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duckprintspress · 5 months

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Fandom Lexicon: F

Considering that “F” is the first word of “fan,” “fandom,” and “fiction” … there are a lot of entries in the letter F. And here they all are!

Check out the full lexicon posted thus far here.

Spot a mistake? Think of a term we missed? Drop us an ask or comment!

Lexicon Terms Beginning with F: (read more)

Faceclaim: When someone assigns a celebrity’s face to their original character. Most often used in a roleplay setting. Those participating in a roleplaying scenario together may make rules against multiple characters having the same face. See also: fancast. Read more about faceclaims.

Fan edit: 1. A short video in which the creator patches together clips from the source fandom(s) and sets those clips to music and/or uses them to tell an abbreviated version of the original story or an entirely new story. See also: edit. 2. A photo manipulation in which a creator takes images from their fandom and modifies them. Often called a manip. Read more about types of fan edits.

Fanart: Artwork based on original media, often using the same characters and/or settings, but placing them in new contexts. Read more about fanart.

Fanartist: A person who creates fanart.

Fanboy: Someone who gets very excited about something they’re a fan of, but in a way that is seen as more “masculine.” Despite the gendered language, this term can be applied to any and all genders; several non-gendered variations (such as “fanswirl”) have been proposed, but none have caught on. See also: fangirl. Read more about the term “fanboy.”

Fancast: When a fan decides that a specific character would be best depicted by a specific real individual. This usually involves actual actors, but that isn’t necessarily a requirement. Similar to faceclaiming, but typically focused on characters from other media rather than on an individual’s original characters. For example, if someone reads a book and then decides which performers they’d like to see portray the characters in a live-action adaptation, that’s a fancast. Read more about fancasts.

Fandom : 1. A collective term for everyone who is a fan (of anything and everything – from a book through a sport’s team to an activity such as fishing and everything in between). 2. A collective term for people who are fans of a specific thing (media, character, actor, sport, etc.). 3. A term for the environment in which a person might express their enjoyment of a specific thing/things. Read more about what a fandom is.

Fanfic: Shortened term for “fanfiction.”

Fanfiction: Written works of fiction based on original media, often using the same characters and/or settings, but placing them in new contexts, extending the storylines, or otherwise transforming them per the writer’s specifications. Read more about fanfiction.

Fangirl: Someone who gets very excited about something they’re a fan of, but in a way that is seen as more “feminine.” Despite the gendered language, this term can be applied to any and all genders; several non-gendered variations (such as “fanswirl”) been proposed, but none have caught on. See also: fanboy. Read more about the term “fangirl.”

Fanlore: A wiki run by the OTW that compiles fandom-related information – basically a much, much larger and better documented version of this lexicon. See also: AO3, OTW. Visit Fanlore.org.

Fanmix: A fanmix is a selection of music, such as would be on a mixtape or mix CD, that a fan has compiled because of how they feel the music relates to a fandom or fandoms of their choice. Read more about fanmixes.

Fanon: An idea about a character, setting, plot, or other detail about a story that is not explicitly stated in the source material but is believed to be true. Fanon may be personal and believed by only one person or may become popular and become an established part of the fandom vernacular for a given fandom. See also: canon, head canon. Read more about the term “fanon.”

Fanwork: The collective term for all creations that fans make as part of their participation in fandom, such as fanfiction, fanart, edits, manips, filk, meta, and more. Read more about fanworks.

Fanzine: See zine.

Feelings Yakuza: See Okimochi Yakuza.

Feels: As in “right in the feels.” Used to describe when something makes a person emotional despite themselves. Read more about the term “feels.”

Femslash: Lesbian and wlw fanworks, shipping female characters together. See also: slash. Read more about femslash.

Fest: A fandom event centered on a specific theme, often characterized by many prompts or other interaction opportunities scheduled over a period of time that result in the creation and sharing of numerous informal/smaller creations. Read more about fests.

FF.net: Abbreviation for fanfiction.net. A website that hosts fanfiction. Visit FF.net.

Fic: Short for fiction or fanfiction.

Fic Rec: Shortened term for “fanfiction recommendation.” A fanfic that someone has recommended because it’s one of their personal favorites and/or on some criteria (for example, “fanfics set at a beach.”) Fic recs are often compiled into rec lists. Read more about recs.

Ficlet: A short fanfiction. Ficlets are usually under 1,000 words. See also: drabble, flash fic. Read more about ficlets.

Filk: Essentially fanfic in music form, though the medium may make the connection less obvious. For example, Come With Me by chxrlotte is about Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens. Read more about filk.

Fix-it: A fanwork that fixes a perceived or actual problem in the source material. For example, a fix-it might offer an explanation for an actual plot hole, or it may be created to segue between canon and popular fanon, or it might be used to change an unhappy event in canon (such as a character dying) into a tale with a happier ending. Read more about fix-its.

Flame: To be intentionally offensive toward someone on the internet. Often used as a verb. Read more about flames and flaming.

Flamewar: When two or more people engage in reciprocal flaming, exchanging increasingly offensive and/or violent posts with each other, the resulting back-and-forth is called a flamewar. This term has largely fallen out of fashion; “discourse” and “wank” are used more often now. Read more about flamewars.

Flash Fic: Shortened term for “flash fiction.” Very short fiction stories, typically not more than a couple hundred words. Read more about flash fiction.

Fluff: Refers to fics or scenes that are soft, soothing, calm, domestic, and/or loving – the in-betweens and soft points we rarely see on the published page or the TV screen because they are the opposite of conflict. Read more about fluff.

Follow Forever: Someone an individual will never stop following on social media, even if their interests diverge. In the past, “follow forever” posts were popular on Tumblr, where an OP would make a list of other users they would never unfollow. Follow forevers have fallen out of style.

Forum: 1. A message board, usually privately owned/not connected to social media. 2. A specific type of Discord channel that bears some resemblance to how Reddit works. 3. The message board section of a large webpage that may have other functionality as well, such as the forums on Ravelry. Read more about forums.

FTM: Abbreviation for “female to male.” A way of referring to a transgender man. Some people find this term offensive, and others do not. Some transgender people use it to discuss their own gender and their transition, and others do not. Read more about the abbreviation “ftm.”

Fudanshi: A Japanese term for a man who is a fan of BL and yaoi (mlm) content. See also: fujoshi. Read more about fudanshi.

Fujo: Shortened term of “fujoshi.”

Fujoshi: A Japanese term for a woman who is a fan of BL and yaoi (mlm) content. See also: fudanshi. Read more about fujoshi.

Fursona: Refers to the name, characteristics, and physical attributes that a furry has chosen for their animal persona. See also [thing]sona. Read more about fursonas.

Fusion: Specifically in a fandom sense, fusion is used to refer to when a fanfiction or fanart combines two or more different fandoms into one shared universe. The most famous example is Superwholock, the fusion ‘verse of Supernatural, Doctor Who, and BBC Sherlock. Read more about fusion fanfiction.

Futanari : A Japanese word that is often used in fandom to describe characters with sex characteristics from both genders. This and the shortened term “futa” are, in the West, most often used to describe a genre of pornographic anime and manga. Read more about the term “futanari.”

#duck prints press #fandom lexicon #resources

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keira-kaz2y5 · 7 months

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Hi! Welcome to my blog, everyone is welcome!

I don’t write fics but I love to read them <3

My name is Keira, I’m female (she/her), bisexual

and I’m currently studying music at college. I’m British and have strong Welsh heritage 💪🏼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿, but I was born and brought up in England.

I’m currently obsessed with: The Rookie, Marauders, 9-1-1 (& 911 Lone Star), Marvel, X-Men, Good Omens, Supernatural, Doctor Who (2005-2024), Sherlock, Criminal Minds, Merlin, Percy Jackson series, Hannibal, Marauders, Outer Banks, Agents of SHIELD and Moon Knight

I’m a musician in training so feel free to ask any questions!

My biggest ships: Buddie (9-1-1), WolfStar, Destiel, JohnLock, Merthur

Films I love: Atonement, Dead Poet’s Society, Little Women, Hamilton, Hacksaw Ridge, Nowhere Boy, Knives Out, Gifted, Tick Tick BOOM!

Top artists are Noah Kahan & Taylor Swift

But I really love Hozier, Dermot Kennedy, Billie Eilish, Reneé Rapp, Lizzy McAlpine, Gracie Abrams and Mumford & Sons

I listen to lots of genres but my main would be indie, folk/alternative, pop, soul and rock.

I especially love when every now and then I’ll find a fanfic like Loki x pianist!reader or rockstar!marauders fic and stuff. As a pianist myself I love this and would love to see it represented, so I am more than happy for u guys that are writers (or just curious) to ask me about this like the industry, or live sound (I’ve seen on tiktok lately people thinking every performer has a metronome in their monitors, this isn’t always correct, there’s a lot more to it) or even all the jobs you take on within the industry like session musicians, library musicians etc.. so I’ll quite happily answer questions or help people out if they plan on writing fics with musicians as main characters or au’s so please please please don’t hesitate to ask! I go all nerdy for this stuff I think it’s pretty cool

Thanks for finding my page and reading all of this, if you got to the bottom, thank you so much I love you <33

Have a great week babes xx

For anyone interested, I’m on a Pop Music course and I’m study the music industry in business classes, with theory (boring as hell) classes too and I have recording sessions, music history & context lessons and on Fridays we have perfomance workshop, where we pick a song to learn in the morning and practice with a band or solo or whatever is needed, then by the end of the day we have an hour of tech set up and then we perform it to the rest of the people on the course. It’s a lot of fun but hard work, we have tech students doing live sound and someone from tech doing the lighting and stuff. Feel free to ask me any questions about it!

My posts:

Buddie 911 s7 theory/reaction https://www.tumblr.com/keira-kaz2y5/743347204314497024/i-know-no-one-will-read-this-but-omfg-so-today-i

Harry Potter marauders fancast rant https://www.tumblr.com/keira-kaz2y5/723047186541232128/jkr-can-fight-me

Tumblr did a thing

Happy news

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fandomfourever · 2 years

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Steddie Parents Fancast

Okay, so, I was trying to come up with who I thought would make sense as Steve’s parents, and then Eddie’s parents, but like, based on actors they might’ve gone with had Stranger Things been filmed in the 80s.

This happened because I was re-watching Clue and thought, ya know, Leslie Ann Warren gives me strong Mrs. Harrington vibes. So then of course I had to come up with someone for Mr. Harrington. At first I was considering John Glover (specifically how he looked in Scrooged) but then I thought of one better. So here are some pics of the Harringtons.

I decided on Bill Pullman as Steve’s dad, because look at that hair! The mouth! He has a very similar mouth to Steve/Joe, while Leslie has the big brown eyes. I included the pic of Bill as Lonestar because there he had a very Steve-like flip to his hair, but I imagine as Mr. Harrington, he’d look more like he did as the president in Independence Day. Now, he is a little bit younger than Leslie, but honestly they could believably say they’re the same age or something.

Onto Eddie’s Parents!

Now, Eddie’s parents were a bit more difficult to figure out for me, but I think I found two that work surprisingly well. Dustin Hoffman, and Marcia Strassman. Dustin Hoffman might seem like and odd choice at first, but when I found the below pics, it was almost exactly how I pictured Eddie’s dad in my head already.

Honestly, despite how hard it was to initially come up with them, I really think these give off the vibes of Eddie’s parents. Especially during the 70s, when Eddie would’ve been a child.

And if you compare Dustin Hoffman up there with Joel Stoffer (Wayne Munson), they look like they could pass for brothers to me.

And Bonus, I did a little fun thing with FaceApp, and look:

If you make the eyes brown (and hair longer in the second pic), that could totally pass for a young Eddie :D At least imo.

(I tried with Steve’s fancast parents, and it did work, but uh, FaceApp decided it’d be fun to make his eyes go in complete opposite directions, so, uh, yeah I didn’t save that lol)

Anyway, these are how I imagine Steve and Eddie’s parents to look, if we were to go with 80s actors lol. I’m pretty happy with my fancast. I’d love to know what others think (respectfully of course).

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #the harringtons #the munsons #fancast

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witchthewriter · 2 years

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Hi darling! It’s me again 🌞 I’m so sorry for blowing your ask box up, but you just write so well and I enjoy interacting with you! If it’s not too much trouble, may I get a ship for ACOTAR, Marvel, and House of the Dragon/Game of Thrones (which ever is easiest for you!)?

I’m a cancer moon, cancer Sun, Virgo rising, and Virgo Venus.

My hobbies are writing, reading, playing animal crossing and some other videos games and hanging out with my friends and family. And my dogs, I love my dogs (I have 2).

I’d describe my personality as more an ambivert, but I’m more introverted (INFP). I like to stick to a close group of friends/family and like to always give 100% of me. I think respect and kindness should be mutual, and what energy is given should be matched. I like to be the friend that everyone goes to to feel good, that when they’re feeling sad they can come to me for a cheer up or some advice. I really like making people smile and feel good.

Physical wise, I’m 5’6 and on the curvy side. I’ve got pretty curly, thick, black hair and plain Jane brown eyes and some freckles. I like to think I have an hourglass shape. Oh, and I’m female lol 😊

Thank you so much in advance! 💕

Want one? Here be the rules 🦋🌈

Don't ever say you have plain Jane anything!!! I wish so badly that I had brown eyes! 🍄☀️🌻🌿

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏: ✧ Introverted (in the sense that they would rather be alone, than with a group of people) ✧ Guarded ✧ Understanding

𝐀𝐂𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

(I have no idea where the gif/edit is from, but it's literally so good!)

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Azriel! I think you need someone who knows how to stay still, be calm, and love being home. Usually, Azriel would do work every day, all day - but now that he has you, he feels like home has new-found comfort.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・Is always bringing you home flowers; and will always have your favourite hidden in the bunch

・No one dares talk down to you, they know you’re the Spymasters’ partner/girlfriend/wife

・At least once a week you, Feyre and Cassian meet up to get drunk and do chaotic things together

・Azriel absolutely towers over you, you feel so small compared to him

・ Relationship Tropes:

↬ Cheerful Optimist (You) x Grumpy Recluse (Azriel)

↬ Tough On The Outside, Soft On The Inside (Azriel) x The Top (You)

↬ Curious and Wide-Eyed (You) x Has Seen Everything, Thinks It’s Cute (Az)

𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢

Your kindness; he grew up with so much trauma, and endured so much pain, that when you were kind to him, he thought you were doing so out of intimidation or fear. But that’s not the case at all. You genuinely think everyone should be treated with kindness, no matter if they’re royal or not.

𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑

Feyre! You would become such a reprieve in her life. Whenever she’s in your presence, she feels like her worries could disappear. You’re that welcoming and friendly.

𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Remus Lupin! (Joseph Quinn is my fancast for him lol) I think you go well with partners who are emotionally mature, and sensitive to others’ feelings.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・He always wakes you up with a hot cup of tea in bed

・I think he would be hesitant to have any pets, because ya know, he’s a werewolf. But I think you would help him take chances, but moreso, open his life up to more possibilities, rather than close it off.

・Either met at Hogwarts, or during an Order of the Phoenix meeting.

・You guys have so many knitted things because Lily went into this frenzy of knitting while she was pregnant with Harry

・ Relationship Tropes:

↬ “I care about you!” (You) x “You shouldn’t!” (Remus)

↬ Tragic Past x Ray of Light

↬ Big Calm x Small Chaos

𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢

You always make the bad days seem like nothing. Somehow, you know exactly what to say to Remus to make him feel better. He couldn’t imagine life without you. You’re his person.

𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑

Your best friend would totally be Lily Evans!!! You two would be like two sides of the same coin. You would find true friendship with her; always having the other’s back, never telling the other’s secrets, and always making each other laugh.

𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Jon Snow! Okay so I can see you guys growing up in Winterfell together, and you’re best friends with Sansa and Jon. And when you were kids, you and Jon used to pretend to get married - and promised each other that you would marry one day.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・He went to the Wall because your family forbade any romance between the two of you. But overtime, when you heard about the awful events that happened between the Starks and the Lannisters, you wanted to help. So at one point, you fled to Catelyn and Robb, to see what you could do to aid your best friend, Sansa.

・Couldn’t believe it when he saw you again, for the first time in so long. He ran to you and swept you up in his arms

・You have been inseparable ever since.

・Calls you pet names like, “love,” “sweetheart,” and in his accent ... whew, it’s sexy asf

・ Relationship Tropes:

↬ Childhood Marriage Promise

↬ Best Friend’s Brother

↬ Looks Like He Can Kill You, Is A Cinnamon Roll x Looks Like A Cinnamon Roll, Is A Cinnamon Roll

𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢

How much hope you bring to the people around you - you’re like a walking ray of sunshine, or a star that has fallen from the sky to help people around you.

𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑

Sansa Stark! You grew up together, since your House and the Starks were united in some way. Many of your big milestones were celebrated at Winterfell, and Sansa was always right by your side.

#match ups #ships #open

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jjorbles · 2 years

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(Repost) POWER/RANGERS (2015) fan film shows why grim-dark is grim-dumb

Note: This article was originally posted February 25th, 2015 on the Agony Booth, which I used to write for. Since that site is sadly no longer with us, I’m reposting my old articles here.

If you’ve been following my writing for a while, you’ve probably picked up that I detest hollow, needlessly cynical, faux-mature “gritty” reimaginings of once colorful and optimistic characters and franchises. It’s a juvenile, self-absorbed misunderstanding of the entire concept of maturity to think that simply being darker makes something better or more complex. And seeing grown men constantly demanding a beloved franchise become more “adult” simply to soothe their own insecurities about still liking something intended for children only robs it of everything they enjoyed about it in the first place.

Lately, the studio most guilty of this trend is Warner Brothers, as you can see in basically every DC superhero film made this century. But they’re far from alone. Star Trek and Spider-Man have gotten the same treatment, and Fantastic Four is next in line. It seems just about everyone outside of Marvel Studios have decided that superheroes just aren’t allowed to be fun anymore.

So with the promise of a Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers movie in 2016, I can’t help but become anxious as I wait to see what form the film will take. Will Saban elect to stick to the fun (if campy) tone that’s kept the TV series going for more than two decades now? Or will they bow to blockbuster trends and give us a drab, joyless, self-conscious drag? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, however, we’ve been given an unexpected gift: a glimpse at a possible future, and a worst case scenario for how a “dark and gritty” Power Rangers movie could end up. Joseph Kahn, the offbeat, eccentric genius behind Torque, Detention, and the best music video Taylor Swift ever made, has released a 12-minute fan film entitled POWER/RANGERS, and like everything else Kahn has done, it’s... something else.

It shows a dystopian future in which Earth has been taken over by the Machine Empire (if you don’t know your Power Rangers lore, the Machine Empire is... well, exactly what they sound like). The Rangers are all grown up and their lives have gone horribly wrong. Blue Ranger Billy has become a weapons manufacturer, Yellow Ranger Trini is dead, Red Ranger Jason was murdered after his wedding to Pink Ranger Kimberly by Bulk and Skull (who later OD on meth), Black Ranger Zack is a fitness guru that spends all his time doing hookers and blow, and Green Ranger Tommy is a wanted man living on the streets.

The main focus is on Kimberly (played by eternal fancasting favorite Katee Sackhoff), who’s being interrogated by Rocky (played by unicorn slayer James Van Der Beek), formerly the second Red Ranger and now an agent of the Machine Empire. Rocky wants to capture Tommy, as he’s suspected of murdering the other Rangers. To say any more would be to spoil the film (in as much as you can spoil a 12-minute movie), but suffice to say, it doesn’t end well for anyone.

youtube

I have to admit, the film threw me the first time I watched it. Being already worn out by so many grimdark reboots of things I love, and apprehensive about the possibility of the same happening to my beloved Power Rangers, the whole thing felt almost like a slap in the face.

Watching Bulk and Skull, two of the most enduring, lovable characters in the show’s history, being portrayed as foul-mouthed white trash who sell out the human race to aliens, murder their friends, and then die of drug overdoses was basically the equivalent of watching Winnie the Pooh go postal on the Hundred Acre Wood. But after watching it through a few more times, it became clear that what I was seeing was not meant to be taken remotely seriously. It’s a Joseph Kahn film, after all. In his own words in the video description, this is his “take on the FAN FILM”.

In an interview with HitFix, Kahn had this to say.

Kahn:

I’ve seen repurposed stuff on the Internet where they take a property that’s serious and make it even more so, like a Batman fan film or something like that, or a video game or whatever. I’ve actually seen stuff like where they’ve taken ridiculous stuff like Mario Brothers, and then tried to make the dark and gritty version, and they obviously play it for laughs. I think the trick that I really wanted to do with this was to make that dark and gritty version that everybody keeps talking about, but really do it. Really see if I could totally accomplish it with essentially a really incredible, incredibly silly property.

In that context, POWER/RANGERS makes a lot more sense. He’s making fun of the fad of grit-ification but taken it to its furthest extreme by playing it completely straight. It’s a commentary not just on the film industry, but also on fan films themselves. I’ve watched plenty of fan films before, and I know that what Kahn is saying is true: many of them take themselves far, far too seriously. In fact, a grimdark Power Rangers fan film was released not long ago, only without any of the irony of Kahn’s version.*

(*I can no longer find the video I was talking about, use your imagination ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

So the fact that Khan’s film is meant as a joke is clear. How effective a joke is debatable, however, because the reactions to this thing have been all over the place. For fans like myself, either the joke didn’t register, or it did and they just didn’t like it. Many others, who either aren’t fans or only casual fans who haven’t watched the show since they were kids, took the thing 100% seriously and seem to think it’s the greatest idea ever. All over the internet, headlines are calling it “badass”, and commenters are saying this is exactly what they want the actual Power Rangers movie to be.

For me, this raises questions about the very nature of satire. To what extent is a comedian responsible when people don’t get the joke? This isn’t a new issue; Remember last year, when Stephen Colbert got called a racist for a joke on his show that went completely over the heads of certain people? Or how about all those guys who saw Fight Club and then went out and formed actual fight clubs, completely missing that the movie was a condemnation of that sort of empty macho posturing?

It’s hard to find fault with the film in this case, because arguably making the point any more explicit would be to compromise it. Part of the joke is that, for the most part, there’s no winking at the camera or transparent self-awareness. It’s taking the most over-the-top extremes and being completely serious in their presentation, which is, in and of itself, the joke. This isn’t a Robot Chicken sketch. It’s an experiment to show just how far the idea of a dark and gritty reboot can go and why it’s ultimately a dumb and futile enterprise.

So I can’t really fault Kahn for being too subtle. At the same time, much like Fight Club, it’s really hard to enjoy the film as a piece of satire, simply because the reaction to it irks me. All I can think is, “A lot of people out there actually, unironically want this,” and the thought just depresses me. If taking this concept to its worst extreme doesn’t show people what a terrible idea it is, what could? And what if Saban and Lionsgate take the response to Kahn’s fan film as a sign that there’s a market for this vision of Power Rangers, and take the actual film in this direction? It’s not out of the realm of possibility. Remember those awful Mortal Kombat web shorts Kevin Tancharoen made that landed him a job making a real Mortal Kombat feature film? (Sure, it didn’t end up happening, but still.)

Joseph Kahn will not be making a Power Rangers movie. He’s openly said he has no interest in it, and that’s for the best. A feature-length version of POWER/RANGERS would be utterly pointless. The joke works as a simple short film, but dragging it out for two hours would get old fast. Better that he’s free to pursue his own projects and interests, and I’m excited to see what he does next. In the meantime, he’s certainly left us with something to think about, if nothing else.

Final thought: I believe the most telling and interesting thing about POWER/RANGERS is that when you get down to it, it’s not really any more “mature” or “adult” than the actual show, despite its aesthetic shift. It may not be safe for kids anymore, but it’s still (very deliberately) mindless junk food. The characters are just as flat and devoid of personality, the premise is just as silly, and the plot is just as nonsensical and formulaic. It’s still mainly an excuse to watch people fight in rubber suits. The only real upside is that the acting is generally better, and the effects are vastly improved. That’s pretty much the film’s ultimate lesson: simply making something darker and more realistic doesn’t improve shit. If anything, it just makes it dumber.

#stuff I wrote #agony booth #repost #power rangers #joseph kahn

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captainkirkk · 2 years

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✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes.

DC (Batfamily)

Brother Wanted by Vamillepudding

Well-behaved boy (10) is looking for big brother (11-15). Must meet up with me three times a week, for at least two hours each. Overall duties include helping me with homework, playing videogames with me, and showing me how to play catch. 10$ per hour.

Tim, lonely and in desperate need of company, decides that if his parents are not going to give him a sibling, he's going to hire one instead. Luckily, Jason Todd-Wayne shows up in the nick of time.

Stranger Things

A Sign of The Morning by ToEdenandBackAgain

Vecna is dead. The Upside Down is cut off from Hawkins yet again. Steve is trying to go back to normal, whatever that is. He's also trying to figure out exactly how Eddie Munson has managed to fit so easily into his life.

Marvel

It Had to Be You by fancastical

Or, Five Times Deadpool Recognised Spider-Man and One Time He Didn't.

hey you (who the fuck are you) by fancastical

For some reason, Peter thinks Deadpool knows his secret identity so he thinks its not a big deal to chat with the merc in his civilian identity whenever he bumps into him in various locations. Wade, meanwhile, is confused on why a cute but grouchy nerd keeps talking to him like they know each other but hey, its New York! Eccentrics are everywhere and this guy is really cute and doesn’t seem to mind hanging out with him!

ATLA

Honor Among Thieves by cassiopeia721

Father keeps on telling Zuko that he's acting without honor, but a lot of the time he won't explain what exactly Zuko is doing wrong, and what he should do to be more honorable. So, Zuko decides to do some research and ask around about how he should behave honorably.

Or: the servants of the Fire Lord's palace develop a soft spot for Zuko, Zuko confuses everyone around him with his particular brand of shout-y, aggressive politeness, and somehow Zuko accidentally ends up leading a revolution.

Perfection is Overrated by JaggedCliffs

For his first thirteen years, Zuko was raised in a palace. And yet somehow, it's the three years outside the Fire Nation that seem to count more – at least to the palace staff, who act like he's been raised by fox-wolves.

At first, this only annoys Zuko.

Until he begins to think that the Fire Nation needs more than a formerly-banished prince.

Star Wars

The Weight of Words by subtlehysteria

Dim blue eyes stare up at him. Hair that might once have been rich with colour hangs limp and brittle around a gaunt face. A face with a split lip and a fading bruise on one cheekbone. A face that is blank of all emotion and yet simultaneously screams help.

No, he doesn’t see danger. He sees only a man trying to meld with the wall and make his body as small as possible while staring down Din with a glare so cold that it could cause anyone’s blood to turn to ice. The man is dressed in thread-bare prison garb that hangs off his slight frame like oversized drapery and around his wrists is a pair of complex-looking cuffs. They’re the same ones Grogu had been shackled with, cuffs that somehow diminished his powers. If this man bears them too could that mean…

Din crouches, bringing himself down to the man’s level.

“Are you a Jedi?”

(In an alternate universe where the name Luke Skywalker has long since been lost, Din Djarin finds an unexpected prisoner aboard Gideon's ship, finding not only a potential teacher for Grogu but also the man who will change his life, and his heart, for the better.)

#there are some GEMS on this one #my posts #fic recs #atla recs #sw recs #stranger things recs #weekly fic round up

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volturialice · 2 years

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so yesterday I stumbled onto a fucking gold mine

sometimes while doing podcast research for 3B1P I unearth a vintage twilight fandom gem, and yesterday I tripped straight down a mineshaft and fell into a deep vein of pure fucking gold:

any of you old-timers remember this decade+ old blog? it’s fucking amazing. they literally just photoshop 2000s actors into edward cullen and each one is more hilarious than the last. I well remember the prevalence of manips back in the day, and all the fancasts on smeyer’s official site, but this takes it many steps further, with brilliant results.

it starts as you might expect, with your competing edward faceclaims—your ulliels, your sturridges, your christensens, a classic cavill. then it cycles through every single CW Man:

look, it’s nikki reed’s husband and the other guy! I’ve left out the entire male cast of gossip girl, but don’t worry, they’re on there. go check ‘em out.

then you’ve got your zac efrons, of course, because twilight did in fact overlap the era of hsm ascendancy:

your jaundiced dicaprios:

and this sacred club would be woefully incomplete without a bieber:

and then, just to really fan the flames of controversy, taylor lautner:

I know what you are.

Say it. Out loud.

...robert downey jr

but don’t worry, it gets even better! it’s not an edward party without FORMER TUMBLR CEO DAVID KARP

because of course it isn’t.

in conclusion, a decade-old edward cullen manip tumblr is something that can actually be so personal and you should all go admire it right now.

bonus:

#long post //#edward cullen #I didn't even include the franco brothers or andrew garfield but don't worry they're in there

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avarindigenous · 2 years

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this is much more of a personal complaint than a deep musing on the nature of fandom as a whole, and since it is personal I welcome other perspectives and I would appreciate discussion about it. mostly, I want to speak about this because it’s more immediately painful to me than even the Finrod-as-Mighty-Whitey situation, and I’d welcome anything anyone else has to say.

I’ll begin with the point I’m trying to make: it’s extremely alienating to see people pay lip service to the concept of wanting a diverse vision of Arda and then primarily reblog or engage with fanart where everyone, even characters with relatively long-established fanon where they’re black or brown, is white. it feels hypocritical, and is frankly one of the most upsetting parts of being on Tumblr. it keeps me out of character tags, and makes me wonder if being part of the wider community is worth it when I’m not interested in furthering that aesthetic.

I’m not saying that the act of giving engagement to these pieces is inherently racist. the situation is significantly more complex than that, and no one (as far as I know) is actively doing this on purpose. I want to have a conversation about this, not come out swinging.

I’m aware that for whatever reason the Tumblr fandom is going through a period of “everyone is white”, and that as a result for characters like Fingon the only art that’s getting made is of white people. I also understand that since these are books, everyone is free to interpret characters however they please.

what I am saying is that I don’t understand why there’s not been more pushback against that shift. when the idea to make Arda more diverse first emerged, it seemed to be a welcome change that made left-leaning online fandom spaces more inclusive and took a stand against the more vocally racist groups who love Tolkien’s works for explicitly racist reasons. even though this blog is new, I’ve been a lurker here for a long time, and I’m not sure what’s changed that means suddenly we’re all not just tolerant of but glorying in the presence of overwhelmingly white (and heterosexual, but that’s a topic for another day) fanart and fancasts.

I suppose it was unrealistic of me to assume that a largely white fandom was actually invested in racially diverse visions of the cast of these books, instead of merely going with the flow. there’s also a chance that several people have simply left the fandom, and the new artists aren’t aware of long-standing traditions. but this shift makes me (and, I’m going to guess, many other fans of color) feel alienated and unsafe. it makes me wonder why anyone bothered supporting diversity in Arda in the first place, why they crafted a space I felt comfortable in only to pull the rug out from under me. a commitment to diversity doesn’t just mean highlighting creators of color or joining in on the zeitgeist. it means consciously prioritizing nonwhite depictions of characters, or at the very least giving them equal space with white ones. it means following and engaging with editors and gif makers and graphic makers and fanartists who focus on representations of a nonwhite Arda. it also means learning how to spot which artists are (consciously or unconsciously) racist in their depictions of the characters, and not engaging with those people.

I am aware these are irrational emotions, and I’m inviting conversation because I would like to get a better understanding of the reality of the situation. in fact, the above paragraph is as kind as I can manage to be because I know I’m being irrational. but I gave voice to my feelings because I wanted people who might not be aware of how upsetting it is to be told “you’re not welcome” simply because you only ever see people who look like white Europeans in a space that is not required to be inherently white or inherently European. I can take vocal racism and dismissal from people who I already know are going to dislike me. finding out that spaces explicitly framed as inclusive and welcoming when it comes to racial diversity don’t seem to be interested in prioritizing the inclusion of characters of color is more upsetting than being told “you’re a racist for saying Finrod is often depicted as a white savior” (something I was, in fact, actually told, and something I’m still attempting to understand).

the simple fact that I feel as if this space is inherently less welcoming to me does not automatically mean that there is actual hostility. I also know that there are older works, and that the characters who are most popular right now were always seen as white, regardless of whether or not they actually were white in the text.

but I would like to say that going into a character tag and only seeing white faces is extremely disheartening. it used to be the truth that any number of conceptions of a character were present. why can’t we go back to that?

#silmarillion #silmarillion meta #I really would like people to give their thoughts on this #please reply and reblog and I'll respond to as much of it as I can #as usual racists will be blocked though

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antiloreolympus · 3 years

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10 Anti LO Asks

1. Sometimes I feel bad about the rage I feel about LO because like, bad works really should be allowed to exist. It's fine to turn off your brain for Fast and Furious or get horny over 50 Shades. The problem I have is LO's fake deep lessons it gives, pushing toward the WRONG direction. I'd be far less annoyed if it was just another trashy romance. Hades would have been fine as a shit guy; people love getting hot for fictional villains. This "aktchually he's the good guy" angle is embarrassing.

2. LO fans are more than happy to imagine the gods are neon pink and blue but at the same time get offended you fancast the actual gods as anything but blonde, blue eyed white people to be "accurate". even LO fan casts are overwhelming white people (and never greek, mind you) unless it's a villain like apollo or minthe, then they just HAPPEN to be black 🤔🤨

3. assuming the PJO Disney+ show is good and gets more seasons, just get ready for LO fans to try and review bomb it and harass the crew/cast because they'll see a popular series they already hate be mythology accurate with HxP and even show Hades would leave her to be with (gasp) a mortal instead. Apollo is even shown positively in it too!

4. The idea massive age gaps are "normal" IRL is a huge lie. It's basic statistics that most couples are within 2-5 years of each other's ages, while much older partners is a HUGE abnormally. Going off RS's ages for them (19/20 vs 40s mentally) that's barely 1% of the population, with divorce rates being HIGHER for these couples than closer in age ones. Just because old rock stars, actors, and businessmen marry women who can be their daughters' ages does not make it the norm, far from it actually.

5. RS claims she's "fighting against the toxic nature of purity culture" as if the FIRST EPISODE didn't set up the Madonna/Whore trope in Persephone and Minthe. Even them being with men that aren't Hades is framed this way. Persephone is still the pure heroine who was assaulted, she'd never willingly sleep with anyone who isn't her eventual husband! Meanwhile Minthe is the cheating whore though Hades also cheats on her and they're not exclusive. RS just lies so casually about what she depicts.

6. Ive LO fans say the Trojans deserved to be killed because they're "the bad guys" to the Greeks and bc Apollo is their patron god like?? Really?? The countless innocent men, women, and children deserved to DIE because of your shitty understanding of mythology and you not being able to tell Rachel's bad depictions apart from the actual gods? Did they read about Hektor's baby son being murdered and think he deserved it because Apollo may have liked him? These people are so gross.

7. Remember that one time when RS slutshamed Minthe for wearing a revealing dress to kid's party? Same kid who brings her mom alcohol drinks like it's nothing? And some chapters later we learn it's perfectly normal for gods to be naked around each other even if they are underage? And the shaming words come from a guy who is lusting over teenager's barely covered ass? And it's supposed to be women empowering webtoon? I just love the logic and consistency! No sarcasm, seriously!

8. Good time of the day to you I came with some news! This news may not be relevant or interesting, but when browsing the tag "Circe" here, I found this-https://why-i-love-comics.tumblr.com/post/658087925147369472/wonder-woman-black-gold-2-the-acquaintance comic. This piece was done by RS, as you can see. Sometimes I compare her monochrome art, and the art her team colors off her sketches, and in my opinion LO would look better in black and white color scheme with some details in color! But that wouldn't work very well the color shading is inconsistent and would not look good!

9. i feel like LO fans are the same people who watched Labyrinth and got mad the MC didn't want to be with the Goblin King because they ignore the fact she was a sixteen year old girl who got over the initial desire for an older man praising her to instead see he was manipulating her and he was, duh, the villain of the movie. Like guys, there's a reason "older powerful man chases and lusts after an impressionable young girl/woman" both in fiction and in real life is seen as a BAD thing.

10. Something that I wish is Amphitrite being more important, she’s a queen and I don’t think she’s had one speaking line in 2 seasons.

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

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halfblood-princes-crown · 2 years

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Some marauders fans are pretentious enough to say that their fanfics are better than the original series, Their fanfics are so boring it makes paint drying look exciting. Fanon Marauders are only liked because of their conventnaly attractive fancast, In reality those fancast would not want to waste their time and talent portraying such dull "Characters". How snape fans are much better writers and still kinder to them

Yea I know what you mean, Anon.

The only reason they say their fanfics are better is because 1) their uwu babies are barely mentioned in the books. 2) They don’t like how they’re represented in the books.

Why else would they change them so much? They know the Marauders are horrible and boring in canon so they make them ooc in fanfiction to fulfill their fantasies. (Even though their ooc versions are also boring)

I agree fanon Marauders are liked because of their fancasts, but it definitely goes deeper than that. They project themselves onto these characters that were barely given a personality then demonized the one character who made them look evil…Snape. That’s why they only shit on Snape. You never see this much hate on any other hp characters (unless you count Ron and Ginny and even that’s similar to this situation)

The reason pro snape writers write good fics is because they aren’t hyper focused on fighting others like Marauder writers are, because that’s all it is. One big fight.

They fight canon, they fight us, they fight amongst themselves. They fight anything and everyone that threatens the image they painted of the Marauders.

That means they have no room for imagination.

#severus snape #pro severus snape #pro snape #snape community #anti snaters #anti marauders #anti marauder fandom #snape fandom #anti marauder stans

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ultraericthered · 2 years

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Final Fantasy VII - English Dub VAs

Exactly the kind of post it sounds like.

Cloud Strife:

Steve Burton (pre-Remake content) - Iconic original English dub voice for Cloud. His record is a mixed bag. In the first Kingdom Hearts, about half of Advent Children, almost half of Dissidia,Crisis Core, KH 2.5 Re:Coded, Final Fantasy Explorers, World of Final Fantasy, and Dissidia NT, he does really well. In Kingdom Hearts II, the rest of Advent Children and Dissidia, Dirge of Cerberus, and Dissidia 012, however, he kind of sucked and sounded lifeless.

Cody Christian (Remake continuity) - Hard to believe this isn’t just Steve Burton under a different name! He matches Steve’s voice perfectly and his performance is up there with Steve’s best work.

Justin Briner (Machinabridged Series) - Justin voiced his version of Cloud like Deku well before he actually voiced Deku! It’s normally not the sort of voice you’d imagine Cloud to have in the actual story, but when he gets to play serious and dramatic, he totally fucking kills it.

FANCAST OPTION - Mark Hildreth. While nowadays I doubt he’s gonna get any work due to having been in a horrible cult, knowing exactly what they were doing but keeping silence about it for years and all that, back in the day he would’ve been my go-to voice for Cloud. Just listen to him voicing Heero Yuy, Terry Bogard, and Angel.

And my favorite one is.... Cody Christian! He’s got everything in the quality of his voice that Steve Burton and Mark Hildreth have got, but like Justin Briner he gets to act out a complete character arc for Cloud, even in just his first game! Definitely glad he’s in the role.

Barrett Wallace:

Beau Billingslea (pre-Remake content) - Back in the day, there was really no other black VA in the industry that could’ve fit this role better than him. He’s deep, gruff, rowdy, and delviers his material perfectly. John Eric Bentley (Remake continuity) - When I heard him in the trailers doing this straight up Mr. T-sounding voice, I wasn’t sure I liked it much. But then we all heard his full performance and....yeah, he knocks it out of the park. Really gives Barret a lot of depth.

Anthony Sardinha (Machinabridged Series) - For the most part, he does a very goofy sounding macho doofus voice for Barret, but for this version of Barret that works perfectly and has a lot of charm to it.

And my favorite one is....Beau Billingslea! Definitely no offense to John Eric Bentley, but Beau’s voice was exactly what I imagined Barret to sound like when playing the game, so I’ve got a bias here.

Tifa Lockhart:

Rachael Leigh Cook (pre-Remake content) - Everything about her voice sounds perfectly fitting for Tifa and she nailed it every time she voiced the role, even in lesser showings like Kingdom Hearts II.

Britt Baron (Remake continuity) - So to play off of Cody Christian’s Cloud, they found someone who sounds almost exactly like Rachael Leigh Cook! This is just getting freaky now...

Sarah Anne Williams (Machinabridged Series) - Makes a full journey from this Tifa’s more toxic, vulgar, self-destructive personality to her hidden depths and vulnerability as she develops into a better person more true to the original canon, and she pulls it off flawlessly!

And my favorite one is.....I can’t really choose. They’re all too good!

Aeirth Gainsborough:

Mandy Moore, Mena Suvari, and Andrea Bowen (pre-Remake content) - Wow. Three different actresses in this one role and none of them get it down pat. Mandy could barely voice act when she did this role in Kingdom Hearts, Mena did a dull sweet-sounding voice that could be even more lifeless than Steve Burton’s Cloud ever was, and while Andrea worked well for the younger Aerith in Crisis Core, I can never fully buy her as the 22 year old Aerith in anything else.

Briana White (Remake continuity) - Thank Youtube for this person and her getting cast as Aerith in Remake! They finally got it right!

Kira Buckland (Machinabridged Series) - A VA I can imagine could pull off an excellent canonical Aerith, but for this series she had to play up this ditzy, peppy, sweet and lovable Good Girl personality.

And my favorite one is....Briana White! Does this come as any surprise? She’s as ideal a match for Maaya Sakamoto we could get!

Nanaki/Red XIII:

Liam O’ Brien (pre-Remake continuity) - One spoken line in Advent Children, but spoken in a voice from a VA that suits Nanaki so well.

Max Mittelman (Remake continuity) - Probably one of the best roles I’ve yet heard from this VA. He really delivers on the ambiguous age and the gruff, wisened warrior tone the character speaks in for when we get to know him at first. Rebirth steps it up a notch by having him drop the facade and start talking like the teenager he truly is, with the difference being startling and effective in how it alters perception.

Curtis Arnott (Machinabridged Series) - Undeniably entertaining to listen to, but this Homer Simpson-esque voice is the exact opposite of how you would expect canonical Nanaki to sound like!

FANCAST OPTION(S) - Dan Green. They had Mewtwo’s voice as Nanaki in Japanese Advent Children, so I don’t see why not go with a more literal English counterpart, and c’mon, the voice fits perfectly!

And my favorite one is....Max Mittelman! He’s just brilliant all around.

Cait Sith:

Greg Ellis (pre-Remake content) - British VA who decided to go with a Scottish accent for Cait, reflective of the character’s Celtic roots.

Paul Tinto (Remake continutiy) - Silly Scottish voice, again.

Nick Landis (Machinabridged Series) - Silly Scottish voice, again.

FANCAST OPTION - Tom Kenny. He wouldn’t even need to do an accent, just his typical cartoony voiceover would get the job done! Or, if you really have to go for Scottish, then David Fucking Tennant!

And my favorite one is....I can’t really choose. All of them work.

Cid Highwind:

Chris Edgerly (pre-Remake content) - Honestly, I did not like the way this voice sounded in Advent Children, Kingdom Hearts II, and Dirge of Cerberus. A Southern accent is fine, but not a full on drawl! But as of his recent reprisal in the Kingdom Hearts III DLC, he’s got it down.

J. Michael Tatum (Remake continuity) - He gets it down immediately.

Brien Olvera (Machinabridged Series) - Totally perfect and hilarious.

FANCAST OPTION(S) - Michael Sorich, Fred Tatasciore, or Jack Angel. Sorich is a natural for this sort of role, Tatasciore would’ve been ideal casting due to his voicework as the very similar looking Damon Baird, and Jack Angel actually voiced another Cid later on.

And my favorite one is....Fred Tatasciore! I’ve long held the belief that Chris Edgerly and Fred Tatasciore should’ve had their roles in Advent Children swapped, and I still stand by it and forever shall!

Yuffie Kisaragi:

Christy Carlson Romano and Mae Whitman (pre-Remake content) - Christy voiced the role in Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children while Mae voiced her in Kingdom Hearts II, Dirge of Cerberus, and the DLC postgame of Kingdom Hearts III. They sound pretty much 100% identical to each other...or at least they did. Mae Whitman’s KHIII reprisal sounded notably aged, more like Amity Blight than Yuffie.

Suzie Yeung (Remake continuity) - Sound exactly like how Christy and Mae used to! Holy shit, how does Square Enix find this talent?

Courtney Williams (Machinabridged Series) - She sounds a bit like Mabel Pines or Webby Vanderquack due to the hyperness being played up for this version of Yuffie, and she makes it work great,

And my favorite one is...Suzie Yeung! Out of all of them, she’s the only one who’s actually authentically Asian. Points just for that!

Vincent Valentine:

Steve Blum (pre-Remake content) - Steve does solemn and creepy voices like a pro, and he did great as Vincent in Advent Children. What happened to him in Dirge of Cerberus? He sounded so stiff!

Chris Tout (Machinabridged Series) - As expected, he plays up the melodrama of Vincent’s character for laughs, but in a cool voice!

Matthew Mercer (Remake continuity) - Matt is to the role of Vincent just as he is to Ganondorf; he’s as perfecft a fit as you’d hope for!

FANCAST OPTION(S) - Robin Atkin Downes or Christopher Bevins. Downes using his Baron Zemo voice, and Bevins his own amazingly spot on Steve Blum impression.

And my favorite one is....Robin Atkin Downes! Blum and Mercer are cool and all, but this is closest to what I hear in my head for Vincent, and it’s almost a bad joke that his is the last voice you hear in Vincent’s own game....as Genesis?!?

President Shinra:

James Horan (Remake continuity) - The tone of his voice is perfect, but the voice itself isn’t consistently solid. It sometimes sounds a bit like Jamieson Price, who voiced Reeve back in the older content!

Graham Stark (Machinabridged Series) - Good Southern accented president voice that fits the more legit affable Shinra of this series.

FANCAST OPTION(S) - The late Robert Ridgely or the still living Maurice LeMarche would’ve been ideal, as they could’ve delivered the Orson Welles impressions. Or for the Remake version, I wish they’d cast Richard Epcar in the role, as he’d have matched the late Genzo Wakayama much more perfectly.

And my favorite one is....Robert Ridgely or Maurice LeMarche! Sorry, but I just can’t unhear him sounding like Charles Foster Kane!

Rufus Shinra:

Wally Wingert (pre-Remake content) - Perfect. Everything about it.

Josh Bowman (Remake continuity) - A bit deeper than I’d expect, but pretty solid acting for the small part he got in Remake. Getting to go further into the character with more material in Rebirth really helped him improve, so now he sounds almost as ideal as Wally Wingert.

Xander Mobus (Machinabridged Series) - If he wasn’t doing that Frank Underwood-style accent and goofy delivery, he’d actually be a perfect fit for canonical Rufus. That said, his Rufus is hilarious.

FANCAST OPTION(S) - Geoffery Arend would’ve been an even better casting for Remake Rufus. Given how much his Riddler sounds like Wally Wingert’s, he could’ve easily done the same here!

And my favorite one is....Wally Wingert! They’re all so good in the role, but this initial casting for Rufus was just striking casting gold!

Reno:

Quinton Flynn (pre-Remake content) - He was double-cast as Reno and Axel just like the late Keiji Fujiwara was, and he did perfectly.

Arnie Pantoja (Remake content) - It fits Reno. Just...not as well.

Curtis Arnott (Machinabridged Series) - Same as the above.

FANCAST OPTION - Roger Craig Smith. He took over for Quinton as Deidara in Naruto dub, so I wish he’d done the same with Reno.

And my favorite one is...Quinton Flynn! Got it memorized, yo?

Rude:

Crispin Freeman (pre-Remake content) - Not the role I’d expect Crispin to voice, but he did best he could with a deep, gravelly tone.

William C. Stephens (Remake continuity) - A black VA providing the voice for Rude just naturally fits better, as William demonstrates.

Marc Swint (Machinabridged Series) - And as Marc demonstrated!

FANCAST OPTION - Kevin Conroy. He’s a white guy too, but does anyone else hear an unintended Kevin Conroy impersonation in Crispin’s Rude? Was not able to unhear it after I noticed!

And my favorite one is...William C. Stephens! His Ving Rhames-esque voicework makes for easily the coolest sounding Rude!

Elena:

Bettina Bush (pre-Remake content) - A very nice, very well fitting casting choice for Elena. But she only got like two or three lines.

Piper Reese (Remake continuity) - No voice acting experience to her name, yet she put into her performance everything needed to pull off the ideal Elena and nail both her ferocious and comedic moments.

Morgan Berry (Machinabridged Series) - Cute and hilarious as usual.

FANCAST OPTION - Michelle Ruff. This role is tailor-made for her!

And my favorite one is...Michelle Ruff! See above.

Tseng:

Ryan Yu (pre-Remake content) - Yeah, I get that Tseng is meant to sound stiff and like a pro, but this was just WAY too monotone!

Vic Chao (Remake content) - Another Asian VA, only this one actually has an awesome sounding voice and great delivery!

Scott Ferichs (Machinabridged Series) - He does...an Alan Rickman impression? Even for a parody series, I’m not sure I get this one.

FANCAST OPTION - Eric Vale. When I look at Tseng, I hear Sakyo

And my favorite one is...Vic Chao! He does the all around best job!

Reeve Tuesti:

Jamieson Price (pre-Remake content) - It’s the same performance type as his Janyu Wong from Digimon Tamers. That’s ideal casting

Jon Root (Remake continuity) - Not as distinct as Jamieson Price obviously, but he does very well with what he’s given to work with.

Nick Landis (Machinabridged Series) - The one time Reeve and Cait Sith actually share a VA, and Nick’s versatility makes it work!

And my favorite one is...Jamieson Price! Can’t go wrong with him!

Heidegger:

John DiMaggio (Remake continuity) - John’s no stranger to voicing Final Fantasy characters and he always does it so well. Heidegger is just the latest example of that. His voice and laugh are on point.

Ty Konzak (Machinabridged Series) - He delivers this snarly pirate-like voice that’s about what you’d expect of a parody Heidegger.

FANCAST OPTION - Charles Martinet. German accented Wario. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

And my favorite one is..Charles Martinet! Just listen to Wario’s laugh!

Scarlett:

Erin Cotrieli (Remake continuity) - This is a solid fit for her voice, though she’s not done the “kya-ha-ha-ha-ha!” cackling thing so far.

Amber Lee Connors (Machinabridged Series) - Amber’s talent for voicing sultry femme fatale villains and also being really funny shine here, making her version of Scarlet a very enjoyable character.

FANCAST OPTION - Lani Minella. A super veteran VA (and original voice of Rouge the Bat), she’s just got the voice for it, y’know?

And my favorite one is...Amber Lee Connors! KYA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

Palmer:

William Salyers (Remake continuity) - Another stroke of casting genius. Palmer just plays to all of Salyers voice acting strengths.

Ben Creighton (Machinabridged Series) - Can’t really be sure that Palmer wouldn’t sound like this even if it wasn’t a parody series!

FANCAST OPTION - Jeff Nimoy, sounding like an aged Tentomon.

And my favorite one is...William Salyers! He embodies Palmer!

Professor Hojo:

Paul Eiding (pre-Remake content) - VERY outside-the-box voice casting, and maybe with better direction it coud’ve paid off. But what we got from Paul sure didn’t, being easily THE most ill-fitting original dub voice for a FFVII character. Sounds too feeble and annoying!

James Siei (Remake continuity) - Now THIS is more fucking like it! An actually Asian VA who not only delivers a bone-chillingly creepy performance, but who sounds eerily close in tone to Derek Stephen Prince as Vexen/Even from Kingdom Hearts, who shares a VA with Hojo in the original Japanese language (twice over, in fact!)

Edwyn Tiong (Machinabridged Series) - Another Asian VA who hams it up a lot more but can also be genuinely unsettling to listen to! He’d fit just as well as the psychopathic scientist in a non-parody work!

FANCAST OPTION(S) - Ezra Weisz, Dwight Schultz, Sam Witwer, Udo Kier, and naturally, Derek Stephen Prince.

And my favorite one is....James Siei! Paul Eiding’s was a misfire and with Edwyn Tiong and my Fancast picks they’re all in line with how I’d expect Hojo to sound. James “My Cabbages!” Siei being cast as Hojo and nailing him so hard was a total left field turn and one that puts me in his corner. He’s now the gold standard Hojo voice.

Sephiroth:

Lance Bass and George Newbern (pre-Remake content) - Lance Bass was a huge miscasting by Disney when they were getting star talent to voice FF characters and KH-original characters for the first Kingdom Hearts, and he sounds too youthful and not a thing like how Sephiroth would later sound. George Newbern, on the other hand...casting the dude known for Theodore Rex and Superman in the role of Sephiroth became the stuff of voice acting legend, as he blew all expectations out of the water. He’s THE iconic voice of Sephiroth.

Tyler Hoechlin (Remake continuity) - I get what they were doing, casting another Superman as Sephiroth...but Tyler is a Superman actor, not a Superman voice actor. As such he seems to put the work into making his voice sound sinister and Sephiroth-like while failing to convincingly act the material he has to say in that voice. However, in the first 45 seconds and the very last 45 seconds of this video, we can hear how damn good he’s capable of doing. That capability thankfully carries him through in Crisis Core Reunion and Rebirth, where he steps up his game and improves his voicework in the role, in some areas even shining brighter than George Newbern!

Mike Varker (Machinabridged Series) - Totally obscure VA picked out by TeamFourStar to be their Sephiroth but holy shit, he fucking killed it! Just listen to this villainous monologue and try to NOT get chills!

FANCAST OPTION(S) - Sephiroth is a role that could be easy to cast but difficult to really nail. A handful of VAs I think could do it include: Skip Stellrecht, Crispin Freeman, Paul Dobson, John Rafter Lee, Christian Bale, Michael C. Hall, Mark Whitten, and of course the Newbern Soundalike Supermen Tim Daly or James Denton.

And my favorite one is....a three-way tie between George Newbern, Mike Varker, and Skip Stellrecht.! All three are 100% godly fits!

Biggs:

Gideon Emery (Remake continuity) - A cool, smooth sounding Biggs.

Chris Niosi (Machinabridged Series) - He gets it down alright.

FANCAST OPTION - Michael Daingerfield. His voice fits well when voicing Biggs from Star Wars, and it’d fit just as well for this Biggs.

And my favorite one is....Gideon Emery! Guy’s got too much charm.

Wedge:

Matthew L. Jones (Remake continuity) - Sounds exactly how you’d expect Wedge to sound like.

Chris Zito (Machinabridged Series) - Same can be said of this one.

FANCAST OPTION - Tyler Labine. Same as both of the above.

And my favorite one is....I can’t really choose. All of them fit.

Jessie:

Erica Lindbeck (Remake continuity) - In her more mellow and mature moments she sounds just like Eli Ayase, but then in her cheeky, playful, flirty trolling moments she just goes full Kaori Miyazono. It’s as entertaining as it is kind of distracting.

Jesse Nowack (Machinabridged series) Ha ha. His name actually is Jesse! He did slur-voiced Jesse of this series as well as he could.

FANCAST OPTION - Grey DeLisle Griffin. For whatever reason, I always heard original canon Jessie sounding like Daphne Blake.

And my favorite one is...Erica Lindbeck! She just went SO HARD.

Marlene Wallace:

Grace Rolek and Ariel Winter (pre-Remake content) - They did fine.

Brielle Milla (Remake continuity) - She also does fine.

Corrine Sudberg (Machinabridged Series) - She did fine as well.

And my favorite one is....I can’t really choose. They all did fine!

Elmyra Gainsborough:

Julie Dolan (Remake continuity) - She played this part wonderfully.

Sandra Espinoza (Machinabridged Series) - Works good for the material she’s given, being both funny and painstakingly sincere.

FANCAST OPTION - Barbara Goodson. Back when she was younger in the late 90s, her voice would’ve really fit Elmyra.

And my favorite one is....I can’t really choose. They’re all so suitable.

Don Corneo:

Fred Tatasciore (Remake continuity) - He camps it up like crazy in this role but also can be threatening when need be, not to mention the horse winnying laugh he does. Much better FFVII role than Loz.

Josh Tomar (Machinabridged Series) - Perfect for the Don in every way, about exactly what I’d always been imagining him to sound like.

And my favorite one is....it’s a tie! They’re both perfect in this role!

Zack Fair:

Rick Gomez (pre-Remake content) - Zack’s expanded presence in this sub-franchise is strange for a lot of reasons, but if it’s to be, then he needs a likable enough voice to sell the character. Rick’s got it.

Caleb Pierce (Remake continuity) - Possibly even moreso than Tyler Hoechlin as Sephiroth following George Newbern, this is a huge trade down. I think Caleb could do well as young, up-and-coming Zack “the Puppy”, but his ability to pull off the tougher, more experienced Zack seems beyond him. He just cannot emote well.

Nathan Sharp (Machinabridged Series) - Perfectly cast, and did an ideal job at voicing Zack in the bit part he was originally meant to be.

And my favorite one is...Rick Gomez! Still the definitive Zack Fair!

#Final Fantasy #Final Fantasy VII #voice acting #opinion

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thevalleyisjolly · 4 years

Text

Ok, I’ve rewritten this post several times because I really want this to be a productive and respectful discussion, but this is a conversation that does need to be started. I’ve been thinking about the whole cultural appropriation story line in this season of The Unsleeping City so far, and of course I think it’s great that Cody is starting to realize why that’s wrong and that Murph is making it explicitly clear that it is wrong, but I want to reorient the conversation away from Cody now and talk about Ricky as a Japanese-American character.

Because when Zac went “Just to paint a picture for you...” during the museum fight episode, there was quite a bit of surprise from non-Asian people in the fandom that this was really a serious issue, and one that Ricky would be bothered by or speak up about. But why wouldn’t he? I mean, the character is Japanese-American, and so is the player. Doesn’t it make perfect sense that he would at least be a little bothered by a white person appropriating Japanese culture? Asian fans certainly noticed and pointed it out before that episode aired. Ricky/Zac certainly noticed - go back through the episodes and observe how every time Cody pulled out a kunai or threw a shuriken, Ricky was cringing or facepalming with an uncomfortable laugh. Even with seven different camera perspectives to watch at the same time, it should have been pretty clear in the fandom that this was an ongoing issue that would bother and was bothering Ricky.

And I think there are several different facets to this, but the one I want to address is how there’s a tendency in fandom to ignore or erase Ricky’s Japanese heritage. Not literally (although there is a particular sting every time I see another Ricky fancast where the actor is of another Asian heritage than Japanese - Asian people are not interchangeable). But especially prior to Season 2, there was a general trend in the fandom that liked to simplify Ricky’s character and overlook him as a complex player character because of traits that are very common in East Asian immigrant cultures.

Perhaps it’s because my heritage is East Asian and I’ve had more exposure to general cultural customs and behaviours among East Asian immigrants, but Zac’s portrayal of Ricky has always read as a very obvious Asian-American child of immigrants to me (and, y’know, Zac and Ricky are actually Asian-American children of immigrants). Not expressing negative emotions out loud, not verbally articulating thoughts and feelings but expressing them through actions, deferring to other peoples’ needs first instead of expressing his own wants because it’s not about him. With the caveat that I’m Chinese and not Japanese, these are common practices that I’ve observed in my own family, among friends and acquaintances (of various Asian heritages including but not limited to Chinese), in broader experiences with other East Asian immigrants.

(Asia is not a monolith and I’m not familiar with the immigrant cultures and experiences of people from other Asian heritages. I specify East Asian here because that is broadly what I can speak on and because Ricky is Japanese, but other Asian people please feel free to discuss your experiences as well)

And obviously, these are not monolith traits observed at all times, I’ve definitely met plenty of East Asian immigrants who did express their emotions loudly, who used their words, who were assertive about their own needs and wants (this is not the post to be getting into different generations of immigration and the culture differences between those generations). And it also depends on the context - from my own experience, in private within families, both emotions and words can get extremely loud (if you dare to risk the wrath of your elders by arguing with them!) But my point is that the habits I pointed out above are still relatively common in East Asian immigrant cultures, even if not all individuals follow them at all times.

Particularly prior to Season 2, there was a common perspective in the fandom, usually couched in “uwu, I love that Zac is playing a hot dummy!!” that would go along the lines of “Ricky doesn’t have a character arc, he doesn’t get into conflicts with other people, he doesn’t say anything and is just happy to be there, he’s a shallow character who’s just a himbo.” All of which I’d dispute, (*insert post here about Ricky as a character reclaiming Asian masculinity*), but I want to focus on how the main traits -refraining from overt emotions, remaining reserved in speech, not bringing up his own needs and wants- that were brought up and used to simplify and dismiss Ricky’s character were traits which are commonly found in East Asian immigrant communities. The whole “remaining reserved/trying to avoid conflict” is something a lot of East Asian-American kids pick up at home because what you say or don’t say isn’t as important as what you do or don’t do.

And I mean, so much of Ricky is about doing things for people, showing his feelings through his actions, not his words. Just because he wasn’t getting into PC conflict in Season 1, or expressing his emotions in the same ways as other PCs, doesn’t mean he was just a silent, cheerful himbo. Which there’s nothing wrong with being a himbo, and it can be particularly empowering in Ricky’s case as an Asian man (see above linked post about Asian masculinity), but that’s not all there is to Ricky’s character! And don’t get me wrong, I personally love that part of his ongoing character arc in Season 2 is speaking up about his feelings and expressing to other people what he wants (because there’s the “American” part of the Asian-American experience that’s not just about having Asian heritage but is also about negotiating that relationship in a place with different norms and customs). But it doesn’t negate the “Asian” part of “Asian-American” either, which does impact and shape the way Ricky interacts with people and the world.

In hindsight, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that interest and meta in Ricky skyrocketed once he did start being more vocal and assertive in Season 2, which are common traits in many Western cultures. And it’s not the only reason that there’s a deeper interest in Ricky now (shout out to all the Asian fans and allies who’ve been really diving into Ricky’s character this season!) and I choose to believe in good faith that it isn’t intentional or malicious (audiences do tend to gravitate more towards tangible moments of conversation and conflict rather than background acting). But I think we as fans need to start questioning why as a whole, we really didn’t start giving deeper thought to Ricky until he began displaying more typically Western traits, because I think it’s emblematic of how, very subtly and unconsciously, we are used to privileging white “American” behaviour and ignoring or glossing over Asian (immigrant) traits.

In many ways, Ricky prior to Season 2 (and very arguably up until the museum fight), has been perceived in the general fandom as a sort of post-racial American-melting-pot character. Fans don’t wholly ignore that he’s Japanese-American, you can’t really do that when his family name is “Matsui” and when the Season 1 finale showed that his interactions with the American Dream pretty strongly involved his parents’ immigrant experience. But knowing intellectually that Ricky is Asian doesn’t always translate to actually perceiving him as an Asian person with all the implications and racial dynamics that entails.

An example of how this manifests: Ricky and Esther become a canon couple. Numerous posts begin to appear (and periodically still do) that express opinions along the lines of Ricky/Esther being the only tolerable “het” couple. Ignoring the fact that we don’t know Esther’s sexuality and we only have an offhand Ztream comment for Ricky, Ricky/Esther is a canonical interracial relationship between two non-white people, a Japanese man and a black woman. Interracial relationships are already extremely poorly represented in media, to say nothing of interracial relationships between non-white people. Yet we overlook the racial dynamics and only focus on the perceived queerness (or not) of the ship.

Or, for another example, taking the discussion on cultural appropriation and making it all about Cody’s flaws and character development, rather than considering how it affects Ricky as a Japanese man to see a white man disrespecting a part of his cultural heritage.

Anyways, I really urge D20 fans, especially if you’re not Asian, to start questioning and challenging how you really perceive characters, what kind of characteristics you tend to privilege and be drawn to and why, and what kind of fandom environment you shape in your interactions with the show and with other fans. This is not to say that Ricky should be everyone’s favourite character or that you can’t dislike him, but it is important to think about why we have the preferences that we do. I especially urge you to remember that Ricky Matsui is a Japanese-American character, that this was a deliberate choice which has been repeatedly brought up by Zac (who is a Japanese-American actor), and that you cannot and should not ignore Ricky’s heritage when you think and talk about him.

(And if you think Ricky is being an “asshole” to Cody just for being, frankly, mildly perturbed in his direction because Cody spent most of the season so far being very offensive to Ricky’s cultural heritage, I really encourage you to think critically about your opinions and why you hold them. And if, after thinking critically, you still don’t see why they’re wrong, please don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Your conscious racism is not something that is welcome in this fandom, and Asian fans are not here to teach you better)

((White and non-Asian people can and should reblog this, but don’t clown around. Productive, respectful discussion is welcome. Asian fans are more than welcome to add their perspectives/agree/disagree, especially people with Japanese heritage))

#dimension 20 #the unsleeping city #d20 spoilers #tuc ii spoilers #ricky matsui #diversity in fan spaces #asian rep #white people can and should reblog this but don't clown around #non-asian people can and should reblog this but also don't clown around #productive discussion is absolutely welcome but please be respectful #asian fans are more than welcome to add their perspectives/agree/disagree; especially fans with japanese heritage #i really love tuc but being an asian fan in the fandom is just like *avoids twitter* *avoids discord* *curated list of blogs to follow*

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