#you would understand if you researched voice actors and actresses like i do

[sunkern-plus]

atsuko tanaka, mitsuki saiga, and romi park are like the designated "voice actresses who voice canon trans women but are cis women" for seiyuu

[jonfarreporter]

Little-known “Sidekick” Vivian Vance takes center stage in one-woman play

Not to be confused with a book and a movie by the same title, the one-woman play “Sidekicked” is an unexpected tour de force of actress Vivian Vance of “I Love Lucy” TV show fame.

The Sonoma Arts Live production at the Sonoma Community Center on Sunday, February 12 was well-received by an almost full-house audience, as noted by The Sonoma Valley Sun. Very few people know much of Vance outside of the beloved classic TV show that initially aired from 1951 to 1957.

The 90-minute play was written entirely by imagination. Playwright Kim Powers utilized facts known about Vance who was born in 1909 in a small town in Kansas and died at age 70 in 1979 in Belvedere, (Marin County) California.

After the show, when asked where he got the material for such an intensely personal story, Powers responded saying. “I remember years ago reading about Vivian being in analysis, and immediately got the idea for the play,” he said.

Yet, he admitted. “I Just sat on it for years without doing anything, and then I finally began doing a ton of research that turned into the play.”

Powers had to search extensively. Because, there is no direct memoir from Vance or the psychoanalyst she saw for years while portraying Ethel Mertz, Lucy’s landlady/neighbor, friend and of course, “sidekick.”

While it is known that Vance and actor William Frawley didn’t get along, little else is known about the overall TV show production. The play opens in Vance’s dressing room as she is preparing for the very last episode of the subsequent “Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour” is scheduled to air/be taped in 1960.

Vance speaks to the audience as if her psychoanalyst is in the room and she ponders as to whether or not she should take up the offer to portray Ethel in a spin-off called “Fred & Ethel.”

As Powers noted. “Vivian wrote a memoir, but it never got published. I’ve read that there are copies of the manuscript floating around, but I’ve never been able to track it down,” he added. “And the shrink has never revealed anything about their work together.”

Despite a few moments when it’s not exactly clear what Vance’s show business career history was before “I Love Lucy,” the play does spotlight pivotal moments. It was while she was in a play called “The Voice of The Turtle” that her life unraveled.

As Powers explained. “Out of the all the research, I invented the framing device of her calling the psychoanalyst to this last night of filming the last episode.”

“All the details Vivian reveals within are true — the spinoff, the other pilot she did, her early family life and her relationship with Lucy, and especially the breakdown,” said Powers.

“But, he insisted, I put them in the form of a sort of therapy situation. (It always nagged at me that naturally the shrink would already know most of this from prior sessions, and I didn’t want her to keep saying ‘Remember when I told you about…’ etc. — so…) Vivian really is just talking to the audience — and it still works really well,” said Powers.

The entire monologue is about Vance’s inner-struggle. Her early life, her strained relationship with her disapproving mother, her failed marriages and the nervous breakdown.

Vance had a nervous breakdown apparently caused by her overseas experience on a USO tour in 1944–45. There is no reference to it on Wikipedia. And, exact details are not entirely clear in the play. But as noted in the play and other sources like Television Haven, her breakdown was a turning point.

Each subject in monologue is riveting and the audience at the SCC auditorium that afternoon we’re genuinely interested and impacted by Libby Oberlin’s portrayal of Vance.

“Libby owned the part” said longtime Sonoma resident and realtor Nada Rathbart. “I could relate to the play, even though I wasn’t as familiar with the TV show, because I am originally from Yugoslavia, (Eastern Europe). “Yet, I could understand her strained relationship with her mother and her mother’s lack of understanding and support for what Vivian Vance wanted to do and be.”

“My mother’s generation was from a different time and expectations for women then were very different than what women today can aim for and achieve,” Rathbart said.

And as for references to the impact a nervous breakdown had upon Vance’s life, “I can relate to that too,” said Rathbart. “I’m a survivor of war,” added Rathbart. “So, I can understand that, especially as Vivian was inadvertently exposed to combat and conflict while on tour with the USO in WWII.”

Rathbart experienced directly the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, which then led to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, resulting in the Yugoslav Wars. “It was horrible said Rathbart. And, it’s taken me considerable time and effort to recover.”

Reflecting a bit more Rathbart said. “So, I can understand why Vivian became vulnerable after her USO tour. War and experiencing violence is devastating.”

“Add in the stress of relationships and her ambition to establish a life for herself on her own, takes up a lot of work and energy. I can relate to that very well,” said Rathbart.

This is another element in the play that Powers does reflect upon in his writing. The choices Vance made to live the life she wanted to live. Vance’s choices were unconventional for the time. If women of more than a century ago stepped outside of conventional roles, it was a cause for alarm if not scandal. Especially someone like Vance born in Cherryvale, Kansas. It’s a quiet town of less than 3,000 people. Her strict and very religious mother couldn’t imagine Vance being anything more than a wife and mother.

“It’s always the rejection by a mother or father that causes a lot of pain and frustration for someone eager to live an independent and interesting life on their own,” said Jude Cameron.

Like Rathbart and many other Sonoma residents, Cameron enjoys and takes an interest in the arts; especially locally-like the experience she had helping with Studio 35. Cameron wanted to know more about Vance because as she said. “‘I Love Lucy’ was a show that everyone watched when I was growing up.” And besides, added Cameron, “Vivian came from a small town like I did.”

(Cameron is from a small town in upstate New York and like Vance, Cameron noted that there wasn’t many opportunities there, especially for women who wanted more out of life than marriage and children).

Pleased with the production and the positive response it has received thus far Sonoma Arts Live creative director Jamie Love said. “Far, far beyond what lovers of the ‘I Love Lucy’ TV Show knew I was intrigued and wanted to know more about Vivian beyond the halo of curls and apron.”

“I wanted to find out the real story about this little-known and multifaceted Vivian,” said Love.

Amid the laughs there’s many subtle poignant moments in the play, which Oberlin does well as the audience’s reaction indicated frequently.

“It was really the breakdown that fascinated me, said Powers, and in some ways I wrote the play just to get to that moment of reliving it.”

Even though Powers had difficulties in finding Vance’s alleged memoir, he succeeded in getting to the heart of a determined and talented woman. The play’s culmination is a testament to that fact.

“Vivian is coming to a decision in her own head (about the future) said Powers, and just saying the words aloud.”

Directed by Michael Ross, “Sidekicked” continues at the Sonoma Community Center auditorium until February 19.

For tickets and more information visit the Sonoma Arts Live website.

[anam3ii]

A dream

Hi there,

So..I've been kinda distracted lately and haven't streamed as much as I've been wanting to.Reason being is I recently decided to try to pursue voice acting or voice over. Like many people out there I'm not a huge fan of my voice but I'll be honest; I've been told by people I've come across that they liked my voice. That gave me some hope. Since I love anime and playing games I thought how awesome would it be to be a part of them besides streaming. Also, it's a great way to show my kids that achieving a goal or dream can be done but of course you do have to work at it.

I have no idea what I'm doing but I've been doing some research these past few days and I've learned a lot. I also want to show some people out there that don't think I CAN because they either don't believe I can do it or just because in general they don't believe it's possible because of the competition which I understand, still whatever the reason is..I am NOT going to let that stop me.

When I think of me possibly voicing a character in a game,anime, cartoon or even in a book that people can relate to and makes them happy in some way. It makes me happy to think that I was able to do that. Maybe I'll even be able to tell my story someday.

I wanted to share this because if you're voice actress/actor and have any tips,suggestions or just any advice in general for me. Please reach out. Thank you in advance.

[tokkiheart]

Follow Me Down The Rabbit Hole

Hello everyone, it’s been awhile since I last posted lol This is a new post series that I’m calling “Follow Me Down The Rabbit Hole,” where I find something random and interesting, hyperfixate on learning about it for a bit and then tell you about it.

For this first one, I come now to talk about a media that I discovered which has piqued my interest.

Why? One may ask. Well, purely because it stars one of my biases.

That’s right, it’s Lee Jong-suk!

Because of course it is

So what is this media that I discovered and felt the need to talk about?

Something called Jade Lovers or Jade Sweetheart, and it’s a Korean-Chinese Drama that… probably may never air. Honestly, who even knows?

The only reason that I even found out about this show is because I stumbled across a YouTube video that listed Lee Jong-suk’s dramas and upcoming projects and they slipped this in at the end, making it seem like a new project.

It very clearly isn’t, I could tell that it was an older work. So, naturally, I had to find out more.

After some research and watching the 57 minute long trailer (yup, you heard that right!), I am now burdened with knowledge and feel the need to share it with my 5 followers and anyone else who stumbles upon this lol

So apparently this show is part of a series known as the “Chinese Carat Series” and this show was to be the second installment of the series, with the first installment having been Diamond Lovers which featured Rain. Jade Lovers was apparently in production in early 2016 (January to April) and was supposed to air sometime at the tail end of 2016 and into early 2017 (so December 2016 into January 2017). The show, from what I understand, was completed and ready to be aired. The only problem is that China implemented the Hallyu ban in 2016, so the show wound up being archived.

I actually have no idea if the ban is still ongoing or not? Some of my research implies that it’s still ongoing while other sources, such as an article on MyDramaList, say that the ban was lifted or started to be lifted in early 2017. Either way, in 2017, that was when the 57 minute long trailer for the show ended up being released.

As I mentioned, I watched this whole trailer and even though I had no idea what was being said (I couldn’t find a version with English subtitles), I was kinda interested in the show… even though they dubbed Lee Jong-suk, which hurt my soul, but I do understand why they probably needed to do it. I’ll be honest, if this show had been released when it had been intended to be, it probably would have been my first C-Drama. Whether or not I would have finished watching it is a whole other thing lol I love Lee Jong-suk, but I can’t handle what I call the “auditory uncanny valley” of hearing someone else’s voice instead of his.

Anyway, I have no idea what prevented the show from being released from 2017 to 2020, I couldn’t find any info to explain why. Maybe the Hallyu ban hadn’t fully been lifted and it couldn’t be released or it was just being stored for “the right moment” to air it. Who knows? I’m sure that if they were able to release this show during that space of time, they’re kicking themselves for not having done it because in 2021 the actress who played the female lead in this show had a series of scandals apparently. I’m not here to talk about the scandals, so I’m not going to go into any details other than to say that due to them she was labeled in China as an “actor with poor conduct” and due to this is blacklisted and banned from public appearances and all of the entertainment projects that she had been a part of were forced to cancel. This, of course, unfortunately included Jade Lovers.

I think one of the interesting things about learning about this show is seeing all the rumors that have cropped up over time about how this show might be able to come out. Here are some of the rumors that I came across and a personal rating as to how likely I think they are to actually happen (for funsies).

The Rumors

• a Thai(?) company is looking to purchase the show or the rights to air the show - 7/10 (plausible, but I feel like the original company won’t want to because it’d be at a loss for them…not that they aren’t already losing money because of the actress’s scandal and being unable to release this drama)

• the company that made the show will digitally replace the female actress’s face with another’s and release it - 9/10 (very plausible, this was something that was actually done for another show the actress was in)

• the actress could make a comeback, but not in China, in Korea, but only if helped by Lee Jong-suk - I rate this a 0/10 (I find this one to be completely absurd and extremely unlikely)

Conclusion

Anyway, the general consensus is that this show is never going to air because of the fact that it got cancelled due to the lead female actress’s scandals.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that all that anyone (outside of the people who hold the files for this show) will ever have of this drama is that 57 minute long trailer.

Thank you everyone for coming along down this rabbit hole with me and I will see you all the next time I find some weird thing that catches my interest that’s related to K-Dramas or my biases.

[zhenjun]

white people, your cosplay is yellowface

Content warning: images of yellowface that may be upsetting below

Note: I have made the decision to remove the images of modern-day cosplayers. I stand by my initial choice to include them, as I believe actually seeing images of modern cosplay side by side with “real” yellowface was essential to understanding the point. However, this post has gotten much more attention than I ever anticipated. I had, at the time of making it, fewer than 30 followers.

In addition to harassment from sockpuppet accounts, assertions that my opinion on racism is less important because I am in the diaspora, misinterpretation about what this post was initially about (several people claimed cultural appropriation), threats to report and suspend me, and, apparently, discussion on twitter, for my own mental health, I am taking these images down.

I will no longer be responding to criticism or questions on the post, but I will happily answer DMs or asks on the subject. If you disrespect this or try to start more discourse, you are getting blocked, not because I want to silence your voice, but because I am a real person who can choose not to engage with people for reasons as seemingly unfair as my mental health and not wanting to continue filling my blog with the same post that honestly is upsetting for me to look at (as I already stated within the post).

If you have been blocked by me it is either due to disrespect and/or some form of unrelated drama due to how I like to interact with fandoms (i.e. ships like Ch*ngxian, Xu*xiao), not because I am trying to silence you. As I have so few followers, I am sure you can make your own post and gain even more traction than I did.

If you are white, please stop cosplaying MDZS/TGCF characters. It often looks like/is yellowface, and honestly there’s no way to respectfully do it when these media are based so heavily on Chinese culture. I’ll try to sum up why these fandoms need to be more mindful. You can find links and citations at the bottom that read best on my desktop blog theme.

The goal of yellow face in the past wasn’t always to look “authentically Asian;” white directors, actors, set designers, and playwrights set out to use what pieces of East Asian culture they found most inspiring, fun, cool, violent, or backward. Sometimes, white people had "good" intentions" with their use of yellowface and were not "trying" to demean our cultures, but the practice itself did so regardless.

To summarize, white people of the past did yellowface to erase our identities, take aspects of our culture that they liked, or ridicule us. Most modern-day cosplayers are doing the first two.

Below are examples of early Hollywood yellowface and modern-day theater, as well as modern-day cosplay:

[Previously pictured was a white Xie Lian cosplayer who was very receptive after seeing this post and has since removed these images from their social media. If you happen upon any of their cosplay or other social media, please do not send them any hate.]

As you can see actress Katharine Hepburn in “Dragon Seed”[1][2] is in very traditionally inspired Chinese clothing. The previously pictured Xie Lian cosplayer was in a similar hat and wearing white robes. They both had some sort of eye makeup; Katharine Hepburn darkened her hair for the role while the cosplayer was wearing a dark-brown/black wig.

Of note, the character Katharine Hepburn plays in "Dragon Seed" is supposed to be positive; an adaption from (white) author Pearl S. Buck's novel about a brave Chinese woman who stands up to Japanese imperialism. Like modern day cosplayers of Chinese media, just because the white people creating this film did not intend to be harmful does not change that it was yellowface and racist.

[Previously pictured was a before and after picture of a white Xue Yang cosplayer with blue eyes, brown hair, half of which was dyed blonde in the before image. In the after, they were wearing a long black wig, heavy eye makeup, newly shaped and darkened eyebrows, and robes made to emulate CQL in warm lighting]

Here are before and after pictures of actress Katharine Hepburn in 1944[3] and, previously, was a white Xue Yang cosplayer in 2020. Both had altered their eyes and eyebrows as well as donned black wigs or darkened hair.

[Previously pictured was a Jiang Yanli cosplayer in a black wig and robes meant to emulate the donghua]

Yellowface does not always involve modification to the eyes. In these two images, neither Mary Pickford in Madame Butterfly[4] nor the previously shown modern Jiang Yanli cosplayer have done anything noticeable to shape their eyes. They were, however, both wearing black wigs with traditionally inspired outfits. Jiang Yanli wore a modified version of Tang Dynasty fashion.[5]

[previously pictured was an image of a Wei Wuxian cosplayer with face powdered white and rouge around the eyes. Their eyes were still blue as the Madame Butterfly’s were on the left, and they were wearing a long black wig as well as robes designed to emulate his. This image has been replaced and amended with an additional example of modern theater; the production of The Mikado where one actor is wearing a black wig, the other a Japanese inspired hat, and both are wearing Japanese robes]

The final comparison was an example of a stage actress from the 2015 Fargo-Moorehead Opera production for Madame Butterfly[6] on the left (the earlier movie is an adaptation of the play). [This image was previously erroneously attributed to the Knoxville Opera which faced backlash for their production as they had an all-white cast depicting actors in yellowface in 2019.][7]

Honestly, these images just had a strange similarity to me so that’s why I chose to put these two together. Most importantly, was the similarity in makeup, hair, and East Asian clothing. Though the image is not there any longer, but just google Mo Xuanyu cosplays and ask yourself, if you didn’t know the fandom, would you be able to spot the difference of which one is supposed to be worse?

The new image is just another example of modern yellowface in theater, where the actors do not necessarily wear extensive eye makeup to emulate East Asians but, much like modern cosplayers, nonetheless are trying to look like the Asian characters they play in a Seattle production of The Mikado.[8]

As you can see, it’s pretty sad and disturbing to see how the rise of East Asian media is creating a new modern wave of yellowface. I think white people tend to think that black/brown/yellowface is only about darkening the skin, but that is just not what many depictions of yellowface have been for East and Southeast Asian people.

I know a lot of people recognize this is wrong and I appreciate those of you that do, but if you didn’t recognize the past parallels, please read up on the links below! Researching this was honestly triggering and emotionally taxing and caused a mild breakdown, so if you clown on this post you’re getting blocked.

Despite the post losing effectiveness to an extent from taking down the modern day photos, I suggest a quick google search of cosplays from the series during/after reading this. And if you don't agree with me, feel free to block and don't send more hate to me! I'm not trying to get into fights. I just wanna feel like I have a semi-safe space in the fandom but if this annoys you, it's better to just block me.

HISTORY, Casting White People in Asian Roles Goes Back Centuries[↩︎]︎

Youtube, Dragon Seed (1944) Trailer [↩︎]︎

NBC News, 'Correcting Yellowface': One Woman's Project to Fix Whitewashing[↩︎]︎

IMDB[↩︎]

Stony Brook University, The Influence of Chang-An Culture to Korea and Japan: Cultural Diffusion in the Glorious Age of Tang Dynasty[↩︎]

Howard Sherman, Yellowface Bait-And-Switch With ‘Madama Butterfly’ In Fargo[↩︎]︎

OnStage Blog, Knoxville Opera Forgets It's 2019 and Opts for Yellowface for "Madame Butterfly"[↩︎]︎

Seattle Times, The yellowface of “The Mikado” in your face[↩︎]︎

[atalho-s]

Light Up The Dark

Part 2 | We are accidents waiting to happen

pairing: bartender!tom x famous!reader

warnings: smut +18 miniors dni, swear words?, drinking, let me know if anything else!

words: 5.0 k

a/n: english it’s not my first language, so i’m sorry for any mistake! I don’t have a taglist yet, but if you want to be tagged in the next chapters let me know!! 

PART 2 if you want to read part 1 click here! 

It was already Saturday. The day Y/n took for herself. Writing was extraordinary, but she loved having a day off to take care of herself. She spent the day doing things she enjoyed, whether it was lying in bed watching a movie or trying to cook something.

After the fateful day of writer's block she started writing like crazy, so she didn't feel guilty about taking a day off without thinking about her characters and how they would get out of the challenges she had created for them.

The fateful day. For some reason she kept thinking about that damned Brit with that accent. For a moment she'd been scared that she'd been seen by paparazzi hanging out with the mysterious bartender, or even some picture of him leaving her apartment. But nothing came out in the news on the gossip sites, which made her relieved.

As much as she deserved to have fun once in a while and wasn't doing anything wrong, she still didn't want to bring attention to herself and even less to a guy who wasn't even famous. She was afraid to put anyone who wasn't famous in the media. Fear that one day suddenly, this person might be persecuted because of her.

Anyway, it had just been a crazy night. Nothing much. And she didn't intend to see him again. So she had nothing to worry about.

Sitting down in the kitchen counter with her familiar cup of coffee she got lost in some thoughts. Why hadn't she stopped thinking about him ever since? It had been a great night, but that was all. She didn't even know him well.

Maybe it was because her creative block had been broken after being with him. But obviously it was just a coincidence. She had just felt inspired after a distraction.

She shook his head away from the thoughts and placed the cup in the sink. She took a deep breath and thought about what to do next. But before she could think of anything else her cell phone started ringing on the counter. She was almost jump by the sudden sound, seeing the screen indicating that it was Milla, her agent, who had become one of her best friends.

- Hi Mil! - she said after sliding the screen.

- Good morning baby. - she said on the other end of the line. - Ready for the party?

- Party? What a party? - Y/n asked confused starting to wash the small amount ofdishes she had soiled.

- How you don't know? I thought I sent you the invitation on your email and I even sent you a message!

- Bestie, I haven't seen my email or message for days. I was super focused on the book, my writer's block finally went away.

- Really? I knew that would go away! You were worried for nothing. What did you do to go back to writing? - Milla asked and Y/n smiled a little.

- Well... I just went out to chill out a bit...Nothing much.

- Y/n getting out on weekdays? And even on the days you're writing a book? That's what I call grow. - she said and Y/n rolled her eyes laughing. - I'm even afraid to invite you to parties, because I know when you're writing you hate to go out... But it's good to know that you're getting out of your routine a little...

- Yeah, sometimes it's good to breathe new air. - Y/n replied drying his hands on a towel. - But what party are you talking about?

- A party of none other than Emma Brown. - Y/n snorted. Emma Brown was a great actress who to tell the truth she didn't know much, she only knew her from a couple of her movies, but other than that she didn't know much about her.

But what she did know was that she had some also famous friends of questionable taste. They were those famous people who only knew about money, women, cars and mansions. But she was tipped for a theatrical adaptation of one of her books and she wanted everything to come out perfect. She was very afraid the movie would end up ruining her work.

- Do I really have to go? - She asked in a tearful voice.

- Yes you have! It's going to be a really fancy birthday party for her, all the famous people in the industry are going to be there. You know you have to socialize with these people. Who knows, you can make some important friendships...

- Milla... I don't know... I don't need important friendships. I don't need anyone to stand up or approach others for interest.

- I know you don't need anyone for that... I just meant that you're very isolated, you need to make connections, understand? I know it's hard because you hate all that fame and stuff. But if you want the adaptation of your story to be good, there's no way... Besides, one of the great directors you left me on the list to research will be there too. So it would be really cool to kill two birds with one stone. - Milla said and Y/n sighed. She was right, if she wanted everything to work out she had to at least have a conversation with these people. It would be weird to refuse Emma's invitation to her birthday. It would just show that she was uninterested.

- Okay... You won ok? - She said and Milla gave an excited squeal. - But I won't stay long!

- Okay, okay... Just for you to go is great! Andrew will be there shortly for you to choose a dress. -Andrew was her stylist and she practically jumped every time Y/n had an important event, because it was rare for her to go. Good thing he didn't just have her as a client, because otherwise he'd be bored out of his mind for a long time.

- Okay Mil, thank you... I love you! - She said and Milla said goodbye hanging up the phone.

It was late afternoon when Andrew arrived at her apartment with several suitcases and bags in both hands. He really had brought up thousands of options. But Y/n ended up choosing a slightly shiny black dress that went just above the knee with a V-neck. Something cute, but nothing too fancy.

He did her makeup. Which wasn't too heavy either, as she hated things that were too heavy on her face. Finally she put on a mid-heeled sandal in the same color as the dress and her sparkly earrings. Before Andrew left her apartment satisfied with the result.

It was almost 7:30 pm when a black car that would take her to the party location arrived in front of her building and she got out enter the backseat right after. She was apprehensive. She hated socializing to tell the truth. Large crowds and cameras really made her anxious.

After almost 20 minutes the car stopped in front of what appeared to be a large gate. Several paparazzi showed up and started taking pictures of her car surrounding her or even tapping on the window a little, asking her if she could talk to them. Which she obviously ignored. The driver introduced himself to the doorman and he opened the gate letting the car pass and stop in front of a luxurious mansion.

Some people were coming in and others were standing in front talking. She saw that there were some familiar faces of the media. Actresses, actors, singers, famous people of every imaginable type.

She opened the car door and walked out towards the large entrance. She smiled at a few people, nodding her head as she passed and found herself in a crowd of people as she entered the place. There really were a lot of people, despite the place being even bigger inside. Many with fancy drinks in hand and chatting. A song playing on the background.

She walked deeper into the room and took a quick look around trying to find the birthday girl. After a few minutes she found her near one of the sofas. Y/n walked over and stopped beside her, causing Emma to stop her conversation with two more people and look at her.

- Happy Birthday! - Y/n said in the friendliest way possible and Emma smirked and hugged her lightly afterwards.

- Thank you! Glad you came! - she said, breaking out of the hug after a few seconds.

- Your party is very beautiful, I loved the decoration. - Y/n said looking around. Indeed Emma had decorated the place in a simple way, but at the same time fancy and beautiful.

- Oh thank you... - she said, still smiling. - I'm very happy that you accepted my invitation, we have a lot to talk about since maybe we'll work together, right?

- No problem, obviously I would come... - Y/n said and almost punched herself because she was very fake in saying that. - But we really have to talk!

- Well, I was talking to Jim just now... I can give you his number later... He's a great director and I think it would be great for your adaptation... - Emma said and Y/n thought that she was really interested in that adaptation, because she was even talking to the possible renowned director, which surprised her. She thought Emma was a little more oblivious to her books and even movie stuff. She thought she was one of those famous actresses who expected others to come after her, not being interested in the work itself, but only on the fame and money. - We love your book! I think it has great potential for a grand adaptation.

- Wow, that is good to hear! Thanks a lot! - Y/n said sincerely this time. - I'll love talking to him too...

- Sure! - She looked behind Y/n and motioned to someone from far away. - Hey Jim! You can come here? - She asked speaking loudly for him to hear and Y/n turned around watching the director approaching after saying goodbye to someone. He wasn't much older than she thought, maybe in his early thirties, he wore a small beard that fit his face and short hair, but with curls that jutted out around his head. -That's Y/n... Y/n that's Jim...-Emma said when he got in front of her and Jim held out his hand with a smile.

- Nice to meet Y/n, we finally met... - he said and Y/n shook his hand also smiling.

- Nice to meet you Jim! - She said and Emma sat in one of the armchairs indicating for the two to sit, which they did next.

- Do you two want something to drink? Champagne?- Emma asked and they both accepted as she motioned for someone from far away to bring them.

- Well, I found your book very intriguing Y/n... I can say I haven't slept for a while... - Jim said laughing a little and Y/n smiled. - It's a very well written story, I loved the plots and it has a great resolution. I think I would make a good 2 hour movie with all this material... - he said and Y/n paid attention until something took her a little out of focus. Something not. Somebody.

It was the waiter, and not just any waiter. It was Tom. He came into her vision and she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Maybe it was a mirage or she was mistaking him for someone else. But when he approached she was sure it was him. He came with a tray with drinks in one hand. He was wering a white dress shirt, with black pants. The typical pattern of a fancy party waiter. But he was beautiful. Y/n felt a shiver for a moment and tried to hide it by looking back at Jim who was still talking about his plans for the possible movie.

Maybe Tom didn't even remember her. She was just a one-night stand, he should do that with a lot of girls out there, so it wasn't something new to him. As soon as he arrived, he handed one of the glasses to Emma beside her and Y/n felt her breath quicken a little. She didn't know why she was so nervous. It was just a waiter she had slept with a few days ago.

- Excuse me... - he said and Y/n looked up at him quickly seeing that he was right in front of him. -Here it is miss...-he said looking her in the eyes and then winking at her, wich almost make her shrink in her chair. He held out the tray for her to take one of the glasses and she did, looking away at Jim.

- So, what do you think? - Jim asked taking the glass from the tray and Y/n took a sip of his surprise drink.

- Sorry? - She asked guiltily for having been distracted.

- About us meeting and having a meeting next week? That way I can show you my idea better. - he said and Y/n smiled.

- Of course, that would be great! - she said and Tom walked away not looking in her direction again, which left her disappointed for a second. She would going to love looking into those eyes again.

- Perfect! - Jim replied excitedly and started talking about other things as well as Emma.

They talked for almost an hour, until Emma went to talk to other people and Jim said he was leaving as he had some work in the morning. Y/n sat for a while and finished drinking the last of her champagne and placed it on the table in front of her.

She thought about leaving. She had already done the important interactions for the night. So, she had no reason to stay there. But she kept thinking about the damn waiter. Would it be weird to go talk to him? Maybe just say hi? But she doubted he would want to talk to her. Besides, he was working. She didn't want to get in his way.

Getting up from her chair and straightening her dress, she forced her steps towards the exit, but stopped midway as she saw Tom walking into what appeared to be the kitchen with the tray tucked under his arm. She looked at the exit door and sighed. Okay, if she went to him just to say hi, it wouldn't hurt would it?

Y/n turned and headed in the direction that Tom had gone. She couldn't even believe she was doing it this. She would looked ridiculous in his eyes. But she choose to ignore the little voice of reason again. Passing by a few people, and walking out into a empty hallway, she opening a single door at end. She closed in behind her and turned to see that Tom was on his back piling some boxes in a corner. His muscles in that outfit made her feel tempted somehow, so she swallowed hard. He turned at the sound of the door closing and looked at her with a mixture of confusion and curiosity.

- Looking for something madam? - He asked with a smirk.

- Actually... - Y/n thought of some excuse, maybe it would be better, so it would seem that she was there for something else and not for him. - Yeah... I was looking for the bathroom, I think I take the wrong direction...

- Yeah...Actually, the bathroom is on the other side of the hallway... - he said leaning against the kitchen counter and looking her up and down, making her feel completely vulnerable. After his eyes roamed her legs and bust, they came to her face and he grinned.

- Okay, I'll... - Y/n started saying and turned around taking a few steps. But she stopped midway, closing his eyes, tearing himself apart from the inside out of embarrassment. She turned around again seeing that he was still watching her, now with his arms crossed over his chest, wondering what she would do next. - You remember me don't you? - She asked fearfully.

- Of course I remember darling... - he said, practically intensifying his accent in that nickname that was so perfect in his voice. Y/n took a few steps forward also crossing her arms. - How could I forget the famous writer Y/n?- He raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes with his last sentence.

- It really was an...- She looked at her feet trying to find a word. - Interesting night… - she finally said and he chuckled, making her look up.

- Very interesting indeed... - he said putting his hands in his front pockets, pulling himself away from the counter and heading towards her. Y/n wanted to say goodbye and leave, run away as fast as possible. But she couldn't, every move he did was too tempting, so she just stood there watching him get closer and closer to her. He stopped in front of her and looked into her eyes, smiling slightly.

- What are you doing here? Do you work as a waiter at parties too? - Y/n asked curiously.

- My boss sometimes receives proposals for us to work at these rich parties... - he said with a shrug.

- Oh... Nice... - she said crossing her arms. - Well...Now I really have to go... - she said trying to get away from it one last time.

- Why did you really come here love? -Tom asked tilting his head a little to the side and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

- I told you, I was looking for the bathroom. -Y/n looked at his face trying to be firm, but saw that he still wore that smirk. Why did he have to be so confident like that?

- Oh sure... Just like you also looked for some excuse that day for me to leave, but failed miserably?- he asked making a thoughtful face and she still hadn't decided if she wanted to slap him or kiss him.

- Why did you leave without saying goodbye tho? - She asked ignoring what he had said.

- So that's why you came after me? Are you hurt that I didn't leave you a goodbye kiss? - he said pouting.

- Of course not, I just... I don't know, it would be nice to say that you were leaving and that you wouldn't stay for breakfast... - Y/n said looking to the side, avoiding those brown eyes that intimidated her.

- Darling, I'm not that type guy, sorry...

- What type of guy? - she still avoided looking at him.

- The type who stay for breakfeast. -he said taking a hand from her pocket and taking her chin gently, making her look at him. - But if you want some fun I'm at your disposal. -he said and she bit her lower lip lightly making him deviate his eyes towards her lips. - Do you want darling?- he asked quietly and Y/n seemed to be transfixed by her touch. She was surrendered, she couldn't deny it. Maybe even hypnotized.

- I...- she said with a little shaky voice. - I don't know...

- Yes or no?- he asked looking from her lips to her eyes and she felt her breath getting heavy.

- Yes...- she just spoke as a whisper and he smiled satisfied.

- How about you meet me in 15 minutes in the bathroom of the pool house? - He said and she just shook her head slowly. Tom released her chin and backed away slowly, not taking his eyes off her, and then walked away leaving her alone with her heart racing.

Y/n took a deep breath and tried to place herself in what had just happened. Did she really want this? Her mind could try to hear the voice of reason, but it was drowned out by her body's reaction. She wanted to feel him again.

She walked away quickly, passing several people who were talking loudly or who were already drunk. She looked around and saw the door that led to the back side and sneak there, getting out and feeling the slightly chilly night air, closing the sliding door behind her.

She saw the pool that had some people around it and a little further to the right a door that opened into another closed space. Probably the pool house. She walked over there, trying to hide it so no one would see her, and went inside. She closed the front door slowly and headed towards the bathroom.

The place was dark, with only the lights outside. So she was holding her hand into to some stuff until he found the door. She went in and turned on the light. The bathroom was spacious, with a large sink and a huge mirror in front of it. She closed herself off and looked at herself in the reflection.

That was crazy. She had never done that at parties. Not even when she was drunk. And now she was there, looking forward to what might happen. In fact she knew what was going to happen, just as she knew when she invited him up to her apartment that night. But even so, she felt butterflies in her stomach in anticipation.

After almost 10 minutes of waiting she heard the bathroom door open and she turned in the direction, feeling extremely anxious. Tom came in looking over his shoulder and closed the door soon after, looking at her with an opening grin. He locked the door slowly with one hand and came towards her in a hurry.

The next thing she felt was his lips pressing against hers urgently. He kissed her like it was the last thing he would do. Running her tongue over her lips asking permission and Y/n opened it slowly letting him explore her mouth with his burning tongue.

She ran her hand around the back of his neck pulling his hair and he responded by holding her waist tightly. Tom walked forward and she leaned her back against the sink counter. Making him lift her with agility, sitting her down on the cold surface and getting between her legs. She grunted in surprise against his mouth and he broke the kiss for air. Kissing from her neck to her collarbone and she closed her eyes feeling his touch.

- Tom... - she said in a low voice. - You won't get in trouble if you disappear like that? -he now kissed her neckline and squeezed her thigh with desire.

- Not if we're fast darling. -He spoke a bit husky, moving his kisses to her earlobe, biting lightly and she moaned low. - And despite loving your sounds, you will have to be silent. - He looked at her smiling maliciously. - Promise? -He spoke touching her nose with his lightly, looking at her closely, and she nodded making him attack her lips next.

Still kissing her he pulled the hem of her dress up a little and she bit his lip making him smile against the kiss. Her fingers reached her inner thigh and then moved up to her panties. Tom put the fabric aside with one of her fingers and passed one slowly at her entrance feeling her wetness.

- Always ready for me aren't you darling? -He said pulling his mouth away from hers, staying just a few centimeters away from her. She moaned softly again and he smiled as he pulled her fingers away and replaced them around her thighs pulling her closer to the edge of the sink.  He started to finger her really slowly and she bite her lips, trying to control her moaning. Tom keep his pace just watching her face squirm with pleasure. After seconds he removed his delicious fingers making her almost protest out loud, makind him smile even more. If wasn't for the rush he would definitively make his time with you.

Y/n then put his hands on the collar of his shirt and opened the first buttons. Kissing his neck with desire, making him squeeze her thighs in response. Biting her lips he unfastened his belt and then the buttons of his pants pulled them down along with his boxers, revealing his cock. He pulled her in for one more kiss before taking the condom package from his pocket and opening it, meanwhile Y/n was kissing uncovered place she could reach, from his face to his chest, opening more buttons of his shirt.

Tom adjusted the condom on his cock before taking a few thrusts. He moved even closer to her, if that was even possible, and gave her a peck.

- Ready? He spoke softly against her lips and she nodded almost in despair, wanting to feel him inside her more than anything.

He smiled once more and slid his cock easily as she was completely wet. Tom growled low against her ear and Y/n bit her lip so no sound could come out. He started to move, after she was more adjusted to his size, at first slowly and starting to increase his pace with each second.

-Fuck... - he cursed softly against her ear and she pulled the hair from his neck with one hand, while the other squeezed his shoulder. The more he increased the pace she felt as if she were coming off the ground. - So tight darling... - he said between small grunts. - Feels so good...

- Tom... - Y/n spoke and he increased the pace even more making her moan with the sudden sensation of pleasure and he muffled her sounds by sticking his lips on hers.

-Shh… - he said after moving his lips from hers and Y/n tried her best to keep the sounds to herself, but he filled her perfectly and made her feel so good that she couldn't help it. Tom smirked and put his hand over her mouth, covering her moans. - Can't contain yourself? -he said and kissed her neck giving light bites and hickeys. -You're so easy for me, love... Look at you...- he spoke in a low voice, while still holding his hand firm in her mouth and kissing below her ear. - So easy...- he said going faster, as if it were possible, and bit his lower lip trying to contain his own moans this time, touching his nose to her cheek.

- Please…- she managed to speak muffled against his hand, feeling her orgasm quickly building.

- I know sweetheart... - he said making her feel his heavy breath into her cheek. -I got you ...-he finally said and that was enough for her orgasm to release with force, making him also come right after her with one last muffled grunt against her neck. He continued to move slowly for a few more seconds, before coming to a complete stop. The two of them with their breaths out of control. Reaching their high.

After a few minutes Tom took his hand from her mouth and soon after took his member out of her slowly. The two were silent the entire time. Y/n felt empty as  soonTom walked away to clean up, still half dazed from all the pleasure she just felt. He cleaned himself up and discarded the condom, zipping his pants and turned around, buttoning his shirt right away. Y/n didn't take her eyes off every move he made and he smiled approaching her.

- Want some help darling? - he asked standing in front of her and she held in his arms before he helped her getting down from the sink. She felt a little dizzy and if it wasn't for him holding her she thought she would fall. - You're right? - he asked still holding her on her waist.

- Yes...Thank you... - she managed to say.

- Well, I have to go, before they notice that I'm gone... - he said, releasing her.

- Of course... - Y/n said. - Tom… - she didn't know what to say. It might be the second time they'd done this, but it still felt like it was the first and she felt somewhat embarrassed. Maybe because she wasn't used to casual sex.

- See you soon? - He said giving a quick kiss on her cheek, fixing his hair in the best way he could and winking as he walked away, going to the door and unlocking it. He got out and closed it behind him while she back staring into the mirror.

She took a deep breath and was trying to figure out what to do next. After cleaning her up she finally got out of there. She crawled to the door and managed to get through the party without the weird looks she thought everyone would send to her when they bumped into her. For some reason she thought everyone would know, but obviously not. She felt weird doing that at an party, it really wasn't like her. But why did she feel so good?

She looked around before heading out of the house, but she didn't find Tom in her vision and she didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She wanted to look at him one last time from afar, but at the same time she didn't. Maybe that was the last time they were going to do that. She didn't think she'd find him like this anywhere else, and she didn't intend to go to the bar he worked at just to get another night with him. Besides, that's what she was, just one night, just a "quickie" in the bathroom. And everything was fine. He was that for her too, so what did it matter?

For a moment she felt his head fill with ideas. Y/n had a perfect plot for her story now. She had to go home and get back to writing right away. Calling the driver from a distance, she practically ran towards the car.

[tcm]

Reframing Films of the Past: An Interview with TCM Writers

All month long in March, TCM will be taking a look at a number of beloved classic films that have stood the test of time, but when viewed by contemporary standards, certain aspects of these films are troubling and problematic. During TCM’s Reframed: Classics in the Rearview Mirror programming, all five TCM hosts will appear on the network to discuss these issues, their historical and cultural context and how we can keep the legacy of great films alive for future generations.

Also joining in on this conversation are four TCM writers who were open enough to share their thoughts on their love of classic movies and watching troubling images of the past. Special thanks to Theresa Brown, Constance Cherise, Susan King and Kim Luperi for taking part in this conversation. Continue the conversation over on TCM’s Twitter.

What do you say to people who don’t like classics because they’re racist and sexist? 

KL: There are positive representations in classic Hollywood that I think would blow some peoples’ minds. I always love introducing people to new titles that challenge expectations. 

That said, anyone who broadly slaps a sexist or racist label on a large part of the medium’s history does a disservice to cinema and themselves. That mindset keeps them ignorant not only of some excellent movies and groundbreaking innovation but history itself. 

I think people need to remember that movies are a product of their time and they can reflect the society they were made into a variety of degrees - good, bad, politically, culturally, socially. That’s not to excuse racism or sexism; it needs to be recognized and called out as such for us to contend with it today. But it’s important for people who say they don’t like classics for those reasons to understand the historical context. In particular, we need to acknowledge that society has evolved - and what was deemed socially acceptable at times has, too, even if sexism and racism are always wrong - and we are applying a modern lens to these films that come with the benefit of decades worth of activism, growth and education.

SK: I totally agree K.L. For years I have been encouraging people to watch vintage movies who keep proclaiming they don’t like black-and-white films or silent films. For every Birth of a Nation (1915) there are beautiful dramas, wonderful comedies and delicious mysteries and film noirs. 

 These films that have racist and sexist elements shouldn’t be collectively swept under the rug, because as K.L. stated they shine a light on what society was like – both good and bad. 

CC: First off, fellow writers may I say, I think your work is amazing. I'm continually learning from the talent that is here, and I am humbled to be a part of this particular company. Similar to the prior answers, for every racist/sexist film the opposite exists. Personally, classic musicals attracted me due to their visual assault, creativity and their unmistakable triple-threat performances. While we cannot ignore racist stereotypes and sexism, there are films that simply are "fantasies of art." There is also a review of evolution. In 20 years, what we now deem as acceptable behavior/conversation will be thought of as outdated and will also require being put into "historical context."  What we collectively said/thought/did 20 years ago, we are currently either re-adjusting or reckoning with now, and that is a truth of life that will never change. We will always evolve.

TB: I would say to them they should consider the times the movie was made in. It was a whole different mindset back then. 

Are there movies that you love but are hesitant to recommend to others because of problematic elements in them? If so, which movies? 

TB: Yes, there are movies I’m hesitant to recommend. The big one, off the top of my head, would be Gone With the Wind (1939). The whole slavery thing is a bit of a sticky wicket for people, especially Black folks. Me, I love the movie. It is truly a monumental feat of filmmaking for 1939. I’m not saying I’m happy with the depiction of African Americans in that film. I recognize the issues. But when I look at a classic film, I suppose I find I have to compartmentalize things. I tend to gravitate on the humanity of a character I can relate to. 

KL: Synthetic Sin (1929), a long thought lost film, was found in the 2010s, and I saw it at Cinecon a few years ago. As a Colleen Moore fan, I thoroughly enjoyed most of it, but it contains a scene of her performing in blackface that doesn’t add anything to the plot. That decision brings the movie down in my memory, which is why I have trouble recommending it.

Also Smarty (1934), starring Warren William and Joan Blondell, is another movie I don’t recommend because it’s basically about spousal abuse played for comedy, and it did not age well for that reason.

SK: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961): Audrey Hepburn is my favorite actress and I love her Oscar-nominated performance as Holly. I adore Orangy as Cat, as well as George Peppard and Buddy Ebsen, who is wonderfully endearing. And of course, “Moon River” makes me cry whenever I hear it. But then I cringe and am practically nauseous every time Mickey Rooney pops up on screen with his disgusting stereotypical performance as Holly’s Japanese landlord Mr. Yunioshi. What was director Blake Edwards thinking casting him in this part? Perhaps because he’s such a caricature no Japanese actor wanted to play him, so he cast Rooney with whom he had worked within the 1950s. 

CC: I cannot necessarily state that I am in "love," but, a film that comes to mind would be Anna and the King of Siam (1946). It is an absolutely beautiful visual film. However, Rex Harrison as King Mongkut requires some explanation. 

Holiday Inn (1942), and the Abraham number...why??? Might I also add, there were many jaw-dropping, racist cartoons.

How did you learn to deal with the negative images of the past? 

KL: I often look at it as a learning experience. Negative images can provoke much-needed conversation (internally or with others) and for me, they often prompt my education in an area that I wasn’t well versed in. For instance, blackface is featured in some classic films, and its history is something I never knew much about. That said, seeing its use in movies prompted me to do some research, which led me first to TCM’s short documentary about blackface and Hollywood. I love how TCM strives to provide context and seeks to educate viewers on uncomfortable, contentious subjects so we can appreciate classic films while still acknowledging and understanding the history and the harmful stereotypes some perpetuated.

SK: It’s also been a learning experience for me. Though I started watching movies as a little girl in the late 1950s, thanks to TCM and Warner Archive I realized that a lot of films were taken out of circulation because of racist elements. TCM has not only screened a lot of these films but they have accompanied the movies with conversations exploring the stereotypes in the films.  

CC: As a Black woman, negative images of the past continue to be a lesson on how Blacks, as well as other minorities, were seen (and in some cases still are seen) through an accepted mainstream American lens. On one hand, it's true, during the depiction of these films the majority of Black Americans were truly relegated to servant roles, so it stands to reason that depictions of Black America would be within the same vein. What is triggering to me, are demeaning roles, and the constant exaggeration of the slow-minded stereotype, blackface. When you look at the glass ceiling that minority performers faced from those in power, the need for suppression and domination is transparent because art can be a powerful agent of change. I dealt with the negative images of the past by knowing and understanding that the depiction being given to me was someone else's narrative, of who they thought I was, not who I actually am.

TB: I’m not sure HOW I learned to deal with negative images. Again, I think it might go back to me compartmentalizing.

I don’t know if this is right or wrong…but I’ve always found myself identifying with the leads and their struggles. As a human being, I can certainly identify with losing a romantic partner, money troubles, losing a job…no matter the ethnicity.

In what ways have we evolved from the movies of the classic era?

KL: I think we are more socially and culturally conscious now when it comes to stories, diversity and representation on screen and behind the scenes, which is a step forward. That said, while there's been growth, there's still much work to be done.

SK: I think this year’s crop of awards contenders show how things have evolved with Da 5 Bloods, Soul, One Night in Miami, Minari, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The United States Vs. Billie Holiday, Judas and the Black Messiah and MLK/FBI. 

But we still have a long way to go. I’d love to see more Native American representation in feature films; more Asian-American and Latino stories. 

CC: There are minority artists, writers, producers, directors, actors with the increasing capacity to create through their own authentic voice, thereby affecting the world, and a measurable amount of them are women! Generally speaking, filmmakers (usually male) have held the voice of the minority narrative as well as the female narrative. I agree with both writers above in the thought that it is progress, and I also agree, more stories of diversified races are needed. 

TB: One important way we've evolved from the movies made in the classic era by being more inclusive in casting. 

Are there any deal-breakers for you when watching a movie, regardless of the era, that make it hard to watch? 

KL: Physical violence in romantic relationships that's played as comedy is pretty much a dealbreaker for me. I mentioned above that I don't recommend Smarty (1934) to people, because when I finally watched it recently, it. was. tough. The way their abuse was painted as part of their relationship just didn’t sit well with me.

SK: Extreme racist elements and just as KL states physical violence. 

Regarding extreme racist elements, D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) is just too horrific to watch. I was sickened when I saw it when I was in grad school at USC 44 years ago and it’s only gotten worse. And then there’s also Wonder Bar (1934), the pre-code Al Jolson movie that features the Busby Berkeley black minstrel number “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule.” Disgusting.

I also agree with KL about physical violence in comedies and even dramas. I recently revisited Private Lives (1931) with Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery based on Noel Coward’s hit play. I have fond memories of seeing Maggie Smith in person in the play when I was 20 in the play and less than fond memories of watching Joan Collins destroying Coward’s bon mots.  

But watching the movie again, you realized just how physically violent Amanda and Elyot’s relationship is-they are always talking about committing physical violence-”we were like two violent acids bubbling about in a nasty little matrimonial battle”; “certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs”-or constantly screaming and throwing things.  

There is nothing funny or romantic about this.

KL: I try to put Birth of a Nation out of my mind, but S.K. did remind me of it again, and movies featuring extreme racism at their core like that are also dealbreakers; I totally agree with her assessment. I understand the technological achievements, but I think in the long run, especially in how it helped revive the KKK, the social harm that film brought about outdoes its cinematic innovations.

CC: Like S.K., Wonder Bar immediately came to mind. Excessive acts of violence, such as in the film Natural Born Killers (1994). I walked out of the theatre while the film was still playing. I expected violence, but the gratuitousness was just too much for me. I also have an issue with physical abuse, towards women and children. This is not to say I would not feel the same way about a man. However, when males are involved, it tends to be a fight, an exchange of physical energy, generally speaking, when we see physical abuse it is perpetuated towards women and children.

TB: I have a couple of moments that pinch my heart when I watch a movie. It doesn’t mean I won’t watch the movie. It just means I roll my eyes…verrrrry hard.

-Blackface…that’s a little rough; especially when the time period OF the movie is the ‘30s or ‘40s film.

-Not giving the Black actors a real name to be called by in the film (Snowflake…Belvedere…Lightnin’). I mean, can’t they have a regular name like Debbie or Bob?

-When the actor can’t do the simplest of tasks, i.e. Butterfly McQueen answering the phone in Mildred Pierce (1945) and not knowing which end to speak into. What up with that?

Are there elements they got right that we still haven’t caught up to? 

KL: I don't know if the pre-Code era got sex right (and sensationalism was definitely something studios were going for) but in some ways, I feel that subject was treated as somewhat more accepted and natural back then. Of course, what was shown onscreen in the classic era was nowhere near the extent it is today, but the way the Production Code put a lid on sex (in addition to many other factors) once again made it into more of a taboo topic than it is or should be.

One thing I particularly hate in modern movies is gratuitous violence, and it perplexes and angers me how America weighs violence vs. sex in general through the modern ratings system: films are more likely to get a pass with violence, mostly landing in PG-13 territory and thus making them more socially acceptable, while sex, something natural, is shunned with strictly R ratings. Obviously, there are limits for both, but I think the general thinking there is backwards today.

CC: The elegance, the sophistication, the precision, the dialogue, the intelligence, the wit. The fashion! The layering of craftsmanship. We aren't fans of these films for fleeting reasons, we are fans because of their timeless qualities.

I'm going to sound like a sentimental sap here, ladies get ready. I think they got the institution of family right. Yes, I do lean towards MGM films, so I am coloring my opinion from that perspective. Even if a person hasn't experienced what would have been considered a "traditional family" there is something to be said about witnessing that example. Perhaps not so much of a father and a mother, but to witness a balanced, functioning, loving relationship. What it "looks like" when a father/mother/brother/sister etc. genuinely loves another family member.

I was part of the latch-key generation, and although my parents remained together, many of my friends' parents were divorced. Most won't admit it, but by the reaction to the documentary [Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 2018], the bulk of them went home, sat in front of the TV and watched Mr. Rogers tell them how special they were because their parents certainly were not. We don't know what can "be" unless we see it.

[bozowrites]

Heyoo! HCS for Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki with a female s/o who's a huge Marvel nerd? Like she has lots of merch, she read all the comics, she attended comic con etc. How would they comfort her after watching Endgame where she bawled her eyes out? (i mean we all did c'mon-)

Headcanon

↳ Request above!

Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Todoroki Shouto and Midoriya Izuku

TW: none.

BAKUGOU KATSUKI

When Bakugou entered your dorm for the first time, he hadn’t expected Marvel merch, no, he expected heroes’ stuff.

Not this.

He was quick to comment on it and you instantly went into a frenzy about all the best Marvel heroes.

Why fictional heroes when there are real ones?

He didn’t seem to mind listening to you nerd out about all this stuff.

He sat and listened to you, enjoying your voice and pacing and mini stories in between each explanation.

Now, you forced him into watching Endgame with him over the weekend (after binging all the other movies throughout the month).

He sat through it straight faced, not as emotionally attached to the characters as you.

Speaking of you, he heard your sniffles at the end of the film. He was about to comment on the sad ending, but as he went to speak, you started bawling.

He was stunned at first, but easily recovered and brought you into his arms.

He had no clue as to why you would start crying like so, however, he wasn’t going to make fun of you.

He’d put on one of your favourite comedies and simply hold you close till you fell asleep for the night.

 TODORKI SHOUTO 

Todoroki had heard of it, hearing others students or his siblings speaking of it.

He often asked you to speak about it, just to see the sparkle in your eyes when you go into that frenzy.

He’ll be quick to go into a research project to figure everything out and what was so good, who everyone was and what they did to impress you with some knowledge.

And he would most definitely buy you merch, the most expensive and rarest and top-notch stuff, the kind that last a few seconds on the shelves.

He has his connections ;)

When he heard about the Endgame coming out (because you wouldn’t shut up about it), he got you tickets to the premiere.

Flew your ass to Los Angeles that night.

Speaking English or not, it was amazing. It may not have been in Japanese, didn’t understand a thing, but damn was it good. To see all the actors and actresses and even catch eyes with a few was scary amazing.

And when it came out on DVD, bought it right away to actually watch and understand.

And both times you cried.

And both times Todoroki had to comfort you.

He bought you more merch to help :)

MIDORIYA IZUKU

Does Midoriya love heroes? Yes.

Does this apply to fictional ones too? 100%

When he found out, you two were all over each other fangirling.

It was hectic.

Literal chaos.

Send help to those nearby.

Muttering everywhere.

Those loud girly screams the reality TV star girls do when they see each other for the first time in forever.

You two show your merch, maybe exchanging, maybe sharing, I don’t know.

Movie marathon!

And when Endgame is announced and out? Hell.

Both of you two are chaotically crying and holding each other for comfort.

There is a river.

You two have flooded all of Japan.

[adultswim2021]

Robot Chicken #24: “Celebrity Rocket” | April 23, 2006 – 11:30PM | S02E04

“Dance Dance Counter-Revolution” Is Fidel Castro doing a DDR competition with a Cuban guy, and then he shoots him. Is Robot Chicken contributing to right-wing anti-Cuba propaganda? I’m too much of a dumb fuck to actually know. Anyway, it was astoundingly unfunny.

I don’t usually cover the brief little channel change gags unless I really like them or hate them. This one I liked! “Vampire Chase” is a pretty funny gag where a guy is being chased in his car by a vampire and he looks in the rear view mirror to gauge weather or not he’s still being followed, not thinking about the fact that vampires don’t appear in mirrors. What happens next will make you laugh mildly and say, out loud, “okay that was alright I guess”

"Dragon's Lair: The Middle Ages” parodies the laserdisc based arcade game Dragon’s Lair, which I’ve never successfully played because the arcade in town that has it never seems to keep it in operational shape. Fun fact: did you know that the last mass-produced laserdisc in America was a repressing of the discs for this game, to elongate the lifespan of the Dragon’s Lair arcade cabinet without having to swap out the hardware with blu-ray or whatever technology? Did I highlight this sketch just so I could share this fact? Look, we both know the answer to this.

“Mr. Six Pays a Visit” is a parody of those Six Flags commercials and not that funny, but I was impressed with the dancing animation on Mr. Six Flags. Then there was a very brief Powerpuff Girls thing that I liked, invoking stem cell research.

THEN there was a very long, deeply unfunny sketch about Lindsay Lohan being a highlander that references all the other hot young actresses of the day. This era was the last one where I actually paid attention to young hot celebrity girls/women, but I really truly don’t understand the appeal of mocking them for comedy. I swear to god: I am not trying to win woke points here in the wake of the Free Britney movement or whatever. I just... can you not tell that you’re telling the same jokes over and over when it comes to this stuff? Like doing a snotty teen girl voice and just having them act vain and all that, and the fact that their fame probably isn’t going to have the shelf-life to justify spending months doing intricate stop-motion animation for? Grown men making fun of young starlet types never really sat well for me, it always just seemed like repetitive low-hanging fruit. You know, you could just let certain aspects of popular culture fade into nonexistence rather than posteritize your hack jokes about them.

Anyway I saw a picture of Lindsay Lohan recently and she is still extremely fuckable and I would like her to give me a hug for that last paragraph

MAIL BAG:

Did you see that one of the minoriteam voices is dickie barrett aka the "never had to knock on wood" guy of music fame? I thought that was random but i guess he's also been jimmy kimmel's announcer? Huh!

I actually did see this, but for some reason couldn’t enthuse myself to mention it or write about it. Thank you for doing it, it was worth it!

I only knew of Peter Graves for the longest time as a guy Mike Nelson would make jokes about on MST3K. Don't think I saw a movie with him other than Airplane! which I didn't even know it was him until years later. It funny how some of the serious actors kept doing what their doing while a few of them dedicated the rest of their lives to the spoof. Peter hanged on to give a few cool young cartoonmakers a hand. Nice!

I think I’m basically in the same boat, except didn’t he also host A&E Biography too? I think I also knew him from that, so I basically thought he was just a TV presenter guy for my entire childhood.

[pepecarbs]

Trese: A Review

As claimed, this is the first ever Filipino Anime and this is a proud moment for most, if not all, of us Pinoys. A lot of my friends have asked me about this anime and I have seen a lot of postings online too. Not to point the obvious, but it is also #1 on Netflix's top 10 list. My friends who were asking me about this are the same people who knows that I handle these kinds of cases in real life. Yes, I am a supernatural consultant and I accept such queries depending the severity and if it had gone the correct process. I decided to make this quick but objective criticism on our beloved first-ever Pinoy Anime called Trese.

THE STORY:

In all fairness, for a 6 episode series, it was fairly good. It involved a handful of urban legends and local myths that separated the series from others and it gave it a certain distinction. There are several things that it can improve on in terms of story and plot such as:

1. More character build up: I understand that it only has 6 episodes. Although, there were some parts in the series where key characters could have been given more light on too. Such as Hank and Captain Guerrero. Even mayor Santamaria, you know, to give us more understanding on why they are who they are in the current scenario.

2. Timeframe: Since it was only 6 episodes, there is a feeling that the story was a bit rushed. This is of course if you do not appreciate the script behind each episodes. As a writer myself, I can attest that it is not that easy to make one. This point of improvement is something that I took in account with a general viewer's point of view.

3. The Baybaylan Family Origin: I noticed, especially in episode 5 and 6, that Alex's family background shows, or gives the impression that their family is a rich family. I was just wondering, what made the creators decide to make our main character's origin a rich family instead of a middle-class or even some native Babaylan instead of a rich kid character? It may just be me. Let me know if you had any similar thoughts.

For now those are the things that I can think of for the story per se. To be honest, it was a very good take on the lore and it gave an impression that in case the creators would decide to continue to build it, we have our very own universe of Trese... Treseverse as I want to think of.

THE ANIMATION:

This aspect gave me a foreign vibe (as it should), but not the usual anime vibe like Dragonball Z, Bleach, or even One Piece. It gave me a Jackie Chan adventures animated series vibe. If you don't know what that is, you can check it here click that and you'll see the intro. You'll see what I mean. I bet they can definitely make it better if they go into a 2nd season. Again, this is a first, but definitely something we can be proud of.

EDIT-IN: I almost forgot one thing that the creators might already have considered for the second season. Since this is an anime, they can go and exceed reality at its finest and be as extra like the animation concepts for Bleach, Dragonball Z, One Piece, Gintama, and even Prince of Tennis. You do know what I am trying to describe here right? Let me use Prince of Tennis as an example. It is about tennis but the way the signature moves are executed by the characters and the way it is animated, that's what I am saying. *wink*

THE VOICE ACTING:

I was a voice actor too, don't worry I am well aware of our popular actors/actresses and I have worked with some of them. This is an unpopular opinion, but I will say this, kudos to Liza Sobreno for delivering. It may not be as expected with a professional voice actress, but do pause for a moment and take this into consideration. She is an actress, NOT a voice actress. This is her FIRST official voice acting product and she did a good job on it. Reminded me of our days with Bleach. I was supposed to be Ichigo Kurasaki, but the network decided to replace all main characters with the Starstruck cast, yes and it was done after we already dubbed the full pilot episode. Marky Cielo did a good job in simulating my voice sample for Ichigo, and so did the others who followed. This is almost the same as how Liza did. It is not easy transitioning your acting to an animated character as you hold your dramatic skills to give life to the character. Not life but justice to the essence of the character. So, yeah cut her some slack. You'll never know, she can be better on the 2nd season if she decides to disprove your not-so-constructive criticisms.

THE LORES:

This part right here is very crucial. I bet they made their researches, although of course as someone who had been exposed to these things, there are some that may need more research. Although, I bet that the creators already took note of it and may have already planned to address those in the next season. There are just some aspects that may need to be more accurate at some point. Small details but very crucial. Like dead-ghosts being seen by the crowd of NORMAL people. Case on point, if I recall it properly it is the first episode where Alex Trese was called by Captain Guerrero who found the white lady of Balete Drive "dead" in a sigil. In reality, people who have higher threshold of atmospheric pressures are the only ones can see this kind of instance. The normal ones would not, except for the following conditions:

- The sigil itself emits an energy that allows normals to see what is in it.

- The ghost wanted to be seen and manifested into the human realm

- The crowd is in an area with a person/spirit of high capabilities and these normal people are in a radius getting the AoE of the said person/spirit

I think that is all for now. All in all, I can say that this is something that we can be proud of. Always remember this was a first for our fellow Pinoy creators and it is in Netflix too. IF and IF you did not like anything that the creators or even the cast had done I suggest you be as constructive as you can. Thanks for taking your time in reading my review about this series. I appreciate you and your time. For those who have not watched the series, I suggest that you do. By the way, the artworks are really good too.

[thecrownnet]

The Crown Is One Of The Hardest Shows To Cast. Here’s How They Do It.

Casting announcements for The Crown are almost as exciting as the premiere of a new season itself. Half the fun of the show is analyzing the actors set to portray famous figures like Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher, as well as who will next fill the storied shoes of Queen Elizabeth. Season 4 of Peter Morgan’s royal drama was cast by Robert Sterne, who' won several Emmys for his work on the series along with Nina Gold (the duo cast seasons 1 through 3 together, and they were also responsible for the influx of talent we saw on Game of Thrones). Unsurprisingly, casting The Crown poses specific challenges not experienced on any other show.

“It’s not only that you’ve got to find actors who can successfully embody real-life, well-known people, but you’ve got to make sure there’s a continuity as it’s passed from the younger to the older version of the actor,” Sterne tells ELLE.com. “Who’s done it before, who’s doing it after, and who are the real people?”Sterne, who's currently in the process of re-casting the entire series for seasons 5 and 6, adds, “It’s nerve-wracking because people invest in the original people. You do X hours of screen time with them and fall in love with their interpretation, and then you go again [and re-cast] every two years.

”The casting process for each season starts about a year before filming begins; a meeting with Morgan clarifies where the characters will be in their journeys the following season. There were 262 speaking characters in season 4, and Sterne personally worked on all of them. The casting director notes that “you’ve got to think ahead of the game,” and that there are several factors to consider—not just whether the actor looks like the real-life person.

“They’ve got to have some credibility, physically, to be the people they’re supposed to portray,” Sterne notes. “But at the same time, they’ve got to get the spirit of it right.” Below, Sterne breaks down the behind-the-scenes process of building the cast of The Crown.

Perfecting Princess Diana

Photo: Des Willie/Netflix

“Diana was a big deal,” Sterne says, confirming the role has been The Crown’s biggest casting challenge to date. “It was clear as we were heading into the 1980s that she was going to be a major part of it. And we’re starting with Diana at the beginning of her life—we’re not trying to find the icon of the Mario Testino images.”

The casting team embarked on an international search for the person who would play Diana, looking at hundreds of possible actresses in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. They weren’t just auditioning professional actors, either. “It was completely open,” Sterne notes. “We were going into schools in the home countries to see if there was anybody who might be good, since we meet her at 16, as well as looking at people who'd done a lot more work.”

The massive search brought them back to Emma Corrin, whom Sterne had seen in the casting process for season 3. The tense lunch between Camilla Parker-Bowles (Emerald Fennell) and Diana in the third episode of season 4 was used as the audition scene for Camilla—and Corrin came in as a reader to stand in for the part of Diana.

“I usually read in all these meetings, but we decided because it was this major scene that we would get somebody to come in [for Diana],” Sterne explains. “We asked Emma to come in, not thinking about casting Diana at this point. But as she was reading with these Camillas, all the directors and the showrunner were looking more at her and not at the people playing Camilla—who will remain nameless, of course. When we got to thinking about Diana a year later, there she was in my notes.”

Bringing in Margaret Thatcher

Photo: Des Willie/Netflix

Sterne was told early on that the big focus for season 4 would be the three main women: the queen, Diana, and Margaret Thatcher. Casting Thatcher, who has been portrayed repeatedly onscreen in the past, was unusual, because actress Gillian Anderson is Morgan’s partner, and the creator himself approached her about the role.

“There was always a list of one,” Sterne says. “We had thought of ideas and talked it through a lot, but we always knew Gillian Anderson was totally amazing. It seemed like a fresh and interesting way of going. We were very lucky she said she’d do it—she’s such a clever character actress.”

While Anderson is a fairly big name, Sterne and Gold aren’t always looking for an A-list star to be part of The Crown. Having someone like Anderson come in is balanced by casting lesser-known actors like Corrin.

“One of the great joys of working on it—and working with Peter Morgan on it—is that we’re open, and it’s a really genuine opportunity to find the best person for the part,” Sterne says. “We get to find the actor we believe has the best skills and the best instinctive connection with the part, rather than feeling like we’ve got to provide big names all the time.”

Carrying Charles Through

Photo: Des Willie/Netflix

“He’s so three-dimensional,” Sterne explains of the role of Prince Charles. “There are so many aspects to that character. He would have to go on a journey.” It was important that the actor could evolve over a two-decade period, playing both a young version and the one who closes out season 4.

Josh O’Connor's work in Francis Lee’s 2017 film God’s Own Country led Sterne to cast him as Prince Charles. “He totally inhabited the role in God’s Own Country in this beautiful performance that’s very different from who he is. We thought, ‘Gosh, if that guy can do that and run with a character who’s so different than himself, then that will be interesting to see.’ As soon as we started [working with] him, it became pretty clear it was Josh.”

O’Connor has the obvious physical similarity to Charles, particularly in the ears, but Sterne really wanted someone who could make the role their own and not just mimic a famous figure—something especially important to season 4’s arc.

“It’s really important that you’re not getting an impersonation,” Sterne notes. “They have to embody them. We have an amazing team who help with the voice work and the movement work—those technical aspects—but you want somebody who has the skill to take on all that technically, and then leave it all behind. Josh flew with that from the moment he came into the room.”

Finding Young William and Harry

Photo: Des Willie/Netflix

Princes William and Harry make their debut in season 4 as young children, and the resemblance to the real royals is almost uncanny. A baby version of William shows up in episode 6 as Charles and Diana tour Australia and New Zealand in 1982, while Harry appears later in the season. Unlike with the older royals, Sterne focuses on physical appearance alone when casting the kids.

“They have to be as recognizable as possible,” he explains. “They don’t have the opportunity to say many lines, so it’s all visual. You want people to have the pleasure of going, ‘Ah, there they are!’”

Sterne says the difficulty in casting children can vary depending on the situation. The search involves looking through schools in the U.K. and visiting drama groups for kids. “You have to keep going until you find people who feel credible,” Sterne says.

Casting One-Off Characters and Extras

While the fourth season of The Crown focuses a lot on Charles and Diana's relationship and Thatcher’s rapport with the queen, several standalone episodes bring in one-off characters who are equally important to the narrative.

Episode 7, “The Hereditary Principle,” sees Princess Margaret learning that the royal family’s estranged cousins have been locked in a mental institution. The women, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, were first cousins to Elizabeth II on her mother’s side and both had severe learning disabilities. Sterne and Gold cast Trudie Emery as Katherine and Pauline Hendrickson as Nerissa. Both actresses have learning disabilities in real life.

Trudie Emery as Katherine Bowes-Lyon and Pauline Hendrickson as Nerissa Bowes-Lyon in The Crown season 4 episode 7, "The Hereditary Principle".

NETFLIX

“We had a few pictures of those two women and did a lot of research into their lives and experiences, and then did a national search across drama schools and residential care homes to find people with learning disabilities who looked similar to the real women and were interested in acting,” Sterne says. “We employed a lot of the people with learning disabilities we met along the way and put them in small parts in those scenes with Trudie and Pauline. We wanted to find real people with learning disabilities so they were properly represented. There are not as many opportunities as you’d hope for, and when we started looking around, there were so many drama groups. There’s so much talent out there.”

Similarly, in episode 5, Tom Brooke plays real-life British man Michael Fagan, who broke into Buckingham Palace to see the queen—a key moment in understanding the state of England in the 1980s.

Tom Brooke as Michael Fagan in The Crown season 4 episode 5, "Fagan". NETFLIX

“We knew there was going to be an episode about him,” Sterne says, “and I remember reading stories about him and there were loads of pictures of him. For a character like that, you look at footage of him and read about him. It’s a really extraordinary part to play, so you want to find an accomplished, technically brilliant actor who looks a bit like him. Tom is an actor with a whole lot of soul, and you wanted [Fagan] to have a whole lot of soul.”

Sterne adds, “Fagan's story was a way of exploring Thatcher’s Britain that's not automatically going to be covered if you’re just dealing with the royal family and the prime ministers, which is the usual core of The Crown.”

[vanessakirbyfans]

Some may remember British actress Vanessa Kirby, 32, as Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of the TV series The Crown, or as black-market arms dealer White Widow in Mission: Impossible-Fallout, with Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. This year she received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Drama from the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for her performance in Pieces of a Woman, by Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó, a role which had already earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at last year’s Venice Film Festival. She costars with Katherine Waterston in The World to Come, by Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold, which also premiered in Venice, and won the Queer Lion award for Best LGBTQ-Themed Film.

The story of Pieces of a Woman is based on a tragic loss that really happened to the director and his wife, Kata Wéber, who wrote the screenplay. What did they communicate to you about their experience?

I knew that for Kornél and Kata this was a personal story, I didn’t know exactly the circumstances of how they lost a baby, but as we started approaching the movie, they did share that with me. I felt that it came from such a viscerally deep part of Kata and from a real need to share and break the silence around something that for women is so rarely talked about. So, this was a quite therapeutic journey for them, and it was very healing, between them as a couple, to go through this process. I literally saw that every day on set, the conversation that was happening between them, the facing of really painful moments, and their very different grieving experiences. That taught me a lot actually because when you go through any kind of loss or trauma, everyone processes it differently, but sharing that it’s healing, so we always hoped that the film would offer some small comfort for people out there who might need it.

Ellen Burstyn plays your mother in the film. What was it like for you to work with such an experienced actress and to get to know her as a person?

Ellen has always been such an icon in my life and such a legend, I’ve seen all of her performances, and she reminds me of Gena Rowlands, who’s also one of my favorite actresses. She has such a fire as an actress, such a strong energy and presence, and yet you always feel this vulnerability, this fragility, underneath. So, I was excited to go head-to-head with Ellen, because she’s done so many incredible films and she’s head of the Actors’ Studio. It was amazing to work with her and actually, we became really good friends. During rehearsals she invited me over to her house for a sleepover, she called it a pajama party, and we really bonded, we spent many hours talking, we went to bed at 3 am. Since then, we’ve been really close, and she’s definitely very maternal towards me. She’s such a soulful spiritual person and she’s so wise, that I’m very lucky to have her in my life.

In The World to Come you play a farmer’s wife living in Upstate New York during the 1850s. What did you discover about how women lived back then?

When I was researching the film, I couldn’t believe how ignorant I was that, not that long ago, women were completely owned by their husbands, that the home was your domain, you should serve your husband in his home and the children that you had, that it was your husband’s choice what you did with your time, what your name was and everything. That was the law, that was the religion and the way it was. In those days it was all about convention, what you were expected to do, who you were told to be by society and by the structures of a completely patriarchal system. These women, who are literally our ancestors in a way, had to make so many sacrifices and simply didn’t have the choices in their lives that we have now. So that made me incredibly grateful for the choices that I have today, whether it’s what I do with my afternoon or who I love, or how freely I can love. So, I felt very passionate about that story.

Did you come to understand some of the elements that make it so liberating for women to have romantic or sexual relationships with other women as opposed to relationships with men?

Mona Fastvold, the director, told us that these relationships between women have always been there, throughout history, and it’s important to tell those stories now, because, even in times when it was almost completely impossible, there would have been moments when two humans really wanted to be together and didn’t have the choice to be able to, because the only union that should happen is between a man and woman. I’m really proud of the film because it’s a brief moment in these women’s lives, when they are seen for who they really are and they really connect, they feel what they should have a right to feel, and they had the courage to actually do it and to be true to who they were.  The film is an ode to those women, like a cry for them in a way. I really imagined all those moments in life that may have been lit up by a person or something that made you feel so free in yourself, and you may have had that only for a moment, because of the system and the restrictions on who you were allowed to be by society.

We have all had a very difficult year, because of the Covid pandemic, and many other problems in the world. What have been some of your thoughts during this time, and do you hope that this crisis could bring about a change for a better future?

Yes, this last year has been so hard on everyone, and so much of it has been about readjusting. We’ve all had a year, when in many different ways there has been loss and our idea of how our life always has been having completely changed, for everyone across the whole planet. I finished filming Pieces of a Woman about a week before the pandemic happened, and we filmed The World to Come right before that, and both films were about the loss of a child, so they strangely seem spiritually linked. They are also both about women who don’t have voices, so I felt like they were giving voice to a female experience that is so rarely if ever, depicted and represented on the screen. Doing those films definitely left me with a sense of hope, that we can come to terms with tragedies and come out of them stronger somehow, whether that means that we’re more united or more compassionate, that we feel more empathy or more solidarity with what every single person is facing right now across the world. That’s what I hope.

[project-paranoia]

Live Watch: Guardian  Episode One, Part One

It's Guardian!  The show that got me interested in this genre!  I love spooky things and I love mysteries and fantasy!  I simply adore it so much!  When I can't sleep I just put on a playlist of Guardian in the background.  I was aware of censorship before - every country has some version of it, but to some degree this was my first deep dive into how it might effect a piece of media.  Guardian is exceptionally acted and incredibly written, as well as suffering from obvious dubs where the dubbing voice actor sounds nothing like the previous actor and odd cuts that are disrupted.  In some ways it's the little drama that could fighting its way past their studio going bankrupt while they were filming, reshoots, and being taken down and altered several times.

In some ways Guardian's struggle fits the spirit and aesthetic of the show. Worn in like an old pair of jeans but still making an effort.  Putting emphasis where things count and hoping the kindness of the universe will make allowances for the rest.  Attention to detail where the story really matters.  It has the charm of a community production put on out of love with actors and crew who would not be anywhere else in the world for any amount of money.  That feeling of love comes through, and whether or not I'm barely literate I have so many words to share.

Part of why I love it as well is it has that feeling of 80s and 90s fantasy, like Moomin, Xena or Condor Heroes. Everything feels lived in, nothing's been spit shined except for Shen Wei's suits. It's an old city street of a show, it has history and character built in. 

*After all that I don't know that I have a tonne to say about the intro.  It's very good but it's also full of spoilers.  I think having the intro song be in English does make a difference in making it appealing to English speaking audiences as well as standing out as different and interesting, which the show is. Speaking of Spoilers!  Spoilers below!

* The obligatory beginning narration is beautifully animated, I have another post that will be done some time before the heat-death of the universe talking about the fascinating world building options.  Unlike some Make It SciFi plots, this one has legs and implications.

* Remakes rarely are able to meet the original on equal ground - and I struggle to believe the actors would Fit as well - but part of me really wants to have a chance to have the Dixingren worldbuilding really leaned into.  The writing is good enough we get implication but no real follow through.  I want fifty episodes of how Dixing functions, give me more pseudo-science behind the mutations, what are the biological differences.  I'm hungry for more!

* I love the cameos of later characters, and the way there was some effort to be discrete with spoilers.

* It's Ya Boy!  I love Shen Wei.  With that music cue and that sinister turn around they really set him up as dubious.  I wish they went with something a little different with the intro so his character wasn't spoiled.  The writing, directing, and acting was so good and spoiling who Shen Wei is kind of took the teeth out of that.

* Also cheers to the costume designer who outfitted Zhu Yilong so well and made him look jacked with the fit of those clothes.

* Also you can tell this is a real university because the staff has to sit in tiny student chairs.  I'm not joking, please be warned if you're going into academia.  Unless you have tenure life is An Adventure - and even then.

* Also shout out to Shen Wei's Prized Cabbage and the Queen of our hearts, Li Qian.  Why is this actress not in more things?  She has such an expressive and lovely face and she really goes all the way in with her acting.  I respect an artist that acts from their chest. Also that windbreaker, white skirt combo is chic and fun all at once, it draws the eye and makes her melt into the background all at once - perfect for the character.  I love her so much.

* Here's another one of Shen Wei's coats, it's a lovely color for him but it also is so thin that it looks like it crinkled up just from being worn.

* I'm being distracted by details and missing plot stuff.

* Story of my life.

* I love Li Qian hovering along behind Shen Wei like a duckling following their mother.  A) Mood and B) it quietly informs their dynamic.  Shen Wei has like one person he can trust but no one he can really confide in and it's the same for Li Qian. A ship will find a port in a storm and Shen Wei has Big Da-ge Energy. My fanfic heart hopes they found comfort in the pseudo familial relationship with each other while it lasted.

* Even in episode one we receive foreshadowing, we love and respect some excellent writing.  For those of you who missed it - Professor Ouyang is talking about Lin Jing who I love partially because he's so outrageous large but has the total opposite of intimidating energy.  

* What did they feed you Lin Jing? He is so tall and wide, but they do a lot with camera work to try to make him not quite as big.  Side note, I would really love to see the actor who plays Lin Jing (Liu Minting) both in more dramas but more specifically in a role where he was like a minister or scholar - someone intellectual.  I think the combination of being such a big gentleman and also someone who like plots or plans would be really dynamic if it was written well.  

* Also I like the exchange where without a word Professor Ouyang indicates he has one last thing to say, it's private and that he would like Shen Wei to ask Li Qian to leave. That's What You Can Do With Good Actors!

* Li Qian is just so pretty and the actress emotes so well!

* Shen Wei totally understanding what's going on with this shady research immediately and wanting to stay as far away as possible.  We see one of the first examples of him being aggressively polite to remove himself from a situation.

* "i'M jUST aN oRDINARY sCHOLAR." No one buys it Shen Wei.

* Angy Thinking Face

* One thing the show is really good at is using establishing shots really well so you always know where everything is and everything is going

* Guo Changcheng, all around good boy and angel.  We stan a nervous legend

* Zhou Yunlan Arriving.  Why is everyone on this show an Absolute Legend

* Guo Changcheng protecting himself with his certificate is too cute.  This young man is trying his best and I support him.

* Also that coat is Young, Pure, Stylish; I love it

* Zhao Yunlan, what's wrong with you? You are amazing!

* His irreverent style and disregard of usual policy makes him fit in really well with his band of misfits and special cases

* Guo Changcheng's OO face is too good, elastic face

* Da Qing my love!

* Jin Ling, I think he has an all seeing eye on his hoodie thing. Illuminati Confirmed.

* Also they filmed the shots so well, so you always know where everyone is in relation to everyone else

* Our Prized Cabbage!  I love her!

* Great handheld work: shaky and unhinged, but not migraine inducing

* Foreshadowing in the form of a shadow and reaching for the necklace

* Da Qing's cat behaviours. I really want behind the scenes of the actor discussing how cat was he going to cat

* We get our first real example of how Zhao Yunlan doesn't feel safe emoting negatively and so he uses a super sunny mask to hide his feelings, except with Da Qing who he lets his anger show with because he trusts him.

* I'm not even halfway through and I've written so much, peace and blessings to the readers of this.

* Zhao Yunlan's swagger, after his childhood having a little power must feel comforting and good

* I love how Da Qing is talking as a cat less than a meter from the medical examiner.  Does the examiner not care or does he know?  Is he deaf?

* Harassing Guo Changcheng is the new team sport

* Zhao Yunlan Realises Something Music

* Also, Lollipop Measurement

* It's nice to see Zhao Yunlan just being himself with Da Qing, he's able to really be honest and genuine with him

* Slow Look Moment

* This moment is so fascinating!  Shen Wei doesn't know what's going on yet.  He just sees an old friend who winces when he sees him and disappears.  We mostly see things from Zhao Yunlan's point of view, but from Shen Wei's perspective this is a first part of just some Odd and Confusing Happenings

* This cat though!  I love him!

* The delicate way they’re both feeling each other out.  This must be so confusing and startling for Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan is trying to figure out if this teacher is going to bust him or what.

* He forgot to let go, way to set off Zhao Yunlan’s suspicions

* “Mark Stewart” Is he though?  Who picked out that English name?

* Li Qian!  I love her and I love that striped blouse. Fashion.  Got to look good when you’re resisting a mental break. *Also she hears a meow and looks around at eye level, I love that for her.

* Zhao Yunlan!  You can’t take pictures of young ladies without their permission.  What is wrong with you!

* I love Da Qing’s very cat attitude of I Will Have Vengeance for These Wrongs

* Two for one! Shen Wei meets two faces from his past.

* Also, I get a little frustrated about people making a big deal about the 10,000 years versus 1,000 years age thing with Da Qing.  a) He has amnesia and b) the thousand years refers to the amount of time needed to cultivate to a certain stage in Chinese mythology - usually by absorbing energy from the sun, moon, or depending on the animal other sources.

* I feel so bad for Shen Wei, who knows what he thinks.  Were his friends brainwashed?  Did they forget?  Can they not say for some reason?  What is happening?

This review is getting a little long, so join in tomorrow for Part Two~~!

[mst3kproject]

Invasion of the Star Creatures

I promised you guys something truly awful this week, didn’t I?  Well, how about a space invasion ‘comedy’ (big emphasis on the air quotes there) produced by Samuel Zarkoff to be a double-bill with The Brain that Wouldn’t Die?  The closest thing it has to a star is Frankie Ray, whom MSTies might know as the writer of Laserblast.  He also wrote Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, which I really, really need to see one of these days.  Film Historian Bill Warren described Invasion of the Star Creatures as ‘so helplessly bad it’s almost unwatchable’.  Let’s find out if he was right.

Fort Nicholson is the world’s center for atomic research, despite apparently being staffed entirely by idiots.  The two biggest idiots are, unfortunately, our main characters.  Their names are Philbrick and Penn.  No, I don’t know which is which.  No, I don’t care.  I’m gonna call them Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice.  The first ‘comedic’ sequence involves Rick With The Squeaky Voice sitting in a barrel pretending he’s going to space, and getting his ass set on fire.

That sets the tone for the whole movie quite nicely. It’s stupid and it’s not funny, and it never gets any better.  In fact, as we shall see, it gets significantly worse.

For some reason, Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice are assigned to a mission to explore a cave recently exposed by a nuclear test.  This turns out to be the base for two seven-foot space women, Tanga and Pona, and their tuberous minions, the Vege-Men, and the entire party is soon in their clutches.  The aliens say that they have come to save humanity from destroying ourselves through nuclear war, but naturally the army isn’t into that.  Rick With The Squeaky Voice discovers that kissing the women puts them into a daze, allowing the two idiots to escape, but of course nobody back at Fort Nicholson believes their story.  Is it really up to these two to stop Tanga and Pona from heading back to their home planet with their report?  We’re doomed.

I don’t remember which review it was, but I once invited you to imagine a movie in which every character is Dropo or Watney Smith.  This is that movie.  This is proud of being that movie.  The aliens try to read the two Ricks’ minds and one is completely empty while the other is full of superhero fantasies.  Pona calls what she sees ‘completely illogical and infantile’, which is a fair description of the whole movie.

There’s a sequence where one of the army men shoots a rattlesnake that was about to bite one of the Ricks, and then cries because ‘he might have had a family’.  They try to lampoon the thing in old movies where the characters walk through the same set from different angles by doing it without cutting away or changing the camera angle, but it just looks dumb.  The Colonel gives a long-winded speech about the merits of getting straight to the point.  A forced march stops for a lovely picnic and wine tasting.  A guy gets his ass kicked by a Vege-Man and declares, “that’s the first time a salad ever tossed me.”  There’s a running ‘gag’ about fans of ‘Space Commander Connors’ recognizing each other’s secret decoder rings and immediately going into a full-on geek-out.

None of this is funny, much of it is downright embarrassing, and the worst part is that the writers have no idea how to include their attempts at comedy in the story.  Rather than the hijinks advancing the plot, every time something that’s supposed to be funny happens, the whole thing comes to a dead halt.  This gives the impression that the movie is stumbling around in the dark with no idea where it’s going.  It finally seems to settle on a plot when we find out that the spaceship is about to leave and must be stopped.  After some bullshit the Ricks convince the Colonel (and only the Colonel) to help them take on the aliens.  At this point I was thinking that this movie was pretty terrible but it hadn’t actually pushed me to the point of being tempted to turn it off…

And then it got racist.

The last ten minutes or so of Invasion of the Star Creatures are a downward spiral in which it seems like they gave up trying to be funny in favour of being actively offensive. First, they encounter what’s supposed to be a group of Native Americans on horseback.  Rick With The Squeaky Voice tries to get their attention by saying “hey, Kemosabe, I wanna buy some blankets!”  The Natives don’t speak much English but they do a lot of grunting, and threaten to kill the Colonel because they think he’s General Custer (?!).  Then they kidnap everybody and force them to smoke the peace pipe and drink firewater and the white guys only escape once the Natives have passed out.

Holy shit.  Not only is this repulsive, it is, as previously noted, irrelevant.  It has no effect on the plot other than to waste time.  The Natives do not help them defeat the aliens and neither does the Colonel, who is also in a drunken stupor.  And then, just when we think this can’t possibly get any worse, the defeated alien women declare that they must throw themselves on the mercy of the Earth Men.  This turns out to mean marrying them, and the dialogue specifically likens marriage to slavery, which Tanga and Pona seem to consider a point in its favour!  The end of this movie left my head spinning.  It’s like I watched a guy get ‘comedically’ knocked over by a punching bag for forty-five minutes and then he suddenly turned around and punched me in the face.

(Hey, I just realized… remember how I said the cave was exposed by a nuclear test?  The dialogue emphasizes how this whole area is irradiated and dangerous – and then totally forgets about it.  It’s never mentioned again and the characters take off their protective gear and never put it back on.  So… that was useless, too.)

There is stuff in this movie that could have been funny.  The secret decoder ring stuff almost got a smile out of me once or twice, because the characters seemed so earnest in their love for ‘Space Commander Connors’ and his lore.  The ‘Vege-Men’ also had potential.  We get to see a greenhouse room where they’re grown to be the women’s slaves, and the seedlings are hands or feet sticking out of flowerpots with a few leaves around them.  This is fairly amusing and I could see it being the juvenile form of a sentient plant on Star Trek TOS.  Adult Vege-Men are actors in stupid carrot costumes that they obviously can’t see out of very well, which should have been funny just because it’s so terrible, but Invasion of the Star Creatures is so bad you can’t even laugh at it ironically.

The idea of using a bumbling idiot as your main character, let alone two bumbling idiots, frankly baffles me.  Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice are supposed to be the guys we, the audience, identify with.  We’re supposed to like and root for them and to perhaps be able to imagine ourselves in their places, but the only thing I feel for them is contempt.  Why would anyone want to see themselves in these guys?  Perhaps it’s an attempt to say that anybody can be a hero, but the two Ricks don’t even qualify as that.  When they save the world, it’s basically by accident.  The ending, which rewards them with promotions, medals, and beautiful wives from outer space, actively makes me angry because they didn’t earn any of that!

Invasion of the Star Creatures works very hard at being pointless, and there’s very little in it that comes anywhere near a theme.  If any such thing exists, its in Tanga and Pona’s insistence that they’re here to save humanity whether we like it or not, and how the humans react to that idea.  The women say it would be a shame to see a young civilization destroy itself because nations were too stupid to work together.  Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice reject this entirely, which is supposed to be a joke: these guys are in the army, so if humanity transcends the need for conflict they’d be out of a job.  The rest of the plot then seems at pain to emphasize that humans cannot work together, and do not want to.

After all, the two Ricks’ attempts to summon help come to nothing.  The Native Americans never understand that these men want assistance, and the Colonel thinks it’s all a Space Commander Connors game before sliding under the metaphorical table, having never done anything useful.  The Ricks themselves spent most of their time arguing and complaining and in the end succeed only through good luck on their part and poor timing on that of the invaders.  Usually a story that begins with ‘aliens want to save primitive humans from ourselves’ would end with ‘the aliens were wrong about us’.  Invasion of the Star Creatures seems to want to say the aliens were right the whole time!

So there you have it – Invasion of the Star Creatures.  It started off kinda bad and not funny, then swirled down the cinematic toilet into outright offensive, racist, sexist drivel.  I’m trying to think of some small thing I can say about it that’s nice, but I’m having a very hard time.  I guess I kinda liked the rumbly noises that represent the alien language – that was more fun than just having the actresses spout random gobbledygook.  Other than that, I’m at a loss.  The actors suck, the sets suck, the effects suck, the costumes suck, and everybody involved was a bigoted dickweed.  Fuck this movie.

[lucidpantone]

For me personally, I can't get over the fact that Italia committed the cardinal sin of casting a white non muslim actress to play the role of Sana. Sorry for bringing back the same old debate but please hear me out. It's an undeniable fact that, representation does not count without opportunity. She was played by a wonderfully talented actress, but she gets to take that hijab off at the end of the day and go back to living a life where she or her family have never had to face the ostracism of living as muslims in the western world. The other Sana actresses intrinsically understand this nuance of their lives because they have lived it, which is why they are able to contribute to the writing and give story suggestions for their seasons regardless of the real tptb.

I'm not saying talent and authenticity can't exist without trauma and suffering. But the casting of Sana is a political act in itself. It is meant to break barriers for the unheard and the neglected voices within the industry, thereby bringing their struggles and their shame to the forefront, and also to give them a place at the table. As an equal. It's an attempt at leveling the playing field.

What Julie Andem did in casting an actual hijabi non-actress to play Sana in a country like Norway was imo, revolutionary. It gave Iman a platform. Even if Skam had not become an international phenomenon, Iman still received her due recognition within Norway, and now she's out and about doing her own revolutionary stuff. The other remakes understood this aspect and rightfully cast a muslim actress, while Italia simply stole that opportunity from muslim talent in the country. Right now, we could be celebrating a never known Italian muslim actress just the way we celebrate the rest of the Sanas who achieved international acclaim for their performances alongside the Evas and the Noras and the Isaks of the world. But we'll never ever have that now. It's honestly unforgivable. Think of the stolen opportunity from a young muslim teenager who might have been a fan of the og and wanted to play Sana, and what message she received with this casting.

Ironically, Italia is also one of my favourite remakes, I actually love the focus on relationships and the beautiful cinematography, an overall chilled out pacing, and the touch of originality within each season. Giovanni is an absolute legend, and besse is a brilliant director. But they did their Sana dirty. It's irreversible damage. It's important to note that it was only after the massive backlash that they found actual brown/muslim actors to play Sana's friends and family in S4 and the story was with consultation of a Muslim journo/writer. She wasn't a writer on the show, she was a consultant. Which is great, but not the same thing. Who is to say that without the backlash they'd have taken all of these steps? Besse spent time with muslims and studied the culture and tried to create an authentic story for his Sana, but his casting of Sana is his Achilles heel. It also had like zero black actors except for the temporary boyf of Filippo in s3. Someone who knows nothing about the contemporary Italians may think there are no black people in Italy.

Italia S4 is only marginally better in that it didn't completely annihilate their Sana the way skamfr and skames did. Let's not start with Druck because that's a whole bunch of missed opportunities and laziness. Wtfock... Well let's see if they can surprise me. Keeping my expectations six feet under the ground.

Its long after the cut

Ohhh trust me I get it. I feel a lot like this right now concerning casting a MOC as a main. Like most fans of color set the bar super fucking low already concerning mains that aren’t white. People will literally make all types of allowances just to simply get one main who isn’t white in a remake. Speaking for me personally, I will over look using stereotypical tropes, I will overlook them being model/influencers, I will look the obvious lack of effort from the writers to attack meaningful storylines that actually highlight the experiences of people of color simply to get some representation. This is why I am still angry about the Moyo thing because literally all wtfock had to do was main him and they would have got a pat on the back for doing the bare ass minimum and they wouldn't even do that because they didn’t think maining a black boy would be profitable so in many ways am happy that shit blew up in their face. You deserved it for being stupid but the person that pays that price ultimately is Noa and that hurts. Concerning Italia I think thats the thing that stings the most that if Ludo would have just made minimal effort like the bare minimum and just found an actress who was muslim people would have applauded him for getting a half decent script out that finally gave a muslim actress meaningful plot that felt honest to her experiences. So its like damn can any of Sana’s just get a fucking win bruh. Like people are literally willing to take the bare minimum here. Like if wtfock does even a half decent job people will praise them and in many ways they didnt deserve the praise because all they did was do the bare minimum for Nora. I mean if its written well of course I will acknowledge a well written script but it does feel sorta of like is this even a win when we are on our 6 Sana remake. It takes fuck up after fuck up to get a half decent season that doesnt undercut the muslim girls narrative for once. Like people aint even asking for much either. Also I agree about the actress being muslim because Nora herself has said that a muslim protagonist who isn’t shown in some harsh oppressive light hasn't really been seen in belgium. I also appreciate that she has experience some of the issues Yasmina will depict. Nora’s conflict between wearing a hijab and not wearing one. Nora’s conflict between really trying to identify if Islam really was for her and ultimately researching and studying and accepting Islam into her heart because it felt like it was the right path for her and I agree that they took those experiences away from a muslim italian actress and her opportunity to depict them. I still want to recognize its definitely one of the most solid script of out of the remakes but I am also well aware that I have made a shit ton of personal allowances when coming to that conclusion because I am comparing it to a bunch of mediocre efforts. 

[ladyanput]

Part2 of Mari adopting Alya's kid (I forgot if I said boy or girl). Mari had briefly dated Adrien but both prefered to be bffs and when she got together with Nino they fell in love and after 6 months they get married while Alya's kid was 2 years old and adopted the kid. Mari and Nino had 4 kids together 2 sets of twins a year apart and the fashion and movie industry love the family. (Nino got famous as a dj and movie director while Mari a fashion designer who helps Nino in his movies)

It was a place of love. Nino was so happy, to have the love of a beautiful, hard working wife, a daughter that grew into a sensational movie star, and twin teen boys who enjoyed their time in the limelight.

"The movie is trending." Marinette said from her side of the bed, smiling over at her husband, soon setting down her cell phone and snuggling into his side, only to receive a soft kiss from Nino. "I told you it would be."

"It was because of Daphné. She's the star of the movie." Nino said, shrugging as he embraced his wife. He had gone over many actors with Adrien, who remained a close friend of the family, so close that he and Kagami were the children's god parents.

Adrien and Nino made sure neither put their children into any big industry like modeling or acting. They wouldn't submit their children into that kind of abuse like Gabriel had done to his son. But when Nino's daughter got older and begged to act, he gave in. And as he read the reviews, he knew she would quickly become a big name in the film industry. And he was proud.

"It's also because of you." Marinette beamed as they shut off their lamps and settled into bed, cuddling close. She grabbed his hand and their fingers laced together. "Prepare to be known worldwide now, Mr. director."

"I love you, Nette." Nino whispered, kissing the top of her head.

"I love you too, Nino.."

---

Daphné Lahiffe rolled her eyes as she kept getting texts from her twin brothers . Florin and Hadrian were pains, but she loved her brothers. Brothers with large blue eyes, mops of messy black hair, and made girl's hearts throb.

While Daphné had grown into a real beauty. And now she was an actress. The attention was already starting, many people staring after her as she walked along the streets of Paris. Many ran up and asked for her autograph, she even took a few photos with some people.

Though it was a bit much, the attention wasn't unwelcome. She had signed up for this, afterall.

"Excuse me, Daphné?" A woman's voice brought Daphné from her thoughts. She turned around and saw a woman at around forty years away, standing not too far from her. "Daphné Lahiffe?"

"Yes?" The young actress eyed the woman. She was tall, a bit of the bigger side, dressed in jeans that were far too tight, and a blouse. Her reddish brown hair, streaked with a lot of grey, was pulled back into a bun. A pair of hazel eyes peered through her thick rimmed glasses. "Can I help you?"

"My name is Alya." The older woman walked up to her, smiling brightly at her. "I'm your mother."

---

"You're my mother?" After her initial shock, Alya had offered to take Daphné to a nearby café to talk. So here they were, seated and talking. " Why should I believe you?"

"No, you didn't think you got your good looks from your father, now did you?" Alya laughed, then slid a small, folded up photo across the table. It was of a younger looking Alya and Nino, on a hospital bed with Alya holding a small baby. "I'm your mother, Daphné. I loved you more than anything, until your father kicked me out."

"What?" Daphné's brows drew together in confusion.

"You were barely two months old... Your father was having an affair with that horrible woman, Marinette... He kicked me out so that he could be with her." Alya wiped away a year she managed to force up. "He wouldn't let me have you, he threatened me to keep me away."

"Then why come just now?" Daphné's eyes narrowed as she stared at her birth mother, crossing her arms.

"Because you're old enough to understand now. You can realize how much he's hurt your mother." Alya reached out, setting a hand on her daughter's arm, only to scowl when she stood. "Where are you going?"

"Even if a fraction of what you said is true, my mother and father are nothing like what you said." Daphné snapped, taking a few bills out of her purse and tossing them onto the table. "If you're wanting money, here! Don't ever talk to me again!"

And with that, she stormed out of the café.

---

"Mama, papa!" Daphné came storming into the living room, tears in her eyes.

Nino and Marinette, who had been watching a movie with the twins, were on their feet in an instant and rushed over to embrace their daughter.

"What's wrong, are you hurt?" Her mother whispered, stroking away the tears gentle.

With a sniffle, Daphné began to tell them everything.

Once she was done, Nino and Marinette exchanged a look. They had always thought this was going to happen someday.

"Daphné, while some of what Alya said was true, such as her being your birth mother, me kicking her out of the apartment... But Alya never once asked to have custody of you, to meet you. I met Marinette again after I divorced her." Nino explained, kissing his daughter's forehead. "You know we love you."

"Does it bother you, that I didn't give birth to you?" Marinette whispered, a nervous expression flickering across her face. Daphné turned and hugged her tightly.

"You're my mother, why would it bother me? I love you. You're my mama, not her.." Daphné whispered, and Marinette embraced her tightly.

The family enjoyed a nice dinner together, their phones off as they didn't want to be disturbed. Adrien and Kagami came by, and had a little party, a celebration for last night's big hit at the premiere.

There was a knock at the door. Nino, joyful, went and answered the door. His smile vanished instantly when he saw Alya, who threw her arms around him and kissed him fiercely.

"Alya?!" Nino shoved his ex wife away and stared at her in shock. "How the hell did you get past security?!"

"I have my ways." Alya grinned, stepping into the main hall, admiring the glamour of the house. The house that should have been hers. "I'm here to take you back, Nino."

"I beg your pardon?" Nino wiped the lip gloss off of his mouth and shot her a glare. Adrien stepped into the main hall with Marinette and Kagami, but he quickly pulled them back, out of sight, to eavesdrop. "Alya, please, leave, before I call the police."

"You know that you've missed me, Nino. I mean, look at out daughter, she looks just like me. You must have thought of me every day. And you bought this house! This is the house you and I planned on buying once we got famous." Alya grinned, stepping up to him, setting her hands on his chest.

It scared Adrien how much Alya's actions reminded him of Lila. She's the one that most likely taught Alya these moves.

"I bought this house with my wife. I thought of building my life with HER here, you never crossed my mind once." Nino roughly grabbed Alya's wrists and shoved her away. He looked pissed now. "I don't ever want you back, you assume too much, you don't appreciate the things you have, Alya, and you're selfish! You push and push and push, but don't like it when life pushes back! That's why I'll never ever want you back! You're ungrateful and spiteful, and take a liar's word over your own husband's!"

"I agree." Marinette stepped into the hallway, taking Nino's hand as she glared harshly at her former friend. "I highly suggest you leave, Alya."

"I'm not going anywhere! I am his wife! Alya says since he still has my daughter, I have every right to everything he has!" Alya pointed hard at Nino.

"... Why the hell are you still listening to Lila?" Adrien stepped into the room, Kagami close behind, talking into her cell phone.

"Because she's married to an important CEO in Italy, she has to know these kinds of things." Alya looked smug as she crossed her arms. "You really missed out on her, Adrien."

"She's a waitress downtown." Kagami spoke up, meeting Alya's shocked gaze. "Single, leeching off of older, rich men to survive..."

"You still don't do your research, Alya." Marinette sighed sadly, as police lights lit up the windows. Panic filled Alya's expression and she looked ready to bolt, but Nino reached out and grabbed her arm.

"You're not going anywhere." Nino hissed.

Alya looked at the faces. The faces that were once her friends. Her eyes darted around, before landing on Daphné, who was lingering in the doorway to the kitchen. A smile of relief crossed Alya's face.

"Daphné, please, you know family is important, right? Come help your mother!"

Daphné's eyes narrowed and she strode right up to Alya, until they were nose to go.

"You never have been and never will be my mother. My mother is Marinette Dupain-Cheng Lahiffe, twenty times the person you ever will be.." Daphné hissed, stepping back, and taking her mother's hand.

Alya stared. She kept staring when the police entered the house. She stared at the police handcuffed her and took her to their cruiser. She stared back at the house that should have been hers. At the husband that should have been here, the daughter that should have been hers.

But now, now Marinette had it all. Every single thing Alya had wanted.

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