#like especially the instrumentals of all of them... they add so much

[atiny-for-life]

Golden Hour feels different and I think I know why...

This album feels a lot less cohesive than all others they've ever released. I'm by no means saying it's bad or you shouldn't enjoy it or support the comeback, but it's still something noteworthy.

They said they were really happy making this album, which is amazing and I'm glad they've been enjoying all the new opportunities they've been getting, but when I listen to most of these songs, I feel like we' we've been given a folder from the producer's computer with all the leftover/unfinished tracks, and I think I may know why that is.

First, I wanna say what I mean by the album being less cohesive: Ateez are big on concept albums. The songs tell a story, they're connected, both conceptiually and lyrically, even as we switch genres. Look to Inception, Answer, Guerrilla, Halazia - the instrumentals are so layered and woven together, it feels like you're on a journey as you listen to it. You start in one place and don't know where you're headed until you get there. They're full of unique instruments, random noises, hidden harmonies from Maddox and the vocal line. It's art.

And now move on to Blind, Work, Shaboom, and it's one beat in the back that switches up as we move along but there's nothing new to notice on repeat listens, nothing remarkable to pick out. Lyrically, Work is also a lot more repetitive which is something Ateez historically stayed clear of because Mingi and Hongjoong especially are very invested in the writing process and want the songs to have meaning.

Proving my point, they mentioned during the Preview Live that Mingi and Hongjoong worked more on Empty Box and Siren, with Siren even being a contender for the title track and Empty Box being their collective favorite and, hey, look at that, those two are the only songs on the album which are a lot more complex on all fronts, a lot more similar to their usual music.

Looking at the bigger picture, I absolutely don't think it was laziness which led to the slight drop in quality. I think KQ just has a pre-planned release schedule where everything is organized so they can squeeze in comeback promotions between tour schedules and, this time, they were suddenly offered to go to Coachella, which is an opportunity you simply cannot turn down!

So they squeeze the preparations in, working their asses off, and since they're already in the US, they also schedule interviews, extra classes to take, etc. and with weeks of album preparations now spent on Coachella-related schedules, there just wasn't enough time to hole up in the studio as much as they normally would have which, as a performer, must be a whole lot more fun, but is noticable when you're just a listener.

The Edenary team is still responsible for most of the songs, of course, but they're now also working for Xikers which is likely possible because Hongjoong now has years of experience under his belt and can add finishing touches himself which takes their songs from the instrumental base built by their team to the fully fleshed out songs we know and love.

On top of that, they also used a live band at Coachella, meaning their songs had to be translated to acoustic which was most likely fully Edenary's doing and also took them away from preparing for this comeback.

These days, their albums aren't as pre-prepared anymore as they used to be a couple of years ago when we still got song teasers at the end of tracks several comebacks in advance. They've caught up by now, as we've been able to see in behind the scenes footage of Hongjoong in the studio and from his interview with Chankyun from Monsta X (I.M on the Beat) where he largely talked about working on The World - Ep Fin. which was clearly still fresh in his mind.

Normally, this wouldn't be a downside at all, but it does make scheduling conflicts like this something to be cautious about.

Whether I'm right or not, I don't know and can't prove, but I think it makes a lotta sense and would explain some things. Either way, watching them perform Work is still fun and it's lovely to see them so happy and thriving, but I do think there'll be a noticable difference when the next album drops without any surprise schedules throwing things off course.

[petergabrielyuri]

this specific part of perfect day by lou reed really fucking hurts in the context of ed's situation in ep 9 man...

[black-dresses-band-fan]

A Guide to Black Dresses (Band)

Who are Black Dresses?

Black Dresses is a Canadian musical band, formed by two women, Ada Rook and Devi McCallion, who are both artists on their own.

The band was formed in 2017, following their first ever single - Paper Planes (cover of MIA). 

Devi and Ada started the Black Dresses project when they were friends, however they're currently in a relationship and implied to be married to each other.

They started the Black Dresses project, as a form of venting, and did not expect to blow up in the slightest. However, following the release of their debut album - WASTEISOLATION, they gained attention of the internet. With their unique sound palette, dark and vulnerable content of the lyrics, and general surrounding of enigmatic no-name artists, they started to quickly follow with underground cult following. 

Gaining much praise, getting a score of 9 out of 10 from Anthony Fantano, and especially, becoming viral over the song "IN MY MOUTH".

Unfortunely the band diss-banded after harassment that Devi received from the internet users after they found her online presence and internet footprint. Both Ada and Devi didn't really like the attention they gathered. So in 2020, they stopped making new material. But did in fact release old unreleased stuff all up to 2022.

In 2023 they announced working on their 7th album and making new music. Releasing more singles and uploading little snippets on them working. Confirming that way that they're a band once again.

The musical style

Black Dresses musical style is based on mixing a lot of genres. As an underground artists, Black Dresses are influenced by a lot of lesser known styles and genres coming from the outsider world of music. 

You cannot really explain their sound in simple words, but i'll try. Their genre is often described as "Noise Pop", but they're much more than that.

I'll try to describe their general sound, but i will go into more details following the guide's part about each individual album.

Most of all, Black Dresses are an electronic band, they do use real life instruments, mostly guitars and drums, but it's mostly electronical elements.

Black Dresses mixes elements of Pop, Industrial, Noise, EDM, Rock, and are mostly described as extremely experimental.

To lesser extent they also use hip-hop, ambience, metal, glitch, synth, and screamo.

Their vocals are rather amateur, which shouldn't really scare you, as it just adds to the charm. They're also notable for their usage of screaming vocals.

Themes of Black Dresses 

TRIGGER WARNING: CSA, Abuse.

The main themes of Black Dresses music are:

Mental suffering,

Living with mental ilness - such like depression or severe anxiety,

Coping with trauma - mostly from their childhood, and the sexual abuse they went trough from the hands of adults in their life.

Healing from those experiences, seeing hope in the future.

And environmentalism - raising awareness about the issues of global warming and pollution.

But there's ofcourse many more songs that don't follow these themes. 

Black Dresses often get accused of being "edgy", however you shouldn't perceive them like that. Their music is full of real struggles that both Devi and Ada are going trough. They do NOT romanticize or fetishize the themes of their music, nor they sugarcoat it or exaggerate it. 

Not to mention their music is full of hope for better tomorrow and wanting to improve, giving it all a positive message.

Release guide

2018 - WASTEISOLATION: Their debut album, definitely the darkest in terms of themes. Essential for every fan of the band, the best place to start. Mostly lighter in sound, doesn't incorporate as much noise as following releases.

Really accessible for newcommers.

2018 - HELL IS REAL EP: A 5 five song EP making a bridge between WASTEISOLATION and THANK YOU. It's a bit moodier than the previous project, but also it's a place where Black Dresses started to use more screaming vocals and noise elements.

2019 - THANK YOU: Second album, much more surreal in the sound palette, much noiser and more electronic. Black Dresses at this point got a little less personal in their lyricism.

2019 - DREAMS COME TRUE 2019: A sequel to their first ever project together, DREAMS COME TRUE 2017 which i'll mention later. It follows 3 WASTEISOLATION songs re-made and re-worked. As well as one brand new song.

2019 - LOVE AND AFFECTION FOR STUPID LITTLE BITCHES: Black Dresses (succesful) attempt at poppier sound. Much less crowded instrumentals and simpler, catchier beats. Doesn't belittle their noise elements and screaming ofcourse! 

2020 - Peacefull as Hell: Black Dresses most popular album after WASTEISOLATION, got an extremely positive review from Fantano and semi-blow up on the internet. A fan favourite.

Black Dresses production got more professional. 

The sound is much lighter and goes into the direction of electronic pop rock.

2021 - Forever in Your Heart: Black Dresses heaviest project to date. Ada and Devi at their most industrial and metal. A lot of screaming and noise. Another fan favourite.

2022 - Forget Your Own Face: Their latest album, as for the time of writing this guide. Their most disorganised project (which was intentional), full of distortions and noise and screams. It was a surprise release and is made from re-made unreleased material going as back as 2019. It contains some of fan favourite songs.

Other notable work:

2017 - DREAMS COME TRUE 2017: First ever released collaboration between Ada and Devi, a short 4 song EP.

2017 - LETHAL POISON FOR THE SYSTEM: A 3 song EP in collaboration with 99Jakes and Laura Les - a member of 100 GECS. Includes first single Under Black Dresses name.

2018 - CRUSH: Single, a cover of Tessa Violet.

2020 - 745 Sticky Remix: Black Dresses remix of 100 Gecs song that ended up on the official 100 Gecs remix album.

2023 - Shines: Single, a collaboration between the band Purity Ring and Black Dresses.

Merch and how to support them

Black Dresses ocassionally releases their albums on cassettes, however they were all limited and are currently unavaible. No official CDs or Vinyls were ever made.

You can buy at any time Black Dresses hoodies or T-shirts on https://black-dresses-merch-store.creator-spring.com/

(Ada also sells her merch on that)

You can buy their albums over Black Dresses bandcamp, or support them directly trough Patreon.

You can also contact Devi or Black Dresses trough an e-mail and show your support with words!

black.squares.media@gmail.com

blackdresses666@gmail.com

 (Please do not send this e-mail to anybody who could harass them) 

That's all, i hope you'll have a wonderful time listening to our gals! :DD

Black Dresses Extended Universe Guide

What's that? You're interested in checking out Ada's and Devi's solo stuff? Well, it might be much more confusing or interesting than you think, in fact, it's a whole rabbit hole. So let me introduce you to, what i like to call, the "Black Dresses Extended Universe" (BDEU or simply BDU). 

BDU is a collective of every side-project, nickname under which one of the girls released music, or any other band that contains either Ada or Devi.

Ada Rook's side of EU

Let's start with Ada Rook, since there's a little bit less going around her.

Ada started releasing her music in 2015, following her first OST for her game (as she's a game dev), and her first EP in 2016 "void memory".

Ada used the nickname "rooksfeather" or simply "rook", however after the release of "Parasite" she started using her full name.

Ada's solo discography follows 8 EPs, 4 Soundtracks, and 6 albums. 7th one on the way 

Her musical style is similar to Black Dresses, but more into industrial and rock side of things. Her older music used much more ambience and was darker, moodier. Her recent style incorporates much more screaming and poppier sound. However, in case similar to Black Dresses, each album have it own distinct sound. 

She also released one album with an artist called Deathirl, "DEATH IN REAL LIFE" and it's extremely rare media, not even listed on RYM. However reuploads of it exists.

She have one Alter-ego, called "Crisis Sigil" Under which she's doing extreme grindcore. Crisis Sigil released 2 EPs and 1 Album.

Ada is also a part of 2 other bands beside of Black Dresses,

"rook&nomie" is a collaboration between Ada and ESPer99, they released 2 albums. Their style is much more poppier than anything else that Ada does.

"Angel Electronics" is a fresh new band formed by Ada and Ash Nerve. They're doing power electronic rock, and their sound is more joyful. They released 1 album so far.

Notable Ada Rook releases:

"Shed Blood" by Rook

"Parasite" by Rook,

"2,020 Knives" by Rook,

"UGLY DEATH" by Rook,

"Rookie's Bustle EP" by Rook,

"GOD CUM POLTERGEIST" by Crisis Sigil,

"ULTRA PARADISE" by Angel Electronics,

"Superego Royal Jelly" by rook&nomie

Devi McCallion's side of EU

Wow, we are in for a heck of a ride... Oh well,

Devi started releasing her music since the age of 15, however most of it is probably lost media at this point. She's putting music out on her own label - Blacksquares, Under many different alliases and side projects, i'll talk about each one later.

Devi's style is mostly indie pop, influenced by sub-genres like dream pop, synthpop, ElectroPop and simply underground pop.

Her music is often simplistic and cartoony, but it's hard to explain her signature style in words. 

But it's worth checking out.

Devi rarely releases anything Under her real life name, mostly singles. But she did release 2 albums Under her real name together with Katie Dey, mixing production of both girls. 

Devi used many different nicknames trough her career, such like Dizzy Girl, Devi April McCallion, Vriska Serket, Walking Patriarchy and The Little Fears, however all of these names aren't connected to any specific releases, as far as im aware (Devi's music is a huge Rabbit Hole, full of lost media and rare material).

It's also worth mentioning that she released a compilation of her unreleased material Under the name "Blacksquares", it's titled "LIFE IS HELL (ASMR)".

Okay, so now we are going to talk about each one of her musical projects. We'll start with 4 of the most essential ones, then the more obscure ones, and we'll finish it all with Devi's other bands beside Black Dresses.

1. EAT BABIES? - A name she really doesn't like to be assiocated with, so it's better to treat this project as a fun fact, rather than the core of her career. EAT BABIES? was her first ever project (that we are awere of) Under which she released 2 albums and 2 EPs. It was much more amateur than what she's used to do now. And she doesn't like to associate this project with herself due of the fact she was much different person back then. 

2. Mom - is her second most popular nickname. It was her primary stage name for a long time untill 2015 when she came out with "Girl Rituals".

Mom released 5 albums. And semi-blow up with a song titled "joyfulthought". Mom is a time when Devi really started to work on her pop sound and signature style. 

3. Cats Millionaire - the third most popular Devi project. Cats Millionaire was active from 2011 to 2013. Released 2 albums, 4 EPs and 2 mixtapes. 

Cats Millionaire is characteristic for overall theme of My Little Pony, since Devi used to be a brony. The lyrics and aesthetic are all about MLP. The sound was much more soothing and toned-down than most of Devi's releases.

4. Girls Rituals - Devi's current main allias and her most important project that's still active from 2015 to this day. Under that name Devi released most of her music, and she really perfected and evolved her pop sound with each and every release. Beside of many singles, she released 2 EPs (one with Ada, one with 4lung, however the second one is since deleted because of the 4lung allegations), 1 remix album, 1 instrumental album, and 5 albums. With "Reddishness" being Girls Rituals fan favourite release.

Now, Let's get over every other side project.

10 Chains - only one instrumental album have been released. It's noise/ambience.

Doro Doro Dono/More Bears- Just one single released each for two of these projects,

traptraptrap - 2009. one album released. Despite the name, it's her usual pop stuff.

Triangle Giant - named after one of Devi's bands, only one EP released. ElectroPop.

Yellow Bile - 3 EPs released. Usual pop stuff. One of the EPs are lost media.

Tiny Magnesium - Really obscure stage name for her usual pop sound. 2 short albums released.

Leader Misty - Pokemon themed 2008 project, one instrumental album.

Holographic Rainbow - Only the soundtrack to the discontinued web comic (of the same name) have been released.

Hexi Wing - name she used to release her self-spoken erotic fan-fiction. You're probably not interested in that 👀.

Now, last but not least, Devi's multiple bands before and after Black Dresses.

Dr. Massive and The Headwound Extravaganza - was a 2008 electronic band that released mostly covers of rock songs. Only one album have been released and the band is 100% discontinued right now. Devi was responsible for programming, drums and vocals. There also were

Mike Will Smith - percussion and vocals,

Allan Burke - synthesizer and vocals, 

Jonathan Oscar Cianni - programming, bass,

And Sensitive Bear - bass and vocals.

Unfortunely i couldn't find any info about the band members.

Giant Triangle - A band where Devi used to do vocals from 2008 to 2016, the band had a lot of members that went and go, but it seems their only official release is an 2020 EP. Usual electronic and pop.

The Various Endeavors? - a 2009 band who's appearently still active? They released one synth punk album, and a compilation of unreleased tracks in 2021. John Bevier and Tyler Bruce are in the band along-side Devi.

VCF Freq - A collaboration between Devi and Boy Pussy, they're doing minimal techno. They're Technically still active but their only 2020 EP dissapeared from any streamings. It's thankfully archived on Soulseek.

Anarchy 99 - A collaboration between Devi and So Drove, they're doing electronic pop rock. They're still active from 2020 and actually release new material consistantly. A couple of singles have been released and one album.

Notable Devi  McCallion releases:

'Self-titled" by Mom,

"3" by Mom,

"Fun Fun Fun" by Cats Millionaire,

"Reddishness" by Girls Rituals,

"Im Desperate" by Girls Rituals,

"CRAP SHIT" by Girls Rituals,

"Cow" by Girls Rituals,

"Rockstar Super Heat" by Anarchy 99,

And that's all there is to BDU ;)) have fun Discovering it! ❤️

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

My Two Cents On The “ Is David Tennant Queer” Drama

As some of you know, I spent a solid third of the past year working on a movie-length video essay about David Tennant. This video essay features an eight minute section titled “Gender, Vulnerability, and Why David Tennant Is A Queer Icon”, which does not speculate on David’s own sexuality, but discusses the queer coding and subversion of gender norms in plenty of his roles and his importance as an ally to the LGBT community. At the same time, I was also coming to terms with my own identity as nonbinary and bisexual, and it ended up playing a crucial role in me finally working up the courage to come out to my parents. Characters like Crowley and the Doctor, both in terms of how they present themselves and how and who they love, have been absolutely instrumental in me developing my queer identity, and my comments section was full of people who had had similar experiences, who’d realized they were trans, nonbinary, gay, etc thanks to David and his characters. And as a result, I won’t deny that if David himself were to be queer, it would mean a lot to me.

Do I think David is queer? It’s certainly possible. I see a lot of how I express my queerness in how david chooses to express himself, most prominently through his frequent queer coding of characters who don’t necessarily have to be played as such. This can especially be seen through his Shakespeare characters, such as Richard, Hamlet, and some would argue Benedick as well. When I was 15 I played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, who I chose to play as a closeted young gay man harboring an unrequited crush on Romeo. I think I saw this role subconsciously as an outlet for my own repressed queerness, both of gender and sexuality, as I had experienced an unrequited crush on my female best friend the previous year which I was still in denial about. I’ve described my gender identity as “a girl with a chaotic tortured gay man inside of her that needs to be let out every once in a while”, which has never been more true than with Mercutio- a character who I might add, I took a great deal of inspiration from David when playing! In terms of using roles as an outlet for one’s queerness, I could absolutelt see this being true with David, especially when it comes to Crowley, who seems to have had an impact on David’s style, behavior, etc in a rather similar way to how he’s impacted me. I don’t want to act like David wearing pink docs means he must be gay, I think people should be allowed to wear whatever they want regardless of sexuality, but taken in conjunction with so many other things about him, it does make one wonder, and the fact that a seemingly straight man has been so many people’s queer awakening is a bit puzzling to say the least. I won’t pretend that these “signs” (if you interpret them that way), haven’t been increasing somewhat in the past year, and if I got to share my own coming out journey with the man who inspired it, I would be absolutely thrilled. I also can’t specifically think of an instance where David has SAID he is straight, as opposed to Taylor swift, who has.

With all of that said, where I personally draw the line is when mere speculation crosses into interfering with the subject’s personal relationships and the sense that one is OWED something. I believe that what matters to David more than anything is being a husband and a father. I believe he adores Georgia and his children and would not do anything in the world that he believes would jeopardize his family. As happy as I would be for David if he were to come out (probably as bi) I realize that that would put so much unwanted attention on his marriage and family and I think that’s the last thing he wants. I don’t think it’s IMPOSSIBLE that he and Michael Sheen are having a passionate love affair behind everyone’s backs, but I absolutely don’t consider it my place to insist that they are, because as much as I may feel like I do, I don’t know these people! And besides, if David were cheating on Georgia, he really would not be the person I thought he was.

So many queer people see themselves in David and his characters, and that is beautiful. And I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with having theories that David might be queer himself. However, it must be acknowledged that these theories are THEORIES, and they should not be used to invalidate people’s real life relationships- after all, it’s totally possible to be bi/pan and also be in a loving and healthy heterosexual relationship like David and Georgia at least seem to be in! If David were in fact “one of us”, I would welcome him with the openest of open arms, but unless and until he himself decides to proclaim himself that way, I will not expect anything of him other than to be the incredible artist and person we know and love.

[shankss-magnificent-ass]

Imagine being a new member of the Red Hair pirates eleven years before the main plot

Benn: This is Hongo, the ship's doctor

Hongo: And who is this ravishing creature?

Benn: down boy, this is the rookie that Shanks dragged home.

Hongo: Oh you poor thing.

You: Shanks picked me for my combat abilities

Hongo: you must be strong then.

You: admittedly my strength is nowhere near the boss's level, but I can go toe to toe with a rear admiral in a fight.

Hongo: I see

Uta: don't sell yourself short, I watched you spar with papa, and he was getting winded. *Makes those grabbie hands that signal she wants you to pick her up*

You: thank you, and who are you if I might ask. *Picks her up*

Shanks: that is Uta, my adorable daughter.

Uta: I'm papa's favorite, and don't you forget it, I'm also the ship's musician.

You: really, what instrument do you play?

Uta: *gestures to her throat* my voice box, I'm a singer.

You: I eagerly await your next performance then.

Uta: wait no longer, places everyone! *Claps her hands*

Hongo, Yassop, and Lucky Roux: *scamper around to clear a spot and set up a stage for her*

You: (ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ) ???

Benn: *scoops Uta out of your arms and carries her to the stage*

Uta: (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧ a song for the newbie *starts to sing*

Yassop: *puts a chair under you and gently pushes you into it*

Shanks: *moves his chair next to yours and leans in* isn't she so cute?

You: yes, she has such a beautiful voice. Do you and your men usually allow yourselves to be controlled by the whims of a child?

Benn: ... Yes, but only because we want to

After the song

Uta: *chilling in your lap* what'd you think?

You: you're an exceptionally talented singer, you must put a lot of work into it.

Uta: of course, practice makes perfect.

You: and you seem to have everyone here wrapped around your little finger. They must love you very much.

Uta: yes... I think they feel guilty, since my parents are dead.

Shanks: it's not that

Yassop: at least not entirely

You: I figured you were adopted.

Uta: what do you mean?

Shanks: how could you tell?

You: because she's talented,

The crew: (⁠(⁠(⁠;⁠ꏿ⁠_⁠ꏿ⁠;⁠)⁠)⁠) ....

You: *quickly adds* at something besides fighting and debauchery.

The crew: *laughs*

Shanks: wow, already making cheap shots at your captain on your first day aboard. It's true, she's talented, she gets it from her mother. We do our best to make sure she's provided for, but there are still some areas we are lacking in.

Uta: yeah, like shopping

Benn: we take you shopping, literally every time we make port.

Uta: Yeah! But it is always to sleazy back alley joints where everything is second hand and not the designer shops that have cute new clothes. All because of papa's ugly mug has a bounty on it. Plus none of you have any sense of style, and can give me useful feedback on my outfits.

Shanks: well that's true, hey! You shouldn't call people, especially your poor father, ugly!

Benn: I have always wanted to take her to those shops too, our little girl would look so cute in those nice clothes.

You: I can take you, I don't have a bounty, and I know a little about fashion.

Uta: *looks over your outfit* your fashion sense, outwardly, appears to be less offensive to the eyes than papa's.

You: uh, thank you.

Shanks: Offensive? What about my outfit is offensive?

Uta: your shirt is wrinkly and stained, and your pants!... Don't even get me started on your pants.

Benn: allow me, they look like you made them out of someone's grandmother's couch.

Shanks: alright, thank you I get it.

You: *grumbles* Sandals are a little worse for wear as well.

Uta: *giggles*

Shanks: y'all are teaming up on me

Benn: yeah guys, he's only got one arm, it's downright unsporting.

List of Up-and-coming works

Support me on Kofi and Patreon

[gotham-daydreams]

Is it possible that one of the villains of Gotham to develop an obsession with the reader like batfam? Like for example one of them once attended or attempted to attack at one of their performance but got mesmerized by them and decided to stalk them instead

I am now very much thinking about and considering this anon. Thanks for the new idea, I'll be thinking about all day 🙄 (okay, first, /pos, but really- this can easily change up a few more things and add some more conflict. I love it!!! Though maybe I'll make it a sub-series if I actually write it, since the "Not [ ]" is mostly focused on the Batfam, so kind of like an alternate universe type deal? I'm willing to know anyone's thoughts and suggestions on this.)

That can definitely happen, and it makes a lot of sense too when you really think about it (at least the part leading up to where the villian runs into the reader and encounters their music), especially when the reader is not only a well known musician- but known to be the kid of Bruce Wayne.

Even if no one really knows the identity of Batman, everyone and their dog knows Bruce Wayne. You'd have to do more than just live under a rock to not know that guy — especially in Gotham.

Just that fact alone — the reader being another kid adopted by Bruce Wayne — is definitely going to paint a target on their back, especially when they're in a big industry like music. The "well-known" part is just the sprinkles on top of the "you're fucked" cake. Even if I have said before that the reader isn't well-known to the point where they'd be considered super famous or popular, but enough to where people can still recognize them on the street and just kind of say "hey, isn't that the musician who played ( ) the other night? i heard they're pretty good, y'know."

Basically, someone trying to attack them for whatever reason, or even trying to kidnap them, is very possible and highly likely.

I can't say who in particular I think the villian would be? Only because I'm not sure myself, with how flexible the situation is.

The villian could be going to one of the reader's performances simply because there are a lot of other people attending, and if they want to make a grand performance of their own, or have a grand opening to a game, one of the reader's performances seem like the easiest way to do just that. So they settle in a little, waiting for everything to be just right... then they see the reader and whatever instrument they'll be playing, as they and the other performers wait for everyone to get in and settle down.

Maybe the villian hardly notices it at first, or it immediately catches their attention. Maybe they just roll their eyes and scoff or just become curious in some way. Maybe what makes them hate it/curious about it at first is the reader themself. The villian thinks the reader is just another rich kid trying to show off their 'talent'... or notices that the reader is from the Wayne family and that catches their attention, maybe.

Or, alternatively they try to assassinate or kidnap the reader. Maybe just rob them too while they're at it.

It doesn't matter how they get in- what does matter is that they don't know much about the reader besides that they're a musician of some kind and the kid of Bruce Wayne, and maybe for whatever mission they're doing- that's all they need to know. Or all they feel they need to know, as maybe they catch the reader in the middle of a performance no matter how they try to go about their mission — either planning to take the reader out from the backstage, drop them from beneath the floor boards, or snipe them from up top — and the villian hesitates as they really listen to the reader play once their focused is centered on them.

Regardless of how it starts, once it does- they're captived, near mesmerized by what they hear.

Before the villian even knows it, they're watching the entire performance. Any compliments they have towards the reader's music turn to the reader themself, and by the end of the night... the villian is caught in a trap of their own making.

If they were looking into the reader before, that research only delves deeper as they try to figure out each and every little thing about the reader. If they weren't really looking at information about the reader before, they definitely are now.

A simple 'interest' turns into a whole obsession, and now, as you've mentioned, are stalking the reader.

Maybe the villian even dedicates certain atrocities they do in the reader's name, maybe they attend and try to ruin the reader's performances because they believe they should be the only one to hear the reader's music, or just want to be all that much closer to them.

Maybe the villian tries to kidnap the reader, but just so that they can hold them close, or have them play all the tunes they wish to hear from the reader for the rest of eternity... however long that lasts. Who knows?

Tldr: It is very possible, and if anything, more likely than you think!

I hope this answered your question! If you or anyone else has another question, feel free to send in an ask! I'll try to answer them when I can!

[gotticalavera]

Hey, everybody~! This post will have several headcanons that I have about Aang, Zuko and the ZukAang (or those that I can remember). I would also like to add some Au's and previous posts (can also include links to fanfics I wrote... the fanfics are in Spanish).

The Air Nomads are the tallest of the four nations, which is why Aang ended up taller than Zuko.

Zuko feels more relaxed when he's in Aang's company.

Aang doesn't like spicy food, but he accompanies Zuko to eat super spicy noodles or curry because he knows he loves it.

Zuko is more tolerant of alcohol than Aang.

Aang is the kind of drunk who gets into dancing and flirting, but he's also too prone to causing a lot of disasters (it's better to have the Avatar sober).

Zuko is the kind of drunk who gets sentimental and clingy.

In the world of ATLA they communicate through a common language and each nation has its own language. Aang is the only native who speaks Air Language.

Aang is a polyglot.

Aang, due to the way he speaks, expresses himself and uses certain words, speaks as an old man in all languages, except the Water Language, due to his coexistence with Katara and Sokka.

The first time Zuko heard Aang speak Fire Language, he was so surprised that Aang's voice could be heard so good~.

Zuko has tried to learn Air Language to surprise Aang, but it's very difficult, especially because Air Language sounds like whistling.

Zuko once tried to pay Aang a compliment in Air Language, ended up saying something else and Aang was laughing until he fell off his chair.

Aang is quite skilled at playing Pai Sho, much more so than Iroh.

Zuko is not a beginner, but he is not very good at playing Pai Sho either.

The only people who have beaten Aang in pai shou are: Gyatso and Zuko, but because Zuko knows how to unfocus him to cheat.

Aang suffers from insomnia when he is stressed, and even more so during stormy season. He is still a little afraid of sleeping and waking up at another time.

Aang often helps Zuko with paperwork when he can't sleep.

Zuko and Aang share dreams, literally, interacting between dreams when they are away from each other.

Zuko knows when something is stressing or making Aang anxious in dreams, because Aang appears with hair in dreams [& fanfic]

Zuko has an agreement with Appa, and it's to feign fatigue around the Fire Nation so Aang can take a break.

When Zuko is the one who is stressed/tired, Aang pets his head and combs his hair. He sometimes helps him with work, but Zuko prefers Aang to have his full attention on him.

There are two notable characteristics within the Fire Nation royal family; golden eyes and the canine teeth are quite noticeable, which look like dragon fangs. Zuko has these two characteristics.

Zuko doesn't usually smile with his teeth because he is embarrassed to show his fangs due to comments that Azula, Ozai, and others have said about them. He very rarely smiles with his teeth.

Aang upon learning about Zuko's fangs, began trying to make him laugh out loud to see them. He likes his fangs.

The palace councilors were scandalized the first time they saw Avatar Aang playing and combing the Fire Lord Zuko's hair [reaction]

Aang sings very well, but in his own language he is out of tune. He likes more playing instruments and is an excellent dancer.

In his education as a prince, Zuko learned various arts: he loved learning to draw, paint, and play. The arts that involve music are not his strong suit, unless they are applied with theater.

Zuko was banished before having a society presentation. So Aang was the first person to ask him to dance.

Aang always asks Zuko to dance when they are at a party.

The palace servants had become accustomed to finding Fire Lord Zuko and Avatar Aang sleeping together with various documents in front of them.

Aang and Zuko have escaped from the palace to go to the festival disguised as Kuzon and Lee.

Zuko has drawings of Aang in his notebook, including a drawing where Aang fell asleep under the tree where the pond is and the duck-turtles started playing on top of him.

Aang very rarely cries.

Aang is the only foreign Avatar with symbolic representation in the Fire Nation.

Zuko, Aang and rainbow fire.

Aang has pet names for Zuko.

Zuko prefers silver over gold, because it reminds him of Aang's eyes.

This part is from several AUs (especially Modern and High School), What if…? and other ideas. [I may also mention other ships in some posts, but because I like to shipping Aang a lot]

Modern/HighSchool

Aang moved from his village to the city when he was 12 years old. He lives with the daughter of a friend of Gyatso; her name is Kyoshi and she lives together with her partner, Rangi.

To make documentation easier, Aang adopted the Rangi's last name.

Rangi saw potential in Aang, so Aang knows differents martial arts.

Aang met Katara and Sokka on one of his explorations around the city (he got lost).

Aang has few of his own clothes, the rest of his wardrobe was clothes that Gyatso and his friends wore when they were young and lived for a while in the city, so he has different styles of clothing from the 70's and 80's.

Aang has been to the police station so many times that he knows every cop in the station.

The last time he got into big trouble, Rangi punished him and transferred him to an academy with Fire Nation-style discipline.

Zuko at age 11 and the following years experienced difficult situations, from the death of a cousin, Uncle Iroh distancing himself from the family, his parents' divorce and Ozai taking custody.

Zuko has an accident and ends up with a burn on his face.

Due to the accident, the issue of custody is reopened, but since Ursa doesn't have the necessary resources to keep Zuko and Azula, Iroh offers to keep them for a while in what has better stability.

Azula refuses this agreement, shortly after ending up at her aunts' house. Zuko and Azula spend the weekend with different parents, Zuko with Ursa and Azula with Ozai.

Although his situation is more stable, the scar is a reminder of problems, so Zuko became a more isolated person.

When Ursa managed to achieve financial stability, Zuko decided to continue living in his uncle's house.

Zuko works part time at his uncle's tea shop.

Zuko and Azula continue to maintain contact, especially when they have to spend a few weeks together with one of their parents.

Zuko and Aang had had short encounters before Aang transferred to Zuko's school.

Despite being the only Air Temple boy, Aang quickly won over most of the students.

For school reasons, Aang has to wear long sleeves and a bandana to cover his tattoos.

Zuko thinks Aang is the typical airheaded popular guy.

Due to some situations, they end up living together more and little by little they get to know each other better.

Aang is in the dance club and Zuko is in the drama club. Zuko asks Aang for help with his play.

Aang, Zuko and bonfire.

Valentine's Day

Ozai is still a terrible father, but...

_____

Fan x Ex-Actor!AU

Student Council!AU

Tattoo-Artist!Aang

Teacher!Aang

Aang, Zuko and the hot air

Age-Swap!ZukAang [1] [2]

Demon Spirit!AU

Zuko x Fem!Aang

Fem!Aang & Bumi II

[gabessquishytum]

I’ve got another one!

alright this is me totally projecting here (hearing loss anon what what)

alright so….

human AU Dream does not make conversation, he doesn’t speak to people in crowded or noisy areas, it is very hard for him to keep a conversation if he’s forced to have one, he can’t socialise very well, and occasionally it’s hard for people to understand his speech.

Dream’s hard of hearing. He’s given up on having conversations with people because it’s so hard to hear them. His family won’t help him cause they just think he’s quiet he’s very disconnected from people. He’s never been treated and it’s only gotten progressively worse, it’s also why he got into art and not musical instruments like his other siblings. one day in the art room he hears something. it’s very far away “hi… hello?” It’s probably half way across the room.

“I’m Hob mind if I sit?”

there’s movement in his peripheral. he looks up. a man is smiling down at him. Assumedly the same man who asked him to sit down. he merely nods, no need to make conversation. “I'm new here is this sculpting?”

Shit a question, with missing information ok context clues, he’s never seen him before, probably new and wants to know what class this is. “You are in sculpture,”

“Thanks mate”

this Hob starts starts messing with a mound of clay talking the whole time Dream couldn’t understand him it didn’t matter.

“how’s your day?”

“satisfactory”

“I’m sorry, I asked what your name was?”

Dream blushed, he had fucked up again

“it’s uh Dream,”

“pretty”

dream nodded.

“you don’t talk much do you?”

shit shit shit Damnit fuck shit, Dreams gotta lip read. He looks up at Hob locking eyes with his lips.

dream stares at hob’s lips for a normal amount of time and nods when he thinks is appropriate and hopes Hob doesn’t ask a question it’s all going so well till….

“oh, you can’t hear me,” Hob says in the middle of his sentence so he scoots a little closer and raises his voice a little louder and enunciates more clearly, but not in a patronizing way just so Dream could understand.

“I’m afraid I cannot, how could you tell?” Dream asked.

hob chuckles, “you’re leaning towards me with one ear pointing at me which I’m assuming is your better ear and you’ve been squinting at my lips for the past ten minutes,”

Dream blushes.

“my sister’s deaf I pick up on things,”

so dream and hob keep talking, well hob does most of the talking but dream doesn’t mind, until hob stops.

“I’ll give you a break, you probably got listening fatigue,”

and he was right Dream was beginning to feel the affects of listening fatigue until Hob did something with his hand.

“what was that?”

“sign language, you don’t know sign?”

“no, I make do with what I have,”

“can I teach you?”

Dream of course leans in for a kiss.

“teach dream! Teach!”

they both laugh it off, he does however get that kiss later.

soon dream is proficient in sign language and is good friends with Hob’s sister. He seems happier and more outgoing. and in a couple years down the road…

dream and hob will sign their wedding vows.

-🦎

AHHHHHH HoH Dream!!!!! This is just so wonderful and beautiful and I love it. Obviously hate the idea of Dream not having any means to communicate because no one has helped him learn to sign, but Hob!!!!! Hob’s gonna teach him!!!!!!! AND kiss him.

Not being d/Deaf myself, I won't add too much onto this except to say that I love it, and I know I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time. Especially them signing their wedding vows. Yes!!!! Please!!!!!

[southangel]

Heyo!

I don't know if you write about familiar stuff (I guess it counts as a platonic topic), but if you do, can I request the Broship as single fathers and what it would be like to be their kid? How would each of them handle being a single parent?

Cheers!

Main 4 Being their kid

Warnings: mentions of drinking/drugs

Notes: No gender mentioned, so gender-neutral by default. This was a little time-consuming to write, luckily I had a lot of free time today! Ran out of ideas for Cartman though.

Stan Marsh

As we’ve already seen from Post Covid, Stan is in some ways similar and different from his childlike self.

Having a child is stressful enough, but being a single parent on top of it just adds more to the cake.

As much as he cares and wants to raise you correctly, he’s terrified of becoming like his father.

Randy was never a good dad, and it affected Stan mentally where he almost considered never wanting children.

I see Stan as more protective than he was as a kid. He doesn’t want anything harmful to happen to you like what happened to him, so he tries to shield you from it in a way that isn’t incredibly overbearing.

He wants the best for you, and he wants you to be happy in life. Stan often tries to keep a balance when taking care of you, trying to raise you to be respectful and have the best personality in all the right areas.

Stan would be the kind of father to play his guitar for you until you fall asleep, or even introduce and influence you to pick up your own instrument.

Sometimes the stress and negative thoughts catch up with him, he doesn’t feel like he’s a good father and he feels as if he’s slowly becoming Randy.

He turns to his old childlike habits, drinking and mentally losing himself without even noticing, it’s by instinct.

Stan doesn’t want to be like this, and he doesn’t want to you to see him like this, especially when you’re still young.

Once you get older, it’s when you see Stan like this that you realize maybe he’s the one needing comfort.

Stan doesn’t necessarily ever want you to meet his friends, Kyle is an exception.

He thinks their bad influences, and he only wants the best for you! Besides, if Kyle has a kid as well, then maybe you could both hangout together.

He tries to let you be as carefree as possible, letting you do as you wish as you grow older.

Stan doesn’t want to seem like a typical adult once you start considering love interests, but he just doesn’t want you to get your heart broken.

It’s happened to him, multiple times.

He just wants to prepare you and make sure that you’re absolutely sure on what you’re doing in this stage of your life.

You’re the reason Stan keeps going, and he wants to be the best dad he ever can.

“Oh, what happened to your Grandpa? Let’s talk about something else..”

Kyle Broflovski

Kyle is definitely a hot topic, as I personally see him as the best dad out of the Main 4, single or not.

I see him as very fatherly, or more family oriented than the rest. It makes sense when you see how he takes care of Ike.

Kyle has never really been one with romantic luck, and I guess it carried on in his adulthood since now he’s a single father with you as his child.

The first thing that i’ll say is that Kyle wants the best for you. His parents wanted the best for him, and look where he is now.

He wants you to be the best, getting top scores and grades on all your assignments and work.

At some point it feels overbearing even.. Constant pushing and pressuring to be the best, how long until you can’t handle it.

Eventually Kyle tries to let you be, but reassures you that he’s only like this because he wants the best for you, you’re his kid!

You know he wants the best for you, and that he only means well..

I see Kyle as the most protective out of the Main 4, but that doesn’t mean he’s intense with it.

He just wants to make sure you aren’t in any trouble or harm, and he wants to help you if you are.

Kyle wants to support you in all of your hobbies and dreams, no matter what they are.

Even after countless years, Kyle still has dreams or thoughts of Cartman coming back to somehow screw with him again, this time being with you.

Part of this is why he never wants to introduce you to his friends just like Stan, but he is partially open to Stan..

Since it was confirmed in Post Covid that Kyle became a counselor, I believe that he would be perfect at comforting you with any troubles or worries you could have ever had.

If you ever have problems or troubles, who else can you really tell other than him? He’s your dad after all, he understands.

Once you start exploring and finding love interests, he wants to support you with it as much as he possibly can.

Kyle never had much luck in romance his entire life, so he wants you to have a different fate.

He hopes you can be happy in life, all he wants is to satisfy you in this lifetime.

Even with all this, Kyle genuinely really cares about you, and he’ll always love you no matter what you decide to do with your life.

“What’s wrong? You know you can always talk to me.”

Kenny Mccormick

Personally, I also see Kenny as a good dad as well.

Kenny as really been through a lot, and he doesn’t want you to experience what he did as a child.

His childhood was incredibly rough, poor lifestyle in an abusive and unstable household that was the worst combination for him.

Even though Kenny has been through so much, he still manages to attempt and cheer up his family like Karen, and I see the same for you.

Even though now as an adult he’s doing much better, he still carries on to the caring and compassionate traits.

Kenny wants to spoil and get you all the things he could never have as a kid, but still wants to make sure you aren’t spoilt.

I think he would be okay with you meeting his friends, not Cartman though.

Kenny has been shown to do numerous things for money in the past, and I feel like he would do the same for you.

Instead of money as a reward, his reward would be having you happy and content.

He’s used to amounts of crying in his childhood, but it still hurts when he sees you cry.

Kenny feels as if he’s done something wrong, and similar to Stan, he doesn’t know what to do and feels lost.

He is more mentally stable than Stan though, he pushed through it and still takes care of you as best as he ever will.

Kenny has had multiple love interests throughout his lifetime, but never really found that perfect one.

Once you start growing up and gaining crushes, he would support you in finding love like Kyle, but he would be more weary about it.

He just wants to make sure that you’re okay and safe when finding the right person, your safety and happiness means the most to him.

Let’s not forget about his death curse..

Unfortunately, Kenny’s curse of always dying as a kid carries on to his adulthood, constantly killing him.

He remembers how you would cry every time and get traumatized by his death, but then suddenly forgetting about it the next morning.

Kenny eventually discovered that he had a less chance of dying once wearing less of the color orange.

He wants you to make the most of your life, exploring and experimenting with possibilities.

Kenny would be the type of dad to try finding hobbies that you like. One time he tried baking with you, it was pretty fun for the most part! The house almost burnt down.

With all this, Kenny would be a pretty good father, single or not. He cares about you with his life, and that’s all that matters.

“What do you think about pets? A cat maybe?”

Eric Cartman

Cartman is a huge handful, and he can be difficult in so many ways.

It’s not a surprise that he’s the worst dad here, but makes you the worst kid as well.

I genuinely don’t see him as a good dad, unless we’re talking about Post Covid before that future was replaced.

Cartman might make some effort to care, but it definitely won’t be a lot. He either does nothing or something, no in between.

He is not the protective type, possibly the exact opposite on the scale when he feels like it. Though there are times he shows care for you, it’s rare though.

Cartman is known to be manipulative, and he will guilt trip you in any way once you’ve gotten on his nerves, mostly talking about how hard it is being a dad and trying to connect with you.

When you were a child, you accidentally crashed into Kyle’s car with Cartman’s, he was actually proud of you.

I see Cartman as the type of dad to ask you to pass the remote while he’s sitting arm length away from it, purposely knowing you’re in the other room.

He wouldn’t necessarily care to have you meet his friends, the only benefit he really sees is rubbing it in Kyle’s face that he has a kid while he doesn’t.

Even thought Cartman isn’t a good father or person in general, there are times where he genuinely feels a want to take his role seriously and raise you properly.

It’s not like he neglects you, it’s just that he doesn’t really care or feel the need to always associate you with him.

Maybe if you could take after him, he would like you more, or maybe he would just dislike you even more..

Part of you wants to have a good relationship with your own parent, but Cartman doesn’t seem to really care much.

There are times where he might actually start taking care of you, but it’s slim.

Once you start getting crushes and falling in love, Cartman tells you about his old relationship with Heidi, and obviously twists the story..

He doesn’t care about who you date much, but you don’t understand the reason why he’s adamant and strict about who you can and can’t go for.

“Don’t you understand how hard it is taking care of you? Give me some space..”

[milgram-tournament]

MILGRAM Best Song Tournament, Round 1, Match 3 THROW DOWN vs. THIS IS HOW TO BE IN LOVE WITH YOU

Propaganda for both options under the cut!

Propaganda for THROW DOWN:

silly point is that throw down was my top song for this past year and i havent even been into milgram that long so. good song. also i sang it on stage once so. anyway

Flower imagery!!!! god i love flower imagery

the vocals are good

it has a banger es cover too

"ethics are a delusion" is singlehandedly the funniest line to come out of the t1 songs

the mv is SO pretty like. holy shit

the first note constantly jumpscares me

also i like the clock sounds in the background of the verses

the instrumental,,,,

throwdown is just a really nice. calmish song that still has the whole desperation thing conveyed through his voice props to va for that cuz its relatively subtle but really adds to it imo

im reiterating that ethics is a delusion is the funniest thing to me

also i really like the bridge (the whisper part)

irrelevant to the song itself but i like his fit in throw down i'd wear that irl

gardening/pruning as imagery is so fun for a surgeon character

also vocally i just really like throw down its calm sounding yet theres a hint of like. desperation? despair? in his voice and thats really cool to me

---

Jackalope's note: Only one propaganda piece... hmmhehe. Well, I'm glad our resident pretty girl got tons of asks! But I feel a little bad about Shidou, so let's let him argue his case at least! Oi! Shidou! Get over here! Oi! Sheesh, it's like he can't even hear me! This is why I need to send the reminders early...

(mod's propaganda: While I love both songs very much, Throw Down has a special place for me in that I can actually sing it. You sing way too fast, Mappi!! I also just think using flower imagery both made the MV one of the prettiest ones we have yet and helped distance both the viewer and shidou himself to the reality of his sin... I also really like the ethics is a delusion bit lol)

Propaganda for TIHTBILWY:

okay so like the thing im most in love with: the VOCALS!!!! this song has an absolutely AMAZING singer and AMAZING vocals!!!! the way the conversational talk-singing lines still feel so musical!!!! the cute cute cuteeeee mahiru voice!!!! it brings you so much energy!!!! its a song sung with so much love!!!! mahirus va brings such an amazing feel to the song with such amazing talk-singing!!!! its very skillfully done and it happens in i love you too!! mahiru songs r the QUEENS of musical talk singing

the silly phone call bit. kurururu~!

the little vocal flourish and the way her voice raises up like an excited exclamation in the final prechorus!! daijoubu nante kirai DA!

its such a fast song but everything flows so well!!!! it makes it feel so bright and cheery and peppy!!

the instrumental is so underrated just LISTEN to that catchy bass line thats so pretty in the verses!!!! no for real even if u dont vote this is how to be in love with you go listen to the bass line in the verses it works to move both the song and the listener forward at mahirus sweeping breakneck pace. and the cute keyboard sounding and synth instruments!!!! its SUCH a danceable song!!!! i cant listen to it without bopping along in my seat

the way the ominous bits are subtly hidden? it all sounds so cute but there are just these Things that she sings that are really kind of concerning and unhealthy when she sings them!! and the veiled desperation to be in her relationship- listening to that and the cheery tone and breakneck, quick song pace, it really does represent mahiru SO well. she throws in all these little bits that just go noooo teehee the relationships just fine!! when it REALLY isnt

i would listen to mahiru talk for hours

the MV!!!!!! HER FASHION SENSE THE MAGAZINE STYLE!!!! the magazine style especially works so well with her character!!!! its so cute and stunning and just looking at it you have a blast. also her birdcage!!!! her birdcage and the bright orange and the pink bars!!!! the way everything desaturates and becomes more sickly looking when she wakes up at the end!!!! its such a happy carefully curated and designed dream and then it drains away!!!! also god all her outfits are stunning. mahiru call me

the way she sings "overheat de~!" cutest thing in the WORLD.

the little faces she makes!!!! godddd shes so expressive

actually the whole songs so expressive!!!! shes putting her all into it!!!! her words have so much expression in them!!!! once more praising mahirus va the way her voice can soften and become bright or subtly desperate so quickly is MASTERFUL control of expression when singing and its so underrated. join me in being insane over miho okasaki delivers her lines. shes such a perfect mahiru.

funniest es cover. hands down. funniest es cover.

this is how to be in love with you is FREE serotonin!!!! free energy right there!!!! this is how to be in love with you sweep!!!!!

---

-The song is so cheerful!! I always feel like dancing and singing when this one comes up in my playlists!! Absolute banger, mood definer, kicking sadness in the shin with those high-heels and then hitting its face with a cute purse -THE HIGH-HEELS STEPPING TO THE BEAT OF THE MUSIC IN THAT ONE SCENE (0:50). SIMPLY ICONIC. NO ONE DID IT LIKE HER. -👠💅👝👗 -She is slaying. Look at her outfits. She put so much effort there. She gave it her all. Absolutely serving. -SUKITTE KIMOCHI WAKATTA TSUMORI? NARA KONO MAMA FUTARI O-VA-HI-TO- DE -The storyline of the mv MAKES SENSE and you can form a COHESIVE TIMELINE OF EVENTS (unlike other unspecified contestants' mvs you know 🙄) -look at herr 🥺 she beby 🥺 all she did was love too much 🥺 we all love mappi don't we 🥺 she deserved more let her win this pleease 🥺 -No medical malpractice happened in the making of this mv 👍

---

I care so much about This is How To Be In Love With You- it's visuals are brilliant in the ways it conveys its themes and narrative. I'm never normal Ever about the "Love as marketing" symbolism that is brought in by the use of magazines. It's a lovely upbeat song but the Horrors are Always Lurking under it, the breakup Ritual line is my Favorite Line cause its so horrifying but its said so casually and its so good oh its so good-

[slavghoul]

First musical emotion?

TF: I grew up in an environment full of music, with a very open-minded mother who listened to a lot of pop and rock music and, above all, an older brother who was 13 years older than me. That's how much I was immersed in teenage culture as a child. I was 3 years old in 1984 when the glam metal wave invaded the airwaves and TV screens. These bands, like Kiss, WASP or Mötley Crüe, very strong visually for a child, attracted me irresistibly. And let's not forget Twisted Sister. I Wanna Rock is the track that remains the basis, the trigger for everything for me. A song that, at 3, 13, 23 or 43 years old, still has the same effect on me as soon as I hear it: to jump in the air like a madman.

First record bought?

If not Kiss, probably a Rolling Stones album. It didn't make much of an impression on me because my brother used to buy so many of them, so my money was mostly spent on Star Wars stuff. There are tons of bands I love, but I think the Stones are my favourite. Because they embody everything I love about rock, even though they weren't as sophisticated as the Beatles or Pink Floyd. Between 1967 and 1972, in their darkest period, nobody did it better than them: they had the look, the attitude, the style and, on top of that, the songs! Let It Bleed is incredible, with songs like Midnight Rambler and Live With Me. As much as I admire technical singers, virtuosos of harmony, Jagger remains unique. I've never tried to imitate him, but as a performer he is the absolute model.

First concert of note?

My brother used to take me to see local punk bands at a very early age, but I remember B.B. King most of all, when I was about 5 or 6, with my mother. It was a jazz festival, outside in the courtyard of a castle, a very cool atmosphere. As soon as B.B. King started playing, there was electricity in the air. Everyone got up and started dancing, I was blown away. And as I was the only one of my age, I could move around freely, so much so that I found myself in the backstage, in front of B.B. King himself! He invited me into his dressing room: "Do you play the guitar?" - Yes! - so don't stop!" And I took his advice. Even though I sing on stage, the guitar is still my favourite instrument, the one I play and master the most.

The band that best managed to avoid the pitfall of the image taking precedence over the music?

Kiss, unfortunately, was far from being up to the task musically. Alice Cooper, after two minor first albums, went on to make four incredible albums with the original Alice Cooper Group. Above all, he made a phenomenal comeback with Welcome to My Nightmare in 1975. After that, the show took over... The band that managed to stay straight and dignified, without compromising the artistic quality of their work, is undoubtedly Iron Maiden. All of their 80's production is impeccable, and if they had a slump in the 90's, they came back even stronger with the return of Bruce Dickinson, and have been going strong for twenty years! Their work ethic is exemplary. With Ghost, we take up Phantom of the Opera, one of my favourite tracks from their early period, and one of the few where I felt we could add a little something to it.

Best punk song in the world?

There are so many, because I was also brought up on the sounds of the Pistols, the Ramones, the Dead Kennedys... But as a kid, I never got tired of listening to The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle again, especially the sequence where Sid Vicious sings My Way. His version is one of my favourite songs of all time. What could be more awesome than to see a guy slaughtering this standard while doing the same, shooting the shit, with the audience that came to see him! It was like the ultimate middle finger, and it made me happy, and it showed me the way.

The band that remains the grail for you?

Queen, because the show side, the big show, is the ultimate for me. In the early 70s, my favourite musical period, there were no big shows yet, like the Stones started doing afterwards. Queen is the same. Of course, their best albums are from the 70s, but the peak of their career for me is the Wembley concert in 1986. Magic wasn't a great record, but the show was breathtaking, dantesque, with a repertoire as vast as it was delirious. If Ghost could ever come close to the 1986 Queen, I would be delighted.

The greatest Swedish band?

ABBA, of course. No one will ever be able to stand in their way. The Beatles are the monarchs of English rock, ABBA the monarchs of Swedish pop. Björn and Benny are national heroes. I found myself at a huge, formal party when Benny suddenly sat down at the piano and started Thank You For the Music. There was silence in a second. This guy is a monument. You can't imagine what ABBA has done, not only for pop music, but also for Sweden and the Swedes. This band proved that you can move mountains.

Which Ghost song are you most proud of?

Cirice, probably. I often write my songs by singing into my phone a melody that is in my head. We were about to finish the album Meliora. And the co-producer tells me that a really heavy and powerful track is missing. I tell him I have this heavy, heavy, macabre sounding tune with a long intro and a crushing riff. He suggests I tweak it while he goes for a run. When he came back, I had written a chorus, lyrical, catchy. It wasn't the leaden track he was hoping for. But it won us a Grammy!

The most evil band?

Certainly not Mercyful Fate, as one might imagine. They, like most Norwegian death metal bands, more or less satanic, are the most charming guys I've ever met. They seem more like nice teachers than evil creatures. The scariest band is probably Von, a mythical American black metal band from Hawaii. These guys were really scary, with their terrifying size, they looked really dangerous. But I think the evil is mostly on the side of those who pretend to defend the good. For me, the most evil and unattractive musician is Ted Nugent. He's pro-life, pro-hunting, and claims he's only fighting for freedom. But the world he defends is about as free and tolerant as Vladimir Putin's. I refuse to listen to him.

[spotsupstuff]

actually ey fuck it. list of personal headcanons for the main six iterators some of which i might illustrate properly at some point:

Moon: • one of the first 10 iterators ever built. she is grandma as HELL and totally forgot she is that old • Pebbles sometimes asks her to tell him about the older times, because history nerd. he writes everything she says onto a pearl • in the post i've made talkin bout her and pebs' voice, saying that she sounded like Miku, somebody said that they like to think the ancients made Moon a vocaloid. to that i absolutely agree: she has NO fucking clue what do when it comes to putting a certain emotion into a song but god DAMMIT shes so good at singing • she can add effects to her voice, including a glitch effect. she likes that one the least • -HITS DESK- THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HATSUNE MOON. • she doesn't particularly like to sing, especially not to herself. but she does know that pebbles likes music- the first week after the mass ascension was rough and he was working mostly on autopilot, not answering DMs or anything. she called him up and told him they could sing together, if he wants to. he felt much better afterwards • MOON'S SECRET RAP CAREER • i'll put it here too so it's all in one place: her AI isn't developed enough to understand the emotional quality of any form of art • Moon was upgraded a few times in her function. most of the time it was because her citizens loved her too much to let her go too out of date (specifically in the physical sense. they made sure she wouldn't fall too easily) • one of the first memories she designated as a "core memory" was her first upgrade that was a result of her citizens' riot against the Houses- to keep her safe. she noted it down as "Kindness is effortlessly repaid" • she remembers when iterator comms were connected by a cable rather than radio waves • she also remembers when two of the first 10 collapsed and went into coma, with their citizens of course perishing in the fall and crash. she's still terrified of those days and doesn't like recalling them even for Pebbles • Nish was her first little sib and she feels like she can talk with him about anything. she hates it, but she's distant with Suns- they are always so damn polite and skittish around her... and she absolutely adores the other three. her tiny little wonderful siblings • she didn't like to admit that maybe her hardwave wasn't keeping up with her citizens anymore. at that point she did start to emotionally care less for them, but she still didn't want to admit she wasn't able to provide and protect those she was responsible for • i can't get the image of her being the one to actually ensure the family is gonna financially survive in a more chill au where the iterators r just sorta kinda people. Miss Moon From Accounting... • her overseers were originally blue. she swapped colors with Pebbles all on her own accord. having yellow overseers, seeing them, made her feel even more connected to Pebs • this is basically canon but she fuckin Loves animals. she's the iterator version of Steve Irwin. she also don't kno jack shit about the vegetation • city's representative instrument Evolved- first it was a harp, then it went to a nyckelharpa and then to a violin

Nish: • he is built over marshes to the south-west from Moon and she helped with his blueprints! the Gen 1s had their blueprints checked over by the already built iterators to make sure something wouldn't go wrong. she was so so excited to have a neighbour • the scarf is from his main programmer. the Ancient wrapped it around his puppet's neck before he was even turned online so for the longest time he had no idea that the thing wasn't originally in his design. Moon had to tell him • he became a jokester Entirely because the first time he made Moon laugh he absolutely fell in love with it. he told her and she recommended him looking into jokes. baby boy had no idea what the fuck a joke was so Moon had to explain • when the middle gen started being created, the Ancients noticed that these new iterators didn't have... much of emotional skills. so they turned to the older gens to look for the most emotional and empathetic ones. Nish scored Really High on that survey- his empathy and emotion modules were studied and each time they found something new and better, they upgraded him in that one aspect. so now Sig is one of the biggest crybabies ever. you show him a sad movie and this supercomputer will be lyin on the ground wailing like a newborn. oh and also he makes for a great therapist because he can now just Get It • as the most emotionally... mature? capable? he decided he will be the one to keep a real close eye on everyone in the Local Group after the mass ascension • thanks to all that emotion business he gets along with Suns swimmingly. when Suns needs assistence with figuring out their own emotions or what would be appropriate and not too cold towards someone, they go to him • if he could he'd give everyone younger than him a noogie and you cannot convince me otherwise • the Hunter was a sickly pup that was left behind on his roof by a family that came to him which he directed towards the void sea. they were far too weak for the family to keep them, basically on the death's door. Nish took them in, operated on them, enhanced genes and raised them from there • Is half a medical facility. mister veterinarian, baybeee • since he's a sap, he started to view the Hunter like his own kid at some point. he was also the one who pitched to Suns the idea of sending Spearmaster over to him for visits. Spear tried its best to help raise and train Hunter • the whole rot thing happened because Nish did a stupid and forgot that neurons are quite the fuckin reactive things and continual exposure to what is essentially extra macho giga neuron Can and Will fuck up cells. his and Moon's cans have a long distance between them. it was enough time for Hunter to develop the big owie cancer. he noticed it only when they were too far away and it was already too bad • he felt absolutely Terrible about it. again he loses someone so so very close to him. but this time around? there is no one to be angry at for this but himself • Hunter manages to ascend. Nish watched them leave, silently, in subterranean • he used to do his best to play with his citizens. when a kid came to his chamber, he gave them rides on his puppet's shoulders or the umbilical arm. same went for Hunter • his city is called Risio • city's representative instrument was EITHER a PVC instrument or suona i can't decide for the life of me

Suns: • they were built much further away from the planet's equator than most of the Local Group, meaning they experience polar days and nights • the "Seven" in their name refers to the amount of months the unusually timed sunsets and sunrises last for. for seven whole months, the locality gets only about four hours of Somewhat darkness • in return, they have three full months of relatively strong darkness. their city used to shine bright, during this time. post mass ascension those months are terribly lonely and depressing • because of the warmth they produce, there's an oasis for wildlife underneath them • the warmth was also sung about a lot by their citizens. they've seen it as an incredible blessing- Suns used to run hotter than other iterators just for them. nowadays they are mostly normal though • the outside of their can is tinted blue- frostbitten. that much warmer their yellow, orange and red city feels • their and Moon's personalities clash so hard that they sometimes go out of their way to avoid her. they do appreciate her but talking with her is exhausting. she's a stranger to them, almost • the iterators can project/send their emotions through messages/broadcasts. Suns' messages always sound flat, unless they use the ~ • one of their biggest dreams is to sit with Pebbles leaning against their side, all the while listening to old music of their cities • once Spearmaster returns, the walls of their puppet chamber become completely covered in doodles and masterpieces • they end up standing the longest out of the whole Local Group. bright and warm even after everyone else dies • their city is called Solis • city's representative instrument was an armonica (look that shit up its sick)

Wind: • Wind's can stands in this giant plain. there's like nothing as far as the eye can see and even further Except her. she just stands there like fucking Slanderman XXL version • the plains are absolutely prime location for a spawning grounds of tornadoes and shit like that. the wind is Constantly strong so most of the rain clouds they exhale are immediately blown away • instead of rain they deal with ginormous tornadoes at the end of each cycle. while their superstructure can take it, the comms can't. so Wind is often absent from iterator chats as a result. after the mass ascension these connection knock-outs become a great source of stress and worry for the others cuz they never know if Wind will come back or not this time • because of these comm blackouts, Innocence took it upon herself to catch Wind up on everything they've missed when they come back online. Innocence started doing this all by herself out of seemingly nowhere. she just cares. silently. • the strangest thing about her is that her city is half built within her structure instead of on top of her. the winds can get sometimes so bad that they manage to affect even the top of her can. so the solution was to put half of the city under her skin as a sort of giant bunker • the ancients, not being ones to waste much space, made sure the city can still be used by Wind's processes, in a way. their neurons fly through the streets, completely unbothered, working as makeshift streetlights. the kids used to love chasing after them- never catching any though • sometimes when the wind storms outside got real bad, the kids that were scared of them were sent to Wind's puppet chamber. she used to tell them all kinds of stories or about what she was currently working on • it was often that their puppet chamber would be full of pillows, blankets and sleeping children. they loved their citizens so so much • nicknamed themself "Chasing" Wind in chats because, just like Moon, they are also quite the dreamer • closest with Moon, too. Wind looks up to Moon Immensely. they really wanna be like her one day • Wind is what some people think of Moon- a too kind pushover that doesn't know how to get angry and defend herself. Wind is the kindest, most sensitive and softest person they have in The Local Group. Nish takes care to keep his jabs and jokes about Wind very mild • has a really beautiful voice • likes flowers :) • her city is called Procella • city's representative instrument was a fujara cuz god DAMMIT i love that instrument i Have to slap it on Someone in here. it fits their vibe in my heart either way

Innocence: • she really wishes her surrounding circumstances were in some kind of way special but actually she's built at the least unique place with basically nothing neat happening nearby. there are strange giant cherry trees nearby, but that's about it • fuckin LOVES lizards. she's the one who made the Cyans and sent some over to Pebbles to fuck him up. thankfully, as we all know, Cyans are kinda stupid and since they launch themselves over edges of cliffs they haven't managed to destroy the local ecosystem • her citizens used to keep lizards as pets. most of the time just for the joy of having 0 braincells creature follow you around but some had 'em as sort of hunting dogs • was the one who created The Rivulet. she was mumbling to herself and a friend smth about how boys only screw things up while engineering Riv's genome • she BASICALLY packed Riv into a cannon and shot them over right into the middle of a scav toll cuz "come on, it's not that far away. this will make your journey shorter and shit". i don't care how goofy it sounds, this is how it went in my heart • in possession of probably the most durable comms ever made • claims she's purple! she's actually fake out purple which means homegirl is Deceptive Blue. she CONSTANTLY fights over this with Pebbles • despite their squabbles she did care for Pebbles. she was very excited to not be the youngest anymore and getting to baby someone • her and Nish always start verbal sparring matches, often consisting of threats that more often than not range on impossible to actually commit. they constantly lead their mock wars in #general. Moon's gonna kill 'em one of these days • trusts Moon the most- which is why she outed Pebbles' rot and sent Rivulet with the instructions to extract the rarefaction cell • her city is called Sermo • city's representative instrument was a shamisen. she absolutely knows how to play it and loves to threaten people with the bachi

Pebbles: • the only people he enjoyed doing group projects with were Suns and Wind. he Could do group projects with Moon and Nish but Only if he could race them. rascal found it fun to challenge the nokias 😔 • now with Innocence though? Never. if they were forced to, they could do a great job with minimal communication but they were not going to be happy about it • latched onto Suns exactly because Moon was overbearingly protective and Suns always seems like they couldn't give less of a shit about anyone. sometimes they'd have a videochat open and not say anything for hours as they worked • with Nish he used to like inventing new things. a lot of times the things turned out to be silly or kind of useless which would normally frustrate him, but surprisingly enough Nish made the time spent worth it • Wind's favorite activity was comparing notes with him and then talking about the differences in their research. they'd hum to him happily while the both of them would be sorting through their stuff • i sometimes imagine him having a slight chinese accent and i blame Steven He for this so hard • second most emotional fuck in the group. his emotions mostly rotate around anger, though • he won't admit this to anyone but he really liked it when his and Moon's cans were connected by bridges. it felt like holding hands. he felt more stable. now all he can do is just miss it quietly • was legit surprised when he found out not every iterator has a build in older sister right at their side • his city is called Literally just Metropolis cuz the ancients didn't bother with properly naming it. depeshioumn. • city's representative instrument was adopted straight from Moon since Pebs' citizens were honestly just hers, so- violin it is • Pebbles HAS attempted to learn how to play a violin himself. certainly was a test of patience and puppet dexterity/camera-to-digits control. almost broke the poor thing a few times from nerves

either way, Wind, at the end of each fucking cycle from day 1 of their life:

[lilis-doodle-dome]

Mafuyu looks,,, so much better than Kasa. Oops-

Mfks swap au group lv 1 Kizuna ranks

There was more interest in this au than expected, so I’ll add more info on this post. But also please feel free to ask any questions you have!

More info:

- The Tenma parents should probably be divorced with how much they fight and usually Tsukasa ends up being the rope in their constant Tug-of-war

- Tenmama treats Tsukasa like the daughter she always wanted to have (despite literally having a daughter) so that’s why his hair is long and some of his casual clothes are feminine colors! She wants him to follow in her footsteps to become a pianist, since he’s such a prodigy.

- Tsukasa has mentioned the fact Saki enjoys the piano and would probably be happy if her mom took an interest in her playing, but Tenmama thinks Saki would need ‘a few more years of experience before she really gets it’ since ‘after all there’s a difference between a child enjoying making pretty sounds, and a real appreciation for an instrument’.

- That sentiment made no sense to Kasa bcs he doesn’t care at all about the piano and so how could *he* appreciate it more than someone who loves it, plus he thinks Saki’s playing is much better than his. It also caused a weird tearing sensation in his chest, but he didn’t understand it.

- Meanwhile the Tenma dad is also awful. He is very tied up in traditional masculinity, so he gets upset with Tsukasa for doing so many feminine things, despite that literally being Tenmama’s doing. He wants Tsukasa to have academic success and get a prestigious career (lawyer, doctor, etc.) since ‘men aren’t lucky enough to be able to marry into money so they can do frivolous things like play piano’

- He does respect that mr. Aoyagi was able to make a career out of piano, but sees him as one of the ‘lucky few geniuses’ that made it and thinks it’s far too unstable of a job for Kasa to pursue. He wants to ‘set his *son* up for success’ after all

- This forces Tsukasa to have an incredibly strict routine each day so he can do enough to satisfy both his parents, bcs if the Tenma’s think he’s even slightly prioritizing one of his tasks over another they’ll start fighting about him ‘taking a side’

- which can lead to fun results such as: The time his father came into his room while he was asleep and cut his hair to a ‘proper male’ length, or when his mother bodily dragged him out of cram school with everyone watching bcs he needed to spend more time on piano instead. Their fighting always seems to hurt their kids more than them.

- Also Tsukasa usually wears his school uniform, instead of casual clothes, everywhere since his parents can’t argue about a school mandated outfit. The only thing he wears as an accessory, and he wears it with every outfit, is a fish hairtie Saki got him when they were younger. He makes an effort to hide it in his hair since otherwise his parents would take it, but it’s the only clothing item that is strictly *his* and he can still remember when wearing made him happy. Even if he can’t feel it anymore the memory is still nice.

- Saki also gets mistreated but in a different way, even worse than treating her like glass, the Tenma’s treat her like she’s still the toddler she was when she first got sick. They act like she’s an incompetent, whiny baby rather than a Teenager in their first year of Highschool and it infuriates her to no end. So most of the time spent with her parents is spent fighting angrily about something, while they patronizingly laugh her off with comments like ‘Young girls these days, so spirited’

- it doesn’t help that Tsukasa absolutely refuses to get involved and when he is dragged in, he always makes non committal statements that are more platitudes than actual thoughts on the matter. Which of course just frustrates Saki even more

- especially since Tsukasa has been helping Saki sneak out of the house during her ‘rest time’ (she basically has one hour of free time after school then she’s expected to stay in her room the rest of the day to ‘destress’, this was not recommended by the doctors her parents just decided on their own) so she can actually live life now that she’s out of the hospital. So clearly he does agree their parents are too overbearing in ‘caring’ for her, so why doesn’t he say anything when she argues with them?

I was planning to talk more about the group’s dynamics and Sekai’s but umm,, guess it’s all just Tenma’s dynamics instead. I still haven’t covered even close to everything about this family mess ha, they’re complicated.

I will mention, however, since it ties in to what I’ve talked about:

- Tsukasa’s Sekai is the Chess Sekai, it’s a massive chessboard with a stretch of grey area that cuts right through the middle of it, each VS’s appearance is based on a piece. The remaining pieces are based off of expectations that have been placed on him (e.x a piano for the piano career and on the opposite side books for the academic career)

- The pieces will move based on what is currently ‘winning’ in his life ( e.x. The books will be further forward if it’s currently exam period and the like). But since there’s that section of grey cutting the board in half none of the pieces can ever cross to the other side and the game is in a perpetual stalemate, with pieces moving meaninglessly back and forth forever

Not technically relevant but I’d feel bad not mentioning:

- Mafuyu’s Sekai is the Storybook Sekai, if you’ve ever seen Van gough’s painted world (it’s a movie) that’s what her Sekai looks like, it’s like being in a painting but the world still moves around you so you can watch the brushstrokes shift as if they were the real thing they depicted. Rather than plushies she has little cartoon animals from various fables she’s read throughout her life, their personalities reflect the story they come from.

[edge-oftheworld]

a snapshot in time of my CALM orchestral arrangement

so I just discovered that this is a thing you can do on tumblr and i've been debating putting it up here (i'm not even sure it's legal) but at this point, to me it's worth the (very slim) lawsuit risk to show you guys the inspo behind making this blog. for @bluewrite who i've been meaning to email this to for ages but never got there. for @tleeaves who i think got a slightly older version as did @ghost-of-you but this is also for all of you who've heard me rattling about music things, for people i've gotten into 5sos by talking about this project such as @thevagabondexpress (thank you for drawing the U2 link).

anyway, as you probably know i'm a classical violist. i know my instrument and i know a fair amount of music theory and i know how to play the keyboard/piano as well and at the start of this project i knew very little about building orchestral scores or anything about wind instruments at all. i'd written arrangements and original pieces before but only for strings-only orchestras, and though i'm alright at pulling out instrumentation from songs my experience is largely in the more classic 2000s pop/rock/worship with very minimal synth activity and max 3 part harmonies. to say this was a challenge is an understatement.

it's also not finished yet. i've gone back and forth on this getting feedback from a bunch of people, much of which i didn't understand and wasn't ready to implement. i've also found ashton and calum's videos explaining these songs in more detail and the acoustic version of teeth and best years with the actual chords of the songs and now, differently to the week tfofu came out but similar, i'm on it again, noticing things. noticing musical trends. most of this was done by pure sound intuition and a handful of piano scores arranged by @/keudae on youtube i bought and played to get a feel of the songs. I feel really stoked to have picked up on the whole lover of mine setting us up for lonely heart and being a bit like ghost of you and some of the themes within the album!

but there is a lot i didn't pick up on. especially in the last movement i don't truly feel like i did any of those songs justice. nor lonely heart. and there is a stark difference between the quality of the songs that were played at the RAH and the ones that i only had a studio version to work off (my strings background comes out here). i've also looked at all the 22 individual parts and realised, hey, i want to be in the 5sos spirit and make every single one of these fun to play and right now the only one that is is the cello which carries luke's main melody line but it's also kinda working too hard.

and that's the thing i know, probably apart from that one keychange into lonely heart from ghost of you, this for the most part sounds good and i want to share it here before i rejig it too much, make it too much more orchestral, so we can remember it and see it evolve. because i have a bunch of juno and guitar and percussion and harmony parts i haven't put in. general song vibes. shake up the choruses and make them a variation on themselves each time. maintain the atmosphere it's got but add more layers to it, be more true to the original songs. make something i would be proud to show 5sos if the opportunity ever arose, something that would actually astonish them and I think I can. because their musicality in this album is astounding, and something i haven't seen in heaps of other artists, and i want to recognise that and draw it out in something that can do it justice like an orchestra.

[velvet4510]

I guess I’m one of those weirdos who so deeply feels the essence of an instrumental leitmotif from a film score associated with a particular character or couple, that I start associating said leitmotifs in my head with ANOTHER character from an entirely different film/book/series. And I’ve built up a whole library of leitmotifs for LOTR characters even though I ADORE Howard Shore’s original score for the trilogy. I consider these leitmotifs to be add-ons, NOT replacements.

Nor do I intend to completely dissasociate all of these themes from their intended films/characters; some of them are perfect fits for the films they were written for. It’s just my mind going wild like usual. (But I admit, in some cases, the pieces are from films I dislike, and thus I would rather see these great songs associated with something of LOTR quality rather than what they were actually stuck with, especially when the lack of lyrics gives you the freedom to let the melody take you wherever it takes you, personally.)

In the case of Silmarillion characters and relationships, well, it’s a different story - it really is my attempt to cobble together what could be a hypothetical score, if it were brought to the screen. Obviously it’d never be this exactly, but I would hope a composer for a potential screen adaptation of The Silmarillion might be inspired by themes like these.

In some cases, the characters these themes were originally written for don’t resemble the corresponding LOTR characters very much, or at all. Also some of them have titles that by themselves could not be more different from and unfitting for Tolkien’s world. It’s just the melodies on their own, without context or even name, performed by these gorgeous orchestras, that have come to remind me of particular Tolkien figure(s).

I also have found lots of “love themes”, both romantic and platonic, for character relationships, as you’ll see. I’ve included romantic themes for canonical couples, as well as for pairings that I personally ship. I know Shore already gave Aragorn and Arwen a theme, but as I said, these are all extra additions and not replacements.

And yes I have a lot of Star Wars stuff in here, because I love Star Wars…but I love Tolkien more.

For the heck of it I’ll share some of these, with links to each song on YT. It’s hard to explain why I made these choices/associations, but maybe you’ll get it if you listen to some of them.

CHARACTER THEMES

The Valar = “Guardians of the Whills Suite” by Michael Giacchino

Lúthien Tinúviel = “Once Upon a Time in the West” by Ennio Morricone

Túrin Turambar = “Anakin’s Theme” by John Williams

Nienor Níniel = “Helena’s Theme” by John Williams

Frodo Baggins = “Romeo” by Nino Rota

Sam Gamgee = “Rey’s Theme” by John Williams

Aragorn = “The John Dunbar Theme” by John Barry

Gandalf = “Yoda’s Theme” by John Williams

Legolas = “Rose Tico” by John Williams

Éowyn = “Marion’s Theme” by John Williams

THEMES FOR LANDS/LOCATIONS

The Undying Lands = “Out of Africa” by John Barry

ROMANTIC LOVE THEMES

Frodo x Sam = “Love Theme from Ben-Hur” by Miklos Rozsa

Beren x Lúthien = “Love Theme from The Godfather” by Nino Rota

Faramir x Éowyn = “Han Solo and the Princess” by John Williams

Aragorn x Arwen = “Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone

Sam x Rosie = “Love Theme from Dances with Wolves” by John Barry

Bilbo x Thorin = “Andante Cantabile” by Bernard Herrmann

Thingol x Melian = “Indecent Proposal” by John Barry

Fingon x Maedhros = “Wuthering Heights” (1939) by Alfred Newman

Galadriel x Celeborn = “Central Park” by James Newton Howard

Finrod x Bëor = “Somewhere in Time” by John Barry

Aegnor x Andreth = “Love Theme from The Scarlet Letter” by John Barry

Túrin x Beleg = “Across the Stars” by John Williams

Mablung x Niënor = “Wanda and Vision” by Christophe Beck

Tuor x Idril = “Conversation Piece” by Bernard Herrmann

Eärendil x Elwing = “Tennessee” by Hans Zimmer

Maglor x Daeron = “Midnight Cowboy” by John Barry

Elrond x Celebrían = “And Then I Kissed Him” by Hans Zimmer

Pippin x Diamond = “Love Theme from Spartacus” by Alex North

Merry x Estella = “Love Theme from Rebel Without a Cause” by Leonard Rosenman

Elanor x Fastred = “Theme from A Summer Place” by Percy Faith (composed by Max Steiner)

PLATONIC RELATIONSHIP THEMES

Elrond & Elros = “Brothers” by Hans Zimmer

Merry & Pippin = “Flying” by John Williams

Legolas & Gimli = “Rain Man” by Hans Zimmer

Boromir & Faramir = “Luke and Leia” by John Williams

Bilbo & Frodo* = “The Mother’s Love” by Miklos Rozsa

Sam & Elanor = “The Ludlows” by James Horner

I may add to this as I think of more, or even replace certain songs entirely if I come across a better match. Always return to the pinned post here to see the most recently updated list.

* Bilbo & Frodo’s melody is heard in the first minute of the linked track, 0:00–1:01, and again at 1:48. Also, the love theme I associate with Frodo & Sam starts playing at 1:03, making this whole thing fit all the hobbits even better.

[crepesuzette2023]

I’ve seen other people ask other blogs on who they’d cast for the boys. So now I ask you, who would you cast for all four of them ?

I'm thinking it would have to be four unknown-to-the-world-at-large actors. They can't be pre-famous, that would introduce too much noise to the system. They must inhabit the Beatles, and the Beatles must inhabit them.

For accent reasons they should probably be from Liverpool, but that would be too Beatle-y. I would prefer them to have no relationship to each other and the Beatles prior to filming, and then to be gradually devoured, yet strengthened, by the project. Think the Lord of the Rings movies, but with music instead of Orcs.

I want the making of the movies to make adults of the actors. I want the experience to meld their hearts together; I want it to provide them with a shared language for the rest of their lives, and also with private memories of undefinable erotic attraction admitted and acted upon—like the real Beatles, but in a healthy 'they went their separate ways towards fulfilling careers afterwards and maintained a [positively loaded adjective of choice] relationship with each other'-way.

I want their autobiographies to have titles like, To the Top and Back, and other things you can do with a Bowler Hat.

Also, I'm sorry, but after the movies are done, the actors decide independently of each other they will never act again—having done what was needed.

No matter their gender, they will have to be young and free enough to embrace the homoerotic subtext, and mature enough to be camp in precisely measured doses.

The person playing Pete Best will have to be the most handsome, irrelevantly so, and Brian will have to be played by a young Leonardo di Caprio. (Cloning, breeding, time travel, just make it work.)

The Paul person must be as angelically pretty as the real Paul, but also appropriately asymmetrical face-wise, furry, and upsettingly long-limbed. Soft spoken and confidently whorish. Should at the very least be able to credibly mime mastery of any instrument (wink nudge) shoved into his face. Obviously must be left-handed.

John: *must* be slightly shorter than Paul, and able to shift from silly and bendy to the immovable Leader Lennon stage stance. Also must be able to hold forth at length without anyone losing interest, melt camera lenses by staring them down, instill unease in parents far and wide, and mess up lyrics in exactly the right way. Final test: add an edge of genuine menace to singing the line "a bad little kitten moved into my neighborhood."

George: everything he says is so dry and sharp it ends the scene—a challenge for the writers. Eyebrows. Will say what the audience thinks and voice what they feel, which is why his movie will be the most anticipated and also the most hilarious. Must be able to glower intensely enough to make roses wither on the vine, then smile brightly enough to shame the sun. A French pastry chef's knowledge of chocolates and treats is a plus.

Ringo: For fuck's sake, make sure he can actually handle himself on drums. Ideally unconventionally and sensually hot in the way of the young Gael Garcia Bernal, but smarter, especially in the ways of human relations. Realistic stomach scars required. Must be able to sit and be present, oddly detached from the invisible battles raging between the other three, a calm pond of sanity, a focal point of anti-anxiety—yet capable of brittle humanity. Audition will include a performance of Boys.

if the movies don't work out they can record a song for Eurovision.