#oss arc

[mariianetto]

My mom after having to listen to me talking about some random evil Vocaloid series for the 20th time in an hour

Well I'm not planning on shutting up about it any time soon so she'll have to live with it

[stygiansun-totaleclipse]

I just read the ROs muscle ask - Samira is 2nd?👀 I rlly dunno if I can survive tbh. She already has so much space in my heart that it's prolly going to burst.

"Samira, you crushed my heart, but now you can crush me, quite literally, as well."

She’s strong af 💪👀👀 and can and will crush you if you make her ❤️❤️ I am equal parts super excited and scared to write her arc. I have been thinking about her a lot recently—the brainrot is unfortunately very real. 😔✌️

I’ve had a little scene snippet in my mind for a bit that I want to stick somewhere :3 which is just Sam getting fed up with Aurynn and MC being babies and not wanting to drink her yucky tonics:

Sam glances cooly between the two of you before she smoothly picks up a small crumbling pastry from the buffet table and holds it aloft.

“What—?” you start before Samira cuts you off, pitching her voice higher into a whiny, mocking tone.

“Meh, meh, meh, meeeeh. I don’t want to take my tonic, Samira, they’re gro-oss,” she says, waving the pastry around like a little puppet. “I’m going to sit here like a baby and complain about my headache instead of SUCKING IT UP and drinking my tonic-that-cures-headaches that Samira so nicely made for me. Waaaah.”

With that, she pointedly meets your stare before crushing the pastry in her fist in a spray of crumbs.

(mc:)

[eri-pl]

Lack of redemption arcs in the Legendarium

Surprisingly, I can't find many, if any at all.

I mean real redemption arcs ie character is evil / has done done serious evil at the start and they put actual work and things happen and at the end they're less evil and do less evil (or none at all).

(And ideally, they don't die at the completion of the arc but separately later or not at all.)

I don't mean things like "did evil things out of trauma it ignorance" (therapy or education is a different thing from redemption. All are great, but different people need different of those.) or "did one very minor thing and is sorry" (it's not an arc, it's something smaller). I mean the real deal.

There are implied redemption arcs (elves in Mandos in general), something that feels like a referenced arc but never described (Osse), a heavy edited story that at one point kind of feels like a redemption arc (Galadriel), failed attempts (all the baddies especially Smeagol and Mairon)...

I don't remember book Boromir well, maybe he... But he's not evil, just a little weak. He does very little wrong. He's more serious than makes bad choices.

Elu Thingol sort of has an arc on "don't be racist against humans" but then dies partially at being racist against dwarves so I'm not sure that counts either.

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, whose greatest crime is being a mean relative. I guess this counts?

Even in Numenor, nobody gets it.

I know it's a modern trend to give everyone redemption arcs, but I would expect, with all the talk about mercy and pity, to see some actual results, more results than "yay, we got the evil defeated because we were good to the bad guy". With all due respect. That's a big result too. But anyway.

I suppose Tolkien just didn't vibe with bad people. He survived the war and I guess it needed more... How to call it? More thinking on terms of "if you cross this line, you're lost". I know theoretically he didn't see it like this. But in practice, you may only go so far (and it's not far) until you're beyond repair.

I don't like it. It's not how the world works. I went further.

Also, another thing that irks me tremendously, but it's an observable rule in all Legendarium:

When your aesthetic is dark or wrong, you are beyond salvation.

You like industry? Bye. You don't like light? Bye! You look ugly (not plain, just ugly)? There might be a few exceptions of Elves who went through Angband, but generally: bye. You don't laugh and feel uneasy in company? Out to the void with you, go join Morgoth. You are depressed and not in a nice (Frodo) way, but in a cold way that makes you feel cynical? Bye. You live at the East and like sun more than noon? You're probably evil too.

I may be oversimplifying a bit, but not by much. It is a thing.

That's not how things work!!!

Seriously. I was there. I was all those things. I am dinner if then still and don't consider it a problem.

I hate this in the books. I love Tolkien's work and what he tried to do, but I feel like I'm some places he failed at it dramatically and the general feel it's not faithful to his intentions.

I hope this rambling is understandable enough, I'm bad at English, especially when ranting.

Luckily, there are fanfics

[rexaofwrath]

fun fact I have an Evillious Chronicles OC based in the OSS arc, he is a ghoul child made by Seth! I should drop his lore at some point fhsjjdjs

[olympiansowl]

I was reading this amazing piece here https://www.tumblr.com/bunnynoldo/762986952083587072/let-me-share-an-example-of-why-i-love-how-sauron and it made me realize some parallels between the couples and the gods.

So, both Halbrand and Miriel kinda got out alive of their own “sea trials” and I heard some say that it isn’t the same creature, I also saw someone saying that Miriel’s creature is Uinen and Halbrand’s creature is Osse…I am inclined to agree. Miriel’s creature seems far more gentle 😭

About the Galadriel scene and the ex-temple of Uinen turned into prison. This reminds me so much of Miriel’s position now. Her city turned her into a prisoner. She’s a prisoner at her own kingdom, her home. Not to mention the “Queen of the Sea” thing…

Both Halbrand (when he was at his redemption era) and Elendil have this “she opened my heart to light” thing. Sauron believed Galadriel could be his way to redemption and Elendil said Miriel opened his heart to the way of the faithful again (and this will actually save him at the end)…which reminds me of Uinen getting Osse into the right path after he lost himself.

THE RING AND NARSIL!

Miriel gave Elendil something that, in one way or another, will always connect him to her, to Numenor and to their ancestrals. And Nenya will always connect Sauron and Galadriel, even if only by memories. And it’s funny because Nenya heals things (I hope Galadriel makes a special appearance with this ring in Numenor) and Sauron is out there destroying everything he touches.

Also, Miriel and Elendil remind me of Varda and Manwe…I hope they have the same destiny because following the Silmarillion doesn’t even make sense at this point (and they don’t have the rights…) and since her death isn’t mentioned on the appendix 🕊️🕊️🕊️ yes, hope is the last one to go and I’m gonna die on the “she deserves to live” hill.

And there are things that makes me believe that Galadriel might go to Numenor…

1 - She’s out there hunting Sauron like an exorcist hunting the devil

2 - There’s a scene (the puppets/dolls one) that shows Galadriel taking Miriel out of a dark hole…I don’t think that this is the “oh it’s because Miriel is on the faith path again” because, at least to me, Miriel was always on the faith side, but she was faking to be a non believer due to the way the city treated her father. She promoted Elendil right after Galadriel appeared. And Palantir said that Miriel would only find darkness on Middle Earth (reminded me of Elrond and Arwen convo about Aragorn) which was the place Galadriel convinced Miriel to go… I think she will either use Nenya to restore Miriel’s vision or she will save Miriel from something.

3 - They’re at the “making the same thing twice” arc. Galadriel brought Halbrand/Sauron to Eregion. He came back to it and destroyed it. She appeared to try and save the day. Galadriel kinda brought Sauron to Numenor too and convinced the Queen to help him. Sauron is on his way to destroy it. She might as well go there too. It would be nice if she brought Elrond this time…just for precaution.

[je-lurk]

I am trying to learn french on my own. Do you know any good tv shows or movies in French? (with subtitles or without) I like comedies :)

So, uh. I went maybe a little bit overboard. I just spent an hour on these recs. But the good news is the french films I watched are almost exclusively comedies, so you’ll only get that. (I’ll add here that if you want to chat with someone either in French or about any of these recs (or both) my DMs are wide open)

Films (exclusively French classics):

Louis de Funès : La Soupe aux Choux (personal favorite, I’ve watched it so many times), L’Aile ou la Cuisse, Rabbi Jacob, Le Grand Restaurant… (they’re all very good, I recommend you see the others, they’re mostly classics)

Les Nuls/Alain Chabat : La Cité de la Peur, Asterix et Obélix Mission Cleopatre (2002)… (these two are the most iconic)

Jean Dujardin : The Artist, OSS 117 (Le Caire, Nid d’espion (1) Rio ne répond plus (2). Apparently the 3rd one is a little less good)

Other : La Chèvre, Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire, le Père Noël est une ordure, le Dîner de Cons (and truly so many others)

Series:

Kaamelott (never saw it but I know it’s good)

Webseries, if you’re into this:

La Flander’s Company : follows the employees of a company leasing supervillains. 5 seasons, the first one doesn’t seem to add much but it’s important world building. And fun. About 10h total? Automatic subtitles and translation seem to be accurate

Noob : follows the Noob guild in the MMORPG Horizon. It’s exactly what you think it is, it’s gorgeous. 11 seasons, 22h. The progression in production is phenomenal

Le visiteur du futur : self explanatory. A good summary would be: « Regarde ces vidéos ! Sinon, voilà ce qui va se passer ! » 4 seasons, 1 film. I have not seen the film but I heard it’s good. Also much shorter than the others. And it has subtitles!

Questions cône : 2 seasons (should be under 10 hours), +1 that comes out haphazardly. I suggest you only watch the first 2 seasons. Not because the 3rd isn’t good but because it’s a completely new narrative arc and it’s far from being done.

I’ll explain this one a little because I just binged it (again) and I think it can be easy to abandon it because of a certain character (I love him but he begins with 0 redeeming quality) and the humor that can get at times super fucking weird and/or immature (but this what happens when you make videos in the 2010’s).

Anyway, now that I’ve talked about the cons, this series begins as filmmaking tutorials, basically. The story gets weaved into it, in part as an example for the concepts we learn. Let’s keep it spoiler free and just say that the concepts explored are super interesting, and the worldbuilding is imo done extremely well, as it works as a subversion of the "tutorial" genre (and generally of the 2010’s french youtube).

I think you should at least reach ep 13 before deciding whether to drop the series.

Tldr: I love it and I need people to talk about it with because I am going mad, but no pressure. If it’s not for you it’s not for you and it’s fully understandable.

Also, there are some videos in this playlist that do not strictly belong to the series (and even some that have 0 link, except the apparitions of some of the characters). You don’t have to watch them to fully appreciate whatever is going on, but it’s additional character interaction in a framework different from the series.

[sweetgoldenassassin]

Tryna see something among evillious fans

What's your fav arc? And did you read the novels? If you didn't read them why is that arc your favourite?

Part two in reblogs wait

[raincross]

Boyfriend and I thought on this a bit.

OSS directed by Tim Burton

Lust arc by Wes Craven

Gluttony arc by George Romero

Pride arc directed by Peter Jackson

Envy Arc directed by Quentin Tarantino

Sloth Arc directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Greed and Wrath by Martin Scorsese

Four Endings directed by Stephen Spielberg or Stanley Kubrick

Thoughts? Different opinion?

[court-of-constellations]

18 22 24

18: THEATER ARC NOVEL. 110%, a theater arc novel. I need to see their dynamics. I need to see how Gammon reached the conclusions he did in MOTHY. Imo if there had been a theater novel, we could've gotten a lot of foreshadowing for Gammon's role in OSS-

22: I actually already answered this question, but I have a couple EC OCs and a million EC AUs lol-

24: My favorite version of Eve is Margarita! I think she's really interesting, and her novel is my favorite!!

[maladyinpink]

Welcome and Salutations! ♡ {INTRO POST}

About me: I go by Pink!

Voice Artist/Writer/Doodler

Pronouns are she/her, Demi/Bi, 23, ADHD + Fibro {some works and replies may be delayed due to flares and mobility issues, I apologize in advance.}

Minors DNI, ageless blogs will be blocked.

This is a KINK blog for -

♡ Care Taking

♡ Soft Vibes/Fluff

♡ Sickfics/Allergy

♡ Snz Kink Content (Wavs, Fics and Doodles)

If you ain't down with that...

TURN BACK NOW FOOLISH MORTAL!

📝Written Works! - tag is #pinkladyscribbles

☆ The Imp and The Owl - Takes place after Sins/Mas. Adapting to civilian life and grieving the loss of contact with his daughter, Stol/as' immune system fails under the stress. Blit/zø does his best to take care of the sick bird and comfort him at his lowest. Walls are let down and cozy caretaking ensues.

★ NEW 💌 Morning Sickness: Takes place directly during/after Sins/mas. At the holiday party, Mill/ie does her best to stay strong and push through after seeing that life-changing test. Under the pressure and having been out in the freezing temperatures, she catches a nasty cold. Moxx/ie, knowing something is wrong, handles the situation carefully and dotes on his wife.

🎨 Doodles! - tag is #pinkladydoodles

☆ Husker/Dust - Sick Day

☆ Husker/Dust - Sick Day 2

☆ Static/Moth - Caretaking

☆ An/gel's Lament

☆ RDS - Doodles and Fun Facts!

☆ Cherri/Snake - Care-Snake-ing

☆ Cha/ggie - Under the Weather

★ NEW ✏️ Alas/tor and Luci/fer - The Get-Along Quilt

🔊 WAVS!- Tag is #pinkladywavs

❤ Rainy Day Soirée - Husker/dust Special

🍀 Care-SNAKE-ING - Cherri/Snake

🌧 UNDER THE WEATHER - CHA/GGIE

🍾 NEW 🔔TENDING THE BARTENDER - HUSKER/DUST

COMIC DUBS

🔔 NEW - Misery Loves Company - OG by @onetrickponi

Fandoms I write for -

Primarily H/azbin H/otel + Hel/luva B/oss atm...

Wick/ed, T/A/D/C, Tolkien/verse, M/C/U, Stra/nger Thi/ngs, Go/od Om/ens, G/lee, Brid/ger/ton, various musical theater fandoms...and probably more {...may add Arc/ane on here, when I finally...start watching it, I KNOW, agh don't come for me 😅}

Coming Soon -

♡ Garden Hoes - Coming Soon!

♡ HAZ WAV SERIES PEEK-A-BOO'S 1 , 2 , and 3

♡ Commissions ARE OPEN ⬇️

♡ Plenty of Surprises!

- Thank you again for all the support! Ko-fi is listed below, feel free to donate!

[pricechecktranslations]

Hello! Do you have any series order recommendations for new evillious fans? Or rather, what kind of material to look through first? (i.e. music first then manga, etc.)

My usual series order recommendation is going to be release order (such as this list [here], which has songs, albums, novels, manga, etc listed by the year they came out), though as a note, that list currently doesn't have mothy's E.A.T. songs on there yet (I don't know if you're on mobile or not but [this page] contains all of my translation lists sorted out by medium). Release order is not perfect, mind you (like, there are times where mothy has released a song about a particular arc long after it was concluded, for example), but it is the simplest way to go without having to stress over whether you're seeing things in the "right" order or not.

Do not do chronological order. At least, not as your first time through. There are a lot of Youtube playlists that have the songs listed this way, I would recommend saving that for a second viewing.

As for which medium--it varies. I would say start with the music, especially mothy's early songs because in the early years of the series mothy was still trying to make them into self-contained stories and narratives in their own right. However, as he got more into writing, there have become more songs that don't make sense without broader context, or serve more as advertisements for novels, or are just there to be a snapshot of a particular moment in the story. So I would certainly not suggest you go through all 70(ish?) songs before doing anything else. In this particular case I would just suggest watching the ones you like or find interesting, especially if they have a nice PV. Don't worry too much if you're not completely understanding what's going on.

It's also worth pointing out that a lot of these songs are compiled onto albums--these albums usually contain booklets with little stories of their own. These...can be skipped, sometimes they get retconned even, but they have a neat mini-narrative of their own that gets referenced in other songs and novels, so I would advise reading those too.

The bulk of the actual narrative, characters, worldbuilding, etc, these are all in the novels (not the manga--there is manga, but it's generally either bonus content or an adaptation of an existing novel, and most of it can be skipped entirely). Unlike the songs, the novels should 100% be read in release order (so the Daughter of Evil series books first, then the Deadly Sins of Evil, then OSS, and so forth). This is not a situation where you pick the arc you're most interested in and start there, and you absolutely should not do chronological order here.

I mean--all that being said, you're not going to get graded on any of this, it isn't homework. Really, go through the series in whatever way you enjoy it. There may be some installments you aren't interested in, and that's fine. Maybe you're not into the songs, maybe you don't want to read the novels. It's just that when people complain about this series being confusing, it's usually because they've either A) skipped the books that explain everything, or B) jumped right to the most convoluted part of the story without bothering to familiarize themselves with any other part of it first.

TL;DR--Release order. Songs are good to start with to get interested in the series, novels are where most of the story is at, manga is usually just neat bonus stories or novel adaptations. They are generally interwoven with each other, but novels are the ones where you NEED to go in release order.

[mariianetto]

I'd like to say that I've read evillious chronicles "properly" but I've read tlodv first, in the middle of evil food eater Conchita I decided to read the pride arc, I finished pride arc and then re-read evil food eater Conchita and in the middle of gift novel I read both of oss novels then I read a bit of outlaw and lychgate because amostia and then I read rest of the novels in chronological order 😭 I'm re reading them now tho

[nils-elmark]

My New Book About three Brave Americans

On August 25th 1914, a group of young Americans joined the Foreign Legion and “with a cowboy swing” marched through Paris, wildly cheered by the crowd. They were the first Americans in the Great War. I have written the intimate story of three of those young men: • David Wooster King - a 21-year-old dropout from Harvard and son of a rich businessman whose family can be traced back to Mayflower. • Alan Seeger - a 26-year-old poet and a dreamer from New York and a family of highly educated intellectuals. His ancestors too, can be traced back to start of the American nation. • Eugene James Bullard - a 19-year-old entertainer and boxer from Columbus, Georgia. His father was born a slave and his mother was Creek Indian. King ended up as an officer in the US Army chasing German spies in Switzerland in 1918. Later, he became a modern global adventurer, met rulers across the world and was sent to Casablanca in 1941 as the very first OSS agent reporting to President Roosevelt. Eugene Bullard too survived the war years. He was wounded at Verdun and invalided out of the French Army but despite all odds he became the world’s first black aviator. After the war, he married a young French woman and settled in Paris where he opened a bar. In the roaring 20s he was surrounded by every artist and intellectual of the day from Hemingway to Louis Armstrong. Bullard fought for the French again in 1940 before he was wounded and had to flee to New York with his two children. Here he was ignored except by the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The French never forgot him, and Bullard ignited the eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in 1954 and was kissed on both cheeks by President Charles de Gaulle.

The third legionnaire, Seeger, was not so lucky as his two comrades. He was killed during the Battle of the Somme on July 4, 1916. However, six weeks earlier, he wrote the famous poem, ‘I Have A Rendezvous with Death’ which was to become his legacy. President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline recited it for her father six weeks before his fateful trip to Dallas in November 1963, and the poem has since inspired a line of American presidents during the 20th century. It has become an indestructible poetic lifeline linking France and the United States of America. The three young Americans, rooted in the nation, each has an amazing story to tell. But when their adventures are brought together we get a three-dimensional perspective on how America broke its isolation from the world and started to unite as a nation during the 20th century. The three men represent different pillars of the American soul, and their lives and dreams symbolize the story of how America became modern and remind us of the strong historic ties between France and America. Most of all, this book is a fantastic saga full of brave men, great adventures and terrific sacrifices that bring hope and a new direction in a time of human division.

You can buy the book at most online bookshops and at my publisher Pen & Sword.

[endingboyhansel]

Next up in my semi popular series Hänsel Analysis, where I analyse characters and such that are normally underrated or unpopular or just interesting, we’re talking Kaspar Blankenheim.

Kaspar is a bit of a unique case here as he never gets any proper screen time. He has no lines of dialogue and we never see him while he’s alive. We know that he cheated a lot, that he took advantage of Margarita for her money, and that he was among the first she ever poisoned with Gift.

Seems a bit of an asshole, doesn’t he? You’re right. Yet of course we should try and interpret more of Kaspar’s past to understand what makes him the way he is. Maybe make a good interpretation of this blue haired bastard.

Speaking of blue haired bastards, let’s address the elephant in the room. We know that Margarita - the real one - died at birth, and was replaced by the Clockworker’s Doll, at the time occupied by Eve Moonlit. We know “Margarita” was drawn to Kaspar due to his similarities to Adam. Yet did you know this is the only time in the series when Eve - by herself - is drawn to an Adam lookalike? Platonic, though replaced by Eve, shows no intrigue in Carlos. Mikulia Calgaround never met an Adam lookalike. Michaela, though an Eve lookalike, was not replaced by Eve, though Kyle, an Adam lookalike, did fall in love with her. So why here in particular does Eve and an Adam lookalike have this connection? Is it because of the wooden ring? Whatever the reason, there is some connection between Margarita and Kaspar.

There are several OSS characters and references floating around at this point though:

Kaspar - Adam lookalike Margarita - Eve replacement Mayrana - follows the Meta sect Lemy - Hänsel reincarnation “Ney” - Gretel’s identity Julia - Irina's identity Hanne - Elluka’s identity

As well as some Pride Arc references:

Gatt - descendant of Gast Rin - Riliane lookalike

Back with Kaspar though. It’s very obvious that Kaspar must have had insecurities. To backtrack on his past, his father Kaidor murdered his mother for cheating on him when presumably Kaspar was still extremely young. After that, Kaidor ran away, and Kaspar was taken in by his uncle Karl, who became Marquis himself.

Did Kaspar know he was adopted? If no, then he would have been prideful. If yes, he would have been bitter towards his true father. Either way works. We know very little about Kaspar’s teenage years, however it must have felt extremely lonely. The only named friend we know he had is a fellow Marquis called Cle Mence who attends his funeral. You could make the case that Kaspar in general had difficulties in speaking with people and kept to higher classes, which explains his friendship with Cle as well as his several marriage candidates.

I would say he takes a lot for granted as he entrusts Margarita to do everything around the mansion, he is indeed a spoiled rich boy. Though here’s something telling. Kaspar does have elements of the three chronological sinners so far. He presents lust in the several mistresses he has, gluttony in how he wastes his fortune on cigars and luxuries, and pride in his general brazen attitude. Of course he also embodies greed, though it is interesting how he incorporates the earlier sins as well.

His attitude towards Père Noël is also interesting. Upon joining, we know that he owns Grim the End, and hands it over to Irina. Of course, Grim the End is the residence of Seth and - well - Adam. Kaspar has had the soul of Adam in his possession the entire time. There is no way in the Hellish Yard that he wasn’t somewhat aware of the true power of Grim the End. We’ve seen characters be influenced by the vessels before and after this, and we have Lemy at the same time speaking with Gretel through the Glass of Conchita. It is entirely possible, of course, that he had been manipulated through Seth and Adam depending on how long he’s owned the key. Grim the End appears to be Kaspar’s own possession considering he sells off Margarita’s, so you can assume he’s had it for a long time. Well, it was Kaidor’s himself, so of course he has.

Kaspar generally doesn’t have a lot to go off from. But he isn’t just some character you hear about once and disappears forever. There is a story, a substance towards him. A loneliness feeding on despair that leads to sin if you think about it that way. He isn’t someone to be pitied. But at the same time he can be interpreted as a very intriguing character.

And give him some dialogue, mothy, don’t be a coward.

[rexaofwrath]

1, 10, 16? :3

COUGHS AND DOES A LITTLE FLIP

Alrightyyy so!

How did I discover EC: This is actually really funny to me because I've been a vocaloid fan since I was around 8-9 or so, but I only discovered EC in late 2023 😭🙏 I was looking through a playlist of sad vocaloid songs for nostalgia's sake and found SoE. I looked it up and started going down the Evillious rabbit hole HFKSJDJSJ However, what REALLY got me OBSESSED obsessed with it was LoDV, I was REALLY obsessed with the Lust arc as a whole 😭

A headcanon for one of my favorite characters! Seth Twiright was Levia Barisol's best friend when they were both kids! Before tiny Levia was taken off to college, they went to the same school and in general they hung out with each other all the time, just going wherever and causing little acts of chaos, as both of them had fairly absent mothers. I could talk a lot more about this and my Second Period theories/headcanons in general but ALAS I have an assignment I should be working on huhuu

As for a character that I didn't like at first, surprisingly, yes, the sethpilled malicemaxxer themself initially did NOT like Seth 😭. I didn't have a REAL reason to dislike him tbh, I kept seeing the fandom joke about him being HORRIBLE and HATING him, and I jumped on the hate train, but deep inside, I knew an obsession was starting to form... And then, after reading OSS, he quickly became my favorite character of all time. I was in denial of it for a while, but I kept reading more of the novels hoping he would appear again HDJSJDJSJS Now I've fully embraced my life as a Seth fan JDKSJFKKDFJ

[starlene]

Analysing every song on the Änglagård original cast recording

I understand this is extremely niche content, there are probably four or five people besides me who have seen and/or are interested in this musical on Tumblr... so of course I'm going to post it.

The new (and super successful!) Swedish musical Änglagård has bothered me ever since I saw it for the first time – because in my opinion, at the same time, it's very badly written but also very enjoyable.

Under the cut is my futile attempt of getting to the bottom of this enigma of a show.

Before I start, please note that I haven't seen the movie the musical is based on. However, I think the number one mark of a successful musical adaptation is that you don't need knowledge of the source material to understand and enjoy it, and that's the point of view I approach this show and cast recording from.

Now, let's go. Änglagård the musical. Music and lyrics by Fredrik Kempe. Book by Edward af Sillén and Daniel Réhn. Cast recording produced and orchestrated by Fredrik Kempe, Dan Sundquist and David Kreuger. Analysis by me.

1. Prolog

A very standard musical theatre overture/prologue: it introduces a couple of reoccurring motives and the general musical tone of the piece. Some of the string parts (the orchestration is mostly strings) remind me of Kristina från Duvemåla. Nothing special in my opinion, but no complaints either.

[Edited to add: okay, one complaint. The whole thing kicks off with the "Änglagård Burning" motif that we'll come back to later, which I think is not a good choice because nothing much ever comes of that whole plot thread. But yeah. Put a pin in that, we'll come back to it.]

2. Upp

An extremely bog-standard musical theatre cabaret song about having a good time and being able to be who you are.

That said, I give the song a lot of bonus points for the tacky orchestration (on the album at least, I can't remember how it's done live). It has a very obvious synthesized sound, you can just imagine a three-person band in the back corner of some dingy early 90s nightclub playing this on their keyboards. The beginning especially is so deliberately bad it makes me laugh.

So actually, this song sneakily does a very good job setting up the world Fanny and Zac inhabit, and acts as a great musical contrasts to...

3. Farfars händer

In my opinion, this is the most beautiful song of the whole musical. Just... very beautiful, very powerful. Lovely lush full orchestra sound, amazing vocals by Fredrik Lycke. Some of the lyrics are a bit clunky ("och att få göra det för oss var meningsfullt" is, uh, not great) – but in general, I'm a sucker for this exact type of musical song, where some melancholy middle-aged man sings his heart out and the music just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

That being said, dramaturgically, this song is SO confusing.

In many musicals (and Disney princess movies), this spot near the beginning is reserved for the protagonist's big "I Want Song", and this certainly sounds like one: Axel wants to continue the work his grandfather started, and for that, he needs to buy the Änglagård estate for himself. So he's one of the protagonists, right, and the show is going to be about his efforts to do just that? Not at all. His struggles are a C plot at best, he has no character arc, and he doesn't get to sing again until the end of the 2nd act.

In short: dramaturgically, a song of this calibre shoud absolutely not be given to this character. Interestingly – and maybe this proves my point – they've used it a lot in their marketing (which makes sense both because it's gorgeous and because it's practically the title song), but the first version they released didn't feature Lycke at all.

All that said, musically, this does a great job setting up the world of Änglagård/Yxared and contrasting it with the German cabaret world of the previous song. Fanny and Zac come from a completely different world than this guy.

4. Minnet av dig

Helen Sjöholm's first big solo. What can I even say, apart from that this slaps. I love these types of songs that let an outwardly very withdrawn characters express all the anger and resentment they're hiding... and Rut has been hiding a lot of anger for a very long time.

9/10. My only criticism is that I think doing the "going full volume, dropping to a calm/quiet part, then going full volume again" thing twice during one song is a bit much. The latter instance almost feels like the remains of a cut dialogue break, but what do I know.

5. Barnet som försvann

An I-Want-ish song for our real protagonist Fanny – it's mostly about what she wanted but didn't have as a child, but we can infer that even as an adult, she wants to find a place to call home and everything that entails. It's pretty nice, with great vocals by Tuva B. Larsen, but not especially memorable.

6. En enkel gubbe

Comic relief funny men song #1. Succeeds in its most important task right away: the ending of the first stanza ("du är min lillebror / och du vet jag älskar dig / men varför i helvete / sa du inte nej") makes me laugh out loud.

It's a simple ditty and has a somewhat traditional/old-fashioned sound (especially at the beginning when the orchestration is just a couple of instruments; I think it grows too bombastic near the end, tbh), which of course fits the characters of Ivar and Gottfrid. Besides being fun to listen to, it sneakily sheds some light on the brothers' dynamic and their developing relationship with Fanny... if you're able to pay attention to any of that with the male ensemble doing a silly knee-slapping dance to this while the audience goes ecstatic. 10/10.

7. Sticka, sticka

The ladies of this sewing group really give the Mormon missionaries in Uganda a run for their money when it comes to repressing one's emotions! It sheds a light on why Rut is the way she is, surrounded by all these other women who have very unhealthy ways of coping with their troubles and insecurities.

That said, I think it's a little bit weird to place two comic songs right after each other, even if this one is a very dark sort of comedy. But then we have...

8. Åh herregud

Comic relief funny men song #2!

Everything I know about musicals says this song shouldn't be here. The comic relief duo's second song belongs in the second act, and it definitely doesn't belong right after two other comic songs... but I guess the plot demands they put it either here or nowhere, and they couldn't resist giving the old men another duet.

It's pretty fun, though, so I'm not protesting too hard. Tommy Körberg's little riff near the end makes me laugh.

9. Leva min dröm

This is... heaven's sake, this song is atrocious. This character does not need a solo. This song does not need to exist within this musical. This song doesn't need to exist within any musical.

I mean, this is the most clichéd musical theatre song I've ever heard! It feels like a parody, really. The lyrics are vague drivel about being able to dream, and musically, it just sounds like you put ABBA and Wicked in a cocktail shaker.

And of course I absolutely love it and have already listened to it many times.

What can I even say? Martin Stokke Mathiesen gives such a sincere and heartfelt performance here, I can't help enjoying it. And even though I stand my ground that this character does not need a solo, I have to admit a clichéd Broadway banger with ABBA-esque vibes is exactly the kind of song a character that wants to become the next Benny Ulvaeus (but is really not quite there yet) would sing.

Simultaneously, 0/10 and 10/10.

10. Jag är jag

Tensions are starting to build and we get Fanny's mission statement: you can't smoke me out or change me, I'll stay here exactly as I am and you'll have to learn to accept it.

It's a good song, and somehow, I think it has a very similar stubborn/angry energy as Rut's songs. Maybe that's intentional and we're meant to pick up on the two of them not being so very different in many ways?

11. Min plats i solen

This song is rather different on the album than it is in context. On the album, it sounds like a straightforward song about becoming a better person – but really, it's about how Rut almost psychs herself up to do the right thing... and then slips right back into her old toxic ways when she sees the Germans having an orgy at Änglagård, which is just too much for her repressed sensibilities. It's a bit of a silly moment onstage tbh, though I get where Rut is coming from. In any case, it's a powerful song.

The strings (especially during the instrumental break near the end) sound extremely Kristina från Duvemåla-esque. Maybe that's intentional, a little nod to Helen Sjöholm's big breakthrough? There's a little throwback to the phrase "jag är jag" in the lyrics, which confirms my thought about the music intentionally highlighting Rut and Fanny's similarities.

12. Kött och blod

I think this has too much dialogue to be a very enjoyable cast recording song... but Helen and Tuva are both so good, so it's nice to have an angry duet like this with them, even though it's interspersed with a lot of talking.

I like how the lyrics subtly shed light on what Rut's real problem with the Germans is: "och först i kön är gubbarna / som tagit av sin vigselring" – her anger is really insecurity, and it's all stemming from the trauma she went through when her husband cheated on her with her best friend, a trauma that she hasn't processed at all. Gah. The more I listen to this album, the more I feel for Rut and the more interesting I find her!

The "Änglagård Burning" theme at the end is very powerful, but... yeah, we'll come back to this later.

13. Poor Little Rich Girl

This song is also bogged down by too many spoken parts. I enjoy how Lindy Larsson performed this live, but it doesn't have a similar impact on the recording, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I like the orchestration with its slightly haunting melancholy sound, and "vi var lek vi var kitch / sedan blev du en perfect bitch" is a super catchy lyric, I'll give it that!

14. Ljusa minnen

As far as I can tell, dramaturgy-wise, this song has no reason to exist. It's framed as a moment for Fanny to learn some life lessons, but it's not really, because the stuff in this song is so far removed from her situation – actually, if anyone needs to hear this, I think it Rut, not Fanny.

In short, to me, this song feels like Molokov's sad solo at the end of Chess på svenska. We do not need to hear about this old man's trauma.

But of course, this show is a Tommy Körberg vehicle, so they needed to give him a proper solo. And it's pretty and it made me cry when I heard it live for the second time. So, uh. I guess just cut this one if you're ever doing a production without someone as beloved as Körberg in the role.

15. Utan Änglagård

Here's where the "Änglagård Burning" theme comes back big time. This is such a good song about a character having a complete mental breakdown. It's like you rolled Fleur-de-Lys and Frollo into one, it's super creepy and gives me the chills.

The problem here? It's in the wrong musical. As a part of this story and this particular character's arc, it's absurd. While I love a good musical mental breakdown, I think this doesn't fit with the realistic tone of the rest of the musical. Instead, it feels like someone has inserted Hellfire into Next to Normal, sung by Henry.

I mean, Eva, girl... I get you're upset because your boyfriend is leaving you, and has probably never seen you as anything more than a friend-with-benefits anyway. In a situation like that, you cry a lot, maybe go slash his tires at most. Literally trying to burn down his new crush's house is the overreaction of a century (and also makes me very worried about your mental health, which the musical doesn't address at all.)

And what really makes this song/scene weird is how little impact it has on the rest of the story. The fire is immediately put out and the whole incident is quickly waved off and never mentioned again. Why was this included at all?

But, again, the song is very good. Sofia Pekkari gives a suitably creepy performance, I especially enjoy the understated ending. The staging is very good, too, with just the right amount of fire projections to make an impact. Man, in some other musical, this would be the highlight of the evening, but here, it's just very confusing.

16. Skuldkänslor och skam

It's really just an intro to the next song, so I don't have an awful lot to say about it – but I'm glad they included it, especially seeing how the other reprises weren't included.

It's a short reprise of Minnet av dig with a tiny little bit of Farfars händer thrown in during Axel's part, which might hint at Axel already thinking of Fanny as family, seeing how Farfars händer is all about family connections. A great little musical detail, if you ask me.

17. Moln av vita lögner

Music-wise, I don't have much to say about this one. It's a beautiful duet and I enjoy it a lot.

Dramaturgy-wise, though... a while ago, I wrote a little post about people subconsciously looking for catharsis in musicals. That's something you're definitely not getting with this song and these two characters.

Here, Rut and Axel get to the point where they can admit their relationship is built on lies – but even so, I'm worried they'll just go on as they always have. The song is a sort of a half-apology. With Rut's reaction to Fanny telling them who her father is, I get the feeling Rut and Axel are never going to open that can of worms again... but it's going to keep bothering them. It's realistic, and it's also a frustrating ending to Rut's character arc. I'm not sure she's coming out of all this much happier or more content than she was at the beginning of the story.

In short, I think this is a weirdly melancholy song to have at this point of the show, but I guess I see where they're coming from with it.

18. En del av något större

The finale and the answer to Fanny's I-Want-ish song from the first act: she has found her place in the world.

I feel emotionally manipulated by this song/scene. I don't think it's a very good or memorable finale, tbh, I feel like I've heard circa seventy other musical songs with this same exact vibe and message... but live, it still made me cry. Of course onstage, they give the very last word to the funny old men, and it's just. Ugh. It's so clichéd, but it hits, and then you're crying and clapping.

I guess that summarises a lot about this musical, really.

So that's it for my analysis! I could also write about how in some ways, I think this musical is uncomfortably close to Så som i himmelen... but I guess that is a post for another time.

And in the end, no matter its faults, I really enjoy listening to Änglagård. It may be a bit of a mess at times, but it's the sort of mess I tend to like, and I'm really glad I've gotten the chance to experience it. May Fredrik Kempe write a dozen more musicals for us to enjoy! <3