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NMTDaily: TRUTH / OLIVES / PIZZA

Part One: TRUTH

- The first thing you need to know is that these are my three favorite episodes in all of NMTD. Of course they are, it’s just three episodes of my favorite boy talking himself into realizing he’s in love with Beatrice. This monologue from the play was SO perfectly adapted and SO perfectly performed. Truth/Olives/Pizza my beloved!

- These three episodes put together are an adaptation of one single monologue in the play that then ends with Beatrice showing up to bid Benedick in to dinner. I was gonna make one big post on all three episodes, but I have too much to say about each one, apparently. So you’re getting three posts.

- The irony is that I don’t like olives and I can’t have pizza unless it has nondairy cheese or no cheese at all. But I will always have Truth/Olives/Pizza!

- Something that haunts me: what is the deal with “I finally got my posters up”? Out of world it probably just took TCW some time to finish the set dressing (in which case why call that out to an audience that might not have even noticed a difference?) But in-world? Ben, you’ve presumably lived in this house since you were 13, why did you not decorate your own room until comparatively two seconds before you leave for university? I guess Ben probably also wanted set dressing for his videos in-world, but it’s still weird to me that he hadn’t put up anything on that wall in all his teenage years living there.

- This is part of why I used to think his parents were divorced. Like Ben and his mom were rearranging the house after his dad moved out and he got to pick a new room now that there was more space upstairs? Idk man, I just find this line to be almost the only thing in the entire series that reminds me it’s fictional, that takes me out of the world for a second.

- And immediately we’re right into the secondhand recap of Ben’s overhearing scene. I am really glad we got Tricking Ben eventually, it would be a shame to miss seeing that moment.

- “LEO! So this has got to be true.” Stroke of genius by the Love Gods, bringing Leo into the plan. This is the detail that gets Ben to believe what he overhears, and it’s very important. I also love picturing Hero and Pedro as the Love God Representatives going to Leo and pitching him their big plan. I’m sure he threw his head back and laughed for a solid minute before saying “hell yeah, I’m in, let’s do this.”

- “Beatrice- Beatrice- likes me. She LIKES me!” Ben is genuinely panicked and weirded out by this at first. It’s unprecedented (for him anyway). It’s also adorable.

- The devil horns! Also doubling as a reference to the play, where horned is a euphemism for married.

- “Why not someone who likes her back?” Ben genuinely does not know yet that he does like her back. This is the very beginning of a world-rocking Feelings Realization! Of course, if he got his wish here and found out Bea liked someone else, Ben would still have had his feelings realization anyway, because of how jealous he’d be.

- “you spend every lunchtime glaring at me” Ben. That means she spends every lunchtime staring at you. I can’t believe Beatrice just canonically, noticeably, is always staring at Ben. She doesn’t know why, but we do 😏

- “they said if I knew about Beatrice liking me, that I’d just act like some self-centered, proud, arrogant, unheroic douchebag.” Well, I doubt they put it exactly like that, so it’s very funny to me that this is how Ben phrases it. First of all, those first three words are practically synonyms, you don’t need all of them unless you really want to drive the point home. Secondly, I adore “unheroic”. What kind of teenager says “unheroic”? Ben, you ARE a Shakespearean hero, but I don’t think you’re supposed to know that! 😆 I guess it is a very teenage-boy word choice, when they know more about the fictional concept of heroes than they know about being a good man in a boring modern world. Which is cool because that’s exactly what Ben is about to learn. How to be a good man and an ally to women.

- “She is really funny…” already starting to consider it, are we Ben? He just sounds so fond on the next part about it being hard to see when you’re in the middle of things. It’s precious.

- Ben: *starts to re-analyze every interaction he’s ever had with Beatrice through the lens of her liking him* *panics* lol

- That’s exactly what’s happening, the arguing is flirting, and they’ve BOTH been doing it while stubbornly refusing to understand that that’s the reason they like arguing with each other so much! I love them. The second Ben looks at their arguing from this lens, it’s over for him. “Oh god, this proves it!”

- I love the Let Me Explain Through Interpretive Dance t-shirt juxtaposed with how Ben is hardcore talking with his hands this entire video. He’s explaining through interpretive hands!

- ooh, Beatrice texting on the phone that she currently can’t find! The plot thickens… (Hero, it was Hero)

- I love Hero knowing that Ben will believe that Bea wrote that text if she calls him Dickface and makes fun of the Hero/Claudio relationship. Shows how often Bea talks about “the Dickface” to Hero and also how she openly rolls her eyes at Hero’s romance to Hero’s face, which is sad for Hero.

- “surprisingly nice of her to invite me” Hook, line, and sinker! Well played, Hero and Team Love Gods! Hook him with the Overhearing, then catch him with the text showing Bea reaching out to him.

- Also heart-crushing in the context that she used to be his best friend and this is the first time she’s invited him to do anything since their falling-out. And he’s genuinely touched, but also genuinely surprised. And it isn’t even really her. </3

Comment round-up:

- The adorable pinned comment where a very earnest commenter (playing along and pretending this is a real vlogger and not a character) gives Ben the advice to not be a douche, observe how Bea acts around him, and take the camera to the party. And Ben adorably convinces himself in the replies that it’s chill to bring the camera because Bea also vlogs. I love him.

- Commenter who is not playing along: “Oooh it’s starting!” Ben, replying: “Ooh what’s starting?” Love a fourth wall break.

- Commenter: “the world must be peopled!” Ben replying: “yeah, true.” YEAH TRUE. OMFG he wants to have her babies 😆

- “Go ahead and be horribly in love with her!” Amen, commenter. Amen.

- oh this is the video where Ben links to a song in reply to a comment and says it makes him happy! And the song is about falling in love and is called Benediction!!! My post about that. 💖 He was definitely listening to that song and thinking about his own newfound feelings for Bea! And it made him happy!

- Someone points out Ben has the Game of Thrones books in his room, and that’s Beatrice’s favorite TV show. The compatibility!

- Someone points out how Ben jumped straight from “she likes me” to “not the person to fall in LOVE with”. Jumping to the big L word awfully quick there, Ben!

- Someone asking Ben “Molly or John?” Which I can only assume is asking which character Ben ships Sherlock with on BBC Sherlock. Lol. No answer from Ben, who is almost certainly not a shipper of anything at this point. I don’t think that’s generally how he does fandom rn. He will become a shipper after he finds love and decides he doesn’t hate romance after all, but we aren’t quite there yet ;) Someone get Lolilo-era Ben into shipping Johnlock and Frodo/Sam so he can stop shipping Pedrazar in his real life!

- People noting the posters are HP, Scott Pilgrim, and Banksy. Banksy?! That’s interesting. Why do we think Ben has a Banksy poster? Did he just think it was cool or does he follow the world of street art?

- Someone in the comments says “and so it begins…” which is the title of the first episode of the series! Likely unintentional but still a reference.

I’ll leave you there! Hoping to do posts for OLIVES and PIZZA soon, so we can see more of Ben realizing he loves Beatrice and being a lovely little loser about it!

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I would just like to point out my favorite detail of the cast picture we used for the Lolilo Daily announcement post: Harriett and Jake giving each other their forehead Ls! The captains of the Beadick ship and adorable friends, everyone. (Also Fritso is there!)

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Welcome to LoLiLoDaily!

The 10 year anniversary of Lovely Little Losers by @thecandlewasters is coming up, and we are organising a fan-run daily experience. Follow along via substack as four flatmates embark on the uni experience in this 2015 Love’s Labour’s Lost inspired web series.

Emails will include youtube videos and other transmedia content like tweets. The first one comes this December, while the main body of emails runs from 15 July - 26 December 2025.

This blog is run by @thebirdscomeback, @galwithalibrarycard, @areadingturtle and @cardboardsean. The substack itself is run by thebirdscomeback and cardboardsean. Send your questions about the experience here or to one of us, and find other fans in the #lolilodaily tag! (NB this is entirely fan-run, the actual creators of the show are of course The Candle Wasters)

We’re so excited to revisit the losers with you all!

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NMTDaily: First-World Coat Hangers

- Wooooo hello I’m back! We’re gonna finish this thing, hopefully before Lolilo Daily starts! (Stay tuned in the nmtd tags for the info on that!)

- *rolls up sleeves* *hits Play*

- This will be a short one, because this episode is a minute and a half of foreshadowing an upcoming plot development. Hi Beatrice, I have missed your face!

- “Am I right or am I right? I’m always right!” A Beatrice classic moment right there

- Hero has been stealing hangers from Bea’s closet to hang her many beautiful dresses in her own closet. Beatrice is annoyed by this. I feel you, girl. I live alone and I still never have enough hangers.

- The mention of pretty dresses feels like a call forward to Hero’s upcoming fancy-dress birthday party 🫣

- Bea could also, I don’t know, go buy more hangers? But lbr no one ever actually remembers to do that, and she’s a teenager with no job, so never mind.

- The real plot-important tidbit on this episode: Beatrice’s phone has also gone missing! How will she survive?!

- Spoilers: Do we think the hanger theft was a dry run for Hero to see if she could sneak into and out of Bea’s room at night without waking her up? Because that’s the only relevance I can see the hanger-theft having.

- “I hate it when I lose things” is VERY funny coming from someone whose room is admittedly so messy that she can’t show it on camera. This lost phone incident is not your fault, Bea, but still.

- Bizarre AF that I was also a teenager when I first watched this and now I’m an adult telling Bea to clean her room 💀

- Bea is still in the video description complaining about Hero’s makeup video. That really got under her and Ben’s respective skins. Lol.

- The comments reveal another Bea and Ben common interest parallel: Beatrice is wearing a Flight of the Conchords t-shirt in this episode, and Ben has a FotC poster in his room. (FotC is still on the list of things I have to watch because they were referenced in NMTD.)

- Another comment, by katekursive1370, says “You and Ben both don’t iron your t-shirts. Perfect for each other.” This doesn’t hold much water for me because have you ever met a single teenager who has ever used a clothes iron on anything? I don’t think I have, and I went to Catholic school. 😆

- The comments are READY for Bea’s overhearing scene. Soon…

- That’s all for this episode! I am SO excited for the three-episode-long Ben monologue coming up next, let’s gooooo!

💖🦩🥭

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I would like you all to know that I AM going to finish my NMTDaily liveblog. No matter how long it takes me, I’m gonna liveblog every episode. But since the official experience is over- thank you all. It’s been wonderful! Stay tuned.

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Speaking of NMTD/Lolilo anniversary events, January 2025 is going to be the ten-year anniversary of Lovely Little Ficlets, the 31-day fanfic challenge the NMTD fandom held in January 2015 to celebrate NMTD and hold us all over until Lolilo later that year. Is there anyone else left in the NMTD fic fandom who would do a Lovely Little Ficlets anniversary event this January? Maybe just one week instead of the whole month?

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Okay. So. We do know as of now that there will be no Lolilo Daily, at least not run by the Candle Wasters. (Thank you Minnie for all the work you put into NMTDaily, by the way!)

The question is this: is there interest in a Lolilo Daily run by fans? @areadingturtle and I were thinking about trying to do something. We can discuss each episode here on tumblr and also on the NMTD Fandom Revival Discord, like we did for NMTDaily.

We could try to email out the episodes using a service like TCW did, or we could each watch them on our own.

We could watch them on their original upload dates, or divide the series into chunks so it won’t take as long.

And for those who don’t want to commit to a full rewatch but do want to keep loving these characters (and I am one of you), maybe we could do some content creation days, to keep the fandom alive for another year. People could make gifsets, moodboards, write fanfic. I think we all need something to look forward to.

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Tags from @thephonyqueenofengland and omg can you IMAGINE?!?!?! In the FEATHERS reunion scene, after they hug, BEA is the one who says “I still love you best in all the world.” And Ben says “Not as much as I love you back.” And then they kiss, like they always should’ve! I would DIE.

A moment of silence for The Most Important Line that should’ve been onscreen but instead we only got a tweet 💔

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I’m sorry, I’ll stop spamming the tag now. I just love all these tweets so much. My heart!

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YES

YESSS

I was RIGHT! I said in my liveblog that he would think that dress was a flamingo costume!

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It’s now canon. Beatrice’s list of criteria for her perfect man is one item long, and that item is “must be Benedick Hobbes”. 💖

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MOTHER BEN. Canon mom friend in nmtd and lolilo!!!

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Ben’s eyebrows were definitely waggling up a storm here, this cringey asshole

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And now… a live tweet liveblog!

I love them so much

I LOVE THEM

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A moment of silence for The Most Important Line that should’ve been onscreen but instead we only got a tweet 💔

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The other day I was at the train station and found another book by Catherine Coulter, the author of the book “The Duke” from Hero’s book stack in Tricking Ben. This one also kind of would work as an NMTD Easter egg, although of course when it comes to Beadick the Scottish one would be the groom 😉

NMTDaily: Tricking Ben

This does deviate from the watching as aired schedule, but since the Candle Wasters sent out an email for it at this point in NMTDaily, I will liveblog Tricking Ben.

The short film style makes this the only piece of canon NMTD/LLL content that isn't shot in vlog format. Instead we have the omniscient view on characters who don't know an audience can see them. I am still so sad that I will never see any more scenes shot like this for these characters, because that's the only way I'd have gotten to see all the serious Beadick conversations in Lolilo that I wanted to see.

The film still starts with a fakeout vlog beginning, which is interesting. This is the only time we ever see Pedro independently starting to make a video himself, apart from his appeal to John later on in NMTD, and of course it's to show off Balthazar's music.

HOW is Balthazar allowed to just start playing guitar in the library? How are the boys allowed to have a loud conversation in the library? This whole part is just an exercise in suspension of disbelief that a librarian didn't yell at them.

I like that the colors of the Tricking Ben title card match the colors on Ben's shirt! Fun little detail.

Ben is very awkward around Hero here. They're not yet the friends they will one day be. Aww.

"I bet he has your name saved in his phone with little hearts around it." Yeah, and I bet post-NMTD Ben will have Beatrice's name in his phone with little sparkle-heart emojis all around it!

Ahh, Claudio couldn't meet Ben where he said they'd meet, because then he'd have to walk him right into the conversation instead of letting him overhear it. I see.

Ben is so confused, poor baby.

The books are an Easter egg! The one on the bottom of the stack is called "Benediction", and the next one up is "The Dating Game", I think? The next one up is called How to Love, and the top one is clearly a romance novel by someone called Catherine Coulter, though I can't make out a title. Google says she writes romantic suspense and historical romance. Fitting.

Was that girl looking at books the same actress who played Claudio's new girlfriend in Lolilo? It looks like her. Can you imagine going to the same school as the NMTD crew, hearing all the gossip about what happened to Hero, and then still choosing to date Claudio the next year? Damn, girl.

It's definitely her, that's why they have her say hi to Claudio and Claudio run away from her awkwardly!

Claudio is hardcore panicking. He is not good at being sneaky. So that'll be the other reason he couldn't see Ben face-to-face before the overhearing happened- he wouldn't have been able to act normal enough to avoid making Ben suspicious.

"You know how everyone's unnecessarily obsessed with you?" OMFG the song is An Ode, this is not a drill!!!

Ben just drops his entire bag next to some random kid before going to hide? Take that with you, you don't know when you'll be able to go back for it!

His immediate panic face is excellent, lol.

Here is a gifset I made commemorating Ben's excellent faces in this video. It's basically my analysis of all his faces right in one post.

Leo saving the day! Claudio blurted out that thing about Bea making a vlog, so of course the first thing Ben does is get his phone to look for the video. And Leo thinks fast enough to clarify that she never posted it. That could've totally compromised the plan.

Claudio is SO bad at this.

The book that falls on Ben is called L-L-L-Loser, a Lolilo reference.

John is here! I love how he looks up, like, "Is this intel I'll need for my Plan? Oh, no, nevermind."

There are so many other people here, how did this conversation not get reported back to Beatrice? I bet it's because people who don't know her are wisely too scared of her to bring it up.

"Ben is so brave, and funny, and tall, what shall I DO??!!" Matthew J Smith is the MVP of this one, folks. Hilarious. Also, why would Claudio's first thought be "brave"? Ben hasn't done his brave thing yet, and it's standing up to Claudio!

Okay, thank you, the librarian DOES yell at them. Realism.

I just can't get over how terrified Claudio looks right now. He is so stressed. He looks like he thinks even moving a muscle will blow the secret right now.

I will never get over Ben hiding in the tree in this bit. He has to know they could see him by just turning around. Comically bad hiding place.

The way Ben is holding himself as he sneaks over to the tree, too. It's like, "if I just make myself small and quiet they won't notice me." You are too tall for that, honey, it's not helping.

He did remember to go back for his backpack, though!

It's cute that Balthy and Pedro's outfits match! Red and blue!

Balth is so bemused by Pedro asking about and complimenting the chord he's playing, aww.

Ben's like "SHIT no if he texts me they'll hear my phone!" The facial expressions in this video, truly gold.

His shirt brings out his eyes. Even when they're bugging out in panic, lol.

Awww I love how sad Ben looks at the idea that he'd ruthlessly tear Bea apart for liking him. In my gifset, I summed it up as, "No, I wouldn't enjoy hurting her, and I'm sad you all think I would." <3

"Poor little Ben just can't see what's right under his nose." Says Pedro, while sitting right next to the boy he doesn't know he has a crush on. And while, from Ben's point of view, not realizing Ben himself is right under his nose (or above his head) as well.

"She's so smart." "Yeah, except for loving Benedick." We love lines adapted directly from the play!

"Having a crush can be a nice thing, though." "I don't think it's that kind of crush, Balthy-boy." This makes me so incredibly sad, because it HAS to be foreshadowing to Lolilo and how Balthazar's crush on Pedro goes from something nice that feels good to something incredibly angsty and drawn-out and painful for both of them. :(

Ben's watch going off and the boys pretending not to notice, lol

Like Hero and the girls' conversation for Bea to overhear, the boys' conversation also involves pretending to consider telling one person about the other's crush, then deciding they shouldn't interfere.

I do love imagining the boys pitching this whole thing to Leo, though. And Leo being all in because he and Hero have been saying to each other for months that Bea definitely secretly likes Ben.

Ben sneaks off with the MOST ADORABLE little smile! He loves her! Awwww I wanna squish him!!!!

Hero and Claudio debrief and Claudio calls her a legend for stealing Bea's phone. It hurts my heart how cute they are right here. There are no undertones of Claudio's possessiveness and misogyny present, they're just two kids who like each other. If they'd gotten together after Claudio grew up more and unlearned some stuff, they might even have worked out. :(

Of COURSE Bea has Ben saved in her phone as "Dickface". As soon as they get together I bet she changes it to read just “💕Dickface💕” 😆

Shut UP the end credits music is the instrumental to Way To Tell You!!!! Beatrice’s song for Ben! Ending with an acknowledgement that her feelings for him really do turn out to be real!!!

The comments say there’s also an instrumental of Beatrice You’re Vivacious near the end of the short before the credits, which is precious too.

Oh my god, end credits shot of the books, and the historical romance novel is called THE DUKE!!! Amazing. Also the How to Love book is by Katie Cotugno! I’ve read one of her other books, it had bi rep and I liked it a lot.

Harriett as Director of Photography! I love that these projects gave her a place to learn she prefers to be behind the camera and practice that. I hope she’s doing well.

The credits end on a picture of Harriett and Jake hugging, NO ONE TOUCH ME

They had the sweetest friendship and I hope they still do. Angels.

I am now in mourning again because this is the last time I ever got to see Benedick Hobbes on my screen, and the last time I ever will, so far as I can guess. *cries forever* MY BABYYYY

You all already know I have no chill when it comes to him, don’t look at me. *burritos up in a blanket to sulk*

No but I love Tricking Ben so much and I am so glad they made it for us!!!

Wait, shit, since when did TCW have a patreon?! I’m sure it’s defunct now, but did anyone used to subscribe? Were there any good extras on there? DID I MISS ANY BEADICK CONTENT????!!!!

Comments roundup: Balth was the first to play off the Ode as a joke here; Ben’s “what? What?” was a Tenth Doctor reference; just so much love for these characters and series; Matthew J Smith responding jokingly to a Claudio-centric comment!

💖🥭🦩

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Anyone wanna do me a solid and join me in voting for The Boy in the Time Capsule?

"Why do you have to always correct me?"

*heart eyes* "To help you evolve." <333333

HELLO inspired by @svu-bracket i decided that i wanna find out what the fandom thinks the best episode of the show is !! so i'll be doing a bracket :-)

submit your fav episodes to this google form !! it's gonna be a 24 episode bracket, so if i get more than 24 submissions, i'll be choosing whichever episodes got the most requests. i'll keep it open until october 14 at midnight EST, and the day after i'll start posting polls every day for y'all to vote on !! very excited to see what episodes y'all love best :-)