#retroactive oscar NOW!

[baddingtonbitch]

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Rose Byrne as Rayna Boyanov in Spy (2015)

[ssaalexblake]

Anyway, I just watched Everything Everywhere all at once for the first time, except the copy of the movie was an Italian release, so all the subtitles of the Chinese dialogue was in Italian, and I understand neither of these languages, and honestly I have no idea if this added to or took from the overall experience of delightful heartfelt batshit, but lol, amazing. 10/10.

[maxwellatoms]

as a person on the inside of the animation industry, are there signs that we might be heading to another dark age of animation like the 1980s (e.g. animation is regulated to just glorified toy commercials or dark fantasy movies)?

"Kid Vid" regulations mean you can't advertise for stuff kids might buy from within a show anymore. Generally, you can't even have (say) Yogi Bear wearing a shirt with his best friend BooBoo's face on it as a gag, because "what if someone made that shirt one day?" Then it would be a retroactive ad, I guess? I'm not schooled in reverse-time law like studio lawyers, so I can't really say. Still, it's almost impossible to get even a fictional product into a kid's show these days, so I think the 1980s will probably stay in their timeline. At least in that way.

I do think a bit of a "Dark Age" is upon us, though. Maybe just a small one. Just a wee little snip of a Dark Age is all.

As far as I can glean, there are going to be precious few animated shows coming out over the next couple of years because not much was picked up during the pandemic. There are only a few things being developed here and there, and I'd wager that those properties "win" simply by existing in a competition-free environment. It takes a long time to produce animation, so almost anything greenlit right now is looking at a full year for turnaround. If you talk to people in the industry right now about jobs, they use words like "wastelend" and "ramen noodles".

Then you've got A.I., of course. The other night I was having dinner with a friend and I found myself in the A.I. conversation I always imagined myself having one day-- the one where we're talking with some immediacy about what the rest of our futures look like as artists, because we know they're not going to look the same ever again. It was pretty cool in a William Gibson sort of way, but I honestly didn't expect to be having that conversation for another decade. Turns out A.I. is becoming a problem right now.

I've already talked about the "art theft" angle, and that's not the problem I'm speaking about here. The problem I'm talking about is the "what do I do when what I do becomes trivial?" problem. If anyone can make a TV show or movie in a week or a day using AI assistance, who determines what gets seen? Networks, I'd imagine, would become redundant. You don't need to fork over $15 a month for Netflix if you can make Netflix-quality content yourself. And if you can't make anything decent even with A.I. assistance, surely someone on the internet can. There would be an incredible glut of content to choose from, so again... who decides what gets seen? An algorithm, probably. Who owns the algorithm?

Peak Dark Age will be the time period when the networks realize that they're going to die, and sink all of their resources into forcing their own survival on the rest of us. I imagine massive layoffs (you don't need multiple writers or artists or support staff when you've got the right tools.) Studios will want to own the tools (of course) and/or suppress the use of those tools by anyone who might want to cut into their profits. Expect to see "A.I. is just too dangerous for the public to utilize, so it needs to be left in the capable hands of corporations". Expect to see customizable Batmans, the ability to put your mom in any Star Wars, and the serialized fever-dreams of billionaires.

I think that's the next 5-10 years. And while that's happening, the tools will keep getting better and better until literally anyone can sit down, ask for an Oscar-worthy part-rom-com/part action movie starring a twenty-five year old Steve McQueen and and eighty year old Daniel Radcliffe rescuing Air Bud from the Death Star, and then watch the resulting film with some degree of satisfaction. There'll come a point when content of any visual, auditory, and written complexity can be generated on-the-fly, and the traditional limits of budgets and schedules will just be gone.

It's easy to spin off into fantasy and try to guess exactly what's coming. I could probably spin on that all day. But what I know is that the future of the animation industry won't look anything like what I've become accustomed to. And maybe that's okay because what I've become accustomed to looks nothing like the industry I started in. Things change, and you roll with the punches. Thanks to the self-fulfilling dystopian prophecy we find ourselves in, just about everyone on the planet is finding themselves rolling with the punches coming from the Powerful Greedy. That's less a "me problem" and more a planet-wide problem we should probably all sit down and hash out, like, yesterday.

My immediate problem as an artist (and yours if you're an artist too) is figuring out how to get your ideas seen in a world where the amount of entertainment content is exploding exponentially. Especially if you're the sort of artist who needs to eat and live somewhere.

So yeah, I think there's going to be just a little peppering of Dark Age coming up. But in every time of change, there are opportunities. Hey, I'm down for an animated Dark Fantasy movie. Let's do this!

[maripr]

Oscar seeing memories of Ozma being a dork in love with Salem: god I can't believe I'm now retroactively this loser. I would never.

Ozpin: ikr? Cringe, as the kids say.

Oscar being a dork in lov with Ruby:

Ozpin: ...

(I bet Ozpin is also secretly a huge dork when he and Glynda are alone)

[howlingday]

Retroactive Continuity

Nora: OSCAR! I just saw Ozpin standing next to you!

Oscar: Oh, I just ret-conned his death. Makes things easier for me.

Nora: Wait, what?

Oscar: Yeah, being Ozpin's next incarnation was so stressful and traumatic that I decided to use a spell to ret-con the things I didn't like.

Nora: So... You're NOT going to be the next Ozpin?

Oscar: Nope! Ozpin never died, so a next incarnation was never needed. It saved Pyrrha's life, too, so she and Jaune are happily together.

Nora: What about the Fall of Beacon?!

Oscar: Never attacked. Never happened.

Nora: The Battle of Haven?!

Oscar: Never attacked in the first place.

Nora: W-What about the Fall of Atlas?!

Oscar: Never happened, either! Although, Weiss' parents are getting divorced.

Nora: Salem?

Oscar: Eh, probably still out there, but nothing for me to worry about.

Nora: So, wait; it's like you reversed time?

Oscar: (Sighs) No, Nora. The past did change, but only by the removal of the past few Volumes that I didn't like. Now I can get back to being a normal, totally unimportant farmhand like I always wanted to be.

Nora: Volumes? What..? What about your destiny?!

Oscar: I make my own destiny, Nora. Now stop asking so many questions or I'll ret-con you, too! But now that I think about it, how did you even notice the changes? I think I might have forgotten something.

Nora: Eh, it's probably nothing. (Turns away) I've gotta get home, anyways; my mom is still waiting for me back in Kuro Yuri village! (Salem Grimm mark on her back)

Oscar: !

Oscar: Maybe I shouldn't have ret-conned everything...

[adnirod]

i'd love to hear your take on 38 and 39!

38:

38.A.: This is an increasingly popular opinion in movie-discussing circles, but I'm pretty basic so I'll still say it: "The Greatest Show on Earth" won Best Picture in 1952, and fehhh. Over High Noon, The Quiet Man, Singin' in the Rain? (Ok, Singin' in the Rain wasn't even nominated, its own travesty right there.) Rumor was that in order to avoid anything even vaguely political/related to the Blacklist, the vote ended up settling on the big empty mealy spectacle movie. A familiar problem!

Or maybe this was one of those retroactive votes for Cecil B. DeMille, where they wish he'd gotten one before so he's getting one now even if it isn't the best one (see also: Paul Newman getting his only Oscar for "The Color of Money" in 1987, wtf)

38.B.: I've always had a couple of opinions on very popular and solid movies that I'd call overrated in the most basic sense--and not because they're bad! Don't think I don't like them! It's just because they're widely remembered as something that they're mostly not.

And in both cases I'd say it's because of the Primacy-Recency effect: both movies start with an almost standalone sequence which is stylistically inventive and extremely powerful, and those beginnings blew people's wigs off so hard that the rest is Just Fine and yet is only ever remembered as part of the Extraordinary Amazingness.

"Saving Private Ryan" is one: it starts with that undeniably spectacular Omaha Beach sequence, which ends up dominating people's memory of the tone and quality of the rest of the movie, which is mainly just fine and good and a lot like a ton of other war movies. "Up" is another: it starts with the wordless sequence of Carl and Ellie's backstory and how he loses her, to set up the premise, and it's completely heartwrenching. And the rest of the movie is fine, it's cute and fun. But when people discuss it these days, just as with Ryan, they'll say "OMG WHAT A MASTERPIECE", though they're only remembering the initial setpiece.

It goes to show you what a good idea it is as a screenwriter and director to completely go ham on the start of your movie! It can lift the rest of it up into the cloud of memory.

[thisisnotthenerd]

surprised this wasn't hiding in the spreadsheet before but here goes.

seating chart by player + d20's gender splits

this one came mostly from analysis of old data--instead on the cast appearances chart, here's where everyone sat during their full seasons (oneshots are not counted here to reduce their impact as outliers)

as you'll notice, the data is repeated for the intrepid heroes sequel seasons because they were not made at the same time and this allows me to standardize and check how many people have sat in each seat more easily. also, it would mean i'd have to count everyone for each seat once, and i'm not planning on doing that right now. anyways.

for my splits:

first off, disclaimer that gender is a societal construct and that you can do whatever you want with it so long as you don't harm others. this list uses the pronouns indicated by the cast members. this list goes by the cast members' current gender--retroactively effective. if they came out after the season aired, they're still listed with their gender at the time of posting (Jan-Feb 2024).

for the sake of simplicity and not making separate categories for every nb cast member my categories are female (she/her pronouns), male (he/him), and nonbinary/gnc (they/them, other combinations of pronouns), which encompasses more complex combinations. yes the drag queens are split up because it's based on their pronouns as indicated. not everyone in the gnc group uses the same pronouns, so nonbinary/gnc is in use as an umbrella term.

so without further ado:

overall gender statistics

out of 48 cast members of dimension 20, there were 20 in the she/her category, 21 in the he/him category, and 7 in the nonbinary pronouns category

female (she/her): emily axford, siobhan thompson, rekha shankar, amy vorpahl, jessica ross, lily du, marisha ray, krystina arielle, aabria iyengar, katie marovitch, danielle radford, becca scott, persephone valentine, isabella roland, dani fernandez, jasmine bhullar, anjali bhimani, alaska thunderfuck, jujubee, rashawn nadine scott

male (he/him): brennan lee mulligan, zac oyama, lou wilson, brian murphy, matthew mercer, mike trapp, ify nwadiwe, justin mcelroy, clint mcelroy, griffin mcelroy, travis mcelroy, carlos luna, b. dave walters, sam reich, raphael chestang, grant o'brien, omar najam, oscar montoya, freddie wong, hank green, jasper william cartwright

nonbinary/gnc: ally beardsley (they/them), erika ishii (all pronouns), gabe hicks (he/they), surena marie (she/they), monét x change (she/her/he/him), bob the drag queen (he/him/she/her), alex song-xia (they/them)

in other words the ratio of cast members is 41.6% female, 43.75% male, and 14.58% nonbinary/other genders

the main cast i.e. the intrepid heroes + brennan is a little less even, since brennan shifts the group toward a male bias (4/7, vs 2/7 female and 1/7 nonbinary)

so a pretty even split wrt gender and pronoun usage overall. some seasons differ in composition, but generally there's a pretty even split (female/male/gender non-conforming) with the GM tipping the balance.

gender stats by season

all of the intrepid heroes seasons (fantasy high, the unsleeping city, fantasy high sophomore year, a crown of candy, the unsleeping city chapter ii, a stasrtruck odyssey, neverafter, fantasy high junior year) are 57.1% male, 28.5% female, and 14.2% nonbinary [4, 2, 1]

escape from the bloodkeep: same breakdown as the intrepid heroes seasons: 57.1% male, 28.5% female, and 14.2% nonbinary [4, 2, 1]

tiny heist: a stronger majority this time since the mcelboys and their dad are there: 71.4% male, 28.5% female [5, 2]

pirates of leviathan: similar to ih breakdown; 57.1% male, 42.8% female [4, 3]

mice & murder: maintains the intrepid heroes split of 57.1% male, 28.5% female, and 14.2% nonbinary [4, 2, 1], with ally holding the last category.

misfits & magic: with only 5 people there's an almost even split; 40% female, 40% male, 20% gnc [2, 2, 1]

the seven: our season of ladies; 71.4% female, 14.2% nonbinary, 14.2% male [5, 1, 1]

shriek week: another almost even season; 40% female, 40% gnc, 20% male [2, 2, 1]

coffin run: another 5-person season; 40% female, 40% male, 20% gnc [2, 2, 1]

a court of fey and flowers: follows the ih split; 57.1% male, 28.5% female, and 14.2% nonbinary [4, 2, 1]

the ravening war: 6 person season, so we're looking at 66.6% male, 33.3% female [4, 2]

dungeons and drag queens: this season is a little tricky since the players are simultaneous performing in drag, but using their listed pronouns we get the general split; 40% female, 40% gnc, 20% male [2, 2, 1]

mentopolis: also follows the intrepid heroes split: 57.1% male, 28.5% female, and 14.2% nonbinary [4, 2, 1]

burrow's end: the intrepid heroes split in the opposite direction; 57.1% female, 28.5% male, and 14.2% nonbinary [4, 2, 1]

for our 7 person seasons, the most common split is the intrepid heroes split, of 57.1% male, 28.5% female, and 14.2% nonbinary [4, 2, 1]. This pattern goes for 12/21 seasons of dimension 20. otherwise we tend to lean to one direction or another.

for the 5 person seasons, there's a pattern of a 2, 2, 1 split, but it's evenly split between [f, m, gnc] and [f, gnc, m].

gender splits in the seating chart

for the seating chart, it's a little different. there's two ways of tallying this up; by season or by cast member. the critical difference being that the latter does not allow repeats (of the intrepid heroes generally but also other returning cast) while the former does. i suppose the other way of stating it would be that we can count it up by occurrence or by total number.

since i don't feel like calculating percentages for this set, they will be displayed as ratios, like so: [F:M:NB]. keep in mind that some seats are not used for all seasons, so the numbers that the ratios add up to will differ.

L1: by occurrence, L1 has a 9:9:3 ratio with repeats, and 7:6:3 by total number of cast, so ever so slightly female-biased

L2: by occurrence, L2 has a 7:8:1 ratio with repeats, and 5:6:1 by total number of cast, so ever so slightly male-biased

L3: by occurrence, L3 has a 11:8:2 ratio with repeats, and 8:5:2 by total number of cast, so strongly female-biased

R3: by occurrence, R3 has a 9:9:3 ratio with repeats, and 4:6:3 by total number of cast, so male-biased. the difference in total number comes from the fact that siobhan, aabria, and lily all sit in R3 on multiple occasions

R2: by occurrence, R2 has a 2:9:6 ratio with repeats, and 2:7:2 by total number of cast, so male-biased with a strong nb/gnc presence. the drop comes from ally and erika both sitting there multiple times

R1: by occurrence, R1 has a 6:11:4 ratio with repeats, and 6:8:3 by total number of cast, so strongly male-biased. as you can probably guess, the difference comes from murph sitting in his favorite seat.

GM: by occurrence, we're looking at a 4:16:1 ratio, but a 2:2:1 by total number. if you account for the fact that brennan, the in-house gm, has been in the hot seat for 15 seasons, this makes more sense.

and that's all for this time! quick question for next time:

you can find the spreadsheet here: seating chart by player. as always, feel free to peruse, and check out the ao3 compilation to see all the stats in one place.

[royalpain16]

At age 46, Victoria is the only member of Gen X in the group. That means she grew up before the age of social media, with a degree of privacy the other four princesses will never know. Victoria has studied in France, the United States, and Sweden, where she earned a bachelor's degree in peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University. She also spent time working in various government offices and underwent basic military training in the Swedish Armed Forces.

Victoria married Swedish fitness trainer Daniel Westling in 2010, who is now known as Crown Prince Daniel. They have two children: Princess Estelle, 11, and Prince Oscar, 7. Estelle is second in the line of succession after her mother, the first Swedish princess to be designated heir apparent from birth. Until 1980, boys jumped to the head of the Swedish royal line of succession over their older sisters. Carl XVI Gustaf, for example, became king in 1973 even though he has four older sisters. 

The law changed when Sweden’s parliament passed the 1979 Act of Succession to facilitate royal gender equality. The parliament also made the new law retroactive, which caused a stir. Victoria’s younger brother, Carl Philip, was born four months before the law passed. The boy had already been named Crown Prince, but under the new law, Victoria replaced Carl Philip as heir apparent. Carl XVI Gustaf has stated, as recently as January 2023, that he disagrees with the law being applied retroactively, but added that he supports Victoria in her role as Crown Princess.

- Samantha Drake

[the-force-awakens]

No but, I agree with you! Imo, Poe could out fly every pilot we see in canon. Luke and Anakin are great flyers because they use the Force to help them. While Poe's a great flyer out of pure skill.

If you put Luke and Anakin against Poe (without them wielding the Force) Poe would win. If you put Luke and Anakin against Poe in a scenario where Poe has the Force along with Luke and Anakin, he'd still win.

I'm not shading Luke or Anakin, I think they're incredible flyers, but I think Poe's raw talent and skill gets overlooked.

awh now you're really poking my most toxic trait: my unshakable belief he could outfly Anakin.

I really do think he might have a shot at beating or at least tying with Luke, with or without Luke using the Force because.....frankly? Canon has kind of gone out of its way a few times to show Poe do things we've only seen Luke do — or retroactively, in the comics, show Luke do things we've only seen Poe do in the movies.

When it comes to his raw skill, the Takodana sequence speaks for itself (thirteen targets in succession!!!), but I'm also partial for that moment in TLJ when he and Leia are on comms, right before he hangs up on her (bc if you didn't hear the order it's not really disobeying it right?? right) when he flies through....i don't know, whatever that sticky uppy thing on the Dreadnought is, with ease all while holding a conversation with Leia.

Poe just, factually, flies like no one else in Star Wars does, which is kind of fucking insane when you consider he is allegedly not force sensitive. Oscar made some fucking points dubbing him the best fricking pilot in the galaxy.

[theconstantsidekick]

an example of my red flag now.

my hot take on the ken getting nominated while barbie getting snubbed thing is that ken should have ALSO BEEN SNUBBED.

give ryan a retroactive oscar for blade runner 2049.

i said what i said

[marciabrady]

Hey, I saw your response regarding Walt Disney. I recently read how he dropped Bobby Driscoll a few months after Peter Pan came out. His contract was far from expiring. It didn’t make sense to me and I felt so bad about Bobby’s early death. I was just wondering if you’ve read about this and if so, how does it make you feel about Walt?

Hi there! This is an interesting question and I'm glad you learning about Bobby- his life is definitely a fascinating one. I've known about Bobby for some time and I've heard people speak about it who knew him, Walt, and his family. Ultimately, what Bobby went through wasn't okay and should never be treated as anything other than the atrocity it was. When it comes to child stars though, it's difficult to just blame one person- for instance, those who have endeared themselves to Judy Garland or Elizabeth Taylor tend to pit all of their problems on the back of Louis B. Mayer, and while Mayer was indeed controversial, there were also people like Katharine Hepburn who said that he was a very fine man that was extremely fair and, in the case of Judy specifically, most of her problems seemed to boil down to her mother.

Ultimately, there are too many moving parts to try to pin down one cause as-to what happened so I'm not entirely comfortable with scapegoating Walt. From what I understand, Bobby was developing acne and was growing out of the little boy parts that made him famous so he wasn't marketable anymore to continue playing the types of roles that he did and that was what lead to them terminating his contract. The film industry is a business, so as harsh as that is, it happens to a lot of child stars unfortunately and it's close to impossible to say whether that was Walt's actual decision, or he was just the one that had to deliver the news to Bobby, or if a creative team behind Walt made the decision and he's getting pinned with it because he was the face of Disney. Like I said, all of these things are really difficult to say because...for instance, with Adriana Caselotti- even though we'd heard Walt blacklisted her, she also brought him up favorably, calling upon his spirit when she needed help, guidance, or to perfect a recording when she continued to voice Snow White. When they backdoored her by bringing Snow White on the Oscars with another voice actress, when they brought her in to voice a deleted scene and then used that for reference for her replacement without telling her and edited her out, and even when she sued Disney for not giving her a proceed of the VHS sales, she almost always said: "Walt wouldn't have permitted this." Even Ilene Woods pretty much ghosted the company after the way that they mistreated her and there was a lot of shady business from other executives that Walt took the fall for at the time, when he never perpetuated it in the first place and she continued to speak about him extremely favorably for the rest of her life. So, like I said, it's really hard to retroactively pin the tragedy of someone's life on one person. If Walt was complicit, that wasn't okay and there was a lot of inappropriate things that happened in the film industry in general at that time period, and even now, that we're still trying to correct. That's also why no one should ever blindly idolize a human, as we're all capable of fault. Ultimately, like I said, I don't view Walt's entire life on the spectrum of one decision he did or didn't make and I think the contributions he gave to the world and the joy and imagination he filled it with in other aspects of his life are the things I'm grateful for.

[akasha-terminal]

I have finally played through the 3.2 Archon Quest and recollected my thoughts enough to write down my “review” of it, because I do surprisingly have some things to say. Naturally, unreasonably long text and spoilers below the cut, so proceed with caution.

First of all, I will say that the Archon Quest plotline left me with a more positive impression and it had its own share of moments I appreciated. I think the part where Traveller went on little missions with Alhaitham, Cyno and Dehya individually gave a good opportunity to showcase their personalities and modus operandi a little more, and I loved the Scaramouche characterization in the dialogue with him in As by a God's Side, especially his attitude towards Haypasia - he was already a very interesting character to me, but that gave him even more depth, considering his struggle to be accepted and find his place in the world (I am even considering writing out a separate post about Scaramouche character analysis to discuss this further).      Another note on characterization - I like the direction Hoyoverse went with Alhaitham and how he was presented to us. In Jnagarbha Day part, where he “betrays” Travelller, while I clocked immediately that he was pulling an Oscar-worthy performance, Alhaitham’s generally sus disposition throughout the entire plot left me with the fainted doubt that he might double-triple-wharever cross us and betray for good for the greater good had the confrontation with Azar not gone according to plan (which I think is borderline canon tbh, he does have a certain “end justifies the means” streak to him).     Also, while Nahida is still nowhere near being my favorite character, neither design, nor personality-wise, this Archon Quest gave her some more depth in her more calculating moments - think the battle with Shouki No Kami Scaramouche and her later negotiations with Dottore. I can appreciate how compassionate Nahida is to her people, but that is what I thought was missing from her in the previous Archon Quest, given that she is the God of Wisdom.     And, of course, I cannot avoid mentioning the lore information we got at the end of the Archon Quest, both pertaining to Traveller’s sibling and “the sky of Teyvat is fake” thing, which I am glad made a comeback not in a time-limited early game event, hence giving that important (in my opinion) information about the world to all players, and not just lore freaks like me. Traveller’s sibling not being considered a Descender is very intriguing to me, I’ll be honest. I think it may have been some sort of retroactive change, but either way, looking forward to seeing where this is going. Oh, and another theory of mine is that Alice might be a Descender too, but that is something I suspected for a while now.

    Now, after I got the positives I wanted to point out separately out of the way, let me talk about some of the issues I had with the 3.2 Archon Quest. There’s really two big problems I want to mention going forward, the first being Nilou’s place in the story. Her involvement in the plan felt somewhat rushed to me, like the developers wanted to include her but weren’t sure on how to do that apart from general ideas. This feeling didn’t gissappear from me even after the flashback to the planning session in Aaru village, where it was shown they had intended to involve her from the beginning, it still looked like they grabbed the first random performer they saw and just… gave her their plan details? Also, don’t get me wrong, I like Nilou and I am glad she was featured in the Archon Quest + the scene where she danced in front of the Academia, and all the students/researchers applauded her, with even the guards hesitating to arrest her was beautiful in my opinion (and made a wonderful point about appreciation for arts being a part of human nature no matter what, and that even the “brainwashing” techniques employed by the Academia would not be able to change that). I guess, what I mean is that I wish she was involved earlier and had more time to actually bond with the rest of the cast. I know she was a big part of a previous Archon Quest, thus the players are already familiar with her, but the same doesn’t apply to Alhaitham and Cyno, so that gave me a bit of a whiplash. If that makes sense.    Another issue I have is the one I have seen other people bring up as well - the boss fight with Scaramouche was really underwhelming. The mechanics of the first phase were somewhat confusing to me at first, but I figured that out, what was more disappointing is that the boss himself was too weak? Even without having a full idea on how to fight him properly I basically breezed through him. Ever since the first leaks of Scara’s boss model, people (me included) had a lot of expectations of it, but for me personally none of them were met. The design looked great, but the battle went too quickly, I wish he was stronger. I loved the fight with Childe, and I have a very clear and painful memory of having to redo the fight with Signora four times because she kept kicking my ass, and Balladeer has a higher assigned number in Fatui ranks, which implies he should be stronger, or at least on the same power level as them?

    Overall, it was a nice Archon Quest, especially regarding the lore drops, even if some details were lacking to me personally :]

[robinruns]

My thoughts on Taylor, as of late

In my opinion, people don't need to speak on every single thing someone else in their life is saying or doing. The issue I have, though, is the fact that she started hanging out with Matty, and has continued to do so, long after his racist and gross comments came to light. When she found out she could have cut him off, but she chose to stay around him.

My friend made the comment the other day that this might be a contractual PR relationship. If that's the case, Taylor needs to fire whoever thought this would be a good idea. I know those sorts of things happen WAAAAAY more often than you'd think, but still. Taylor, look at how frustrated, disgusted, mad, sad your fans are! And maybe more importantly to you, look at how this reflects on you.

And that's the thing, with the announcement of Midnights version 29173, we know she sees what people are saying because she went back in to re-record Snow At The Beach with Lana! Yes I'm sure the new version of Karma (the irony) with Ice Spice was recorded a while back, but again, the fucking optics of it all. It would make a lot more of an impact if Taylor took this moment to let us know that she doesn't tolerate racists and that Matty was out of her life. But he's not so...

And I know the swifties who come for every single person who dares critique Taylor, love to scream about people just making it about her relationships, so I won't. I have PLENTY of critiques about her business dealings too.

I'm not gonna criticize someone, especially a woman, wanting to achieve high levels of success. I've got no problem with a singer branching out into other forms of media. But her recent attempts toward getting recognition in the movie world, and potentially an EGOT if that's her goal, is getting... hamfisted feels like the wrong word here (but it is like 4:45 am right now so forgive me if this isn't my most concise take ever). Carolina wasn't that good of a song, and the movie it was for wasn't it either. Trying to get an Oscar nom for 10 Minute All Too Well? I mean it doesn't hurt to try, but do you really need to do that? Do you really think it was Oscar worthy? It was a good, emotional music video. But if those are the qualifications, I demand a retroactive nomination for The Ghost of You by MCR. That made me feel more in a lot less time. Just saying.

Then we get to the cluster fuck that has been the Midnights era. My list of grievances is long. To start, the fact that no lead single was released ahead of the album is really presumptuous. I know it was a move to say "look how much I can sell without even releasing anything!" But it's frustrating as a fan. Give us something!

And then allllll the different versions. Good lord. So first she announces the album, pre-sales go up. Then a week later "oh yea, here are three more variants!" Two weeks later "Did you get all 4 versions? Because they make a clock!!" Girl we get it, it's called Midnights, this is clearly just a ploy to sell more records to people YOU KNOW will buy multiple copies of the same thing!! Two weeks later "Want a signed version? Now you can order those too!" Then somewhere in there she announces a Target exclusive version with an exclusive song (and two alternate versions of songs on the album). Seriously? So now there are FIVE different variants people can buy and the difference is there is 1 extra song on 1 version.

This is exploiting fans. She knows that people will buy all four and make that dumb clock because she sold kits to put it up on your wall and make it a literal clock! Stringing out the announcements like that is only artificially driving up the sales too so she can say "look how much I sold!"

Then! This one really pissed me off, The 3 AM edition. So after all those versions trickled out, the album drops and "SURPRISE here's ANOTHER version of the album for you to download with all these songs that aren't on ANY of the 5 albums you already bought! And no, they won't be available outside the US."

Come on.

And that's not getting into the 10000 different remixes she has been releasing for all the singles, again doing nothing but driving up numbers. There's making art and earning a living, and then there's exploiting a dedicated fanbase that will spend everything they have just to show support.

And that's what they did when the Eras Tour was announced. Yes I know Ticketmaster was very much to blame for this. Yes Ticketmaster is a disgusting monopoly and needs to be taken down, but that doesn't change she was at the center of it. That doesn't change that she chose to leave dynamic pricing in place, driving up the cost of seats. Not that they were cheap to begin with! But since my friends and I would have to travel at least a few hours, get a hotel, etc, I quickly lost interest in it all. Yes an artist, as they reach the pinnacle of their career, will have more and more expensive tickets, it's expected, but from my perspective, it feels more like watching a dragon sit on its hoard of gold. The only thought given toward the fan seems to be "Well they'll buy it, so I'll sell it!"

And lastly, we know that Taylor knows how to stay out of the spotlight. She did it from 2016 through the majority of 2017. She made an album at that time, she came and went from her homes in that time. But now she can't move without there being a massive pack of fans. We get it, you want to be seen now, so don't cry to us over a lack of privacy at this point. If you really liked Matty you could hide the relationship away instead of flaunting it for the world (Joe) to see. You want us to see you with that edgelord. So do you really care about what your fans feel? Or do you just care how much they'll spend? Because no amount of good songwriting is going to top that.

[romanken]

Ok that ate........ not as scary as I expected but superrrr effective as a thriller/suspense movie and still pretty scary especially early on bc of those huge frames full of empty space where you're searching the whole thing for the jumpscare. amazing opening sequence and the action pieces esp that hospital one were really well done. The dinner scene!!! Gasped out loud. Thought some of the later plot decisions were a bit dicey but who cares if they're in service of that ending. Elizabeth moss retroactive oscar campaign starts now. Extremely common leigh slay!

[thenightling]

Monster High Live action movie

I thought this year’s Oscars were boring so I decided to watch the live-action Monster High musical movie from this past October.   I’m writing this while watching so you’re going to be reading my thoughts as I watch in a stream of consciousness.   I can tell the movie was created with the G3 dolls in mind as it uses the idea of Clawdeen being “half-human” which doesn’t make sense with werewolves.  You either are a werewolf or you’re not...  They should have made Draculaura the half-human.  Dhampirs (half-human / half-vampire off-spring) are a thing in folklore.  They should have just had it like the Harry Potter stories where there’s bigotry against half-bloods and mud-bloods.  

Honestly, it’s kind of nostalgic.  It reminds me of some of the stuff they made for teens in the 90s. I feel a little weird being forty-one and watching “Monster HIgh” but my childhood love of monsters wished this existed when I was a kid.

I actually think the music in this is better than Disney’s Descendants (which isn’t saying much because I find the music in those annoying).    Dracula is funny.   As he’s dropping off Draculaura “Remember, I was top of my class.  And my father, his father, and his father were all top of their class here.” Draculaura: “I get it, Dad.  There’s no pressure.” Dracula:  “Yes, there is pressure. They’re all still undead and they call me!” The CG is pretty terrible.  And I keep having to try to force myself to forget the movie is to sell a line of monster dolls. I think I got a little spoilt by Wednesday (Addams) because they made a better Monster High than Monster High. I do think I like the music though.   Okay, I do NOT like the idea of Dracula thinking of the use of magick as an abomination and “human practice.”  Whoever wrote that into the story clearly never read the Dracula novel.  In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula had attended Scholomance, which literally means “School of Magick.”  A monster school being anti-witchcraft is incredibly stupid to me. I also love that Frankie is now nonbinary.  Having one of the monsters go by they / them is a good update.  And because they are the child of the Frankenstein monster you can easily side-step the fanatical, conservative, backlash by reminding the potential complainers that this character IS made of the parts of several dead people.  An alternate reason to be they / them.   The school is a boarding school like it was in G2, which had its own movie, but it was a CG animated movie called “Welcome to Monster High.”  I guess each new generation / wave / line of the dolls gets its own tie-in movie.  But this one has the Headless Mistress from the original line of the dolls, instead of Dracula running the school. Again, I feel spoilt by the Wednesday (Addams) series. It actually did this better.

  I guess this version of Draculaura isn’t a vegan (like she was in the first line of the dolls).  As they show her getting jellied newts from the vending machine. I do like the idea that the school, itself, is alive.   I like that Frankie is the sweet nerd in this.  But I sort of miss Ghoulia fitting that role.  And it’s weird hearing Ghoulia talk instead of just groaning like a zombie.

Also I just realized I’ve been spelling Clawdeen’s name wrong.  It’s Clawdeen, not Clawdine.  I’m correcting it now but I won’t retroactively correct old posts about the doll line. I do love the Crypt Keeper-esque horror puns clearly “borrowed” from Tales from the Crypt and House of Mystery. This is clearly written by people of my age or older because there are so many not-so-subtle jokes about how many kids “only communicate through their phones.”  The 2010 version of the dolls (and web series) didn’t behave like that.

There’s a lot of painfully bad green screen.

Hey the Mr. Hyde song steals the beat from “We Will Rock you.”  Shame on you, Monster High live action movie for thinking I wouldn’t notice you sampled from Queen (before the song changes). 

Based on the Hyde scene, I guess Jackson Jekyll isn’t in this version of Monster High. Oh, wait... That teacher with the horns... is HE Jekyll in disguise?  Yeah, I’m dumb... That’s obviously him... Ghoulia groans and moans when she’s woken up in the cemetery but it’s not the same as when she only spoke “Zombie language.”  Where did they get the whole “vampires at war with witches” thing?   Vampire Diaries?  Discovery of Witches?   It works in that lore but not with Dracula.   Pretty much every version of Dracula knows at least a little magick.

  I like Draculaura practicing magick but having it as forbidden and hated by Dracula is stupid to me.  

Okay... Dracula and Draculaura communicate via enchanted portraits... Umm... that’s witchcraft.  But Dracula is anti-witchcraft. Cognitive Dissonance.  Too bad this thing isn’t deep enough to notice. Yet again, I am sorry to say I think Wednesday (Addams) does Monster High better than Monster High.

Okay, I just finished watching and... it was cute.  I had a little trouble getting past the whole “vampires hate magick” thing but at least they made Dracula a character and most of the hamfisted bigotry allegories were resolved by the end. The music was actually decent and some of it catchy. I like “Coming out of the Dark.”  it reminds me of the original Monster High Theme song,  

Actually I was a little surprised they didn’t do a cover of the 2010 Monster High: Fright Song (the original theme song for Monster High).

I found the original song on youtube just now but I actually had to put “Monster High 2010 song” in the search because it was buried under all the songs from the live action movie. It was cute and a little shallow but still sweet for a movie based on a doll line and again, I’m glad they let Dracula actually be a character in it and not just off-handedly mentioned like he was in the first generation of the doll line and web series.  And they didn’t make him so much like Hotel Transylvania’s Dracula like they did in the second generation of the dolls and CG animated movies.  This version of Dracula felt like he stepped out of the comedy What we do in the Shadows, which I love.  

I still think Wednesday Addams is handling this premise better though.     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGawAhRjtoA 

[tothelasthoursofmylife]

Sneaky fixes and little stuff I searched while writing

I made many, many messes writing WotQ. Some I corrected retroactively, e.g., Oscar was originally called "Chief Detective Superintendent Livingstone" in Captured although the title didn't exist yet when he was working at Scotland Yard.

In Chapter 1, I changed a sentence from "Cloudia put out her fan, which she had got by her cousin Constantia as a gift after she had visited Japan" to "Cloudia put out her fan, which she had got from her cousin Cathleen as a gift after she had received the opportunity to visit a small island in Japan". I sneakily fixed the grammar issue, the cousin (I honestly didn't even remember that I accidentally wrote Constantia instead until I looked up that sentence again... it was always supposed to be Cathleen), and included an explanation of how Cathleen could go to Japan during Sakoku (the small island is Dejima, the only place foreigners could visit; I mentioned that in the Freebird notes).

Most recently, I fixed this sentence from Captured while writing Destruction: "Say, Oscar, when was the last time we all have been here?" which, of course, does not make any sense because Cecelia is talking about the AoE gathering for the Hanged Men Case which was in London. They obviously wouldn't have come together at the manor then! (It's now "Say, Oscar, when was the last time we all have been together?")

Sometimes, I announce fixes if they're larger, but sometimes I just do it without a word... I updated the Ao3 version multiple times to fix small issues here and there. (I never fix up the chapters on tumblr, unless I catch an error right after posting. Like the stupid (but minor) Zucchini 2 mistake orz) For last year's anniversary, I rid myself of a set of sentences that have been bothering me for years in Frightening. Their removal did nothing but ease my mind. I also changed the wagon number in Ecstasy from Yvette and Jacques being four wagons ahead to five while puzzling out Locomotive Run.

I never do retroactive fixes that change up anything of consequence though, i.a. because that would be mean (how would anyone be able to figure anything out if everything kept changing retroactively? this isn't the One-Punch Man manga).

Other times, I cannot change a mistake retroactively because doing so would mean severe rewrites, e.g., the zucchini issue. Or, to add to the endless talk about trains, the corridor coach issue that began with Laughing Together, as I mentioned in the Ecstasy notes.

(As a background: I received The Wolves of Willoughby Chase when I was ten years old and reread it a lot in the following few years, but haven't done so in very long. It's a lovely book (Simon is an artist because of the Simon in that book! Though he wasn't named after him but after another fictional Simon.), and I was convinced the "only" changed historical aspect was the addition of wolves. Early on, a character takes a train with corridor coaches and gets told to "use the handbrake" if a stranger talks to her. If only I had bothered to open the book and check the author's note before writing Laughing Together all these years ago... You know, the author's note that starts with: "This book is set in a time of English history that has never existed - shortly after the coronation of Jacob III the Good in 1832." Well, at least that idiocy brought me Locomotive Run. (I've also since found out there's a whole trope about wrong train depictions. It's very common to get them wrong, apparently.))

It's ultimately all little stuff no one cares about but me. Apart from the one time, someone on FF.net told me that the Catholic Marcel could not possibly have children, no one has ever pointed anything out to me. He's a Protestant now, and I really wish I had just said Nicolette was his orphaned niece and not his daughter orz (Oh, and others pointed out the "verdadero" bit in Meeting the Queen, saying it was wrong - but that's their mistake, not mine.)

Anyway, all that has made me question myself a lot and I now google and check stuff more while writing. (That, of course, only reduces the amount of mess ups instead of completely eliminating them...)

Some stuff I can remember from the top of my head (and that I haven't mentioned in chapter notes yet; I did rather thorough ones lately, so there's not much else, I think):

"Now, at least, they weren’t packed like sardines in a can." (Locomotive Run) -> Were sardines canned in 1848? Yes, canned fish has been a thing since the late 18th century.

Parts of a train. (Locomotive Run) -> Looked up train vocabulary, particularly for the front bit where the driver is (the cab) and the most front "wagon" (that's the locomotive).

Parts of a church. (Malady 3) -> To be able to better describe their movement within the church. Nave, ambulatory, etc.

"down the rabbit hole" -> I remember that I wanted to use that idiom in Cloudia's POV while she was in the Witch's Castle, though cannot recall when/where exactly. I removed it because Alice in Wonderland came out in 1865, and that idiom didn't exist beforehand. (Cedric's POV includes "I fell into the rabbit hole to the Land of Sleep" in Travelling. He has Grim Reaper privileges, so it works here! I like having fun with his POV and including modern stuff, e.g. Merci Chocolate (existed since 1965) in Locomotive Run and Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion in Ecstasy.)

utility belt (Ecstasy, Locomotive Run) -> Milton has one of them. They came to be in the late 19th century (before, people did put stuff in their normal belts, but not in the Batman way, of course...) A very deliberate little anachronism on my side :) Just like...

radar technology (Destruction) -> No Overseas Watchdog Mission without some radar technology! This time dubiously provided by Milton. The history of radar didn't start until 1886 with Heinrich Hertz's experiments. (I actually looked up Ch97 of the manga again as a reference.) I just wrote whatever in the draft before looking up (more) accurate terminology. (You might have noticed that Cedric always calls the machine a "receiver" in his POV when Cloudia does not because of his GR privileges! Cloudia, however, does use display/screen because I couldn't think of a better word for her. Though I did reduce those instances a bit from draft to finished chapter.)

I once thought about doing a joke with Oscar putting on Tchaikovsky's July: Song of the Reaper when Cedric was around to mess with him. Unfortunately, it came out in 1876, so I can't do it. (Though Cedric could listen to it at some point!)

Another music-related joke that did not make it: When Kamden tells Cloudia that his latest crush's name is Elise in Affection, I wanted her to mention the Beethoven composition, "Für Elise". However, while it was composed in 1810, it was not published until 1867. I did write that bit though before removing it. I put it under the cut.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Only an hour,” he replied as they climbed the stairs. “And there weren’t many people here today. Only a couple and E…” Kamden cut himself off, and Cloudia didn’t have to see his face to know he was blushing.

She grinned. “‘E’ is such a lovely, simplistic name, though I prefer Chalchiuhtlicue.”

He hesitated before he said, “Her name is Elise.”

“That’s a very pretty name too. Sharing a name with a Beethoven composition is wonderful, but it must be awfully annoying to always be reminded of it – even worse if you play an instrument,” said Cloudia. They reached the apartment and walked through the narrow corridor to the living room. “For the rest of your life, everyone will request the same song from you. If this wasn’t such a maddening affair, I guess more people would name their children ‘Appassionata’ or ‘Moonlight Sonata.’ Even the inconspicuous ‘Thérèse’ comes with eternal haunting.”

Cloudia sat down on a sofa, but Kamden remained by the door. “She was indeed named after the bagatelle,” he said sheepishly.

----

And another version where I elaborated on Chalchiuhtlicue instead before deciding to scrap that too:

“She’s left, and I closed the shop for today,” said Kamden, blissfully unaware of Cloudia’s thoughts, and only then did Cloudia notice that the shop had emptied.

“Isn’t it a bit early?” Cloudia asked and took his hand, letting herself be pulled through the row of shelves to the staircase in the back that led to Kamden’s flat above.

“Only an hour,” he replied as they climbed the stairs. “And there weren’t many people here today. Only a couple and E…” Kamden cut himself off, and Cloudia didn’t have to see his face to know he was blushing.

She grinned. “‘E’ is such a lovely, simplistic name, though I prefer Chalchiuhtlicue.”

He hesitated before he said, “Her name is Elise.”

“Still a very beautiful name, but not comparable to the name of an Aztec goddess,” said Cloudia. They reached the apartment and walked through the narrow corridor to the living room where Cloudia promptly sat down on a sofa; Kamden remained by the door.

“Would you ever name a child after an Aztec deity?” Kamden asked.

“Why not? It’s not any different than naming children after Greek or Roman mythological figures,” Cloudia replied. “My own mother is a perfect example. And if someone cannot be bothered to try pronouncing ‘Chalchiuhtlicue’ or ‘Ītzpāpālōtl’ – or, for a boy, ‘Piltzintecuhtli’ – as correctly as they’re able to, I would not want them anywhere near my hypothetical children anyway.”

“You’re right,” Kamden said softly. “And ‘Chalchiuhtlicue’ is a pretty name,” he continued with a proud glint in his eyes.

“Though, I guess, to you, it’s not as pretty as ‘Elise.’” Cloudia teased, and Kamden’s face reddened.