#this is unironically my favourite era of the show

[stopthefeeling]

So, here we both are

Me back in the land of the living

You back in the land of the free

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

New Taskmaster lineup announcement! That’s fun, isn’t isn't it? Let’s go over some of the new people.

I first learned the news the day after I booked tickets to see Emma Sidi in Edinburgh this summer, so that was good timing. I booked those because I like her in some other people’s Radio 4 things, she was good in Pls Like, she does amusing characters on YouTube, I read some good things about her stand-up show this year for which she’s currently doing WIPs, and she hangs out with Rose Matafeo so she has to be all right, hasn’t she? Oh, and I’ve spent too much time trying to get my hypocrisy-averse brain to reconcile my dislike of the dominance of socio-economically elite institutions over the arts, with how many of my favourite comedians were in Cambridge Footlights. I’ve done the work of reconciling that already, I may as well use it a few more times.

I'm much less pleased about Jack Dee, but it could be worse. I’m pretty strongly biased against Jack Dee because one of the first things I ever saw him do was be on the QI Girls Versus Boys episode, which was the first episode of QI to ever feature two entire women. They had Ronnie Ancona on with Sandi Toksvig, and they discussed gender-based topics, and it was terrible. A lot of Fry-era QI was pretty bad; panel shows got a lot funnier when they invented diversity in 2014. Also Stephen Fry is annoying and Sandi Toksvig should be Prime Minister, but I’m getting off topic here.

The point is that the first time QI had two women on at a time, it was so they could make those two women listen to a bunch of gender essentialist bullshit that they used as answers to the gender-related questions. At one point, Stephen Fry explained that the gender pay gap isn’t real because women play fewer sets than men in professional tennis. One of the questions was “Why are there more men than women on panel shows?”, and I thought the answer would involve one of the 300 levels of casual and institutionalized sexism that women tripped over on the path from making jokes on the playground to getting spots on television comedy shows. Nope. The answer Stephen Fry was looking for was “according to an American study”, audiences don’t find women as funny as they find men.

Through this, Ronnie Ancona in particular did a great job of walking the very thin line between trying to point out a bit of the bullshit, while not being the "argumentative feminist", and being funny at the same time so she’s not a killjoy feminist proving that women aren’t funny. She did this funny riff about female comedians locked in a paddock, and then she went back and forth with Sandi a bit about it, in literally the first moment in QI history of passing the Bechdel test, and Sandi started to say something about how rare and nice it is that she gets to sit next to a woman on a panel show, and Jack Dee interrupted Sandi mid-sentence to ask whether the reason they don’t have more women on panel shows is “once you get them started they don’t shut up”.

Now, obviously he was joking. The gruff, curmudgeonly persona is his thing, and this was meant to be part of that. But he got in a lot of "joke" sexist comments throughout that whole episode, a lot more than anyone else did even though this episode was essentially dedicated to comedic sexism. It doesn’t help that the YouTube comments are full of people unironically agreeing with Jack Dee’s comment that women don't shut up.

I saw this relatively early in my time watching all the long-running panel shows, so that was the lens through which I saw all Jack Dee's other appearances, and maybe because of that bias, I noticed that he interrupted women a lot on panel shows, and picked a lot of inappropriate moments for sexist jokes, often aimed at women in general on an all-male episode, or at the only woman in an episode, always a woman who was used to always being the one woman on panels and hearing jokes like that constantly. But at least when most of the men made those jokes they’d have laugh to suggest they didn’t mean it, Jack Dee would just glare at the women like it was their fault. And yeah, being grumpy is his persona, but he would sometimes break that and have a laugh with the men. Never women.

I don’t even mind a good ironically sexist joke. Honestly, I probably mind them less than I should. I enjoy a lot of comedy where a better feminist than me would reasonably say “irony is not a good enough excuse for how offensive this is”. I know irony is used to mask genuine bigotry and I hate that, but also, if I’m convinced enough that the person isn’t masking genuine bigotry, I can laugh at some pretty harsh stuff. You need to build up some cred before I’ll trust you with sexist jokes. If Nish Kumar went on a panel show and said all women should shut the fuck up, I’ll be pretty sure he’s kidding and it’s all right. But if Jack Dee has enough feminist cred to make those jokes okay, then I sure haven’t heard about it.

Also, Jack Dee showed up on Catsdown a lot and did the grumpy thing similar to Sean Lock, but was much much less funny about it, and yet everyone else on the show treated him like he was hilarious, and that annoyed me. Also, after Sean died, Jack Dee sat in for him as a guest team captain once, doing his significantly less funny version of Sean Lock's shtick (yeah it was probably Jack Dee's shtick first, I don't care), and I had a strong visceral reaction of

All right, that is way more words that I’d meant to write about Jack Dee. Honestly, after all that, he’s probably not that bad. He was mildly funny in Josh Widdicombe’s mildly funny sitcom. I heard some of his recent stand-up recently, and a bit of it made me laugh. I just don’t like him because I saw him on too many panel shows.

Babatunde Aleshe I know almost nothing about, except that he’s supposed to have been particularly good on Off Menu once (I wouldn’t know, don’t do food shows), and sometimes he does reality TV. I’ve seen him on Catsdown and WILTY and Rhod Gilbert’s Growing Pains, where he was never particularly memorable, but he was probably fine. I hope he’s entertaining.

And then there’s seat number five, and that’s sure an interesting one. Of course I'd thought about Rosie Jones as a potential Taskmaster contestant before, but I didn't expect it to happen. Not that I didn't expect them to have any physically disabled people. They've had Jonnie Peacock and Lenny Rush and one of these days they’re definitely going to cast Adam Hills and he’ll win and then Australia will annoyingly pull ahead of Canada in the competition for who has the most UK Taskmaster champions (it’s currently 2-2). But all those people are able to do most of Taskmaster without disability accommodations. I didn't expect them to cast someone who'd need significant accommodation.

Having said that, I was very happy to see they’d proved me wrong and are, in fact, going to do that. I think she’ll be great. There are lots of ways to make Taskmaster accessible – just because I thought they wouldn’t do it doesn’t mean I thought they couldn’t.

Rosie Jones’ style of humour will go great on Taskmaster. Some recent seasons have lacked a bit of spark of contestant interaction in the studio, and Rosie Jones is always going after people. She won’t leave anyone alone, which I think will work great on the show. She can be the chaotic wildcard ball of energy that Taskmaster needs to really get going. And she is very funny. That’ll be great. I'm excited to see her get into it with Greg and Alex as well as the other contestants. And to see her yell at people when anything happens during tasks.

So that’s the new lineup announcement. Have I covered everyone? I think that's all the important stuff. It’s good to have the lineup out there.

[witchthewriter]

what type of muggle music/bands/artists do you think that the trio era characters + the marauders would listen to? sorry if this seems like a weird question..

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐏 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞

Ooh, another music question! I only did the Golden Trio and The Marauders minus Peter, lemme know if you want anyone else 🌷🌿🌻

a/n: I'm not taking time into consideration...

ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ            

・The Marauders love Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees (fun fact, my Pa lived on the same street as them when he was a kid and they would play together)

・The Marauders would so reenact the scene from Mamma Mia when Donna is crying in the bathroom and Chiquitita comes on

・The Golden Trio all love Lizzo. Harry loves her confidence, Ron loves her charisma and is attracted to her and Hermione loves how uplifting her songs can be

𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲

・Is a lot more well-versed in muggle music

・So when he shows Ron all the different types of muggle music, he understands a glimpse of what everyone felt when they were showing Harry the magical world.

・Headcanon that Harry somehow saves up his money to buy a walkman (one of those things that you put cd's in to listen to it) or a small portal radio or takes one of Dudley's many birthday presents. Anway, it's a way for Harry to listen to music. He is a maladaptive daydreamer (like us!!!) and would sneak off from the Dudley's house to lay down in the grass and have his headphones on, getting lost in music

・He has a broad range of musical taste

・From classical, to beautiful movie scores, to old music to new.

・I do think that Harry would be a bit of a metal head though, and he would love Korn, Rob Zombie, and Godsmack.

・Feels a personal connect to the song Me and the Devil by Soap&Skin. It's how he felt during the height of Voldemort's power.

・Underground !!! By Cody Fry !!! Has amazing daydreams about the song!!!

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞

・Like Harry, she knows muggle music a lot better than the others

・Might be a bit of a shock, but she loves Viking-esque music. Her favourite bands are Folknery and Dakha Brakha. She has gets this surge of power whenever their songs play. As if she can feel the magic running through her veins

・Hermione loves music that moves her. That has a bit of umph - so I think she would like the Alabama Shakes, specifically their album Sound & Colour

・Secretly loves Cardi B's songs (YEAH IT MIGHT BE A REACH BUT C'MON, she'd totally be in her room studying to her classical music when out of the blue Cardi comes on and Hermione is like *... okay, I can dig it.*)

𝐑𝐨𝐧

・Unironically loves the Black Eyed Peas

・And goes hard for Rasputin by Boney M.

・Would make fun of Hermione for liking the Viking/Scandinavian type of music. But Hermione only needs to give him a death glare and he apologises ...

・THE WEASLEY'S WOULD BE A DISNEY SINGING FAMILY. Harry would show them all the classics (I mean, I doubt that the Dursley's let him watch much tv. But maybe they just sat Harry in front of the tv for most of his childhood???) The Weasley's reference the movies to each other all the time, and Harry feels a sense of pride because he's shown them something from his world

・Would follow a lot of the popular trends and have pride in knowing the words to all the popular songs.

・Fred & George walked in on Ron White Girl Dancing to Stargirl Interlude by Lana Del Rey once

𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬

・Bad Reputation by Joan Jett

・I Was Made For Lovin' You by KISS

・Likes a lot of the classics

・Holding Out For A Hero!!! Would absolutely belt it in class and jump up on the tables thinking McGonnagal wasn't in class:

"That was quite the performance, Potter. Now sit down. And I'll be seeing you every night for a week's detention."

・Would definitely sing ABBA's When I Kissed the Teacher for McGonnagal, and it would make her blush but also another week of detention (he got on the table again)

𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬

・Loves belting out I'd Rather Go Blind by Etta James. It gets him in his feels.

・Really fell in love with the 60s and 70s era of music. Some of his favourite singers are Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin and Nina Simone

・You Know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse! He'd become obsessed with her. He feels truly connected to her music because of how alone he feels in the world

・Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood by Nina Simone would bring him to tears the first few times he listens to it

・Music was a way for Sirius to escape into his own world while at the Black household

・Created playlists for the people he cares about. They're songs that 1. he thinks they'll like 2. songs that remind him of them 3. songs that represent them

𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐮𝐬

・Loves David Bowie!!! Definitely would want to dress up as him for Halloween (can you imagine a little marauder halloween party??)

・HOZIER HOZIER HOZIER HOZIER. Oh my god, some of his favourites would be Cherry Wine and Sunlight. The soul, the guttural... umph that Hozier has with all of his songs. It moves Remus every time. The lyrics would mean so much to him.

・His taste in music is songs that make him feel connected to the artist or what the message of the song is

・Always has the radio on at home, while being a professor at Hogwarts etc

[octaviasdread]

any girls! dark academia movie recs? i really struggle to find anything not about a group of boys (as much as I love them)

SO MANY!!! This is probably a far more detailed answer than you were expecting but this is a popular question and I want to keep a list for myself and others.

Feel free to add to it/give opinions. I've tried to give a tw for anything I can remember

Girls! Dark Academia Movies/TV Shows

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

1950s Women’s college

Art professor! Julia Roberts

She’s legit the female Mr Keating of the art & college world

Feminism vs. Tradition

Maggie Gyllenhall x Ginnifer Goodwin; their characters were more than friends. Fight me.

Does not end how you expect

Strike!/All I Wanna Do/The Hairy Bird (1998)

MY FAVOURITE!!!

Free on YouTube under one of its various names

Comedy

1960s all girls boarding school

Young Kirsten Dunst

Group of girls plot to sabotage a merger with a boys school less prestigious than their own

Secret attic clubhouse meetings of the D.A.R aka Daughters of the American Ravioli (eaten cold, ew)

girls get political & advocate for their rights using ANY elaborate and chaotic scheme

TW: eating disorder, vomiting & creepy male teacher but the girls plot against him too

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

based on a short book I read for uni by Muriel Spark

1930s girls school in Edinburgh

Scottish teacher! Maggie Smith, controversial with a focus on romantic ideals

Spoiler alert, the liberal teacher is actually a fascist

Her group of fave students has cult- vibes and it’s fascinating

Picnic at Hanging Rock

1970s movie or 2018 mini series

Never watched either but I plan to

Wild Child (2008)

00s romcom every UK teen girl loves

Emma Roberts as the spoiled rich American teenager sent to a strict English boarding school

Plots to get herself expelled but oh no she’s making friends with the girls who help her

And the headmistress has a hot son, and he’s nice??? Double oh no

ICONIC SCENES

Everything! Goes! Wrong!

omg she burns the school down

Feel good, comfort, nostalgia

St Trinians (2007)

English girls boarding school

The kids are all criminals, no joke

So are the teachers

CHAOTIC

gay awakening for british girls

Art heist pulled off by school girls

Government tries to shut them down but oh no, the education minister & the headmistress are ex-lovers

Colin Firth x Rupert Everett in drag

Superior cast: Jodie Whittaker, Gemma Arterton, Juno Temple, Stephen Fry, Colin Firth, etc...

embodies the phrase 'problematic fave'

St Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (2009)

Mystery, pirate ancestors, hidden treasure

omg Shakespeare was a woman

girls disguised as boys to infiltrate and rob the posh boys school

Villain! David Tennant in that ICONIC boat scene

Teen girls vs. ancient misogynist brotherhood

like the first film but MORE chaotic and BETTER!???

The Falling (2014)

1960s all girls school

best friends! but its unrequited love

Agoraphobic + distant mother aka mommy issues

Sudden death and the school suppresses/ignores the students grief, sparking mass hysteria & a fainting epidemic in the girls

Cast: Maisie Williams (GoT) & Florence Pugh (Little Women) & Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders)

TW: teen pregnancy, death, vomiting, underage s*x, sibling inc*st, past s*xual assault

READ THE PLOT SUMMARY FIRST

The Book Thief (2013)

Based on an amazing book by Markus Zusak

set in 1940s Nazi Germany

Daughter of a communist whose family were taken by the Nazis/died is fostered by an older couple who teach her to read & she paints a dictionary on the basement walls

Coming of age story about a compulsive book thief. No joke, this kid steals books from banned book burnings and breaks into the mayor's library through the window

Family hides the Jewish son of an old friend in their basement and he helps her to start writing about her experiences in the war

TW: death, bombings, WW2 anti-semitism

Mary Shelley (2017)

Overall good & roughly biographical

Pretty costumes and aesthetic

Modern feminist take on Mary Shelly in her own time period

So many INACCURACIES for the drama so don’t take it as truth

Percy Shelley slander and not all of it is justified

Cast: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, and Maisie Williams

The Secret Garden (1993)

Based on a fave childhood book

1901 colonial India & Yorkshire, England

Orphaned, spoilt & neglected girl sent to live with her reclusive Uncle in the English countryside

Gothic elements, mysteries, secret doors/passages/locked gardens

local boy with a flock of animals, magic, kids chanting around a fire and all around immaculate vibes

Happy ending!!!

Hidden Figures (2016)

African-American women as mathematicians for NASA

1960s space project

Women balancing a career and family obligations

Deals with racial & gender discrimination

Loosely based on the lives of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan who worked for NASA as engineers & mathematicians

Anne of Green Gables (1985) & sequel (1987)

Adaptation L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

Canada (late 1890s/early 1900s)

Highly imaginative & bookworm orphan is adopted by a reclusive elderly brother and sister duo

Small town & school years comedic drama

Unrequited Enemies -> Friends -> lovers

Inspiring new woman teacher

Girls re-enact Tennyson’s poem and nearly drown for the aesthetic™

Dramatic poetry reading with INTENSE 👀eye contact👀

Writer! Anne & English teacher! Anne dealing with unruly girls school antics

Collette (2018)

biographical drama on french writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette

Victorian & Edwardian era France

More talented than her husband so she ghostwrites for him

Fight for creative ownership of her wildly successful novels

Affairs with a woman called Georgie and also with Missy, born female but masculine presenting

Cast: Keira Knightly, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark)

Enola Holmes (2020)

Netflix book adaptation

Younger sister of Sherlock Holmes

Victorian era! feminism/suffragettes

Mother-daughter focus

Mystery, adventure, secret codes, teens running away & escaping from (and eventually fighting) assassins

Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Fiona Shaw, Millie Bobby Brown

Ginger & Rosa (2012)

1960s England

best friends since literal birth navigating troubled teen years

poet & anti-nuclear activist! Ginger

off the rails but also catholic! Rosa

Shout out to Mark & Mark the gay godfathers we all want

family troubles 

TW: older man has an affair with a 17 yr old

Testament of Youth (2014)

based on WW1 memoir by Vera Brittain

young woman (writer & poetry lover) escapes traditional family & goes to study at Oxford University

abandons to become a war nurse

romance, tragedy and war trauma

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington (GoT), Taron Edgerton (Rocketman), Colin Morgan (Merlin)

Little Women (2019)

Writer! Jo & Artist! Amy

Mother/daughter focus and sister dynamics

the March sisters’ theatre club is *chefs kiss*

champagne problems edits of Jo x Laurie are a mood

Ambivalent ending perfectly captures Louisa May Alcott’s dilemma with the book the movie is based on

set in 1860s America

ALL STAR CAST and a Greta Gerwig masterpeice

Lady Bird (2017)

coming of age in early 2002/2003 Sacramento, California

all girls catholic school

writer! Christine aka Lady Bird wants to get outta town and start her life again at college 'in a city with culture'

Mother/daughter dynamics - so realistic!

I live for that Jesus car stunt & the nun's reaction

school theatre program

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein

Another Greta Gerwig gem

Beguiled (2017)

Virginia, civil war era

Girls school with only five students and two teachers left

Find an injured Union army soldier & bring him inside

Women & teenagers want his attention (v. problematic) before uniting against him

(tbh you'll either love it, hate it, or watch once & forget it)

Sofia Coppola film so its very feminine gaze

TW: violence, death, underage

Legally Blonde (2001)

No questions will be taken

Elle Woods was the blue print

TV series:

House of Anubis (2011-2013)

I know it’s a kids/young teen show but I still unironically love it

ANCIENT EGYPT!!!!

Modern day with Victorian era links to treasure hunters & Egyptian research expeditions (stealing from tombs)

Chosen one plot lines, curses, kidnapping, mysteries, secret tunnels under the school, elixir of life

Teens have investigate & protect themselves cus oh no the TEACHERS are involved in some shady stuff

new American kid at British boarding school is the actual premise not just a fanfic au

Nostalgic, light-hearted, funny, and kinda cheesy but I will accept no criticism

The Alienist (2018 -now)

Mid 1890s, New York

Woman’s private detective agency (Season 2)

Serial killer mystery

Woman secretary turns detective and teams up with a criminal psychiatrist and a newspaper editor to solve crime

TW: violence, child pr*stit*tion

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, Daniel Bruhl

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

Woman chess prodigy

1950s & 1960s

TW: drug & alcohol abuse

Gentleman Jack (2019 - now)

Based on the diaries of Anne Lister

Victorian Yorkshire, England

Upper-class lesbians

Confident, suit wearing! Anne Lister x shy! Ann Walker

Business woman! Anne running the family mines

Cast: Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster) & Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders)

TW: violence

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

bubbly/ambitious single mom + intelligent daughter

bookworm! Rory Gilmore gets into a prestigious private school and then an Ivy League college

Small town drama is comedic gold

Fast dialogue packed with pop culture and literary references

Comforting & nostalgic

TEAM JESS

Anne with an E (2017-2019)

Loose adaptation of L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

they completely change the plot lines but it’s still very good content!

Orphan girl with trauma and a love of books/poetry is adopted by an elderly brother & sister duo, bringing light and fresh ideas to a rural community

Feminism, girls writing club, lgbtq safe spaces, girls eduction, black/indigenous representation

Miss Stacy as THAT inspiring teacher

Aunt Josephine’s lavish gay parties have my heart

TW: creepy male teacher tries to marry a student, racial discrimination, indigenous assimilation school

Victoria (2016-2019)

Adaption of Queen Victoria’s life

Victoria navigating her political, royal, and personal life

Albert’s involvement with The Great Exhibition, 1851 (on cultural + industrial innovations)

Alfred Paget x Edward Drummond is exquisite

Gorgeous costumes and aesthetics

TW: bury your gays trope

Derry Girls (2018-now)

1990s Northern Ireland during the troubles

Comedy, episodes 20-25 mins long

English boy sent to an all girls Catholic school with his cousin

✨Dead Poets Society parody episode ✨with a free-spirited female teacher

Sister Michael, the sarcastic nun who hates her job & reads the exorcist for giggles

Wee anxious lesbian! Clare Devlin (plus her friends wearing rainbow pins)

Badass with bad ideas! Michelle Mallon

Main Character! Erin Quinn

Lovable weirdo who would fight a polar bear! Orla McCool

Wee English fella & honorary Derry girl! James Maguire

Dickinson (2019-now)

Loose adaption of the poet Emily Dickinson’s life

Set in 19th century Massachusetts, US

Historical drama with modern dialogue & music that works SEAMLESSLY

gives a great understanding of Emily Dickinson’s poems

💕Vintage gays! Emily x Sue💕

Theatre club, writing, poetry, dressing as men to sneak into lectures, love letters, teen drama, feminism, and an underground abolitionist journal as a brief side plot in season 2

Wiz Khalifa plays death in a horse drawn carriage

TW: opium use

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)

Based on great childhood books

Bookworm! brother, Inventor! sister, and baby sister with sharp teeth

Mystery, secret organisations, orphaned siblings figuring things out & fending for themselves against the villain after their fortune

Adults either cartoon evil, comedically incompetent, or SPIES

Boarding school, library owner, scientific researcher, and theatre episodes

Ambiguous time period which is really fun to try and pin point

Killing Eve (2018-now)

Classic detective who has homoerotic tension with the assassin she is tracking down

British Detective! Eve Polastri figures out the notorious assassin MI5 are investigating is a woman, is fired & then put on a secret MI6 case with a small team

Assassin! Villanelle, a psychopath with a tragic past and a mastery of both accents & fashion

Woman MI6 boss! Carolyn Martens, head of Russian section

Travel Europe following Villanelle’s killings and escaping the assassins sent by Villanelle’s organisation

‘You’re supposed to be my enemy and moral opposite but omg you’re the only one smart enough to get me and why am I obsessed with you????'

🚨 GO IN FOR A KISS AND THEN STAB YOUR ENEMY 🚨

Cable Girls/Las chicas del cable (2017-2020)

Spanish drama set in 1920s Madrid

Four young women at a telecommunications company form a group of friends and help navigate the difficult situations they are all in

Secret identities, dangerous pasts, murder, crime, lgbtq couple & throuple, trans man character, feminism/suffragists

girls commit crimes for humanitarian reasons and cover! it! up!

UNDERRATED SHOW!!!!

Gorgeous costumes and set

Haven’t finished it yet and I’m catching up

TW: abuse, violence, death

Outlander (2014 - now)

haven’t watched yet but plan to

Woman time travels to Scotland, 1743

Rebel highlanders, pirates, British colonies, American revolutionary war

Time jumps between 18th & 20th century

[passionate-reply]

This week on Passionate Reply: We all know “Don’t You Want Me,” but the early Human League is a totally different beast, featuring a different line-up, and songs about killer clowns and wanting to be a skyscraper, on their debut LP, 1979′s Reproduction. Transcript below the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums. In this installment, we’ll be investigating one of the most surprising debut LPs around: The Human League’s Reproduction, first released in 1979.

Pretty much anyone with a general understanding of Western pop will already know the name of the Human League, and associate them, rightfully, with their early 80s hits like “Don’t You Want Me.” For many, the Human League were the first genuine synth-pop that they had ever heard, and their work in the 1980s has been immeasurably influential in bringing the notion of electronic pop into the mainstream. But before they were hitmakers and game-changers, the Human League were a very different band.

Music: “Being Boiled”

“Being Boiled” was the first thing the Human League would ever press to wax, way back in 1978. In most respects, this track is everything that “Don’t You Want Me” is not: its pace is languid, its structure is shapeless and meandering, and rather than a simple and relatable love story, its lyrics offer us a strange and opaque condemnation of the tortures endured by silkworms during textile production. While fascinating, and endearing in its own morbid way, “Being Boiled” does not exactly scream “hit record.” The Human League were not only a different band in a stylistic sense, but also with respect to their personnel, driven by a creative core comprised of budding synthesists Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh. Prior to the release of the breakthrough album Dare, Marsh and Ware would abandon the group over creative differences, and go on to form Heaven 17 instead. It was vocalist Phil Oakey, and producer Martin Rushent, who would create the sound that their name is now so strongly associated with, and this early incarnation of the group is probably best thought of as an entirely different entity. This album, Reproduction, was their first full-length release, and is perhaps the best introduction to their pioneering sound.

Music: “Circus of Death”

“Circus of Death” had appeared as the B-side to “Being Boiled,” and was included once more as the second track on *Reproduction.* It has a lot in common with the other track it accompanied: a plodding pace, a dark and obtuse lyrical theme, and a sparse, fully electronic instrumentation. The Human League were among the first British groups to utilize a totally electronic sound, devoid of any traditional instruments besides the voice, though in this underground and more experimental context, it doesn’t present a threat to the status quo of pop the way that Dare would a few years later. Alongside fellow proto-industrial acts associated with "the Sound of Sheffield," like Clock DVA and Cabaret Voltaire, they dwelt on the fringes of good taste, crafting subversive music for subversive people. “Circus of Death” introduces us to a demonic figure called “the Clown,” who controls, and torments, human beings by use of a drug called “Dominion,” in a scenario that sounds a bit like Huxley’s Brave New World. It’s worth remembering that while younger generations are quick to think of clowns as icons of evil and terror, clowns were unironically beloved as bringers of joy for most of the 20th Century, and these early portrayals of clowns as killers were indeed shocking at the time. Preceding “Circus of Death,” and opening the album, is “Almost Medieval,” a track with some similar themes, but a rather different composition.

Music: “Almost Medieval”

While “Circus of Death” is slow and dirgelike, “Almost Medieval” showcases the more aggressive side of *Reproduction.* It opens the album with a starkly simplistic tick-tocking beat, reminiscent of an unaccompanied metronome, before bursting into its punk-like sonic assault--a musical representation of how seemingly predictable and deterministic machines can also create something outrageous and unexpected. The lyrics of this track seem pointed towards the past, with the narrator exclaiming that they “feel so old,” and as if they’ve died many times before. Juxtaposed against the thoroughly modern setting of an airport with tarmacs and jet engines, it might be taken as an expression of the horror a person from the past might feel if they were shown the world of the future, created by capitalism and high technology. While it isn’t very accurate, we have a tendency to think of the “Medieval” world as a barbaric, unclean, and uncivilized era, full of witch hunts, chastity belts, and the deliberate erasure of “ancient wisdom.” “Almost Medieval” turns that idea on its head, suggesting that perhaps our world is the one that’s truly barbaric. The image of its narrator, “falling through a rotting ladder,” can be taken as a rejection of the notion of a “ladder” of progress. Similar themes of open-ended symbolism, and the sorrow of modernity, can be found on “Empire State Human.”

Music: “Empire State Human”

Like “Almost Medieval,” “Empire State Human” is lively and faster-paced, with driving percussion. With its straightforward rhymes and repetitive structure, it readily encourages the listener to sing along, almost as if joining in some sort of ritual chant. It’s an idea that Marsh and Ware would return to in their Heaven 17 days, with tracks like “We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thang.” “Empire State Human” was the album’s only single, and thanks to this exposure, and its (relative) palatability compared to the rest of their catalogue, it remains one of the best known tracks from the early Human League. “Empire State Human” makes its concept pretty clear, with less ambiguous lyrics and an easy to follow mix that brings Oakey’s voice to the fore: the narrator wishes to become a building, and a mighty skyscraper no less, which might rival the achievements of the Pyramids of the ancient Egyptians. While it is clear that that’s what the song’s about, what we do with this once again high-concept subject matter is up to us. I like to think that this is some kind of perverse commentary on the unnatural and alienating experience of urban living, which may come with the feeling that the concrete and rebar structures that surround us are more significant to our lives than the people who may live or work in them. City life is addressed more directly by the track “Blind Youth.”

Music: “Blind Youth”

“Blind Youth” is probably the most “grounded” track on the album, in terms of its theme, making pointed remarks about “dehumanization” and “high-rise living.” It’s tempting to think of it as a sort of parallel to “Empire State Human,” with a broadly similar musical backdrop, and a more literal expression of the theme hinted at more obliquely by “Empire State Human.” With its focus on the experiences of the titular “youth,” “Blind Youth” can also be contrasted with “Almost Medieval,” whose narrator keens about feeling old. Where “Almost Medieval” deals with the disgust an older person feels at the decrepit state of the human race, “Blind Youth” shows the demented, unthinking joy of the youth, who have grown up in an industrialized and urbanized world, and don’t know different--or better.

While there have been many classic underground albums whose covers aimed to shock and displease polite society, the cover of Reproduction is one of the few that I feel would still be seen as offensive, over 40 years later. It was allegedly the product of a miscommunication between the group and the illustrator commissioned to create it; the band requested a scene in which people are dancing above a ward of babies in glass-topped incubators, and the striking angle, which seems to show people crushing infants underfoot, is an unintentional aspect of the design. Unintentional or not, this crudely violent aspect dominates the final composition, and lends it vileness and immediacy. Like the lyrics of many of the songs, the combination of the cover and title can be interpreted a number of ways. Perhaps it’s a glib commentary on human reproduction as fun and games: we partake in the “dance” of courtship and sexuality, and babies drop beneath our feet. Or perhaps it suggests a contrast between life’s enjoyments, like dancing, and its stressors, like the responsibilities of parenthood. It’s hard not to see so many crying, seemingly distressed infants without becoming upset oneself, and I think the deep instinctual revulsion that this piece inspires is part of why it’s remained so resonant in its subversiveness.

As I mentioned in my introduction, the Human League have gone down in history chiefly for the music they made later, which has largely buried this early period as part of their legacy--at least in the public eye and outside of the dedicated diggings of motivated enthusiasts. If you’re a fan of what you’ve heard from this album, you’ll probably enjoy their 1980 follow-up Travelogue, as well as their EP, Holiday ‘80. Given the emphasis on long-form albums among music aficionados, EPs and their exclusive tracks are quite frequently missed, but Holiday ‘80 is a gem from this short-lived line-up, featuring the fragile “Marianne” as well as a cover of the stadium favourite “Rock ‘N’ Roll,” made famous by Gary Glitter. Thumbing its nose at everything the culture of “rock and roll” stands for, and transposing this hymn to its greatness into an abrasive and sterile lunar landscape of synths, this is one of my favourite covers of all time, and seems to prefigure how a very different Human League would later become the archnemesis of all that rock fans held holy. It was also one of very few tracks to be performed on Top of the Pops, and subsequently see not a rise, but a drop in the singles charts!  

Music: “Rock ‘N’ Roll”

My favourite track on Reproduction is one that appears on its second side, unlike the other tracks I’ve talked about so far: “Austerity / Girl One.” Side Two of Reproduction is mainly focused on longer and more narrative-driven tracks, and this is no exception. Like the opener of the second side, “Austerity / Girl One” is a medley, albeit one of two pieces that are original compositions and not covers, as medleys usually are. This track’s story is both timeless and modern, a bit like a contemporary King Lear: the “Austerity” half deals with an aging father, incapable of understanding his children, dying alone and ignored, while the “Girl One” half puts us in the mindset of his daughter, a New Woman whose life is hectic, but also bleak. It’s a story that many of us will relate to, about people who try their best with what they’ve got, but still feel as though they’ve failed in life. Its simple, but effective musical backdrop of wan synth pulses allows the narrative, and Oakey’s evocative portrayal of it, to take center stage. That’s everything for today, thanks for listening.

Music: “Austerity / Girl One”

[frienderbender]

What would you say your favourite ship dynamics are? Like do you notice any character dynamic patterns that always seem to draw you in?

OH yes i love these questions! ill put a cut because i figure this might get a little long

so for the first question:

i feel like i really do end up having some pretty specific dynamics always being my faves? this kinda goes into the second question too, but a lot of my faves tend to be older, middle-aged characters. so ive always loved canon married couples, for one, but also the very specific dynamic of an older character falling in love again or for the first time. something about that is just so enjoyable for me? another one (and a lot of these i see tend to overlap and i love it even more when they do) but its when character A acts a certain way but character B doesnt fall for it/sees through their bullshit. so then character A has this whole journey with B of learning to essentially be themselves and/or lower their defenses.

the other biggest dynamic is definitely like. people who have a complicated history and/or are exes, kinda leaning towards the "right person wrong time" trope. its a dynamic that i think can allow for SO MUCH character and relationship exploration over time; examining the couple in the beginning, their downfall, if they reconcile, if one or both fall in love with the other again, etc.

those are probably the ship dynamics i find myself falling for most often! like ive said though, im really casual with this sort of thing so if i think two or more characters would be funny together, chances are i enjoy it haha

second question!

unironically its amazelingtons era john. this is seriously the ideal man in my eyes. best design in this show anyway hahaha

for people that know me and my original work, despite me having a side blog for a metal band, my like. Actual area of expertise is midcentury entertainment and stuff. so if a character is modeled to look like theyre from the 60s or 70s specifically, chances are they will be my favorite. easily. bonus if theyre older dudes with facial hair hahah

1970s-looking dudes are definitely my big one, and i feel like other designs can be so case-by-case with me. some tropes im not immune to are evil ladies for sure, or some classic edgy goths. also blondes?? thats recurring for me for some reason. hmm. AND VILLAINS IN GENERAL TBH LMAO!!

anyways. always find myself loving those characters. im pretty easy with my faves and it really just depends on the piece of media but in general if theres a character that falls under something like this...i will like them :]

[lonelyheartsmotel]

30 questions tag game

tagged by @captainlakay <3333333

rules: answer 30 questions and tag 20 others (i don’t know that many people >:()

1. name - grace

2. gender - nonbinary

3. star sign - cancer sun, scorpio moon, sag rising

4. height - recently found out i’m 5′6″ not 5′5″!!!!!!!

5. time - 3:45 pm

6. birthday - june 24

7. favourite band - idk man one direction ig i don’t pick favourites 😭

8. favourite solo artist - i don’t know this is stressing me out ok let’s say sza

9. song stuck in my head - inner ninja by classified

10. last movie - love & monsters <333

11. last tv show - gilmore girls

12. when i created this blog - 2014 or 2015 i think, too lazy to check ! <3

13. what do i post - boy where do i start. shitposts and anything from fandoms i’m into. when i seem like i’m phasing out posting something i’m really into, it WILL not be gone forever it always comes back at some point sdjflkjl

14. last thing i googled - a copy-pasted line from a student’s essay i was grading because i suspected plagiarism sdjflsdj

15. other blogs - @sleepyfacegrace for personal & aesthetic things

16. do i get asks? - almost never but i love those i do get🥺

17. following - 805 goddam...

18. why i chose my url - i started using “sleepyfacegrace” as a username on the regular socials (ig, twt, etc) because it was a sneaky cute gallavich reference, then i wanted to change my tumblr url from something really outdated from like superwholock era lmao and i was hyperfixated on brooklyn 99, so i went for some alliteration :)

19. lucky number - unironically? 6 and 9 are two of my lucky numbers in chinese numerology or whatever sooo i get to say 69 :)

20. followers - 526

21. average hours of sleep - probably around 9

22. instruments - piano & guitar

23. what am i wearing - grey sweatshirt, black satin sleep shorts, striped thick knit socks!!

24. dream job - i dont dream of labour i dream of abolition and liberation!!! but also dream job being a pretty influencer writer who makes tons of book sales because people like their aesthetic don’t tell anyone

25. favourite food - stop making me choose favourite things. im pretty into the truffle waffle fries we sell at my work ig

26. nationality - c*nadian (born malaysian)

27. favourite song - my brain is going to explode by grace sleepy santiago ok sorry for complain here are some songs i’ve been very into in the past “two ghosts” by harry styles, “wish you were here” pink floyd, “drew barrymore” sza these are all very mainstream i know oh whell

28. last book i read - night sky with exit wounds by ocean vuong <3

29. top 3 universes i’d live in - i’m high and read this as UNIVERSITIES SJDFLKSDJGLSJDKL ok well i guess 1) the starless sea from the eponymous book by erin morgenstern, 2) h*rry p*tter :bota:, 3) doctor who

tagging @nocompromise-noregrets, @tiemetodream, @butterednoodlesjules, @imaginedmelody, @lizardantlers, @enide-s-dear, @writerman no pressure<3

[carriagelamp]

Book Review - Summer Summary 2020

I didn’t get around to doing an individual post for the books I read in June/July/August, so I decided to choose a dozen that I read over the summer... I’d separate the wheat from the chaff for you so to speak. Though like you’re about to find out, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were all good by any means...

Crave

My girlfriend got this for me to “tide me over until Midnight Sun”. Between you and me, I think she was taking the piss. Anyway, Crave is very... standard fare paranormal YA school romance with the added flare of being written by an adult erotica writer, meaning the rhythm and tone of this novel is fucking bonkers. If you want to read the novel without reading the novel, just take Twilight and the entire Vampire Academy series, shove them in a blend, and force down the sludge you get from that. Normal Average Girl Goes To Secret School In Alaska For Vampire, Werewolves and Dragons. That’s this book. It is so big and so so so bad. I finished it out of spite, please don’t do that to yourself. Unless you are really craving (hurr hurr) some top tier trashy paranormal romance, in which case... no judgment.

The Last Firehawk

The Last Firehawk is a Scholastic “Branches” series, written for beginning readers (grade 1-3ish, depending on the child’s reading level). It has short stories, big text, and awesome pictures on every page. Guys. I unironically am adoring this series. It’s simple and is introducing children to a number of classic elements in the fantasy quest genre, but it is so charming. Friends Tag and Skyla discover a firehawk egg, and species that is supposed to have disappeared long ago. When Blaze hatches from it, the three are tasked with going out and finding the magical ember stone which was hidden long ago by the firehawks and which could be used to defeat the evil vulture Thorn and his dark magic... I read the first two books to second graders who ate it up and read the next four books because I personally wanted to continue the series. If you have young readers in your life (or just want a fun kid adventure) then please try these they’re the literary equivalent of nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.

Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3

All the kind people that still follow my tumblr and haven’t tried to murder me because of my Lupin obsession are not going to be surprised by this one. I finally read one of the manga for this series and honestly I’m delighted. Somehow even hornier than the show, but hilariously funny. I felt like I was reading a more adult version of Spy Vs Spy. It’s a bunch of short, individual bits/adventures with lots of visual gags and an artstyle that is really different and delightful.

River of Teeth / Taste of Marrow (American Hippo series)

I’ve talked about River of Teeth before, but I finally finished the American Hippo duology and need to sing its praise. This is an alternate history series composed of two novellas that explore the question What would have happened if the States had decided to import hippos as livestock...? Anyways, my pitch for you: queer hippo cowboys. That’s all it took for me to read it. You have a gay gunslinger who loves his hippo to death, a nonbinary explosives-expert / poisoner who is the main love interest, a fat con artist who spoils her hippo and is the only voice of reason in this entire series, and a latina mother-to-be who is the scariest assassin in the entire series and is obviously scheming. The four of them are brought together on a job to deal with the Mississippi’s feral hippo problem.

IT’S A QUEER HIPPO COWBOY HEIST NOVEL GUYS I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M STILL TALKING AND YOU HAVEN’T JUST GONE TO READ THIS YET.

Petals to the Metal (The Adventure Zone series)

The graphic novel adaptation to the McElroy family’s DND podcast The Adventure Zone. Most of you are probably aware of this? It’s a great adaptation, it hits all the important beats, shows off the characters really well, and still gets lots of good gags in even while condensing entire arcs into single book stories. This one is probably my favourite so far just because Petals to the Metal was one of my favourite arcs in the show... but you can also see how the art has improved and the chaos of the race is fun to see drawn out.

If you like The Adventure Zone but haven’t tried the graphic novels yet -- would recommend! If you’ve always wanted to listen to The Adventure Zone but don’t have time for such a long series or struggle to focus on podcasts then pick up the first book of this series (Here There Be Gerblins) and try reading it! It really is an enjoyable adaptation.

Pony to the Rescue (Pony Pals series)

I continued my April/May theme of reading old-school chapter book series to combat Covid Brain Fry, so I picked up a few Pony Pals books. I read these as a kid and always enjoy them -- there’s just something so appealing to a child about having a horse. It gives your child characters a level of independence and ability to explore that you wouldn’t get otherwise. These books definitely read young, but they were nostalgic to revisit.

Small Spaces

A really cool middle grade horror novel I picked up. Maybe it’s because I live around a lot of corn fields, but farm/scarecrow themed horror absolutely does it for me. One evening, after seeing a woman try to destroy a strange, old book, eleven year old Ollie doesn’t stop to think, instead stealing the book and running. That’s how she becomes wrapped up in the strange, sinister story of a cursed family and creature called the Smiling Man that seems to live out in the foggy fields. While unsettling, Ollie tries to remind herself that it’s just a story... but this becomes more challenging when her school bus breaks down one day out their own set of fields, and a fog is rolling in...

“Avoid large spaces. Stick to small.”

Snot Girl #1 - #2

A Canadian graphic novel series by the creator of the Scott Pilgrim series! I love his work so I decided to give Snotgirl a try, even though it’s not generally my genre. I’m glad I did! First book took a while for me to get into, but by the time I hit the second I was really wrapped up in the mystery and character development. Snotgirl is about Lottie, a self-consumed fashion blogger whose biggest struggles are dealing with her allergies, frustration with her fellow-blogger friends, and how entirely her self-esteem is tied to her “beauty” and how people view her. But everything shifts in strange and horrifying ways when Lottie starts taking a new allergy medication, meets a new friend... and then witnesses that girl’s death. Or does she?

Seriously, or does she? I have no idea, I need to read the third book. This book is full of intrigue, complicated relationships, murder (or not?), and a healthy dose of magical realism to keep you guessing. If you like slice-of-life, crime, and abstract reality then this series is world a try. Plus the art is gorgeous.

Summer Wars #1 - #2

I recently rewatched Summer Wars (still one of my favourite movies) and decided to read the two-book manga adaptation. It was a really neat little adaptation. The creator of the movie gave the writer free range to tweak things to fit better in a manga format, which means some movie elements were allowed to fade into the background, whereas other aspects were fulled into the forefront and fleshed out to a greater degree. It was very cool, it kept the same story but gave you new things to think about which I wasn’t expecting. Reading this as a stand alone works just fine, but honestly if you’ve never watched the movie Summer Wars you should give it a try! It’s a great mix of slice-of-life, sprawling family dynamics that I relate to a little too well, cyber adventures, and fantasy. Super feel good.

This One Summer

Okay, last graphic novel, I swear. This One Summer was... weird and intense. It’s a coming-of-age Canadian graphic novel that follows a pair of pre-teens who meet up like they do every year at their family’s summer cottages. You see them both in the awkward phases between childhood and growing up to become teenagers, as they’re confronted with things like maturity, friendship, self-esteem, family problems, and sexuality. A beautiful read, but probably the heaviest out of all the books on my list.

Wild Thornberrys Novelization

I rewatched The Wild Thornberrys movie with my girlfriend earlier this year, and decided I wanted to hunt down the chapter book novelization because I’m kind of a sucker for novelizations. Honestly, this was about what you would expect from the era. 90s/00s novelizations, especially young novelizations, are generally just a transcript of the movie without much thought or effort put into them to make them anything but. That’s what this was. It was fine, and it really let me revisualize the entire movie, but honestly you’re probably better off just rewatching the movie unless you also really deeply love The Wild Thornberrys.

The Willoughbys

I saw that Netflix had done a funky looking adaptation of The Willoughbys and I decided I needed to read the book first before watching the movie. This was a little bizarre, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Over all, I think it was a net-positive experience. It’s an obvious satire on classic children’s novels, especially the likes of Mary Poppins (real Mary Poppins, not the Disney version) and while a little heavy-handed, it does a Series of Unfortunate Events vibe that redeems it. The story is about a group of horrible children (The Ruthless Willoughbys) who decide they are sick of their parents and would rather become Worth Orphans... and to do that, they’re going to have to dispose of their inconvenient parents, obviously. Conveniently their parents are also sick of having children and decide to do away with them as well. The Willoughbys sets up three (or four?) different subplots that are gradually woven together through a series of schemes and exploits. It’s definitely more ruthless (hurr hurr) than the Netflix version, which tried to make the children more sympathetic, and in some ways I think that’s a definite point in the novel’s favour. I’m not sure I would go out of my way to recommend it, but it was a fun romp if you want something short and off the wall (and a lot more fleshed out than the Netflix version).

[fyeahnevilleslongbottomsocs]

Can you tell me about your Neville oc?

heck yeah!!! thank you so much for asking!! 

asterope aurelia malfoy or aurelia black because she disowned herself is my third oldest oc and is the only oc that i’m constantly working on! i created her in 2016 on March 22 ( the only reason i remember the date is because im emo and i love mcr ) and i was originally planning to write a cliché but with twists harry potter fanfiction cause I love clichés but it spiraled out of control. 

asterope’s character and story has been a journey for me, i’ve rewritten the story so many times but the last rewrite which i started in fall of 2020 ( which is technically just a better written and more planned version of the 2018 rewrite ) and is the one i’m most confident on!!  I’m like 90% this is going to be the final version and I have the ending planned and everything, it’s just i take a very long time to write so it’ll probably take me another year to finish it!! she’s honestly my favourite oc!!

she’s a hufflepuff and in the end of her third year at hogwarts when the story starts. it’s heavily implied that she’s not really a malfoy but asterope isn’t really sure who she is. the story kicks off when she’s chosen for the triwizard tournament along side harry potter. she was chosen for different reasons than harry, meaning voldemort didn’t want her to be part of the whole plan he had but she ended up being there. she doesn’t do all that well in the tournament magic wise but she ends up getting decent points because dumbledore’s favoritism. 

my favourite part of her story has and has always been, the ootp section because 1.) it’s a turning point for her and her character and 2.) so much angst. i’m halfway done prewriting that part and i’m super excited to finally move onto the half-blood prince which is the part that i’ve never made it to in terms of her story. the farthest i’ve made it to is the department of mysteries. and this is getting really long and i’m super sorry about that sjsjksjs 

asterope prefers going by her middle name aurelia, she has a lot of nicknames but her favourite is either ari or sunflower girl which are both nicknames given to her by neville. 

she’s a hopeless romantic and she believes that her and neville are soulmates, she’s not sure if they’re romantic or platonic soulmates just yet but she’ll figure out the real answer soon! 

her first friends that she makes are technically all the weasleys but she refers to neville as her first friend because she sat with him on the train, or rather he sat with her  👀👀 she reads him a book on the train and they fall asleep on each other’s shoulders. neville drools on her shoulder and asterope makes a comment about it which is a nod to percabeth ( the first book couple i ever shipped ). 

she’s never really understood the whole blood supremacy her parents taught her but she listens to it well enough and believes it to a point especially in the beginning but she doesn’t believe it enough to stop her from earning other people’s approval. so basically she lies about not believing in it to keep friendships and eventually she learns better and she lets go of that ideology, 

she loves ABBA, musicals especially phantom of the opera and the carrie musical ( which was released in the 1980s but it flopped so you can’t find the original soundtrack for it, the earliest is like 2012 BUT it was out during the golden trio era so it counts and it’s actually probably her favourite out of the two, to be fair she loves carrie the movie, and any movie with Winona Ryder. 

she’s bisexual!! and although she never says it during her book ( and by this i mean she never uses the term because she doesn’t know it ) asterope is genderfluid and it’s heavily implied through out the book, she likes being female and male and doesn’t really care for the whole gender thing. but she doesn’t know that there’s a term for how she feels so she never takes one. eventually she does hear about genderfluid and she does come out probably around the early 2000s. 

asterope has a crush on ginny, it never really went away she just started questioning her feelings for neville and got consumed by that. i’ve mentioned that fred has a crush on asterope ( she’s never returned it ) i did that because i am a fred girl too and at one point during a rough draft i think i was going to have asterope get with fred for a bit but now i cannot see them together. Neville is obviously endgame but I really actually like her and ginny as couple. and i like neville, asterope, and ginny as a couple even more. 

( but i also really like hinny ) 

as a toddler she idolised her aunt bellatrix and she remembers this phase vividly and she cringes thinking about it because in her mind bellatrix = bad. but she has a lot of memories of bella being nice to her and that causes a lot of turmoil between her need to be loved and her relationship with neville. the angst of it all is just chef’s kiss. 

she loves puns, she her cat named freddie purrcury and the tree she had as a child named vincent van grow. she and sirius are the pun-makers of the black family, no one can top them. 

at one point in a chapter asterope shows neville ABBA and sings waterloo to him using his hairbrush as a microphone. and lowkey that’s the first time he thinks about marrying her. it’s not even a detailed scene in the story but it’s mentioned as a thing they do to pass the weekend before things take off for the ootp content. but it’s one of my favourite moments. ALSO asterope unironically loves rick astley’s never gonna give you up and she rick rolls umbridge twice. 

i have so much about asterope malfoy but i’m pretty sure i’ve already said to much, pretty sure i just wrote a really bad essay about her!! i’ll end it here but there is more if you ever want to know more in the future!! thank you so much for asking about my oc, i really appreciate it!! 

[cobbbvanth]

Tagged by @sunshine-jack for this one, thank you!! Put a Supernatural specific playlist on shuffle and explain the rationale behind each song!

This is my songs i love because of supernatural playlist which is actually a very loose title, but it's a banging playlist so here (no I do not have a destiel one I'M SORRY)

1) Running on Empty - Jackson Browne (need i explain this? It's the last song that ever plays in the show and while I'm sad spn was cancelled before episode 20, this montage made me feel things! The end of an era! Next question)

2) The Weight - Jason Manns & friends (the spn cast is actually all so talented, and I thank Jason Manns every day for forcing them into a recording studio so we get to experience this beauty)

3) Black Dog - Led Zeppelin (spn was too poor to afford some quality zeppelin tunes so I had to do it myself)

4) A Single Man Tear - Supernatural The Musical! (Fan Fiction has become one of my favourite episodes, and the musical album unironically slaps. Is The Road So Far my go to driving song? Maybe so)

5) Oh Death - Spirous Maus, Bellabeth (DEATH'S ENTRANCE. NEED I SAY MORE)

6) Sunburst - Bob Seger (I adore Bob Seger, I really do, and I have spn to thank for that. The Night Moves album is full of absolute bangers, so of course they're all in this playlist)

7) Wanted Dead or Alive - Bob Jovi (first of all, this song is a classic on it's own. But it's just hit different somehow after seeing Jensen Ackles and Corey Taylor performing it together in 2018. It's tied for my number 1 driving song)

8) The Night We Met - Lord Huron (did someone say the greatest love story never told you all know why this one is on here)

9) Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas (YOU ALL KNOW WHY THIS ONE IS ON HERE! YES LADS LET'S GO)

10) Shake a Leg - AC/DC (AC/DC has always been a fave but in my head the music in spn is 40% Bob Seger, 40% AC/DC and 20% non specific classic rock and I'm so here for it. The entire Back in Black album features on this playlist because half of them genuinely were on the show and the rest of them are just great tunes)

Tagging @smiledean @casdeservesallthelove @piinktearxs @casthyelle @casjpg @jellydeans @wemakeitupaswego and anyone else! This is so fun

[yououghtaknow]

18 and 20 for the meta asks? also I already commented on clip 3 but fr this clip was so good that was such a good execution of that scene and s5 has been so good and literally brightens my day thank u 💛 i hope you’re doing well

hi, thank you so much!!!!!!!! i hope you’re doing well too <3 <3

i am putting a read more because i am a rambley person, but underneath you will find talks of unused plot points, the parallels between the girl squad and the lad squad, and what taylor swift album(s) i believe each season has the vibe of.

tw for discussion of abuse, mental health problems, addiction and eating disorders

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

skam brighton has. so many aus. because it itself is an au of an original work. me and two of my great writing friends have written a great numbers of aus including but not limited to riordian-verse, glee, doctor who, rwrb, trc, a murder mystery au, and many aus based on comfort media of mine that i started on never finished (house of anubis, barbie movies, etc.). and many of them are unironically so good???? @fingersmithbysarahwaters and @nightwing642 are incredibly talented screenwriters. but also i did write a screenplay adaptations of the first two books in the raven cycle series and 2/3s of rwrb for no reason other than fun and autism.

as for skam brighton. oh boy. not many plot points have been changed, but some certain scenes/character moments were changed. for example, the scene in season 2 episode 8 where liz has a meltdown at the shopping centre and she has a heart to heart with mary was originally liz having a meltdown and running into al in the sensory room. but i wanted to hold back on revealing al as a main character until season 3. 

also in the og season 3, jake and al didn’t break up. as i was finishing the season, i was getting ideas for how i wanted the series to develop (james’s crush on al namely) so i thought it would be good for both of their developments for them not to end up together. also in season 3 i hadn’t planned for jake to move house originally, so there was a scene in the finale episode of the lad squad hanging out, but it got cut because it just didn’t make sense. 

in season 4, al and bree were a lot meaner to each other originally, because i love it when it gets busy at the brighton and the gay people get mean, but then i thought about it and decided it was out of character for both of them to be downright cruel. al and bree also had a scene in season 4 that was cut due to just not making sense. 

also, in season 5, the “inner white girl” scene originally wasn’t in the show at all, but one day i was listening to the song, and about a week before the episode came out, i wrote it. also, bree wasn’t written to be a she/they until literally the day of putting the clip out because i thought it would be cool. that’s it :)

also the way i write is that i write the full clip out in a google doc and then edit it in ao3 about an hour before i put it out, so a lot of changes happen there. just small things, like making dialogue flow better, changing certain songs because i just want to, and sometimes adding in new sequences that i just thought of.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

oh!!!! there!!!!! is!!!!! 

personally, my favourite thing to write is little symbolic moments that make me happy because i play 4d chess in my head with myself every time i write.

before i go off, i must say, so many hints and clues have been dropped for season six so far. season six has been my favourite season to write and i’m already planning a spin-off project based on it to write, and it’s gonna be starting sooner than you think.

so a piece of writing i’ve been thinking about lately is the parallels between the girl squad and the lad squad. before i begin to go off, these are the characters i think parallel each other the most.

jake - sandy james - bree nick - rori theo - esther al - liz

jake and sandy is quite an obvious parallel to draw - both are football players, both begin the series closeted and having a close relationship with bryan - but their personalities are quite similar. both of them are closer with their mother than their father, both use their relationships as a method of protection, and both are afraid of of societal rejection at the beginning of the series. they also both discovered their sexualities and mental health issues over the course of their seasons, and both of their love interests are more outgoing theatre kids. jake and sandy’s relationship is also so interesting to me - because they start as very awkward friends, and jake tries to help sandy by making bryan break up with her, but outs her in the process, and sandy doesn’t want to forgive him. she takes her time and comes to terms with it on her own and decides to forgive him because sandy’s just a sweetheart - and this also parallels the way jake takes his time to forgive his mother. also, in their friend groups, they’re both the newcomer to them, and we get the introductions to the group dynamics in their seasons, and in the later seasons, they’re both a lot more relaxed as they’re in recovery <3

james and bree are also very similar characters. both have problems with substance abuse, both have promiscuous reputations, both have both mommy and daddy issues. they are both dean girls, to put it in spn terms. they’re both very funny, and use humour to cover up their struggles. both are dealing with a lot of mental illness and, throughout the series, it becomes more and more clear. they’re also both seen as “the hot ones” of their groups, with a lot of the characters canonically having small crushes on them (liz, rori and nick with james; rori, esther and annabell with bree). they’ve also both canonically hooked up with sophie. which i just think is fun. they also played mimi and roger together, which i think shows their parallels as addicts and people (with roger struggling with recovery and depression until the end, when he begins to get help, and mimi living the high life until it all crumbles down around her). they also share a want for independence and both are very sana-esque characters (james being middle eastern and religious, bree being the cool rebel girl in season 1).

nick and rori are both the “fun friend”. they’re both comedic relief in the early seasons, but we do get in depth with them as the show goes on. in grease, they play james and bree’s love interests (which is ironic, as rori and bree get together and nick is in love with james), and in rent, they play angel and maureen, the two main comedic relief characters. both of them struggle to connect their asian identity with their british identity, and both struggle with how the world perceives them (nick with their gender presentation and rori with her eating disorder). they both struggle with toxic masculinity and toxic femininity and use humour to cover up their struggles.

theo and esther are similar in the fact that they’re the squad members we know the least about. they’re both jewish, they’re both the mum friend of their respective groups, they’re both autistic and they’re both quite nerdy. they’re the most grounded member of their respective groups and tend to take charge and help make decisions. they’re also both quite sarcastic and very firm in their opinions. 

al and liz are parallels simply because they are both nooras and vildes. they’r eboth autistic, they’re both the odd one out in their friend groups - liz being a lot more serious than the girl squad, al being a lot more in his own little world than the lad squad. they’re both very blunt and straight forward and say whatever they’re thinking.

also just some of my favourite bits of foreshadowing: nick being bitchy to liz throughout season 2 because they’re in love with james….. al talking about his sister to jake in season 3 and whenever al talks to the girl squad, bree insults him or walks away…… in season 4 episode 1, audrey mentions bree’s cousin is pregnant and then when bree finds out the results of her pregnancy test, oh no by marina plays (i’m now becoming my own self fulfilling prophecy)....... nick and all of his gender stuff throughout the series……. just all of the character stuff with grease and rent….. also just bree and rori’s whole relationship arc because it has everything. queerbaiting. subverting expectations. musical homoeroticism. a little cheating for fun. and they were best friends. honestly bree and rori season 3 is very august by taylor swift…… you weren’t mine to lose…….. 

speaking of, no one asked by here’s each season of skambr and the taylor swift albums they’re most like.

season 1 - debut/fearless

bro sandy is just such a debut/fearless era person. she’s looking for her place in this world!!!!!! she has the teardrops on my guitar energy (quite literally sandy pre-canon voice i bet he’s beautiful that boy she talks about and he has everything that i have to live without about bryan and sophie)..... the fun giggly crush songs that are deeply homoerotic….. esther season 1 voice the entirety of you belong with me. like esther really made a deeper connection with sandy in one month that bryan did in years of knowing her. sandy also is the type of person to stan love story, she just thinks it’s such a fun song and she does yell the key change every time it comes on. 

season 2 - speak now/lover

elizabeth!!!!! liz is the type of person who only liked old taylor and then got internalised misogyny and then got over it and loves taylor again. the story of us is canonically a liz/rori song…. yes i am still a liz/rori subtext warrior….. liz is very never grow up and dear john is a very her and james song in the fact that they both relate to it……. when they bonded over their trauma “don’t you think i was too young”...... also lover is a liz season 2 album because it’s about liz learning that love is the most important thing in the world….. liz voice i want to be defined by the things that i love. also the archer is just a skam brighton song because it is an isaac song. also i’m just gonna say it. i like me! it’s a good song when brendon urie isn’t in it, you all are just afraid of having fun. also though liz in season 5 is very better than revenge because, while her season is about unlearning your internalised prejudices, i believe she deserves to be misogynistic for 3 minutes 37 seconds.

season 3 - red

now this is controversial. this season is about depression, grief and anger, and these feelings are red. literally jake voice so you were never a saint and i loved in shades of wrong we learn to live with the pain mosaic broken hearts….. like treacherous….. holy ground….. the whole country pop vibe….. the bitchy songs mocking people’s perceptions of the singer…..  22 is a lad squad song…. also jake voice i remember it all too well but it’s about his father’s abuse and his mother’s neglect…… like the whole season is just jake getting to the point where he is at “begin again”. also i feel like jake would like red because he spent a lot of time watching taylor swift music videos as a youth both because he liked the music and had crushes on the guys in them, and he feels red is the perfect middle between the country and the pop and the indie and he just really likes being sad.

season 4 - reputation

bree big reputation holland!!!!!!!!! she has it all - the romantic drama, the hatred of men, the fucking homoeroticism. bree stans the reputation tour and they have made the entire holland-fletcher family watch it on their netflix (al fucking loved it because he’s a canon swiftie, audrey had a fun time, patrick was a little confused, but has the spirit). listen bree “i did something bad”. bree “look what you made me do”. bree and rori “new year’s day”. bree voice i swear i don’t love the drama, it loves me!!!!!!!!! like the reason the season has a lot of reputation songs and ends with daylight from lover is a metaphor for bree leaving their reputation era…. also reputation has she/they vibes

season 5 - 1989

1989 my best friend 1989!!!!!!! i am coming out here as a 1989 (deluxe) stan. it’s just a serotonin album for me and it is just so nick. the mocking songs about their reputation…… the genuinely deeply depressing homoerotic songs that have fun upbeat music…… the cars….. also clean is just such a nick song. he is in recovery, he is just so personal to me. also nick voice one night he wakes strange look on his face pauses then says you’re my best friend and you knew what it was he is in love!!!!!!! nick canonically in love with all of their best friends braxton!!!!! also nick feels like a 1989 stan because they just have those fun energies. nick WILL scream the spoken part of shake it off at the top of his lungs. also new romantic is just a skamverse song in general. also just. out of the woods. no reason for me to say it other than it’s one of my favourite songs of all time.

season 6 - folklore/evermore

no evermore is not out yet. yes i am claiming it for season 6. see taylor has said that these albums are all about telling stories/fairy tales and that’s what season 6 is about. i cannot wait until next friday when the main and my plans for the hiatus are revealed…….. genuinely i do not know how anyone perceives skam brighton so i don’t know who people think the next main is, but…… i can only describe the state of me writing this season as the various ambiguous disorder gifs.

[grimelords]

My November playlist is complete from Aretha Franklin to Blood Incatation, and I guarantee there’s at least something in here you’ll love. Thanks for listening!

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listen here

Don't Start Now - Dua Lipa: Dua Lipa said disco lives. I absolutely love this song, it’s rock solid disco without being throwback or ironic about it. The way this song starts with the first line of the chorus and then launches into the verse and only gives you the full chorus later feels like that thing movie trailers do now where they give you a little trailer before the trailer for some reason. It’s also something I’ve never heard before, and it gives the song a very fun structure in the intro where it has two different levels of elevation it can drop down to before the bass properly drops in. I think Dua Lipa understands something fundamental about being a pop singer: literally the only thing you have to do is make bangers. She has basically zero personality and was criticised massively around New Rules for having zero stage presence (which she's definitely gotten better at since) but I kind of like it like that - she's just an unknowable blank canvas that's not particularly interested in any kind of narrative, she just makes bangers.

Mirage (Don't Stop) - Jessie Ware: Jessie Ware has been putting out some extremely good singles since her last album and this song is another. It’s the kind of smooth neo-soul that Jungle is pioneering but the way this song is structured is really beautiful; it gives the ‘don’t stop moving’ part a lot of space early on before it really gets to take hold and take over the second half of the song - it gives the whole song this feeling of disco evolution and the song going on and on and changing rather than static pop.

What A Fool Believes - Aretha Franklin: I can’t believe I’ve never heard Aretha’s version of What A Fool Believes before. It’s amazing. It’s the best kind of cover where you just basically do the song exactly the same but better in every single way. Push the tempo slightly, put big brass in it, make the bass hot as hell, sing the hell out of it, add a sax solo obviously. She takes such liberty with the rhythm of the vocals and it gives this whole song this great swooping and diving energy that just uplifts in such a beautiful way.

Walking Into Sunshine (Larry Levan 12” Mix) - Central Line: Something I love about this song is the crowd noise that breaks in with a ‘woo’ near the beginning. It’s such a strange little detail that instantly injects so much life and love into the track. It positions it at a party rather than a studio from the outset and somehow that mindset carries through the whole rest of the song even though the crowd noise only lasts a couple of seconds until they reconvene right at the very end.

Freedom - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: There was a time in the history of rap music where some kind of government mandate demanded that every song go for at least 7 minutes, so you ended up with great songs like this where they spend a good couple minutes in the middle killing time by going through everyone’s star sign and then asking the crowd their star sign too. Also they appear to have recorded their own kazoos on the track over the kazoos in the sample, which is a lesson in good production everyone take.

Freedom Funk It Up Freedom - Freedom: I was looking up where the sample on that Grandmaster Flash song Freedom was from and it turns out it’s from this band called Freedom. Easy enough. This isn’t the song Freedom samples though, this is Freedom’s other song Freedom Funk It Up Freedom. It’s fucking hot and contains maybe the livest crowd I’ve ever heard, they are just going absolutely nuts the whole time and it only helps the energy of the song which is already off the charts.

Set Guitars To Kill (Live) - And So I Watch You From Afar: For the 10th anniversary of their debut album, And So I Watch You From Afar just played the whole thing front ot back and put it out as a live album, and it’s amazing. They’re an instrumental band that’s always emphasised the rock part of post-rock, in the same space as bands like 65daysofstatic and Russian Circles but not so self-serious about it, just big honking rock and roll tunes with a surprising depth and complexity to them that never get bogged down in ambient buildups or the other space-making trappings of post-rock. Their debut album has always been my favourite of theirs because it felt the most ‘live’ and wasn’t as cleanly produced as their subsequent releases (which are still very good), and so this live version feels sort of like a definitive version for me, like this is how it was always meant to sound but they didn’t have enough fans to do the ‘woo!’ part properly yet, which is one of the most purely joyful moments in music.

Bullet The Blue Sky (Live) - U2: I saw U2 this week for the second time in my life and guess what: they’re still great. Even though they’re old as fuck and Bono is getting stranger and stranger they’ve still got it. They have a very good bit of stage design going with this current tour where for a big chunk of it they’re out on a little platform in the middle of everyone with no screens or fancy lights and it’s one of the most effective ways I’ve seen of making an arena show feel like an actual intimate experience. I was a million miles away and Bono looked like an ant more than usual but the energy still came across. Then, when they do the Joshua Tree Start To Finish part of the show they have big visuals for every song but it’s still pretty light on actual cameras on the band, which I think works really well - a sort of best of both worlds where you get the arena show but the actual band performance. This song was a highlight for me, and they’ve somehow managed to make it even more ferocious now than ever before. It got extremely noisy, far noisier than you’d ever expect from U2 at least and really amped up the swirling energy that I’ve always loved about this song. People accuse U2's politics of being too wide ranging, and it's well founded they're the prototypical 'heal the world' rock stars - even in this song and the way they've repurposed its messages to fit various political causes over the years they've tried to dilute it, but this feels to me like a song that you can't wash the meaning out of no matter how hard you try. It's one of the best and most direct criticisms of American evil put to song, and it's an arena song that doesn't particularly have an arena melody to it. Especially in the Joshua Tree/Rattle And Hum era, U2 have always been captivated by the American mythos but have never been able to completely ingratiate themselves as an American Rock Band because they're not and I think that point of difference in identity has them uniquely positioned to criticise the American mythos as well. They can have it both ways because they can't fully have it, so in this song the circle of American violence is complete in the women and children who run from the American fighter planes into the arms of America as refugees. Bono's actually mad, which is a nice change of pace from love healing the world.

Gingerly - Enemies: I love this Enemies album so much. A sweet spot between post-rock and midwest emo math guitar, and listening to it now this song really stood out in a way it hasn’t before. It turns up at a good spot in the album just as you might be getting tired of the twinkly clean guitars that characterise the rest of it and burns a hole in the speaker with that distorted bass and siren guitar sound.

You Look Certain (I’m Not So Sure) - WXAXRXP Session - Mount Kimbie: I think every band should get the chance to re-record their album a year or two after they’ve put it out, once they’ve had a chance to really sit with the songs for a while and figure out exactly how they work because this version is just so much better than the album version (which was already great!). The guitar sound is so much bigger, properly leaning into the post-punk idea they were only exploring on the album, and the vocals are so much stronger and more up front which makes it feel so much more like a full song than an experiment. This whole Warp Session EP is fantastic and I’ve been listening to it on repeat, it’s so great that they’ve morphed from this insular electronic duo into a proper band over the years and I'm excited to see where they'll take it next.

Peace To All Freaks - of Montreal: The new of Montreal single is great. Embracing an 80s dance vibe and immediately turning his back on it in the opening lines and not going out because he needs to educate himself instead. I love this song, an unironic and non-cheesy rallying against negativity which is a lot harder to do with earnesty than they make it sound here.

Taipei - Social Climbers: Thankyou to my friend and yours agrifuture for this recommendation. Social Climbers played an odd and paranoid version of art rock in the early 80s that on this song at least sounds more like modern opera trying to fit itself to a rock band than anything else. I can also say with confidence this is the only song I’ve ever heard where someone sends a quiche back in the middle of it.

Mad Eyed Screamer - The Creatures: I’ve never gotten much into Siouxie And The Bashees, they're probably somewhere on my list of bands to have a deep three week long obsession with somewhere in the future, but for now my biggest exposure to them is the time The Weeknd sampled them. I am, however, deeply interested in this drums and vocals only side project that Siouxie Sioux formed with her then-partner Budgie. I’m a big fan of any kind of restricted composition like this and I love this song. It’s so busy and the amount of reverb and extra percussion going on makes for this extremely chaotic, noisy vision of what is essentially a folk song in its lyric and melody.

Black Magic - Jarvis Cocker: I found out that the main guitar part in this song is sampled from Crimson & Clover by Tommy James and The Shondells. Which is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, a rock song like this built around a sample. Not exactly sampling in order to recontextualise across genres or approaches but sampling to recontextualise in a lateral, parallel approach. I love this song because his delivery is so feverish and impassioned it really does feel like he’s seen beyond the veil and come back without the language or capacity to explain what he saw, only the passion.

Year In Pictures - Dick Diver: Every year since this album came out it's shown up somewhere in my Spotify most listened list at the end of the year. It's surprising because I don't think of it as one of my all time favourites when it definitely is, it's such an easy listen that it just comes and goes pleasantly. This song is kind of about that feeling I guess, of things just happening and time just passing pleasantly enough year on year, everthing in its own time while the past disappears and doesn't matter anymore. "Whatever happens, I think everything will"

Heart - Bertie Blackman: I love the percussion in this song, the same propulsive clapping-centred beat that makes Single Ladies so good with the dark grinding bass underneath it that just pulses malevolently until the gearshift of the chorus where it morphs immediately into this 60s soul version of itself, with the ooh la la backing vocals and everthing, and that disonnance between the two styles drives the song for me. Where the verse lays out the evil plainly and the music matches, the chorus accentuates it in wide eyed irony "I know there's something sick with what I've been sold" sung with a smile and showgirl backing vocals.

Love Lockdown - Kanye West: Something I think we’re all learning as Kanye loses his mind completely on the world stage is that Kanye has always been insane. He has always had an unnervingly powerful self-belief and unwavering vision that has up until recently been what made him such a unique and era-defining artist. After the radical directions of MBDTF and Yeezus it’s sort of hard to remember just how radical 808s And Heartbreaks was at the time because unlike the self aware harshness and strangeness of the other two it was also so pop adjacent, because of its 80s synthpop influence but also because of the way it (and T-Pain) impacted all other pop music of the time. The instrumentation on this song is still so staggering, even just the pitched kick at the centre I could listen to on loop forever I think.

It Might Be Time - Tame Impala: Absolutely cannot wait for the new Tame Impala if this and Patience are any indication. The absolutely huge blown out drums on this are so good and remind me of something I’ve been trying to place for weeks and can’t. Maybe a Chemical Brothers song or some kind of big beat era thing. I think of Kevin Parker and Adam Granduciel from The War On Drugs as the same kind of guys, absolute craftsmen studio nerds that are completely obsessed with sound but unlike most other guys of that genre are actually great songwriters as well. Long haired studio hermits that emerge every few years to bless us all.

Never Again - Kelly Clarkson: I’ve been trying to decide whether this or Since U Been Gone is a better song and I’ve settled on this having the superior verses and Since U Been Gone the better chorus. The absolute venom in the lyrics is incredible. “I hope the ring you gave to her turns her finger green.  I hope when you’re in bed with her you think of me” is like.. the most metal opening I’ve ever heard. She literally sings “You’ll die together, but alone” in the second verse, jesus christ.

Giant Swan - The Blood Brothers: I found out recently from reading the wiki article on screamo (which like almost all wiki articles about music genres is about 60% artists claiming that genres are fake and critics coining new genre names half in jest) that The Blood Brothers were apparently part of a screamo subgenre called Sass, which is a term I have never heard before in my life and certainly never heard in the heyday of the style. You learn something every day I suppose. “It originated as an opposing style of hardcore punk to the machismo in heavy hardcore scenes. It takes influence from genres such as post-punk, new wave, disco, electronic, dance-punk, emoviolence, grindcore, metalcore and heavy hardcore. The genre is characterized by often incorporating overtly flamboyant mannerisms, erotic lyrics featuring sexual tension, and a lisping vocal style. The genre is also noted for its "spastic edge", blast beats, chaotic guitars, danceable beats and the use of synthesizers.” My understanding is that when emo went mainstream and the split between ‘emo’ as a music and ‘scene’ as a fashion occurred, this is the music that emerged from the middle ground. Turning against the masculinity of their screamo forebears and toward the queer aesthetics of scene, the resulting style was still furious and violent but furious with a light cabaret (but like, if cabaret was good and not just a guy in a top hat emoting, a different style of emo that Panic! At The Disco famously pioneered) and violent in a psychedelic, surreal way that set it apart from the depressed and black aesthetics of the rest of emo. I love The Blood Brothers and have never found another band like them in terms of lyrical inventiveness and sheer vocal insanity, the characteristic shrill falsetto that sporadically turns to screams is an amazing choice that’s incredible it works at all. This song especially stands out as unique even amongst the chaos of their discography. The loping lounge feel in the first half, coupled with the properly surreal description of the giant swan in the lyrics establishes such an strange and dark cabaret mood that makes this song so oddly singular to me.

The Ripper - The Used: I really appreciate the production on this whole album, it is so overdone and hyperactive that it creates this irrepressible momentum because something is always happening. The songs themselves are incredibly compressed in structure and extremely hook heavy, and it feels like to counteract and complement that approach they‘ve been gone over bar by bar finding every possible spot to add interest. Dynamics shifting, drums filtering and then revealing themselves, choirs appearing from this air for two lines. Guitar squeals fly in and out in the background and the bass suddenly becomes extremely chunky in parts. The whole mix gets sucked down a black hole and then a little glockenspiel outlines the vocal melody in the background for a second leading back into a huge chorus. Everything happen in this short song. It’s an interesting approach that can be overwhelming, but it has undeniable results.

Ilana - Mdou Moctar: Mdou Moctar rocks because he takes a big power chord riff like the one at the start of this song that could just as easily start a Thin Lizzy song and then immediately discards it and twists a melting solo that crosses time and space for the rest of the song instead.

Ancestral Recall (feat. Saul Williams) - Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah: The press release for this album says: “In its inception, Ancestral Recall was built as a map to de-colonialize sound; to challenge previously held misconceptions about some cultures of music; to codify a new folkloric tradition and begin the work of creating a national set of rhythms; rhythms rooted in the synergy between West African, First Nation, African Diaspora/Caribbean rhythms and their marriage to rhythmic templates found in trap music, alt-rock, and other modern forms. It is time we created a sound that dispels singular narratives of entire peoples and looks to finally represent the wealth of narratives found throughout the American experience. One that shows that all forms of expression in sound are valid, as all people are." All that and a bit of spoken word at the start that sounds like Hannibal Buress’ Morpheus Walruses rap and I’m sold. I’m such a fan of jazz like this that purposefully opens itself up to the influence of the modern world and modern tradition, and the percussion work across this album in particular is so unique and really does what he set out to do in my opinion, bringing the rhythms of tradition into a modern context seamlessly.

Spider Hole - Billy Woods & Kenny Segal: I only found out about Billy Woods this month and I’m surprised I’ve never heard of him before because he feels like the middle of the venn diagram between Earl Sweatshirt, Aesop Rock and Death Grips. This flat out sounds like a Death Grips song played at half speed. The justified paranoia and anger that runs through this whole album is palpable and jumbled, centring around a feeling of lashing out in a moment of hopelessness because you don’t know what else you can do. "4 million USD hovering over some mud huts, it's nuts, it's not the heat it's the dust" is one of the most evocative lines of the year for me.

El Toro Combo Meal (feat. Mavi) - Earl Sweatshirt: When this new earl EP came out I listened to it 4 times in a row because it is just so compulsively brilliant. He’s refining his style more and more with every release and he’s honed it to this fine point now where every song is so super dense in its lyrical content and production that a full length release would almost be too much. There’s just so much to absorb here. Mavi’s verse is incredible too. I’ve never heard of him before but I’m a big supporter now. The beats too, through this whole EP are the kind that sound like a radio stuck between stations - looping snatches of vocals and drums drowned out in tape hiss where the beat is only a suggestion that Mavi and Earl both glide over on some sort of metric modulation and only land every now and then just to take off again.

Drug Dealer - Slowthai: Slowthai is so full of fire on this song it's scary. Facing a dead end future down and screaming that something's gotta change, and that he's the one to do it.

Lighthouse (feat. Rico Nasty, Slowthai and ICECOLDBISHOP) - Take A Daytrip: I have never heard of Take A Daytrip before this song but doing some research it turns out I have heard them, because they produced Panini by Lil Nas X. I have also never heard of ICECOLDBISHOP before but the way he brings an absolutely deranged verse on this song has made me an instant fan. I love this trio of features: three out there, huge personality voices at the outer limits of mainstream rap that in their oddness complement each other perfectly.

Rich Girl - Michie One & Louchie Lou: Something I learned this month was that Rich Girl by Gwen Stefani isn't a direct rip of If I Were A Rich Man from Fiddler On The Roof, it actually samples this song which acts as a sort of bridge between the two, and I think there's something interesting in the transfer of intention between the three songs, lyrically and musically. In the original his conception of a rich man is someone who can afford to have lots of ducks and geese, eat well and have enough time to pray because he doesn't have to work, then in the Michie One & Louchie Lou version rich is being able to feed your family and start a school (as well as play the horses and never lose), and in the Gwen Stefani version rich is having a house in Hollywood and London, clearing out designer stores, and buying four Harajuku girls and naming them Love, Angel, Music and Baby. It spirals up mercilessly from geese to, I guess, human trafficking. Musically there's a transformation as well, where the jewishness of the 'daidle daidle deedle daidle dumb' in the orginal is changed to a 'na na na na na' in this version and only a part of the original melodic lilt remains, a part that is completely ironed out in the Gwen Stefani version's 'na na na na na's. The downsides of wealth morph too, in the original it's simply not a part of God's plan, in this version it can't buy love, is the root of all evil (is a  worldwide thing / rich is getting richer while the poor are getting stink) and only leads to more trouble (you reap but you never did sow / rich today you could be poor tomorrow / mind your back and watch your enemies grow) but in the Gwen Stefani version being rich is amazing on its own and the only thing that can top it is your love.

Santa Teresa - EOB: Tricked into enjoying ambient side projects once again. Ed O'Brien from Radiohead's new side project came up on my Discover Weekly without me realising it was him and I absolutely loved it. It’s expansive and cinematic and nice in a way that feels rare in ambient experimental stuff like this, to not be morose or depressing and gloomy for its own sake. It’s sharp and angular, or as sharp and angular as a song as slow moving as this can be and reminds me in part of HEALTH’s Max Payne 3 soundtrack, and Emma Ruth Rundle’s Electric Guitar One which are both masterpieces on their own.

Rough Sleeper - Burial: Reading Mark Fisher’s Ghosts Of My Life I was pleasantly surprised to see his Burial interview in there that I remember reading years and years ago before I knew who Mark Fisher was. I’ve thought of parts of that article here and there ever since and finally placing it in the wider context of Mark’s work was very satisfying, it’s funny how people come back to you in different forms over your lifetime. I don’t listen to Burial much now, or at least not as much as I used to at the height of my depression a few years ago where he was on near constant repeat and as a result his music became completely waterlogged with the feeling of that time and I couldn’t listen to him at all for a while without the memories completely marring any appreciation. But time passes as it does and it’s a nice feeling to finally be able to listen to Untrue again and not have it be so permanently soaked with memories of the worst time of my life, and now with a different mindset and viewpoint I can really see different sides of his music. Where before all I could hear was the bleak and empty future haunted by the ghosts of the past, now new colours appear - a warmth of hazy, pleasant memory and imagination. Reds and oranges creep into the black and grey and this song can feel like staying under covers while it storms outside instead of standing in the rain.

Night MXCMPV1 P74 - Venetian Snares & Daniel Lanois: I really don’t think I’ll ever hear another album like this in my life. The push and pull of the humanity of Lanois’ pedal steel and the digital nightmare of Venetian Snares percussion is just so engaging, and the moments where they overlap and move together in harmony contrast so beautifully with the times they feel like they’re playing two different songs altogether. Then they overlap, the effects overpower the steel guitar and it moves into a leaping angular digital realm and the percussion coalesces into an altogether human rush, or as human as Venetian Snares can be.

Were You There When They Crucified My Lord - Marisa Anderson: I can't find the quote but somewhere when she was doing interviews about this album Traditional And Public Domain songs, Marisa Anderson said part of the reason she likes traditional songs so much is because when she was coming up and playing in cafes around town she mistakenly thought she'd have to pay royalties if she did covers of popular songs, so she only did public domain songs instead.

Were You There When They Crucified My Lord - Johnny Cash: Another side of Were You There When They Crucified My Lord, one that expands magically into an amazing many-layered harmony led by June’s high and lonesome howl.

See That My Grave's Kept Clean - Blind Lemon Jefferson: Jefferson was buried at Wortham Negro Cemetery in 1929. His grave was unmarked until 1967, when a Texas historical marker was erected in the general area of his plot; however, the precise location of the grave is still unknown. By 1996, the cemetery and marker were in poor condition, and a new granite headstone was erected in 1997. The inscription reads: "Lord, it's one kind favour I'll ask of you, see that my grave is kept clean." In 2007, the cemetery's name was changed to Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery, and his gravesite is kept clean by a cemetery committee in Wortham.

The Giza Power Plant - Blood Incantation: What I find so appealing about Blood Incantation is how dedicated they are. Zealots to the cult of being long haired death metal guys who wholeheartedly and sincerely believe in interdimensional aliens and the pyramids being the remnants of an ancient advanced technology. The dedication extends to them being maybe some of the best players in the genre I’ve ever heard, and them recording this whole album analog live in studio is such a feat of performance that adds another layer of intensity to this already extremely intense music.

listen here

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2010s: 65 - 61

65. Michael Schulte - “You let me walk alone” Germany 2018

[2018 Review Here] (shared with Eugent)

When Germany revealed this homely carrot top  as their entrant I of course IMMEDIATELY rolled my eyes at it. Discount Ed Sheeran, GTFO!! Idk what the general lowdown on Ed Sheeran is, but good lord that man is responsible for some really BORING and GENERIC music (I will never get the obsession with “Perfect”, ever.) and as you can expect that also bled into my initial opinon of Michael.

However, two things. A of all, “You let me walk alone” is a much better song because it is actually VERY catchy, in a good way. ONE love / TWO hearts /  THREE kids / LOVING mum is among the more memorable hooks in this decade. 

Secondly, Michael’s emotion is *real*. This is a song about his coping with his dead father and well... I am not made from stone. Dude was in GENUINE TEARS during the endgame!! And as someone who deeply loves his father, I can definitely empathize with that message on a personal level.

There are better songs around. There are better performers around. There is better emotional pull left in this ranking. Regardless, Michael was able to stun me into teary-eyed silence and that is a feat which earns nothing less than RESPECT.

________________________________________________________________

64. Softengine - “Something better” Finland 2014

FANTASTIC INDIE ANGELS <333 The appreciation I have to Softengine I have is obvious, yes? Highly energetic indie rock song from one of my favourite Eurovision countries. 😍 That also did VERY well because it’s genuinely that good. Take THAT Finland bullies!!! #HeyaSuomi

However, Softengine offer even more than just a kickass rock song. They offer some of my favourite song lyrics ever? They are both puzzlingly weird and endearingly ESL Even Human Bound People Rolling Dice Such A Novel Life She Thought While Knowing Nothing At All~

What on earth is Topi singing about? 😍 Well actually, it’s the story of an old man looking back at the life he’s had and.. It actually has a LOT of emotional pull wtf? Take a look at the bridge: 

ALL THESE WORDS SHE MEANT TO SAY TO ME

ALL THESE WORDS AGAINST MY FAITH

ALL THESE WORDS BEFORE SHE PASSED AWAY

ALL THESE WORDS  WILL NEVER NEVER NEVER CHANGE

A wonderful display of juvenile energy that has me coming back craving for me. SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOP 10 but lol it’s Finland when is Finland not getting bullied by people with no taste. 😭

________________________________________________________________

63. Litesound - “We are the heroes” Belarus 2012

More rock angels. 😍 However, Litesound rank on the other end of the quality spectrum, being great because of their incompetence.  

Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything more endearing when the inept give it their all, completely oblivious to their amateurism, a description which -let’s be honest- is “Belarus in Eurovision” is in a nutshell 😍. Well that plus the hilariously rigged NF, remember that ALYONA LANSKAYA originally won Litesound’s NF and then had to bequeath her spot to them when her voting fraud was exposed. 😍 It’s not even the most hilariously rigged NF of the decade though, omg YES we shall discuss that whenever it’s “Samo shampioni’s” turn. 😈

Anyway, Litesound bring the a double whammy of hilarity with some A+ Bad English diction (let us all sing along)

WONEVER STEN INDO AR WEH WHEEL MEK IT FRU DE DEH CUZ WE AR DA WEINERS WE AR DA GEEROS

WIR BRACKING DOWN DA WALLZ GODDA HIT DE MALL CUZ WE ARE DA GEEROS WE ARE DA DRIMURS

and the fact that all Litesound members look like animals, introducing:

The seahorse

The afghan greyhound

the mongoose

and of course Dima who might be the lovechild of Alsou and an ostrich. 😍

All of this may make you believe I merely stan Litesound on an ironic level, but I actually LOVE them on an unironic level too. “We are the heroes” is a fun, futuristic electronic rock rollercoaster and Litesound strike a perfect balance between good song, disarming incompetence and going ALL OUT in proving themselves as high quality, laced with high voltage addictive rock beats. SO, NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY, NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO, I’LL MAKE IT ALL RIGHT! I’M BRACKING DOWN THE WALLS, THEY ARE THE *HEROES*

________________________________________________________________

62. Justs - “Heartbeat” Latvia 2016

AGE OF AMINATA <3 what a glorious two-piece act in the herstory of Latvia. To Latvia’s credit they completely reinvented themselves in the Supernova Era, usually resulting in bold entries (and Carousel). 

If "Love injected” was the earthquake that shook Latvia AWAKE with her experimental masterpieces, then "Heartbeat” is the aftershock, providing the same avant garde novelty, but not as impactful with a lesser impact. 

However, to recycle a phrase i’ve already used multiple times, a lesser Aminata is still fucking awesome. “Heartbeat” packs a massive emotional punch, being more aggressive and volatile than its predecessor, which... works out fine actually. Killer lines such as:

YOU’RE MY DESIRE AND MY PAIN BUT ALL THE BATTLES ARE IN VAIN YOU MEAN MORE THAN ANYTHING TO  MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

need an emotionally intense delivery and Justs fucking GOES for it without any inhibitions for his own health and safety 

and with every passing second

he gets more into the zone

right until the end, when he LOSES his voice and is reduced to panting an aspirated ”thank you”. 😍 If you’re going to sing about lost love, you’d better do it by also SCREAMING YOUR LUNGS OUT <3

________________________________________________________________

61. Hatari - “Hatrið mun sigra” Iceland 2019

God I’ve been dreading this write-up. Not because of the Hatari stans (lol who is going to complain about getting ranked 61st out of 408), but can I do Hatari justice in print? Hatari weren’t as much as an entry as they were the fiery spirit of mischief, an existential manifestation of defiance, a gestalt of provocative resistance, all contained in the tiny package of two asshole hellraisers.  Yes, assholes.  You see, the one thing you NEED to understand before everything else is that Hatari’s poetic palestine shawl moment is one of grade A assholery. Pulling that at the last sec towards their hosts WAS a dick move and Hatari were fully aware of it. We MUST see this as a fact before we discuss anything else that is also Hatari-related.

However, that’s precisely the point? Provocation was the sensation that swept the icelandic nation and its idolization became Hatari’s vocation with dedication and its application in the humiliation and the vexation of the Israeli station in support of the Palestine civilization, leaving KAN in devastation after months of the rabid disorganization was a justification well worth the potential probation. In other words: GET REKT KAN SHIT HOSTS HOPE U GET BLACKLISTED LOLOL #Hatredwon 😈 😈. 

ps: still getting the Israelis to cheer for them despite being OPENLY pro-palestine when will ur faves.

~My reasons~ for ranking Hatari lower post-show are less grounded in the politics (again, they were jerks but... that’s also the entire point of sending Hatari lmfao) and more determined by the actual live performance: I thought Klemens was underwhelming and his parts of “Hatrið mun sigra” were also the fave bits. 😭 On the flipside I thought Matthias was excellent (when he didn’t miss his cue) and I legit laugh out loud each time I see his hilarious OTT facial expressions.

What a justified use of guyliner <3 The act was yet again a diabolically brilliant clanging of chains, bashing of mallets, grinding of gears, steaming of punk, a satanic cirque du soleil come to rain justice and brimstone down on our hopeless souls. Hatari were the anti-heroes we needed and don’t deserve.

ps: i hope i will ever find someone who loves me as much as Klemens loves Teresa May. 

Iceland’s chart looks much better than I thought it would, but the averages actually put them somewhere in the middle on average. Iceland are always hit-or-miss for me, much moreso in the 2010s than in any other decade and it’s largely down to them failing to pick the best available option because, you know, BadTastitis. 

the next update... will be the FINAL one in this shade of green :o  Yes, we are about to move on to the highest, upperest, bestest tier of Eurovision entries. The mind-blowingly amazing entries that are not off this fucking world. Find out who makes the cut and who doesn’t TOMORROW :o

[tkmedia]

An ode to Rafael, Man Utd’s Fergie era embodied

Every now and again, a player comes along who, while not necessarily the most talented in the squad, just seems to get the club. For Manchester United, at least for a few years, that player was Rafael da Silva.The Brazilian’s appeal was different to that of a cult hero. A cult hero would make you laugh, whereas Rafael would leave you with a beaming smile. He was in the team on merit yet played as if his spot in the United side was a privilege at almost every waking moment. No wonder so many fans cherished his presence. Signed alongside his twin brother Fabio, Rafael made his debut in 2008 on the same day as another player signed from Brazil as a youngster, Rodrigo Possebon. There’s a case for saying the game in question, a Premier League opener against Newcastle United, represented a high-point for long-term positivity in the Alex Ferguson era. The reigning European champions also handed a first Premier League start to Fraizer Campbell, who came close to scoring against the Magpies. It looked as though the long-term future of the club was in safe hands. However, while Campbell and Possebon left Old Trafford without hitting 10 appearances for United, Rafael was there for the long haul. He first played for the club in pre-season against Peterborough United, later telling ESPN: “It didn’t matter that it was a friendly. I knew then that I could play for the first team.” That first season saw him play 27 times across four competitions, scoring his first United goal – and arguably his best ever for the club – in a league defeat at Arsenal. Gaël Clichy’s exasperated reaction upon seeing the ball flash past him speaks to all of us: how dare United have a teenager this good able to step right into the side when they’ve already just won the Champions League? From the get-go, Rafael seemed to understand the gravity of playing for United without being overawed by the situation. After watching countless players come through the academy and develop into international stars and trophy winners, by the time Rafael showed up there was no doubt about his ability to do the same. United youngsters had no ceiling in 2008, yet there was still a difference between those who seemed destined to make it and those who looked more likely to move aside. The sense of players “just getting it” might have been overstated, but that doesn’t mean you can’t tell when a player will fit better into one club more than perhaps any other, and not just for tactical reasons. Even his lower moments, like his infamous red card against Chelsea in 2013, came when he was seen to be doing everything he could for his team. And ultimately, if you visibly give your all when things are going relatively well, you’ll buy yourself more time when that is no longer the case. Obviously, it helps that bit more when you can be presented as fundamentally Not The Villain. United’s dominance under Ferguson was season after season of what rivals saw as futile attempts to put a presentable face on evil, and what United supporters viewed as successful attempts to that end. As long as you convince yourself he’s on the side of good, you view all his actions through that prism.

READ: Seven reasons why Rafael da Silva will always be loved by Man Utd fans Rafael’s decline at United can be traced almost directly to the retirement of the man he said early on “always speaks well and is always very supportive of ”. He played more times in Ferguson’s final season than in any other, but the arrival of David Moyes and then Louis van Gaal would see him lose his berth as a guaranteed starter. When your team is winning and attacking at will, it’s much easier to find room for the kind of right-back who can scurry up and down the field for 90 minutes, nipping at the heels of those around him and trusting himself to always get back in position after the latest cross or shot. When you’re less adventurous or have more to lose, though? That calls for an Antonio Valencia type. “With Sir Alex Ferguson he always tells you to attack,” Rafael told Stretty News in 2019. “Of course, we had games when he’d tell me to be careful and not get too forward. But he would never say, ‘In this game we’re going to defend.'” The same wasn’t exactly true after May 2013. Rafael played in half of United’s league games under Moyes and just 10 under Van Gaal, failing to add to his five career goals for the club. Sometimes giving your all isn’t enough if there isn’t anyone who believes in you enough to deliver the right kind of positive reinforcement. My favourite picture from today (and possibly ever): Rafael wearing a tshirt with him and Fergie on it. "Thank You" pic.twitter.com/ttsJgR8jJv — Conor Wilson (@ConorWilson) May 12, 2013 Not that the fans ever gave up on him. Rob Smyth noted in 2016 that Rafael was one of a handful in his generation to visibly want to play for the club, recalling how he “single-handedly defended United’s honour against City and Liverpool by picking fights with Carlos Tevez, Lucas, Martin Skrtel and others”. For a fanbase that grew up watching the likes of Eric Cantona and Roy Keane, a willingness to fight for the cause – be it mentally or physically – was always key to the point that it would be enough to earn you goodwill regardless of whether things were going well around you. If you were losing, you were fighting to regain your honour, whereas if you were winning you were fighting to cement it. If you played regularly for any United team of that era, people knew you had quality – that came with the territory. What mattered was what happened when that quality wasn’t shining through, and this is why Rafael was able to leave his mark more than almost anyone who has followed. His decline makes things that bit easier for the support. Nostalgia for the good old days under Ferguson isn’t about to go away so it makes sense to latch on to a player whose peaks and troughs can be slotted either side of that thick felt-tip line marked ‘Fergie’s retirement’. It ensures you can forever have the imperfect version, allowing you to praise the positives without ever reaching a point where unironed kinks become a frustration to which you need to lend much weight. It may be the case that the 2012-13 season would have acted as his pinnacle with or without the manager’s exit, but when your team sees its dominance come to an end there’s nothing wrong with romanticising a potential you never got to witness. By Tom Victor More Manchester United ‘He did the most audacious piece of skill’ – Ronaldo’s early days at Man Utd Can you name every South American to score for Man Utd in the Prem? Robin van Persie: Would I have joined Man Utd if I knew Fergie was retiring? Gary Neville: If someone said Scholes would be a footballer I’d say ‘How?’ Read the full article

[sailor-freak]

Ranking Girls in the Park (GWSN) ‘BAZOOKA!’ Stage Outfits

So I’m like a year late but I’m new to GWSN and I’m obsessed with everything about Bazooka era (the song, THE STAGE OUTFITS) so I had to 😂. So hey any GWSN fans out there enjoy this 😂. There’s also 50 odd separate ones so this might be LONG so have fun in there 😂. I’m also procrastinating doing (G)I-DLE HWAA stage outfit ranking cos I tried to do it but the post fucked up and it was long so now I can’t be bothered to do it again 😭.

57. Lena - 200429 (MBC Show Champion) / 200515 (KBS Music Bank)

This is blasphemous I’m sorry she looks like a homeless drama teacher 😂.

56. Miya - 200502 (MBC Show! Music Core)

I feel so bad cos Miya is my bias but A LOT of hers are going to be near the bottom... we just don’t have the same taste in clothes I’m sorry I appreciate people dressing androgynous but I wouldn’t wear it myself 😂. And even if I was more androgynous idk what’s going on with that top I’m sorry 😂.

55. Miya - 200429 (MBC Show Champion) / 200515 (KBS Music Bank)

Oh my poor Miya what have they done to you 😭. K baggy t-shirt I’ll accept but what’s with the bloody tufty jacket forced on the side nah ah not for me hun 😂.

54. Miya - 200505 (SBS The Show) / 200523 (MBC Show! Music Core)

She looks like a binman 😂. SHE BLENDS IN WITH THE WALL 😂. I stg they gave up trying to think of something that fits her style that actually looked good 😂.

53. Miya - 200510 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200522 (KBS Music Bank)

Yeah it still looks shit but black is a step up 😂.

52. Lena - 200501 (KBS Music Bank) / 200506 (MBC Show! Music Core)

A lot of Lena’s are also lower down, idk what it is but they just gave her clothes that didn’t fit 😂. This ones looks a little Shakespearean (why have I referenced Shakespeare twice today) but caught in a tornado 😂.

51. Lena - 200509 (MBC Show! Music Core) / 200524 (SBS Inkigayo)

She looks like a Barbie doll but like when you put the dress on a different doll and it doesn’t look right 😂. Light pink is NOT a colour I like as well 😂.

50. Miya - 200509 (MBC Show! Music Core) / 200524 (SBS Inkigayo)

NO PINK THANK YOU it looks like a big pink shirt on top of jim jams 😂. But she gets a bonus point for looking so damn adorable 😂.

49. Miya - 200501 (KBS Music Bank) / 200506 (MBC Show! Music Core)

LOL I’M SO SORRY I KEEP PUTTING YOU AT THE BOTTOM MIYA but this looks so chavvy I am not here for it 😂. Miya’s too sweet to be a chav if you keep dressing her like this she’s gonna get hoop earrings and a cockney accent 😂.

48. Lena - 200428 (Showcase) / 200503 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200513 (MBC Show Champion)

It just looks a bit like an unironed pillowcase with a belt on 😂.

47. Seoryoung - 200428 (Showcase) / 200503 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200513 (MBC Show Champion)

OMG FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE honestly Seoryoung has a lot of my favourite outfits but this is not one of them WHAT IS IT 😂.

46. Anne - 200503 (SBS Inkigayo)

Another thing that is not my style at all is sportswear but when you’re not doing sports like what is the point 😂.

45. Lena - 200508 (KBS Music Bank) / 200512 (SBS The Show) / 200521 (Mnet M Countdown)

I think I like what this could be more than what it actually is 😂. It’s just so ill fitting it doesn’t look right 😂.

44. Anne - 200501 (KBS Music Bank) / 200506 (MBC Show! Music Core)

SPORTSWEAR.

43. Seokyoung - 200501 (KBS Music Bank) / 200506 (MBC Show! Music Core)

At first looks it’s quite nice, but then you notice the crap that’s all over her top 😂. I get it would be boring without it but I’d rather it be dull than a mess 😂. Luckily it’s all white so it can be missed 😂.

42. Anne - 200509 (MBC Show! Music Core) / 200524 (SBS Inkigayo)

I guess the overall concept isn’t too bad? The trousers are nice but NOT the colour 😂. And the top I would forgive if it had matching sleeves, like why is one side sleeveless and one side has a slight sleeve like just pick one or go all the way with the mismatch 😂.

41. Lena - 200510 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200522 (KBS Music Bank)

Like Lena’s last one I like the idea of it more than what it actually is, a shirt and tie with a skirt IS a nice idea, but why is the shirt that big? 😂.

40. Seoryoung - 200501 (KBS Music Bank) / 200506 (MBC Show! Music Core)

It’s actually quite nice... but she has a little more than a chip on her shoulder 😂. Okay that was bad I’m sorry let’s leave that there and forget it ever happened 😂.

39. Seokyoung - 200509 (MBC Show! Music Core) / 200524 (SBS Inkigayo)

I can forgive the colour since it’s not as bright but a crop top jumper just doesn’t look right 😂. Oo that rhymed 😂.

38. Seoryoung - 200509 (MBC Show! Music Core) / 200524 (SBS Inkigayo)

I mean it’s not bad at all, just pink and white are a little too wholesome colours for me 😂. OMG THEY LOOK LIKE MARSHMALLOWS 😂.

37. Lena - 200505 (SBS The Show) / 200523 (MBC Show! Music Core)

I like the two belts (I’m wearing two beltssss 😂) but idk I think it could be better idk how but it could 😂.

36. Miya - 200430 (Mnet M Countdown) / 200517 (SBS Inkigayo)

Not completely my style but I don’t think there’s anything glaringly wrong with it 😂.

35. Miya - 200428 (Showcase) / 200503 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200513 (MBC Show Champion)

Idk why I prefer this to the other one cos the trousers are HORRIFIC but I think the white looks slightly better than the blue 😂.

34. Anne - 200428 (Showcase) / 200513 (MBC Show Champion)

This is kind of linked with number 46 but I like the top more here 😂.

33. Seokyoung - 200505 (SBS The Show) / 200523 (MBC Show! Music Core)

I think this is really cute conceptually but the skirt’s a little too high and too big for me 😂.

32. Minju - 200430 (Mnet M Countdown) / 200517 (SBS Inkigayo)

OH HEY MINJU YOU FINALLY SHOWED UP Minju had some very good outfits this era, this one’s just kinda dull and a little too summery and bright for me 😂.

31. Anne - 200505 (SBS The Show) / 200523 (MBC Show! Music Core)

Idk why I kinda like this one, the cropped jumper is just WHY but the rest kinda looks cool 😂.

30. Minju - 200509 (MBC Show! Music Core) / 200524 (SBS Inkigayo)

Apart from the colour this is pretty nice! Like the jacket and the skirt 😂.

29. Lena - 200430 (Mnet M Countdown) / 200517 (SBS Inkigayo)

I feel like I should love this cos I love jumpers and skirts combos but something holds it back for me 😂. Maybe it’s the giant shoelace 😂.

28. Lena - 200502 (MBC Show! Music Core)

Don’t ask me why I like this I just think it looks cool? 😂.

27. Minju - 200501 (KBS Music Bank) / 200506 (MBC Show! Music Core)

I do kinda like this, maybe material wise it could be better but it’s cute 😂.

26. Seokyoung - 200430 (Mnet M Countdown) / 200517 (SBS Inkigayo)

Another one of those ones where I think it’s cute and idk why 😂.

25. Anne - 200502 (MBC Show! Music Core)

It’s kinda bland and the shorts material is odd but I actually kinda like it 😂. It is simple, maybe if it had a little more it’d be better 😂.

24. Seoryoung - 200430 (Mnet M Countdown) / 200517 (SBS Inkigayo)

K the sleeves have NO business being that big, I really don’t like that, but I actually really like this? The skirt is amazing and if the sleeves were different the top would be really nice 😂.

23. Anne - 200510 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200522 (KBS Music Bank)

Simple but nice 😂. Maybe just a little too simple 😂.

22. Seoryoung - 200505 (SBS The Show) / 200523 (MBC Show! Music Core)

The skirt’s a little weird but I do really like this, maybe without the red sticking out the bottom of the skirt I’d like it more 😂.

21. Minju - 200502 (MBC Show! Music Core)

Some things I can’t explain it just looks cool 😂.

20. Seoryoung - 200508 (KBS Music Bank) / 200512 (SBS The Show) / 200521 (Mnet M Countdown)

It’s pretty much just a cooler version of the last one 😂. I also really like the white detail on the sleeve it’s like a tattoo 😂.

19. Seokyoung - 200428 (Showcase) / 200503 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200513 (MBC Show Champion)

It kinda looks like a disco outfit I love it 😂.

18. Seokyoung - 200429 (MBC Show Champion) / 200515 (KBS Music Bank)

Idk why I love it it’s cute and dark why not 😂.

17. Anne - 200430 (Mnet M Countdown) / 200517 (SBS Inkigayo)

Am I the only person still in love with graffiti print 😂. The top could be a better colour but I like the combo of neon and punkier graffiti print 😂.

16. Seokyoung - 200502 (MBC Show! Music Core)

Idk why??? I just think it’s super cute 😂.

15. Minju - 200503 (SBS Inkigayo)

I really like the skirt, but this is just kind of a variant of the next one 😂.

14. Minju - 200428 (Showcase) / 200513 (MBC Show Champion)

The top just has a cooler design here 😂. But always love a skull print 😂.

13. Minju - 200429 (MBC Show Champion) / 200515 (KBS Music Bank)

It’s kinda simple but it has that edgy look I love 😂.

12. Seokyoung - 200508 (KBS Music Bank) / 200512 (SBS The Show) / 200521 (Mnet M Countdown)

I just really love the skirt, leather, zips and green plaid? 😍😂.

11. Anne - 200429 (MBC Show Champion)

It’s a little bit dance teacher but I really love it 😂. I love the tall boots especially 😂.

10. Anne - 200515 (KBS Music Bank)

I just think it looks better with shorts 😂.

09 - Miya - 200508 (KBS Music Bank) / 200512 (SBS The Show) / 200521 (Mnet M Countdown)

Moment for how cute she looks 😂. But I actually really like this! I’ll forgive the t-shirt print cos I just love the black top with the shiny leathery trousers which aren’t Ross Geller style 😂. I think it might actually look cool with a couple of zips on the front of the trousers on the legs? But that’s just me 😂. I love how Miya shows up and I’m talking for ages 😂.

08. Seokyoung - 200510 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200522 (KBS Music Bank)

Something about the skirt and the jewelly top looks SO cool 😍.

07. Anne - 200508 (KBS Music Bank) / 200512 (SBS The Show) / 200521 (Mnet M Countdown)

I just love the trousers with the green plaid and the chain, the top is simple but it doesn’t need to be crazy 😂.

06. Minju - 200505 (SBS The Show) / 200523 (MBC Show! Music Core)

It’s the skirt man it’s the skirt 😍. I do like the vest, I prefer it done up but this photo showed the whole thing more clearly 😂.

05. Minju - 200510 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200522 (KBS Music Bank)

I feel like the jacket would put me off but I oddly love it? 😂.

04. Minju - 200508 (KBS Music Bank) / 200512 (SBS The Show) / 200521 (Mnet M Countdown)

The shorts are just so cool 😍. I also love the shirt, but the shorts are what really stand to me here 😂.

03. Seoryoung - 200510 (SBS Inkigayo) / 200522 (KBS Music Bank)

Ohh the top, the skirt, the little additions, I love it ALL 😍.

02. Seoryoung - 200502 (MBC Show! Music Core)

I honestly love this so much, idk what it is about the colour and shape of the dress, and then the white top underneath it makes it look even cooler?? That almost never happens 😂. I feel like this could be number 1, if it wasn’t for...

01. Seoryoung - 200429 (MBC Show Champion) / 200515 (KBS Music Bank)

DRACULA DRESS. Let me say it again. DRACULA. DRESS. It’s actually less my style shape wise, but... DRACULA DRESS. Cradle of Filth actually started playing as I was typing this and fitting I guess? 😂.

And that’s it 😂. May I repeat DRACULA DRESS iconic but if you made it all the way to the end hi thank you! 😂. Bazooka era had some absolute hits and absolute misses but I really love this era 😍. HOPEFULLY GWSN will have a comeback at some point before I die like come on 😭. Then again I got into them a few days ago and their last comeback was less than a year ago, I got into LABOUM last summer and their last comeback is still back in 2019 😭.

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who: The Hiatusbreaker Update

In other fandoms, people have always talked about how their favourite show has been ruined by something. I never thought I’d see myself at the eye of the storm until The Timeless Children. I’ve let a lot of other things go up to that point, but this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The main reason why I wanted to make this update was to address my thoughts on the Series 12 finale, share some post-review reflections on previous episodes and talk about how I intend to deal with this series going forward. This post also coincides with a special watchalong of The Timeless Children (not part of Doctor Who: Lockdown) as part of the Doctor Who Day celebrations for 2020.

At the moment, I don’t have any Doctor Who-related things planned between Revolution of the Daleks and Series 13. I wrote a post back in May talking about some of the Doctor Who-related things released during lockdown, but I don’t have anything else at the moment. I have considered reviewing some old episodes in a special series, but I don’t know if there would be any point in it. I have been covering my personal project in the Kisekae Insights series, which is heavily influenced from Doctor Who (and tokusatsu), so feel free to check it out.

Going back to The Timeless Children

I usually write my reviews without having read other reviews in order to minimise bias. As such, there have been cases where I’ve had to address things I’ve missed in the review of the next episode, mostly because I’ve read other reviews addressing them. After mulling over my thoughts for the past 6-7 months, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to write a follow-up about the Series 12 finale, and here it is.

One thing I would like to reiterate from my review of that episode is how Chibnall managed to diversify and whitewash the Doctor at the same time. If we’re supposed to believe, from the Master’s words, that the Doctor is the Timeless Child, then it means two things; the Doctor has been diversified thanks to Ruth and the Timeless Child’s incarnations, while the Timeless Child was whitewashed thanks to the previous known incarnations of the Doctor, who were all played by white actors. The only thing left is for the series to confirm the connection between the Doctor, Ruth and the Timeless Child, which is basically the only reason why I’m still watching this series at this point. Even if Chibnall decides to reverse the heavy retcons caused by the episode (which I think is highly unlikely), I’m still not going to forgive him for this.

That being said, I feel that the Timeless Child arc can go either one of two ways, given the information we already have. A good outcome would be to say that Ruth is the Timeless Child and the Doctor is merely a clone of her, which is why they have the same body, but not the same memories of each other, except maybe a link (which was how the Doctor managed to use the Timeless Child’s memories to get out of the Matrix). The bad outcome, which is what I think we’re heading for, is that the Doctor is the Timeless Child and that her previously known incarnations came after Ruth. This is just a quick and simple breakdown I thought up; the arc could go in a different way that we weren’t expecting, which could potentially be better or worse than what we’ve seen already.

Why did I pinpoint Ruth as the “final” incarnation of the Timeless Child, so to speak? I think that the older Brendan getting his memories removed in the visions of Ireland in the Matrix is actually Ruth after she was turned in to the Division. Ruth wanted to leave the Division and they were willing to grant her wish, but they had to capture her first so they could remove her memories, which is how Fugitive of the Judoon happened. As such, the “Morbius Doctors” could be placed between the Timeless Child’s incarnations and Ruth, if we’re playing by their logic.

There was something else that I missed from that episode. Some reviewers stated that when Tecteun was experimenting on the Timeless Child in order to uncover the secret of regeneration, she was essentially killing them multiple times, which is more horrifying given the fact that they are a child and the incarnations shown are played by children. I can understand why these reviewers would think that, given that the regeneration of a Time Lord means the death of an incarnation and the birth of a new one, but honestly, the thought never crossed my mind when I first watched the episode. It didn’t have any bearing on my opinions when I wrote the review and even if it did, they wouldn’t change much.

I honestly can’t believe how the episode tried to pull an Ultraman Orb and have the Doctor essentially telling herself that she isn’t limited by who she was after giving us a 45-minute canon-breaking exposition dump. It’s almost like Chibnall thought we would forget about this arc because it either didn’t matter or because there were more pressing things happening at the time, but luckily for him, a lot of people managed to see through that. In pretty much every Ultraman series since Orb in 2016, there’s always an arc that shows the main character having an identity crisis, then gaining a new power after overcoming it.

Putting that into perspective, Doctor Who has previously explored the Doctor’s dark side and other aspects that he either forgot or never thought he had in the first place. At the same time, it has also explored how the Doctor serves as a hero, a healer, or just a doctor. The “forgotten past” thing was already explored previously with the War Doctor; the Timeless Child arc only served to give the Doctor excessive mystery and elevate the Doctor to an even godlier status beyond the Time Lords, who were already godly enough as they were.

And let’s not forget how this arc irreparably broke canon in a way nobody else would have dared to do. I don’t understand how some people felt this was groundbreaking when it only served to complicate the story even more. Anyone who unironically thinks this probably doesn’t care as much about canon integrity than I do. Kamen Rider Zi-O has been criticised by fans for breaking canon integrity, but I don’t have much of a problem with it since everything was returned to normal in the end (or at least it had to). Producer Shinichiro Shirakura is another source of ire for fans in regards to canon integrity (among other things), but I digress. I’ve compared Chibnall to Shirakura before, but if I had a choice, I’d probably pick the latter over the former.

It goes without saying that the Timeless Child arc would have been less problematic if it were done earlier, say in place of the Steven Moffat era. The Moffat era cemented the twelve regeneration limit and established that the Eleventh Doctor was the final incarnation in the Doctor’s first regeneration cycle; before Series 7, the Timeless Child arc as it is would have fit perfectly well with or without the regeneration cycle question.

Moffat era hindsight aside, it also goes without saying that that arc would have been less problematic if the Timeless Child wasn’t the Doctor. As I said in that episode, they could have been some unknown kid that Tecteun and the Time Lords were exploiting for their powers of regeneration. From there, we could still explore the Timeless Child’s origin and confirm their link to the Doctor by saying that the Doctor (as we know him) was actually a clone of the Timeless Child (like I theorised for the arc’s good outcome).

Some people believe that the arc would have been better if the Master was actually the Timeless Child, but personally, I don’t think it would work that way. The Master’s past is just as complicated as the Doctor’s and let’s not forget that there is still the question of Ruth’s existence to be answered. Like I said, I would rather have the Timeless Child be an entirely original character altogether instead of shoehorning it into an established character’s history, particularly in a show with 57 years of history behind it. I wouldn’t even wish this arc on my worst enemy, to be honest.

With or without this arc, I think that destroying Gallifrey for a second time, after it was anticlimactically restored in Hell Bent, is just unnecessary. That episode aside, how has nobody managed to think up of a story arc for the Valeyard in the years since the revival of the series? We’ve gone past the window for the Valeyard’s creation and all we got out of it was some allusions in the Moffat era.

Remember that we only have the Master’s words and redacted Matrix information as evidence for the Doctor being the Timeless Child; we still don’t have any solid proof on how that came to be. We don’t even fully know how Ruth fits in to all this. I look forward to seeing a resolution to this in Series 13.

Loose thoughts on previous episodes

Continuing with the pattern from the above segment, I’m going to give some post-review follow-ups for some important things in the rest of Series 12 and some episodes in Series 11.

Racism - Looking back at Rosa, I compared the instances of racism shown in that episode to some examples of left-wing racism I’ve heard from right-wing YouTubers and I’ve noticed that the left aren’t as blatant about it or they dress it up so that it doesn’t look like they’re being racist. In contrast, according to the left, right-wing racism seems more obvious even when disguised (particularly in the past when discrimination was accepted as a way of life), though I guess it only seems that way because news spreads fast in mainstream media and social media, sometimes putting comments out of context.

Jack Robertson - Remember that Donald Trump expy from Arachnids in the UK? I’m honestly wondering if Doctor Who unintentionally predicted Joe Biden while trying to satirise Trump because it was mentioned in that episode that Robertson was only running for president in 2020 because he hated Trump for decades. That being said, I still think it’s unlikely that Robertson would have run as a Republican presidential candidate. Also, I can’t believe I missed the opportunity to use “Yaz’s Mum” as a running gag in the review for that episode given how it was used in the episode itself.

LGBT representation - In the review for Resolution, I mentioned that Richard (the security guard at MDZ) being gay doesn’t feel shoehorned compared to Frankie in Arachnids in the UK. I’ll own up to missing the mark on that one because I’m straight and I didn’t realise that Richard being killed 25 seconds after his debut made him just as shoehorned as Frankie (who was also killed in the episode). In contrast, LGBT characters who weren’t as shoehorned in Series 11 were Angstrom in The Ghost Monument (whose wife was killed by the Stenza, onore Tim Shaw) and James I in The Witchhunters (based in historical belief). I still think that they did it better in Praxeus with Jake and Adam. Also, let’s not forget that LGBT representation has been a thing in Doctor Who since the 90′s, with the debut of Jack Harkness in 2005 and the retconnings of past companions’ sexual orientations (like saying “oh, they were gay all along” which I’m a bit iffy on).

The Master - Since O’s debut in the series premiere, I’ve been struggling to fit that incarnation into the rest of the Master’s timeline. This was because in the Series 10 finale, Harold Saxon’s incarnation killed Missy with the full blast from his laser screwdriver, preventing her from regenerating.

Later on, two works were released that essentially confirm O as Missy’s future incarnation. In the Big Finish audio story The Lumiat, Missy used an Elysian field to break herself down and rebuild herself, giving her a new regeneration cycle in the process. The resulting incarnation called herself the Lumiat and had an adventure with a past Missy, only to be shot by her and left on another planet to regenerate.

In the 2021 edition of the Doctor Who Annual, there is a short story detailing a conversation between the Thirteenth Doctor and O. O briefly reminisces about being Missy and how she spent too long in the Doctor’s company. Therefore, we can confirm that O’s incarnation comes after Missy instead of between Saxon and Missy as some people thought.

With this, my theory that Saxon didn’t give Missy the full blast has been debunked, but my theory that the Master wouldn’t want to rob his future selves of chances to spite the Doctor still stands, even if it was unintentionally caused by the Master turning good for a while. I guess the Master’s ability to escape from predicaments is remarkable, yet unquestionable.

Police brutality - At the end of my review on Orphan 55, I expressed my disgust on climate protesters complaining about police brutality because the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have suffered more police brutality since 2014. After hearing about the police brutality in the various protests that have risen up this year, particularly in regards to the coronavirus and Black Lives Matter, my stance regarding the police has changed and I’m an ACAB person now. I’ll talk more about it in my end-of-year review post.

Chameleon Arch - In Fugitive of the Judoon, Lee Clayton served as Ruth’s “husband”, or protector, while she was hiding from the Time Lords on Earth. If Lee isn’t human, then what is he and how did he manage to disguise as a human? I had thought that Lee was not a Gallifreyan, but his interaction with Gat seemed to imply that he was. But if he was able to disguise himself as a human like Ruth while still being aware of her true nature, then it is possible that Lee also used a Chameleon Arch, just not on the full setting that would transform a Time Lord into a human and give them new memories. In the comic The Forgotten, the Eighth Doctor recalled to Chantir how he convinced the Master that he was half-human through the use of a broken Chameleon Arch, so it is possible that a fully working Chameleon Arch would also be able to do something like that. This is assuming that “bio-shield” is another name for said tool.

“I’m still quite socially awkward” - Yes, this is about that bit at the end of Can You Hear Me? when the Doctor was apparently being dismissive of Graham’s concern about his cancer coming back. I still stand by what I said about the Doctor being socially awkward, but I’ve softened my stance recently and I now believe that the Doctor’s reaction could have been a little different. It could have gone something like this: “I should say a reassuring thing now, shouldn’t I? I’m still quite socially awkward, but I just want you to know that you’ve got me, Ryan and Yaz in the TARDIS, and we’ll be there for you if anything happens, just as you have been there for us.”

I must give credit to this episode for helping me to open up about some of the (girl) friends I’ve lost during my years in high school and to reach out to an old fan of mine who was there when I started my English dub rants. In regards to the former, I’ve recently decided to fully open up about the one crush I had during high school and the storylines I made in my personal project with characters based around me and her. You can find it in Parts 15 and 16 of Kisekae Insights, but be warned - to put it simply, it’s pretty cringe and all over the place. If you decide to read it, then prepare to have your expectations subverted.

Regarding DWexit

Doctor Who Series 13 is currently in production and is projected to premiere in late-2021, with eight episodes instead of ten or eleven (if we’re counting festive specials). In the Series 12 epilogue, I mentioned that there may come a time where I feel that it is time for me to move on from the series, since it hasn’t been as good as it was before, the gaps between series just seem to be getting longer and longer with fewer episodes being made each series and the premiere schedule for each series hasn’t been regular for some time now.

While the main reason for these delays and episode cuts this time around is due to new regulations and protocols implemented as a result of the coronavirus, I think there could be another factor behind it, which is that the executive producers, Chris Chibnall and Matt Strevens, might not want to stress out the production team or themselves because they are inexperienced or because they know how stressful producing 13 episodes and a Christmas special can be (not counting spinoffs). I’ve been as grateful as I can be for being able to have new episodes to watch, but given everything that’s happened, I’m starting to recognise that even my gratefulness has its limits.

To be honest, I’ve never really had that much of a problem with the SJW stuff, which is why I may seem a bit lenient on that front, but I am wary of the criticisms that certain people have made in that regard. The bigger problem for me, in fact, is the possibility of the BBC pandering to China. In 2017, BBC Worldwide signed a deal with Shanghai Media Group for all the existing revival series episodes and spinoffs along with the first right of refusal for all future series up to Series 15 (this means that SMG will always be the first to be offered the rights for the series before the BBC can pass it on if they refuse). I had believed that the series was banned there because science fiction and time travel were its main themes, but I guess that may have just been a rumour.

SJWs somehow being low-key pro-China or whatever aside, there doesn’t seem to be any indication that Doctor Who is beginning to fall in that direction, at least not at this point in time. They’ve mostly stuck to the West in terms of political references, which I’m fine with, but the moment they talk shit about the Hong Kong protesters, that’s going to be a strike in my book.

Speaking of strikes for the series, I only have one for the Timeless Child; the one I gave for casting Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor is one I’m probably going to forgive. I could care less about the Thirteenth Doctor being a woman or an expy of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors given how the Timeless Child arc turned out so far or is going to turn out in Series 13. The prospect of a second female Doctor (straight after the Thirteenth) doesn’t even seem that much of a problem to me despite me initially framing it that way.

As I said, the only reason why I haven’t given up on this series yet is mostly because I want to know how the Timeless Child arc plays out. Aside from that, I’ve been struggling to decide whether I want to give this series up and if so, when, because Doctor Who and tokusatsu are the only things I have left after giving up (following new) anime and video games years ago (along with Koei Tecmo and their fanbase). As for this review series, I’m planning to end it at the end of the Thirteenth Doctor’s run, because my intention was to review Jodie Whittaker’s episodes of Doctor Who. Barring the possibility of a third strike, I’ll probably remain a casual fan of the series after Whittaker leaves. I’m honestly hoping that Chibnall doesn’t give me a reason to give this series up, but regardless of this, I’ll always remember the Ninth to Twelfth Doctors as my golden era for Doctor Who.

Addressing rumours

I’m not one to talk about rumours like this, but when you’ve got a long time to wait before new episodes, there’s only so much you can do with what you have. Also, after watching The Timeless Children, I heard from Nerdrotic (my other alternative to Bowlestrek besides The Oldest Nerd) that the reveal was actually rumoured in November 2019 and that he predicted that the Doctor would be revealed as originally being female.

Given my thoughts on Series 12, I became sceptical at other rumours I’ve heard about Series 13 and considered whether they would end up being the case. I’m going to address a few rumours that I’ve heard and discuss the probability of them coming true. Coincidentally, they come from Noel of The TARDIS Zone YouTube channel, but I’ll link to this article that has used one of his videos.

TARDIS exterior changing - Apparently, due to the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, the exterior of the TARDIS might be changed due to how the police are seen by the public. I would probably like it if the chameleon circuit was fixed; like Evolto, the TARDIS could still keep its current exterior as a preferred form, choose a new exterior as a preferred form or adapt to its surroundings. I wouldn’t really like it if the chameleon circuit was fixed only to have it break again in a different form and use Black Lives Matter as a means of justifying it. Aside from this, if people had a problem with the police box design of the TARDIS, why hasn’t there been any major outcry about it before?

Thirteenth Doctor being bisexual - Honestly, given the Yaz favouritism I’ve seen in the series, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up shipping her with the Doctor. Even then, has the Doctor’s sexuality ever come into question or been a question that needs to be answered? We’ve seen Captain Jack kiss the Ninth Doctor in The Parting of the Ways and in the past, the Doctor has never necessarily cared about his sexuality most of the time (particularly in the Classic Series).

Planet of same-sex couples - Didn’t they already do this in The Tsuranga Conundrum? Oh wait, I might have gotten the wrong idea...

Davros is a puppet for a female Kaled warlord (1:21 in video) - “haha Hitler was whipped lol” - I’m sorry, I just had to make that joke given that the Daleks have been compared to the Nazis. I don’t think that would happen because there’s no evidence that some woman was manipulating Hitler behind the scenes. Plus, there’s the problem of Terry Nation’s estate to get past, because people apparently need permission to use other people’s things. I don’t think they would approve.

Thirteen to apologise for past mistakes (1:36 in video) - I don’t see why this needs to be a thing if it ends up happening. There’s a reason why people say things like “don’t dwell on the past, but learn from your mistakes”. It doesn’t mean going back and correcting them because sometimes, there are things that just can’t be helped.

In April 2020, during the first run of Doctor Who: Lockdown, Paul Cornell released a story named The Shadow in the Mirror which showed the Thirteenth Doctor freeing Daughter of Mine from the mirror (every mirror) that the Tenth Doctor trapped her in at the end of Human Nature/The Family of Blood. As I said in the post about Doctor Who: Lockdown, I wouldn’t have seen the need to free Daughter of Mine, let alone the Family of Blood. Remember why the Doctor gave them their punishments in the first place? What’s stopping Daughter of Mine from freeing the rest of her family so they can go back to seeking immortality again?

I think it was pretty short-sighted of Paul Cornell to write that story, plus it was an excuse for him to use the free pass given by The Timeless Children to make the Thirteenth Doctor a Mary Sue. Also, who’s to say that he probably wrote it on a whim once he heard that they were going to do tweetalongs of those episodes?

Chibnall recasting Second, Third and Fourth Doctors as women (from different video) - The rumour says that Ruth would be the replacement for the Second Doctor. I know Chibnall was being stupid with the Timeless Child arc, but surely he isn’t that stupid, because all this will do is complicate canon even more. Therefore, I don’t think it will end up happening, but I wouldn’t really put it past Chibnall to do it; for the record, if I learned about the Timeless Child rumour last year, I would have had the same reaction as well.

Series 13 to be Chibnall and Whittaker’s final season (different source) - Remember “chaos in Cardiff” back in August last year? The state of Doctor Who nowadays must be pretty bad if these rumours are making people hope that they’ll leave sooner rather than later. Usually, revived series showrunners usually work for two Doctors and Doctors usually do three series (as a tradition started by Patrick Troughton in order to prevent being typecast). Jodie Whittaker leaving after Series 13 would be likely since it will be her third series, but Chris Chibnall leaving with her would be strange to see. Honestly, I’m not bothered about when they’ll leave; I’m just here to enjoy the ride.

Christmas Special things

Signs are pointing to Revolution of the Daleks being a Christmas special, so I’m going to presume that that will be the case. Let’s take a look at a couple of things that I’ve heard in preparation for it.

First of all, I’m glad I waited until this point to post this, because at the time of writing this, I just saw confirmation that John Barrowman will be returning as Captain Jack Harkness. As if we didn’t work it out already when he returned in Fugitive of the Judoon. Frankly, I would have been surprised if he didn’t return, given how he didn’t return for The Timeless Children.

Secondly, it’s been reported that this special will mark the departure of Graham and Ryan, but the prospect of them returning in Series 13 hasn’t been ruled out. Tosin Cole has been cast in the AMC drama 61st Street, but given the impact of the coronavirus in the US, production of the series has been scheduled to begin in 2021 (in this article from August), so it wouldn’t be surprising if Ryan had some cameos in Series 13 alongside Graham as well. Such a shame that not a lot of focus was put on Ryan’s dyspraxia.

Look forward to the review when it comes out after Christmas Day or New Year’s Day (if my predictions are wrong).

UPDATE - 30 November 2020: So the trailer for the special has been released and it’s going to be released on New Year’s Day. I probably should have expected this; either the BBC doesn’t think Christmas is politically correct or they would rather put better shows on Christmas Day. Either way, it’ll be a hiatusbreaker episode, just like this post.

I’ve also learnt that Chris Noth is reprising his role as Jack Robertson, which is something I didn’t expect to see. It’ll be interesting to see whether he ends up being president in this episode, though from the looks of the trailer, I wouldn’t think so. His promotion of the Daleks in the trailer (“These machines are going to change the world!”) harkens back to Winston Churchill in Victory of the Daleks, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that episode ends up getting ripped off.

One thing I forgot to mention - what happened to the remaining humans who came back to the 21st century, namely Ravio, Yedlarmi and Ethan? I hope they make an appearance in the special, because it would be a waste of they weren’t.

Before I finish up, there is one more thing I want to mention: why the hell can’t I get into the Doctor /who/ General forums now? Those guys used to be on 4chan, then they moved to 8chan, then they moved to a separate forum when that got shut down and they didn’t bother to go back when it was revived as 8kun. Since the end of Series 12, you need a password to go in now and I’ve been unable to find out why that is the case.

Anyway, that’s it for the hiatusbreaker update. Stay safe and I’ll see you all again at Christmas time.