but in this story things turned badly so either after Voldermort death, there is a climate of unease, or for some reason Voldemort is still alive and guiding his followers. The author thought the fic added some poetry lines/song lyrics(sort of) in between paragraphs as some sort of pacing (it was really beautiful). I think the fic is very short , only few chapters(almost certain its less than 15 but it's more likely to be 5 or 3) or 1 thats very long. It's much more likely that this Fic is from Ao3(almost certain), but it could also be from Fanfiction.net or any other site. Also, maybe but it's very unlikely, this fic could be in French. I think the fic ends with Harry and Draco going their own separate ways.

7.7 there are two fics in the series, the second at the time I read it was a WIP. Harry, Draco and other students from all different houses step up to fight/end the war feeling like the adults aren’t doing anything. They acted like a military and became quite regimented. They were super tight knit. I remember the WIP sequel the most. In the sequel they have to go back to Hogwarts after the war. It’s hard cause they’re being treated like children. They still act quite regimented, walking in groups, sitting close together, standing and leaving together - a bit like troops. Harry gives out orders still around sticking together and meeting for meals at certain times. In one scene a bird delivers a message in the great hall and everyone moves to protect Harry. I vaguely think the bird or message was something to do with Bellatrix. In another scene (I think this fic) Harry(?) is getting in trouble in class and his friends all push their books onto the floor.

7.8 Drarry, Ao3. I can’t remember much but there is a scene of Quidditch World Cup, Draco and Harry spent the night in other tent with friends. While in the Malfoy tent Narcissa and Lucius had invited Tonks to get reacquainted as family. During the Death Eaters attack the Malfoys along with Tonks were trapped in the the tent due to wards which drop in the morning.

7.9 time travel fic where harry in the 5 year at the department of mistery travel to the future, and finds out he is married with draco, draco soon realizes harry is not the same and he knows what is happening because harry adviced him that in some point he travels to the future (their present), draco tells him to do what harry needs to do in order to end up together

7.10 Draco sent Harry presents as courting gifts and was annoyed that Harry kept sharing them with everyone as he didn’t realise that they were courting gifts. I think it was sent anonymously? Not sure. What I do remember is that he sent Harry an expensive box of chocolates and complained when Harry just shared it with everyone at the Gryffindor table.

7.11 looking for a fic I read awhile ago. The only things I remember from it are one of them are a healer and their response is snarkily “I’m in the hospital.” And then one of the times they say they actually are in the hospital with an injury! I couldn’t even begin to tell you if it was Harry or Draco that was the healer. It was a mostly fluffy with probably some minor injury.

7.12 fic that I read on I think hp.adultfanfiction a long time ago. It was a top Draco and bottom Harry where they’re fooling around under the invisibility cloak. They’re outside watching a quidditch match

7.13 I think was a one shot and it wasn’t too long. Probably less than 10k words but I could be wrong. I think Harry has been committing crimes for years in relation to Draco. They were in an established relationship already and any guy that would flirt with Draco, Harry would severely hurt or kill. (I’m not sure) I remember at the end, Draco wakes up and realizes that aurors have found that Harry was the one committing all these crimes so they are trying to get into their house. They have to break down the wards first so Draco has time to go and make some sort of drink with poison inside. He goes back to bed and wakes up Harry so they can take the poison together. They lay in bed together and wait to die so they never have to be separated.

7.14 really old drarry fic in which Harry and Draco are together and Harry is studying at the Auror Academy. It’s a one shot about Harry struggling with taking care of Teddy and managing everything else bc he doesn’t want to ask Draco for help.

[ahumanbeingtryingherbest]

MY LETTER TO YOUNG ROYALS

Still can't believe Young Royals is coming to an end! I've been watching this series from the very beginning (July 2021). It was incredible to watch, even if from behind a screen, the actors and the story grow and evolve. It's kind of hard realize how quickly time passed. When season 1 first aired I was 15 in a summer camps in the middle of the Swiss Alps. I listened to Olivia Rodrigo first album SOUR the day and watched the series the night hidden underneath the covers. That summer was magical, I was either giggling at the posts other fans made on Tumblr or reflecting on their clever analysis. In my summer camps I distinctly remember there were two swedish girls and me and other people who saw the series asked them so many questions about their country! It was also the summer I made my fist coming out to a group of absolute strangers :)

When season 2 aired I was 17 and at the start of my second year of high school. These time my daily soundtrack was directed by Taylor Swift's "Midnights", fist album who made me fall in love with Taylor's music and religiously listening to it on the bus while going to school. I wasn't exactly happy back then. I thought I had had a big life lesson and that now everything was going to be completely ok. Well, looking back I was also very wrong and I'd say naïve, but I got through it and I'm happy YR and Taylor kept me company during that period.

Now here we are, only one week left before season 3 airs. Still no new album I can enjoy with it, but Taylor's "The Tortureds Poet Department" will swifly (ahah) follow. I'm not stressed about the end (k maybe a bit), I'm already nostalgic looking back how much time passed and how much life and people grew and changed.

To be fair, I really dislike changements. Like, profoundly. For me the end of this series symbolizes a part of my adolescence ending. I'm growing up too. I don't really now what the future will reserve me, I just now that I'll always try to act with respect and love while finding my way.

It was an honor being there when this project started and I'm happy I get to see the end as well. Its not something everyone got to see so I'm glad I was there, even if only by watching and reading others reactions. I hope the actors will find other stimulating projects where they can contribute with their talent. I hope that Lisa is happy she got to tell her story, because we were definitely happy to hear it.

Finally, I want to end on a personal thought. I'm not an actor, I'm not a celebrity and even if I do want to make art and I do want it to be recognised by humanity I'm coming now to terms I don't think I will ever get to live the sort of "succes wave" these actors (around my age, mind you) experienced. I hope, I wonder if they're fine, I hope so. What I think it's just important to remember that these are human beings. I don't know about you but I feel kind of a sick movement to my stomach when I see people being obsessive, and I'm talking about myself as well when I catch myself wondering too much about them too.

These series spread a lot of beautiful message these years and will continue even after I'm sure. So a little note, always be respectful about others life and intimacy. Be curious, but don't be a stalker. Be a fan, but don't be obsessive (for your own good as well). Enjoy the present moment and express your enthusiasm for these people work!!

I hope I'll get to see more of them in the future, and about Lisa's works as well.

xxx G

[strangerphilosopher]

Every year for the past couple of years, there is a period of 2-3 weeks where I experience about 3-4 dreams. I don't usually have dreams, except during this specific window, and it would be an understatement to say that these 3-4 dreams are weird.

It was around August 2020 when I first started having them, but I don't recall the specifics of those dreams. I also don't remember the ones I had in September 2021.

Last year, in May 2022, I quit using weed cold turkey (I have been sober for 390 days now 💀), and I had very strange dreams in June of that year. I attributed these dreams to withdrawal symptoms from weed, as weird dreams can be a part of that. One of the dreams involved me ending up in a foreign country with my college friend during an event(I was dreaming in colors), but then the situation shifted, everything turned black and white, and I found myself putting porcupines as a house fence (yes, I know 💀 like legit folding them one by one and putting on top of wall) as if expecting an attack. Gunshots followed, and I witnessed people running towards a farm where a dead body was found. I felt utterly helpless, with my only thought being how I ended up in this strange land and when I could go back to my mom. Then I woke up sweating.

These dreams started again in May, and I have no explanation as to why.

In one of the dreams, my college roommate and I were hiding in a building from people who were searching for something, possibly us. My friend discovered a vent, and we both crawled inside. The vent was spacious enough for us to stand, but there were only pipes to stand on. One wrong step meant falling multiple stories down to the basement. In the next scene, my friend was gone (I don't know where he went), and I heard someone approaching me. I saw a figure moving closer, and when he was about to touch me, I pushed him down. Yes, I threw him down. I distinctly remember seeing his head hit the pipes below. Then I heard someone open the vent door behind me, and there were people outside. I became terrified and woke up.

There was another dream that I don't recall in detail, but it involved me witnessing someone being consumed by sunlight (not burnt in pain, but actually consumed and going up in flames and then vanishing in air). That person seemed very accepting of it, and I woke up in the midst of those visuals.

I don't think these dreams occurred during REM sleep, as most of them happened during daytime naps. I am curious to know more about all this. I don't expect these dreams to have a profound meaning, but I have a curiosity to understand what is happening. It would bring me contentment to read about it and conclude that all these dreams were just imaginations.

[sippinggossip]

You ask, info anon delivers :)

About Giorgia and Damiano...honestly that story is very messy.

I know they met in 2014 through a platform called Ask.fm that at least in Italy was very popular at the time in their age group. Giorgia was "famous" in that platform mainly because of her saucy content. She wasn't posting nudes there but she'd reply to questions about sex, giving advice on sex and relationships and in general she was very brazen which I assume Damiano liked.

They met at some point that year when she was in Rome (she lived in Milan but she had dropped out of school by that point and was already trying to make it as a model) and that's when that photo of them as teenagers that Giorgia posted once was taken.

I've no idea if they stayed in contact in the following years, probably yes to some extent, but they both had other partners and Giorgia was even engaged to the guy she dated before Damiano. She was still dating that guy in 2017 and he was with lucrezia.

For September- early December 2017 Damiano was in the Xfactor house without any contact with the outside world but when he made his relationship public with Giorgia in May 2021 he said that they'd been together for "almost 4 years" so I assume they reconnected at some point in summer 2017.

Fans first noticed her in 2018, some fans had seen her coming out of a hotel with Damiano during their first tour and took photos and posted them on Twitter but Damiano dmed the official fan club asking them to get that fan to take down the photos. It may seem unbelievable now but they managed to do that, the fandom was very small so after a few hours the photos were gone.

Anyway, if I'm being honest no one thought their relationship was very important because during the same period Belen had appeared at some gigs and Damiano was very obsessed with her, he had even mentioned her on interviews. And in general there were many rumors about Damiano sleeping around back then, not with any one famous besides belen, but he didn't exactly act as a guy in a serious relationship.

Early 2019, around March April, they broke up. They unfollowed each other and Vic and Thomas (who had followed her back in 2018) unfollowed her too. I don't know the reason ofc but, also having read her book which was mostly written during those years, I think Giorgia wanted the relationship to get more serious and Damiano wasn't down for that. I distinctly remember that on his birthday in 2019 he had a small party with all his friends etc and Giorgia was posting sad stories from Milan, it gave me the impression he was attracted to her but - as bad as it sounds - didn't want to include her in his social life because he didn't see her as girlfriend material.

Why he didn't see her as girlfriend material...I'm not saying this judgmentally but Giorgia's career at the time wasn't exactly easily palatable. She was doing erotica photoshoots and Damiano was 20 years old and trying to build a career. Sincerely, and I'm not saying this to shade her in any way, but the photos she was doing at the time would qualify as Only Fans content today. And how many artists you can think of that are dating OF girls? I think as cynical as it sounds, Damiano knew she wouldn't be good for his image.

The breakup didn't last long though, 2-3 months later they were back together but still she was pretty separate from his friends and family, like he'd taken a vacation with her alone and then he'd gone with the band and friends and even though janis was there, he wouldn't bring Giorgia. Or then he'd gone to Puglia to his family (his mom's family is there) and again Jacopo would be there with his girlfriend but Giorgia was nowhere to be found.

In September 2019 maneskin went to live in London until February 2020, Giorgia went to visit once.

Then lockdown happened and she came to Rome to spend it with Damiano. They got the cats during lockdown. When it ended in May, she decided to move to Rome permanently from Milan but she got her own apartment, she didn't move in with Damiano.

To answer to the other anon, that's when she reinvented herself. She stopped modelling as a career and started building a brand around feminism as an influencer. She also started dressing differently, acting differently, posting different things. Later that year she also got her vulvodynia diagnosis and after that activism around those illnesses became her main focus.

She was pretty unknown until March 2021 when maneskin won Sanremo and paparazzi pictures of her with Damiano there came out. And then after they won Eurovision her fame skyrocketed because her video reaction to their victory went viral.

I don't know what more to tell you, for what it counts I do believe too that the image of their relationship in 2022 - 2023 was manufactured to an extent. What I can tell you is that in the old fandom pre esc she was heavily disliked because there were a lot of rumors about her being very jealous of every woman around Damiano, even fans, also a lot of rumors of her disliking Victoria. But I can't know if that stuff was true.

Fans tend to either love her or hate her, I'm more neutral towards her. I think she has her flaws but I do believe she loved Damiano and I also believe he wasn't the greatest boyfriend at many points. Their relationship always seemed rocky though and I wasn't surprised it ended in such a messy way.

.

[claudiajcregg]

i'd love to hear any behind the scenes you have on 'say it's here where our pieces fall in place' bc i read it and loved it and i want to know about it 💜

Welp, I've been thinking about this since you sent it and I feel I won't do it justice! I feel like I could say a lot if I went chapter by chapter, but many tabs of unread fics stare back at me. I'll skim and try to say something, though.

Some commentary on say it's here where our pieces fall in place under the cut! I am sick and rambly. And lbr I can never shut up anyway, but this might be too incoherent even for me. (Original ask post here)

It was sort of an unofficial NaNoWriMo project, in that I set myself a goal to tackle “longer fics” or ideas I wanted to cover but hadn't. From my notes, I had this idea to write a ficlet per year because I always enjoy this kind of story, and I know I'd tried to approach different ones in the past. I started writing in late October/finished in Nov 2021. (The other fic I started was never finished, even if dammit, it hits.) I posted it in January, so it wasn't that bad, considering I'll often take months.

It's maybe important to note that I had only finished writing “The Monster (affectionate)” (aka the 148k-ish word IM AU) in early September and I felt a bit burned out after spending five months writing that (would’ve been less but the struggle was real for the last third of the story. Oddly reminiscing of you-know-what story these days). This arbitrary deadline helped me get back into writing. Granted, I wrote a couple of fics in those five months, but I wanted to try another multichapter.

Anyway. I picked some random, perhaps not obvious choices for the vignettes. It was partly to avoid writing something I might have potentially covered at one point, and also a challenge. Some are also strange (the dream!), but I kinda loved it? (Fun fact: the fic references the Sherry-Netherland, whose exterior is the establishing shot in Internal Displacement. I swear there is some thought put into my writing.) And as the A/N I wrote to myself, I definitely wrote and rewrote bits and pieces of this on my way to and from therapy, haha.

Let me find a fun fact about each of the chapters, if I can think of any.

1998: actually repurposed some campaign fic idea I distinctly remember writing in spring 2018, while I was still in uni. It also has GLOVES. I live for that.

1999: I like the idea of exploring Danny and Abbey's relationship! They presumably have a good one and yet, I don't think we ever see them interact. (And god. Danny's recent, pre-campaign breakup is a recurring theme in my campaign stories too, loool.)

2000: Danny and Josh are an underrated friendship, and I like the references to Rosslyn. There was so much in those months in Midterms that we didn't see, and I like thinking Danny visited his friend.

We also got two back-to-back chapters focused on Danny - I remember trying to make it even, so that the focus was more or less evenly split.

2001: the Manchester fuckup! And it's one of the dream chapters! There were two of them? (We're 3 out of 4 in which I was surprised by the focus, but now I kinda want to re-read it all properly?) I'll say that I can see some vague, unconscious inspo from Freefall by KadeeFalls in this chapter (esp since I was just talking to you about it)... But I'm mostly obsessed with the magical realism (there's another term that my foggy brain cannot think of rn) of dreams, and how it can help us clear our heads.

2002: I remembered this was set after Simon! I know it's probably an odd, controversial choice but they both tried to move on (at least, we know CJ did), and it felt disingenuous not to include it. There are moments when she almost admits to her previous (?) feelings for Danny, but stops.

As with most thus far, there were fluffier and probably better choices for 2002 (Christmas!!), but... My brain wanted it to appear like CJ couldn't really bring herself to think about Danny.

2003: Aw, the specialty store is inspired by a franchise over here that had Goldfish (not many flavors) and I took a dramatic license and added it over there. I also added a small flashback because I love thinking Danny doesn't think they're all that but likes them. (But will tease CJ about it.) Plus, some more resolution to moving on!

2004: Yeah, the formatting is weird. (This is one I'd have to go back and do a blockquote or something.) Danny winning a Pulitzer for the Shareef stuff is a mostly accepted headcanon. CJ seeing his picture on the paper and having feels is just something I love, especially if he mentions someone else. (Look. I'm all for letting him pine, but he deserves to move on and fail too.) Plus Josh teasing her!

2005: The Sherry-Netherland! fwiw, I'm sure I had finally figured out this was the place and decided it would be so cheeky to add it here. I'm so sMaRt. Flowers when she gets promoted! And my spin (in this story) of CJ vaguely shunning him. This is the angst before the fluff.

2006: I remembered this one was a dream at some restaurant! (Again the formatting is not great, but I didn't want to tip my obvious hand.) The same way I think CJ's dream in 2001 was about her wondering how Danny would have reacted, this is about Danny realizing he needs to reach out to her... But with the added family ~tale~. Def inspired by that lyric in "Sad Beautiful Tragic."

2007: I feel like having it at some random dinner with Josh and Donna was an odd choice, but I loved the idea of a double date! The scarf scene is just so! And the chaos siblings energy is great. It was a reprieve from the angst.

Meeting at LAX was right there! I had written a story or two trying to do it justice, so I'm guessing that's why it's not. And fwiw the airport story I wrote shortly after that is the one being posted ~soon~. (A rewritten, slightly expanded version.)

2008: Pregnancy mood swings! It hurt to make them fight, but it's so fluffy otherwise. From what I remember, it has various references to things that happen in the story (particularly from the first two chapters) but it still manages to close it rather nicely, showing how strong their marriage is. I hope.

Okay. This has gotten way too long and it's probably useless.

I've always said I could have written another 11 chapters using different scenes, because there are just so many, even outside the obvious ones... Though I feel I wouldn't be able to recapture the magic.

I do definitely want to reread this for real. As with many fics, it's one of those I used to reread often before posting it (especially the last quarter/third) and then just ignored after. See some other recent examples, such as memoir fic, Portland fic.

Thank you for asking, Ally! God, I used to be a good writer. What happened?!??!

[lilflowerpot]

hello flower! i’ve never submitted an ask to tumblr before, but i just wanted to say this.

(btw, everything in this post is true. it’s kinda an unbelievable story)

i’ve been a fan of LB since it’s publish! i’m pretty sure i discovered it in mid 2018, so i’ve been here for a long time!

i’ve been following ur writing for years and watched you improve annually. i fell in love with your story and writing extremely quickly, and i always looked forward to your new chapters. i distinctly remember feeling ecstatic when keith finally revealed his face !!

however, in 2019, i suffered a catastrophic head injury whilst skiing, which caused me to lose most - if not all - my memories. in truth, i should of died or been in a coma, but i escaped with some critical injuries instead. a broken neck, fractured skull, broken eye socket, the whole shebang lol.

luckily, i was not paralyzed, and i can say now that my recovery has been well! i’m back to being fully functional (sometimes) except for a couple motor control issues.

but the real problem was my memory, i could remember my family and relationships, but i forgot practically every fundamental fact about myself, including my middle name. additionally, i suffered a lot from aphasia and neuro problems which made me struggle to understand sounds coming from people if that makes sense. to cure this, my mom and dad introduced me to (guess what!) voltron. they knew it was my fav show before the crash, so in a sense, they tried to reignite my memories and help work on my sensory processing ability.

i fell in love with the show - again- and watched it during my recovery. probably the only reason i can talk today is because of vld! i find it a little ironic that despite losing myself in the crash, i came full circle. and u can probably guess what happens next!

in 2021, i rediscovered ur fic whilst in the voltron tab. it kinda shocked me to see “Visited: 309” under the fic because i had no recollection of ever reading it. the person i was before must’ve loved it, so i gave it a shot! (btw, me before crash and me now i consider different ppl)

so, i began to read, every word from start to finish. and, as cheesy as it sounds, i think i fell in love again. my recovery has been endlessly difficult and was particularly rough 2020-2021, so this kinda supported me in a way. seeing the growing number of how many times i visited LB reminded me that i had existed the day before.

to give context, every morning i woke up, i would forget almost everything abt myself. eventually that got resolved, but it was jarring. so, seeing that number rise, and reliving the joy of reading LB for the first time gave me hope.

LB means so much to me for this reason. sometimes when it felt like i was losing my humanity to depression and pain, it reminded me that, out there, the previous versions of me were hoping to read LB again. in a sense, i was motivated to read the new chapters as an ode to my previous-day self if that makes sense.

now, 7 months after successfully waking up and remembering the previous day, i am writing this with tears in my eyes. i am writing this with a smile, and i’m writing this with the hope that it reminds you that your literature has saved me, and i’m sure countless other people.

in a way, i view LB as the sunrise. even though there’s the chance that tomorrow never comes, the sunrise serves as a reminder that the previous day existed, and that there are more sunrises to look forward to.

and, to be honest, i think that if i woke up forgetting everything everyday, id be okay with it because i get to read your fic for the first time - again. also, the humor in it is 10/10 haha!!

(also, if u were wondering or worried, i’m also okay with waking up with no memories do to other things and not just LB. incase u were worried that i’m strictly dependent on LB, which i’m not LMAO)

i would’ve submitted this a couple months ago, but i couldn’t put it into words. i don’t think i can possibly explain what you and your fic means to me, so the sun over the horizon will have to do.

even if you think that it’s cheesy that a goofy voltron fic means so much to someone, i hope you find it in yourself to treasure your talent and skill in writing.

i’m so excited for the next chapter, and the next sunrise i get to see <3

here is a pic of the sun i took this morning. thank you for writing, and reading this really long ask. there’s no pressure to respond, although it would be cool to see, but i hope you read this nonetheless. btw u can publish the response if u were wondering.

sincerely,

D <3

I have been trying quite desperately to compose an answer to this one since it first appeared in my inbox, and at this point I don't know that I'll ever be able to do you justice, but two months is far too long for you to have waited for something of this magnitude, so please bear with me while I endeavour to do my absolute best.

First and foremost, I am so sorry for everything you've been through (though I can only assume you've heard that sentiment ad nauseam, so do forgive me if you're sick of it), but more than that I am distinctly and unbelievably proud of the grace with which you seem to have taken such catastrophe in stride. I couldn't possibly claim comprehend the true scope of all that you've endured, but I hope in some small way it might give you,,, comfort? a sense of camaraderie maybe? to know that aphasia is something I'm intimately familiar with as a recurrent symptom of my migraines, due to them being hemiplegic in nature, so I know the frustration of being unable to comprehend sounds you know you should recognise- being unable to articulate your own thoughts- feeling half trapped inside your own damn skull- all too well, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, least of so sweet a soul as yourself.

My darling, I'll say again: I am //fiercely fucking proud// of you, for not only enduring but in truth overcoming all that you have. Though we do not know one another, this message alone bleeds with such admirable strength of character that I cannot think you anything less than a remarkable and resilient individual, and to know that my writing could in any capacity support you through such an ordeal is both an honour and a privilege.

All my love,

lilflowerpot ♡

[daechwitatamic]

When did you become ARMY? and has Tae always been your bias?

AH, hello! You'd like my villain origin story, hm?

I guess I'll use a read more because I'm cursed by the inability to EVER shut up.

So back in 2020-2021 someone that I've been friends with for over 10 years and follow on tumblr became army. She was posting tons and tons of giftsets and vids every day as she began to work her way through the content. I didn't pay much attention at first but as the moths passed I somehow eventually started playing a little game with myself called "Is Jungkook in this/Can you find Jungkook" because that was her bias at the time and I only knew his name.

Somehow this expanded to one or two other members (I wanna say Jimin and Joon?) and it was just my private little game with myself when she would post.

I can tell you the exact moment I actually paid attention - she posted gifs of this moment:

I remember DISTINCTLY sitting up like wait, they're actually good/talented???

We got to the point where Dynamite was out and I'll be honest, I didn't really like it and I still don't. But after this moment I thought okay maybe I'm missing something.

So the summer of 2021 I dm'ed her and said, "Hey, want to rec me some BTS songs? My playlist feels stale."

She sent me Mic Drop (steve's version lol), Fake Love, and Truth Untold and I loved all three (they still remain among my top faves!). I asked for a few more. So on it went until I'd listened to the whole discography lol. Eventually she sent me like a list of their discography and I would watch the lyric video that lights up who's singing so I could 1) know what the lyrics were about and 2) kind of learn their voices. If I liked a song when I listened to the lyric video, I threw it in a giant playlist on Spotify. I ended up with uhhhhhhhh a lot of songs lol.

I also watched Run BTS from episode one all the way through during that summer. I watched Bon Voyage 1, 3, and 4 and watched 2 together with her later in the fall.

We went together to PTD LA (I flew from the east coast lol someone save jo) that December and saw Coldtan :')

The following March I started reading and writing ff and made this account :')

Anyway, was Taehyung my first bias - yes!! The first moment I was like "oh THAT ONE" was she had sent me a compilation of Taehyung saying insane shit with a straight face and I got to "that's the eyeliner" and had to pause to collect myself because him!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then I also saw a gif from this moment (hi maggie lol) and I remember being like WAIT HOLLUP WHO IS THAT? ONE OF THE MEMBERS LOOKS LIKE THAT? WHO IS IT? and it was cemented. I alsoooooo remember DISTINCTLY losing my shit the first time I listened to Singularity because HIS VOICE!!!!! HIS VOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEEPER THAN THE OCEAN IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT TO DROWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyway ahem we're all normal here.

However it was MAYBE only two weeks after Taehyung claimed me that I dm'ed her again like, "Why does my brain suddenly love Suga?" and she was like "I was waiting for that" and for the majority of my army time I have really considered myself a double-bias, at times feeling like maybe I was a Yoongi-ult but these days the taehyung chokehold is stronger, I'm afraid. At PTD LA Yoongi came to our corner of the stage in a leather jacket during soundcheck and I'm telling u I ascended I was not on this planet anymore i did not breathe air until he was gone again afjheaiufqiughijg

THEN of course Mr. Kim Namjoon had to absolute wreck my shit in the Indigo era and took over my entire existence SIGH.

So, idk. These days I feel like a Tae-ult with Yoongi wrecker and Joon wrecker-wrecker? But ot7 are soooo special and wonderful and amazing, like truly the universe aligned to take these seven more extraordinary humans and put them together!! Like?! they're so special, i love them a lot fr :')

ANYWAY did you learn to never ask me anything because I will talk until I die?! love you anon have a wonderful fridayyyyyyyy <3

[mikazuki1709]

TBT: A suspicious gift | Kaeluc Fic

I almost missed the time for the next throwback thursday. 😆

For today I picked my first ever Kaeluc fic. I wrote it for the 30 Days Of Kaeluc Event in 2021, and it was a totally spontaneous decision to participate back then. I never regretted it though, because it opened a completely new world to me. Before, I had never been an active part of a fandom like this, and I am very happy that I was able to make this experience.

Fandom: Genshin Impact

Ship: Kaeya/Diluc, Kaeluc

Rating: G

Words: 433

Tags: Anniversary, Possible Reconciliation, Angel's Share

Summary: Diluc receives a mysterious present that sends him down memory lane.

Preview:

With a suspiciously furrowed brow, Diluc looked at the small package on the table in front of him. He had found it there when he had intended to close the bar for the night. There could be no doubt about the sender of the box - Kaeya had spent the evening in that very place. Besides, no one else would have had the idea of tying these two small flowers of all things - a calla lily and a small lamp grass - to the box. What mischief was the man up to now again? After looking at the package for a long time, his curiosity won out and Diluc untied the ribbon to open the box. Inside was a book. Although it was a different edition from the one Diluc remembered from his childhood, he immediately recognised the title. Back then, it had been both their favourite book, full of brave heroes who experienced exciting adventures and saved everyone around them time and time again. They had borrowed it over and over from the library and spent whole afternoons playing out the adventures with their wooden swords and hobbyhorses. A wave of nostalgia swept over Diluc, and he stroked the leather cover of the book thoughtfully before finally opening it. On the first page he found a dedication, clearly and distinctly written in Kaeya's expressive handwriting:

[...]

Read the full fic on ao3

[the-rewatch-rewind]

My final guest episode, with not one but two very special guests!

Transcript below the break

Jane

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be discussing number 7 on my list: Disney’s 2001 comedy The Princess Diaries, directed by Garry Marshall, written by Gina Wendkos based on a book by Meg Cabot, and starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.

Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is a shy and unpopular 15-year-old just trying to survive high school, when the grandmother she’s never met, Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews), shows up and reveals that she is the queen of a small European country called Genovia. Since Mia’s father, whom she also never met, has recently died and had no other children, Mia is now first in line for the throne. While she’s still deciding whether to accept this job, Mia receives princess lessons and a makeover, and has to deal with how these changes affect her relationships, especially with her best friend Lilly Moscovitz (Heather Matarazzo) and Lilly’s brother Michael (Robert Schwartzman).

This movie is so fun and iconic that I felt like I needed two special guests to talk about it with me, so in a few moments I will be joined by my sister Rosemary, whom you may remember from the Newsies episode, and my friend Sophie, whom you may remember from the Enchanted episode. But first, the breakdown of when I watched this movie after I started keeping track: three times in 2003, three times in 2004, five times in 2005, twice in 2006, twice in 2007, twice in 2008, once in 2009, once in 2010, once in 2012, twice in 2013, once in 2015, once in each year from 2017 through 2020, twice in 2021, and once in 2022. Yes, I watched this movie 30 times in 20 years, and I would do it again. So let’s talk about it!

Hello, Sophie and Rosemary.

Sophie

Hi!

Rosemary

Hello.

Jane

Welcome back to both of you. 

Sophie 

Thank you. Happy to be back. 

Rosemary 

Thanks for having me back. 

Jane 

I'm so glad to have you both here, even though you've never met each other before, but I know that you both love this movie, as do I. So I'm very excited to talk about Princess Diaries. I think we can start with how we got introduced to this movie, if we remember. I know that Rosemary saw it in theaters and I did not. 

Sophie 

That's too bad. Rosemary, you want to go first? 

Rosemary 

Sure! Um, I don't remember exactly all of the circumstances. I do remember going to see it in theaters with my mom and it was really good. We really enjoyed it. And we're like, Jane will love this, and really liked the line, “Goodbye trolley people!” That really tickled us. And then I do remember around the same time, the local like, bookstore and newspaper, I think, put on this contest where someone could, like, write an essay about why they should be like princess for the day or something. And one of my best friends at the time was like the winner of it.

Sophie

Wow.

Rosemary

So that was when I like, realized that, oh, these are actually books too, and then got really into the books around the same time as well. 

Sophie 

That's so cool. 

Rosemary 

So those are my like, early memories of Princess Diaries. 

Sophie 

Yeah, I actually can't remember if I got into the books or the movie first. Probably the movie, but I would say my trajectory was really similar. Like if I saw the movie first, then I read the books immediately after. And I probably saw like a trailer for the movie on Disney Channel or whatever because I… I do distinctly remember, like they did this thing where like they would if if the movie or show or whatever had a song, they would do, like a music video of whatever the big song was in the movie, and show that as like a commercial for whatever it was. And then in this case, because they're, I mean, there was Miracles Happen and they probably did a music video of that. But they also did, they would show like a scene from whatever it was like, sneak peek into our latest whatever. And so they did the the tea scene at the consulate where the “Gosh, Gee whiz, golly-wolly” exchange happens. And so of course, like me and all my other little 6-year-old friends were saying “shut up” to each other and thought that was the peak of hilarity, which I'm sure our parents were thrilled with. So that was, that was definitely a big, a big scene for us. 

Rosemary 

And then I also remember like, early on, like shortly after it came out on VHS or whatever, for Jane's birthday, her like birthday party was like… I remember our family, but I don't know who else was there, and we all just, like, gathered in the living room on the pull out couch with the like, little like 12 inch VHS player. And we all like gathered around it and watched Princess Diaries. 

Sophie 

That's so fun. 

Rosemary 

And that was like your 12th birthday party or something. 

Jane 

Yeah. Yeah. No, I I was trying to- cause I definitely remember you and mom going to see it and and coming back and being like, “There was this really funny ‘goodbye trolley people’ scene!” And I was like, what does that even mean? [laughs] But I don't remember like I assumed that I'd seen it before that birthday party, because otherwise why would I have asked to watch it for my birthday?

Sophie

Yeah.

Jane

I didn't see it in theaters, but maybe we had rented it or something before that. But I definitely remember that because I we watched it for my birthday party and then since we had rented it, we had it for a few more days and I watched it like multiple times all of the days that we had it because it was also like my birthday was during spring break. And that was only like a couple of months after our aunt died. So it was like a weird time and I was like, kind of sad during that time. But like that week, I just remember like, watching this movie over and over and just being like, “I love this so much! This is the thing that makes me happy!” But I wasn't keeping track of movies yet because that was 2002 and so I'm like, OK, well, if I if I'd started a year earlier, then this movie would have so many more watches.

Sophie

Yeah.

Jane

Because as it is, I've watched it 30 times in in the 20 years that I counted. But I don't remember how many times I had watched it before, but I definitely was just, like, so in love with it. I'm not exactly sure what it was about this movie that I was so excited about when I first started watching it. 

Rosemary 

Well, it's very… it's a very comforting movie.

Sophie

Mm-hmm.

Jane

Yeah.

Rosemary

Like, it feels very like warm and like a hug.

Sophie 

Yeah. I do… like, I always worry with the movies that I feel that way about. Like, is it nostalgia or is it really a good movie? I think this one airs on the side of it's really a just a good movie. 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I I would agree. I just I every time I watch it, I'm just like, this is just so nice.

Sophie

Yeah.

Jane

It's, it there's, I mean there's conflict and there's like a few uncomfortable moments. But overall it's just like a nice story. 

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary 

And it has a good it's a good tone between silly, goofy and also like very sweet and sincere, and like it never feels like overreaching in the, like emotional moments that it hits.

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary

Like it all feels very like genuine and earned and like realistic. 

Sophie 

Yeah, for like for finding out that you're a Princess when you're 15. It's a really realistic movie. 

Rosemary 

Well, yes. Is it based on a true story?

Sophie 

But no but I get what you're saying. Like the premise is absurd and at the same time it's very grounded in reality. And I I appreciate that, like, the characters seem to be genuine, like good hearted people. I love that people apologize when they do the wrong thing. Like, and Jane and I were talking before we started recording about the some of the changes between the book and the movie. And I think making Clarisse a nice person is one of the things that this movie does really well. Because book Clarisse would never have apologized to Mia for making her feel bad or, like, not listening to her. And then you get Julie Andrews, who's like, “I'm really sorry that I judged before I, you know, heard your side of the story.” 

Jane 

One of my favorite stories about this movie coming to be is that when they were talking to Meg Cabot about how they were going to adapt it, somebody was telling her, like, “We're thinking about, like, killing off the dad and expanding the grandmother’s role.” Because because the dad is alive in the books. And like, “We have someone, like a really big star in mind to play the grandmother and we think like, we should expand her role and get rid of the dad.” And Meg Cabot was like, “Well, who… who you were thinking?” and they said “Julie Andrews,” and she immediately went, “Kill the dad.”

[all laugh]

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

And Julie Andrews… this was an interesting point in her career because she had recently undergone surgery that caused her to lose a lot of her singing voice. Like that was in the mid 90s. And so she was kind of. In retirement to a certain degree, like she wasn't really sure what the rest of her career might look like. And this was also her first Disney movie since Mary Poppins.

Sophie

Wow.

Jane

And it's just so cool to see her sort of mentoring Anne Hathaway, who is making her feature film debut in a big Disney movie, which is exactly what Julie Andrews had done with Mary Poppins. And first of all, just… hard to believe that this is Anne Hathaway's first movie because she's so… she carries the movie so well, like I do think that's a big part of why you get that grounded feel is like she brings such a like realistic sense to the role of Mia. And I just think she was perfectly cast. And I also just think it's so fun that she's kind of following in the footsteps of Julie Andrews. I mean, obviously her career has looked very different overall, but it's kind of fun that they both have the same introduction to movies. 

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary 

That is really interesting that Julie Andrews didn't do more Disney movies after Mary Poppins. 

Jane 

Yeah, right? Cause you think, she's such a Disney icon. 

Rosemary 

Yeah, you would think that like they would be really fighting for her to have roles and stuff. 

Sophie 

Keep her in. Keep her in the family, in the fold. 

Jane 

Yeah, that was that was something that I hadn't, I wasn't really aware of until relatively recently. I was looking at more facts about this movie, and I was like, wait really? It's just very interesting. I'm not really sure how that conversation went, of like convincing her to do this movie if she was, like, really excited about it, or if she needed some persuasion. But I'm really glad she did because like, I'm sure I had seen Mary Poppins and Sound of Music multiple times before Princess Diaries came out. But, like, that's really what made me become a Julie Andrews fan is seeing her just totally kill it in this role. 

Sophie 

Yeah, I think Mary Poppins probably was my first, but this is the first that I like, really remember of her. 

Jane 

Yeah. So the two of them, I mean, everybody in this movie is great, but I love the dynamic between the two of them and like the whole scene when they're like at the arcade together is really nice, and and just like seeing their characters relationship transformed throughout the movie is great. And I… just thinking about like, yes, this is a romantic story and like there's some focus on her and Michael, but there's so many other relationships that are really important and really focused on in this movie and like, Mia and her grandmother, Mia and her mother, Mia and Lilly. Like there's friendships and family relationships, and it's like, and there's a romance, too. But it's kind of like, that's not really what the majority of the movie is focused on, which I think has always resonated with me. 

Sophie 

Yeah, I would definitely agree that although the Josh versus Michael conflict is a really big one, it is a romantic conflict and yet it's not like… it's not romantic. It's just, like, kind of an allegory for Mia trying to, in much the same way that to be a Princess or not to be a Princess is like her growing up and developing. Like maybe the things that I thought I wanted aren't the things that are going to make me the happiest. And I do sort of like in the book that she's always had this kind of pining crush for Michael, I think that's very sweet, but it's nice that Josh serves as like a, this, you know, this is what I've thought I've been working towards this whole time and then it turns out it actually is really horrible and I don't like it. And I would rather do something else. I think it serves the same sort of purpose that she's like, growing up and becoming more like sure of herself and confident. 

Rosemary 

Yeah, I think things that I've always liked about the movie, like the romantic teen sort of aspects of it, is that it feels more realistic to what people actually go through in their high school years than a lot of teen movies. Where they're like, “Oh, this is my true love. I'm going to marry them. I'm gonna…” you know, whereas like Mia has this crush on this guy and like, she gets all giggly and flustered when she's around him and she's not smooth and neither really is he. But, you know… 

Jane 

He thinks he is, though. 

Rosemary 

He thinks he is and and I feel like that's very like, sweetly portrayed. And like a very innocent like teen romance feel. But I think a lot of teen movies, they rush into being way too adult and like heavy feeling, but I've always, I've always really liked that Mia doesn't… she doesn't... Josh doesn't notice her because really, any other reason other than because she's a Princess. She doesn't have smooth pick-up lines. She's not like, cool and confident. There's not really any focus on, “Oh she's like, really sexy. So he’s, of course he notices her.” It's really just because he wants to be… have some fame. And then like this guy that's like her best friend's brother, like, I feel like that's stuff that happens to people, you know? It's like you're around these people for your whole growing up years and you're like, “Well, I have feelings. I don't know what these are. But maybe I'm in love with you. But maybe I just…” you know, trying to figure things out. And like she wants to get her first kiss. And it just feels so sweet and innocent in a way that I think a lot of teen movies really miss that point and are really like thrown into like much bigger, like, “I'm desperately in love with you” or “I want to sleep with you” or things like that. And this movie really like, keeps it, like at least more of what my experience as a teenager was where it was like, “Oh, I have a crush on this person. I'm awkward, and then we move on or we hope they notice us. But then when they do, I don't know what to do and…” So that aspect of, it does have that romantic story, but it definitely feels like, yes, these are teenagers who are, like, feeling things for the first time. And what does that mean, and what does that look like? 

Sophie 

Right. It's very sweet and innocent. She's like, very concerned with if her foot's gonna pop or not. Like she's not…. there's no like, you were saying, it's not like desperate. She's not like, this is, you know, “My my parents say I can't be with this person. And so therefore I have to have them, and we have to run off and get married and then he's going to turn me into a vampire” or whatever. And she wants to be kissed and she wants to have this little like old movie moment. And then she does get that and it's… But it's… with Michael it also is a little bit of maturity. Like, “I don't like him because he's, you know, cute or popular or he has a boat or whatever” it's, you know, “You… you noticed me. You saw the real me and you like me anyway.” 

Rosemary 

“You saw me when I was invisible.”

Sophie 

Tears. And then all the lights turn on and the fountains come on and we’re in the garden with the roses and yeah, so. 

Jane 

Yeah, that's it's interesting because so much of the movie feels so like relatively realistic given the premise. And then that moment, it does kind of seem a little bit fairy tale-ish. But it's also explained because multiple times throughout the movie, The Queen is talking about how she needs the gardens to be fancier. 

Sophie 

“Make me an Eden.” 

Jane 

Yeah, exactly. So they're like working on the gardens the whole time. And so like that kind of that pays off in that moment, too. And it's like, it's not just this came out of nowhere. It's like, this is what the garden needed to be beautiful for! 

Rosemary 

And I love that we keep going back to, “Yeah, this movie is realistic. The story is realistic” because, OK, first of all, she finds out she's a Princess for the first time when she's 15. And Josh, who's, like a 15/16 year old, has a boating license? And his own boat?

Sophie

[laughing] Yeah.

Rosemary

But otherwise it's it's realistic. 

Sophie 

They go to this high school that can rent out an entire private beach with a DJ and catering. What even is this party? They’re… Josh is on his boat. The the girls are doing their like studio sound system concert. There's like random food with whole watermelons, for some reason. They do like a close up shot on this kids plate, and he's got half a watermelon filled with grapes like, what are you doing? Who provided this? Who is this for? 

Jane 

And in a deleted scene they did a banana dance.

Sophie

Right. Yeah.

Jane

But I mean, I guess part of it is explained like, that it is a really fancy rich school because, like, it seems like her royal family members were paying for it, which she seemed to be somewhat unaware of. 

Sophie 

In lieu of having a relationship, I'll just like send my child to private school and buy a Faberge carousel for her bedroom. 

Jane 

Yeah, because of course. 

Sophie 

I did really want that though as a child. The little music box thing. And the diary that opens with the locket. That was the coolest. 

Jane 

That is really cool. I also think it's funny though, because like the books like the whole conceit of the books is that they are her Diaries, like she's writing them, and in the movie she doesn't even get the diary until the end. 

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary 

Well, you know, but OK, so books that are turned into movies. Generally, I'm like, the book is better. Why do we even have the movie? The movie tried, but it didn't do anything. And I feel very differently about this. I…love Princess Diaries as a movie and I love the book series and they are two very different things. 

Sophie 

Completely separate entities. 

Rosemary 

Yeah. And also all I want in the world is like a miniseries that takes place in the early 2000s in New York, where the books take place and shows these teenagers in the early 2000s, actually doing what the books are and like, have it be really good. And I would pay a lot of money to see that. So whatever major streaming service is listening to this, I would love that and to have actually have the main grandma and the dad who's alive and justice for Tina Hakim Baba. 

Sophie

God bless!

Rosemary 

Because we love her and she needs her moment. 

Sophie 

She sure does. 

Rosemary 

So I would love that. 

Sophie 

Yeah. Well, I I volunteer to to write it. I I I will be in the writers’ room once the strike is over, but with the caveat that it can't be gritty. Like they can't, it can't be dark. There can't be, like, you know, we're all really depressed and sneaking around and like, it has to be as like sweet, but a little more aged up than what the movie was. 

Rosemary

Yes.

Jane 

Yeah, cause I do definitely feel like the movie is for a younger audience than the books. 

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Sophie 

Yeah, which is weird because I'm sure that I started reading them when I was like 7 years old and she's talking about, like, getting her period at the Moscovitz's house and like wanting to make out with someone at Lilly's bat mitzvah. And I was like, what is what is this? 

Rosemary 

And then there's that, like, weird stalker man that like is stalking Lilly and wants to see her feet, and…

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary

But like, I loved that series so much. Reading those books like, really got me into, like, YA realistic fiction? Realistic. We're going with that again.

[Jane and Sophie laugh]

Rosemary

But like I was obsessed with, like, YA books all through, like middle and high school. And I think it really did start with Princess Diaries. And I was always, like, so excited when a new one came out and would like just devour it. Like even like last year when the…or earlier this year? I don't know. When Quarantine Princess came out, I was like, We have a new one. We still need more of this story. 

Jane 

How many books are there now? I mean, I guess there's some that aren't, like technically part of that series and…

Rosemary 

Yeah. So there's ten that encapsulate her, like high school years, and then there's like a few extra ones that go in there that are like little short ones. And then there's the one I think it's like her wedding, maybe? Yes, that one came out, I think maybe in, like, 2015-ish. And then there's Quarantine Princess, which came out like in blog format in 2020 and then got like compiled and more things added to it and came out like within the last year. So Mia is still around. She survived COVID. 

Jane 

And there's the spin off ones about her half-sister, right? 

Rosemary 

Yes. Yeah. So then… I think around the same time that that the one that came out in 2015 that I can't remember the name at this moment, Meg Cabot also made like a middle grade series that there's a younger half-sister that came into the picture. And so she has her diaries as well. So there's like, supplemental content there. And I I read the first one. And it was very sweet and good, but I don't think I read any of the other ones. 

Sophie 

I just found out about that. So that's all new to me, but I did... I did love the little like Princess Diaries and a half, much like The Lion King 1 1/2 I think is the best Lion King. I think some of the Princess Diaries and 1/2 are my favorites. I think the only one that I actually had was the one where she and Michael do Habitat for Humanity together. 

Rosemary 

Yeah, I was gonna say, I was like, isn't there one where they, like, build houses together or something?

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary

Yes. And then there's like a Christmas one too, I think. 

Sophie 

OK. And then that's probably why I didn't have that one.

Jane 

Being Jewish. 

Sophie 

Yeah because they needed like Lilly’s Hanukkah or whatever. And then I also had, I don't know if you know about these, there's one like companion book written I think by Clarisse. And then there's one written by Paolo and they're like… It's essentially The Care and Keeping of You, but the care and keeping of a princess?

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Sophie

And so Clarisse's one is like etiquette. All these etiquette rules for like dining at a fancy party. And then Paolo’s is like, how to, you know, do hair and makeup and stuff. And I love those. 

Rosemary 

Yeah, I remember reading those too. Is that when they talk about the cousin Sebastiano that like, doesn't finish his words and then he's like, “Please pass the butt.”

Sophie

[laughing] Probably. 

Jane 

I remember that character. 

Sophie 

Don't be like him and say “Pass the butt” at dinner, especially when meeting with heads of state. 

Rosemary 

So there's a lot of Princess Diaries content is what… what we can sum up this conversation with.

Jane

Definitely.

Rosemary

And all of it is good.

Sophie

Yeah. 

Jane 

I feel like, I mean, I know you were, like, way more into the books than I was.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

But I I feel like we read some of them together.

Rosemary

I’m sure we did.

Jane

Like you'd already read them. But like, we used to read stuff out loud to each other a lot. So I think that that was one of the things, at least… cause I remember really liking the third book, and now I'm like, I have no idea what even happens in the third book.

Rosemary 

The third book is the best. It’s really good. 

Sophie 

If that's the one with the non-denominational winter formal, that's I totally agree. 

Rosemary 

And that's when Michael makes a computer program to tell her that he loves her. 

Jane 

Oh yeah, okay.

Rosemary 

I would read that little section like over and over and over again, and I would be like, if only someone would love me enough to make a computer program that says- 

Sophie 

Aww, to code for you. 

Rosemary 

Yeah, and it says, like, “I love Princess Mia.” And then she, like, gets up and runs away because she's like, all embarrassed. And then she's like, later they talk and she's like, “I thought you were making fun of me,” and he's like, “Never.”

Sophie 

Aww, what a sweetie. I I love Michael. 

Rosemary 

I love Michael too. 

Sophie 

I think casting for him was great. He's so freaking weird in the movie and I love it in the scene where he's he's like still kind of mad at Mia and he comes over to the house. And she, like, gives him the last check for the car. He puts in it between his teeth as he walks out of the door. 

Jane 

Yeah, for no reason. 

Sophie 

He has nothing in his hands. What is wrong with him? I love him. 

Rosemary 

But he's also really weird in the books too. 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah, it worked. 

Rosemary 

“He fixes cars, he plays guitar,”

Rosemary and Sophie 

“and he can sing. He is so hot.” 

Jane 

“He is wicked sweet.” I think the person who said “he is wicked sweet” is the infamous cousin Meredith, who was Anne Hathaway's like… I don't know if she was technically her guardian. She was only a few years older than her. But like, I think that Anne Hathaway was still 17 when they started filming. But she was… she turned 18 during filming and that was… helpful to the filmmakers, because then she could work longer. But she was such a baby!

Sophie 

I know. Oh, she's so cute. 

Rosemary 

No, I've always loved Michael. I think he's a great character. He's a great person. He invented a robotic surgical arm in the books that, like, does heart surgery. 

Sophie 

Yeah, he's- I mean, he was… He's great. I… like I also I really get it as like someone who had – had? has - an older brother who, like all my friends were like, “Wow your brother's actually kind of hot.” And I'm over here, like Lilly, being like, what are you talking about? Are you blind? Because I live with the guy. But yeah, I definitely related to their to their family, as like neurotic Jews, just hanging out. 

Jane 

I think it's really funny how, like the moment at when they're like about to dance and at the ball at the end and and Mia doesn't know if Michael's going to show up or not and then he comes in. He like comes through the crowd and he passes Lilly and he like tickles her or something. It's like they have a weird little sibling moment there before he goes to dance with Mia and it's just like- 

Rosemary 

I knew you were gonna bring that up because I think of it every time, Jane’s just like, “It's so weird when he tickles her stomach!” 

Jane 

It is weird, but it's it's like, a good kind of weird. Of like like I think that too often, again going back to the whole like, romance versus other relationships thing. I think that that too often in romantic stories, it's like, they kind of forget about how everybody, how they're connected to everybody else once the like two get together. And I think that it's nice that their friends are there too. Like that, that Lilly and Jeremiah are also there and like it's showing that that it's like they're all connected and it's not just this. And that like Lilly is really the one who pushes Mia to to realize what being a princess could mean and how that could be a good thing and like a responsibility. 

Sophie 

Yeah. And I I also, I would agree with you, Jane, that it's weird. I think it's, maybe not on purpose, but like that is a very like, at least in my experience like my brother would do that too, and it would be very awkward, but he would like mean it in a loving way.

Jane

Right.

Sophie

He just doesn't know what else to do. 

Jane 

Yeah. No. And I I think that's great. I mean it's it's weird but, like, I I love that I love all the little weird things that happen. That's a big part of why I love this movie. There's so many weird little moments that you just kind of like, why is that there? But also I love it. I mean, just the whole thing with like when she breaks the statue, and puts the- 

Rosemary 

“Maybe it's string cheese.” 

Jane 

Yeah, exactly! She puts the finger in the mouth of the statue and and that scene is really funny too. I love when she breaks it and she immediately like shushes the statue. Like, “Don't tell anyone that I broke you.” And then like, she just sticks it in there and it's just like kind of a throwaway thing. And then it comes back in the best way. “They're famous for their cheese. Maybe it's string cheese,” and it's just, ah, it's so good. But like that, that serves no purpose, but it's hilarious. 

Rosemary 

Also, how did she break that statue? Like isn't it made out of like marble? Like…

Sophie 

Right. 

Rosemary 

That she would just like touch it and it would break? Like what? What is that statue made out of? 

Jane 

That was an untapped part of the story that she also has super strength. But just like nobody- that's why she always falls down and stuff like she does. She can't really control her own strength. 

Sophie 

Yeah, gravity is too strong. 

Rosemary 

They would be like, “We can't put that in there because then it would not be realistic.” 

Jane 

[laughs] But we'll have hints for it anyway. Ah man. 

Sophie 

Yeah, and and that her first idea is to reattach it with saliva. Like, that's good work. 

Jane 

[laughing] Uh, I love it. I love it so much. Just like fun moments like that is really, I think what makes it such an enjoyable movie, because like just, there's stuff that still makes me laugh when I've seen it more than 30 times.

Sophie

Yeah.

Jane

Just like…

Rosemary

“Please don't crush my soy nuts.”

Jane

“Your soy nuts are safe.” Ohh man. Yeah, just so many great moments. And I mean, I do enjoy the movie Princess Diaries 2, but it just like has nothing to do with anything. I feel like it's so weird that they just like went ahead and made it even though the guy who played Michael couldn't be in it and they’re just like, “Well, Michael's not important anymore.”

Sophie

Yeah. 

Rosemary 

The fact that they made them break- “Oh, we're still friends, but we're broken up. And now I'm going to like, go fall in love with someone else.” That is not Mia Thermopolis. She is obsessed with Michael. She's in love with Michael. I don't care. Book, movie, whatever. It's fine. Princess Diaries 2 is fine as a movie, but it's a totally different universe. One where Raven is randomly there. And there's mattress surfing. 

Sophie 

A an African Princess.

Rosemary

Yeah. It’s just-

Sophie

Like, get someone from Africa! I mean, she's American. 

Jane 

Like, is she an African prin-? Like it's we don't know who she is, she's not explained. It's just like she shows up and and Mia’s like, “Oh it’s you!”

Sophie

“It’s my best friend!”

Jane

And it's like, who is this? We've never seen her before. Please introduce her to the audience! 

Sophie 

I do. I do wonder if at the end of the first movie they like on the plane to Genovia they enter some sort of like slipstream wormhole situation and just like land in another universe. And that's why everything is crazy in the second movie. 

Jane 

The castle that they see out the airplane window is completely different in the second movie. 

Sophie 

I do love it, in like a very campy removed from book and first movie reality way. But yeah it's it's not like… It's not the first one. 

Jane 

No, and it has a terrible script, like so many of the lines are so forced, and it's like, man, these actors were working really hard to sell this.

Sophie

Yeah.

Jane

Like, certain certain moments just, like, don't work at all. There are funny lines in the second one, but I just think the the first one… And I know that like a lot of the script of this movie was changed by Garry Marshall like while they were filming it. They talked about that in - oh, I should mention the commentary, because, while this commentary is not quite as iconic as Ella Enchanted I do… I have seen this a lot of times with the commentary with Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway having tea and Julie Andrews mostly just wants to talk about the tea, like the literal tea, not like spilling the metaphorical tea of the movie. She's just very excited about having tea. But Anne Hathaway, like, remembers the names of everybody and is, like, wants to give everybody credit for everything. But they talk a lot about how Garry Marshall would expect them to be, like, ready with the lines, but also ready to just like, chuck the entire script out on the day and be like, “No, actually now we're going to do it this way and say completely different lines.” And so a lot of it I think was… not exactly improvised, but sort of changed last minute, and if you watch other Garry Marshall movies, you can see that there's just so many things that he just likes to have in his movies that don't have anything to do with anything. And I think that's part of what makes this movie weird. And it's part of what makes it work too. I think that it feels more cohesive because it's so… there's the Garry Marshall trademark through it all. And that he had his children work on it and gave it sort of a family feel, I think really worked for this one. 

Sophie 

Yeah. Rosemary, I was saying to Jane that I need nepotism justice for Penny, because Penny is the only Marshall member that is not in this movie. And he mentioned in… I can't remember if it's the commentaries or like, one of the special features that he's like, “They wanted me to cast Penny as the queen and I said absolutely not.”

[all laugh] 

Jane 

That's got to be a joke, though. I don't think that anyone considered Penny Marshall for the queen, but that would be a hilarious movie. It'd be a very different movie, but it would be hilarious. 

Sophie 

Yeah. Well, Penny Marshall and actually Carrie Fisher in one of my favorite childhood books they did like a star-studded Emperor's New Clothes reading, and Penny Marshall and Carrie Fisher played the ladies in waiting, who are like very bitchy and talk about the queen behind her back. It's fantastic. 

Jane 

That sounds amazing. 

Rosemary 

Yeah, what role could Penny Marshall have played? 

Sophie 

That's a good question. They could have taken out the puppet and had Penny be the puppet instead. On strings. 

Jane 

But they didn't use the puppet thing at all. The person who says “Maybe it's string cheese” I believe is Garry Marshall's wife, so she- Penny could have just been one of those like background people. 

Sophie 

Yeah, she could have been at the state dinner. 

Jane 

She could have been the pear juggler. 

Sophie 

That would have been great. 

Rosemary 

Or one of the reporters.

Jane

Yeah, Suki- What's… Suki Sanchez?

Sophie

Suki Sanchez? Yeah.

Rosemary

No, we don't want to get rid of Suki Sanchez. I mean, one of the ones that were like, “I’m from Teen Scene Magazine!” 

Jane 

Oh yeah. OK. 

Sophie 

“She's wearing a grunge look.” No, she's just wet. 

Jane 

That is so funny. I love that moment. It's like, “She's styling a wet sort of grunge-look hairdo.” It's like yes. 

Rosemary 

“And is wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and Docs.” 

Jane 

“…jeans and Docs.”

Rosemary 

The important things. 

Sophie 

Yeah, I do, I do appreciate that the Docs are like the one thing that made it from book to movie. Because those are very important. 

Rosemary 

They are her trademark. 

Jane 

They mentioned in the commentary that like originally, that scene was going to be like very regal and she was going to be in her ball gown and stuff and they changed it so that they would have her looking like looking sort of… mot all put together and to show that her confidence was coming from within rather than from external things, but they still gave her a makeover. So like it was still partly external. I mean, OK, the makeover scene… I don't like makeover scenes in movies. There's too many of them. I will say this one is pretty good. Just because Larry Miller is hilarious: his weird like accent, and then his like, fake European language thing is just like-

Rosemary 

“Brushka, Helga!” 

Jane 

Yeah. Like. Yeah, [imitates nonsense phrase]. Like, he just makes up stuff and it's just so silly and that, like his his little things that he says, like her eyebrows are named Frida and Kahlo. And it's like, really weird things. And so it's it's like not bad. But I also kind of wish that she hadn't had to have a makeover, and they could have just, like, left her hair as it was. I know… I know that her makeover is really to make her look more like Anne Hathaway, and she was like- Anne Hathaway had worn a wig and like fake eyebrows and stuff like that in her, like, earlier look. But I think it would have been really interesting to show like a quote unquote “ugly” person not having to change to be conventionally attractive and still being able to be empowered. But like of course, I'm not saying that they shouldn't have cast Anne Hathaway because she's great in this movie.

Sophie

Sure.

Jane

But at the same time, it's like, Anne Hathaway is also very conventionally attractive. So like, it would have been cool to have a like more not conventionally attractive looking person in this role, and just like, let her be who she is and look the way she looks. But that obviously wasn't what this movie was trying to do, but like that is one thing that that bothers me a little bit about it.

Sophie

Yeah. 

Rosemary 

She's also blonde in the books.

Jane

Yes.

Rosemary

Don't they give her a Pixie cut? 

Sophie 

Yeah, they cut- I think that's what Paolo's referencing when he says, “Next time a little shorter.” But yes, there's a very distinct reference in the book where she says her hair looks like an upside down yield sign because it's so it, like, here and then goes straight. You can't see me in the podcast, but I'm gesturing. 

Jane 

Yeah, it's like a triangle hair thing. I remember that being mentioned. 

Rosemary 

Yeah, I think about that a lot. Like,

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary

Her yield sign hair.

Sophie 

I feel like part of what makes the makeover scene work  - I I will agree with you, Jane. I think they give her way too much makeup for a 15-year-old, and then they just like the framing of it as like, she started out so hideous and then look what I… look what I made of this mess you gave me - is Paolo's, like you said, he's just so funny. He's so weird and a little gross, but like in an amusing sort of way. And she also seems to be… once they finish plucking her eyebrows, she seems to be really enjoying herself. She's got her Walkman. She's got cucumbers on her eyes. She's like, bopping to the music a little bit. 

Jane 

“The cucumber does nothing.”

Sophie

[laughing] Nothing.

Jane

Yeah, I don't object to it too much. It's just sort of the concept of…of makeovers is a little… 

Speaker 

Sophie

Jane 

Obnoxious to me, but it it works. And I also think it's interesting because I believe from what I remember of the books, when she's exposed to the press in the books, it was actually the grandmother who told the press. And they changed it in the movie so that it was Paolo. 

Sophie 

“I, Paulo Puttanesca!” 

Jane 

That scene, just like, first of all, we also have to talk about Sandra Oh. 

Sophie

Yes!

Rosemary 

I was gonna bring her up too. 

Jane 

She, as the vice principal, Gupta, is so good. She's like only in it a little bit, but every moment she has is perfect. From the from the beginning, when she's like, “Morning, Lilly! …Lilly's friend.”

Sophie

Lilly’s friend!

Jane

And like but that scene when she like answers the phone with her iconic, “Gupta. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The Queen is coming. To Grove High School.” It's so good. And then and then when the Queen shows up and she's like fawning over her and, like, imitating her gestures and then just like, she, like, gives her this teacup. And it's like, “I'm sorry, we don't have finer China.” And then she just, like, hands a paper cup to Helen, the mom.”

Sophie

Uh-huh. “Here!”

Jane

So good. And then when Joe brings Paolo in and they have their whole little like routine of like he keeps starting to go and Joe, like, pushes him back is- that scene is just… There's just so much comedy gold there. And it's like it's amazing. 

Sophie 

Well, yeah, so Larry Miller is in two of my favorite childhood movies that came out around the same time: this one and Best in Show. 

Jane 

Yeah. And he's also in Mighty Wind. And he-

Sophie

Right.

Jane

He's he sets up one of Jennifer Coolidge's best moments too, when, because he's the one that she has one- They have one brain between them. The two of them, so yes. 

Sophie 

Oh, OK. Yeah. So he just like… The difference between those two roles, but they're both equally funny and weird. 

Jane 

Yeah, yeah. Best in Show he's awful. Like, I mean, I guess he's awful in this too. Like, his character is. But in that one, he's just like openly flirting with a married woman and then his- oh yeah, his job is like to talk people down…

Sophie 

Down off ledges, yes. 

Jane 

…who are going to jump off building, but he's terrible at it. And he's just like, “Oh, they always jump.” 

Sophie 

“Their eyes pop out like grapes!” 

Jane 

[laughs] Ah, he's so he's such a silly man.

Sophie

Yeah.

Jane

But yes, so I enjoy him. I enjoy Sandra Oh, a lot. I enjoy Kathleen Marshall. I think that her Charlotte is…

Sophie

So sweet.

Jane

…a very a great character. I also… Not that I want there to be more romances, but I really like the thing between Clarisse and Joe and how they… their dancing scene is kind of… it- it has moments that remind me of The Sound of Music with Christopher Plummer like their dancing scene. But I love when Charlotte comes in and is like about to say something and then sees they’re having a moment and just like backs away.

Sophie

Yep, I’ll go away now. Yeah

Jane

My other favorite Charlotte moment is when [laughs] when she's worried because Mia hasn't shown up at the ball at the end and Clarisse is like, “Is everything all right?” And she goes. “Everything's perfect. Perfect? It's wonderful!” “You're not very good at lying, are you, Charlotte?”

Sophie 

“No I'm not.” 

Jane 

“No, I'm not, your Majesty.” Oh, it's so good. So good. There's just… I think that's ultimately… like, I mean the story overall is great and the acting is great and all that. But like, I think just all those little fun little moments are really what keeps me returning to this movie is it's just like there's so many fun little scenes like that. 

Rosemary 

“And that's enough pear juggling.” 

Jane 

Such a good- like, ah, there's just, yeah. It's just such a fun little movie. 

Sophie 

It's funny, you mentioned the- the dance scene because I was thinking about how… like sweet, that is when he says, “You've been wearing black for far too long.” And in comparison, I had no recollection of this line from Lilly, but she says to Mia, she says, “The guy died, what, two months ago? I thought you'd gotten over it already.” What are you talking about? 

Rosemary 

Her dad died 8 weeks ago and you're like, “You should move on.”

Sophie

Chop chop! 

Jane 

Well, but also, she'd never met her dad. So like…

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary

True…

Jane

But also like I feel like that's also not a very long time to mourn your son? Because it's like…

Sophie

Right.

Jane

But I think that her husband died the previous year? 

Sophie 

Yeah, I think he's- I think he's referencing Rupert, not Phillipe. 

Jane 

“King Rupert, may he rest in peace.” 

Sophie 

“Rest in peace.”

Jane 

That's from the second one though. 

Sophie 

I also didn't recall Pierre. I didn't recall there being a brother at all. 

Jane 

Oh yeah. 

Sophie 

Maybe he's not in the book, but… 

Jane 

Is he in the book? 

Sophie 

I don't remember him. 

Jane 

It's really like referenced, sort of offhandedly, like, “Oh yes, my my eldest Pierre wanted to abdicate and join the church.”

Sophie

Yeah

Jane

It's like, you have another kid?

Sophie

What?

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

Where's he? That… yeah, that was... I feel like that was kind of unnecessary. 

Sophie 

Yeah, there are a lot of changes that I feel like they really didn't need to make. Like Mr. G in the book is an algebra teacher, Helen’s boyfriend. And now all of a sudden, he's Mr. O'Connell and teaches debate, but also coaches baseball, but also teaches English? 

Rosemary 

Is just always there. 

Jane 

They have like four teachers in the school and they're just all in every class. 

Sophie 

There's Coach Harbula, there’s Vice Principal Gupta, and there's Mr. O'Connell and maybe there's one other person floating around.

Rosemary 

The choir teacher. 

Sophie

Oh, yes. Yes okay.

Jane 

In the scene when when Mia puts the ice cream on Lana and Gupta’s like, “Oh, I was in a very important meeting,” it's just the four of them.

Speaker 

It's just them having lunch. 

Jane 

Like, that's the entire staff of the- of the school. 

Sophie

Of Grove High School.

Rosemary 

“Lana got coned! Lana got coned!” 

Jane 

I was so confused by the “Lana got coned” chant for a long time.

Rosemary

Yes.

Jane

Because I couldn't tell what they were saying. And I was like, is that a thing?

Rosemary

I know!

Jane

Or is that just like, what people would have just decided to call this? 

Sophie 

It's the early 2000s, as opposed to late 2000s equivalent of getting slushied I guess. It's just something that happens in high schools with mean kids. I don't know. I also, speaking of not being able to understand what people are saying, for my entire life until this rewatch, I thought, Fontana said after the debate situation, I thought she said to Mia, “I thought you were speaking at the Believe It convention.” 

Speaker 

OK, I thought that was just me! 

Sophie 

It’s bulimic.

Jane

Yeah!

Sophie

Which makes so much more sense, but I was like… what? Who? What is this? Is this something that I should know about?

Rosemary

Oh, the Believe It? What? 

Jane 

Yeah, that's what I heard too.

Rosemary

No!

Jane

Because she's like, “Is it true you're speaking at the Believe It convention?” and-

Rosemary

No!

Jane

Yeah, okay.

Sophie

Like I can’t believe it.

Rosemary 

It’s definitely “bulimic.” 

Jane 

Well, yes, that does make a lot more sense. But yeah, no, I couldn't understand that for a long time too. OK. I'm glad it's not just me. I thought once I figured out what they were saying, I was like... 

Sophie 

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. 

Jane 

Of course, that's what they're saying, but OK, yes. 

Rosemary 

I was definitely… it was one of the more recent rewatch is when I realized she was saying “a yachting yahoo.” I thought she was just saying “a yada yahoo.” 

Jane 

Ohh yeah, I thought that for at first for a while too. OK. Do you remember? I I have no clue when this was, but we used to have a computer in the basement and it didn't- It wasn't connected to the internet, we just used it for like writing papers and stuff?

Sophie

Typing and stuff, yeah.

Jane

And it would have… we made it so that the screen saver was like word art. And we… it was like, the showers upstairs didn't work, so we would always shower in the basement and we walk by this computer and like every time we would walk by, we would change the screensaver to the next line from that scene when Lilly and Mia are fighting and playing basketball, like that scene. So I just remember, like we would just, we quoted that whole scene in the screen saver on that computer for no reason just because it was a fun thing to do.

Rosemary

Yeah! 

Sophie 

That that very much tracks with what I know of your childhood and your relationship. 

Jane 

Yes. So I still think about that computer whenever I think about that scene.

Sophie

That’s funny.

Jane

But I'm I'm not sure if we wrote “yachting yahoo” or if we wrote, “yada yahoo.” 

Rosemary 

Yeah, I don't know. I also need to mention that I was a youth that kept a diary pretty faithfully, and there is a section of a diary that I had around that time where I was like, “I can't believe I keep saying the word ‘I.’ I should think about other people!” And it was because I was like, inspired by Mia Thermopolis's speech. But it was like, it's so funny. There’s this little section of like 12-year-old me being like, “I need to stop saying ‘I.’” Like it was just a new thought that had occurred to me. 

Sophie 

Sure. That's… that's sad and cute at the same time. 

Jane

Yes.

Rosemary 

So what else do we need to cover? 

Sophie 

Well, I definitely want to mention the soundtrack, which I think is one of my favorite parts of this movie. I think I… I mean, I've seen the movie a zillion times and like, had the VHS and the DVD, but I also had the CD and I must have listened to the CD until it was like, so scratched beyond belief. Every song is so good.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm. 

Jane 

Yeah. I remember we got the CD from the library a few times, but we never owned it. We had the Princess Diaries 2 soundtrack. 

Rosemary

Yeah.

Sophie 

Also good, but not quite as good. 

Jane 

I was just so excited about Julie Andrews singing again. So like… 

Sophie 

Yes. That is my favorite song from the second movie. 

Jane 

Yeah, definitely. Not sure why Raven’s there, but you know, it's still a great song. 

Sophie 

She has to do some sort of hippity hoppity for the youth. They they won't they won't last doing the… just Julie Andrews doing like a musical style number. 

Jane 

“But I don’t know how to do this sort of thing.”

Rosemary [overlapping with Jane]

“I don’t know how to do this.”

[all laugh]

Jane 

Oh man, anyway, but yes, the the soundtrack for the original movie, which is what we're supposed to be talking about, is really good. There's so many great songs on it, and I really I- it's super random, but I really enjoy Mandy Moore singing “Stupid Cupid.” I don't really know why she sings it there in the movie, but like it's great. 

Sophie 

It's a weird song to have in that scene. It's weird that she sings it, but I'm so glad she does. 

Jane 

I also really enjoy that Anna and Fontana are there as backup singers, but their mouths never move. They're just like doing a dance. And like you hear the like background vocals, but they are not singing. 

Sophie 

They're not lip syncing. Yeah, I will say Mandy did not lip sync that scene particularly well. But her outfit is good enough to where it doesn't even matter. Her polka dot skirt is incredible. 

Rosemary 

And the like uni-boob tank top sweater. 

Sophie 

Yeah, the the halter sweater with the handkerchief hem. Oh my gosh, it's very Y2K. 

Rosemary 

It's exactly what I would wear to the beach. 

Sophie 

Sure. And platform flip flops. 

Rosemary 

I also need to confess something that as a child when this movie came out, whatever, I was very confused because I thought that Mandy Moore and Marilyn Monroe were the same person. And so I was so confused because I like knew that Marilyn Monroe… like I wasn't 100% sure who she was, but I knew she was like an icon and that like she was in Princess Diaries, cause it was like an alliterative M name, and I totally like was like, I don't know, it's got to be Marilyn Monroe. And then like… finding out more about Marilyn Monroe as I got older and then I was like…. I don't think that's Marilyn Monroe...

[all laugh] 

Jane 

I think she's very dead. 

Sophie 

I don’t think so. 

Rosemary 

I don't think it's the same person, but I’m not sure. 

Sophie 

It could be, but I'm not quite sure. 

Jane 

That's amazing. 

Rosemary 

But I remember being very confused about Mandy Moore and Marilyn Monroe in that movie. 

Jane 

That's amazing.

Sophie

That’s really cute.

Jane

One thing that I think is really interesting that I didn't quite pick up on until more recent rewatches is like just speaking of the whole beach thing: They're taking pictures of a 15-year-old in a state of undress and publishing them in tabloids. And it's seen as the 15-year-old's fault. 

Sophie

Mm-hmm.

Rosemary 

It's horrible. 

Jane 

It's it's terrible and like it's supposed to be bad. And you're like, supposed to think like, oh, it's- I feel bad for her, but I hadn't quite absorbed how awful that is. And it's like, I mean, that does happen, stuff like that. And it's like it's her fault when it very much was not for several reasons. But I just, it's just like, struck me as so much more disturbing to be like, OK, we're gonna have this undressed teenager that we took pictures of without her consent and blame her for it, and that was upsetting to me when I was just realizing that. But I also think that the scene when Clarisse confronts Mia about that is really well done. I think that they like, hit those emotional beats really well, and just like that, that she's really disappointed in her. But like Mia handles it well. And then I love when Joe comes in and sort of says, like “You were too harsh on her” and that they managed to slip in some levity with her with that moment of, like, “Her friends didn't help- Anna, Banana… Montana.” And I love that. And then that like, that's the moment when Clarisse says, “I have no idea what you're talking about” is great. But I also think it's like such a good point of, like, the thing. About like, “As a queen, I was too critical of the person who could become the next ruler of my country.” And he says, “No. As a grandmother, you were too harsh on your granddaughter.” And then that she takes that into the scene when they're in Mia's house talking about giving the speech or whatever, but she says, like, “I am first and foremost your grandmother.” And then that great moment when she hugs her and then just kind of goes, “Ah! I- I did it! I hugged someone!” is so great because she's been so emotionally distant and yeah. I just, I think that they really like they… they Julie Andrews-ified the queen but they didn't like make her completely like… soft and lovable. I mean, I guess it's kind of Mary Poppins too, where she's like, standoffish, but then also like sweet underneath. 

Rosemary 

But she's definitely not Maria von Trapp. 

Jane 

No.

Sophie

Correct.

Jane

She has to go through a journey too. Like the queen goes through a journey as well as Mia, and they go through very different journeys but kind of meet up at the end. And it's also just really nice that Clarisse still believed that Mia could do it and, like, had a tiara ready for her, even though she said she was going to step down and like… The whole end part of the movie just really pays off and I think that their relationship arc, the grandmother/granddaughter relationship is really… a great central story to this whole thing. Like it's like, yeah, it's about a girl who finds out she's a Princess, but it's also about, like, becoming connected with her estranged grandmother, who also needs some connection in her life. And I think that that's very well done. 

Sophie 

Yeah, I totally agree. 

Jane 

Mia's dad is dead, but we see, like pictures of him and one like flashback and that is Anne Hathaway's actual father. The voice is not. But they were going to use pictures of him, but then the scene with- when he's writing the note in the diary, they were just going to have somebody else wearing a wig to look like his hair, but then he happened to be in San Francisco for unrelated reasons while they were filming there. So they just, like, got him writing the letter. So that's kind of fun. 

Sophie 

That’s so cute. 

Rosemary 

I think another thing that this movie does well is like, adults taking teenagers seriously. 

Jane 

Oh yeah. 

Rosemary 

And like listening to them like… Mia and her mom had, like, real conversations together, and her mom doesn't just like, brush her off and be like, well, you're just a dumb teenager. Like her mom, like takes things to heart. And, you know, when she's like, “How could you lie to me for 15 years? I don't feel protected,” like her mom, like, takes that and it's like, this is where we're at now, and let's see what we can do to move forward. And then again when Mia’s like, “I can't believe you're dating my teacher!” She's like… she actually apologizes to her.

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary

And like when even like… the premise of the Mia has to hit a baseball to pass gym class is stupid, but like I even really like that gym teacher because she's just like, “I'm rooting for you.” And like…

Sophie

Yeah, I love Coach Harbula.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm. 

Sophie 

She, like… without like compromising her… like Mia says, “I can't do this. I'm a girl” and she's like... “Hello!”

Jane 

“What am I, a duck?” 

Sophie 

“What am I, a duck?” Yeah. Which is hilarious when in the bonus features, you see that actor make duck noises and various other sound effects, which she's fantastic at. But yeah, she's very supportive while like being like, “You, you got to do this thing. I know it's hard.” Then she does it, and she's so proud of her at the end, which is really nice. And you know, having Josh get hit in the balls is… not a downside in the slightest. 

Jane 

I also think it's really funny that nobody else in the outfield can possibly pick up the ball. Just like, “You have to get up and throw it. We can't come over and find it.” Like I think that’s really funny. 

Sophie 

Well, one kid, one kid is on the phone with his mom about the dentist, so it couldn't be him. And then-

Jane

Bobby Bad.

Sophie

Twelve girls are doing some sort of cheerleading routine, so it couldn't be them. 

Jane 

Why- OK. But also like, why is the entire staff there? Because like Gupta- 

Rosemary 

Mr. O'Connell have picked up the ball. 

Sophie

I know!

Jane 

Yeah. Like, why was he there in the gym class? Why is Gupta coaching the cheerleaders? Like it's just like it's... I don't know. OK, two things that I was gonna say. One thing: going back to the mom relationship. I love when after the like beach fiasco, the mom says like, “My mom always told me not to cry and like to be strong. But you've been hurt. So you just cry.” And like I think that's so great. It's like, yeah, feel your feelings. Let's encourage girls to to feel their feelings and not shame them for being upset when upsetting things happen. And the other thing going way back to when we were talking about why the teacher changes from algebra to the like, debate teacher, because in the books Mia is really bad at math and then like her mom’s dating her math teacher. But I think that it really… it contributed to the arc to have her like, have this fear of public speaking and then like going into being a Princess where like you have to do a lot of public speaking and like that, adding to the reason of like, why not only why she doesn't want to be a Princess, but why she doesn't even want to show up to abdicate the throne. Like she's going to run away to Colorado in a car that doesn't run. That seems like a good plan. 

Rosemary 

Without a driver's license. 

Jane

Yeah.

Sophie 

With the cat! 

Jane 

With the cat, yeah! 

Sophie 

She's gonna take the cat to go rock climbing. And you can tell Fat Louie is like, first of all, this is a terrible idea. Second of all, please do not bring me into this. I want to live in my warm firehouse, OK, with my crazy artist mom. Do not take me to the rocks. 

Jane 

Yes. But anyway. So yeah, I think that that might have been part of why they decided to make the teacher that the mom ends up with be the debate teacher. So they could show that- set it up really early. 

Rosemary 

Yeah, it's definitely like easier to show being bad at debate in a movie than it is to be like “I am bad at algebra.” Like…

Jane

Yeah. 

Sophie 

Well, yeah. And it's, it's also like it's not Mean Girls where she has to solve the equation at the end of the movie for the big finish. It’s like she has to make this speech. 

Rosemary [overlapping]

Make a speech.

Sophie

Right.

Jane 

Yeah, it's like it's not that she's found out she's like inheriting a math thing like, “You… you have… you have to be the head of the math department because of who your father was” or something. It's like, “Oh, no, but I'm bad at math!”

Sophie 

Yeah. That's hilarious. 

Jane 

So yeah, so I think that it works. I do think it's weird that they changed his name but…whatever 

Sophie 

Hmm-hmm. I don't know, maybe there are more Irish people than Italians in San Francisco, which I don't think is true, but- 

Jane 

They changed it to San Francisco just so they could have the scene where she, like, goes down the hill and runs into a trolley. Like, that- which is a great scene, by the way, but like-

Sophie

Yeah.

Jane

It's like it doesn't really have anything to do with the story. I guess I guess it shows the queen in action, which it's a little bit of like showing that royalty can get away with stuff that other people can't. But I just think it's just so great to show that the queen can like... 

Sophie 

She's loosening up a little bit. Yeah, I mean, you, first of all, get the nuns calling 911 and they're busy and they say, “For the love of God,” which is hilarious, iconic. Then you get the Order of the Rose and then at the end, she says “Goodbye trolley people.” 

Jane 

And you get the, “Does anybody have a Saber?” “I've got an umbrella!” Which I love. I love, first of all, like, of course, everyone's carrying around a Saber, and then just like “I've got an umbrella” and she's like, “uhh…” “Well, I have an emergency brake!” “This will do nicely,” so great. And then and then I love that the trolley driver and the police officer show up at the ball at the end with little like things like they got an official badge.

Sophie

With their medals, yeah. So cute.

Jane

Yeah, it's like, oh, yes, they- let's make the Order of the Rose a real thing. And, and also Anne Hathaway's “Oh- OH OOOOHHH!” is so well done. Like, every moment of that scene is just great. 

Sophie 

Yeah, 100%. 

Rosemary 

I think going back to adults taking teens seriously and paying attention to them, I think another really good example of that is Joe.

Sophie

Mm-hmm.

Jane

Oh yeah.

Rosemary

And the ways that he, like, pays attention to Mia and like he encourages her, like, when Lilly has a negative reaction to her like getting a makeover. And he's just like, you're going to be OK. And then what we already talked about when he, like, goes… when Clarissa was like, “Was I too hard on her?” and he was like, “Yeah, you were.” I really like the ways that Joe is like a safe adult for her. And like is a really good bodyguard sort of person. 

Sophie 

Yeah, he won't let her take the flags off the limo, but he will quote Eleanor Roosevelt to her and put up the divider screen so she can put on pantyhose in the back seat. 

Jane 

Well, and he won't let her call him Joey. 

Sophie 

Right. But he'll go and buy her high heels. 

Rosemary 

He went and got her the pantyhose and the high heels.

Sophie

Yeah.

Rosemary

And like, he seems like he knows what's going on. Also when he's like, “with the beach friends” and like knowing that they're like, ridiculous and mean to her and like… Yeah, I think... I think that that is another reason why this movie was so like… comforting as a child and teen to watch because you're like, “my problems do matter,” and like “adults do care about teens” kind of thing. I think that there's that sense of it that really makes it a comforting movie and like… I hope that all teenagers have aJoe in their life, or a Clarisse, or a Helen or a Coach Harbula, or Charlotte, or, you know? The way that that Mia has these supportive people in her life that aren't even necessarily related to her. It's a really nice portrayal of that. 

Sophie

Yeah.

Jane

Yeah.

Sophie 

I totally agree. 

Jane 

Anything else that we desperately want to add? I mean, there's so much more that I could say about this movie, but uh, I don't want to just go on and on forever. I think that that that we've covered a lot of the important things about it. 

Sophie 

Maybe we can release our own deleted scenes at some point. 

[Jane and Rosemary laugh]

Sophie 

With puppets.

Rosemary

And bananas?

Sophie

Yes. 

Jane 

The deleted scenes are very interesting. I think that they did a great job of figuring out what to delete and what to keep. 

Rosemary 

A great job of deleting them. 

Sophie

Yes.

Jane 

Yeah. Because a lot of times like you, you see deleted scenes and you're like, “Oh, this could have been in the movie.” I mean, I guess the one I I do think it would have been nice to see Mia and Michael having pizza together.

Sophie

Mm-hmm.

Jane

Because it is a little odd that the pizza is so important at the end, and they've just like kind of mentioned it once in a throwaway line right before “Wait up. Wait for me! Not you. I don't even know you!” which is amazing and I love it so much. We haven't talked enough about Lilly I don't think. But she is a great character.

Sophie

Mm-hmm.

Jane

I feel like very often in movies where there's like a best friend, the best friend is just kind of there to like be a sidekick and I think Lilly Moskovitz is no one’s sidekick and she, like, is doing her best to make a difference in the world. And then, like finds out that her friend actually might have the means to really make a difference. And like, calls her out when she's like, “Yeah, you absolutely can do this.” But she's like Lilly's not perfect. Like, she gets really jealous of Mia. And so I think that that she's a very complex character. And I really like the way that she's portrayed. 

Sophie 

Yeah, I think if we were talking about the second movie we could say more because I think Lilly is a more active participant in the sequel, but we do get the great scene of her trying to vamp while she has Jeremiah on Shut Up and Listen. And you know that is one of the major conflicts is like Mia’s ditching all her friends for this, you know, popularity that she thinks she wants and then it turns out that that's not actually what's going to make her happy. 

Jane 

It's so wild to me that she doesn't even tell Lilly that she's going on a date with Josh. Like it… it seems like that would be something that you would tell your best friend, even if you forgot that you were supposed to be doing something with them. It's almost like, did Mia forget? Or was she, like, intentionally avoiding her because she- I mean, I know there was the whole thing earlier in the film when when Lilly's like, “Jerk and jerkette sighting” and like, Lilly does never like Josh, so I guess that could have been part of it too, but it's like at least she tells Michael that she's not showing up for their date, whereas like she doesn't even tell Lilly she's not going to be on her show. 

Sophie 

Yeah, I do think there could have been some sort of mention like “I can't tell Lilly what I'm doing because she's gonna judge me and like, she's gonna be even more mad if I, you know, tell her I'm I'm going to the party with Josh than if I just, like, didn't show up.” But…

Jane 

Yeah, but she doesn't even… it's like she forgot about Lilly completely.

Sophie 

Right. 

Jane 

Like it's like I'm not thinking about Lilly at all. And it's like… interesting to show her kind of starting to go off into this direction of like, “I'm going to be a mean popular kid” and then just like, totally failing at it and being like, “You know, that wasn't me. I totally messed up.” The movie does a good job of showing you how to take responsibility for when you mess up and then like showing, but you don't have to take responsibility for everything. Cause like not all the stuff that happened at the beach was Mia's fault, and it's portrayed as unreasonable that like people get so upset at her about that, but also like some of the stuff she did was bad, like she ditched her best friend and like showing her take responsibility for that, apologize, try and make amends for both Lilly and Michael, I I think I just think that's done really well. And I think that that's a good message to be giving to kids of like, you do need to take responsibility for the stuff that is your fault. 

Sophie 

And when she does apologize, she never like demands that she be forgiven. Like she says to Lilly on the roof, she's like, “I hope you can forgive me.”

Jane

Mm-hmm.

Sophie

She doesn't like expect that that's automatically going to come just because she said she's sorry, which I think is really cool. 

Jane 

Yeah and I love Lilly’s response of, “But what will I wear?” And she's just like, “Oh, I'm so glad you're gonna come!” And it's it's just a really sweet moment. 

Sophie 

And I will, I will say when she hugs Lilly after Lilly says she's going to come to the party, her foot does pop. 

Jane 

Yes it does. I I noted that as well. 

Sophie 

So it's not just, it's not just a romantic thing. It's for any kind of love. 

Jane 

Yeah. And again, that's… what I do really like about this movie is that they focus on a lot of different kinds of love, a lot of different deep relationships with different people, and I think they do a really good job of developing many of them and that's really great. 

Sophie 

I love this movie. 

Jane 

Ah, me too. 

Rosemary 

I do too. Well, thanks for… thanks for having me on to talk about it again. 

Jane 

Yes, I'm so glad to have both of you back. 

Sophie 

I'm so glad we got to talk about it. The three of us, that was fun. 

Jane 

Yes! So uh… thank you so much for being here and I… don't know how to wrap this up. 

Rosemary 

Miracles happen.

Sophie

“Thank you for being here today.” 

Jane 

“Thank you for being here today.” Yes. Oh, that's another great moment that I must mention when Joe is, like, so committed to pretending to drive the car that he even like puts the parking brake on before getting up. So great. Anyway, “thank you for being here today.” I love this movie. I love both of you and I'm so glad that we did this. 

Sophie

Me too.

Rosemary  

“Goodbye trolley people!”

[all laugh] 

Jane 

Ah, that was so fun. Thank you to Sophie and Rosemary for that lovely chat, and thank you audience for listening! This will be my final guest episode; my top six are so personal that it feels right to just talk about them myself. The next two episodes will be the final tie on my list, featuring the two movies that I watched 31 times. Coincidentally, one of them is the oldest movie in my entire top 40, and the other is the newest. The newest movie is also the shortest movie on the list, so I’ll be talking about that first. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “First off, I work alone. Always have, always will. Second, take a hike. I don’t touch Hollywood cases. Not since… The War.”

[dentwy]

number 3: house of leaves

i have this one discord bot i keep dming stuff to so it's easier to get files through mobile to pc, and as a general list of things i don’t feel like saving anywhere else or wanna be reminded of. obviously as i keep adding stuff i forget about older things just like you do with your watch later on youtube. tuesday, december 21 of the year 2021 at 1:50am i sent this message:

i know for a fact it's just because that's when i watched the game grumps play santa clause 3 but the point is that i've put it aside for quite some time now. as the years went on i'm pretty sure i've heard people mention the book here and there, but the thing that definitely made decide i want to read it is none other than the power pak myhouse.wad video, as i'm sure most people this year have experienced as well. sometimes it can feel intrusive for people in such a tight fandom to get bombarded with newcomers experiencing what you like in a completely different way because your niche thing now is more popular than ever, but i personally try to keep respectful about people's passions and i'm fairly realistic about it. yeah, i know you know about the doom mod, and it's cool, but let's focus on what's important. house of leaves.

"This is not for you." he said, well you can't tell me what to do johnny truant! gatekeeping is funny, i can't argue against it, and it's specially funny when the book you just opened is doing it to you. however, it usually seems with this book as if people treat it like some kind of evil secret thing you can only read and understand if you're fucked up and want to suffer. literature is a medium to share ideas and stories, stop making it out to be some kind of secret club. and to you reddit, please stop asking if you can skip the footnotes or a guide on how to read it, it's a book. just read the damn thing.

if by any chance you're reading this and haven't experienced house of leaves yet, i encourage you to do so. not sure if the pinnacle of ergodic literature, but it's absolutely an experience like none other. i mean, look up the book on google images and it'll catch your eye in an instant. it's a book within a book, within a movie, within a story, within a house. the maze never ends, and the house is ever expanding. it may be the wrong decision, but fuck it, it's yours.

there’re two core sides to this story, johnny truant's delusions and ongoing madness over this book he's just found, and the story this book is describing. i honestly fail to understand how people get bored of what mark danielewski has managed to concoct here, as the introduction itself was instantly gripping to me. alike johnny himself, i could not put away house of leaves until i finished it in the span of around 2 weeks. the constant back and forth between the narrators in the story could seem daunting at first, but each one adds so much more to the experience, recontextualizing characters, or scenes, or the entire book in nothing more than a couple of lines (or multiple pages for a single footnote). it's like reading through the ramblings of a crazy man, except you are actually reading through the ramblings of multiple crazy men. ticking away slowly, unveiling whatever could be at the end of the corridor.

as unreliable narrators go, never being sure on what you're reading is real or not is what constantly pushes the mystery into the words. it's what we choose to believe in that can change it all. i distinctly remember the navidson record detailing a comparison between the director of a movie called "la belle niçoise et le beau chien" and the character we've been following, will navidson. this seemingly real film, is in fact, not real. nothing more than a fabrication. layers upon layers of commentary, description, analysis and characterization forever shifting with the things we say, write and read, may all be not much more than a lie. the power of words is not to be underestimated. it is in fact the words and how they're used what make this book what it is. be it the decision to give the word house a tint of blue, purposely leaving things vague when it's most important, or driving off into completely unrelated tangents about debatably irrelevant topics. you may gather all the clues you want, yet the authenticity of the events are for you to decide. the line between reality and fiction warps the more you go and it may as well keep expanding the further you walk down those stairs.

1/4" can make the whole difference. the house represents many things. fear, uncertainty, secrecy, anxiety, suffering, peace, obsession, trauma. what goes in, may not ever leave, and what's outside, may not ever know. there's an overarching feeling of passion behind the actions the characters take. it's human nature to be curious, to solve the mysteries presented to us and to want to fix things with our own two hands. but what might look small, could very well be a lot bigger on the inside. more than you could've ever expected. "Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati. It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer."

there is a paragraph that i will not ever forget about, that i believe perfectly exemplifies the feeling of uncertainty of the unknown, not being in control and carrying the dread behind you:

"To get a better idea try this: focus on these words, and whatever you do don’t let your eyes wander past the perimeter of this page. Now imagine just beyond your peripheral vision, maybe behind you, maybe to the side of you, maybe even in front of you, but right where you can’t see it, something is quietly closing in on you, so quiet in fact you can only hear it as silence. Find those pockets without sound. That’s where it is. Right at this moment. But don’t look. Keep your eyes here. Now take a deep breath. Go ahead take an even deeper one. Only this time as you start to exhale try to imagine how fast it will happen, how hard it’s gonna hit you, how many times it will stab your jugular with its teeth or are they nails?, don’t worry, that particular detail doesn’t matter, because before you have time to even process that you should be moving, you should be running, you should at the very least be flinging up your arms—you sure as hell should be getting rid of this book—you won’t have time to even scream. Don’t look. I didn’t. Of course I looked. I looked so fucking fast I should of ended up wearing one of those neck braces for whiplash."

it has been argued house of leaves is a love story. i see it, and people have agreed as well, more as a story about love. family love, unrequited love, friendly love, love for small and big things, love for those and that you care about the most. the love that drives us forward to do what we do. granted it's mostly just semantics than a difference in genre, but it gives it a different meaning to me. the way words change how we perceive what surround us.

the open-ended nature of the book can leave things to be desired, but that may as well just be life. we're not sure about what's beyond, or what the meaning of it all is, yet we keep moving on. we strive for more, we want to make things right, but the corridor keeps expanding, and the further you go, the darker it gets.

[river-witchery]

I posted 998 times in 2022

That's 142 more posts than 2021!

201 posts created (20%)

797 posts reblogged (80%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@river-witchery

@cephalopodvictorious

@slavicafire

@cipheramnesia

@borinquenaqueer

I tagged 407 of my posts in 2022

#riverwitch - 61 posts

#witchcraft - 29 posts

#for the group chat - 24 posts

#magic - 19 posts

#witch - 19 posts

#freyja the cat - 9 posts

#selfie - 7 posts

#yeah - 7 posts

#divination - 6 posts

#ask game - 6 posts

Longest Tag: 92 characters

#i don't necessarily think this is the fault of the people who are writing these posts either

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Me after lighting one (1) candle-

41 notes - Posted January 29, 2022

#4

"With each pin that falls, bring with it those who allow [this suffering] to happen."

In Remembrance To All Those Who Have Suffered The Pains Of War & Imperialism; Excerpt from my Grimoire.

41 notes - Posted April 19, 2022

#3

The amount of people who nonchalantly decide to regularly eat foods that they are allergic/intolerant to, stresses me out.

Like hun, your "mild" allergy to that fruit you like could very easily to into an anaphylactic reaction and have you dead.

That food you're intolerant to that fucks up your stomach every time you eat it, that you still decide to eat every day, is raising your risk for digestive cancers and malnutrition issues so much.

Like, if you know this and decide to keep doing it, more power to you. You make your own decisions my friend. But please... make informed ones.

77 notes - Posted May 13, 2022

#2

I wish more people would grapple with the idea that you can be scared of something without hating it. You can be scared of wasps without hating them. You can be scared of spiders without hating them. Just like you can be scared of drowning without hating the ocean.

131 notes - Posted May 30, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I've known I that I'm nonbinary for a while. Started figuring that out in college, which feels like a lifetime ago. I hadn't known my entire life, but that was more of a pebble than a pothole on my road to self-discovery. I went through a moment of "am I trans enough to call myself trans?" What a funny thought, looking back on it.

Coming to terms with being transmasc though? That was an entirely different thing. My gender felt weird. It felt queer. But masculine? No. I had no connection with masculinity. I felt just as uncomfortable with masculinity as I did femininity.

Or so I told myself—and others occassionally, when I wanted to emphasize my gender's queerness, its otherness, its void-like ambiguity; when I wanted to make sure they didn't just swap out one half of the binary for the other.

Looking back, I can tell something wasn't sitting right, something was nagging at the peripheral of my self-understanding. I remember finding a lot of comfort in butchness at this time. I am so thankful for butches for that safety in exploration, and the gentle nudging into queer masculinity.

But it wasn't really until dear friend of mine, new to my nonbinary-ness, began swapping the more feminine-coded compliments and titles for distinctly masculine ones—it wasn't really until then that my transmasculinity took root to blossom in me.

And you can spare me the essay; I can read my own words. "I wanted to make sure they didn't just swap out one half of the binary for the other." Hear me when I say that I could feel it in my soul that they did not do that. I could tell—and I know I am not the only one who can—when "handsome" was said queerly.

It is not a coincidence that I only give my full set of pronouns to those who I can trust to see the queerness in "he/him." I withhold those for my own safety, though in the process, I feel like I am withholding part of myself. Because the euphoria I get when I can be nonbinary, genderqueer, transmasculine, is like no other I have felt before.

182 notes - Posted August 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →