#there's some episodes that I really want to find the scripts for someday...

[writebackatya]

Do you think there should be justice for Alistair Boorswan?

#ReleaseTheBoorswanCut #ReleaseTheDeweyDuckCut

Oh Boorswan, I do legitimately feel bad for him but at the same time I find his situation hilarious. I loved him as a one-time character but he was someone who I would have loved to see return. Mainly because Edgar Wright (director of some of my favorite action comedies) was casted as him which for another layer of funny, was almost the director of Ant-Man but left the project since Disney didn’t want to make the movie he wanted to make. I always looked at this role and the whole episode as a giant middle finger to Disney for the way they treat their creative people

But back to Boorswan because I find him to be a fascinating character in his own right. Something that didn’t really occur to me till like my second or third time watching the episode is that Boorswan himself, is a Darkwing Duck fan and does have an understanding of the character

Mind you, my first watchthrough of the episode I had not watch a single episode of Darkwing Duck prior, it wasn’t till after I finished DuckTales 2017 I started to watch DT87 and DWD. (So if anyone tells you that people only like the Darkwing Duck episodes cause of nostalgia, tell those dummies they are wrong! Both episodes are phenomenal and don’t rely on nostalgia to carry their episodes)

Anyway, Boorswan’s take on Darkwing Duck as a sorta anti-hero while a bit edgy (he’s definitely a riff on Christopher Nolan but I also love to think there’s a bit of Zack Snyder in him too, he’s so pretentious!) isn’t too far off. In the original show, Darkwing Duck isn’t a beloved superhero at all. He has his fans for sure, but he’s mostly seen as a nuisance by the average St. Canard citizen.

But of course Darkwing Duck means well for the most part. He can be very egotistical in pretty much every episode. He has a lot of flaws. And honestly I have an understanding where Boorswan was coming from with his take

Something I would love to see explore if he were to return would be his relationship with Drake Mallard. Clearly Drake was not a fan of Boorswan’s vision and Alistair obviously saw something in Drake to cast him as the titular character in his overbudget movie.

It just makes me wonder how often Drake spoke up about some of Boorswan’s creative decisions as well as how Alistair responded to his star’s criticisms. Creating any form of art with multiple people can be difficult, heads are gonna butt since everyone has their own creative vision

I think it would be funny if Alistair Boorswan does not recognize Drake Mallard when he’s Darkwing Duck in St. Canard because that Darkwing Duck is nothing like the one he imagined for his movie

Also I love to think Alistair Boorswan blames Dewey and solely Dewey for his project getting cancelled. Just because I think it’d be funny if there was yet another adult that has beef with a preteen duck. Honestly, I think Alistair should be a sorta anti-hero to reflect his art. He lives in his own world and has a creative vision he wants to share and will do whatever it takes to make it happen. He’s kinda like Dewey when you think about it.

But the short answer, yes I do think he deserves some sort of justice. In fact, I’m working on a fic that I really need to continue working on right now where basically no one except him (and a few others) wants the Darkwing Duck movie to be made so instead he reworks his script into a Gizmoduck Movie

Someday I will finish it. Someday.

[amelikos]

Speculation and general talk about the upcoming episodes (HZ064 and HZ065)!

For information, the title for HZ064 is "Mount Napper, the Creeping Shadow" and the title for HZ065 is "Liko and Amethio". Currently (at the time I am writing these lines), there are no available summaries or staff list for these episodes, so I'll just talk about random stuff that comes to mind that I'm trying to connect to what could happen or what direction I think the writers could take.

For starters, I am a bit giddy over the title for HZ065 because I thought several times "wow, wouldn't it be neat if we had an episode title that was just 'Liko and Amethio' someday" but brushed off the idea ww Only for the writers to go "we'll give you what you want, actually", so thank you for this at whoever who decided to make this happen. I've had a "Liko and Amethio" tag on here for a while and now it actually turns out to be an episode title! And it feels a bit special to just have the names of the characters with nothing else in the title, it really emphasizes the focus on them both or their connection... I don't remember it happening much in the anime! Usually, when we have the names of two characters, it's a "VS" episode (a battle), or they add other words in the title. Anyway, it's neat. AmeLiko brain go brrr etc.

For the staff list: I expect this episode to be written by either Kureha Matsuzawa (script coordinator) or Dai Sato (main writer). If it's an Amethio episode, I think it'll involve these writers... Last time Dai Sato was on the screenplay for an episode, it was HZ046. Kureha Matsuzawa's most recent episode was HZ057.

In terms of episode numbers etc, I think going forward we can expect a gap of roughly ten episodes between Amethio's appearances? It's been pretty consistent so far. He appeared in the first six episodes of the series, and then there was a gap of 15 episodes before his next appearance which was HZ021 (but he was mentioned a few times by other characters). The show needed to introduce the other Explorers before making him come back (which happened between HZ012 and HZ016, which had Spinel appearing and then the other Explorers were revealed and talked). Chapter 2 had him appear at the beginning, then HZ034 and then a gap of roughly ten episodes and he showed up in the finale. Afterwards, his appearance was in HZ054 and now I expect him to show up in HZ064 (the title mentions a shadow creeping). So yeah, a gap of ten episodes sounds reasonable and can be expected going forward.

Again with episode numbers: so far, we've had "prominent" Liko and Amethio scenes in HZ025 (Liko and Amethio scene with Terapagos, though that one was mostly prominent at the end of HZ024), HZ045 (Liko thanking Amethio for saving her) and now HZ065. Twenty episodes between each of these scenes.

In terms of broadcast dates: September last year also had Amethio appearing after a while. More specifically, the first two episodes of September 2023 featured his return. HZ021 (aired September 8, 2023) being Liko bonding and capturing Mibrim and deciding what kind of trainer she wanted to be (Amethio showed up at the end of that episode), and HZ022 (aired September 15, 2023) had Friede vs Amethio in the Galar Mine and they ended up stuck together there. I think it would be funny if this time, Amethio gets stuck together with Liko one year (in broadcast time) after he got stuck in the Galar Mine with Friede. His dynamics with Friede and Liko are the ones I find most intriguing and compelling for his character (in terms of bonding with the heroes), so... more opportunities for interactions with them, please.

I mentioned here a while ago that I found Liko facing Grusha interesting given that his personality could be reminiscent of Amethio's on some level (the cold type of character), so I find the placement of episodes very interesting because Liko is going to meet Amethio right after she faces Grusha. I wonder if the similarities between them will be highlighted in the narrative itself, but even if they don't, the narrative choice/placement of episodes speak for themselves. Since Liko is going to learn about Grusha's past. This promo for HZ063 (translation here) shows that Liko and the others see Grusha as cold and harsh, but they will find out that he used to be smiling more in the past. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case for Amethio in the past. We haven't really seen him smile so far, but I imagine that he was different when he was younger. Maybe? Maybe Liko will learn a bit more about Amethio as a person in HZ065, and her facing Grusha is planting the seeds for that. I think it would be nice if the current training arc and facing the gym leaders adds more to the Explorers side of things! They've done that a bit Sango and Onyx so far (letting us know more about their views on victory etc back in HZ055), so if Grusha is meant to parallel Amethio, it would be interesting.

This is just speculation, but I wonder if Liko is going to fail her implementation test in HZ063. In that case, either the rematch happens in HZ064 or it happens AFTER her meeting with Amethio. Which would be interesting. At the very least, for me, I find it compelling when characters face obstacles/walls and try to overcome them and Liko having to try again and face Grusha a second time could be good. Amethio has been a "prominent figure", figuratively, in Liko's path as a trainer (facing him being her motivation to grow stronger in HZ007, catching her first Pokemon and deciding what kind of trainer she wanted to be in HZ021 coinciding with his return, being motivated to learn Terastal after seeing Soublades in HZ045 etc). So if she fails her implementation test and meets Amethio in this specific context, I think it would be neat. Something about reaffirming her desire to grow stronger and be more helpful to everyone. And Amethio has faced the frustration of losing/failing before, so. (These are just ramblings at this point.)

Something, something about Liko bonding a bit more with Sango at the beginning of the arc (HZ047) and now having an opportunity to bond a bit more with Amethio towards the end of the arc. Sango is always relevant with me. Sango has been one of the closest Explorers to Liko so far, and I do consider her personal connection to Liko relevant to both their characters. This arc in general is showing us a bit more of Sango and Onyx and I think it shows us more their human and casual sides... I do think both of them are the closest to "friendship" with Liko and the others at this point. So I wonder if HZ065 will be an opportunity for the beginning of "friendship" between Liko and Amethio? I don't know. I think so far, Amethio feels more like "someone who can be an ally under the right circumstances" rather than "friend" and his setting as a character is different than, say, Sango and Onyx's so the expectations aren't the same. Like, his interactions with the group are more "formal" while characters like Sango and Onyx can argue about food with Liko and Roy (which is hilarious). Either way, I'm glad that we had Liko having one on one interactions with Sango at the beginning of the arc, and now potentially one on one interactions with Amethio. Liko is getting a bit closer to them.

Speaking of, I wonder if this episode will mostly feature one on one interactions between Liko and Amethio? The only time they got to interact without anyone around was at the beginning of the series... when Amethio was lying to her lmao. In between that, other characters were around usually. Their last interaction was Liko thanking Amethio and him telling her not to misunderstand his intentions in HZ045. I think it would be neat if they got to interact a bit more "privately" so we get a sense of how they are and how they would act in these specific circumstances. Liko grew a lot since the beginning of the series and I wonder how she would handle a potential situation where she is stuck together with an enemy(?) (not confirmed that this is what will happen, btw). Will Amethio call her by name? Or will it not be brought up because they will save him calling her by name for a special occasion? Will Liko get to interact with Amethio's Pokemon? How will Liko's Pokemon react to Amethio?

Also, what is Amethio doing in the snowy mountains? I assume that this is where him and Liko will be. Is he training? Will he help Liko train? Will he antagonize Liko? Will we see him with his usual outfit or will he be wearing something else like a coat? Is he spying on Spinel, still? Is he monitoring Liko and the others? That was mostly Sango, Onyx and Agate's mission. So maybe their meeting will be a coincidence.

HZ065 will be "Liko and Amethio". I think there will be four episodes left in this arc after that. New chapter will begin in October (because that's when seasonal anime start usually), and I still think HZ070 will be the beginning of chapter 4 (it needs to begin on a round number ww). Will he stick around until the end of the arc, or will he disappear for one episode or two and then show up again for the climax? Liko and the others should probably go back to school after they finish their tests, so maybe the climax will take place at school? Or somewhere else? We'll see.

Anyway, I think I covered most of what I think so far. This is exciting. I don't know what to expect!

[marshallpupfan]

I try to keep these posts short, but...

A while back, I made a post about challenging myself to write a backstory for Marshall, pretending Brunker/Spin Master asked me to. I know some of you said you'd like to read it, but I'm still not sure if I'll post it or not. Regardless, I'm still working on it, as there are parts I'm not fully satisfied with yet. In truth, I can't decide how to handle the start; I don't want Marshall to be abandoned (like Chase and Skye), but I don't know if I want him to be a stray, either (they've already done that with Rubble). Maybe some ideas will come to me in time...

But the thing is, while I've enjoyed working on this so far, there's actually something else I'd rather do; write a script for an episode of the TV series! In fact, I've been typing down notes and whatnot for a good year now, and I've even pictured many parts of it in my mind. I've even got a perfect title...

"Pups Save the Painting Kitties"

I don't want to say too much, but as you can guess, it'll involve Mayor Humdinger and his Kitten Catastrophe Crew. I even know which pups will be called in as responders, and... er... okay, yes, Marshall will be one of them, of course. Truth be told, I specifically thought up this episode with the intention of giving him plenty to do, since the TV series seems to shy away from this at times. I even came up with a new/fresh way for him to fall off of his ladder, since they don't seem to do that anymore. As for his wipeout, I have one that I think is really, really good. Not to sound arrogant, but I think it could easily be one of the best he's had in a long time.

With all that said, the fact that Marshall's my favorite isn't the only reason he's a responder. The truth is, I also wanted to focus on some of the main six pups that don't get called out as much as the others. This means Rubble and Zuma will also find some/plenty of use in the rescue... but no Chase, Skye or Rocky, since they get called in a ton already. But alongside Marshall, Rubble and Zuma, I also thought about including Everest, since she could use more screen time, too.

I haven't actually started on the script yet... I've only got a bunch of notes for now. Should I work on and finish it, I'd like to make a storyboard to go along with it, too. And, if possible, I'd like to find a way to submit it to Spin Master to get it turned into an actual episode. Okay, I'm not holding my breath on that one, but I can dream, right? Maybe someday, you'll all see my real name on a title card.

I don't know when or if I'll start working on this, so don't get your hopes up too much. For now, I do want to present something to you all, so here's some dialogue I came up with that I rather like!

(Things in [brackets] are notes for me to remember, not part of the actual dialogue. Apologies if it's a little confusing.)

[fountainpenguin]

Who are some of your favorite FOP characters and why? Or more specifically, what is something they character did that made you like them?

For the sake of rambling on about some of the convoluted reasons why I love these children, here's the upfront disclaimer that I'll be referencing a few of the early draft episode scripts (from Fred Seibert's Scribd); that's where the wordy screenshots are from.

[ Tagged as "long post" but same deal as usual - if I put a Read More on it, it'll crash and delete :') Sorry ]

Imaginary Gary was my first true love in terms of FOP characters. He's such a brokenhearted little 5-year-old trying to play with the big kids. His debut episode starts out so lighthearted and silly with Timmy talking about this imaginary friend who used to attend therapy with him play with him when he was 5. The tone shift you get punched with after Gary realizes Cosmo and Wanda have to grant his wishes too because "he's a part of Timmy" just hits so hard.

I also just love his debut episode because it speaks so much to me about what the show is really about at its core... Timmy got physically and emotionally wrecked by Vicky as a kid, and that's a trauma he's still recovering from. The boy is not okay.

Fanart I made the first time I watched FOP, circa 2016

"Escape from Unwish Island" is very good too, such a fantastic episode in both context and execution.

I think Mark was the second show character I fell in love with, namely around "New Squid In Town" and "Five Days of F.L.A.R.G." There's something so incredibly charming about a teenage alien prince who flees his fiancée at the altar and seeks protection from a scary rival boy... and then just, like, enjoys being human so much that sometimes Timmy shows up at his house and Mark is just hanging out in his human 10-year-old disguise. By himself. Because he likes to be 10 and human. Love that for him.

His entire character type of "surfer dude alien prince" is so funny and creative. Mark is the guy who suffers physical pain when he's hugged, but he'll hug Timmy anyway in an attempt to show Earth affection. He has such a good heart. I also enjoy his dynamic with Vicky, like how he still wants the real girl even though his parents cloned her for him in Season 2, and how he keeps making attempts to be physically affectionate with her according to American culture even though things are drastically different on Yugopotamia.

They break up at the end of "King Chang" because she finds out he's an alien, then a few episodes later in "Wishology" they're hanging out again and he tries to put his arm around her while in alien form and she's like "Don't even think about it" and he respects her rejection, and then they still get back together in Season 9 even though she blatantly knows he's an alien and she decided she was okay with it, and he just adores her so much and has ever since Season 1... he's a sweetheart.

Also this early "Foul Balled" script hits the right spot for me-

Sob... they are in LOVE, your honor.

Mark's journey to being a terrifying prince who feared a human boy to becoming Timmy's biggest fan and best friend is just really sweet. I like to imagine they become roommates later in life. Timmy has to say good-bye to Cosmo and Wanda someday, but Mark stays in touch forever.

Flappy Bob has always been a favorite of mine. The man played the perfect role of an untouchable antagonist while simultaneously doing nothing wrong. Worked hard in school, started a business, did his best to make it a pleasant place to be. Stood up for Betty when she told Gary to respect her touch boundaries, straight up chased him down to make sure he didn't cross a line... all-around great boss.

Got handed magic and wished to make the world a safe place where people could feel loved and not get hurt. After his world of peace was in effect, he walked around, did his own research, and came to his own conclusion that this wasn't working out. Apologized to Timmy for being wrong and did all he could to fix the situation. Sold his business to Gary and Betty, then left town to live his dreams.

The clown theme was a lot of fun to see in a movie, and I'm glad it was acknowledged since it would have felt weird to see him namedropped in Season 2 ("Totally Spaced Out") and then not have the clown aspect be followed through with... The Musical is my favorite episode for good reason. Absolute sweetheart, 10 out of 10. This man can do no wrong.

I don't have much to say about him beyond that, but he's a fantastic character I adore. I would have loved to have seen more of him, but he did all that he needed to do and he's perfect. Also, big shout out to Timmy for handling the interactions with Flappy with grace even though in this same season, he revealed he has a clown phobia.

H.P. is just a funny guy. He's the big boss of a race of clones who file magical paperwork and he really just wants to swing by the club and dance and hang out. Incredibly sarcastic. He'll call you "Dude." Teamed up with Anti-Cosmo and immediately dubbed him with a nickname. Successfully took over two worlds in a single day (after planning this for 37 years) and just wanted to chill in a hot tub tbh.

He's a big, sassy goofball who likes to party and he shouldn't be brushed off as "just an old guy who speaks in monotone and does dull and boring paperwork and nothing else." He is very much Not That. Fairies canonically get drunk off soda, which means we've literally seen H.P. drink on the job. Slaps high-fives and fingerguns his underlings. Smirks and snarks constantly. Respects contracts even when they don't go his way. Keeps detailed files about members of another species. Supports his employees when they join music competitions. Gave his godson a nice car and flowers and sent him on a date with a girl he'd already screwed up with.

Literally gambled all of Fairy World in a bet against a 10-year-old boy and then almost quit after like 30 seconds because he wanted to go to a rave instead. Laughs at his own jokes. Complains when his employees suck up to him. Dressed in drag to flirt with Jorgen. Straight-up lost a golf game to Timmy despite the fact he was cheating in an attempt to win. As in, like... even before Cosmo tipped the scales back into Timmy's favor, H.P. was straight-up losing slkdjfs.

He golfs in his full-on business suit. Twirls his club like a baton. His head will stick in a dartboard if you throw him hard enough, and when Jorgen used him for darts the only thing he said was "You can only imagine the joy I feel in my heart right now." He has a laser cannon in his head. Jabs his elbow into you for attention. Always being snooty with hands on his hips. Used a newborn as a yo-yo. Kidnapped a baby, then announced he wanted to name the child Bill because "Bill's a guy you'd trust with your insurance portfolio."

Went out and bought office supplies in the middle of the Fairy World Games. Won a footrace against Anti-Cosmo. Uses dollar bills as pizza toppings. Keeps chicken drumsticks in his ear. Will flap his arms and make chicken noises at you. Monotone "Go me, go me, it's my birthday." Literally makes you use enormous microscopes just to read the fine print in his contracts. Will hand you a cell phone and then call you even though you're standing in front of him. Once wore a bowler hat on top of his already existing hat.

Keeps his golf club on the table during board meetings. Likes to breakdance. Anti-Cosmo started taunting him and H.P. jumped on a scooter and said "The only thing you'll be eating today is my dust! Later dude!" and peaced out. He might be one of the oldest and most "professional" characters in the series, but in his heart he's like 21 and a total party-loving dork. He's all business on the clock and he might even pay attention to you for five minutes, but honestly he just wants to drink soda, attend raves, and do the worm. H.P. is my dear beloved and I just can't imagine not adoring this perfect man.

And he really is just Like That:

I love him so much...

I like how H.P. was totally okay with splitting the world with Sanderson when they take over... When asked WHY he wants to take over, his reply is "I'm not a hater, but I must cater, to my mission, my ambition, to be the world's administrator" and I like to interpret this as "I don't hate Fairies, but their world is disorganized and I have OCD." Oh no. His hat is also a pen.

Also the OG script shows Jorgen, Anti-Cosmo, and H.P. each choosing a contest for Timmy to judge them on so Timmy can name one of them the "best in the universe." I am obsessed with the sheer confidence of H.P. selecting one task in the universe he knew he could beat Jorgen and Anti-Cosmo at, so obviously he picks:

(Anti-Cosmo wanted to play cowboys)

This early script also depicts H.P. and Anti-Cosmo getting in a magic fight and exchanging insults like "Bring it on, meat" and "Oh no you didn't" while they shoot each other with duckzookas and magic and I need everyone to understand how much I treasure the bitter frenemy silliness that is... Them™

Idk, I feel like if H.P. had been portrayed as a younger character with the exact same personality then he'd probably be more popular in the fandom, and that's really too bad because he's freaking hilarious. He is just a guy. A dude. He's here to party and make it everybody's problem. We need way more H.P. content out there, I adore him.

Sanderson I like for many of the same reasons as H.P.- I've always loved dorky suck-up characters. Plus, Sanderson blatantly cheating at every competition he touches is funny to me. He has a similar goofy attitude to H.P. except he's also like, more vulgar and easily distracted and it's hilarious. My boy really broke a rhyme scheme to compliment his boss on the same hat he's been wearing since forever. In his mind, H.P. is just really really cool and he'll say it.

Sanderson loves music, but when he had the chance to describe himself in song form, his response was basically "Lol, I'm about to end Fairy World's whole career; bite me" and I respect that. He is just the perfect embodiment of "that suck-up who likes to drink and party with his boss, but oh wait! He also has a lot of genuine affection in his heart! But oh wait! He'll also screw you over :)" He's great.

I very much enjoy the fact that when Gary called for Pixie backup in the Musical, it was Sanderson, not H.P., who got the call. I like to think Sanderson took Gary and Betty under his wing and might be a little more attached to his dorky music-loving "godkids" than he'd like H.P. to know. H.P. gets to call the shots, but Sanderson will sneak them candy. As Gary starts sliding off the deep end in my 'fics, I think Sanderson's slowly breaking heart is one of my favorite parts of the whole arc. He really likes Gary, but his hands are tied on how much he can interfere even when his mental health comes crashing down. He's a high-up at Pixies Inc., but still can't overrule the boss's orders. It's lots of fun to play with characters who have power, badly want things, but can't take the risk to use power for the things they want.

I just love my little dynamic of Happy Peppy "I'm a pawn who can't cry in front of my godfathers" Gary and Mr. "I can't express affection in front of Gary or I'll get fired" Sanderson. There's just so much pain there to play with if you jump into FOP canon, point at Gary's call to the Pixies, and say "And I took that personally."

I also enjoy the fact that Timmy was extremely insistent that Poof needed to score "perfect 10s" on the gymnastics course in the Fairy World Games and the Pixies bribed the judges to take 1st place, which implies that it was the Pixies, not the Anti-Fairies, who scored a 10-10-9. Sanderson and H.P. are the only pixies seen on the field in that event and I would have loved to see that. Sanderson likes to be where the action is. He is hanging out.

Happy Peppy Gary and Betty are just inherently fascinating. It's pretty obvious that they know about the magical world. Even if we wave off their weird laser tech and overlook the fact that they got teleported from California to Florida, then made it back before the end of their work shifts in "Baby Face" and didn't even question it... there's a scene in the Musical where Gary picks up a phone that is blatantly labeled "Pixies" and calls Sanderson directly. My boy really went "Dad pick me up, I'm scared" slkdjf I love him.

Actually that's not true, his actual words were "Kids just being kids; they could all get hurt!" and honestly my heart. Like, I'm a full believer that the Happy Peppy duo were in on the Pixie takeover scheme even though Flappy wasn't, they are miscreants, but still... Vote Happy Peppy duo some of the sweetest and most innocent characters in FOP canon, please and thank. Ignore the times they launched babies off-screen, used lasers to cage infants, stuffed a child in a box in front of his horrified peers, and all that other stuff, that's not important. My children did nothing wrong.

I just really love thinking about all the different backstories you could write about these... extremely intense teenagers getting mixed up with magic. I favor the idea that the Pixies have always raised them the same way they raised Flappy Bob, but I think the concept of these two showing up for work one day and accidentally walking in on Pixies scheming to take over the world is equally hilarious.

I want what Gary has- I want the absolute confidence to look a crowd of kids and adults in the eye after they've just been tormented - after I'VE just been tormented - and say "Welcome back, give me money." The extent of the brand overhaul he did on the Learn-a-Torium was slapping his and Betty's names on the side and investing in giant images of their heads. He changed nothing else, not even the uniforms, and just decided to shoot his shot. I love him.

It's also VERY cute that we saw a cardboard "You must be this tall" Gary standee in "Baby Face" and I'm obsessed. This is before Gary and Betty took over, so why isn't it a Flappy standee? For some reason this cracks me up because the implication is that either Gary loves his job so much that he volunteered to be a standee model or someone else took one look at him and knew he was destined to be the smiling face of the Learn-A-Torium so they made standees of him. I love it.

I adore Gary and Betty because they make me think... To me, they're not easy to brush aside and overlook because I have a million questions, and they're cute and fun and I love them. I wonder if Vicky runs in their social circle. They probably cross paths in the babysitting field sometimes.

Also the fact that Betty is so physically affectionate with Gary on a daily basis, but the moment he turns to her for genuine comfort, she bolts out of the room, always gets me laughing. I guess it evens out, because Betty passed out in front of him once, yelling about her heart and clutching her chest, and Gary just covered his ears and screamed that the world was falling apart sdklfj. My babies.

I talk about this all the time, but Gary and Betty also have some fantastic scenes in early episode scripts that were cut from the final versions, like this gem from "Totally Spaced Out":

I love them.

Also in the early days of planning, the Musical's antagonist was actually Imaginary Gary.

While it's not confirmed that Gary and Betty sing this song since unfortunately there's no full script for the Musical available, just the first song drafts, the lyrics for the OG version of "Get Flappy" remain almost identical to the final and it's said to be sung by "Clown cheerleaders," so it seems likely that this refers to them.

I think about this a lot. I mean, if Gary and Betty are singing while Imaginary Gary reveals himself, the implication is that they found out their boss Flappy Bob was actually a 5-year-old in disguise who came out to them as an imaginary friend and they were like "Yeah, that's cool with us." For obvious reasons I don't treat the Imaginary Gary plot as canon in my 'fics, but like... They accepted him. Man.

Like... I can never express how much I enjoy the BFF dynamic that is "I'll keep working here even though our boss is 5 and imaginary, I'll run away to Mexico with you, I'll run a business with you when our boss skips town, I'll catch you when you jump in my arms, but if you want genuine comfort then BOI I'm walkin' out." Betty sdjklf

On that note, I feel like something does need to be said about Gary seeking comfort from Betty when scared and her response is "But I don't like you like that!" She obviously felt like she needed to clarify that and I have so many questions about their relationship. Ignoring for a moment the obvious need to transition to a new scene, it's just not a good look for Gary that Flappy felt the need to chase them and mediate. Is Gary okay. Does he need to be held. My son.

Anyway Gary and Betty have my heart and they know it- they fascinate me and I love them very dearly. I feel bad for the fact that literally every fanfic scene I've put them in is just a horrible downward spiral of their relationship and sanity; I'm pretty sure I've never actually been nice to them, and honestly that's terrible slkdjf

Foop will be ranked at the top of my fave characters for forever and a day. He's just a messed up little sweetheart ping-ponging between being socially awkward in school, hanging out with his loser friends, and struggling against the desire to consume the world in a black hole. He's just struggling so hard and there's, like... no one giving him actual help and it's heartbreaking, but also you don't feel too bad for him because he also has a healthy social life and he's doing okay.

There are something like... 5 or so episodes where you can see Foop's alternate personality take over and I'm just happy that the alt personality thing wasn't pushed as a reason for his destructive behavior. The alter is focused on a little when Foop is freshly out of solitary confinement, comes up again when he's going to school, but all the other appearances are a lot more subtle and just showcased in later episodes by Foop getting that extra highlight in his eyes and gushing over things ("Oh, goody! I found a spot on my body where I wasn't bitten by a spider!" which... isn't the same way Foop speaks when he's in pain any other time in the series, because usually when he's hurt, he'll moan, grump, or panic). It is interesting to me.

Anyway I'm just very happy that the alter wasn't a one-episode gag "played for laughs" who then got thrown aside like nothing happened. Rather, the alter features majorly in two episodes (or three if you want to make an argument for "Terrible Twosome"), then quietly becomes part of Foop's character in a few episodes after that.

We saw extremely valid reasons for where this alter came from. Foop was locked in solitary confinement from the day he was born, developed claustrophobia, accidentally yeeted himself into an alternate dimension for an unconfirmed amount of time while the timestream was frozen for 50 years, and although there's a certain humor in his alternate personality (like when said alter rigged the class president vote for the wrong person) there's also just... this quiet melancholy to the whole experience, this very legitimate childhood trauma that Foop is recovering from... Yikes.

Also this comes later in his life, but he also experienced other fun childhood events such as being tortured with magical shocks while trying to escape a bully and also that one time in Season 8 when the Fairy Council ripped him out of reality. Foop is not okay.

Anyway, Foop's alter is there for him while he adjusts to life outside of solitary confinement and again when he starts a stressful first day of school, and after that he becomes a smaller aspect of Foop's attitude that you can still see in later episodes when he's stressed. Like yknow, that time he literally saw the Grim Reaper and got told how he'll die, I also would probably struggle emotionally with that.

Foop is great- he'll bribe you to spare his life with a dollar bill and he'll still ask if he can keep the change. Disaster child. He's a struggling little kid who's struggling with massive amounts of trauma and doesn't seem to have much of a relationship with his parents. At least Anti-Wanda packs anti-venom in his Kelly Clarkson lunchbox, so I'm glad they're on good terms. Overall, Foop is such a goofy character with a harsh backstory, a difficult family life, a criminal record, and high political expectations and he's also a bad boy evil genius, so like... He's the best kind of character type. But he also has silly subplots where he spends hours TP'ing a house because he forgot he had magic (twice), he loves making prank phone calls, and he freaks out when Crocker doesn't invite him to a party. His dialogue is always fantastic and I really enjoy when he's onscreen.

The downward spiral of his mental state when being tortured with lightning and forced to team up with Vicky in "Scary Godcouple" to the point that he stops caring about anything, straight-up ready to let her kill Poof even though he'll ALSO die just... Man. Hits hard. This happens after "Timmy's Secret Wish" where Foop was violently yanked out of reality. He already ceased to exist once and begged for life again, and then the forced team-up with Vicky happens and he just... can't. He can't.

He screams and begs and finally surrenders to it all, right up until seconds before Poof dies. Finally he lashes out at Vicky and blasts her with magic, gets tortured because of it... This boy is not okay. My man be STRUGGLING. And then the fact that he had to face Vicky AGAIN in "Certifiable Super Sitter" and he just did not trust her for a single second... ouch. The emotional arc of Foop saying "Ooh, I really like her :D!" in his first encounter with Vicky to Foop throwing himself in front of her chainsaw to save Chloe in their last...... Love that.

The Crocker / Dark Laser / Foop friendship is important to me. I just want Foop to have adults in his life who care at least a little about his well-being. He has very few people to turn to... Chloe made him cry with a hug, the boy struggles so hard with healthy affection. He might be a destructive force of chaos but he's also just baby.

I also just really like Foop's dialogue; he's this posh British boy genius who will get extremely worked up about how "For the record, if he HAD thrown a lightning bolt, it would have been done in protest over being asked to participate in this candy-coated farce that you call theater!" but he's also like 5 so he'll just groan about how things are "Super lame" and it's adorable. He has a certain twang to his speech where he'll "spit" these single-word sentences like "Wow" and "REALLY?" and "SERIOUSLY!?!?" and I just find him both refreshing and easy to write. He's so loud and so very cute.

This kid literally runs around on the playground eating poisonous spiders while trying to pick up girls by comparing them to potassium chloride, he'll also distract his teacher by pointing at the window and yelling "A van of rich single men!!" where else can I go to experience this character type, he's the best. He booked a restaurant for Cosmo and Wanda at a black hole. When will I ever be this funny.

Also I cry over the fact that Foop corrected Goldie every time she called him by the wrong name - from the day she came to class to the day they held the play - until he finally screams that his name "isn't that difficult!" and honestly just the fact that he had to deal with that is interesting to me. Goldie knew Poof's name, she memorized her lines in a play... there's no way she "forgot" his name. She was doing that on purpose. In his debut, Foop made it clear multiple times that he hates his name, but he also stood up for himself when misnamed. Love that.

It's also extremely funny that in "Spellementary School," Foop reveals he's never been able to understand anything Poof says and he just has to guess all the time, yet he's also shown to be extremely accurate in recognizing when Poof is grumpily agreeing with him, arguing with him, or straight-up swearing at him and I love that about their relationship. The scene in "Two and a Half Babies" where Foop assures Poof that he can be trusted because he's "not a pathological liar" and Poof just looks at him sadly and says "Poof poof" and Foop backpedals with "You're right, I am; I lied about that" is v funny to me.

Nonverbal popular kid and the boy who needs someone to talk to for the absolute win. They are bonded for life... Good luck, Poof.

I also really like Poof, especially in "Love Triangle" when he screws Foop over by making him take over as understudy and then he just eats popcorn while Foop fumbles around onstage. Comedy gold. Poof is sweet and forgiving, but he's also a straight-up savage and he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. Love him for that. As good as he is, he still has that wild streak the same way that Foop has a secret soft spot for people. Poof doesn't mean to cause trouble except for the times when he definitely DOES mean to cause trouble and it's hilarious.

Poof has a certain "looks like a cinnamon roll, but could kill you" vibe. He's this kindhearted little boy who's very cautious and sweet and you can just imagine what a little gentleman he'll be when he grows up. I love how the first thing he did when he met Chloe was tip his crown at her, the sweetheart.

He'll jump into new adventures. He'll play along. He'll help you out. Yet while all of this is going on, you can see how when he's scolded - either when it's being scolded for "not forgiving people after they try to destroy you" or Timmy yelling that getting them both stuck in a spider's web is all his fault or even just Wanda telling him to calm down because he was getting so worked up when he was unable to articulate what he wanted to say......

Poof doesn't know how to stand up for himself in those situations. He holds himself to this standard of respecting authority even when he's overworked to the point of exhaustion. When he was assigned as godparent to Mrs. Crocker, he went into it with a good attitude but came home wiped out. Didn't voice a single complaint. Just exhausted. Didn't know what to say.

Meanwhile, Foop will flip the heck out if you accuse him of anything and I really enjoy that... Here are two counterparts, and you've got one kid who struggles to speak up so he usually just keeps his head down, and then you've got Captain Overshare who will outright lie and throw blame on other people and it's just... nice to see the personalities of two opposite creatures truly be opposite like that.

There's definitely something to be said about how when Poof finally started talking in sentences, it was while dueling Crocker in a magic fight. The poor kid had been been begging for others to step in and get Crocker out of Spellementary School for two days. No one was there for him. Poof got backed in a corner and had no choice but to challenge Crocker himself. Kid got blasted with magic lightning, slammed into a wall twice, and finally pushed himself off the floor and stood up for himself. Good on ya, kiddo. He WILL get in a physical fight to protect himself or others, but if he's in a situation where he needs to say "Hey, I'm struggling with this assignment" or "No, I'd rather not hug the guy who tried to kill me last time we met" then oh heck no, absolutely not, he'd rather die skldfj.

Poof finally spoke and the second sentence out of his mouth was "Your plan to absorb all the magic from my friends and Foop has failed" slkdfj. Tell us how you really feel. And then after Foop apologized for a lifetime spent trying to kill him, Poof still tried to extend the hand of friendship, my heart...

Also, the dynamic of "I blatantly do not like Foop, but I tolerate him because he's my cousin / counterpart / classmate" is very funny. Poof doesn't usually go out of his way to hurt Foop, but he absolutely sits back to watch Foop create problems for himself. If Foop launches a spiked ball at him, he'll fling it right back at him instead of eliminating it. He also accidentally pushed Foop into a garbage can one time and chose to leave him there instead of helping him. Love that.

Poof's great, I love his vibe. He's neither a brat nor a goody-goody... He's just this shy little kid who was born a celebrity and has to deal with everything that comes with that, like attracting a crowd of friends at school and being nominated class president. He's sweet with a streak of mischief... He'll go along with a plan to steal Cupid's arrows, he'll eat all your brownies, and he'll also eat 11 pounds of chocolate just because he wants it. He has his share of chaos, but he's a lot more thoughtful and controlled about it than Foop is. Needlessly dramatic and likes doing things with a flair <3

Woo... This post became much longer than intended, yikes. I'll wrap it up, but Juandissimo, Kevin, Norm, Crocker, Ed Leadly, Chester, A.J., Elmer, Sanjay, Binky, Jorgen, and Dr. Rip Studwell, are all such fantastic characters too, just to name a few off the top of my head. There's a special place in my heart for Chet Ubetcha, Mr. Bickles, Schnozmo, Chloe, Molly, Dark Laser, Cosmo, Wanda, Anti-Cosmo, Anti-Wanda, Blonda, Schnozmo, Remy, Mama Cosma, Big Daddy, and Sammy Sweetsparkle too. And Timmy himself, but I think that goes without saying.

So many funky dudes; I love them so much...

[thegeminisage]

now that we're almost halfway through tng (we're at the start of s4, so...close enough) i feel like it's time to do an updated ranking of tng characters favorite to least favorite. here is the previous ranking. this time it will be much harder.

data - this will never change, ever. he gets the most interesting episodes. he is the most interesting premise. he is the the man the myth the legend the moment. he is autistic. he is not less perfect than lore

wesley - i don't want to talk about it

tasha - GIRL I MISS YOU SO BAD COME BACK FOR MORE THAN ONE EPISODE. don't kiss any boys

worf and riker tie - this is going to sound crazy but worf reminds me so much of spock sometimes. because they both struggle to find their place in the world but they do find it on board the enterprise. i like howmad he gets and his strict code of ethics. also, i think what he did on the klingon planet is fucking crazy. i hope they come back to it someday

as for riker: poker king. down to clown. cool with deanna's hookups. how can u not love him. i wish he did more outrageous stuff it's like the best thing about him and they never utilize it. he and worf (e deanna) should kiss

guinan - we like basically never see her and know nothing about her but it's always really exciting when she's there. it's like oh we got guinan this ep! always something to look forward to.

beverly - in a shocking twist i've decided that beverly is currently my favorite alive woman cast regular. this was a contentious decision which may have been influenced by having very recently watched a beverly ep but here's the thing. when they give her a half-decent script she's fucking amazing. when they let her do stuff besides Be A Mom. like she's so brave at times, in a different way than bones was brave - she's afraid of dying in a way that he isn't, but she'll still put herself in danger to help others anyway. actually i've finally mostly stopped mentally comparing her to bones, an honor which pulaski never got. unfortunately we almost never get the Great version of beverly

deanna and geordi tie - i'm sorry women. deanna dropped several rankings because what made her so special to me (yelling at her horrible mother) was immediately backtracked like it didn't matter in the following episodes with her horrible mother. i still feel deep sympathy and solidarity, and also deep gayness, but most of the time when we get Deanna Episodes(tm) they're about her shitty mom being shitty or about some guy sexually harassing her and it's very sad. like i love deanna. this bums me out. please treat her eally niceys

as for geordi, they simply have given him no screentime to do anything cool. i think there's been a total of three really good geordi moments since my last post like this. he's cool but they just never do anything with him. also, i don't like whatever he had going on with that holodeck girlfriend

picard - well SOMEBODY had to be last. i definitely don't actively dislike him anymore, and in fact he has quite a few good moments, he just doesn't make me insane in the brain the way (for example) data or spock does.

look forward to another ranking in like season 7 probably.

[emailsfromanactor]

The Cast of Hamlet (1964) in Musicals: Part 6

At last, we come to our boy William Redfield (Guildenstern). But not only him! Why does he have to share a post? You'll see.

Redfield did five musicals on Broadway, starting at age ten with Virginia, or, as you might remember it from the letters, the one with the horse who had an "accident" onstage and had to be replaced by a wooden one. Ten years later, he - Redfield, not the horse - starred in Barefoot Boy With Cheek. That unfortunately went unrecorded, but here's Redfield on the Playbill cover with Nancy Walker:

Next he replaced the lead in Miss Liberty, which was recorded with the original actor. (If IBDB is to be believed, Miss Liberty is the last time Refield was billed as "Billy" rather than "William," at least on Broadway.) And then came Out of This World, Cole Porter's less-successful followup to Kiss Me, Kate. Redfield played Mercury, as in the god. And this time he did get to record his performance! Before we get to the album, here's a tiny photograph (Redfield's the shirtless one on the left):

And here's a newspaper caricature of the cast (Redfield's the one in the tree):

And here's one of his songs! (Just one, this post is already long and will get longer, but you can hear the rest here.)

In 1967, Redfield played Spintho, a non-singing role, in Androcles and the Lion, a TV musical adaptation of the Shaw play of the same name. A video of it survives, but unfortunately it looks like this:

John Cullum was also in that! He did get to sing.

And then in 1972 there was Redfield's last Broadway show of any kind, Dude. Hold that thought.

Gerome Ragni (ensemble, Horatio understudy) co-wrote the book and lyrics of Hair. You're probably familiar with Hair. It was kind of a big deal. And you may recall that one song took its lyrics from Hamlet:

I wonder if John Gielgud ever heard that song. And what he thought of the tortured scansion. "Majes-tickle," yikes. Not to mention leaving the "a" out of the title line. But it does pronounce "express" Gielgud's way! There's another Hamlet reference (along with some Romeo and Juliet) in "The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)."

Ragni also originated the role of Berger. Here you can see him singing the title song with his co-librettist James Rado on The Dick Cavett Show (he's the brown-haired one who starts on the floor) (and the one who starts singing the wrong part later in the song):

Oooo, I was scrolling through the comments and Adam Redfield, son of William Redfield, was among them, saying that his dad was a guest on the same episode! I guess this post pairing is even more relevant than I thought! Redfield's segment doesn't appear to be on the internet, alas.

And speaking of that relevance... as you may have guessed, Ragni was involved with Dude. He wrote the book and lyrics, without Rado this time, but again to Galt MacDermot's music. Dude... did not do as well as Hair. In fact, it was a pretty spectacular flop, running only 16 previews and 16 performances. It did get an album, but unfortunately it wasn't really a cast album, and Redfield isn't on it. There is an audio bootleg with him, but it's not tracked and, well, I don't really want to listen to that whole mess to find his parts. Maybe someday.

Anyway, The New York Times wrote an article about Dude - and quoted Redfield. That's right, we get to hear from Bill again! I've pasted his quotes below the cut, and you can read the whole article here. Everything about this show sounds wild.

“The songs were great but the script remained a mass of undoable nonsense,” said actor William Redfield, one of “Dude's” stars. “I'm very fond of Ragni but the truth must be told.”

...

During most of the rehearsals, choreographer Falco concentrated on movement. “It was like the Decathlon,” Redfield said. “We sprinted, we climbed, we tumbled, we ran. God, how we ran! I thought I was going to have a heart attack. We also rehearsed a lot of the musical numbers but the show was never completely blocked. And we didn't dare discuss the script. How could we? There was none.”

...

Once inside the Broadway Theater, technical problems arose. At the first runthrough, the stage, filled with two tons of top soil, filthied the actors and dumped dirt on everybody sitting in the first ten rows. People sneezed from the dust fumes; clouds of dirt rose into the air, making it difficult to see. At the second runthrough, the stage was watered down. Naturally, the dirt turned into mud. “Actors will do anything to get ahead, but this was too much,” Redfield said. “We phoned Equity and threatened insurrection.” Eventually the stage was filled with thousands of brown felt scraps to simulate dirt. But the felt went, too, to be replaced by plastic. Then Bufano called a company meeting which turned into a therapy session. “We became hysterical,” Redfield continued, “and released all our hostilities about the show, our fears. ‘When was Gerry going to write some new dialogue?’ we screamed. Later we began yelling about our careers and what the theater meant to us and what life on earth meant to us … “

...

At the first preview on September 11, “the audience wanted to kill,” according to Bill Redfield. “They kept yelling ‘rip‐off!’ Worst of all, they could neither hear nor understand us.”

...

They decided to go to Ragni in a body and give him an ultimatum: Either he rewrite certain key scenes or the show would close. “Gerry creates best under this kind of pressure,” Adela Holzer said. “I think he realized we meant what we said.” Even so, Redfield and Rae Allen (who played Adam and Eve) were forced to write some of their own dialogue. “We had to. It was either write it or stand mute in the confusion.”

Oh, for a sequel to Letters from an Actor!

[kikicandoit]

Hi! I'm Kiki!

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the Internet! ^-^

My name is Kiki, pronouns she/her, and I’m a writer and illustrator currently based in the Canada. I usually write longform original fiction, though I’ve also dabbled in gaming journalism—you may have heard some of the scripts I’ve written for YouTube channels like Did You Know Gaming and TripleJump! I also write and illustrate comics in addition to character illustrations and commissioned works (commission info can be found here!).

As for media, I love movies, video games, and books! I usually prefer things within the “genre fiction” label: fantasy, sci-fi, horror, et cetera. I’m not usually great at keeping up with current things, but I always love discovering a new favorite among older titles.  I like monster movies (especially black and white ones!) and curling up under a blanket with a good mystery novel. When it comes to games, I typically like RPGs, fighting games, and adventure games the most.

Before I go any further, here’s some ground rules for my blog:

Transphobia of any kind will not be tolerated.

I don’t post NSFW content on this blog.

Potentially triggering content will be tagged “tw [label].” If I post something without an appropriate warning, please reach out and let me know.

As you’ll soon find out, I’m someone who likes having my fingers in a lot of pies (even when I really shouldn’t @_@) so I’m often dabbling in little projects on the side, or experimenting with new creative mediums to tell stories in, or bingeing a new series.

Here's a breakdown of some things I commonly post about!

My WIPs:

#Corpse Worm: My first original webcomic, a horror-comedy action adventure about monsters engaging in shonen-style battles with unique powers; think Courage the Cowardly Dog meets One Piece. Current status: permanent hiatus, though I’m working on writing a synopsis of the unfinished story to give some closure. You can read it all here.

#The Witching Hours Are 9 to 5: My current webcomic, an urban fantasy buddy comedy about a brother-sister duo of paranormal investigators that combines action with chaotic sibling energy. I started it as a warm-up project, just making something for the sake of making it without stressing about the quality too much, so the art is a bit slapdash but I’m proud of it all the same. Current status: active, updated whenever I feel like it. You can read it on its own website here or on Webtoon here.

#Scarlet Canticle: My primary long-form writing project, a (planned) series of dark fantasy novellas with a gritty, pulpy style to them. I wanted to write something in the vein of Conan the Barbarian but with less…baggage. And more buff women. Current status: actively being worked on!

#Swole Hearts: A visual novel dating sim I'm currently developing in Ren'Py. It's a silly and lighthearted game where you can meet and date buff women. You can play the demo here.

#Ginormous: Another comic project that I’ve done some early work on but not yet committed to full-time. It’s a battle series about people who summon kaiju doing battle with other kaiju. It’s a project where I channel a lot of my love for monster movies. Current status: inactive, but you can read an “episode zero” on Webtoon here.

#Mascara: A comic project I hope to do someday. It’s an action drama about female pro wrestlers (in a setting where wrestling is a legitimate contest). Current status: not even started, I just love drawing the characters I have in mind for it.

#Lonesome Stars: A sci-fi writing project I dabble in on the side about a ragtag group of voyagers in a universe without planets. No real end goal in sight for this one, it’s just for funsies at the moment. Current status: worked on intermittently.

#Cloud Sea: A fantasy setting I created, originally for a book I wanted to write but now it bounces around from project to project—sometimes it’s a novel, sometimes it’s an RPG Maker game, sometimes it’s a homebrew tabletop system. It’s focused on swashbuckling fantasy in an early-industrial world of sky islands and dwindling magic. Current status: worked on when I feel like it.

#Heinous Highness: My first attempt at making a video game, a turn-based RPG where you play as an evil sorceress tired of having her plans for world domination thwarted. Current status: inactive, but I like the characters.

Fandom Tags:

Fandoms that I frequently like to post/reblog about include, but are not limited to:

#Godzilla: My favorite movie series of all time!!! This tag is mostly about Godzilla and related topics specifically, but I also use to include posts about other kaiju as well.

#Ace Attorney: Guilty as charged! I’m a big fan of the Phoenix Wright games!

#Wrestling: Yup, I’m also a filthy mark who loves to watch the graps. It’s still real to me, dammit!

#Jojo: I’m not a huge anime fan normally, but I do love Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

#Darkstalkers: I love fighting games of all kinds, but Darkstalkers holds a special place in my heart. It’ll get a new installment…someday… ;-;

#Tales of Stuff: In addition to fighting games, I also love RPGs, and the Tales series is one of my favorite franchises! I talk about the entire series, but Tales of the Abyss is by far my favorite.

#Castlevania: Another one of my favorite video game series. I’m a fan of the whole kit and kaboodle, though I’ll generally talk about the games more than the animated series.

#Discworld: My favorite series of fantasy novels, and one that continues to inspire me as a writer. GNU Sir Terry.

Miscellaneous Tags:

#Kiki Can Do Art: The tag I put on all of my own original art.

#Kiki Can Do Writing: The tag I use when posting or discussing something I wrote.

#Kiki Can Do Comics: Likewise, I use this tag when posting about my own comics.

#Kiki Can Do Commissions: Usually seen in conjunction with “Kiki Can Do Art,” this tag goes on anything I was commissioned to make for a client.

#Kiki Can Do Journaling: For general bloggery and posting about my life.

#Friend Art: A tag used when reblogging art made by people who are close friends of mine. <3

#Friend Tags: A tag I use for posts that I was tagged in by a friend. It is always morally correct to tag me in things you think I’ll like.

#Fav: A tag I slap on any reblog of something that I find particularly funny or interesting.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog! I hope you like what you see!

Find me elsewhere on the web: My Website | Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky | Ko-fi | Patreon

[dreamingsushi]

Blue Birthday - Overall Review

It did take me a long time to complete this drama, as I didn’t have much time for watching and reviewing anything when I started working again. So I feel my overall review might be incomplete, but I still wanted to make a post on my impressions for whoever is unsure about wether to watch or not. I will try to be as objective as I can, even though my memory might be a little failing.

Plot

The story revolves around a woman named Oh Harin who went through the traumatic event of losing her best friend and crush Ji Seojun during high school. Someday, ten years later his passing, she receives his old camera and a film of pictures he took. Or maybe did she get both the pictures and the camera? I’m not sure about the details anymore, but it isn’t really relevant at this point. Anyways, she ends up discovering that by burning the pictures, she can travel back in time. Even though years have passed by, she still hasn’t had closure with Seojun’s death. She can’t believe it was suicide, so while in the past, she decides to investigate to save her friend whom she missed all those years. So the whole series revolves about time travelling through the pictures and figuring a way for Seojun to live, while finding out the reasons of his death.

For me, the plot was solid until we hit the middle of the series and then it kind of went astray. It was pretty consistant before that and while not being super innovative, it was still a little different than what I have seen in the past. Unfortunately, I would say the direction they took for the last eight episodes ran in circles far too long. There weren’t so much explanation where it was needed and to me that was a very poor choice because there was a lot of material to be exploited there. There were too many clichés for me. If only for the first half, this drama would have got a pretty good score plot wise, but I can’t give it more than a 6/10 with the way it turned out.

Acting

Since I watched most episodes with long periods between them, this will be based only on the last six episodes or so, I really can’t remember the acting from the beginning. Without being extraordinary, it was very decent. The characters were annoying when they had to, cute at the right moment. Big shout out to Kim Yiseo as Ji Hyemin, she really made me invested in her character even though the script wasn’t doing justice to her. I have been disappointed by this character, but really not because of the acting, because she was fantastic from the beginning to the end, even though when it made no more sense. As for Yeri and Yang Hongseok, they both did a pretty good job, they got me emotional at some points in the story thanks to their skill and I appreciate that. I give it a 7/10.

Other

I won’t be commenting on the soundtrack and the visuals of the drama, as I don’t have an overall view of it since it took so long and it would be unfair not to judge it on the entirety of the series. However, I would like to mention that I really liked the short format of the episodes, the story had a lot of rythm thanks to that and there were no moment that was slow paced.

Do I recommend or not?

I can’t really make my mind on that topic. I really liked the beginning of the drama, I was super invested in the story, the plot was enticing and it was overall quite interesting. However, it went downhill when we reached half of the series and it felt more of an obligation to watch than something I really wanted to. Maybe that’s one of the reasons watching dramas weren’t a priority even though so many came out and I was interested into seeing. There are a lots of good points to this drama, but a even amount of failures too. Since it’s short episodes too, there isn’t much time for character growth. They do evolve, but they are pretty much the same from the top to the end.

I would say I would recommend it if you are looking for something to entertain yourself and that goes by quickly. Each episodes are only 20 minutes or so, so it’s really easy to watch it in a one sit if you don’t write reviews as I do or to start before going to work. You don’t need to be too concentrated to watch, because even though the subject is a little dark, the storyline isn’t too complicated. So it’s a good story to have your brain half relaxing, half active in my opinion.

However, this wouldn’t make to my absolutely must watch list. Had I known how the story would unravel, I probably wouldn’t have spent the time on it. It isn’t that it’s poorly written, it’s just that I was really disappointed with how much potential it had to be great and how much they took the safe path instead of exploiting everything great about it.

Overall, it’s a 6/10 for me on this series. I hope this review helped you see clearer about it and let me know your thoughts if you ever watch it or if you felt the same way if you already did!

List of full recaps

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / Special

[entertainment]

Entertainment Spotlight: Jessalyn Gilsig, Big Shot

Actress Jessalyn Gilsig, who you may recognize from Glee, currently stars in Disney+’s Big Shot opposite John Stamos. Audiences will also know her from Nip/Tuck, Vikings, Scandal, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Boston Public, and NYPD Blue, among others.

How are you? Seriously, how’re you doing?

I’m fine! Thank you for asking. I think I am like a lot of people—I move in and out of a place of deep gratitude and then worry and concern for the world. It’s a bit of a seesaw, but I think it’s the only way to be right now.

Which of the roles you’ve played over the years challenged and/or taught you the most, and why?

Gosh, they all teach me something. I do think Gina on Nip/Tuck challenged me to really advocate for my characters. When I first read the role, you could tell she was just a device, another conquest of the main characters. For some reason, that really woke something up inside me, and I was determined not to allow her to be written off so easily. She was only supposed to be in two episodes of the show and instead made it to the end of the series, or almost—until she was fucked off a building (can I say that?).

Can you show us a photo from the set of any show/film that you haven’t shared before and tell us the story behind it??

This is from Vikings, which we filmed in Ireland. The little girl in the photo is my daughter, who was an extra on the show that day, and it was so special to be able to share my world with her. We even ended up in a shot together, which I treasure. Living in Ireland with her while we filmed the show was one of the most special periods of my life. It was such a great adventure to be away from our normal life and exploring a new country, just the two of us. I still can’t believe we got to do that.

Do you have a routine or ritual to prepare yourself for a scene? Does it differ depending on the character and setting?

I have a few things I always do. I’m very visual, so I mark up my script a lot; I look for the beats and the progression of the scene. I often write the words “truth, love, open, listen” or something like that. And I am the kind of actor who does need to focus and think, “where am I coming from? Where am I going?” Some people I work with can be scrolling through Instagram, put down their phone, and dive right in, but I need a little more prep than that!

You’re putting together a basketball team, but no one on your team can be a professional athlete. Who’s on your team (players can be real or fictional)?

Wow. Ok. My friend Peggi. She played D1 for Georgetown and is the most competitive person I know, so she is definitely a starter. Then I just watched “Last Chance U,” and so Deshaun Highler is on my team. I think Frances McDormand would be up for a laugh so she can play. RBG because she wasn’t afraid of anything and also seemed like a lot of fun. And she can bring Kobe with her. Oof, now I’m sad. Ok, everyone can play. No cuts.

Can you teach us a Québécois saying or phrase that you use often?

“Bein zut alors,” pronounced BAH ZOOT ALOR. It’s basically a more polite way of saying “fuck.” It’s pretty useful and satisfying to say.

What’s a fact about the making of Big Shot that fans would be surprised to find out?

Probably that John Stamos is not a sports fan, and I am. It’s kind of funny how shocking that is to people. But it plays right into the show. It’s our stereotypes that keep us apart; never assume you know someone without giving them a chance.

What’re you overthinking right now?

Probably this interview! I am an over-thinker, I guess; I have a hard time shutting my brain down. Having a child was such a good remedy for that because I had to learn to be present and not worry about tomorrow or the next day. Children are so present for a good seven years of their lives, and they really call you out if you drift away. I liked being reminded to just be, get down on the floor, do a craft, and let go of time. Tomorrow will come whether you worry about it or not.

You painted and provided art for the film The Station Agent. Can you share a photo of a piece of art that you’ve made recently, and/or can you make a quick sketch of whatever/whoever is on your mind right now?

I haven’t painted in a long time. I thought I would during the pandemic, but instead, I doodled a lot. Here is a small sampling, and the pencil drawing is from a class I took which I really enjoyed. My dream is to really immerse myself in art classes someday. I have so much to learn. But it’s a great outlet for me, especially when I am on set and have so much downtime.

What would you do if you had to go back in time and relive high school with all the knowledge you have today?

Can you imagine if you knew then what you knew now? You’d be like, “ok, that’s a waste of time, you seem interesting, let’s hang out, who wants to buy a bitcoin?” But you can’t do that. It doesn’t work that way. What I love about life, and especially what I do for work, is I still get to play. I still get to be surprised and scared and learn and grow, It’s just now I don’t have a curfew, and I can eat cereal for dinner. Being a grown-up is just fine with me.

Thanks for taking the time, Gislig! Big Shot is now streaming on Disney+.

[inawickedlittletown]

Queerbaiting and Buddie

(word count: 1,900)

I keep saying that I don’t want to spend any more time on 9-1-1 meta or fic, but the events of this weekend made me open up a document where I had some unfinished meta and in light of the S4 finale airing tonight, I thought I might at least write this: 

“Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation. They do so to attract a queer or straight ally audience with the suggestion of relationships or characters that appeal to them, while at the same time attempting to avoid alienating other consumers.” 

That is how Wikipedia defines queerbaiting. And I really feel like everyone needs to read that and then read it again and realize that what is happening on 9-1-1 with Buddie is NOT queerbaiting. 

I don’t want to go into the long history of queerbaiting because we would be here all day and anyone that wants to do some research should go and do so. There are a lot of resources out there. Use them. 

But the short of it is this: queerbaiting has a lot more to do with the way a show is promoted, with the way that anyone involved in the show talks about a queer ship, and with the show deliberately scripting scenes that hint at a relationship without any intention of following through. Expectations and wanting a queer ship to go canon and those expectations not being met do not alone equate to it being queerbaiting. 

For any of us that have been around a long time there are a lot of perfect examples and if you compare Buddie to any of them, they are very different. I’ll name a few:

Merlin/Arthur

John Watson/Sherlock

Emma Swan/Regina

Derek/Stiles

Castiel/Dean Winchester (though they did go canon...barely)

Lena/Kara

Buck and Eddie do not fit into that list. Which isn’t to say that someday they could belong there, but I just do not believe that they will even if Buddie never becomes canon. And this all lies in how Buddie as a ship has been treated both on screen and off. I’ll break it down by season. 

S2: 

Eddie is very clearly introduced as a new character, a straight Army veteran with a disabled kid and family drama. He and Buck have immediate chemistry. We can’t deny that, or deny that from that first episode there are immediate sparks. Unintended sparks, but sparks nevertheless. And it is easy to tell that no one on the production team expected that and the story reflects that. 

Yes a foundation for their friendship is formed and yet the season long story focuses on Eddie’s relationship with his estranged wife and Buck is dealing with his own growth after being left by Abby. Their friendship shines and their scenes are great but none of them suggest romance and there are actually a lot of episodes where Buck and Eddie barely interact in S2 aside from in the background or for small work related moments (this mostly happens after Shannon returns). 

S2 does give us the first acknowledgement from the powers that be aka Tim Minear that they know what the fans have seen. This is why the elf scene exists, but it exists in a space where it’s a nod to the fans and not meant to do much more than that. The other moment is during the call with the livestreamer. But S2, places them completely and without question on a strong friendship. 

S3: 

We see a lot more conflict for Buck and Eddie in this season and we see how close and important they are to each other. Those are the two main things. That can be read as friendship easily and it’s a season where both Buck and Eddie deal with their pasts and in one way or another start to get closure while their friendship remains intact. 

Yes there are some scenes that make us squint and go huh, wtf? (I’m looking at you kitchen scene), but narratively we also know that neither of these boys is ready for a real relationship with anyone, let alone each other. But we can bask in how close they are as well as how Christopher fits in into all of it. 

But in S3 we are also introduced to Ana and we see the return of Abby. We also get to see that Buck and Eddie have become closer than ever and that the lawsuit only serves to highlight the importance that they both feel about having the other available to them. I’ll also quickly mention that Eddie Begins worked hard to highlight Buck’s devotion to Eddie. 

S4: 

Without considering the events of the finale (I am avoiding spoilers and know nothing about it or the speculation), we’ve seen Buck and Eddie both grow and get further closure on their past. This season has paralleled them well and their friendship has not faltered, they’re as close as ever. 

The beginning of the season was heavily focused on Buck and we saw him grow as a person and begin to work on himself in a healthy way and we’ve seen Eddie be supportive of that. 

We also have Ana to consider and her relationship with Eddie as well as the return of Taylor and yet the appearance of these women has not changed the Buck and Eddie dynamic. And I find it fascinating that Eddie beginning to date Ana, is the thing that prompted Buck to start dating. The parallels are all over the place but it is the strength of the friendship and the way they care so deeply about each other that remains whether that becomes romantic is still to be seen, but it could still go either way.  

Off-screen by the end of S2, Tim Minear had already addressed Buddie by throwing in that elf scene in a wink/nudge fashion that said “I see you” and in the scene with the girl with the livestream with the comments. During S3 he tweeted about being frustrated by the fans demanding and being hostile and thinking that that would make him more likely to do what they want (I’m paraphrasing what I remember seeing). Tim has never once said that Buddie will happen or shut the door on the ship entirely, but he did say he did not want to engage in conversation about it because he doesn’t want to get into arguments with fans. 

Oliver has always been enthusiastic about Buddie and has even said that he would be perfectly fine with it happening both a while ago and more recently in promo for S4. Conscious of queerbaiting and not wanting to give fans false hope, he has specifically said that he does not know if it will or won’t happen and that he wouldn’t speak on that as he’s not the one making that decision. His support for it happening does not mean he has any sway one way or the other. He’s said this a few times and even wrote a letter to the effect to make it clear to fans that the last thing he wants is to disappoint someone due to something he’s said. 

All in all, it just isn’t a constructive environment for anyone working on the show to interact with fans on this topic because any time that they do, they get attacked by overly enthusiastic buddie shippers that in many ways are making everything worse. 

In all of the interviews from Tim that I’ve seen, he has always been very quick to hint at what was coming up on the show in a way that at times has been misleading on purpose. The number one thing that comes to mind is early in S4 where Buck was said to get a new woman in his life. Tim absolutely made it out to seem like it was a girlfriend while knowing fully well that it was a therapist. This is an excellent example of what promoting and hinting is actually like. No one from this show has done that in regards to Buddie. 

No one has gone out of their way to hint that it may happen in a way that excites the fans. And this is one of my main reasons for knowing that Buddie is not a queerbait. At no point in the life of the show so far has anyone used Buddie in a promotional way to bring in viewers. Because THAT was the whole point of queerbaiting in the past. 

It was a way that some showrunners found to bring in a lot of viewers when they needed to up their numbers in order to show networks they were worth keeping around. Someone figured out that LGBTQ people wanted to see themselves represented so much so that they would tune in to anything that promised an LGBTQ character in some fashion. It was a tactic that worked well in the landscape of tv where there was so little LGBTQ content on mainstream media that anyone wanting it would latch onto anything. And then they just wouldn’t deliver on those relationships or characters. In 2021, that is not the world we live in any longer. 

In today’s tv landscape there is so much to watch and so much to pick from and diversity has grown, it is celebrated. Queer characters are well represented as are queer relationships and queer stories. The times are different. A while back I was listening to a podcast (Bait: a queerbaiting podcast) and something I found interesting was how the hosts both agreed that in today’s tv landscape there is no more real queerbait and that we won’t easily find anything like the ships I mentioned above. I think I agree more with this than I expected to, because I do think that it exists in some spaces, but it definitely isn’t what it used to be. This is a good thing. 

Specific to 9-1-1, this is a show that has that diversity and that isn’t afraid of tackling that diversity and giving us interesting and nuanced perspectives and stories embracing that. We have characters of color, women in positions of power, a F/F relationship, two multi-racial relationships, a disabled character, other queer characters including a M/M relationship. There is so much in this show that embraces diversity and that embraces the reality of what the world looks like. To call it queerbait is to disrespect everything else that this show is and has done and the hard storylines that have been tackled that we would not have seen on tv ten years ago. 

And I get that Buddie would be another breakthrough. It would be a novel way to tell a queer story, and it would be amazing if it were to happen. The set up is there, but it isn’t fully realized, and Buck and Eddie can still be read as just friends if we take off the shipping goggles. But it also isn’t queerbait or likely to become queerbait and people have to stop calling it that. 

What Buddie resembles is one of the many unintended slow burn ships that have frustrated viewers in many forms across fandoms and we just have to go along for the ride and maybe it will happen. Or maybe it won’t. But if we know anything about relationships on tv, it is that a lot of the fun comes from the journey, even if the destination is good too. 

[sakura-83]

Things from Anne with an e that I feel like writing down

Season 1 Episode 6: Remorse Is the Poison of Life

1. Diana having to run through the dark with nothing but a lantern and quite reasonably tripping. I never really thought about how dark it would actually be out because there’s always light.., somewhere in a modern city. It’s dark but you can usually still see

2. Every time Anne and Diana are separated they end up reunited during some great tragedy and are like “I missed you so much!!” Like yeah that’s great but. Please focus

3. It’s terrifying how easily children could die before modern medicine. They still can die very easily and that’s still terrifying but back then there was no quick fixes or easily accessible help

4. “It’s an old wives tale.” “I might be one but not the other. Evidently one doesn’t have to be either thing to know it.”

5. Anne knowing how to treat croup because all of Mrs. Hammond’s sets of twins had it

6. “I was supposed to be a boy but when I wasn’t, they decided to keep and raise me.” “How extraordinary!”

7. Minnie May almost choking to death on her own phlegm and Anne ultimately saving her because there’s no way the doctor would’ve made it all the way from Soencervale in time

8. “I believe I need a brandy.”

9. It’s really interesting how much of the script comes straight from the book

10. “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are white frosts, aren’t you?”

11. John Blythe’s love for adventure and how Gilbert undoubtedly sees it in Anne

12. Eliza apologizing for how she misjudged Anne

13. “My darling Diana”

14. “I can’t tie myself down to anything so unromantic as dishes at this thrilling moment!”

15. “Even aunt Josephine said she’d like to see you again, and she doesn’t like anyone.”

16. “Shes disinclined to stay home alone since her companion passed away.” “Her companion?” “Her best friend forever and ever.”

17. “Aunt Josephine never married. Neither of them did, they lived with each other their whole lives.” “I’d live with you forever if I could. But I know you’ll leave me the date you get married to some wealthy and handsome gentleman. I hate him already.” “How’s Gilbert?”

18. “It’s very likely Gilbert’s father isn’t going to get well, so it’s more than possible that when Gilbert finally comes back to school… he’ll be an orphan.”

19. The cut from that conversation to John Blythe’s funeral

20. Matthew grabbing Marilla’s arm because he knows how much john meant to her

21. Gilbert watching the snowflakes melt in his hand

22. Marilla’s flashback

23. Young Marilla teasing john

24. Him giving her the same hair ribbon she later gifts to Anne

25. Anne and Gilbert being just like their parents, mirroring their romance and yet achieving the love Marilla and John could never have

26. Anne trying to make Gilbert feel better but making it seem like it’s about her. I often find it hard to articulate my relation to others in a way that does sound like I’m relating and not like I’m making it about me

27. Aunt Josephine on a stroll in the woods

28. Anne’s ranting about her “extensive knowledge of being an orphan”

29. Her calling Gilbert a dumb boy and refusing to think about him

30. “Romance is a pesky business. No sense to be made of it.”

31. “May I enter your humble abode.” About Anne’s run down little shed

32. “I couldn’t be less interested in Gil- that boy!”

33. “Let your ambitions and your aspirations be your guide.” “But I have so many!”

34. “I’ve always wanted to be a bride, but I don’t really expect to be a wife.” “Interesting!” “So you see the conundrum.” “I do. I have the following thoughts to offer. First, you can get married any time in your life, if you choose to do so.” “That’s true-“ “And two, if you choose a career, you can buy a white dress yourself, have it made to order and wear it whenever you want.” “Why didn’t I think of that!? I love that idea! I’m going to be my own woman!” “I’m a proponent for making ones own way in the world.”

35. “If you become a doctor, perhaps you can discover a cure for old age.”

36. Anne calling aunt Josephine her new role model, as well as Marilla and Matthew

37. “I’m going to be the heroine of my own story.”

38. Marilla finding an old letter from John

39. The theme Unrequited Love playing during this scene

40. It’s fascinating when you come to recognize the instrumentals by name, the names actually have a lot of double meanings in relation to the show. Fire in The Town not only plays when there’s an actual fire, but also when Anne’s rumors about prissy set the town ablaze

41. “If the key to a mans heart is through his stomach-“ “Which it is!” “Then, we have to make sure that this is the best shepherds pie that Gilbert has ever had.”

42. Anne wanting a boy to loved for her brain and personality rather than her abilities to keep a home

43. “Don’t you think Gilbert looks even more handsome now that he’s sad?” “I didn’t notice.”

44. I just noticed aunt Josephines mourning clothes, I know she was grieving but I didn’t put two and two together

45. “Take the boy the godforsaken pie before I suffer a mental collapse.”

46. Anne rambling excitedly about Jane Eyre.

47. Anne almost spoiling the book, just like Gertrude used to do

48. Anne suddenly breaking down over death. I’ve done that before, far more frequently in middle school when I realized that we all die someday

49. “It must be awful beyond measure to lose someone that you love deeply. In a split second, a heartbeat, they’re gone forever… and there is nothing you can do to change it or bring them back…”

50. “Anne? You’re crying on the potatoes.”

51. “There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘I’m sorry for your loss’, Ruby. And I’m going to say it because I am.” “You’re just going to make it worse if you say that. His father!! Just died!!!” “That’s what people say when someone dies.” “I don’t want you to upset him.” “He’s already upset because his father just died!”

52. “We hope you like shepherds pie.” “Everyone LIKES shepherds pie 😡. We hope it’s a comfort to you, Gilbert.🥰”

53. Anne telling “but I would make a terrible wife!” And running out.

54. Matthew offering to help Gilbert get his farm back in order

55. Gilbert not wanting to be a farmer but having an entire farm shoved off on him when his only family does, despite being… 14 at most? 15 maybe?

56. Matthew losing all his crops when the Dal Marie sank

57. Billy wanting Gilbert back to control the “ugly orphan” and Gilbert defending Anne

58. “She’s smart, deal with it.”

59. Gilbert telling billy to read a book for once

60. “I’ll give you a tip, okay? I’m not your bud. And if you ever hassle Anne again, you’ll regret it.”

61. “What’s your problem?” “Ask me that again. No, seriously. Go ahead.” “Why you gotta be like that?” “Ask me!” “…what’s your problem?”

62. Gilbert throwing his stuff at billy to preoccupy his hands and THEN punching him straight in his stupid face

63. The boys are fighting!!!! And rolling around in the snow too that’s kind of funny looking

64. Gilbert beating billy in that fight

65. Marilla telling Gilbert about his father

66. All of Gilbert’s siblings died

67. Gilbert’s father taking him to Alberta before he died, where Gilbert was born

68. “You resemble him in many ways.”

69. “He asked you to go?” I’ll always be grateful to him for thinking I’d be brave enough. Obligation… can be a prison.”

70. Anne trying to write a letter to Gilbert apologizing for what she said

71. Anne visiting aunt Josephine for advice and accidentally interrupting her grieving

72. “Emotion is rarely convenient and often intolerable, but I find at the moment that I don’t mind it.”

73. “Grief is the price you pay for live, you see. So it’s alright.”

74. “You and I are not the marrying kind.” “Ah, but I was, in my way. And we had a full and wonderful life together, and I gave no regrets. That’s all you really have to decide Anne, to live a life without regrets.”

75. Anne kissing aunt Josephine on the cheek and running off to live said life

76. No Matthew don’t make that loan deal!!!

77. Anne sprinting to Gilbert’s house bit for the first time of many to come, being too late to reach him.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 1 - living up to its name since it looks to be a series of redemption arcs. Launched with a college confession and a broken friendship, then a flash back to them as seniors in high school. Pairings include friends to lovers, nerd/jock, and maybe cafe boss/employee. There’s a lot going on, but it’s still... quiet and sweet. The script is pretty pat but it’s still WAY more watchable than Cupid Coach or Brothers and most of the acting is solid. Ep 1 tropes included: he’s in engineering, wound tending, fast & bicurious. This could turn into what I wanted My Gear & Your Gown to be. Fingers crossed. 

Love Poison 2 Ep 1 & 2 turns out I did watch and report on season 1 (8 eps), season 2 seems equally unmemorable. Thai countryside setting, strong dialect, incomprehensible plot, camp side characters, and ghastly singing. 

Y-Destiny Ep 1 (eng subs?) - opened with the sports romance enemies to lovers (they aren’t going in the teaser order). When the couple got over fighting, the flirting was v cute, but the flipping SPONGE BATH trope had to rear its ugly head. Still, this series is shaping up to be less coy and more frank than most BL, better than expected. It feels, I don’t know, gay-er or something?  *** Sources were correct that each couple is getting (at least) 2 eps, and MDL has been updated to say this is a 15 episode series (not 7). 

Cupid Coach 12 fin - The new Nite was great and should have been a main all along. It felt like we got a tiny nugget of what could have been in about 10 minutes worth of this last ep. It was way too slow with terrible editing and a criminally bad script, but at least it ended happy. Mostly, like Friend Forever, I’m just disappointed that these two actors were done dirty by the series. Bad Cupid Coach, no screen caps for you. 

Lovely Writer Ep 6 - breaking news, there’s a het couple I like: toppy bi femme + soft boi = such a good pairing! I know, but this NEVER happens. Meanwhile, Sib’s secret is out, Gene is a bit of a drama queen, and the plot thickens. We half way through.  

Brothers Ep 9 - Kaow had a serious moment of advice giving that was truly lovely. Lots of family dama made this a superior episode to... well... any of the others in this series. Which isn’t saying much. 

1000 Stars Ep 10 fin - at the start this series didn’t grab me the way GMMTV’s last BL, Tonhon Chonlatee, did. But boy did it end 1000x better. Might have given us 2021′s best forehead kiss. I enjoyed the ultra romantic cliff-top reunion kiss, and I LOVED the stinger flirting scene. That was an absolute gift we had no right to expect. This drama is a poster child for finishing on a high note (always focus on that dessert course). Final thoughts? This was FAR more a classic romance than it was BL. There were some BL tropes used but not many and most of them originated in the romance genre not yaoi. A picture perfect ending bumped 1000 Stars much higher up my best-of list than expected. Not sure how often I’ll rewatch it as a whole, but this last episode? I’m probably rewatching it right now. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Dear Uranus (Taiwan GL) Ep 3 fin - I guess that’s it? Okaaaaay  

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 3 (AKA Ep 5-6) - we got actual legit gay culture not just BL (always appreciated) from XingSi. I’m starting to find LiCheng’s “show them we fucking” hijinks hilarious rather than annoying (not sure why, maybe I just love a rubber chicken, or maybe it was the STUFFED CORN WITH THE TASSEL that did it). 

-- H4 Moment of RANT --

Tropes included beach trip, there’s only one bed, cook for him, baby is a floppy drunk, carry baby to bed, and.... drunk non-con. Whoopdedoo. Here we go again. Did TharnType teach us NOTHING? (Apparently it taught us if the chemistry is good enough, I have no morals at all.) At least H4 seems to be taking us out of cheese into serious when it comes to assault. Or is it? 

I take back what I said last week about XingSi & YongJie being codependency + salvation trope, that only works if YongJie is the uke. He’s NOT. So we got us an obsessive predatory villain with a possible redemption arc. That’s more common in crime dramas, mafia romance, and epic fantasy than BL. It’s real hard to redeem a sexual predator in a reality-grounded universe like contemporary romance (See Kla in LBC1&2). 

Next week is gonna be a test of the whole damn franchise. Imma remind both me a you that this was ep 3 of 10 so we got a ways to go yet... but ooof, what have we wrought, BL? (I ended up doing a whole post about the stepbrother trope because of this sub plot.) Taiwan is killing me.

-- RANT ended --

Word of Honor (China) Ep 19-21 - over half way point so we got ALL the back story (in a classic 4 act story structure midway reveal). Now we know who WKX really is and his lineage. We also got some cute hugs and hand holds. Moving along at a nice clip despite being 36 eps total. Still gayest thing to come out of we-not-gay China since Advance Bravely. 

Most Peaceful Place (Vietnam) Ep 2 - takes them a while to get eng subs together and ep 2 didn’t drop until late. So I’m putting this in a Thurs time slot going forward. Miscommunication already cleared up and a 2nd couple has been introduced. The pacing on these Vietnamese BLs is always a bit... off. But it’s still better than most of its ilk, enjoyable. I’m thinking it’s a 6 ep arc. 

We Best Love 2 (Taiwan) Ep 5 - after the initial drama DRAMA of ep 2, the current external crisis at work is much quieter, giving this whole season a top heavy feel. Taken along side the first season, I think it’s fitting nicely into a 4 act structure, but that might be my bias. I hope I’m not wrong, we’ll find out next week. Shi De puttering about being domestic with Shu Yi on his back was the best execution of the piggyback trope EVER. Meanwhile, our little D/s side couple of codependency, salvation trope + mental illness is becoming weirdly appealing. I don’t know. H4 done mess with my head. 

Stand Alones 

Absolute BL AKA Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko  (Japan) Ep 1-4 mini series. Found subs under A Man Who Defies The World of BL. IT’S HILARIOUS. It’s Japan making fun of us, but also itself for having started this whole BL nonsense - from yaoi roots to present day. It’s parody goddamn gold. Utterly cheeky unto the very last line. We are not worthy. 

Apparently the most powerful tropes of all time are: baby is a floppy drunk and the piggyback fo nobility. Oh and chocolate. {Full review here.} 

Honestly, this show may have been made with only @heretherebedork and I in mind. I don’t know if you’d even understand half of it if you don’t have a history with the manga source genre and an obsessive interest in underlying narrative devices. I haven’t seen much chatter in the blog’o’sphere on this one because, in the end, it’s not a romance at all, it’s social commentary. 

The ending line was a masterclass in lampooning a genre. I’m going to rewatch the whole thing just to catch all the digs I missed first time around. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. 

Thank you Japan. I forgive you all your hair-styling sins of the last decade. 

Breaking News 

Spring Line Up:

Scholar Ryu’s Wedding Ceremony AKA Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korean historical BL) April 15th 

Close Friend the series (Thai trailer) April 22. 

2gether the movie (Thai trailer) April 22 to Thai theaters.

Nitiman (Thai) May 7 on One31.

I Told Sunset About You 2 (Thai) May 27 on LineTV

Ossan’s Love (Hong Kong) June to Viu 

Gossip 

Bad Buddies released its first promo op via Arm Share, which means GMMTV is at least *thinking* about filming it. 

Fun behind the scenes gossip sesh with eng subs for Tell the World I Love You (that Perth Bas movie we are maybe getting someday but will likely be sad). 

New Thai BL Bite Me (adapted from novel Grab a Bite) dropped a teaser. It stars Mark Siwat (Kla in LBC) as uke character Ake, a delivery boy with special foodie powers, and chef Eua (seme played by Zung Kidakorn) who discovers him. It’s from the same author as Manner of Death so we might even get some actual plot. Since it’s an established BL actor who I happen LOVE, a known author, and a plot about FOOD, I could not me more excited for this one. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed a day later than actual air date for accessibility reasons. Some are dropping multiples at a time but just started so I’m not sure on numbering. 

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

[clonewarsarchives]

THE PERILS OF PADMÉ (#116, APR 2010)

Actress Catherine Taber’s role as Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: The Clone Wars has proved a huge hit with fans. James Burns met the most glamorous senator in the galaxy!

Star Wars Insider: How did you approach playing such a well-established character?

Catherine Taber: We tried to use what was already there [in the films], which I think is important when you’re doing anything like Star Wars. Dave [Filoni, The Clone Wars supervising director] is really cool about letting me take my version of Padmé into new situations, so we understand who she is. We honor the film version of Padmé on the show, but I try to portray her as I believe she is.

How do you like working with Matt Lanter [Anakin Skywalked and James Arnold Taylor [Obi-Wan Kenobi]?

I’m quite good friends with James, so it’s great fun to work with him. With Matt, the fans have said that they’ve been enjoying the chemistry between Anakin and Padmé. That just comes naturally to us. We have great banter and we try to make it an authentic love relationship so that you get to see these people having the same issues that real couples do. Getting to know Matt and James more, I feel a bond with them like Padmé does with Obi-Wan and Anakin in the films.

You provided the voice for Princess Leia in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. How did that come about?

It was during the making of the first season of The Clone Wars and it didn’t have anything to do with the show. LucasArts knows me because I’ve done some voice work for them. In fact, Mission Vao [in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic] was my first voice-over job. I really enjoy working with those guys. They knew me as an actress and they came to me with the part of Leia. She didn’t have a big part in the game, but she was pivotal and I think they were having a hard time finding an actress who understood who Leia is. Finally they just called my agent and asked me to read for it. They were initially concerned because I’d played Mission Vao and they didn’t want it to be the same character.

We worked to try to honor what Carrie Fisher did at the beginning of A New Hope, because I would actually be playing Leia before that. She had that distinctive accent and was definitely a child immersed in a political situation. She also had a lot of decorum and we wanted to show that, so I watched her performance a lot.

Do you have any plans to work with LucasArts again?

There might be more someday.

Do you have a favorite Padmé scene?

I love the scene with Jar Jar and the battle droid from “Bombad Jedi” because I think that it’s hysterical. It’s classic Star Wars humor. I love the moment in “Destroy Malevolence” when I say, “He’s probably late again” because I often feel that way in real life! Anytime I have a scene with Anakin it’s a lot of fun. There was a moment, I think it was in “Destroy Malevolence” too, where it’s me with Obi-Wan and Anakin and it had that full-on old school Star Wars feel. I got to man the gunship! I would love to see more of that.

Which have been your favorite episodes so far?

“Rookies”—I think everybody loved “Rookies.” I have a soft spot for soldiers in general and in “Rookies” Dee [Bradley Baker] gives such heart to the clones that I just absolutely adored it.

I loved “Innocents of Ryloth.” I played Numa, and when I read Henry Gilroy’s script, I was actually teary, and I’m not a big crier. I also love “Senate Spy.” I know the actor who plays Clovis, Robin Atkin Downes. He has voiced a ton of game characters as well. In our scenes together it felt like I was doing a live-action show.

There was a lot of tension with Anakin in that episode.

I loved seeing that and it was important for us to start to see those glimpses of Anakin, because you don’t want it to just happen in one day. I thought it was really accurate regarding how a guy would feel in those circumstances and also really accurate regarding what’s going to happen to Anakin in the future.

How does it feel to be part of a great onscreen romance?

I’m a really lucky girl, what can I say? I think all of us are so close to each other and so proud of each other.

The cool thing about Matt is that he’s not just a pretty face; he’s an amazing actor. As Anakin, he has that sense of cockiness and confidence, but without a solid performance behind that, it wouldn’t work. Matt brings that and it’s not bad having him standing next to me during a romantic scene!

[spaceorphan18]

99 Perspectives on a Single Love Story #49

A/N: The Story of Kurt and Blaine told through the eyes of everyone else but them. Each chapter is a different perspective in the ongoing tale of their love story.

I started something like this a while back - and now I’m taking the idea and really running with it. Each chapter is a ficlet of a different character at a different point in Kurt and Blaine’s life - documenting their love story. This starts in Audition, and each chapter will be paired with a different episode until reaching Dreams Come True.

[Ao3]

***

Artie Abrams (The Role You Were Born to Play) 

Artie Abrams usually revels in his friends’ melodramas.  They’re going to make for a fantastic script someday.  However, lately, the atmosphere has been less of the quirky, indy comedy that Artie intends on creating and more like a sour sitcom with a sadistic showrunner trying to piss off all his fan bases at once.  Artie wouldn’t mind so much if it didn’t directly affect him or his vision.   He just wants to create the most epic version of Grease that he can.  West Side Story had been a hit.  Grease will be like the icing on the cake.  Having everyone be depressed trying to make it, however, is proving to be an unforeseen difficulty.  

Coming back from summer break to learn Mike and Tina had split had been shocking to say the least.  He had always made his peace knowing that he’d have to attend their wedding someday, but now that that probably isn’t going to happen? Well...  Tina has been unusually difficult lately - but knowing that she’s back on the market always occupies a place in the back of his brain.  

One break-up after graduation makes sense.  All the rest of them, however? Is like a slaughterfest.  Brittany had been mopey for days, though Artie doesn’t think it’s the worst thing for her to have some time away from Santana.  Besides - she and Sam are getting cozy, so that’ll resolve itself pretty quickly.  Meanwhile, getting Finn back on track has been a labor unto itself.  He and Rachel have already broken up a ton of times (and will probably get back together and break up a few more times before the end, Artie guesses), so Artie isn’t necessarily concerned about that whole megadrama.  He is concerned for his friend, though, and there are deeper issues going on than just no longer making out with Rachel Berry.  

The truly bizarre turn of events has been whatever the hell is going on with Kurt and Blaine.  And no one actually knows because Blaine has been almost silent for days now.  Finn won’t come clean about it either - as much as Artie’s tried to pry it out of him.  Says it's none of his business and leaves it at that.  

Artie eventually texts Kurt: Hey, I think you might have broken Blaine.  What gives?

Kurt’s only reply: He broke me.

None of it really makes any sense.  Kurt and Blaine used to talk endlessly about their ridiculously over-the-top wedding, and some weird vision of their future where they own a lighthouse? Artie tried not to follow too hard.  The two of them were often so lost in their own little world, the rest of them let them have it.  But now - Artie might lose his go-to leading man.  And that’s enough for him to try to figure it out.  

“Dude, what’s going on?” Artie asks, blocking Blaine’s path in the hallway one day.  Blaine doesn’t push back, just stands there looking sad and distant.  Despite the polish of his hair and the neatness of his clothes - Blaine doesn’t look like he’s slept in days.  His face is pale and gaunt, with dark circles under his eyes.  He doesn’t even look like the Blaine Anderson Artie knows -- just a shell of a pod person living in his body.  “That audition was… something else.  Where’s my leading man, bro? I need you on this one.”

Blaine doesn’t say anything.  Clenches his jaw, looks to the floor, anywhere but at Artie.  “I can’t, Artie.”

“Why not?”

Blaine starts to walk away.  “Because I can’t.”

Artie rolls after him.  “C’mon, Blaine, you’re an excellent performer.”

“I told you - I’ll do Teen Angel.  It’ll be...ironic.” Blaine turns away from him, wanting to leave.  

“Blaine!” Artie calls.  “You can talk to me, man.  Kurt said something about you breaking him and that just seems like a weird thing for him to say.  I can’t imagine anything breaking Kurt Hummel.”

Blaine turns back at him, tears in his eyes, and Artie realizes that what Kurt had texted had been true.  However, Kurt is not the only one Blaine broke. “He said that?” His voice gives a little squeak as he talks.  

“No, not exactly,” Artie tries to backtrack.  “Look, it’s going to be okay, Blaine.”

“No,” Blaine shakes his head, a bit of clarity in his tired eyes.  “I’ve broken something I’m never going to be able to fix, and it’s never going to be okay.”

Artie lets out a little sigh as Blaine walks away.  He feels a little guilty for sharing what he did, but what can he do?  They have all come back from breakups.  And he has no doubt that Blaine will, too.  This one, however, is just going to take a lot more time.  

In the meantime, the reality settles in that he has to find a new leading man.  Alas...the show must go on.  

[mittensmorgul]

As Above, So Below

I’m still trying to pinpoint exactly why the focus on “heaven is fixed and actually a paradise now!” is just so deeply unsatisfying to me. And I think I need to preface this with a bit of backstory about me, because I think that gives the rest of this essay some relevant context.

I know this isn’t relevant to my main point here, but this is a metatextual and thematically identical example of the exact thing I’m gonna lay out, because context is always helpful. So please forgive this seemingly irrelevant detour, because I promise it will be relevant by the end.

(plus, would it really be an Essay By Mittens™ without at least one baffling tangent? no, it would not!)

Tangent time!

I think everyone that follows me knows how skeptical I was... or should I say how WARY I was of the way Eileen was returned to the narrative this season. We were warned in the PREVIOUS EPISODE how much Chuck was attempting to interfere in their lives. I was accused of some very nasty things, of hating the ship, or hating the character of Eileen, or of hating Sam and not wanting them to be happy. No amount of pointing at obvious warning signs in the text, no amount of yelling about Sam’s God Wound or the absolute klaxon warning that the wound had become “quiet” and his Chuck-O-Vision Nightmares had apparently stopped seemed to matter. I was declared “wrong” and told to shut up.

And then 15.09 happened, and basically everything I’d been wary of was shown to be what actually happened, but there were still unresolved issues. Eileen doubted her own feelings and walked away. She doubted what was actually real. And at the time, I said many times that I would be thrilled to see those issues resolved by the end of the season, and for her to truly know that what she’d felt growing between her and Sam was real. And by the end of the season, despite my personal horror at her previous situation (and having that personal horror compounded by the fandom literally gaslighting me and attempting to bully me into ignoring this basic actual plot detail of this specific growth process which... in the context of what my personal objection was to accepting her return at face value in the first place having been personal trauma associated with gaslighting and manipulation...) by the time 15.18 aired, I was 100% convinced that Sam and Eileen had fully chosen each other, and felt the traumatic pain Sam suffered during that text conversation with her during the snap. She NEEDED to come back, because she had been set up to be part of Sam’s Win. They were clearly each other’s future.

The show literally put in all the work to make even *me* feel this to be True and Right and Good. And then after that point we never even hear Eileen’s name again. We never were told that she was even returned at the end of 15.19. Sam, who had been so entirely devastated by her disappearance in the previous episode that he couldn’t even process it was apparently hit with an amnesia hammer and just... never even thought about her again through a long greyscale life with a blurry baby Dean factory vaguely in the background of a single scene of his life. I can’t credit or justify how after an entire year invested in making us all truly care about Sam and Eileen and the happiness they found in each other if only the cosmos would allow them to choose each other in the end would just... erase all of that in the series finale.

Which brings me to the second tangent, which is specifically about *me,* and how I feel about the cosmic order in the television show Supernatural. Because I feel a lot about it. Probably more than most people ever did. And this is also important to understanding the main underlying point I need to make here.

Something I’ve been most looking forward to, for YEARS, about Supernatural eventually ending someday was writing a book, or a thesis, or even just organizing and compiling all my observations into a cohesive narrative specifically about the cosmology of the Supernatural universe. I’ve been cobbling together my observations and realizations about the nature of heaven, hell, purgatory, the empty, the alternate universes we’ve seen, and yes, even the cosmic function of the mundane level of the story as told by events that transpired on Earth. So of everyone watching this dumb show for the last 15 years, I don’t actually know anyone who cared more that I did about finding a satisfactory resolution and transformation of every plane of existence-- the mortal world AND the “afterlife realms” we’ve experienced on this show. And in the wake of the finale, I feel cheated out of that. Because in the end, it wasn’t about the triumph of free will and a flip of the script, it was just more of the same.

And now that I have those two preliminaries out of the way, I’ll finally get to the point. :’D

(hooray, it didn’t even take 1k words to get there for once!)

The “main stage” of Supernatural has always been Earth. It’s always been “Humanity.” At the very start, we meet two men whose lives had always been dictated to them by higher powers. At first, that “higher power” was their father who raised them in his vengeance mission, who trained them to hunt the supernatural. It was the inciting incident of the entire series, after all, their realization that forces outside of their control had irrevocably altered the course of their lives. It had forever torn down what they’d trusted in family, in personal safety, and would become something they couldn’t outrun or fight back against for long before another wave of cosmic discord would settle over them once more.

We watched this story play out in ever increasing spheres of cosmic significance, until Gabriel laid it out on the table for them in the simplest possible terms (in 5.08).

GABRIEL: You do not know my family. What you guys call the apocalypse, I used to call Sunday dinner. That's why there's no stopping this, because this isn't about a war. It's about two brothers that loved each other and betrayed each other. You'd think you'd be able to relate. SAM: What are you talking about? GABRIEL: You sorry sons of bitches. Why do you think you two are the vessels? Think about it. Michael, the big brother, loyal to an absent father, and Lucifer, the little brother, rebellious of Daddy's plan. You were born to this, boys. It's your destiny! It was always you! As it is in heaven, so it must be on earth. One brother has to kill the other. DEAN: What the hell are you saying? GABRIEL: Why do you think I've always taken such an interest in you? Because from the moment Dad flipped on the lights around here, we knew it was all gonna end with you. Always. A long pause. SAM and DEAN look down, then at each other. DEAN: No. That's not gonna happen. GABRIEL: I'm sorry. But it is. GABRIEL sighs. GABRIEL: Guys. I wish this were a TV show. Easy answers, endings wrapped up in a bow...but this is real, and it's gonna end bloody for all of us. That's just how it's gotta be. ***

And isn’t that all even 1000x more painfully ironic that it all still happened even 10 years later? It was always going to end with them. And lol, “I wish this were a TV show” because if it was then it wouldn’t have to end bloody.

But this… was a Major Acknowledgement that the meta level of this story was consistent, and was telling us something important. It demonstrated that the Cosmic Structure Itself was the cause for Sam and Dean’s “destiny” in this story. But that’s not what the point of this story has ever been.

Nobody (including me, who is literally obsessed with this aspect of the story) has ever invested themselves in the narrative of Supernatural because they cared about the fate of the cosmic order over and above the fate of the characters who had committed to overthrowing it all, to “tearing up the pages” and writing their own destinies. I mean, we became invested because Sam, Dean, and Cas as characters took us by the hand and invited us to come along with them as they battled against fate for the good of EARTH and HUMANITY.

And certainly, Heaven being a horrific sort of eternal replay of the “highlights” of individual souls greatest hits, where free will didn’t apply as everyone was just boxed away into their individual holodecks to serve as some sort of giant Heaven Battery powering the furtherance of this narrative, this “cosmic order” that had become so powerful it dictated the events and manipulated the lives of people who still existed in the ostensible realm of free will and human life on Earth… that couldn’t stand in the end. But what the narrative (and people I’ve seen attempting to justify the finale as narratively sensible) seems to have forgotten was that all of that was Chuck’s construct to begin with. That without Chuck holding his kingdom in Heaven together, the walls of all those soul cubicles ceased to even be relevant.

After spending their entire lives to this point constantly fighting their way to the absolute pinnacle of the As Above, So Below narrative and pulling the plug on the original creator himself, Humanity should’ve triumphed. And I’d argue that it DID, through Jack restoring the missing essential “humanity” to the divine condition. And, silly me, I thought they’d achieved the promise of “paradise” heralded by Jack’s birth at last, and truly “flipped the entire script of the narrative.”

Ever since they thwarted the original apocalypse, I had hope that they would continue to achieve the same result right up the ladder. Metatron trying to fill the role of Chuck Junior hit his own narrative wall in TFW, while Dean’s battle with the Mark of Cain, and Cain telling him he was “living my life in reverse” and would succumb to destiny by killing his loved ones in the “reverse order” to Cain’s own path to downfall cemented this for me. Dean not only failed to kill any of his loved ones (you didn’t kill your own brother. why?), he SAVED them. He didn’t fulfil the prophecy in reverse, he subverted it. He UNMADE it.

Perhaps I was thinking on too grand a scale, that the ultimate inversion wouldn’t be “God is overthrown and replaced by more of the same,” but “God is overthrown and the entire order of the universe is restructured from the bottom up rather than the top down.

I’d hoped against hope that the conclusion of the narrative would be “As below, so above,” with the fundamental power of human love becoming the new foundation of the cosmic order. It never even occurred to me that “taking back the narrative to rewrite it for ourselves” was not the ultimate goal of Team Free Will, or the ultimate expression of their biggest win.

This whole “well heaven really needed to be rebuilt, there was still work to be done!” seems… irrelevant to me if they’d truly won free of the cosmic narrative. The entire structure of the universe-- including Heaven and Hell-- should’ve defaulted to the paradise state that Jack was literally born to bring to fruition. Wasn’t that the point of his entire role in the story, ultimately?

And if that wasn’t the case in the end, why did we never learn the fate of Hell? Was it just… irrelevant and unchanged after this? Or just… abandoned as a concept entirely? It’s just strange to me to put such a focus on heaven being the sole sphere of import in the end that it undercuts the essential humanity of the narrative for me.

The story itself had kept Heaven on a back burner for years, only occasionally mentioning that the structure of the place was falling further and further into disrepair with a dwindling force of angels struggling to keep the walls in place at all, that it seems like it could’ve been an afterthought at the end of the series rather than a focus so large it required the death of both main characters to make sure we all understood that Heaven Had Changed Now. Because TFW had never been fighting to make Heaven right. They’d been fighting to save the world itself, for humanity to all have a chance to live their lives as their own.

And we didn’t need to see that in the final hope they might get their own lives on Earth to explore. In the end, the fundamental narrative that Life On Earth was dictated by the cosmic structure of creation was never fully subverted. And for me, that’s the main reason I just… can’t accept the finale. It wasn’t a victory of free will and humanity, in the end it was just more of the same.

I appreciate the attempts to take the essential bones of the story we did get and apply a different polish to the surface of the skeleton, but to me it still feels like we’re looking at completely different beasts in the end. Like… to me this was as jarring a revelation as those drawing of modern animals reimagined as dinosaurs entirely based on their skeletons. Like, all along the narrative told me I was looking at a swan. They told me this skeleton they’re building out from is definitely a swan, without a doubt.  I know what a swan looks like-- a graceful feather-covered bird with magnificent wings. I trusted that in the end it would be at least remotely swan-looking. And then the finale ended up looking like this

and I just don’t even know where everything went so wrong. Or maybe all along I just assumed they actually knew what a swan looked like, but weren’t sure they could actually pull it off and settled for whatever the heck this is instead. Either way, I’m actually kinda grateful to the finale for being so entirely disappointing on every level, because otherwise I probably would’ve tried to adopt the monstrosity of it anyway. And I’m really, really glad I don’t have to.

[lokiondisneyplus]

[This interview contains spoilers for Loki episode five.]

If you thought Richard E. Grant and Tom Hiddleston had a passing resemblance during Loki‘s fifth episode, “Journey Into Mystery,” then you weren’t alone. In fact, the two actors have talked about their shared “physiognomy” for years, so much so that a running joke was created about them playing father and son, someday. And then, at the beginning of 2020, the gag was up as Grant received the official offer to play Classic Loki on the Hiddleston-led Loki. Since Grant missed Hiddleston’s renowned “Loki lecture” prior to production, he received his own private crash course later on in production.

“[Tom Hiddleston] was very articulate and passionate about all of that, as he’s a walking Lokipedia,” Grant tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So that was very, very useful, but to be honest, I was so anxious and nervous about my first day of work that I probably only took in about 5 percent of what he was saying to me. But by the same token, I was entering his universe, and I was hoping that I wasn’t going to let him, or the fans of this character, down.”

When Grant was first offered the job, he immediately began to envision his Classic Loki costume since he assumed it would include a muscle suit a la Jack Kirby’s rendition of the character. But once he arrived to the Loki set in Atlanta, he discovered that his own physicality would be utilized instead, much to his chagrin.

“What I was so looking forward to with Loki was finally having a muscle suit, having been born without any,” Grant says with a laugh. “I thought, ‘Oh great! I’m going to look like the Jack Kirby drawings and costume design, which was so faithful to that.’ But when I got to Atlanta, they said, ‘No, you don’t have a muscle suit. You’re just as yourself, a stick insect.’ So I was very disappointed. I thought I was letting the character and the viewers down by not having muscles underneath it. I wish that I had gone into a year’s worth of training and weight-gain powder to look like that, but I don’t think I could’ve possibly achieved that. So I was hoping I’d have the rubberized version of it, but I was denied that pleasure.”

In a recent conversation with THR, Grant also discusses Classic Loki’s ultimate sacrifice and what the character was thinking as he laughed en route to his death.

You’ve said that you and Tom Hiddleston have wanted to work together for years. When did this desire first come about?

More than anything, it came about because we recognized that we have a similar physiognomy, and somebody joked to us, “You could play father and son!” So I suppose it has always been in the back of mind. And then I saw Tom at the Toronto [International] Film Festival a couple years ago, and he said, “We really have to do something together! Father and son — or something!” But I thought it was highly unlikely because his career had gone so far up into the stratosphere. And then, at the beginning of last year, I got an offer to play Classic/Old Loki, and I thought, “Oh right, this is what we talked about and now it’s come to pass.” So that’s how it happened.

And in terms of the script, what was your first impression of Classic Loki’s full-fledged arc?

The backstory — where he describes himself as the God of Outcasts rather than the God of Mischief — was very compelling. So you understand where and why he’s been out of the loop for so long. He was so desperate to have some kind of contact that he was willing to reveal himself to the TVA, and later, by offering himself up to Asgard and Alioth, he’s willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the possibility of somebody else finding love. Because the ending was so catastrophic and mayhem-filled, as he laughs in the face of his own immolation, I thought that was a great beginning, middle and end in just one episode. It’s as much as you could ever hope for from a guest role. So it was really exciting to do and very satisfying.

As he was laughing in the face of the beast, what was on his mind?

Even as you’re going down, you still have the power, grace and sheer chutzpah to go, “I will laugh in your face even though I know that you’re about to eat me alive.” That’s a great adage to life. (Laughs.) I love that.

Since Tom has played Loki for many years, he’s become the world’s foremost authority on the character, so much so that he delivers actual lectures on him.

He is! He’s Lokipedia.

Was there enough time for him to give you a crash course on the character?

He did one of those prior to the first episode; they’d already shot four episodes by the time I got there. So he came and saw me after I had just gotten my costume and makeup done. He said, “I’m going to give you a brief outline and some background information on what you’re dealing with.” So he was very articulate and passionate about all of that, as he’s a walking Lokipedia. So that was very, very useful, but to be honest, I was so anxious and nervous about my first day of work that I probably only took in about 5 percent of what he was saying to me. But by the same token, I was entering his universe, and I was hoping that I wasn’t going to let him, or the fans of this character, down.

Classic Loki was very frustrated by the fact that betrayal is synonymous with the Loki archetype. So he did something about it and sacrificed his life to help Loki and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). While you touched on the ultimate sacrifice already, what did you make of his decision to go against type?

It was very smart of [Tom Kauffman], the writer, to have hit on that. I was the oldest person on the unit, as well as the oldest person on the crew and the cast. When you’re in the twilight zone as I am now at 64, there is a sense that you’re handing over the baton in the relay race of life. So it seemed like the most human, vulnerable and honorable thing to do, and I got that completely. It was fitting — even for an old Classic Loki. But unlike in my life, you can always come back in Loki-land. (Laughs.)

Between Allegiant General Pryde in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Classic Loki, were these two of your favorite costume fittings to date?

Yes, and it was pretty amazing to have that great, explosive ending to that Star Wars character. But what I was so looking forward to with Loki was finally having a muscle suit, having been born without any. (Laughs.) I thought, “Oh great! I’m going to look like the Jack Kirby drawings and costume design, which was so faithful to that.” But when I got to Atlanta, they said, “No, you don’t have a muscle suit. You’re just as yourself, a stick insect.” So I was very disappointed. I thought I was letting the character and the viewers down by not having muscles underneath it. I wish that I had gone into a year’s worth of training and weight-gain powder to look like that, but I don’t think I could’ve possibly achieved that. So I was hoping I’d have the rubberized version of it, but I was denied that pleasure. (Laughs.)

On big-budget projects in particular, actors don’t always get the chance to work opposite another actor/character in any given scene. So now that you can talk about The Rise of Skywalker, did you and Ian McDiarmid actually get to be in the same room during Pryde’s hologram scene with Emperor Palpatine?

No, I never met Ian on it at all.

Between Jack Hock (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and Withnail (Withnail and I), who would enjoy Loki’s company the most? Who’d make for a more ideal companion?

Wow. I think Jack Hock because he was so gregarious and wanted to be friends with everybody. Whereas Withnail was so staggeringly selfish that I think even he would have outdone Loki in the ego department.