#like with that Dawsons creek reference recently

[chirpsythismorning]

The way they framed surfer boy pizza with Mike in s4 makes me optimistic about the prospects of smalltown boy agenda actually

[spaceorphan18]

Have you listened to any glee podcasts other than Kevin and Jenna’s (and yours)?

Or do you have any general podcast recommendations?

I listen to podcasts all the time! I don't listen to any other Glee ones -- tbh, I think they'd drive me (more or less) crazy. That's no shade on the people making them -- apparently, there are some good ones out there? But I'd just get too annoyed if they got a detail wrong, or if I couldn't debate a position, so I usually stay away.

But... here's what I'm subscribed to! (Besides Kevin and Jenna's)

All About Agatha - Yes, that's right, I listen to a podcast where the hosts talk about everything Agatha Christie has ever written. This podcast is all around wonderful. Unfortunately, one of the hosts passed away recently, which is sad, but the other host is continuing on. They go into more than just Agatha Christie and discuss various aspects of detective fiction, too.

The NYT Book Review & Poured Over (The BN Podcast) - I don't listen to these a whole lot, but I have them more so for work related podcasts. But if you want book reviews of new books in a more commercialized setting - these fit the bill.

Pod Meets World - Three of the stars of the 90s show Boy Meets World break down their time on the show and watch an episode each week. I can't stress this enough, this might be my favorite podcast right now. Not only are they really open to their experiences - but they talk in depth about all aspects of the show - from the story itself to all of the behind the scenes stuff. It's really amazing.

Office Ladies - I'm sure a lot of people know this one - Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer from the office break down an episode week by week. I do love this one a lot. But as we're nearing the end of the series, I get a sense that both Angela and Jenna are, maybe, beginning to get a little tired of it. (No shade on them, and it's just a feeling I'm picking up.) They spend more time going down deep dive rabbit holes than talking about the episodes. I still enjoy it, and I do think they're both wonderful people. Another great podcast for learning the ins and outs as to what make a tv show.

Star Talk - With Neil DeGrasse Tyson. It's all about science! And I love learning about science. I've been listening to this one the longest.

Jay and Miles Xplain the X-Men - I've also been listening to this for years, too. The hosts started back in the silver age, and have been unpacking and reading every X-Men and X-Men related comic book ever written. It's been about a decade and they're nearing the end of the 90s. It's really cool for anyone wanting to find an in into X-Men comics.

Double Love - @constantcompanion This is the Sweet Valley High break down podcast I mentioned earlier. These two women (who are about ten years older than I am) have been reading through every SWH book ever. And bless them. They discuss them with a great amount of humor

Dawson's Critique - Two women hosts rewatch all of Dawson's Creek. The cool thing is that they're my age, and experienced DC at the same time I did - which is cool. But kind of like how I view DC now, I can only take so much of it at a time. It's a solid podcast, but I have to be in a mood to listen to it.

Zack to the Future - which is on permanent hiatus. This is the one where Mark-Paul Gosselaar and a comedy writer named Dashiell Driscoll watched old Saved by the Bell episodes. It was... hit and miss, tbh. MPG seemed a bit uncomfortable doing it, but always at least had interesting things to say. Driscoll, though, was a terrible co-host. I feel bad for the guy - because he knew he was getting skewered online, but he had zero chemistry with MPG, and didn't seem like he knew what he was doing half the time. *shrugs*

The Tolkien Professor - I don't listen to this one that often, just more or less have it as a reference -- but the host is an actual professor of literature who really, really deep dives into Tolkien. It's sometimes more or less like taking a college course in Tolkien.

So, that's pretty much it -- amazing, i kind of listen to things that break down other stories and dive into story telling. I'm sure y'all are surprised.

I do have Darren's podcast downloaded, but i've never listened to it. Idk. Plus, I have random episodes of other podcasts - like all the ones Chris has been on. :)

If you guys have any good ones - let me know!

[slashify]

Someone recently referred to my writing as melodramatic as a middle school girl and I just have to say:

Thank you!

And also Screw You for using that as an insult!

All of us in fandom write in varied levels of experience and expertise, and most of us are writing out of love for something in the original source material.

I posted my first fic online when I was about 13, over two decades ago. Writing and posting that first fic helped me process feelings and feel connected to a community that loved the fandom as much as I did. Was it a skillful work of art? Hell no. Did I have fun? Hell yes! Did I make some friends in the community? Also yes. And that’s the point!

Now, back then, we had an expectation of some ‘flames’ which were usually comments like ‘your writing sucks’ or ‘ew gay’, or ‘give up.’ I’m not going to say any of the worst ones I got, but there’s a mild example. There was also an assumption that fanfic authors wanted to be serious writers. There was constructive criticism, or concrit, and as long as it was civil and something you could easily change, like pointing out a typo or saying it took a reader out of the story when you said ‘the blonde’ or something, we mostly enjoyed getting that feedback. We’d do the compliment sandwich. ‘Love how x talked about his dad’s snowboard company! There’s a typo in paragraph 9 where y says ‘could of’ it should be ‘could have.’ I liked how you talked about y’s vulnerability when he says he likes wearing lipgloss.’ Concrit doesn’t seem to be a thing now, but times change.

How dare you insult younger members of our fandom, and why’d you have to tack on girl like it’s an insult?

Also, yes, I can write some melodramatic stuff. Can’t help it. I grew up on melodramatic, undesirable stuff like, y’know, MASH, Buffy, Supernatural, Dawson’s Creek, you know, melodramatic stuff with no audience. 🙄

Also,

*Throws Pixie Sparkle brand glitter in your face, hits you with a Lisa Frank composition notebook, takes it back so I can write the cringiest fanfic I can think of in it with a sparkly feathered gel pen*

You’re a butthole, and this is me making public s’mores on your flame.

[zalrb]

You have such an incredible memory it’s so impressive because you discuss and refer to shows like Dawson’s creek the OC Gilmore girls gossip girl when I know you probably haven’t watched them recently - you remember such specifics and minor details that makes your analysis so detailed and I’m just like how does she remember all this omg because I watch a show and forget what happens like 3 months later - I just read your latest Dawson’s creek post and I’m like I watched this show last year and I don’t remember any of this happening 😭

LOL honestly, it depends on the show and it depends on the season. If you ask me about anything The OC season 4, I won't remember it. And I guarantee the minute, the minute I stop watching TSITP I won't remember anything about it.

[kiss-my-freckle]

I recently heard that Kevin said after the show ended that his Elena chooses Pacey tweet was referring to Matt even though Julie said Damon was the show's Pacey lol. One of the TO producers (Carina) said that the ending was changed to kill off Stefan a month before the TVD finale aired. She also said right after the finale aired that Damon didn't feel nearly as guilty as Stefan. She's stated in the past that Stefan was one of the most well written characters in the show and that she generally prefers him over Damon, and that if she got to work on TVD instead she would make Damon more answerable for his past. She may have ruined Delena like she ruined Hayley and Elijah. She said that Hayley and Elijah's romance was started before she entered that show and after Hayley died she said Jackson was one of the only people besides her parents who made her feel safe. She also said she chose Jackson and Hayley's wedding song, so it seems she preferred them.

I don't even consider Matt for a Dawson's Creek parallel. Damon is Pacey, Stefan is Dawson. Matt is cut between them because he's human, and he's more of a Dawson than a Pacey. Paired with Elena simply because they've been friends for a long time. Because apparently boys and girls can't just be friends with each other. Damon is Pacey, and every Delana shipper that watched Dawson's Creek knows it.

I'd have to disagree about the whole Stefan vs Damon bits too. I wouldn't say that Damon didn't feel nearly as guilty as Stefan because Damon always felt guilt. I'd say that he simply didn't become victim to his guilt like Stefan did. He was more of a victim to his love. I also consider Damon a better written character than Stefan, that's why they had such a problem getting fans to hate him. As for Damon being more answerable for his past, that's the only part I do agree with. But I also feel that's the beauty of his human life. He could be answering to it. To all of it. Not everything that should be in the show needs to be in the show. Fans can actually imagine Damon's human life and his redemption for themselves. I actually prefer that.

I'm more “out of the box” with writing. That's why I'm the type that wouldn't have Elena end up with Stefan or Joey end up with Dawson. Ships like that are ridiculous to me. If I were the writer and I didn't want Elena to end up with either Salvatore, she wouldn't have ended up with Matt either. I honestly would've pulled a Sookie Stackhouse ending. It would've been different had Elena fallen in love with Matt and it actually been passionate enough for her, but they already went there and destroyed it, so that would've been a trash ending as far as I'm concerned.

How ships are written actually matter to me. That's why if Elena didn't end up with Damon, I feel she had to end up with some random guy. I feel they destroyed Stelena over and over again in their own written dialogues. Dialogues in 3x22, 3x19, even 3x16. The fact that it took Elena mere months to fall for Damon says a lot. I'm talking about the same show that had Damon remain emotionally loyal to Katherine for 145 years, and this was despite his belief that she was desiccating in a tomb. Elena knew what Stefan was doing because Katherine told her, and she STILL fell for Damon. They could've written Elena more like Damon. To have sexual relationships with other men while the love of her life was fulfilling his duty to Klaus. In doing so, they could've written Delena as a temporary, sex-based ship just to please the shippers. They chose not to. God forbid they have Elena use a man for sex... as if that doesn't happen in real life.

[buffyfan145]

Chapter 6 is up of my Haladriel fic "One True Loves"!!! :D Thanks again everyone for all the likes, kudos, and comments. We're almost at the end though I've also written 2 one-shot fics recently that will be up soon too. This one is another from Halbrand's POV and I've included a fun "Dawson's Creek" reference as while writing it I realized this triangle was resembling that of Dawson/Joey/Pacey and that it's similar in Taylor Jenkins Reid's book this is based off of too (just switch it to Jen being in the triangle and Melian being Joey), and since I also loved that show and was a Joey/Pacey shipper. :)

[bewitching-elizabeth-olsen]

Press: Elizabeth Olsen, Much Like Wanda Maximoff, Comforts Herself With Classic TV

W MAGAZINE: For W’s second annual TV Portfolio, we asked 26 of the most sought-after names in television to pay homage to their favorite small-screen characters by stepping into their shoes.

WandaVision was the first television show produced by Marvel Studios, and any gamble Disney+ took to make the series happen immediately paid off. At one point during its nine-episode run, WandaVision was the most popular streamed show in the world (beaten only recently by another Marvel series, Loki). The suburbia-set series received critical acclaim, snagging 23 Emmy nominations—one of those for Elizabeth Olsen, who was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her performance as the titular Wanda—and convinced even the biggest Marvel skeptics to buy into its delicious plot.

It might come as a surprise, then, that Olsen doesn’t really watch that much contemporary television herself. But who could blame the actress, when most of her time is spent filming scenes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Wanda Maximoff (also known as the Scarlet Witch), a wielder of chaos magic who materializes in the small town of Westview—first as a 1950s-era housewife married to a humanlike robot named Vision (played by Paul Bettany), then as a ’60s housewife, then a ’70s housewife, and so on. When the actress does watch television, though, she prefers to get into some of those older shows, like Murder, She Wrote, which she chose to re-create above, and, of course, episodes of ’90s sitcoms like Full House, of which there was no dearth in the actress’s childhood.

My contract with Marvel was done. Kevin Feige, who runs Marvel, had me come into his office, and he pitched me WandaVision. I loved the concept of it, but I was terrified of a new streaming service—that is now Disney+.

Did you know the entire concept going in, or was it revealed to you over time?

He told me that he wanted to create a story about Wanda Maximoff manipulating reality to mimic the sitcoms that she grew up with in order to comfort herself. He wanted it to be kind of trippy, for it to feel like a sitcom, but twisted, kind of Twilight Zone-y. That reminded me of Twilight Zone: The Movie, where there’s a boy who is obsessed with television, has a horrible family, and he conjures up a bunny that kills his whole family. It’s really wacky. I just thought, It would be incredible if we do anything that’s a piece of that.

Were you personally a fan of I Love Lucy and other old sitcoms?

Yeah, I watched Nick at Nite all the time. I loved I Love Lucy, Laverne & Shirley. I didn’t like The Brady Bunch, but I loved the Brady Bunch sequel movies. That made me excited to get to reference The Brady Bunch [in WandaVision].

Did you shoot the episodes in order, or did you go back and forth between the 1950s and ’60s?

We tried to film everything in order. The exteriors, though, we hopped around. Our fences, the color of the houses, the flowers all look different from decade to decade. Luckily, it was pretty contained, but it really was sad to wrap the sitcom. We wrapped it when Paul and I and Kathryn [Hahn] and Teyonah [Parris] were filming the ’70s opening montage to the Brady Bunch theme, and that was how he wrapped it—in six bizarre outfits, with a pregnant belly on a tandem bike.

Did you keep anything from the set?

I’m not a keeper, because I feel like I’m not allowed to [keep things]. I feel like everything goes into some box that they hide from everyone, then maybe eventually they’ll retire and reuse shit. I have no idea.

I thought you might keep Wanda’s apron!

That would have been a really impractical apron. It was made out of gauze. Anything would bleed right through it.

Do you have an understanding of women in each decade now? Did you have to wear the undergarments and the whole nine yards?

Yeah. I loved the undergarments. It’s all helpful for the time, for the character, for how women move, how they talk. The shoes were the worst. I did wear vintage period shoes. And that’s awful. My feet don’t even like heels, let alone heels that have quite literally no support.

Is it difficult to have kissing scenes with all the purple paint on Paul Bettany when he’s dressed as Vision?

It’s really hard. It comes off on me, even though they try as much as they can to powder him. They have to powder his hands all the time, because if he wants to touch my face… They have to be on top of us for those scenes. It’s really not practical.

So which character did you decide to play for our portfolio?

I decided to be Angela Lansbury [as Jessica Fletcher] in Murder, She Wrote. I asked my friend Clayton Hawkins, who’s a hairstylist and great with wigs, if he could get a cheap wig and wrap my hair. And that’s what we did. I was watching Murder, She Wrote in London a lot.

During lockdown?

I was filming there, and in and out of lockdowns, but filming through lockdowns as well. And that was one of the things that would be on the television. I think I never really sat down and watched Murder, She Wrote until then. It’s fabulous. Great guest stars, great whodunits. My favorite moment is when they solve it and play it out for you in the solving of the mystery and going backwards. It’s just delicious, and it feels good to watch. There’s a great horse-racing episode that I loved, because I love the racetrack.

Did you have a TV show you loved growing up?

I never did Dawson’s Creek, I never did any of those shows. What did I watch, though? I loved Family Matters, Step by Step, The Torkelsons. And I loved Full House. We had all the VHSs, and it was very easy to watch at my house.

Did you have a crush on John Stamos?

Yes.

Who was your cinematic crush when you were growing up?

Frank Sinatra. I didn’t know they were old movies that I was watching. So when you say “TV shows,” what I consumed as a child was all old musicals, like Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, Carousel, West Side Story. I loved classic musicals, and I was in love with Frank Sinatra. I would do scenes with him in my bathroom, which then turned into scenes with George Clooney as I got older and I realized Frank Sinatra was an old man. I was like, Well, maybe if I get older, I can at least work with George Clooney, as his daughter’s friend or something, and then we have a thing.

What was your first red carpet look? Was it for Martha Marcy May Marlene?

Yeah, Cannes was my first red carpet look. I was in the Row. I was in a black Row skirt and a lace top, and I didn’t have an undergarment on. I didn’t know that flash photography at night was going to be my enemy, and my publicist worked really hard to try and remove those pictures from the Internet. [Laughs]

Do you have a secret skill?

You know what I’m really good at? Removing stains. I believe I can remove a stain from anything.

How did you learn to remove stains?

Probably started with my mom, who’s a soaker. That’s kind of the first rule: patience. And then, because I cook so much, I think I just had to learn. I’m pretty “woman of the house” handy.

I thought you were going to say that your secret skill was that you can sell real estate. Because when I first met you, you had a real estate license.

I did. It’s definitely expired. I got my real estate license because I didn’t want to work in a restaurant in New York as a summer job. So I thought, I’ll work in a real estate office. I was dealing with my sister’s friend who was a realtor, and I dealt with his rental clients. And I would mispronounce streets in New York all the time, because I had just moved there.

Press: Elizabeth Olsen, Much Like Wanda Maximoff, Comforts Herself With Classic TV was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

[love-geeky-fangirl]

Instances of season 5 of Dawson's Creek trying to rewrite history

Aka things that make absolutely zero (0) sense

Joey is back to pining for Dawson and acts as if she and Pacey never happened and they were nothing

"We dated once didn't we?" You dated like 5 months ago! How did you already forget?!

The whole reason Pacey and Joey broke up is because Pacey had an inferior complex around her and felt like he wasn't good enough. But in season 5 he has seemingly no issue dating a super rich girl that goes to Yale and treats him like his sugar baby.

"I don't have any experience with death." What about when you lost your grandfather AND your best friend in the span of less than a year Jen?

Also Jack literally had an older brother that died like 3 years ago, doesn't he also know a thing or two about grief?

Did the show forget about Andie all together? I mean I know she's in Italy for another year but she is planning to move to Boston and go to Harvard next year so it wouldn't be weird to mention her from time to time. And she is Jack's sister afterall.

Pacey grossly remarks that he has seen both Jen and Joey naked... first of all you took Joey's precious v card and then dumped her so don't mention it, second of all when did you ever see Jen naked? Did the show forget that they never actually slept together they just made out?

"Why did we break up?" "Because you were in love with Joey." Umm no Dawson actually started being romantically interested in Joey a few episodes after he and Jen broke up. The reason Jen broke up with him was because he was a Nice Guy and Incel that wasn't able to comprehend that Jen doesn't want to sleep with him yet despite having slept with other boys in the past.

Pacey makes fun of Joey for "not having a life" for not dating which is rude considering HE DUMPED HER like half a year ago.

But Joey isn't much more tactful, she sees no issue in ranting to her recent ex about her less recent ex dating someone else.

Pacey is threatened by Audrey's high school boyfriend because "women always choose the nice guy" referring to Joey and Dawson but Joey didn't choose Dawson, she literally broke up with him TWICE and ran away with Pacey for the whole summer.

Joey says that the last time she went to visit her father in jail Dawson was there with her. That's a flat out lie! We saw the last time she went to visit her dad and not only did Pacey come with her he stole his father's car so he could drive her and then bribed a prison guard so that she could talk to her dad outside of visiting hours.

I can't think of more right now but feel free to add.

[gracie-rosee]

Any recent shows you've watched that you'd recommend?

I haven’t really gotten into any new shows recently. Ive just been rewatching good series that I constantly obsess over. These are some of my favorites… (in a very long list oops😬)

Anne with an E - oh my GODDDDD this show is so good! One of my top 3 favorite shows of all time. It’s just so pretty and fun and it makes me so happy. I will never EVER forgive Netflix for canceling this show. 🤬

New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine - both great feel good comedies. I love going back and rewatching episodes to pass the time. Such loveable characters too! I’m including them together because they exist in the same “universe” and they did have a hilarious crossover at one point. If you haven’t watched either of these shows, you’re missing out on a lot of fun and probably won’t understand half the quotes I reference from them 😆

Agents of SHIELD - this show is so criminally underrated it’s disgusting. So sad that it’s over, but very glad it didn’t continue on and on and kill off all the main characters but one, like some shows 🙄 Set in the Marvel universe but doesn’t interfere with the movies. The characters are so so good and oh my GOD the acting? Especially for Fitzsimmons? Ugh I’ve rewatched this show countless times. Also, Ming Na Wen is just a badass I’ll watch anything with her in it.

The Walking Dead - I still enjoy this show, but I like to pretend it ended at season 8. It’s actually kind of sad seeing this show now. The people producing it got way ahead of themselves thinking they could continue making this show forever and totally ruined the show and characters. The characters were SO WELL written in the first few seasons. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a show where I actually loved all of the main characters? But yeah, it was such a good show but they kept it going way too long and now its not as good. Anyways, go watch the first few seasons. But beware… it’s got a LOT of gore 😅

Shows I rewatched the most are probably Gilmore Girls, Dawson’s creek, the OC, 10 things I hate about you (tv), One Tree Hill… they just don’t make shows like these anymore 😔

[astrodances]

Scroldie Weekend 2020: Day 3 - Klondike

Happy Klondike Day!

Woohoo Woo-oo!

I’m so, so happy to finally get to share this - my take on the Blackjack Ballroom, Goldie’s dancing saloon in Dawson, made using The Sims 4 (on PS4)! (Featuring Sims versions of Scrooge and Goldie)

This has been a year in the making and has been quite the journey - I started making this during last year’s Scroldie Week (as a reference for one of the chapters of my story, Always the Lady In My Life - I was just picturing it so perfectly in my mind, I had to make it). Besides my story, its design + layout was mainly influenced by Rosa’s Klondike-based comics, some of Barks’ paintings (namely, “The Goose Egg Nugget” - see the 2nd pic in the photoset above - and “Nobody’s Spending Fool”), DT87′s “Back to the Klondike” episode, and some scenes from @iamthehousethatfloats​ Fortune Favors the Gold (and I was super honored when she and @koizumi-marichan​ used my Sims Blackjack design for inspiration in a chapter after I had shared some preliminary photos 💜).

I finished the building last July, but I may or may not have gotten sidetracked with learning how to legit play poker and blackjack in another PS4 game before sharing this. 😅 (Though that game also has a ballroom with a stage that definitely gives me Scroldie feels.) At some point, I also found out that PS4 Sims players would be able to upload to the gallery soon to share their creations, and then this year, just recently, they came out with The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle, which includes auroras as a feature, so I had to wait to include that in these photos, too. (They’re so pretty aaaah!)

Photo descriptions for above, split into “rows”:

Exterior of the Blackjack on a snowy winter’s night (totally from Scrooge’s perspective)

a) Recreation of Barks’ “The Goose Egg Nugget” (minus everyone else but Scroldie XD) b) Recreation of that infamous scene from Rosa’s “The Prisoner of White Agony Creek” (+ House’s retelling of it ;))

Scrooge and Goldie dancing together in Sims versions of their formal outfits in DT17′s “The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains!” (and them dancing in those outfits is based more on that episode’s museum scene, but I’m just having it here at the Klondike shh)

a) Goldie looking out from her dressing room window towards... b) ...the trail to White Agony Creek, hoping that her letter reaches its destination (this row inspired by the end of Rosa’s “Hearts of the Yukon”)

Goldie giving Scrooge a big ol’ kiss by the fire, just because ;)

a) A beautiful aurora over the Blackjack b) Goldie swinging along onstage, singing about gold nuggets (based on DT87′s “Back to the Klondike”)

The beginnings of a gorgeous sunrise over the Blackjack, leading the way to White Agony Valley... 😌

Up next, I plan to make a certain little cabin... 😏

I’ll include the Gallery link to this lot in a reblog of this post, for any Simmers out there who want to download it!

In the meantime, enjoy a bunch of layout + other screenshots and descriptions under the cut! :D

** A quick note about my take on the layout: I know that in the comics, the stairs to the second floor are usually (at least) on the left side of the ballroom (looking towards the stage), and that they tend to head seemingly backstage, but particularly for my own story that I built this for, I have the stairs just on the right side, and they lead up to the dancers’ rooms and have a little balcony looking out towards the stage.

** Second note that you’ll have to use your imagination with the stage a bit. Since foundations (and thus stages) are tricky when used indoors in TS4, the stage is the same level as the rest of the first floor. I just made it a different flooring and put a threshold-type fence along the edge of it. But it works! :D

First things first, some overviews (please forgive any snow flurries getting in these shots XD):

^ Overview of the exterior

^ Overview of 1st floor (entrance is on the right) - we have the bar in the top-right, restrooms bottom-right (mainly needed to serve as a community lot in the game), poker and eating tables in the central area, staircase leading up to the second floor in top center, and the stage far left!

^ Overview of 2nd floor - it’s just on the right half of the picture (the railing should serve as the cutoff). These are the dancer girls’ rooms - starting from the top-right corner and going down in a backwards “L” shape: first two rooms are generic dancer girls’ rooms, then their bathroom, then Snake Hips’ room in the bottom-right corner, and Goldie’s room next to hers!

Now for a walkthrough (littered with so many comics references aha)!

^ About to head in after walking all the way from your claim, and you look over your shoulder to see her face on the moon this stunning view? Sign me up.

^ Coming inside, this is what you see first thing (*love of your life standing against a backdrop of flames onstage not included)

^ Here’s the bar, off to the right of the last photo!

^ Don’t forget to hang up your hat and coat by the door! (But don’t just stand right there like a big dope. The owner hates that...)

^ Some overview shots of the place looking from the stage. The first one in particular is as close as I can get to the image I had in my head of this scene for my story, where Goldie and Scrooge are sitting on the edge of the stage looking out over the place. Note than you can see Goldie’s room up there on the far right of the second story...

^ Close-up of the little fireplace nook I added in! Note the little steamboat model on the mantel of the fireplace. Sure would be a shame if it...caught on fire...

^ Shots of the stage! Of note, the last one is from the balcony area in front of Goldie’s room (can see into backstage-left from here). I like to think that Goldie liked to spend some of her time here overlooking her establishment, looking for her next victim to swindle or perhaps a certain sourdough in particular...

(Also, kudos to anyone who can spot the very subtle not-duck-related decor choice I accidentally made regarding the stage. 😉)

^ One of my particular favorite parts - the dancers’ dressing “room” backstage-right! This is where Goldie was in photo 4a for the original photoset of this post, where she’s looking out of the window towards the mountains.

^ Heading upstairs now, here are some rooms! First, the two generic dancer girl rooms, and second, Snake Hips’ room! (I like the camera I gave her on her nightstand - perhaps she would take up photography of the town as a hobby! :D)

^ And finally the last stop on our tour before you drink some suspicious coffee and wake up in the snow hours later is Goldie’s room! That glyph above the fireplace totally isn’t a “poison glyph,” what ever gave you that idea? 😅

And so ends the tour! Now time for a couple last fun bonus shots:

^ House and Mari, this one’s for you! ;D

^ This one’s really for anyone who just wants the setting of the coffee scene!

^ Idk, perhaps there were some nights Goldie couldn’t seep and would wander to a window to see a view like this.

^ It really is beautiful, isn’t it?

If you made it this far, thank you, and I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Again, I’ll be reblogging this post with a link to download this lot from TS4 Gallery!

[buffysummers]

if you go by air dates 5x04 aired Oct 17 2000 and the most recently aired Dawson's Creek episode was on Oct 11 2000 which was 4x02 but obviously that Buffy ep was filmed way before Oct 17 so obviously they didnt actually have an episode in mind but if you by the episode is set when it aired then the most recent ep of Dawson's Creek it could have been is 4x02

Yes, I’m thinking it’s late season three in reference to Joey. Like when that competition for Joey’s affection was happening, the boat race lol. Bc 4x02 just doesn’t make sense… but that would still be airing in May not October so either way it doesn’t really add up

[austennerdita2533]

Based on your two recent metas: who do you ship more, Joey/Pacey or Rachel/Ross, and why? I love reading your opinions!

Hmmm. That's difficult to say, nonnie! I don't know if I ship one more than the other, but rather, I regard them uniquely??

Those two ships hold different places, represent different phases of life in my head, you know what I mean? Pacey and Joey are young when they first get together, teenagers, so their love, though all-consuming, passionate, and intense as first real loves are wont to be, is full of the angst and insipid high school drama that Ross and Rachel go without because they're older and more mature. Granted, that isn't to say those two don't have their own drama to wade through, because they do, a lot of it, but it manifests in more adult themes and problems. Pacey and Joey are still coming of age for the most part so they're dealing with things like bullying, SATs, upcoming collegiate pressures, leaving home for the first time etc. whereas Ross and Rachel are out there hefting adult responsibilities like rent, bills, career decisions and opportunities, unexpected pregnancies, marriage etc.

I like being exposed to these separate slices of life, though, because I get to or have gotten to experience them both at different points in my own life. I was a preteen when I started watching Dawson's Creek and Friends so I sort of grew up alongside Pacey and Joey. I was coming of age myself - granted, a little ways behind them - so a lot of what they were going through I wasn't far off from experiencing myself. I still remember the blush and fervor of youthful infatuation, the way it colored every moment, every interaction, and how that first genuine heartbreak sucked the air out of everything in a way that it never would again. Anything and everything during the teen years was and is a Monument Deal. All emotions are heightened. I think it feels like that for most everyone, honestly, because it's all new. It's all fresh. Pain and hurt can be more scarring in that regard because it's never happened to you before. You have no reference point. The betrayals, the disappointments that take place during this time, are the ones you end up carrying with you, shaping how you approach situations, how you relate to others in the future.

With Ross and Rachel, though it took me longer, and though I always enjoyed and appreciated their dynamic, I eventually grew into their experiences/mindsets once I hit my 20's and could relate to them more. They acted as a bridge from Teenager into Young Adulthood for me. They showed how the Monumental Deal events that often populated our younger lives grew to be more subdued, inconsequential even, if or when we faced them again as adults. We had a reference point now. There's also a lot of contemplation and journeying with them about finding yourself, figuring out who you are, want you want, so that you can build a future for yourself that is fulfilling, rewarding, and happy. A subjective opinion it may be, but I've always considered the 20's to be the time when people truly begin to grow into themselves more. So much of that period of life is about self-discovery, spontaneity, adventure, reflection. There's more freedom to do this because you're no longer living under your parents' roof or rules. You're out on your own. Alone. Relationships can become more serious because you're looking to build a lasting foundation for the future with someone.

We see a lot of that with Ross and Rachel. They have some life experience behind them already - they have known love, disappointment, heartbreak, etc. - so they're armed with that knowledge, those feelings, but they press on in search of that which they still want or need to learn about themselves. They continue looking, continue growing.

I probably suck for saying this but I can't choose between them as a result of this, I really can't! It's impossible haha.

However, I will say that both ships share commonality in the fact that there's so much delicious longing! I also love how that sense of can't-get-you-out-of-my-system-no-matter-how-hard-I-try pervades with Pacey/Joey AND Ross/Rachel.

What more do I need as a shipper?

[spaceorphan18]

You say you’re tired of Brittana vs Klaine but most of your recent posts have been talking about and bringing down Brittana. Nice.

Wow you are stretching Nonny.

Just feel like picking a fight today or something? Because this is wank and y’all know how I feel about wank. 😉

But also - not true. Most of my recent posts have been about Dawson’s Creek.

If you’re referring to the discussion around the EW article - then you missed the part where I said I respect Brittana and their fans even if I have no interest in their story, where I said I actually like Santana, and where I chatted positively about Brittany’s relationship with Kurt.

Other than that I rarely talk about Brittana so you’re just looking for things to jump on.

And no - fwiw- I don’t think Brittana is a very well written love story. *shrugs* but I’m pretty open to discussion all of the good and bad on glee - including when Klaine isn’t well written too.

And I do stand by what I said — I think that there’s too much animosity between fandoms.

What I don’t do is go into the inboxes of Brittana fans and tell them they’re being too mean. I’m friendly with people who are friendly with me and ignore the rest of the nonsense.

So either you’re being intentionally obtuse to fit your own narrative or you’re being an asshat cause someone doesn’t like your thing the same way. Either way makes you look like the jerk at the end of the day.

[batwomanupdates]

Back in August Ruby Rose's casting as Batwoman in The CW's Arrowverse was announced and while there was plenty of positive buzz, there was a bit of backlash as well. Now, Greg Berlanti is speaking out.

Berlanti, who created and developed The CW's Arrowverse and produces the shows under his Berlanti Productions, recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and said that the backlash about Rose's casting is simply par for the course when it comes to shaking up status quo.

"Whenever you're bringing change about in any form, there are always conversations that happen," Berlanti said. "I go all the way back to Dawson's Creek. Twitter didn't exist, but we would get boxes of letters expressing opinions in all directions from where we making enough change, should we be making more change, or why did we feel like we needed to do these things? It's always part of the process, so just focus on the story and make the best episode that you can."

Berlanti is referring to an episode of the WB series that featured a gay kiss, but it's something of an opposite issue that got backlash when it came to Rose. Before leaving Twitter, Rose wrote about the backlash and, specifically, how people were trying to say she wasn't "gay enough" to play Batwoman.

"Where on earth did 'Ruby is not a lesbian therefore she can't be Batwoman' come from -- has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I've ever read," Rose wrote. "I came out at 12? Ad have for the past 5 years had to deal with 'she's too gay' how do y'all flip it like that? I didn't change."

The idea of being too gay or not gay enough is clearly one that isn't an issue for Berlanti. He had nothing but praise for Rose, who will make her debut as the character in the upcoming Arrowverse crossover in December and is also developing a pilot for a dedicated Batwoman series.

"[Ruby] is terrific in the role, and we're excited for people to see the story," Berlanti said.

(xx)

[kevoreally]

#BuffyAt20 - S03E08 “Lover’s Walk”

> OKay, first thing’s first: is it Lovers or Lover’s? Wikipedia has the first one, Hulu has the second. Very confusing.

> Another fake-out opener where someone is being hyperbolic about the world ending but it’s just grades or something.

> Willow got a 740 verbal on her SATs. Like, I think she’s being too hard on herself, but I get not feeling academically fulfilled by that. I think I got 700? I don’t remember. My math sucked, that’s for sure.

> That Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel reference has endured the test of time.

> What is Xander’s score if it’s close to 740? We joke about his grades a lot but like. Get serious, son.

> Willow, that top is so loud.

> Omigod, I’m looking forward to going back to pretending Xillow never happened soon.

> Cordelia testing well is good continuity with “Band Candy.” And I loved them following up on SAT scores. I think these might have come out a little quick, but it’s fine.

> “That was my sarcastic voice.” “Y’know, it sounds a lot like your regular voice.” “I’ve been told that.” I feel you, Oz.

> Cordelia’s terror at the idea of double dating IS A DANGER SIGN, XANDER.

> I have Buffy’s SAT score memorized: “1430, Buffy, you kicked ass!” (A friend got the same score on her first take.)

> “Now you can leave and never come back.” I actually love Cordy here, a rarity for me lately.

> Pretty sure the shot of Spike crashing into the Sunnydale sign is just a retouched copy of the one from Season 2. Not a problem, just funny.

> I wasn’t sure I had the energy to do my #BuffyAt20 right now but this theme song is giving me life.

> I don’t get Spike’s obsession with Sinatra in this episode but sure.

> Oh man, remember the Factory? It’s a slot on my Buffy Monopoly board.

> Do we feel the flashback to when Dru left Spike that we get in Season 3 keeps in line with what we’re presented here? Dru accusing him of loving Buffy as far back as now? Hm.

> Literally the episode where Cordelia and Xander break up is the episode where it most seems like they’re a happy couple. And even then, they’re horrible to each other half the time. Sigh.

> Oz giving Willow the PEZ Witch is still one of the best things ever. I really wanted a wolf PEZ for Oz.

> Okay, a friend and I recently discussed a fan poll where people voted on their favorite mate for Willow and it made me uncomfortable that Oz was winning. But… I get it.

> There’s a lot of focus on Giles packing in this scene.

> Ooh! Worth noting: the guy who wrote this episode wrote three of my favorite #Daria episodes! He’ll also later write “The Zeppo.”

> This episode laid a lot of interesting potential for Buffy to be able to leave Sunnydale. Not forever, but, even if just for college. It was interesting.

> I wish I could make Buffy Now see how much Giles treated Seventeen Buffy like an adult over this Angel situation. He could’ve been SUUUCH a prick. And their relationship got really awkward for a while there, and I don’t think Buffy was entirely fair to him. Or probably him to her too. Fathers and daughters, man.

> I spent a whole dumb Xillow scene typing that last one. Not sorry.

> I’ve said it before but it’s wild that Buffy’s house never changes once in 7 seasons. The cinematography changes so much that it feels like a different house.

> How does Angel not hear, or even sense, Spike right outside the Mansion? Still recovering from Hell, I guess? Coz otherwise, wtf?

> I do love Spike waking up on fire.

> What happened to Spike’s car between Seasons 3 and 4 anyway? Where’s that story?

> “This is just too much.” Some real gentle language there, Spike.

> The Magic Box is, like, the same SHAPE we see in Season 5. But the layout isn’t totally right. And the back hasn’t been blown out yet. The storefront is the same. They moved the register away from the door. Hmm.

> Ooh, that Spike shot of grabbing the shop owner becomes his credits shot.

> Hey! It’s the Mayor! I forgot he’s in this one. And Allan! He’s pretty cute, tbh.

> “Boats did have canons. And a loose one would cause it to rock.” Lol.

> The way that the Mayor celebrates sinking that putt makes me wonder if he hadn’t been expecting it, haha.

> Where is Angel getting hair gel from in the Mansion? How is this a priority? Then again: same question at Derek Hale sleeping in a train yard.

> I’m not loving the dramatic beat when Angel tells Buffy she should leave. Like. Buff. Shouldn’t you? Sigh.

> Willow is trying to do magic on Xander without his consent. That’s actually an interesting portent for Season 6.

> Xander and Willow, like, really try and hold their own against Spike here. Mad respect.

> Alyson Hannigan shows such amazing vulnerability in the scenes with James Marsters, it’s bonkers. And then how it flips on a dime to be comedic. Wild chemistry, those two.

> OOOH, Dru accused Spike of going soft for teaming up with Buffy, eh? Interesting…

> HA! The “chaos demon, all slime and antlers” line was a favorite among fans, so we loved finally seeing him in Season 5.

> “I haven’t had a woman in weeks.” Blech. “Well, unless you count that shopkeeper.” Double blech.

> “I’m not a real witch, you know.” Heh.

> It. Is. SO. Clever. That Willow sends Spike to Buffy’s house. Holy. Shit.

> You know who else is a good version of Cordelia Chase? Valencia from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Becomes a good person in, like, half the time it’s taking Cordy…

> Ugh, I hate coincidence moments like that. Buffy heard Spike on the phone when her mom happened to call? Sigh.

> YAAS, the Joyce/Spike bond! We needed more of this!

> Joyce Summer is Top 5 TV Mom material.

> “You get out of this house or I will stake you myself.” GEDDIT, JOYCE!

> Lol, remember how Buffy is going to start sleeping with Spike? This show, man.

> Spike just called Angel a “poof.” Nice.

> “What if they were kidnapped by Colombian drug lords?” CORDELIA. STOP.

> Oz smelling Willow is… interesting.

> Buffy is so eager to kill Spike.

> Did Buffy rip off Sookie Stackhouse with this love triangle or vice versa? Angel being Bill, Spike being Eric. Hm.

> Buffy always made kicking in doors look so cool.

> What exactly are we supposed to make of Spike���s observation about Buffy and Angel being in love here? I mean, he’s right. But. Like. What, they needed someone else to tell them?

> “I won, right? Kicked his ass?” “You were real brave. Do you need to barf.” Classy.

> “Give me a third option.” “He’s so drunk he forgets about us and we starve to death.” HA.

> AAAAAnd they kiss, aaaand Oz and Cordy show up, aaaand it’s horrible. AAAAND Oz is the only one who composes himself maturely, like always.

> Cordelia getting skewered was… so weird.

> They’re having this vampire fight, like, in the middle of downtown Sunnydale right now. I get that it’s probably 3am or something but omigod.

> Oh yeah, the storefront is definitely the same a when it’s the Magic Box.

> Seeing Buffy, Angel, and Spike standing side-by-side is a hoot.

> The “let’s give baby a taste” stuff Spike does is… No.

“ “Baby like his supper?” No. No he doesn’t.

> The table Spike stakes this guy on is, like, probably the same table he and Anya bang on in Season 6, haha.

> The holy water bombs are so cool. Why don’t they use holy water more often?

> The resolution of this Spike story is… so Spike. You know, we probably would’ve never seen him again if they didn’t love James Marsters SOOO much.

> Remember when they made us think Cordelia died? Like, right after she found of Xander cheated on her? This story was, like, one of the lowest points of the show. I’m sorry but it was. I remember laughing out loud when we found out Cordy wasn’t dead. That’s not something you wanna get a laugh on.

> What was the point of this story arc, though? “Don’t cheat or someone could die?” This is a ‘Blood on the Pavement’ type parable here. Way more Dawson’s Creek than Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

> I remember thinking Cordelia was going to be blind, because of the “I can’t see you” thing. I don’t know how being skewered would blind her.

> Okay, CAN WE TALK about the nailed-up broken sheets of wood at the Mansion entrance? It is the weirdest thing, it looks like a child’s tree fort.

> Buffy, if you think you’re fooling Giles and your friends into believing you don’t want Angel, you are sorely mistaken.

> Angel, be a big boy, let the seventeen year old girl go.

> She has to step through his weird cobbled-together wooden doorway! And it’s gone, like, after this episode! Wtf!

> This maudlin montage of all the characters being despondent was, like, the biggest bummer. Why do I love Season 3 so much?? This is such a downbeat point for the show.

> And there’s Spike riding off into the sunset. See you in a year, William.

[stereogeekspodcast]

[Transcript] Season 1, Episode 16. We've Been Busy With... HoX/PoX, Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts, Snapdragon, and more

We've been busy listening to podcasts, reading comics, and watching shows. Ron's enjoyed The Good, the Bad, the Basic podcast, when she isn't marathon-watching Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts, and reading the delightful graphic novel, Snapdragon. Mon's been reading X-Men: House of X/ Powers of X and Avengers comics about Scarlet Witch and Vision in the run-up to WandaVision. And we've been enjoying Netflix's Best Leftovers Ever.

Here are the books Mon's been reading for WandaVision, if you want to check them out.

1. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch

2. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life

3. Avengers: Disassembled

4. House of M

Listen to the episode on Anchor.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Ron: Hello and welcome to another episode of Stereo Geeks, where we’re talking about what we’ve been busy with this month. I’m Ron.

Mon: And I’m Mon.

Ron: We’ve been listening to podcasts, reading comic books, catching up on animated TV shows, as well as some food-related programs.

Mon: Let's kick off with something that you've been listening to.

Ron: I'm always on the lookout for a new podcast and I'm always excited when I find one that I just can't stop listening to—The Good, the Bad, the Basic, a podcast for millennials by millennials. This podcast, hosted by Alex and Em, does weekly deep dives into the most popular TV shows of our time. But what made these shows so special, and so memorable that we're still talking about them, years later? Alex and Em tackle shows like Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The OC, Dawson's Creek, and examine how they changed the pop culture landscape, so much so that we're still seeing repercussions even now.

I love me a good podcast with lots of conversation, and that's exactly what I get with Alex and Em. The Good, the Bad, the Basic is kind of like a grading podcast, but the way they give context to everything that they're talking about, that's what makes it so fun. And I just could not stop listening to these episodes.

And when I'm talking about deep dives, they really do deep dives. Some of the episodes continue on for an hour, maybe more, and are broken up into two or three installments. That's a lot of information, but then, we’re talking about shows that went on for seven-eight seasons. So, there's a lot to cover.

What makes The Good, the Bad, the Basic such an engrossing podcast is that most of the shows that they're talking about, everybody loves them. But I never really felt the need to watch them. Now, I can listen to what Alex and Em have to say about it and feel informed without actually having to sift through endless seasons of something that I know I'm not going to enjoy. Mad Men, for example, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals. These are shows that have become part of the cultural Zeitgeist, but I just don't want to watch them. Now I know exactly what people love about them and why some people have a lot of issues with them.

I like how Alex and Em give a lot of context to what is happening in the shows. It's not just the fact that these shows were enjoyable for fans. It's more about when and how they were released, and what made them stand out amongst all the other entertainment that was available. The thing is, for us, coming from India, a lot of these cultural references passed us by. Things were different for us at the other end of the world. So, these were just TV shows, but here, they were phenomena. It's great to find out how that came to be and the effects it had on the cultural landscape, especially in entertainment.

If you're looking for a podcast that's interesting, fun, sometimes sarcastic, but very, very honest about what makes pop culture memorable, but also sometimes problematic, The Good, the Bad, the Basic is definitely for you. What have you been up to, Mon?

Mon: Well, we recently rejoined our comic book club, which is now taking place completely online. And the book to reel us back in was HoX/ PoX, House of X, and Powers of X, by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, and RB Silva. Now, this is basically the X-Men rebooted, because they had really gone out of control in the comic universe. And every time it seemed like the Marvel editors had found a way to reel them in, they didn't. So, Jonathan Hickman had a plan, and the plan was HoX/ PoX.

I have to say, it is compelling! Because it's such a different tone from what we're used to with the X-Men universe, and it is a nice jumping-on point because for far too long the X-Men universe has been impenetrable, like the Krakoan wall. But with this book, you feel like, yes, I know these characters. They’re in a completely different world and thought process, but at least I can get back in there.

It's tough to really understand whether I like this book or not, because, as much as I like being with these characters, they just don't feel like the X-Men. There’s something so dark and sinister about everything that's happening. It just doesn't feel right. What about you? What did you think about this book?

Ron: I agree that it was nice to actually read an X-Men book and understand where I was. It's been a really long time since I felt that way. The moment we left the X-Men a few years ago, that was it, there was no way back in. I’m glad, in a way, that we've got HoX/ PoX because otherwise we wouldn't be able to reconnect with these characters, and we really do love the X-Men. I don't like the fact that the X-Men come across as untrustworthy in this book. For me, these characters look familiar; they don't feel familiar. And that made me really uncomfortable.

And the other issue that I had with it was that the X-Men has always stood for marginalized communities, but this book seemed to be ignoring the actual marginalized X-Men. So, Storm hardly has anything to do in this book. We get to see, what, one glimpse of Iceman? it's very straight, white, male and I thought we were well past that.

Mon: Yeah, I think one of the things that most of us have realized with the X-Men comics is that as much as they want to represent marginalized community experiences, they don't seem to want to represent marginalized communities. Story-wise, I felt like there was a very distinct divide between HoX and PoX. With the House of X, you really get to know how Professor X is trying to build this safe space for the mutants within the Krakoan landscape. With the Powers of X, it seemed to be all over the place, with different timelines and trying to explain to us how they all fit in, why it's important for us to know these things, and who the central figure is who ties all these timelines together. But I felt like there was more cohesion within the House of X story, and not with Powers of X, which was trying to build this immersive, expansive world, but kinda constantly got lost in it.

Ron: I didn't feel like there was a huge disconnect between the two books. In fact, I couldn't actually tell the difference. But yes, I found myself drawn towards the X-Men’s present storyline, whereas the future storylines or the alternate storylines, I found them to be rather dull. They didn't add anything to the story as a whole. And I felt like I had to wait till the very end of the book to realize why they were relevant. So that kind of took away my enjoyment of reading the book because, honestly, I don't care about these random characters from the future. I care about the X-Men now.

Mon: Yeah, I completely agree with you on that. The art, though, really brings the book alive, doesn't it?

Ron: Pepe Larraz and RB Silva’s art is exactly how I see the X-Men in my head.

Mon: And the colors by Marte Gracia, so spectacular, it was popping off the page. What I feel with this book is that it is exactly what you need to get back into the X-Men universe, but I don't think it's a perfect introduction.

Ron: I think it tries too hard. But at the end of it, you do want more. I see myself picking up the new X-Men series so that I can see what they're doing.

Mon: Yep. Can't wait to get into it.

Ron: If you heard our Detective Mode episode this month, you'll know that animated TV shows and films have definitely become a source of comfort for us during the pandemic. One animated show that I've heard a lot about and finally caught up with this month was Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts. This was such a fun show! I started with the first episode and I ended up watching all 30! No regrets. That was a really good weekend for me. The show follows Kipo Oak, a teenage girl who has spent her entire life living underground. When an earthquake damages her home, she finds herself above ground for the first time, and there are people up here—very interesting people, very strange people, and very large beasts. Kipo makes new friends, shares her knowledge, expands her skill sets, and ends up making a whole new kind of family. This is a very, very fun show. It is so colorful. The music is so good. I just could not stop watching it.

Mon: I started watching it after you wouldn't stop talking about it. And I have to say, it is a delight. The characters are so vivacious, especially Kipo, you cannot take your eyes off the screen because she is just so full of energy and life. And she has this really positive outlook, even though her circumstances should really get her down. But she doesn't. And one of the things that everybody loves about most of these pop culture properties is found-families. Kipo can't connect with her own family because she’s stuck above ground and she doesn't know where they are, so she finds a new family with her friends. Yes, it's a bit difficult for them to all be on board with each other, they don't trust each other, they don't understand each other, but in the end, they're all trying to fight the same fight and reach the same goals.

Ron: And the one thing I love about these new TV shows for basically, young adults and children—they are so diverse.

Mon: And effortlessly so.

Ron: Our protagonist Kipo is half black and half Asian. First up, it's really good to see biracial characters who aren't half white. And also, Kipo has a connection with both her heritages, and that's really great to see. There are queer characters, queer storylines and there's a plethora of intersectionally diverse characters here that makes the show so reflective of our society as it is now, and so much fun to watch. If you're looking for a light, but energetic and very colorful TV show to watch, you could not do worse than people.

Mon: Sticking with Netflix, we have Best Leftovers Ever. If it's not obvious yet, Ron and I happen to love watching food programs and Best Leftovers Ever sounded like something which was slightly different from the usual. The competitors are given leftover dishes which they need to transform into delectable, fancy meals. This is quite different from the usual fair. They don't have a giant pantry; they don't have the best ingredients to work with. It's actually the worst of the worst, but the premise of the show is basically to make people understand that what they've got in front of them, including leftovers. can be turned into something quite special.

Sometimes you can tell that this show is not as polished as the others, because there are times when you're listening to the judges, and there's so much noise in the background that you can't actually hear. The same thing with some of the contestants. For some reason they didn't ADR that or they didn't use a different mic. So that's a little bit distracting.

I will say that whatever we see on-screen seems to suggest that there's a lot less waste, because the contestants are given very limited leftovers to work with. And given that those are the only ingredients they can use, it's not like they can chuck a whole bunch of food if something goes wrong, which is a huge departure from the usual shows where it's like, oh we forgot to put some salt, let's just dump it in the trash. I quite enjoyed it. It is a lot of fun. It’s definitely got the most diverse cast of competitors from all the cooking shows that we've seen so far.

I just think that they have these rules that they don't always follow through. Like, they reiterate in every episode that you should use as many leftovers as you can, but nobody really gets penalized for it. The judges are also really lenient with the competitors. I mean, there's an episode where the judges pretty much eat three different kinds of raw egg, because none of the contestants cooked it properly. That should be an immediate fail, but somehow, that isn't.

Aside from that, the gimmick for ‘Takeout Takedown’? I just don't know. I feel like there's so much work put in to adorn this fridge, according to some kind of theme that we can't see. Us, as the audience, will get one glimpse of some pictures on the fridge or some magnets and that's it. So have they done so much hard work?

Also, with the set—I do love the judge's table, which is three takeaway boxes. It's so cute. But the rest of it? Why is there a giant milk carton there? I don't get it. I feel like they've done a lot of hard work but it's really lost in the execution. And the main host, while she’s great and fun, I just don't get why she keeps singing at the end of each episode. I understand that it may be her schtick but it is just so uncomfortable to watch. So yeah, there's a lot of gimmicks in this series. It is a cute little watch, but I think it needs to be pared down. Lots of editing.

Ron: I agree with all of those points. I do love the set. I love the huge Chinese takeaway box, but it's just there for them to stand in while the final judging is taking place. I feel that there's plenty of room for adding interactive elements, they just haven't done it yet. I'd like to know whether this was actually shot during the pandemic because it seems like we've got a kind of pared down version of whatever they were actually hoping for. But it's fun, nonetheless.

And I do like the diversity of the competitors. And I feel like the technical aspect of how they're transforming the meals was probably the best part of each episode. I do think that they could tone down some of the conversations. We don't need that much sound. We really just want to watch them make the food.

Mon: Yeah, I hope there's another season coming up.

Ron: Though, I am surprised that we need to be talking about not throwing leftovers away. Is that a thing?

Mon: Apparently it is, since this concept is there.

Ron: I'm shocked!

Ron: We've also been participating in our local library’s reading challenge for the year. There are lots of different categories and some of them are driving me a little bit nuts. But one category that I'm glad to say I've managed to complete was ‘somebody else's favorite book’. And I think I may have just found my favorite book. One of our librarians suggested Snapdragon by Kat Leyh. I thought, why not give it a shot? I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this graphic novel, but what I got was some of the best writing I have seen this year.

Snapdragon follows a youngish teenager, the titular Snapdragon. She's looking for the witch in her town, but the witch turns out to be quite different from what she expects. And eventually she starts working with the witch, and it opens up a whole new world for her from the past, the present, and the future. Snapdragon learns so much about herself, her family, and about people in general.

This book is sweet. It is delightfully sweet. It made me smile, and kind of gave me the warm and fuzzies. There were some really emotional moments, as well, which I felt really deeply, but it just made the sweet moments even more powerful. There are queer characters; there's lots of diversity. This is the kind of book that I'm glad I'm getting to read now, but man, I would have killed to have got this book when I was a kid. It was really, really good.

If you can get your hands on it, and it is available in libraries, do read it. It was such a good, warm, full-hearted read.

Mon: Now I can't wait to read that!

Mon: So, like every other comic book fan on the planet, we are diligently watching WandaVision. So, in preparation for this show, I decided to deep dive into some Vision and Scarlet Witch comics.

Here's what I've been reading in the run up to WandaVision. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life, Avengers: Disassembled and House of M.

These are all varied takes on these two characters. The first two Avengers collections are from the 80s. So, the writing is very different from what you will be used to in the comics that you read now.

As you can imagine, back in the 80s, it was very copy heavy, because the text would be describing the world, it would be describing the thoughts of the characters. Half the time the dialogue was the action that the character was taking, instead of leaving it to the reader's imagination. We also have to take into account that even in the 80s, the medium of comics as a storytelling tool was quite different, which is why the approach to how you told the story was very verbose.

So, going into Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch, and Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life, take into account that there is a lot of turgid writing that you have to go through. It is a slog. Also, there are a lot of asides and subplots to do with other characters which are atrocious. Oh my god, especially Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch. It's an experience.

A lot of the first part of the book has to deal with Mantis and Moondragon and their history of becoming these magical creatures. And the only reason they're in here is because at one point Mantis was making moves on Vision, and that's when he realized that there was only one woman in this world for him, that was the Scarlet Witch. That one moment—which is, by the way not in this book, it is just alluded to in this book—that is the reason why Mantis is playing such a huge role in these pages. And you're like, ‘why?’ I'd rather just read about Vision and Scarlet Witch, but no. It's a lot to take in and it becomes so obvious that the writers are desperately trying to pad up the page count by putting in all these other subplots.

When you read these two collections back-to-back, you actually won't see much of a difference in the art style, but the writing, definitely. Bill Mantlo, who wrote the first collection, and Steve Englehart, who wrote the second one, have completely different approaches to the two characters.

Essentially, both books are about the love story between Vision and Scarlet Witch. It’s very cute. They are so besotted with each other and they really see each other as human beings—as people—whereas everybody else looks at them like oddities.

Vision being a synthezoid and having a mechanical voice, he just never seems to fit in. Scarlet Witch, for loving Vision and being a magical mutant, also doesn't fit in, but they've found each other, and they stick by each other. And it's adorable. It really is adorable.

With Bill Mantlo’s work, it's very action heavy. With Steve Englehart he purposely wanted to make a domestic drama. He decided to move away from the regular themes of bigotry that was a part of X-Men comics. He seemed to want to write more of an optimistic vibe. But also, he really wanted to delve into the domestic life of Scarlet Witch and Vision. And honestly, a A Year in the Life is so much better for it.

The soap opera part really works. Like, I dig it! I'm not even joking, I'm not the kind of person who is into soap operas, but it really worked in this book. In fact, every time they moved away and there was some action, I was like ‘no, please!’, because the domestic drama is so compelling.

And it's within this universe where people are married to Inhumans who live on the moon. People believe that some superhero is their father, turns out he isn't. In fact, their father is a supervillain. One man seems to find not only a brother, but he finds a mother, and he has another brother who is trying to kill him. It's amazing. It is really a lot of fun.

Just keep in mind that when you're using these older books, Scarlet Witch doesn't do very much. She has minimal page time. She's a damsel in distress a lot, but A Year in the Life has these moments where she will suddenly use her powers to save the day, and it’s great.

And in A Year in the Life, along with all this other soap opera drama, Vision and Scarlet Witch not only get married but they also decided to start a family. And it delves into how their life revolves around this new change.

You know what I like about it? They’re so happy to be starting a family. It's not like there's a lot of strife or ‘oh my god!’. No, none of that. Vision is really happy. Scarlet Witch is really excited. It’s really cute.

So imagine going from all this lovey-dovey drama on to Avengers: Disassembled, which is all action, all pessimism, all darkness and bleakness. Let's just think about the title—Avengers: Disassembled. Just ponder that for a second.

So, this book and House of M are both written by Brian Michael Bendis. I read them in the wrong order, which, in a way, did me a favor because House of M is not half as accomplished as Disassembled.

For the most part, Disassembled seemed to be just action. The Avengers are having the worst day of their lives—every possible bad guy seems to have returned from the dead, or has come back in droves. They are being kicked when they are down and then kicked again. What is going on? They do not know, they do not understand. And then suddenly the ball drops, and they cannot believe what is happening to them and who's behind it all.

Somehow, this book gets these weird emotional beats so right. I was just gobsmacked. There is this one character death that is less than a page, but it really made me stop. It t actually made me wonder why more comics don't have this kind of heft when creating these game changing moments. But I won't get into too much, don't want to spoil it for you in case you haven't read it.

This book precedes House of M. That deals with the fallout of what has occurred within this timeline. The concept of House of M is brilliant. Reading it so many years later, I can really get behind what they were trying to do. The execution, on the other hand, is very flawed.

When you have a character like Scarlet Witch, who can wield so much power, and you insist on making her emotionally unstable, mentally unstable and really under the thumb of either her brother, or her father, it doesn't make for the best kind of read.

The moment people try and examine alternate realities, or fantasy worlds, it has to make some modicum of sense. It needs to be plausible.

I feel like with X-Men comics, this is often an issue. There was a time when X-Men: Age of Apocalypse took place—and I’m not saying that was the most accomplished book in the world—but I can imagine what it was like to go straight from reading your X-Men, and then the very next issue, they are unrecognizable versions of themselves.

There have been so many attempts after that, to create a world which is about the X-Men, but not placed in this world. It is a fantasy, it is somebody else’s version of perfection, of reaching the ideal goal, and House of M really tries hard to create this alternate, fantasy world, but it's so silly that it doesn't make sense.

And the best part of this book takes place in the last part of the last act, and that's it. It ends. So, to find out the replications of what happened here, you need to go and find yet another collection. It’s a bit frustrating.

Ron: But the question is, has it given you a better understanding of what we can expect in WandaVision.

Mon: I feel like there are a lot of elements of these books, and probably a whole load of other books, which are informing how WandaVision is creating its own world. What I will say is that it seems like the creators of WandaVision are doing their best not to fall into the trap of recreating any of these, especially not House of M. What I like about comic book adaptations, especially the ones that we've had in the MCU, they've taken these comics, they've taken the central concepts and premises of these properties that we love, and really run with it and made them something better.

I feel like WandaVision is trying to do the same thing. We know that Wanda is super powerful, and we can see just how powerful she is in every episode of the show, but how unstable is she? Is she unstable at all? And can we understand this character, despite any of her actions.

That's one of the things that I feel like House of M may not have tried hard enough to do—to make her sympathetic. In Disassembled, they did do that with the central bad guy in that book, they tried to humanize them, they try to understand them. So, I think the show will do the same thing, but it is its own beast.

But I feel like a lot of people have addressed the fact that in the MCU, Wanda and Vision don't have that much screen time. Their love story doesn't come across as that epic because people who are watching only the films may not understand the volume of history that comes with creating these characters, to bring their love story to life.

You and I, of course, have read off it and read some of the comics. When you read some of these collections in total, you really get it. You feel that sense of devotion, of longing, of understanding each other, and the TV show is really coasting off of that knowledge.

Even if you haven't read these books page by page, just your understanding of how committed these two characters were to each other, and how challenging it is that, in the comics, they constantly were torn apart. It gives you a new understanding when you go into watching the show.

Ron: That's quite a lot of dedication to the craft, Mon.

Mon: Thank you. I should be commended for reading those.

Ron: It sounds like quite the exercise!

Ron: Well, that's what we've been doing this month. What have you been busy with? We'd love to hear from you.

You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email stereogeekspodcast@gmail.com. We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!

Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Transcription by Otter.ai, Ron, and Mon.