#it just feels like a subtle homage in some way

[phoet]

suzume and howl's moving castle parallel?

nobody? just me???

[applejuicebegood]

Hi babes! It’s Naz (from @midnightorchids, I just realized you can’t send messages from side blogs unfortunately), I hope you're doing well!! I thought that since you're always sending me fun little scenarios, it's only fair if I send something back! Someone requested this prompt earlier this week and it’s quite rushed, but I thought you'd enjoy reading this as well. Let me know your thoughts!

-

Jason's hand grazes the soft surface of your skin, his fingers delicately tracing the thin lines of the new tattoo adorning your neck.

The tattoo was an homage to your love for him and he's touched. No one's ever made him feel this way before.

Jason's spent a lot time in the dark, closed off from the rest of world, feeling unlovable, but you made him feel otherwise. When he was with you, he no longer saw the horrid man he once thought he was. With you, he felt loved, he felt enough.

Jason bites back a smile and his fingers continue to dance around your skin, it tickles, but you let him continue.

The tattoo was more for you than it was for Jason, it was a constant reminder of his presence. A reminder for when he left for long missions, for when you were afraid he might not make it back. You now always had a piece of him with you.

You had it planned out for months and had finally got the courage to go through with it. Now, on the back side of your neck, sits a small bat, Jason's bat, his symbol.

Jason's fingers lace around your jaw, making you face him. He cradles your face gently into his palms and you find yourself snuggling into his touch.

"You did this for me," he questions softly, voice barely above a whisper.

"Just for you Jay," you reply and he smiles, hard, teeth and all.

"It's so fucking pretty, you're so pretty," and he places a soft kiss on your lips. "Can't believe you did this for me babe," and he kisses you again. With every kiss, you can feel him smirking harder against your lips, he's excited, he's happy.

He pulls back and laughs, rubbing his face with hands. His laugh is deep and contagious, you find yourself giggling with him.

"Holy shit dude, you really got a tattoo for me," he exclaims. "No one's ever done that for me before."

"No one better have Jay," you say furrowing your eyebrows, trying to get serious, but there's a huge smile plastered on your face. Jason reciprocates with a cheesy lopsided grin.

He pulls you in close again, this time embracing you with his large frame, you hug back tighter and he kisses the crown of your head, with a loud 'muah' sound.

"I love you," he says.

"And I love you Red," you reply and he takes that as a sign to continue smothering you with kisses.

NO CUZ I DON'T THINK YOU GET IT. Was literally having the worst time studying for English finals and then you part the clouds and grace me with this!!!! Like are you kidding???!!!!! And you best believe Jason has tattoos on his body specifically about you. In some of the comics and fanart he's got these detailed sleeves or back pieces, I personally think he's got a more patchwork kinda style. He would get your birth flower or the date of your anniversary tattooed on the inside of his wrist or his chest (over the heart). You would smile and hide your face in your own giddy puppy love as you lay across his naked chest, the tattoo just under your cheek. He think's it's incredibly funny and sweet. If you ever decide to get more tattoos yourself, he's coming with you to every session. It's more to help with the pain of it- offering his hand for you to squeeze or his arms to lean onto if ur feeling woozy and need a break. I think ya'll would get really small/subtle matching tattoos. Like a small sun and moon- or a the first letter of your names tattooed on the other. It's something easily hidden that only the both of you get to blush and giggle over. HAND TATTOOED JASON DEAR LORD ALMIGHTY- you would kiss over the lettering or the curved lined patters over the tops of his hands and across every knuckle. He melts as you bring his palm up to your cold cheek, now holding your face so gently.

- Man dude- like I said, was having a really rough go of it and this literally turned my day entirely around. Like I was able to get the rest of my review stuff done cuz I was feeling so much better after reading this. Your such a gift babe - thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!! Masterlist

[cryptictongues]

Dawns in Dalimil

pairing: Joshua Rosfield x Fem!Reader rating: Mature word count: 1.7k summary: You and Joshua have a sweet moment post-coitus.

warnings: Mentions of sex and the sweetest fluff EVER!!

Spoilers: There are a few mentions of things that if you aren't in a certain point in the game, you won't understand what I'm talking about. But just to clear things just in case, this takes place when Dalimil is first introduced.

Author's Notes: Just a heads up, please read my pinned post before following me! Minors and ageless blogs will be blocked as this blog's content is NSFW.

[AO3 link]

It’s late in Dalimil, so much so that the market outside the inn is dead silent and the ale house downstairs doesn’t have a whisper. The place is taking its rest, taking everyone with it before the dawn breaks… well except for the two of you.

With heavy breaths, heaving chests, and sweat shining on your bodies, you and Joshua lie in a small bed within a room from the Dalimil Inn recovering from the passionate love-making you both endured. Your trip to Dalimil was supposed to be short-lived as you both are trying to make it north to the Isles of Ark to meet with Prince Dion. However, the tension between the two of you had finally come to its breaking point and the most passionate, intimate sex you have ever had began and lasted until the dead of night. 

The bed creaks as Joshua moves to his side and you feel him get close to you, a hand placing itself under your left breast and lips making homage against your neck. He massages the subtle skin as he gives feather light kisses, causing you to giggle as a shiver runs down your spine. He bites down gently on the skin below your ear, causing a small yelp to leave your lips. “You are insatiable, you know that?” You breathe out, and he lets out a low chuckle into your ear. “You do this to me.” He bites down a little harder this time around, sucking and licking the spot to get another sweet sound out of you. You push him away slightly, laughing as he tries to keep his head in between your neck. “I need a break, Joshua. We’ve been at it nonstop for hours.”

He grabs the hand pushing against his chest, smirking at your struggle to get it out of his grasp. “You didn’t give me a break when I oh so kindly asked for one.” He brings your hand to his mouth, kissing your fingertips as he gauges your reaction. You scoff and sit up slightly. “Hey I gave you a cool down, and besides I did all the work that time. Give me some credit.”

Joshua shakes his head in amusement, propping himself up so his head was in his hand as his hand keeps hold of yours. “I hope you did enjoy yourself. I surely did.”

You grin, amused at his current demeanor. “Oh I most certainly did. To be honest, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

He grins as well, mischief appearing. “Didn’t have it in me to do what? To make you say my name like a prayer?” You smack his arm, a small oof leaving his lips. “You know what I mean.” You look down to his chest, focusing on the purple glow coming from it. “... but that too I suppose.” 

“If it’s any consolation, I was very nervous.” You cast your eyes back at him, shock strung on your face. His eyes focus on you, the softness of his gaze making your heartbeat just a tad faster. “All I want is to love you properly, and it is my duty to ensure that you receive that love in full. If I couldn’t love you in moments of intimacy, I think I’d go mad.” 

His nervous admission was precious, and it made you happy. Joshua and you have been close for so long, and to know he had felt just as nervous soothes you. You bring your hands to his forehead, brushing the strands of sweaty hair away. You then cup his cheeks and bring his head down for a gentle kiss. Leaning your head against his forehead, you let your hands travel to the beautiful hair at the nape of his neck. “I promise you I have never felt so loved in my life.” You place another kiss on his lips. “Only you can love me in the way that I need.” You kiss the apples of his cheeks. “You could never disappoint me, especially when the love I receive comes from you.” You then kiss right under his ear lobe and speak in a whisper. “And if it's any consolation, I didn’t sense your nervousness. You exude confidence.” You snicker a little bit, causing Joshua to pull away to look at you. “Especially since you tried to basically fold me in half.”

Joshua groans, and throws half his body on you, head hiding into your neck and an arm around your torso. You throw your head back into the pillow, laughing fully with your chest. Joshua lightly smacks your backside, more as a signal to quiet down as to not wake anyone rather than in embarrassment. You start wheezing as you try to calm down, the memory of Joshua trying to push your legs back against your body making it hard to. It had caused you to curse out, a muscle pulled in your thigh and him apologizing profusely as he massaged it back to good health. Looking back, you know it would be a silly memory you both could laugh at.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to.” Joshua says, his voice muffled as he buries his face deeper. “I admit I got carried away.”

You chuckle. “I know I’m flexible, just not THAT flexible.” 

You feel him vibrate as his muffled laugh travels before he sits back up into his last position, only letting his hand go to the marks he had left on your neck and chest. He traces them, circling his fingertip on each hickey he had brought to light. “Maybe I really did get carried away…” You can barely hear him, his voice almost nonexistent as he mutters. “Do they hurt?”

You are taken aback, a little surprised he would even ask that given that he had a few hickeys on his neck as well and scratch marks that run along his back. Your silence convinces him and he places his hand over the mark above your collarbone, an orange glow lighting around his hand. It takes you a minute before you smack his hand away, shaking your head vigorously. “Don’t you dare try and remove the marks you blessed me with. Do you not like seeing them?”

“No, of course not.” Joshua says quickly, hand still in the air after you’d smacked it away. “I apologize for my hastiness.”  

You take his hand, kissing the back of it before putting his palm against your face. “I’m in no pain, I can assure you.” Your other hand goes to trace the purplish pink blemishes on his neck, copying his earlier movements. “Would you want to get rid of yours?”

“Absolutely not.” He speaks immediately, a shiver running down his spine as you push on one of his hickeys, the ache feeling more like bliss. You hum, engaging in his reaction. You love how sensitive he is; every touch and stroke upon his body makes him squirm in your hold. It is endearing, as well as mesmerizing. 

“If you keep touching me like that, you won’t be getting that break.” Joshua breathes out, both enjoying your touches and cursing you for the hold you have on him; his will being shaped by your gestures.

You feign innocence, acting like what he said didn’t have an effect on you. You continue touching his chest as the hand still holding onto his lets go to grip on his waist, squeezing his skin causing him to jolt with a gasp. “Hey!” 

You laugh and continue to do it, making him laugh hysterically as you tickle him. He tries grabbing for your hand, but your previously occupied hand on his chest grabs his hands, holding onto both of them as you continue your attack. He releases grunts and is moving his body frantically to try and get away. Next thing you both know, he is on the floor.

“Oh Founder! Are you okay?” You panic, climbing off the bed to see the damage you caused. 

With a sigh, Joshua smiles. “I’m alive, even after your attempt to murder me.”

“I would do no such thing!” You huff before pulling him up. You both are, once again, laying back down on the bed flat on your backs. The sleepiness is starting to set in and you can feel your eyes start to shut, when all of a sudden you feel hot air hitting your ear. You turn your head, eyes fully shut. “What?”

“Lie closer to me.” 

“Our shoulders are literally touching.” You say, sleep seeping into your words.

Joshua groans. “You know what I mean. Let me hold you.”

Without a peep from you, Joshua rolls you to your side so you face him and brings you into his arms. He squeezes you to him, cradling your head in one arm and the other pushing your body into his. You groan, the heat from his body heating yours to almost unbearable lengths. “You’re too hot.”

He chuckles. “I don’t care. You are going to let me embrace you after the number you did on me.”

“I didn’t mean to push you off the bed.” You whine, kicking your feet against his legs to get back at him for his attitude.

He chuckles and reaches down to your butt, giving it a light squeeze.“I was talking about our love making but that’s a good excuse too.”

“Can I adjust at least?” You ask, already starting to shift. Joshua hums and lays on his back, letting you scoot into side. Arm around his torso and the other held close to your chest, you lay your head down against his chest. His heartbeat is steady; a calming rhythm that’s lulling you to sleep.

Joshua watches as you slip away, sweet hums vibrating from your chest as you sleep. All he can think is how pretty you look in your sleep, especially with your messy post-sex hair and slightly swollen lips. He could watch you sleep forever, but sleep was starting to take hold of him as well. He kisses your forehead, whispering a goodnight before he enters dreamland.

And you both sleep soundly as signs of life start to pick up outside; with shops getting ready for the day and the hustle and bustle of people taking the streets of Dalimil. 

[quotergirl19]

Polin Parallels:

The number of times the show has set up Colin & Penelope to parallel Darcy & Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice are delicious.

These two are going to put us through it in season 3.

I particularly enjoy the subtle homages to Colin Firth’s Darcy.

The entering the room and catching his breath:

Sitting at a desk reading, writing or journaling:

Elizabeth overheard Darcy proclaiming fairly loudly at a party that Elizabeth was not beautiful enough to tempt him. Just like Penelope overheard Colin announcing at a party that he would never court her. And while Penelope loves him enough to forgive him eventually, she’ll be reluctant because he humiliated her just like Darcy humiliated Elizabeth.

I predict Penelope will admit to Colin that she’s not good at speaking to people she doesn’t know (like Darcy) and Colin is going to recommend she practice (like Elizabeth says to Darcy), hence the lessons Colin gives Penelope for confidence.

Colin’s fencing.

Colin’s khaki jacket and black top hat while traveling on horseback.

The way Mr. Darcy said, “I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew I had begun,” when talking about when he knew he loved Elizabeth. He just realized that he was madly in love with her at some point and he couldn’t live without her.

Colin is going to have a similar epiphany about his feelings for Penelope. Book Colin even said he didn’t know how or when it happened but he just realized at some point that he was completely in love with Penelope.

I wonder if in a heated moment when Colin finds out Penelope is Whistledown, whether he will say her defect is her propensity to hate everyone because she’s written so harshly about people she doesn’t know well and then Penelope can snap back that his defect is to willingly misunderstand people like he did when he ignored all the warnings from people he knew and trusted when they said anything cautionary about Marina because he had blindly chosen to believe her over them. Colin won’t like it but it’s true.

Darcy saved Elizabeth’s family from ruination when Wickham ran off with Lydia but when Elizabeth expresses her gratitude for what he did for her family, he admits that he didn’t do it for them, he did it for her. The same way Colin didn’t drive off Lord Featherington for Lady Featherington or Prudence, he did it for Penelope.

I can’t wait to see what other parallels I spot when season 3 is finally here!

[bit-of-a-nerd]

What Mike’s Room Means About Byler

we’ve all talked and hear about mike’s rooms queercoding. people talk a lot about the posters, which have two things: fantasy and men. men is obvious queercoding when you look at other characters rooms. the lack of women is interesting when making the case that hes gay not bi. but theres something that people dont talk a lot about

mike and el have a very strong sci-fi coding. that makes sense, its a sci-fi show, and their biggest season together was the season based as an homage to classic 80’s sci-fi films. creators have made comparisons to et, her powers in s1 had a strong “alien” vibe from sci-fi, and imagery with things like star wars. 

however, byler has a strong fantasy coding. their first scene (both at all, but also their first one on one scene) had to do with dnd (fantasy game). this coding does go away for a bit in s2 when dnd takes a bit of a backseat (except for dustin coining the name of the mind flayer). but its back again in full force for s3. their major s3 fight (with TONS of queer mike coding and byler coding in general) was after the failed dnd game. will’s dnd game had some of the most pure fantasty vibes that we’ve seen of st dnd games.  the music he used, the costuming, the village all screamed medieval fantasy. 

not to mention dnd used to point towards mikes conformity. him leaving it in s3 is a sign of conformity, but him returning shows him starting to embrace himself. his costuming at rink o mania show’s thats not fully the case, pointing towards something else being the root of the conformity. then one of the (if not the) biggest byler scene, and the crux of what will be a major byler focused plot point, is will’s painting and the van scene. the painting? A FANTASY DND FIGHT! there’s a reason people love cleradin au’s and love the ship names cleradin and wiseheart. because dnd, and by extent fantasy, are woven into byler.

so keeping all that in mind, lets talk about rooms. rooms are usually a place for self expression. posters and things that express who you are and your interests. we've seen the duffers use rooms to express this in the past. but, they’ve also used rooms to show attraction. we dont see the second point much in mikes season 1 room, but we see the first. his room is a reflection of his nerdy interests and his friends mainly (also closet imagery!!!). but now that hes growing into a teenager it makes sense that we would begin to see the second part when we finally get his room again in s4. 

so: interests, we see his fantasy posters and his guitar. his fantasy posters line back up with his participation in hellfire. not TONS there, but some signals to him adopting eddies style due to some facsination/hero worship/crush(???) of the guy (an example being the guitar).

but attraction is where his room gets REALLY interesting. he has MULTIPLE posters of shirtless men. his one way sign to the closet. does more need to be said? it does. because attraction to men and being closeted, doesn’t mean much for being in relationships. (again bi people do exist!! he could be closeted and still in love with his gf)

In this scene he’s reading a letter from his girlfriend, in their ‘perfect’ relationship, their sci-fi coded relationship. so, even with the attraction to men coded, maybe the duffers didnt see the need to recode his female attraction, they just added coding of his relationship into his room, right? he might just not be the guy to have a shrine to his partner, he might just be more subtle?

except all the posters are more fantasy leaning. which is a different genre from scifi. his room does not point towards his relationship with el. but we fantasy is the coding behind his and will’s relationship. the same relationship that in their time apart he’s somehow managed to start acting weirder around his best friend, and feel the need to assert that they. are. just. friends. the same friend who just got confirmed in love with mike, and is now a love interest. 

I know theres been a lot of talk about mikes room but people haven’t really talked about the fantasy aspect, or bylers fantasy coding and mlvns sci-fi coding. I think it’s a lot more important than people are giving it credit for. 

[allcanonisrelative]

Leveragetober day one: food and love (which are of course the same thing)

Eliot & Parker-focused post-canon OT3 ficlet for @leveragetober

“I’m sick of thinking about it,” Parker huffed, flopping down on the sofa with her head hanging off one end, looking at the world upside-down. “It’s too many decisions and it’s every day, three times a day and then again the next day, when does it end, when does it get easy? Never! I don’t want to think about it anymore.”

Across the room, Eliot slowly took off his apron and tossed it over the back of a chair, keeping his steps deliberately light and even as he approached. Tapping her ankle, he waited until she lifted her legs, body temporally forming an elegant L-shape with her feet in the air, and sat down on the end of the sofa, wrapping his hands around her ankles when she settled her feet back in his lap. 

“You want me to think about it for you?” He broke the silence after a minute, without looking at her, hearing and feeling the deep breath she took in and let out as a weary sigh. 

“No,” she dragged the word, folding her arms protectively over her chest. “I’m an adult, I should be able to, to, to — ugh!” Her feet twitched in his lap, tapping out a rhythm of frustration and shame. 

“Park,” he murmured, thumb pressing into the arch of her foot, drawing her back into herself with his deliberate touch. “There’s no ‘should’. There’s only what works for you.”

“But Sophie—“

“Parker.” 

“…yeah. I know.”

She sighed again, and Eliot shifted her feet in his lap, setting to giving her a proper foot rub, feeling the muscles in his own shoulders start to relax when she gave a quiet sigh then an unselfconscious hum, melting into the couch and into his touch. 

No one could have been a better influence for his girl than Sophie, Eliot knew that, believed it with all his heart, but that didn’t make her a perfect role model. Trailing her own peck of mysterious trouble Sophie had been more patient with Parker from day one than any of the rest of them, and maybe it was being close to another woman for the first time in her life, Eliot  couldn’t begin to speculate and doesn’t care to but along the way Parker got it into her head that there were certain things Sophie did that were absolutely right and true and the marker of successfully acting out the role of an adult. Actually, now that Eliot’s thinking about it, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was something to do with the fact that Sophie is just as much of a freak as the rest of them she only hides it better behind dozens of masks ranging from subtle to dazzling that most people don’t even see let alone know to look for them, leaving Parker to the conclusion that she could or should construct her own masks in homage to Sophie’s and that is the marker of success — not making it, but faking it. 

“How about this,” Eliot heard himself say, before he’d decided to say anything at all. “You know how I am about food. About making food. How it. How I. I need to do it. It’s…”

“It’s your heart,” she said quietly, the words he still couldn’t bring himself to put into the world himself. 

“Yeah. So how about if when I’m cooking for myself I make extra for you. I won’t ask you to make any decisions about it, I won’t even ask you if you like it. You can eat it in your rig up in your rafters if you want, makes no difference to me. But that way you always know you’ve got something waiting for you, you don’t have to think about what you’re in the mood for if you don’t want to, you don’t gotta think about what’s healthy or not.”

When she spoke her voice came out muffled and Eliot looked up at her face for the first time since he sat down to find that at some point while he was talking she’d lifted her hands to cover her face. “But food is supposed to be more than fuel.”

“Did I say that?” He asked, and when she nodded he reached up and curled a hand gently around her wrist, thumb stroking over her pulse point. “Thought you knew better than to listen to me by now.”

She moved her hands to peek up at him, eyebrows folded down quizzically. “But I like listening to you.”

Eliot snorted, and squeezed her wrist lightly. “All right, then listen to this. There’s no ‘should,’ there’s no ‘supposed to,’ and Sophie ain’t got a corner on the market of what it looks like to be an adult. Here in this house I count three adults who couldn’t be more different from each other or from Sophie and most days I think we do okay.”

“Most days,” Parker agreed, and turned her hand over to bring them palm to palm. 

“So if you make Hardison get off the couch and work out with you every day and he makes me sit my ass on the couch and ice my damn knee at night and I make enough food that you always got something to eat even on days you don’t feel like it, maybe that’s just how we make it work.”

“Maybe that makes us lucky,” she said after a long, still silence. 

“Oh yeah?” He said, keeping his voice light even as something raucous and joyful took up howling in his chest. Her face whenever she made a new connection, whenever she decided to trust him with a thought that she hadn’t tested out herself first, goddamn, he would move mountains for this woman. 

“The first time I asked Sophie about love she said it was what made us feel alive. I told her I felt alive when I was jumping off a building and she said ‘maybe that’s why they call it falling in love’ but I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think it’s about falling I think it’s about catching. I don’t jump because I want to fall I jump because I know my rig or my parachute is going to catch me. And now you and Hardison, you’re my rig and my parachute. You catch me.”

“We catch each other,” Eliot said, as soon as he could trust his voice to come out steady. 

“That’s nice. Right? I think it’s nice.”

“It’s really nice.”

She linked her fingers through his, and used his hold on her to leverage herself up to sitting, pulling her feet out of his lap. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. Eliot, will you make me something to eat?”

[spacemagicandlaserswords]

The Clone Wars 4x5 'Mercy Mission' Reaction

eeeeeeeeeeee Wolffe!

Omg he’s so grumpy and done with everything and long suffering already I love him so much

You can tell from the first word he says. That “We’ve” was basically sighed with so much disgruntlement.

Ahahahaha he’s so pissed that he’s not there supporting Plo. Why has my General been left by himself? *humph* That is barely concealed displeasure that he’s been diverted from his duties. Wolffe said ‘Orders’ in such a particular tone that made it pretty damn clear how pissed he is. He’s so grumpy. I love him.

How often do the clones interact with Senators? Or at least Padmé? I should imagine Rex and Cody would more than others (Rex is probably so done with Anakin pretending to be subtle) but this feels like the first time I’ve seen a clone directly report to a Senator. 

I’m again struck by just how Aussie the clones sound. Or maybe Generic Antipodean/slightly British at best. That is not a Kiwi accent. Give the clones the Kiwi accent they deserve. 

That shot of the ships in space flying over the curved edge of the planet with a sun in the background feels like a homage to something. 2001: A Space Odyssey? That’s usually what gets referenced. The music here is gorgeous.

This is probably going to be a very unpopular opinion but it kind of feels like the clones are being a bit dickish to the droids? Please don’t eat me alive

Omg the LAAT/i’s have nose cone art of Plo and his troopers. I think I’ve seen this in previous episode's but I still love seeing it again.

“Greeeeeeaaaaaaaat, it’s gonna be another one of those planets.” omg I love you random clone trooper pilot. They’re all so grumpy. The entire Wolf Pack is just so grumpy. Maybe that’s a prerequisite for being part of the Wolf Pack. Eternal grumpiness.

My god Wolffe, that is some jaw line

“Ah, did you get that?” ahahahaha the dryness of that line. Insert your cliches about being drier than Tatooine here.

OMG THE EYE ROLL I AM SCREECHING

That is some Star Trek bridge shaking level acting going on in the after shock

Ugh he’s so gruff and rough and just ugh do me commander

“We’re good, but not that good.” ahahaha the sarcasm is off the charts

Oh hey Sinker is still around! Hey Sinker!

Do all of the Wolf Pack have the same paint? Usually it’s fairly easy to tell between the different clones but I can’t spot the differences as well with them. Maybe it’s the grey paint? I think Sinker has grey sections on the bottom of his helmet but the rest of his armour seems to be the same as the rest of the Wolf Pack. They all have the same patterned left pauldron.

Oh hey it’s Boost as well! Hey Boost! I hope he and Sinker and Wolffe and Plo are doing ok after the Malevolence. Ok doesn’t feel like the right word for what happened to them but I can’t think of the right one. Wookieepedia has just informed me that the Malevolence was inspired by the Bismarck, which makes sense.

Back to the paint of the Wolf Pack, Boost has grey spikes under the horizontal section of his visor but that’s the only difference I can spot. At least it’s better than his hair XD

Lmao Boost could you be any more trigger happy

Omg after Boost kicks open the door, the shot pans up and Sinker is just standing there like a model, slightly bent knee and all. 

I love how much you can tell that Wolffe takes absolutely no shit just from the way he moves and carries himself. 

Omg the sneer over his shoulder. If he glared at me like that my knees would absolutely buckle.

“Do I need this?” CACKLING

“A firm hand.” I bet that’s not the only place where Wolffe has a firm hand omg help me the thots are taking over

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Star Wars cliche klaxon

I’m only noticing this because I remember a post pointing this out but Wolffe really does waddle in his kama. The poor man definitely has back problems. He's so stiff.

I love the way that Aleena takes a moment to realise they’ve been left with Wolffe and suddenly has this ridiculously exaggerated horrified and terrified expression on their face before fleeing. 

It’s the Ents! Does that make R2-D2 and C-3PO Merry and Pippin?

Is Orphne supposed to be some kind of alien villainous femme fatale? Gestures matching words? What is this, a high school theatre production? 

Fire. Soil. Water. What is this, a Captain Planet reference?

R2 did you just pee on Orphne’s floor?!

The vapours! *faints*

OMG THE EYE ROLL AGAIN! SCREAMING EVERY TIME. Wolffe is So. Done. I love him.

The music is beautiful here too. The Kiner’s did such a good job.

EYE ROLL VOLUME 3. I am WHEEZING 

That’s Boost and Sinker standing next to Wolffe with two very understanding tilts of their buckets.

Ah, so that’s where the gifs of Wolffe wincing comes from. Also, Sir, those are some seriously sharp cheekbones. 

“I couldn’t agree more, Sir.” Sinker being the very supportive Sergeant there.

Look at Wolffe standing there all sassy with his hand on his hip and blaster. 

Including this gif for the look down and up. There is something about Wolffe that is just uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh

[super-paper]

I can understand ppl not liking stains character (not me tho, love that guy 😌 i too, love and wax poetic about toshi), but im actually surprised that so many people are mad about not only the impact but also the importance of stain in toshinori's arc.. like, idk im sure i fail to pick up on some things as i read the manga, but it makes perfect sense why stain would take on such an important role in saving and helping toshi (in more ways than one). But maybe im just biased ?? Anyway, something something they hate him for being a slut and all the killings something something 

Yeah, what gets me is that post was clearly talking about the people who were directly involved in Toshi's arc about choosing to live and the OP included Bakugo bc he's clearly being set up as the coup de grâce/grand finale to that arc about living. Stain's inclusion as a direct participant in that arc was also obvious-- like, "why is a self-righteous killer being included in Toshi's arc but not my favorite student character?? this is proof that the writing is bad!" is such a wild argument imho, bc it's so obvious to me that Toshi needed to develop a relationship with a villain chara entirely because of this:

"If you think of him as anything more than a villain--" the entirety of Act 2 exists to challenge this mindset, and Act 3 exists to defeat it. Stain plays a crucial role beyond just helping convince Toshi to live and fight for his own (and everyone else's) right to keep living--Toshi's heart is able to heal specifically because he doesn't dismiss Stain or think of him as "nothing more than a villain." His meeting with Stain triggers a subtle but needed change in how Toshi views villains:

Calling Stain's contribution to the final act "pointless" ignores the heart of this story and why Toshinori SPECIFICALLY needed Stain SPECIFICALLY as a catalyst for a certain SPECIFIC change, and it ignores what that change actually means for the greater narrative-- again, people tend to severely underestimate how important Tomura and Toshinori actually are to each other's respective arcs, and those arcs are now converging. Like, I don't want to see ppl feigning surprise when their arcs finally overlap with each other, lmao.

Side note, but Stain being a central catalyst character for both Toshi and Tomura + also being the trigger for Tomura doubling down on his villainy + ALSO being one of the many key triggers that will likely lead to Tomura's salvation feels.... bizarrely fitting?? Without Stain, Tomura never seeks out Izuku at the mall, never meets Toga + Touya + Spinner (ESPECIALLY SPINNER), and remains forever at odds with Toshi due to both men remaining stuck in their respective hero/villain roles and being utterly unable to truly *SEE* each other outside those roles. Stain is literally a load bearing wall lmao ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Bkgo going from "stock bully" to someone who practically has to beg Toshinori and Izuku to take their fucking Lexapro while tears stream down his face is the funniest direction his character arc could have taken, but it’s also the best direction it could've taken.

↑ In Bakugo's case, it's obvious why he has a role in Toshinori's arc about living and it's completely fair to include him in a list of people who are most important and influential to that particular arc. There's no need for explanation and no question about what his role in the upcoming chapters will be.

Also I keep seeing people say that the suicide move was meant to be Toshi's homage to Bakugo when, like... it very clearly wasn't. 💀💀💀 Like, Bakugo does have a right to be upset that Toshi was planning to kill himself just to buy them all a few extra seconds of time against AFO-- but I feel like people kind of....?? Don't understand Bakugo's character development if they seriously think he would yell at or guilt-trip Toshi about it. He didn't yell at Izuku when Izuku hit rock bottom, and he knows that Izuku and Toshi suffer from the same feelings of worthlessness and lack of regard for themselves better than anyone. - - - - - - - - - -

Anyway, I think the real root of the issue is actually less about Stain and more so that people are just mad about All Might lmao. One quarter of the fandom thinks he should've died in Kamino, another quarter thinks he should just die now, another quarter thinks that Iron Might is character assassination, a chunk of folks just don't care, and whatever's left over is the handful of old man enthusiasts who think that it's truly lovely (myself included)-- Iron Might is fully intended to be a love letter to everything Toshinori loves and wants to protect, himself included. Criticize it if you like, but if you can't at least acknowledge that much, then something in your heart is dead.

I also feel like also there's something to be said here abt how fandom approaches older adult characters w mental health problems & who struggle with suicidal ideation vs. how they approach the younger characters-- Like, I've seen a shocking lack of sympathy for Toshi from the same people who are very considerate to characters like Touya and Tomura, and I've seen otherwise kind people calling Toshi a "whiner" for what are obvious symptoms of SEVERE depression. These characters all have wildly different circumstances, yes-- but they all struggle with suicidality that manifests in different ways, and I feel they all deserve a more compassionate, delicate reading into their specific arcs and their respective actions as a result. 

Toshi's arc and his struggles with mental health in particular is something I feel is handled in such a deeply kind way. The story never once disparages Toshi for backsliding, or treats him as selfish or a lost cause for continuing to struggle even though there are so many people supporting him and encouraging him to live. The story is kind, but the fandom isn't, and that's a bit of a tragedy. (and like, this is probably tmi, but I've struggled with my own mental health since middle school and the suicidal ideation really never goes away no matter how well I'm doing in life-- so.... I'm so happy to see a character with similar issues being depicted so kindly in a story, lol.) 

Anyway!

"something something they hate him for being a slut and all the killings something something"

Yeah, they hated him b/c his ass was fat, or whatever those crazy kids are saying these days. <- fully aware that Stain is flat as a board.

[adracat]

yes, hello. I’d like to attack you with unrelenting happiness for the next few minutes of your time. it’s a feedback loop originating from and re-projecting back to you.

first of all, seeing your deconstructions after stumbling upon your ao3 makes me regret missing out on the live updates from you and the community here (aniwave comments are dogshit)

thank you for your posts. they let me think critically about and appreciate g-witch that much more from novel analysis perspectives. reading back a bit, especially to your take on scenes such as ep10’s communication clear up, and seeing these pieces given the gravity and respect they deserve, is taking the bite off of the series’ conclusion.

speaking of treating the sulemio shaped hole in the networks from now on, a red tempest is the kind of fic one wishes they could distill and take intravenously at maximum drip.

it won’t be for everyone, and you think law of causality is your best (haven’t read it yet), but it feels like you’re writing professional grade work just for me with how it seemingly doesn’t miss or waste a line. you present a tight ship regardless of whether that’s how you run it. the story feels compact and layer woven yet flows along seamlessly and with that wonderful sense of OC unlimited potential, dropping shadows here and there but keeping me fully on my toes. still in the rising action, but hopefully multiple full arcs…? (worth!)

the spots of canon that you spun into a universe feel weighted, alive with the way your voice gives an inherent gravitas even to small supporting details, and nothing is more alive than your characters.

you do them so well, it’s impossible to stress enough. regardless of where they’re going in the future, where you’ve had them come from and be is so genuine and, in most cases, compliant/paying close homage in their personalities. your dialogue is a breath of life. eri and chuchu particularly, and prospera especially.

there are small things that are subtle like suletta being a bit less anxious at the start, and there are larger things that are less subtle like all of prospera— yours of whom I love— but everything’s working believably and in sync as you craft this beautiful story. my only complaint is that I think the next release is gonna be a sulemio heavy chapter during the job’s sudden distress, and it isn’t this weekend’s release date yet.

there’s a lot else, like the many juxtapositions, the slow burn, and other emotional/literary devices, but while I’ve already spent too long trying to put just this much of a review/praise bomb together, I’ve gotta jaw on a bit more about your fantastic perspective work with clear voices for each heroine. it’s so exciting getting into the younger couple’s heads when it comes to each other. you’re probably going to slaughter me with elnora and notrette, but ch11’s suletta and mio are already doing it with their pining.

thank you. it’s a joy and a pleasure. I hope to read you for a long time to come. I’d ask to share some of your brain chemicals, but reading the product makes mine just as happy. I hope that means we share a brain cell; then I could rise and meet the caliber. o7

That’s so sweet of you! And absolutely; sending you spiritual braincells 🤗 I put a wealth of thought into all my works but something about Sulemio and Prospera✨ sends my brain into overdrive. Law of Causality and A Red Tempest are passion driven works that I’m happy to share with likeminded people. If you ever do decide to give AASB and its sister works a try you may find interesting connections. ART is a bit of a spiritual sequel in a way. Though admittedly ART Prospera may be a rascally devil but is intentionally more likable than LoC ‘Prospera’. I decided to make her pathetic in ART for funsies 👏

Thanks so much for the kind words ❤️Encouragement gives me wings to confidently move forward—just like our merry cast!

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

okokok i know Literally Nobody Asked but I NEED to get this down. some more about my “metal sonic makes his own sonic oc” AU I’ve had since I was like nine.

I’ve made a post on it before, but here’s a quick summary bc like, I do not expect you guys to hunt down my old posts lol. Basically, the idea is that instead of going for the whole dramatic take over the world thing in Heroes, Metal Sonic instead decides to go with a more subtle approach, instead disguising himself as a normal organic hedgehog (who, as mentioned, is basically his original character) to infiltrate Sonic and his friends from the inside and steal their data while they’re none the wiser. They’re Nova, here’s the drawing I’ve done of them, they’re based on a mixture of Neo Metal Sonic, classic Amy, and like every Sonic OC I saw in the early 2010s (I love them this is not meant to be a dig at them it’s an affectionate homage).

(As you can probably tell, he does not know what gender is. This will be a plot point.)

Anyway, so he ends up staging a scene where “Nova” is being attacked by Badniks (that he “repurposed” from Eggman- Eggman has no idea what’s going on except that Metal Sonic inexplicably vanished), knowing full well that Sonic's recklessness and thirst for adrenaline will stop him from questioning how strange it might be. This works, for approximately five seconds because Metal Sonic is terrible at acting like a normal person. He goes from faking fear to eerily calm to eagerly violent to exchanging snarky banter in the span of a minute, speaks in weirdly technical and verbose ways (he very much enjoys having a voice and refuses to shut up for five seconds), and seems completely unfamiliar with most aspects of human life.

Thankfully, he’s terrible at roleplaying his new OC in such a way Sonic's first reaction isn’t suspicion- after “Nova” responds with sheer terror at the idea of returning home, bursts into tears when shown mild concern, and isn’t able to answer basic questions about his life, Sonic instead comes to the conclusion that Nova is a runaway of some sort from a horrible background, and is concerned for them. This, mixed with genuinely enjoying trading banter with them means he initially genuinely trusts them- he’s not stupid, he picked up on something being suspicious he’s intuitive and smart, but his inherent disdain for those who pick on the weak and oppress them means he’s more inclined to trust someone who he believes to be running from some sort of traumatic situation, so he assumes that Nova’s just very sheltered and acting weird bc he literally was just “attacked”.

Now, Metal hates his organic disguise. He views organic beings as inherently weak, stupid, and disgusting, and even mimicking them is something that is unpleasant and wrong to him. He hates expressing his emotions, and finds it deeply humiliating that not only can he not hide them, but also that the algorithm he programmed for it is way overcalibrated, so he’s grinning at the slightest feeling of satisfaction or bursting into tears over any frustration or confusion. Basically every bodily function- down to breathing- is something he finds incredibly disgusting to even fake, and being around multiple people who eat and blink is beyond uncomfortable. He views basically everyone around him who isn’t Sonic as repulsive creatures he wants to destroy on sight, not pretend to be friends with. But it is necessary to prove his superiority to Sonic- he initially just wanted to steal their data, but he cannot help but view this as a competition. Sonic, he reasons, must be as disgusted with the inferior organics around him as Metal is, since he’s the only one who matters out of them, so if he can pretend to tolerate them better he’s proving he is the better Sonic even while he’s not actively trying to kill him.

So, like, as far as anyone’s concerned, Nova is just… kinda weird. He talks oddly, he’s very loud, he’s often confused, but he’s never anything but accommodating and kind. Tails thinks he’s cool and wishes he could dress like him (which leads to her realising she’s a trans girl sorry I believe in trans girl Tails supremacy) and Nova helps her in engineering, Amy enjoys having a friend who also has an interest in fashion (albeit a very different style), and in general things seem chill.

In his own way, Metal does get attached, too. He has a fundamentally different way of viewing the world than they do, but he’s also unused to being treated like a person or having social interaction and fun outside of violent maiming and killing, and it’s something he immediately latches onto. He still sees all of them bar Sonic as inherently lesser in importance to him, and sees them as more like useful tools rather than actual people, but that means he does want to keep them alive, and that’s a pretty big thing for a robot designed solely for violence and destruction.

With Sonic, specifically, he becomes determined to not only prove that he’s better than him but wants him to reach his full potential- so that he can prove, even if Sonic is at his absolute best, he’s still inferior to Metal. Destroying Sonic is his purpose, it’s not something he can ever stop aiming for with his programming, but he’s grown to heavily respect him, and, in his own way, enjoy his company.

But, of course, his mission is still the same. He has some organic beings he wants to spare, but he still views most of them as inherently disgusting and pitiful, and he’s still determined to become the ultimate overlord over all things. And there’s one piece he finds he needs for that- Shadow. Metal wasn’t able to properly copy his data while he was in stasis, and so he just so happens to mention hearing something about a secret treasure somewhere nearby where he knows where that base is, when Rouge is listening…

And now we’ve gotten back to the part of the timeline Heroes takes place, though obviously it happens… quite differently. Eggman has no idea what’s going on and just is very much blaming it on Sonic bc he hates him and he has no clue why his robots (and one ultimate life form) keep disappearing, which drags Team Sonic and Team Rose in turn into another round of beating the shit out of his badniks for a reasonable amount of fast paced platforming levels, Team Chaotix were hired for the aforementioned “Eggman’s minions keep Inexplicably Vanishing” issue, and Nova is there bc Metal Sonic is literally just living out his own self insert OC fanfiction of his own making. Heroes doesn’t have too much plot, though, so there’s not too much to mention…

Until, when in the final battle, Sonic gets a bit too overconfident, and ends up getting seriously hurt. Immediately, “Nova” jumps in, because Metal is not going to let his target die at the hands of anyone else, and takes what was meant to be the final blow. The sheer force is just enough to rip a chunk out of his shoulder, causing him to revert to his Neo Metal Sonic form.

Things immediately stop. Everyone is baffled, everyone has questions, and obviously hearing “I spent months infiltrating your friend group to kill you painfully” is not a… particularly fun answer? Everyone is angry, Eggman included bc his creations aren’t meant to go against his orders and running off to do an insane assassination plot is not something he ever ordered. So, overwhelmed and honestly confused, Metal does what he knows best- he runs. Sonic’s too injured to follow, and no one else is fast enough to catch him, he knows that much, but it still somehow feels more wrong than anything else.

Over the next few months, he will repair himself, and shift back into his Nova form- after all, if he failed so badly, he deserves to feel horrible and disgusting. He will wander aimlessly until he enters an unfamiliar city on the eve of a certain alien invasion. But this is long enough as it is, I am Not writing another…fourteen paragraphs what the fuck on the Shadow the Hedgehog timeline for this (though I wish I could it’s got the Metal Sonic and Shadow content I always wanted it’s what I Meant to talk about but then I rambled on way too much about the Basic Premise.)

[ealvara7]

Beetlejuice Coloring Process! 🪲

Since my new artwork is gonna take me some time to complete, I decided that now would be a good time to talk about my coloring process for Beetlejuice's design! Specifically, I want to talk about picking out the palette for his eyes and outfit. It was a confusing process that's nice to look back and reflect upon.

Beetlejuice took me the longest to design... I almost gave up on completing him, but I'm glad I persevered! I really love how he came out in the end!

Since this will be a long post with several images, I will add a "read-more" link in case people wanna keep scrolling.

Otherwise, here's my coloring process!

-

After I finished laying out the colors for his skin tone and hair, I started thinking about how exactly I wanted his eyes to look like. I really like designing eyes in general because I feel it adds a lot more character to a design!

My initial idea was to give Beetlejuice slightly dark scleras with yellow pupils in order to create this eerie, uncanny effect.

The problem with that idea was that it ended up feeling... too eerie.

I felt as if it was leaning a lot more on him being a demon, with not enough leeway to show a more human side of him. As a result, it made it difficult to connect with him as a character... which was not what I wanted.

My next idea was to merge the color palettes from my two artist references - creaturologie and shnikkles.

While I felt like I was moving in a better direction, this made it very clear to me that I needed to find a palette that better suited my art style, because I felt the red here was just... too much? It ended up overpowering the green which was definitely not what I wanted.

Finally, I decided to stick to the original stage production and make his scleras white. This also made it easier for me to balance his eyes with his skin tone.

As for his pupils... I started thinking about amber stones, and how they illuminate in a way that is very subtle and beautiful...

That's when I realized that Beetlejuice's pupils didn't need to be consistently illuminated in order to have that subtle, eerie effect. They just need to create the illusion that they can illuminate wherever he went or however you looked at him.

With this in mind, I created the final version!

I couldn't be any happier with how it came out! I felt as if I finally hit that perfect balance between his human and demon characteristics! You're able to connect with him better, all while he retains the more frightening elements of his character.

That being said... his eyes can very much glow in the dark, if he so chooses.

-

I'd like to quickly touch on the outfit, because I had been going back and forth as to whether I wanted to add some semblance of color to his design or not...

I did try coloring his button-up with a magenta similar to the cartoon version... but I wasn't a huge fan of it. I realized I wanted more of a consistency to Beetlejuice's design.

This brought me to another challenge - how much value did I want to add in each part of Beetlejuice's outfit? I knew right away that I did not want to use pure black and white, but I still wanted to create a distinction of some kind for each outfit piece.

For this, I heavily referenced the musical - I've always loved how Beetlejuice's outfit wasn't a bright white. Rather, it was weathered out to be gray. It gave him a more gothic feel, which I fell in love with. I took it up a notch and gave him just a slight tinge of blue, as an homage to Corpse Bride - one of my favorite Tim Burton movies! I would eventually use a similar palette for Lydia in order for her and Beetlejuice to match.

With that, I completed the look of my Beetlejuice design! ✨

[guuuhhh]

i've been inspired! here's a list of my own wants (in no particular order) for ts4 and how they could (realistically) be implemented:

bands, maybe even a music related game pack with a singer/band active career path. more instruments than just guitars and violins too. i wanna see drumkits again but also more outlandish stuff like bagpipes so i can make a korn tribute band lmfao

spiral staircases. Please god spiral staircases

as much as i want actual buyable driveable cars, at this point i don't see it happening, but i do still really want busses/trains/planes even if they're just rabbit holes. maybe busses could be objects that appear outside your sim's lot every so often, like how the one lot in ciudad enamorada has a bus stop literally across the street. could come in a pack (i'm tapping into EA's greed here) that includes bus stop/train station/airport lots and maybe careers corresponding with those

i'm really picturing most of these releasing as packs at this point considering how EA is, but i'd love an EP/GP (please GP i'm sick of EPs) centered around criminals. bringing back burglars, maybe even turning the criminal career into an active one -- this one, admittedly, i feel would be a lot harder to do though because there's only so much they can add onto criminals that they can keep at a T rating. they'd likely just be about as threatening as the three stooges, but i can dream lol

i want chance cards back in their original form. i realize we sorta have chance cards, but they tell you the end result for each option before you even pick one and that really ruins the tension of making a potentially career changing decision for me. i want them detailed again, given out more often, and the results kept secret till you pick it and have to live with the consequences of your actions

playable hotels. again, could make a vacation-oriented pack (as if we don't have some with this as a subtle theme) with an active hotel owner/manager career. could even just have it be a buyable lot a la GTW or dine out and manage it that way.

GROCERY STORES!!!! and with those, i'd love to see the feature of not having any groceries from ts2 come back. you can't cook unless you stock up! i'd also love it if it locked recipes behind what ingredients you have on hand. it drives me absolutely insane that we've had all these home-oriented packs and kitchen related packs and we still don't have grocery stores.

although i hate this whole thing of locking occults behind shallow EPs/GPs, since this doesn't seem to be a trend that's stopping, i want a pack with fairies. it would've been smart to include them in lovestruck tbh as sort of homage to cupid (even though cupid was a god but idc)

more worlds with abundant lots and bigger lot sizes. i'm actually so sick and tired of how puny the worlds have been lately it makes me mad just thinking about it.

i'm out of ideas!!!!!!!

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 9

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’ve been counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January.

  TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “So, it wasn’t all for nothing.” Number 9 is…Beware the Gray Ghost!

This is one of the greatest and most renowned episodes of the Animated Series…but as of these recent years, it’s also become one of the most difficult to talk about. In some ways, this episode is even more profoundly impacting now than it ever was before. It’s funny, because the reason(s) for this, I’m sure, will be lost on many future Batman fans; they will never know just how big a deal this episode was when it came out, and how big a deal it is now in this given year. Thankfully, however, those points will not detract from the greatness of this story on its own terms, and a great story is exactly what it is. In this episode, Batman finds out about a series of bombings, committed by a mysterious villain simply referred to as “The Mad Bomber.” He recognizes the crimes as being almost identical, in every way, to the attacks of a fictional villain in a TV series that Bruce Wayne loved dearly as a child, “The Gray Ghost.” To try and solve the case, Batman gets help from the Gray Ghost’s original actor, an aging performer by the name of Simon Trent. Simon has seen better days, as the combo of his typecasting and other personal issues have led to him falling on hard times, and he’s grown bitter about the role that once made him a household name. Batman must find a way to not only stop the Mad Bomber, but reinvigorate Trent’s spirits, as he teams with the Gray Ghost himself to end the crime spree.

Much like the later “Legends of the Dark Knight,” this is an episode that essentially pays homage to Batman’s roots, but in a much more subtle way. I guess I can’t go any further without bringing up the big point: the voice of Simon Trent. It’s none other than Adam West: the original 1960s Batman. The creators of B:TAS were huge fans of the original Adam West series, and odes and homages to the show are sprinkled throughout, some more obvious than others. Trent’s character is one of the biggest examples, as his fictional foibles are a sort of exaggerated mirror of how West’s own career and life went after the 60s series ended. It goes even deeper than that, however: the Gray Ghost himself is a thinly-veiled parody of The Shadow, a character I’ve mentioned many times in the past, who was one of the main inspirations for Batman as a character. (The first Batman comic ever made was an outright ripoff of a Shadow story. No joke, look it up.) Even the villain of the piece feels more like something out of the Shadow than your typical Batman tale, let alone the silly sixties. It’s a double-homage, in a sense, to two great influences on the creators of B:TAS.

This is also what makes the episode hard to watch now: Adam West has been dead for only a few years now, yet, and Kevin Conroy’s passing is still even more painfully recent. You can’t watch this episode as a Batman fan without feeling a sort of pang, realizing not only the significance of two of the greatest Batmen in history onscreen together, but the fact that both are no longer with us. In a weird way, though, that makes the episode even more powerful, because of what the whole story is really about: nostalgia. The way nostalgia effects all three of the main characters in the story – Batman, the Gray Ghost, and the Mad Bomber alike – is a BIG part of this story. Trent is someone who tries to shun the past, who feels pained when he looks back, and has to come to terms with the fact the world has changed, and he has to change, too. He’s haunted by the role that made him once iconic, while also dealing with the issue of being seemingly obsolete, no longer sure of who he is or what his life has truly become. The Bomber, meanwhile, is the opposite extreme: without giving away who it is, it’s someone who clings TOO CLOSE to the past, and to the things they loved in youth, and that obsession drives them to toxic self-destruction, not to mention acts of cruelty and spite. It’s probably not a coincidence that Bruce Timm, one of the show’s creators – a fan of the 60s series – plays this character; a sort of self-parody in the form of the world’s most unsettling fanboy.

It's Batman himself who shows the value of nostalgia and the balance of where it needs to fall: he clings close to his past, as we know, and the Gray Ghost character and series is revealed to be no exception. But he doesn’t allow these things to rule him or destroy him. For people who grew up with Kevin Conroy and Adam West alike, this episode shows just what made both of them such special actors, and reminds us of why both of their respective takes on Batman were so interesting, while also providing a fascinating story that combines all kinds of tonal elements to create an intriguing and entertaining tale. But above all, it serves as a lesson in the dangers and the values of what we keep close in our memories. I think it’s fair to say that everything about this episode – it’s actors, it’s inspirations, and the series it hails from – will be a treasured, nostalgic memory for many years to come.

Tomorrow we move on with Number 8! Hint: “But they share my unique face! Colonel Whathisname has chickens, and they don't even have moustaches!"

[ardenigh]

More questions on Tegan & Lucky!

What sort of media would Lucky be interested in?

What sort of books and journals are in Tegan's collection?

What bike did Tegan have and what is Lucky's? How did Lucky get his?

What are Tegan's associates doing about Lucky being around instead of him?

Whether for his curiosity of meeting new people and places or distancing himself from Tegan's social circles, would Lucky consider moving somewhere else?

Since Lucky is still legally seen as Tegan, would he get his name changed?

Since Tegan is the king of street racing, would it be fitting that he also has an unbeatable skeeball highscore in every arcade he's been to?

i was going to open this answer by going "well it's your lucky day" but i just made myself cringe with it lol

it is time for boy lore!

What sort of media would Lucky be interested in?

I think he likes weird mixed-media and self-published stuff, honestly. Audio dramas, video essays. Things he can put on while he’s on the road or stretched out watching the clouds. Reading is nice, too, but he focuses best when he's just gotten up and isn't moving yet.

He likes a classic slasher from time to time, too, but only with other people. Corn-syrup blood and cheesy practical effects are just kind of better enjoyed together.

What sort of books and journals are in Tegan's collection?

Make no mistake, Tegan was a NERD. Aeronautical anthologies, astronomy texts, those weird Barnes & Noble historical coffee table selections. Poetry, like a lot of poetry. Tegan's very much a Yeats boy, although he was also fond of Rilke and Rimbaud. There’s also, like, a few dusty language textbooks, the sort that you buy on a kick and never get around to actually studying. And he wrote a lot. Memo pads and leatherbound Walgreens journals, that sort of thing. Crack one of those suckers open and you get a free tongue-in-cheek existential crisis in mechanical pencil, 'cause that's what he had on tap 80% of the time.

What bike did Tegan have and what is Lucky's? How did Lucky get his?

Tegan had a 2012 BMW F800ST! Torquey and balanced and really well cared for. Midnight blue with some subtle yellow and white accents, little bit of a Van Gogh homage (nerd).

Of course, Janus had mixed feelings on the whole racing thing, but he also recognizing that having a motorcycle was an integral part of his brother’s identity, so he arranged for a replacement — a Sprint 1050. They are both sort of sharp in the front, and honestly, like, a bike is a bike. Only thing is that a bike is not a bike, and so while Lucky does get things done with the Sprint, it’s a little bit too finicky for his taste. He ends up trading with another local bike enthusiast for something a little more his style, and that — a Yamaha FJR1300 — ends up being his trademark bike. He gets it done up in his colors and everything. :)

What are Tegan's associates doing about Lucky being around instead of him?

Aside from the fact that he just isn’t around as much as they’re used to, I think that most of his acquaintances are just convinced that Tegan sort of got scared off the scene by the crash. First one of his career, right? And bad enough to take him off the map for months. I think that what strikes them as the strangest is the way that he just doesn’t seem to engage in the racing game at all anymore — he just seems to be a full-time courier, now.

When they ask, though, he’s genial. Maybe a little vague. Something's ever so slightly off about him. It’s weird, but who wouldn’t be? The crash was pretty bad. I’m still sorting everything out. Everyone doing okay? Nothing like an NDE to really mellow someone out. He’s still welcome, though, and sometimes he takes people up on invitations on the town, but the atmosphere’s a little different now that Holloway doesn’t step up and dazzle whole rooms like he used to.

Tegan’s best friend is canny enough and close enough that she knows what Lucky’s deal is — anyway, she’s been busy in the interim with trying to suss out what got him killed in the first place. How is she coping with the recent development that the bestie has been format wiped and now perceives way more and also way less than she is comfortable with? Uh. Really well. Don't ask her any more questions.

Whether for his curiosity of meeting new people and places or distancing himself from Tegan's social circles, would Lucky consider moving somewhere else?

Lucky would love traveling, I can tell you that much. You know those people who will tour from one coast to another with a backpack and their bike? That's right up his alley.

As far as leaving permanently, though, Lucky is a creature of sentiment. He's got ties to the city, inherited though they were, and once he starts making them his own, it'll get that much harder to actually leave it behind.

He is going touring though. Someday.

Since Lucky is still legally seen as Tegan, would he get his name changed?

Maybe after enough time’s passed. Feels disrespectful to immediately start over, you know? I think a part of Lucky seeks to understand who Tegan was, and it might just be sentimentality, but wearing the name feels like a part of that, almost? You wear the name, you read the journals, you find the person still lingering in the apartment, the idle nail-carvings on the end table, the weighted blankets and sleep playlists.

In the end, if he gets too used to it, he might just start telling people that he is Lucky, yeah, but he was named after a brother who passed away. Maybe Tegan would be amused.

Since Tegan is the king of street racing, would it be fitting that he also has an unbeatable skeeball highscore in every arcade he's been to

YES. Is it anywhere near as prestigious? Absolutely not, but it's fun to see the neighborhood teens placing bets to see who can beat him.

Did Tegan have any tattoos? If so, what where they and what meaning did it have to him?

He’s got a simple one stretching horizontally above his shoulder blades, the phases of the moon. He would’ve had more, but he had too many ideas for them and often sketched down concepts in his journals and never actually committed to them. Lots of thought went into maybe getting a line or two from poems he liked inked, but he never got the chance.

If Tegan did have tattoos, would Lucky be interested in getting one as well?

The first tattoo Lucky gets might be for Tegan. Some poem on his bicep or chest. But in you is the presence that / will be, when all the stars are dead, maybe. A lonely impulse of delight / drove to thus tumult in the clouds. That one will take some thought.

Other than that, maybe a spade? Is that too on the nose?

[seoul-bros]

Back to the eighties with Like Crazy

I woke up early last Friday to watch the Like Crazy premier and promptly disappeared down the rabbit hole. I only emerged again today. I have debated about writing this post. I'm still not sure people will understand or even want to hear the associations I have made with this song. All of it makes me respect even more the beautiful, talented, endlessly brave and honest Park Jimin.

I really had no idea about the emotions that I was going to experience with this song. I am listening non-stop to all five versions of the song today (interspersed with other Jimin and BTS songs as required for streaming) and I still can’t quite work out why this song hits so hard.

Is it the synth pop style? Or the mullet and sparkly denim? Is it the bathroom wall stickers of British rock legends Queen and The Kinks or perhaps the Mapplethorpe pictures on his shiny leather trousers.

Intentionally or not this song and this music video, successfully evoked vivid memories of life in the late 80s and early 90s in the UK. It was a time of serious political and social conflict. The threat of nuclear war was ever present and our government was busy trying, and in many cases succeeding, to drive wedges between different groups of people: rich and poor, young and old, black and white, gay and straight. Student protest was alive and well and fighting on many fronts. Here are some of the badges I had pinned to my big coat at the time as I marched through the streets of London to Westminster.

But there are some important ones missing from that collection.

The AIDs crisis of the early eighties created a climate of fear and hate towards the LGBT community and homosexual men, in particular, which led to the passing of Section 28 in 1988. Section 28 stated that local authorities "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

This had an immediate negative effect on groups that were trying to fight for LGBT rights and develop better public understanding of AIDS. What I remember most though, was the bravery of those that stood up to this government promoted intolerance risking public ridicule and hate in their campaign to change the law. This was sometimes people in the public eye like Ian McKellen.

But more commonly it was just ordinary people trying to live their lives in the most honest way possible and facing an extremely hostile social climate head on. The devastating series It's a Sin did much to capture the feel of 1980s Britain and reflect the lives of young people at the time.

The vibrancy of the nightclub scene and the glittering fragility of beautiful young men and women determined to live life on their own terms seems to me to also be reflected in Jimin's video.

“I tried to express the feelings of that movie (Like Crazy),” Jimin told Rolling Stone in a recent interview. “You know, the somewhat complex, somewhat lonely, somewhat happy emotions. I tried to express all these ambiguous and subtle emotions in a slightly sexy way, but I’m not sure how it’ll end up being received by people.”

Anyone who has been clubbing can probably recognise those heightened emotions, the feeling of getting lost in the music and the moment. It is unforgettable, visceral and totally life affirming.

But it can also be fleeting and when it is passed sometimes what is left is the feeling of acute loneliness. Lost in the crowd. Alone again.

Jimin seems to know all about these feelings and has chosen to express them in Like Crazy. In referencing Mapplethorpe we can also assume that he knows something about LGBT history and has chosen to pay homage to it and to the people that fought and continue to fight for LGBT rights. He is showing us what is important to him and he is being as open as he can about who he is and what he believes. Jimin is giving us all a lesson in self realisation.

Post Date: 28/03/2023

[witchesoz]

Oz the Great and Powerful: Script VS Movie (1)

If you haven’t kept up with my updates: a long time ago, soon after the release of “Oz: The Great and Powerful”, I heard about one of the original script for the project being passed around the Internet. A script that showed how the movie was originally conceived, a script that showed a movie that was originally much closer to the world of Baum’s books than the final movie, a scrip that actually was better and much less flawed than the movie we ended up with.

At the time I had searched for this script, to no avail, but now, after so many years, I finally found it! And… yes, the script I got to read is actually better than the actual movie (mind you, it still has some flaws, because it was still a script-in-progress, but it also lacked a lot of the problems of the movie) and much closer to Baum’s books. In fact, reading this script while looking at the side at the finished movie is a wild experience – not only do they end up feeling like two different movies with the same plot, but also… the actual movie feels almost like a caricature of the original script. As if someone read the script, went “Let’s add as much stereotypes as we could, and twist the characters so that they became annoying instead of interesting, and let’s reinterpret what the script says in the most negative way possible” and we ended up with this movie, that would be someone’s wrong re-interpretation of the script… But anyway, I’ll let you judge by yourself, because I will break down the differences between the script and the movie.

I) In Kansas

Right ahead, the opening scene. In the movie we have this long sequence that starts with Oscar seducing his new assistant, scenes insisting on him being an unfaithful lying womanizer breaking the heart of all girls, and we are shown how his show is just shoddy tricks and fake magic, with an insistence on the “scam” nature of his show with the whole “girl in a wheelchair” thing. In the original script? NONE OF THAT! The script begins actually with Oscar in the middle of his own show – which is actually a pretty decent and impressive magic show. We begin with Oscar choosing someone in the audience to handcuff him solidly, and then asks the man what time it is – the man looks at his wrist, but his watch is gone, and then Oscar hands him his watch, with his magically un-cuffed hands. And then he proceeds to do a series of “transformations” by having an egg appear in his hand, that turns into a rabbit, then into a dove… Standard but impressive magic tricks. And the thing is that the audience, despite the show being good, is left unimpressed by it. Unphased. Oscar even has to use his ventriloquism to invent enthusiastic audience voices in front of the deafening silence (oh yes, because that’s another point the script took from the book – Oscar is a very good ventriloquist). As the script says, the main problem here Is that Oscar is an “unappreciated artist”, whose magic tricks do not impress an imagination-less audience.

And so, in front of magic tricks doing poorly, Oscar turns to his second business… basically snake oil selling. Given his magic show doesn’t do anything, he starts promoting and selling a fake elixir called “HOME” – the Homeopathic Ontological Miracle Elixir – and there he gets a TON of money and a huge success. This is another good point of the script – it shows that Oscar/Oz isn’t a scam by default, unlike the greedy jerk we see in the movie. The script establishes well that Oscar needs to do scams because his natural talent and initial projects do not work.

As a nod to the MGM movie there is a “Mr. Gulch” in the audience of Oscar’s show plus oil snake sale, in charge of the local bank, and there is also a couple known as the “Hamilton”, with the wife being called “Margaret”. A not-so-subtle nod to the actress of the Wicked Witch of the West in the MGM movie… But an homage that actually would have been REALLY offensive and of poor taste if it had ever been done. You’ll get why when I describe the character of “Mrs. Hamilton”. For you see, Mrs. Hamilton is a very attractive woman that was the only one who applauded when Oscar did his magic tricks, while Mr. Hamilton is a stern, no-nonsense, unhappy man who spends more time with his friends than his wife and is just as unimpressed by Oscar’s tricks as the rest of the audience. And as Mr. Hamilton leaves Mrs. Hamilton alone, she quickly joins Oscar for a passionate embrace. For you see, Oscar is Mrs. Hamilton’s extra-marital lover. We have still the “philanderer” aspect of Oscar there, but interestingly it is downplayed a lot. We do not see him interacting with any other women, we know of his seducing nature by secondary hints. More importantly, the character of Mrs. Hamilton is basically a mix-up of all the conquests of Oscar in the final movie, from the circus girls to Annie. I’ll explain… Mrs. Hamilton has affairs with Oscar whenever he comes to Kansas with the carnival/circus/fair he is part of, and she apparently truly loves him unlike her husband – but she also is aware that he has other “girls” he has adventures with during his tours, and is quite fine with it, especially since as Oscar puts it, all the other girls are just “bauble” compared to the true “jewel” that is Margaret, the only reason he even comes in Kansas anymore. So, while not a perfect relationship, we still have something much more “balanced” somehow than we have in the movie. In the movie, Oscar is a man unable to commit the woman he truly loves and that loves him in return, and would rather abandon her to another than straighten himself up and stop his scheming, devious ways – plus, a man that literally pushes love aside for his dream of glory and being the “greatest man of them all” AND a man that keeps his true loved one in the complete ignorance of his other sexual relationships with women. But in the script? We have a man that is honest with his true loved one about having meaningless sexual affairs when far away from her, and she understands it because she herself is married and cannot be in a full relationship with him, all the while they keep reassuring each other that they do love each other, but that their life conditions prevent them from being together full time and dooms them to occasional times of secret love. Of course, the fact that the whole “lies and scams girls to sleep with them” part is not in the original script also helps – since in the script, Oscar keeps winning the heart of women due to his natural charm, eccentric charisma and random acts of kindness.

The other main change brought to the character, and a very important one, would be the motivations of Oscar. In the movie, Oscar’s whole goal is, in his own words, to become a great, rich and famous man, the greatest wizard ever known – he pursues ambition. He puts career before anything, he is selfishly acting always and only for himself, and he has hatred for honest work and poorness due to seeing his father dying “his face in the dirt” as he worked to the bone to survive. If used well, this motivation could have created a “lovable rogue” character, but unfortunately in the movie Oscar just comes off as a selfish greedy jerk and there is nothing lovable about him. In the script? Oh boy, that’s night and day! The reason Oscar refuses to stay in Kansas despite Mrs. Hamilton’s insistence, is because he actually searches for a “great land”. He doesn’t care about being a great man, in fact during his explaining sections he rarely uses “me” or “I” (unlike the movie character who is all “me me me me”) – he explains that his hatred of Kansas is due to how dull, grey and empty the land and its people are, and upon seeing his father die “face in the dirt”, he didn’t develop a hatred of an humble life and hard work like in the movie, but he rather developed a hatred of Kansas as the land that “grinded to dust” his good father of a man. Oscar’s only goal, and the reason he keeps travelling and he doesn’t settle anywhere, is because he is looking for a land of “color and light and life”, a land of beauty and marvels. He does dream of fortune and glory yes, but only as a side-effect of finding the “perfect land”. Basically, Oscar’s original character was that of a dreamer trying to escape desperately the dreary and grim world he comes from – he was basically a parallel to Dorothy in the original MGM movie, or even better, he was a depiction of what an escapist dreamer like Dorothy could end up in the “wrong” side, if pushed to a more extreme. A man forced into selling snake oil to fuel his dreams, and who lives so much in his dreams that he cannot settle even for the woman he loves. It isn’t that he thinks of him before anyone else, like in the movie, but rather that he is such an extreme optimist that he literally believes there is some paradise on earth waiting somewhere, and that he can reach it one way or another.

Now, Mr. Hamilton and his friends end up discovering Oscar in an embrace with Mrs. Hamilton, and this leads to the chase scene present in the finished movie, but with a few differences. Mrs. Hamilton herself helps Oscar escape ; the other members of the circus (the “freaks and roundabouts”) also help Oscar in his chase, because apparently they are used to him being hunted down by angry husbands, but still like him enough to come to his help ; and finally, instead of having obstacles everywhere he runs, the original script called for a whole set of cartoony acrobatics, as Oscar would have escaped through the big tent, using trapezes and trampolines, before finding the balloon. You see, there is a real “comedy” aspect to the script. In fact, when reading the original characterization of Oz/Oscar, I couldn’t help but have a “Pirate of the Caribbean” vibe – as in, he seems to have made into a sober and less unhinged version of Captain Jack Sparrow. Another part of the script that shows its flows: as he gets into the balloon, Frank, Oscar’s assistant, throws him his hat – just like in the finished movie. But in this script… this is the first and only apparition of Frank, who isn’t even named by the dialogue, and the only indication of who he is and what his relationship to Oscar is, is found in the notes of the scripts. If shot as indicated, it would just be a random man throwing Oscar his hat. This is something that was definitively corrected in the movie, by having Frank’s character be presented and explored in the previous scenes – but this shows one of the bad habits of this original script, it tends to introduce characters or things very abruptly, without any actual explanation or presentation of who they are supposed to be.

II) Arrival in Oz

The whole “tornado” sequence is also very different in the original script. Already it isn’t a true tornado that sweeps up Oscar’s balloon, but rather a heavy and violent storm. And unlike in the movie, where Oscar is terrified and whimpers for his life, begging whatever God there is to spare him while promising to “change”… the script Oscar’s actually enters into a King Lear-like defiance (the scripts’ words) and starts shouting “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Blow!” while confronting the “deathswirl” of thunder, lightning, violent winds and heavy rains.

No “floating” scene like in the movie, and Oscar doesn’t actually arrive immediately into the beautiful scenery of Oz: in the original script, Oscar first arrives above the Deadly Desert, an endless spread of sun-scorched sand, and in front of this place, Oscar starts panicking when he realizes he has no food or drinks. He actually briefly considers killing himself with his pistol (yeah, it had quite some dark parts), but then ditches the idea way by saying he was in “worst predicaments” before – though he later admits to himself he can’t think of any worst predicament on the top of his head. Overall it is a sort of dark-humor which, as you can see, helped in the feeling of a more “Jack Sparrow-like” Oscar. As his engine starts dying out, Oscar insults it and there he has regrets – but due to the shift of goals from the character, instead of regretting “not having accomplished great things”, this Oscar regrets all the things he will never see “Paris and India” and all the great landmarks of the world.

However Oscar is suddenly save by gusts of hot winds from the desert, which sent him above cold, snowy mountains, and then over a rainbow (heavy MGM nod – I also forgot to say Oscar tells the line “I’ve a feeling I’m not in Kansas anymore” while above the desert) and finally he arrives in a fantastical, marvelous Oz… But here’s the twist. It is a yellowish landscape. And as he falls in a river, like in the movie, he is greeted not by Theodora, but by a bunch of odd people all wearing different shades and hues of yellow, while “looking and sounding a lot like the Winkie Guards from the original movie”. Yep, Oscar is actually greeted by the Winkies themselves, who start shouting and cheering, heralding him as the Great Wizard and their Savior, and telling him he is here to defeat the “Wicked Witch”. Before the shocked Oscar can have more explanations from the bowing Winkies, Theodora actually arrives – and she arrives carried by two winged monkeys. Yep, that’s another change from the original script: instead of the “winged baboons” being depicted as the vicious servants of the Wicked Witch, here the winged monkeys are very clearly associated with the “good witches” Evanora and Theodora. Theodora’s only description is: beautiful, dressed in an open-collared white shirt, black pants, and black high-knee boots. She promptly explains to him the basic situation (she is a witch, the wicked witch has to be defeated, yada yada), but with several key differences. For example, the Wicked Witch is here clearly referenced to as “The Wicked Witch of the South” (clearly it is both playing on the MGM canon where there is no southern witch, and also a nod to book-fans about the real identity of the “wicked witch”), and Evanora is already talked about as the “Queen of Oz”. She isn’t some “royal advisor” or keeper of the throne like in the finished movie – she is introduced as the rightful queen of Oz, that the wicked witch tries to overthrow.

Unlike in the movie, where Theodora is a soft, gentle, almost shy character, the script’s Theodora is depicted as fast (quick eyes, quick movements and a lively mind, which is part of why Oscar likes her) and as very insistent – while the Winkies immediately assume he is a Wizard, she keeps asking “Are you a Wizard?”. And unlike in the movie, where Oscar, as the greedy jerk that he is, only plays in the whole Wizard thing because he hears there’s gold and a crown as a price, in the original script, Oscar goes into the whole Wizard thing without hearing about any riches or powers. He simply adores the appreciation these people have of him and his “magic”, and as the script says, the “showman” in him takes over and he decides to play the role of a great Wizard, going on a boastful rant about being a wizard of pyrotechnics and prestidigitation, and the master of illusions – and to show his magic, he does some traditional magic tricks, which impress the Winkies heavily. Oscar is too happy to have finally found people appreciating his magic for him to let go, and he even calls the Winkies an “audience” at the end. But Theodora… and this is another one of the positive “change” compared to the movie (can you call it “change” when it is retrospective, since the script came before the movie?). Theodora doesn’t care so much about the magic tricks themselves – she is not particularly amazed by them – but she pays a close attention to the way they impress the Winkies, and to how they react to the Wizard’s antics. And as she keeps insisting “Are you a Wizard?”, Oscar, not wanting to lie but not wanting to dispel his newfound glory, answers ambiguously, such as “Seeing is believing” in reference to the tricks he just performs and “I wouldn’t want to contradict a lovely lady such as yourself”.

Somehow satisfied, Theodora then, with a smile… get ready for that… sparks lightning out of her fingers to have Oscar’s balloon explode. In front of his shock, she explains that if he is indeed a great Wizard, she cannot let him go, because her sister the Queen needs too much a Great Wizard to help her defeat the Wicked Witch once and for all. She also adds that her sister, Queen of the Emerald City, is a powerful witch that can offer him anything he dreamed of or desired – to encourage him to go with her see Evanora (again, the script heavily parallels Dorothy’s arrival in Oz, with Evanora replacing the promises of the “wonderful wizard of Oz” in the original narrative. Another bit that show the original character of Oscar in the movie: even when it becomes clear he has no choice but follow Theodora, since she literally had his only mean of escape explode, he still keeps up a bravado and declares “Given your kind offer, I will cancel all planned and prior arrangements, to go speak with your sister and see if we can arrange something”.

Theodora insists on travelling by foot, much to Oscar’s indignation – cut to the broom dialogue of the movie. Theodora came carried by two winged monkeys, one is Nikko (from the MGM movie), that she sends back to Theodora with a letter she quickly wrote, and the other is Kala, who carries Oscar’s luggage – he is the equivalent of the little helpful bellhop winged-monkey from the movie I forgot the name of. Except that in this script, the winged monkeys do not speak.

III) Travel down the Yellow Brick Road

Theodora, Oscar and Kala first go through farmlands with “curious-looking houses almost shaped like faces” (a nod to the original illustrations of the Oz houses, from the Baum books), and as they do Theodora explains the whole story of the wicked witch, and due to the shift of power relationships it is quite different from the one we get in the movie. In the original script, Theodora’s story is that the Wicked Witch of the South was an evil sorceress, daughter of the previous king of Oz, himself a powerful wizard and evil king. Despite Evanora being Queen of Oz, she needs all the help she can to fight the Wicked Witch of the South (and this help is resumed to Theodora herself, and the “good people of Oz”) – and finally we get the little fact that Evanora and the Wicked Witch used to be very good friends, but they had no idea “how wicked wickedness could be, and how friendship could be betrayed”.

They arrive in front of a large, wild river, and Theodora uses leaves from a strange bush growing nearby – by rubbing them on people’s feet or shoes, it allows one to walk over water. And while Theodora walks “like a queen”, majestic, Oscar is noted to laugh like a child as he tries to walk on water, slipping like a baby giraffe taking its first steps. This is one of the main differences with the movie-Oscar: script-Oscar actually keeps being amazed and having fun in Oz, truly loving all the wonders and magic of the land, like… well like a child, as I said before. It is only after they crossed the large river that they finally arrive at the Yellow Brick Road – and there Oscar is amazed to discover that the road is paved with pure gold. Theodora just replies “Don’t they have roads, where you come from?” (gold apparently being of no real value in Oz), and Oscar promptly takes off one of the bricks from the road, keeping it from his pocket and justifying his actions by “scientific purposes” – he claims he wants to check if it isn’t the “fool’s gold”, this fake gold produced by alchemists to scam people (that’s a real thing, you can check it out). Down the Yellow Brick Road, they arrive at the “Enchanted Apple Orchard”, a nod to the apple tree segment of the MGM movie – Theodora says that if Oscar wants to take an apple, he has to ask politely the trees first, and while he does so dubitatively, the tree then shakes its branch to let apples fall at his feet so he can eat them. We also get a brief line where Theodora reveals that witches do not need to eat to survive.

We then get to the night scene by the campfire, like in the movie, and here the fire was started by lightning shot out of Theodora’s fingers – in the script Theodora’s element clearly isn’t fire but lightning, and there is also no mention of any glowing ring she might have (unlike the movie where witches power come from gems they wear). Now, Oscar does the whole “give her a music box and offers her to dance” thing from the movie, but there are MAJOR differences. Difference on Oscar’s side, as there is no “this was my grandmother” lie, or any lie at all – he just gives her the music box, and when Theodora asks him why, he explains that he just wanted to make her a gift. It is a random act of kindness, nothing more, with no ulterior motif. And there is also a major difference when it comes to Theodora’s character. As I said previously, the original Theodora was far from the shy, quiet, naïve character is in the movie. She is quiet in the script – but because she is calm, majestic and constantly analyzing the situation. It is notably made clear that she keeps observing Oscar through their travels and trying to figure out what his “deal” is. And when he shows her then offers her the music box, it is the first time she actually shows genuine emotion – a childlike wonder and delight that cracks the cold and statuesque mask she put on. This makes the line “No one ever gave me something because they wanted to” line from the movie much more impactful, as we actually see a cold Theodora warming up to a true act of kindness – and during the dance scene, it is made clear that not only has she never danced with a man before, but the script insists she probably has never touched or been in the presence of a man for this much. Which leads her to get so nervous, when the music box stops she goes into the woods to “collect fire fuel”, just to calm herself all alone.

And here we get a whole new scene, that isn’t present in the final movie, and truly puts things in another perspective. As she is alone in the woods, Theodora is caught up by Nikko, returning with a letter from Evanora, asking her sister to make sure the Wizard is a real wizard. And so to test it, Theodora takes a rabbit in the woods… and transforms it into a ferocious lion she then orders to attack the Wizard. Oscar, in front of a wild lion, while all alone, first pushes it back by making a torch out of the fire, then by using his pistol (the one we saw earlier during his consideration of suicide). He merely wounds the animal, which retreats, and Theodora later returns as if she had been away and knew nothing of the situation. Upon hearing the tale of Oscar, she marvels at such a strangely-shaped “wand” (the pistol), and Oscar, in his bravado, explains he is used to fight off lion where he comes from, and that if he could he would have wrestled him with his bare hands… all while hiding his actual hands, trembling with fear, away from Theodora’s eyes. We also learn that the pistol only had one bullet, so now is completely useless, and… oh yeah, and the lion Oscar wounded is actually the Cowardly Lion. This info is dropped in the notes of the script, and this is another flaw of the writing here – in effect, in neither the dialogues nor the visuals, we do not know it is supposed to be the Cowardly Lion, and if the scene was shot it would not be known except for reading the script. Whoever wrote this scenario forgot that sometimes you need to include info in ways that the audience will know, not just the director.

IV) Meeting Evanora

Finally, our team arrives in the central land of Oz – which is said to be “brown-hued” and they see the Emerald City, described as “Sleeping Beauty’s Castle on steroids”. Interestingly, there is a heavy insistence on dreams in this script – from the Wizard claiming roads paved with gold only existed in dreams, to here reacting in front of the City by saying “I saw this before… In one of my dreams.”. As they go down the Yellow Brick Road, they are surprised by boulders in the field nearby suddenly moving and revealing themselves to be the turtle-shell-shaped shields of an army of gnomes, “short, squat, fierce-looking warriors with skin the color and texture of stone and beards so long they tie them around their waist” and armed with all sorts of broadswords, cutlasses and battle-axes… And as they appear, on the surrounding hillside, other creatures appear – Growleywogs, “silent, half-clad, eight-foot-tall Aboriginals armed with knives, bows, arrows and spears” (*cough cough* maybe it’s a good thing this part got lost) and Whimsies “distinguished by their extraordinarily broad shoulders and enormous crazy-colored papier-mache Mardi Gras masks, wearing over their undersized heads. As you can see, this is a true feast for any book fan.

But much to Oz’s surprise, Theodora explains that these savage warriors are actually here merely to escort them to her sister, Evanora – and they form a march around them, chanting “Oh-we-oh, yo ho!”. The interesting thing with this script is that, unlike with the movie, they didn’t try to make us entirely believe that Evanora and Theodora were purely good before their turn to wickedness, and they didn’t try to play the “Oh, the wicked witch of the west is somewhere, but where?”. Instead, the original script approach was to present these two characters, Theodora and Evanora, that appear good to Oz, but clearly are much more morally ambiguous to the viewer, and who are promptly guessed as the Wicked Witches – from Theodora making the balloon burst into flames, to her testing the Wizard magic with a lion that could have killed him… And another early scene that shows the discrepancy between what Oscar as a character knows and what the audience knows: arriving in the magnificent and beautiful city, Oscar and Theodora are cheered on by all the citizens of the City, who play music and throw rose petals and applaud. The script insists that the citizens of Oz are actually formed of inhabitants taken from the four corners of Oz: Winkies and Munchkins, Gillikins and Quadlings, all dressed “in different regional colors, and all enthusiastically waving green and white flags and pennants”. Oscar is said to “eat up” and wave back at the crowd like a “returning war hero or a campaign politician”… but the audience actually get to see what Oscar doesn’t see – the fact that the palace guards of Evanora, “uniformed bully-boys”, keep passing behind the crowd, making sure the citizens are cheering the wizard’s entrance with “enough gusto”, and overall giving the audience a strong sense that all is not what it quite seems in the Merry Old Land of Oz… (Funnily we also get here the line “What, no fireworks?” from Oscar, delivered to a confused Theodora who asks “What are fireworks?”

Escorted by Theodora, still “grand and glorious”, Oscar finally meets Evanora, Queen of Oz, sitting on the Emerald Throne – older than Theodora, but no less attractive, with a “powerful presence” and “penetrating gaze”. Evanora, curious and amused at the sight of the Wizard, notes that he does not kneel in front of her, and Oz answers that he is American “and Americans kneel to no one”. Evanora, delighted by the Wizard’s character, has him escorted by Munchkin maids to his chambers, and once she is alone with Theodora, she reveals that she saw everything that happened since the Wizard’s arrival in his crystal ball (just like in the movie – and Theodora is also clearly aware of her sister’s surveillance, since earlier she seemed to spoke to her sister despite her not being there, and now it is revealed that it was because she knew she was watching their every move). Evanora also has a “big sister” moment with Theodora, as she points out she noticed how Theodora grew to like the Wizard, and how he “likes” her in return. Theodora is almost blushing and can’t look at her sister in the eyes… And then we are dropped the frightening lines of Evanora: “And who can blame you? You’re still so young… and you still have feelings, don’t you?”. After this ominous line implying that Evanora doesn’t have any feelings anymore herself, she reassures Theodora that she did the right thing by bringing the Wizard here.

After Oscar enjoyed his private chambers and a large meal, he has a private chat with Evanora who, just like in the movie, goes to show her the “Room of Resplendence”, the Crown Jewels of Oz, enormous piles of gemstones and jewels. And just like in the movie, Evanora is trying to play on Oscar’s greed, as she heard from her sister that he liked “shiny things” (a nod to the Yellow Brick incident). But there are some differences here and there in the scene… Such as how Evanora actually slips word about how “pretty” her sister is and how she is fond of the Wizard (clearly trying to put them together), and also how the treasury is actually guarded by both guards AND a curtain of fire that Evanora needs to make disappear by magic (plus a stout wooden door with iron bands and multiple locks that Evanora also opens by magic, with just a wave of her hand).

But then… Things take a dark turn and we go away from the movie’s chronology. Evanora presents to Oz an artefact known as the “Diamond Dagger” – a six inches blade of razor-sharp steel, with a cross guard of filigreed gold, and a hilt encrusted in glittering diamonds. And Evanora says that he will inherit the treasury of Oz if he kills the “Wicked Witches”. Oscar is confused, as he only knew of one Wicked Witch. And Evanora reveals to him that her own sister, Theodora, is actually a Wicked Witch herself, secretly conspiring with the Wicked Witch of the South. Evanora insists that Oscar must use the Diamond Dagger to kill Theodora, and that Theodora only brought him to the city in hope of tricking him into killing her and become the new Queen. She seems convinced that Theodora offered the Wizard to share the crown in exchange for this murder, but Evanora warns him that after obtaining what she wanted, the seducing Theodora will “eat you like a spider”. And as Evanora dematerialize, fading into nothing, she declares “Prove to me you’re the Wizard you say you are, the Wizard we’ve all been waiting for. Kill my sister, then together you and I will defeat the Witch of the South once and for all. Kill my sister, Wizard – and you’ll be King.”

Now, Oz is deeply confused, and he tried to explain to Evanora she was wrong, to no avail. So, hiding the Dagger in his belt and understanding the danger Theodora is in, he promptly goes to her home and tries to convince her to leave the City… But before he can anything else, Evanora promptly appears in Theodora’s room – forming herself out of a moving shadow that was sliding along the wall. Using her magic, Evanora pushes Oscar against the wall and uses some telekinesis to choke him so he can’t speak, and she plays a Reverse Uno card on him. She pretends she is saving Theodora’s life, that Oscar was sent by the Witch of the South to murder her, and she uses the Diamond Dagger he has on him as a proof. Theodora, shocked but unable to truly believe her sister’s accusations, is flabbergasted – and it doesn’t help that Oscar has been knocked out cold by Evanora’s magic. However, playing the card of the subtlety, Evanora agrees that maybe she is wrong – maybe he wasn’t sent by the Witch of the South, but by another, or maybe he wanted to act on his own… and to make sure she isn’t acting “unfairly” here, she promises she will interrogate the Wizard tomorrow and get the truth out of him. But upon seeing Theodora’s horrified face, we understand that for Evanora “interrogating” means something truly awful.