#undercuts.... are a no from me....

[ash-and-starlight]

celebrating Her month by updating my mai&sokka bestieism manifesto & introducing their matching undercuts era

[b4kuch1n]

polymer broadcast signal hijack

[sidereon-spaceace]

torn between wanting to make all my ocs Specialest Little Guys and overpowered VS. the fact I just finished watching all three extended editions of Lord of the Rings and am deeply moved by the struggles and worth of the common man

[redactedgender]

morgan kyne looks like & is basically just kravitz from the adventure zone, you can’t change my mind

[pjocharacterdesign]

was musing over babby Will Solace thoughts

[mangokabuto]

Some genderbend sketch before bed <3

(bonus below cut. I got carried away w/ usopp lmao)

OH FUCK I FORGOT NAMI'S TATTOO LMAOOOO IGNORE THAT SORRY..

[yourlocalfairygothparent]

Raiden shaving Kung Lao’s undercut for him <333

[night-triumphantt]

I gave Zaphira a neck tattoo as a brain break

[toastybugguy]

EF Skylar hairstyles !!!

+ pink streak ver. for the girlies 🫶

[tortoisesshells]

if you were in control of a dark shadows adaption (or, hypothetically, could alter the original; whichever you find more interesting to think about!) what does your ideal version of 1795 look like? are there things you would change? things you’d want to keep?

Let me preface this by saying I do genuinely like or appreciate a lot of the 1795 arc! When it's at its best, it's a tragedy born out of hubris and the terrible things we'll do for the people we love (or the terrible things we'll do to hold on to love. or the problem of love without respect). I'm up to episode 741, and the confrontation between Joshua and Barnabas over the latter's coffin is still one of the best scenes in the show, for my money. That said; Broadly speaking, most of my problems with 1795 either have to do with characterization, or with historical context: that DS's unwillingness to delve into historical realities undercuts its ability to talk about monsters, and that it completely mishandles Vicki to the point of functionally ruining the nominal main character (who, to be fair, was already being pushed out).

Historical Context: DS loves the past, conceptually, but it really doesn't deal in historical conditions, and that's on full display in 1795 - witchcraft trials? zippers? claiming a house built in the early 20th century, with the attendant architectural style, was actually built in the years leading up to 1795? okay. I forgive that, because we do live, narratively, in a world with witches and vampires and curses and passenger rail service north of Portland, ME after 1965 - and in a make-believe world where the costumes are as good as a budget of a crisp single and a pb&j can make 'em. I say this mostly lovingly: DS simply is not the kind of show that cares about historical plausibility, let alone accuracy. Plus, Reverend Trask was great, and on the basis of giving Jerry Lacy scenery to chew on, the witchcraft trial plotline is excused.

More seriously and damningly, I do think it's a glaring omission on a show being made and aired in the late 1960s to have three characters said to be from the (fictional) wealthiest family of planters and enslavers on Martinique and have that go unexamined and unpacked, especially when commentary on class in Collinsport has been a constant undercurrent (sometimes more of an under-trickle, or under-vague-breeze) since episode one - and because Joshua Collins is very explicit about how beneficial the connection between the two families will be for the Collinses, who always need cargo for their ships. [Since David Ford's here, you'll forgive the reference to 1776: "Molasses to Rum" playing vaguely in the background] But that's the problem with Post-Barnabas DS. Since there's a Collins running around befanged and literally drinking the blood of others, the show's lost interest in discussing how, exactly, the Collinses became wealthy and powerful, beyond the odd occasional reference to the fishing fleet and cannery or, in 1795, the shipyards. We've got a real vampire, what do we need all that metaphorical monstrosity and class/race/gender analysis for?

As a choice the show's made, I think it fundamentally undercuts one of the show's most reliable and interesting points of commentary: how charming and human some monsters are, or that humanity and monstrosity are not entirely mutually exclusive conditions.

also speaking of monstrosity. the show excuses Barnabas for so much outright evil because he preys on sex workers, primarily, and other assorted poor men and women of Collinsport, who the show ... doesn't really see as people. but that's a separate but not unrelated rant.

Characterization: really, this is about Vicki. So much of what I dislike about 1795 has to do with Vicki's characterization changing for the worse (granted, I think this problem starts much earlier, but see digression a below) once she hits the ground in 1795, AND that the 1795 arc continuously insulates her from the important parts of DS's narrative. If the whole point of Vicki landing in the past was to explain how it all began (whether that's Barnabas's vampirism, or the opening of the great house at Collinwood - Sarah's ghostly goals are unclear here), she's party to neither: Vicki spends very little time in Collinwood, and is kept completely apart from even a hint of knowledge that Barnabas is a vampire. In effect: Vicki, as nominal main character, gets sent into the past, but not as a character - she's just a windowpane, or a magic mirror as far as her importance to the narrative goes. Which is unfortunate for her, because as a character taking up space, she's given screen-time without agency, intelligence, or inner life. The only change that being dragged by her puppet strings through 1795 effects in Vicki Winters is a rope-burn from a failed hanging, an infected gunshot wound, and a I-wish-he-were-more-permanently-dead rebound boyfriend whose response to Vicki panicking about being hanged was to slap her for being hysterical.

Forgive me for being unimpressed.

As far as fixing it goes - there's where I've been striking out. She's fatally passive in 1795 as written. Why doesn't Vicki try to figure out how to get back to her present? (and if she doesn't, perhaps ... gesture at why Vicki might feel like there's not a lot to return to in the present? She nearly jumped from Widows' Hill about 10 episodes before 1795 started.) Why does Vicki persist in making herself suspicious, when she was introduced as a character hampered more by inexperience than true ignorance? In the idea 1795 that lives in my head, why wouldn't Vicki try to figure out who the real witch was, because - given her experiences with the supernatural! - surely a witch might be any help in getting her out of the 18th century and back into the present? End of day, she needs a real plot which doesn't end with her in prison unconnected to the Collinses. Whether that's searching for an escape hatch back to the Swinging Sixties, or Sarah's ghost giving her clear instructions - some kind of a goal! - Vicki either shouldn't exist in 1795 (recycle Moltke as another Collins sibling? that would add a wrinkle to the question of Vicki's antecedents) or she has to be given something to do.

&, finally ...

Digression A: In fairness to the 1795 arc, I think the arc was only following a pattern of characterization and plot involvement that started with Barnabas's arrival: first, that Vicki initially wasn't really involved in the Barnabas plot because she was more involved with the Liz & Jason plot, and, unfortunately for Vicki, everyone still talks about Barnabas, where no one (alas for Patrick and Bennett!) talks up the blackmail thing; second, I think, that the one-two punch of the definitive end of the era of metaphorical monsters & the Burke recast meant that a lot of the dramatic tension that Vicki was carrying either got dismissed or dissipated. We're not playing Jane Eyre any more, we're doing Dracula: Vicki's relationship with Roger and David no longer bears any dramatic weight. We've completely sidelined the question of Vicki's origins, so whether or not Liz is her mother doesn't matter (and the revelation and dismissal of Liz's not-actually-monstrous conduct sort of defangs that relationship, too? oh, Liz isn't actually a murderer? so mother or not, there's no strain on her relationship with the conspicuously virtuous Vicki.). Burke's no longer threatening to burn down Collinsport for revenge, and all of his various relationships with the Collinses or Collinsport denizens have gotten abruptly normalized, so there's no tension to his relationship with Vicki any more: he's rich (don't ask where the money came from), he's in love with her, and now he's chummy with all her friends/stand-in family members. He doesn't even have conversations that are totally just about pens or guns with Roger, for god's sake. The show kicked out all the pillars Victoria Winters as a character had been built on, and it only gets worse after 1795. No wonder Moltke left.

[betelgeusing]

I hate that I even know enough to have an opinion but the most honest and genuine moment in the Barbie movie was when Ken was getting frustrated and accused that one guy of not even knowing how to do patriarchy and the guy said (paraphrased) "oh no we're doing it. We just are really good at keeping it quiet now" and if that wasn't a metaphor for the entire movie... like they can lampshade it and cast Will Ferrell as the chair of the all-male Mattel board haha funny but it doesn't make it not TRUE

Warner Brothers leadership:

Barbie wasn't even written entirely by a woman or women

Over half of Barbie's 15 producers were men

And academy membership:

It was always a patronizing "we'll let the girls have their little movie" that was never a threat to any of the men making millions on it or deciding what men to reward for it or pretending to be chastened when their gfs or wives sat them down to watch it and I hate being down here in the mud even talking about it but it pisses me off that donkeybrained liberals are taking shots at a talented indigenous woman bc their precious "statement" movie isn't collecting as many Oscar noms as they wanted it to, when the number it rightfully deserved is zero

Also if they were really serious about "doing feminism" they wouldn't have fucking campaigned for Ryan Gosling to get a nod to begin with

[jorvikzelda]

….Okay but what if I cut my hair off though

[dimensionalspades]

. He remembered the amount of times he planned these expeditions with his uncle Renzo. Trusted company to care for Portoscuro and its people, squires to run information to and from, routes planned to the site and back, costs for salaries, and more that would've escaped him were it not for Renzo's fastidious journaling.

. And unfortunately, most important, was the matter of protection. Vittorio despised the need for such measures, but he was not so naive to think that he could avoid it. In any case, she seemed trustworthy.

. "Vittorio Toscano," he greeted, a hand extended to her when in range. "Have you ever been to spain before?"

plotted starter for @ofspvrta

[ashintheairlikesnow]

every once in a while, I read some smut. I know, shocking, right? In any case, I recently saw a book rec that had as its basic synopsis "A billionaire keeps a harem of supernatural creatures - an omega wolf shifter, a kelpie, a vampire, an incubus, a siren, a fey, and a 'vessel' (a human that stores magic and you have to... fuck it out of them to use it, I guess?). Brodie is sent undercover as the harem's medic to discover the billionaire's secrets".

This seems promising. Nsfwhump, paranormal funtimes, weird shit galore, count me IN.

And then... the whole book kind of skims over the nsfwhump entirely. Hell, there's barely any actual real whump! It was terribly disappointing and I was honestly so interested. The POV is primarily the Brodie man, but it switches off with Red, the wolf shifter, who considering he has been kept locked up for literal years, has almost no trauma as a result of this? Only two of the creatures even seem to have much at all.

I was kind of deflated by the end because I really wanted more build up to get me to care about the characters, and was interested in seeing their emotional/physical trauma play out as Brodie worked to rescue them. But you don't get to see all that much of it at all, and it feels like the plot breezes past you so fast you're struggling to keep up with how everything happens so quickly.

So now I'm just sitting here like... well damn it, why throw such a promising premise at me and then run away from it as fast as you can?

On the other hand, it inspired me to create a siren OC that I'm working out details of with @redwingedwhump as far as figuring out where I would want to go with the concept. I found "captive siren who isn't allowed to sing" wildly interesting, another concept that is just sort of touched on but it does sound like the siren will get his own book at some point. I just. I want him to feel more pain and if I cannot get pain from this story, I will make up a new OC and give that one the pain instead.

[theshmeepking]

i really like pretending to be his personal stylist drawing hair

[khruschevshoe]

My Complicated Feelings on Angels Take Manhattan/How Amy's Story Should Have Ended

You know I think the reason why Angels Take Manhattan has always felt off to me (other than the logical gaps/statue of liberty Weeping angel/why couldn't eleven just fly to New Jersey in the 1940s and then just bus in) is that all of Amy's arc up literally beginning in Eleventh Hour/Amy's Choice going through God Complex and Dinosaurs In A Spaceship and the Power of Three feels like it's building up to Amy finally choosing her domestic life/growing up over travelling with the Doctor. Like, it feels like it's building up to a "Martha leaves the Doctor" type ending where Amy decides to choose her normal life and growing up over the Doctor, the kind of situation where he will always be her friend but that she has decided to make her life in the here and now. Something that might feel bittersweet, but ultimately satisfying.

But instead Angels Take Manhattan is about the Doctor and Amy/Rory getting ripped apart ala Ten/Rose or Ten&Donna and it just doesn't quite fit right? Like, Amy gets to choose to stay with Rory but it's framed as more of a tragedy from the Doctor's end? And it's still a repeat of the whole "Rory died so I won't live a life without him" dilemma in Amy's Choice rather than "I choose to grow up on my own terms of my own free will." Like, they were attempting the "choosing to grow up" bit with the final afterword by Amelia Williams part of the story but Rory doesn't get to make a choice over anything. He gets no agency. Hell, Amy doesn't get to choose the life she and Rory were building for themselves so carefully in the Power of Three- that gets ripped away from her, too.

I honestly love the storyline that Amy and Rory and Eleven had, buried between all of the Silence plots and the weird way it ended. I liked the idea of growing up and choosing to settle down while still keeping friends with the stars. And I feel like the need to make their ending tragic kind of undercut some of the impact that Amy getting to make her choice to build something of her own and choose that could have had.