#cartoon rings my beloved

[hauntedpants]

the bugs or smth idk i wasn’t alive in the 60s

#the beatles fanart #beatles fandom #i’m new #pls be nice #cartoon rings my beloved #george harrison #ringo starr #ringo starkey

[idontcarecarebear]

Who’s walking out of the ring?

Bilbo from the 1977 cartoon vs Bilbo from the live action movies

I realised that it says 1997 but I meant 1977 I just can’t read numbers

#Lord of the rings #the fellowship of the ring #the two towers #the hobbit an unexpected journey #the hobbit desolation of smaug #the hobbit battle of the five armies #Bilbo Baggins #Bilbo Baggins 1997 Cartoon #bilbo my beloved #fili #kili #dwalin #thorin oakenshield #dori #nori #ori #balin #bofur #bifur #bombur #oin #gloin #the hobbit bilbo #the hobbit #bagginshield #thilbo #gandalf #it’s 1977 but I’m bad with numbers

[drabblesandimagines]

Kitty (part 5)

Parts 1-4 can be found at my masterlist. Pairings: Rei Suwa x reader Lotsa fluff (as usual)

Your alarm goes off just before seven but you’ve been awake a while, staring at the ceiling and blaming an internal body clock. Before you’d gone up to bed last night, Kazuki had said he’d take Miri to daycare in the morning but you’d assured him you could do it. You’d at least slept a bit before they’d come home and it’s not the first time you’ll get by on less than a full night’s sleep. You get up and dressed – a denim dungaree dress, black t-shirt and leggings – and head through to Miri’s bedroom, coaxing her out of bed and downstairs with the promise of her beloved chocolate cereal for breakfast if she plays what you’ve dubbed the whisper game, saying you both had to be as sneaky and quiet as mice. You’re hoping to keep the noise down to allow Kazuki and Rei some more sleep. Miri settles down with cartoons on mute as she eats and you eat something from Kazuki’s large amount of food prep from the other day. It’s then back up to the bedroom to get her dressed, do the temperature record and sentence or two about the late night for her book, and packing up her essentials for the day.

All packed and ready, you’re heading to the front door when the bathroom door slides open and a bed-headed – tub-headed? - Rei emerges, yawning.

“Morning,” he mumbles.

“Papa Rei!” Miri collides into his legs, still whispering - thankfully. “Are you coming too? Please, please!”

“Er… Sure,” he runs a hand through his hair in an attempt to flatten it and shuffles over to the door, Miri holding onto his leg the whole way. “Why are we whispering?”

“Me and Kitty are mice - squeak-squeak!” She squeals, shoving her shoes onto her feet. “You try, Papa Rei.”

“Er…” He looks at Miri and then you – you give what you hope is an encouraging smile.

“Squeak.”

--

Picking up Miri yesterday was odd – you’d ignore the mothers’ stares and hushed comments of, “Is she the mistress?” And “No, she’s got to be the nanny”, when they’d seen you waiting for Miri to pack her belongings, chatting politely with Ms Anna. You hadn’t quite made it through stutter-free, but the daycare teacher’s kind eyes and smile hadn’t put you so on edge, at least.

It’s even weirder being here with Rei. Miri is holding both yours and Rei’s hands as you approach the daycare and the chatter appears to cease entirely as soon as you step foot into the playground. Seeing Rei at morning drop-off must be a rare occurrence as the mothers soon descend, swarming the three of you, saying how nice it was to see him, but where’s Kazuki?

“Uh…” Rei trailed off, looking a little like a deer caught in headlights at the women’s questioning.

“Z-Z-Zuki’s f-fine.” The eyes all turn to you and you regret opening your mouth, but you can see they’re after more detail. “H-he’s j-just h-h-hav-having a l-lie-in.” You can deal with Kazuki, Rei and Miri looking at you, but the gaggle of women is a little too much and your stutter got progressively worse the more you tried to get through the sentence. You want the floor to swallow you up.

There are some raised eyebrows and side glances, but suddenly – thankfully - Rei’s arm is around your shoulders and he navigates the three of you a way out through the crowd. “Excuse us.” He grunts. They all share a glance before they’re staring down at their phones, texting furiously. Rei drops his arm as soon as you’re clear and you immediately miss its reassuring presence. Miri tugs at your arm, speedwalking over to Ms Anna. Rei falls behind for a second and a mother jumps at the opportunity, grabbing hold of him by his arm.

“Rei, it’s so lovely to see you here. Kazuki tells us how busy you are. I’m Asahi’s mother, I’m sure Miri’s told you all about her!” She giggles. The name vaguely rings a bell in Rei’s head – something about Asahi being quite bossy.

“Uh-huh,” Rei tries to politely shrug his arm out of her grip to follow you and Miri but she holds firm. “And I take that sweet girl is your nanny! I hope you don’t mind me saying this – and I’m sure she’s nice - but I couldn’t help but notice that nasty stutter. You do need to be careful around this age, exposing Miri to something like that could hamper her educational development, you know? And she could replicate the behaviour around my Asahi, they’re just so easily influenced at this age…”

Rei is done with being polite and shakes his arm free with force. “Shut up.”

“Excuse me?” Her face screams disbelief.

Rei is ready to repeat himself, but doubt swirls in his mind. Kazuki probably would agree, but he could also be mad if he finds out Rei’s made an enemy with one of the daycare moms… He bites his tongue and rephrases.

“I said, she’s not the nanny. And her stutter is fine.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. As I said, she seems very sweet. I just thought…”

“I know.” Rei grits his teeth. “Thank you.” And then he strides over to where you and Miri are chatting to Ms Anna at the door, waiting for you.

“E-everything okay?” You ask.

“Mm.”

After Miri is signed in and waves you both goodbye, Rei’s arm is back around your shoulders and speed walks the both of you through the crowd with a scowl across his face – warning everyone to steer clear. You’re thankful – there’s probably not a job in public speaking for you in the future.

“You okay?” He checks in as you head up the street, back towards the apartment.

“Y-yeah. I f-feel a little s-silly that I pa-panicked.”

“They kind of scare me too, to be honest.”

You laugh a little at that. You can’t imagine much scaring Rei.

His arm is still around your shoulders and it feels comforting as you walk. You think about returning the gesture, slipping your own arm around his waist when suddenly a ringtone blares out and his arm leaves your shoulders to retrieve his phone from his pocket. Too late. “It’s Kazuki.”

He answers without a word.

“Where are you?” You can hear Kazuki’s tired voice echo through the speaker. You don’t want to eavesdrop but the volume makes it impossible.

“I’m with Kitty – Miri wanted us both to take her to daycare.”

“Oh, did she?” A pause. “Ohhhh, you sly dog.” What on earth does that mean?

“Huh?” Rei seems as clueless as you.

“Hey, buddy, why don’t you both swing by and see Kyu? You can pick up the payment for yesterday and have a drink.”

“Er…” He pulls the phone away from his face. “Do you mind if we pop in to see Kyu?”

“No.” You shake your head. “S-sounds nice.” You haven’t met the man who’s apparently researching your past yet. Kazuki had taken photos of you on his phone to show him previously for his research.

“Okay. We’ll go.”

“Great! And, er, no need to rush back, if you get what I mean. Bye!”

The phone beeps, signaling the end of the call and Rei pulls it back from his face, looking bemused. He doesn’t get what Kazuki means.

“Is Z-Zuki okay?”

“He’s being weird.” He sticks his hands back in his pocket. “We’ll head this way, then. You’ll like the walk along the river bank.”

You reach the café Yadorigi and Rei holds the door open for you. There’s a tall gentleman dressed in black behind the counter, drying off a cup as you enter. He has brown hair and glasses and a mildly surprised look as you enter with Rei. Looking around briefly, it seems you’re currently his only customers at this early hour.

“Well, it’s rare I see you out of the apartment, Rei. And this must be the famous Kitty.” He smiles warmly at you, gesturing for you both to take a seat at the counter.

“H-hi.” You smile back, sitting down on a stool. “It’s nice t-to meet y-you.”

“You too. I do hope Kazuki and Rei are treating you well.”

“V-very well, thank y-you.” There’s something about Kyu that’s calming - almost.

“Good.” He turns to Rei. “Good work yesterday. Here for your payment?”

Rei nods and Kyu pulls open a drawer. He removes two brown envelopes and slides them over and Rei tucks them into his jacket pocket. You don’t know what the job exactly entailed of – of course you’d heard some of the preparations but you’d tried not to eavesdrop. It could’ve been surveillance, blackmail, reconnaissance… It could’ve been assassination. If you hadn’t seen them in action for yourself, would you really think the two men who had taken you in were hitmen of all things? They were so patient and kind with you from the get-go. They don’t match the stereotype of people you’d been with living with in the shady underworld the past few years – you couldn’t imagine any of his men returning home to cook, clean, do laundry and lovingly tuck a child into bed. Come to think of it, you weren’t sure any of the men even had homes. The house began to seem more and more a compound towards the end as his gang grew until, that is, he was deemed too greedy and had to be eliminated from the competition.

Kazuki and Rei are in a bad business, but they saved you from a miserable, silenced existence. And, from your limited knowledge of their past hits – you’d heard the story of how they came to meet Miri last Christmas – the people they kill are not angels themselves… Kazuki has let you in a little on his past, unprompted, abandoned by his parents, getting by on the streets with cons and grifts. You hadn’t asked Rei. It doesn’t seem proper to ask when you can’t relay anything. You’re aware of the Suwa empire from dinner discussions at the house, he had started to speak his plans to transcend the Organization, rumours of the Suwa heir leaving the nest, exposing a vulnerability…  All whilst you had your head bowed down, hands clasped, awaiting his instructions.

“Kitty?” Rei’s hand is on your arm and you realise you’ve done it again – got tied up in your thoughts and ignored a question.

“S-sorry, I was m-m-miles away.”

“That’s okay.” It’s Kyu this time. “I just asked if there was something you’d like to drink.”

“Oh. Erm…” There’s no menu that you can see, but there’s a familiar scent, sparking something in your brain at the fact you have choice. “Any t-type of c-coffee, really.”

Rei’s eyes widen at that – besides the cocoa, you’d never really partaken in hot drinks back at the apartment, always going for water.

“I didn’t know you liked coffee.”

You smile, sheepishly. “I’m s-still trying t-to work out w-w-what I like too.”

Kyu begins to grind some coffee beans. “So, you really remember nothing of your life before Aktomi?”

Your stomach flips at the name you refuse to use - you squeeze your nails into your palms before you shake your head. “S-sometimes t-there’s a flash of s-something, b-b-but nothing con-concrete. I j-just remember the h-house and him.”

“It could be your brain protecting itself from trauma.” Rei states and Kyu gives him a quizzical look. “Or that’s what I read online.”

That makes you feel uneasy. If your brain was keeping things locked away from before the house – the house in which you were beaten, starved, forced to live in servitude to a mafia boss – what on earth were you not wanting to remember from your home life?

“Could be amnesia from a head injury too.” Kyu comments as he takes the freshly ground coffee over to an espresso machine. “Kazuki said you stopped talking so Aktomi would stop hitting you in the face?”

Rei tenses at that besides you.

You wished Kyu would stop saying his name, but you don’t feel confident enough to voice your discomfort. “I w-was a little st-stubborn, until I-I wasn’t.” Beaten into the good, submissive maid you became.

Kyu notes the deepening scowl on Rei’s face and thinks perhaps he should move the conversation on. “Without sounding too big-headed, my contacts and research are usually spot-on, but I’ve reached a dead end at the moment. I’m still surprised you didn’t show up on anything when the hit was organized. If you remember anything, please get in touch. I’m sure you must be eager to return to your old life after so long away.”  

You don’t miss the trace of suspicion in his tone, but you try not to take offence. He must have to be naturally suspicious in his line of work, you reason. You wouldn’t describe yourself as eager at all - you quite like the life you’ve found yourself in at the moment. Being with Rei, Kazuki and Miri makes you feel safe, relaxed, content – all feelings you haven’t had in a long while. Though, you have to admit, when Kyu mentions your old life, you can’t help but wonder if the three of them miss their old life, without you, your lack of history, your stutter and your taking up Rei’s bedroom.  

“I w-will.” You smile politely, as he begins to froth some milk.

“Can we sit in a booth?” Rei asks, abruptly.

“Why, tired of me already?” Kyu teases. “Go for it. I’ll bring these over.”

Rei nods and gets up from his seat, heading towards the booth in the back right-hand corner of the establishment. You slide into the seat and he sits opposite, forcing a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. You can tell he wants to say something but he’s holding back and you’re not one to talk, so you settle into a companiable silence as Kyu finishes making your drinks. He comes over with a fruity orange concoction for Rei and a coffee for you.

“Flat white.” Kyu serves with a smile.

“T-thanks.”

“How much do we owe you?” Rei asks, sullenly.

“For the young lady’s first visit – on the house.” He waves off, returning to behind the bar.

Rei takes a long sip through a straw, looks over his shoulder to see Kyu cleaning the counter and then leans forward to you, shoulders sagging with the release of tension. ”I didn’t like his tone.”

“H-he’s just d-doing his job.” You try to shrug it off. Kazuki’s told you before that he and Rei have worked with Kyu for years and you don’t want to cause a fuss. You take a sip of the flat white. “Mm. I d-do like c-coffee!”

Rei can’t help but smile at that.

As you enjoy your drinks, the dark-haired man pulls his phone out of his pocket and shows you a game he downloaded to pass the time on the car ride yesterday. The bell jingles to signal the arrival of another customer and a tall, a receding black hairline man enters and looks around. He’s dressed in all black and is bulky – he wouldn’t have looked out of place at the house. His eyes seem unnaturally wide and protrude out of his skull almost, his face expressionless. It’s unnerving. You cast your eyes back down to the table and the phone screen, but the hairs standing up on the back of your neck suggest he’s staring at you. There’s a hushed conversation between the mysterious man and Kyu, before you hear a pen click twice and he vacates.

Weird.

 --

After you finish your drinks and say goodbye to Kyu, you walk back along the riverbank. It’s peaceful and you’re content in Rei’s company. You like talking to him, of course, but silence seems different with him. With Miri, conversation is constant and you don’t blame her, she’s an inquisitive child who says everything and anything that comes to mind. With Kazuki, well, he’s just being sweet and trying to improve your confidence, especially after the grocery store incident. You can tell he worries you might regress, so he tries to keep the conversation flowing at all times. But with Rei, it all just feels different. He goes at your pace, he doesn’t speak just to fill the void, but everything he seems to say is considered. And those fleeting touches the two of you have had lately…

You don’t know what it is – it could be the warmth of the sun on your skin, the relaxing sound of the water, the gentle breeze, the buzz of the caffeine, the man himself - but whatever it is, it gives you a surge of courage and without a second thought you grab his hand.

As soon as you touch his fingers, the panic springs up. You’ve misread the situation, you’ve overstepped the mark… but, before you can pull away, his fingers deftly intertwine with yours and the panic quells instantaneously, as if it was never there in the first place.

Looking at your laced hands, you glance up at Rei, feeling your cheeks flush. There’s a dreamy smile on his face as you continue the walk back to the apartment in silence.

----

Please like and follow me if you've enjoyed - they really help me write the next part :)

I *think* I know how I'll conclude this series but I think there's a little while to go yet...

EDIT: Part 6 is here, my lovelies! <3

#ghostdogwrites #buddy daddies x you #fluff writing #buddy daddies fanfic #buddy daddies fluff #kazuki kurusu #miri unasaka #rei suwa fluff #rei suwa x reader #buddy daddies #requests welcome #rei suwa x you #suwa rei x reader #suwa rei

[silver-starss]

Ahsoka ep 6 thoughts

Ahsoka asking for a children's story and even having a favorite version. She's one of us! <3

"A long time ago in a galaxy far far away" That line went straight for the jugular huh

Intergalactic rainbow hyperspace travel my beloved

The music when arriving on Peridea is right on point. Also love the design with the rings being bones fragments. Very cool and unsettling stuff.

Can't say I'm a fan of the Nightsister lore retcon, even if it does explain Morgan's role in navigating between galaxies

Wait was that Claudia Black? Morrigan in Star Wars?

Thrawn making a dramatic ass entrance lmao

THRAWN!!! I missed your voice!!!!

That hairline is yikes but aside from that he looks faithful to the cartoon

More backstory on Baylan and Shin! I think we all knew that she wasn't from the Order, but I still want to know how she fell in with Baylan.

Sabine and the howler was oddly endearing, ngl

EZRA!!!! HOLY FUCKIGM SHIT

Ezra Bridger my beloved

Five years of waiting! Finally over!!!

People speculating if he'd have long hair or a beard. Why not both??

Eman Esfani is on point. Really great casting!

"I can't wait to go home" OOF. And Sabine's face when he says that! That line made me tear up. Even assuming he gets to return with Ahsoka and Huyang, that still hurts like hell

God he's going to be so mad when he finds out what she pulled to get here. Not looking forward to the emotional pain of that conversation.

Where's Ahsoka???

A bit weird that the titular character only had like five minutes of screentime, but at least the plot moved forward in a significant way. I imagine episodes 7 and 8 will make up for it.

I feel like we're in store for a Baylan/Shin and Sabine/Ezra teamup. Thrawn and Morrigan leave them to die, and Ezra (being the generally compassionate person that he is) insists on taking them with him when he returns to the GFFA.

#ahsoka #ahsoka spoilers #star wars #star wars spoilers #ahsoka tano #ahsoka series #sabine wren #grand admiral thrawn #thrawn #mitth'raw'nuruodo #ezra bridger #baylan skoll #shin hati #morgan elsbeth

[judgementdaysunshine]

Secret plan

Pairing: Beatrix Kiddo x Fem reader

Description: After learning your beloved friend and coworker the Bride has awakened from her coma, you help her get revenge against Bill by secretly taking her daughter

Everything that Bill and the others had done made you sick and what made you even more mad at bill was that out of the blue he came with his and Beatrix's newborn daughter and basically gave her to you without a care. You absolutely adored B.B. and were truly grateful that he brought her to you rather than just leaving her or God knows worse, you are pulled from your thoughts to hear the phone ringing answering to hear Budd "What do you want? I told all of you not to contact me anymore after what happened" he stops you before you could tear him apart and a new one for calling you "She's back and she's coming for us" you roll your eyes knowing she wasn't going to kill you considering that you jumped in and fought against everyone else to protect her and an unborn b.b. and she saved you from O-Ren killing you with a stab wound to your chest, you hang up and begin making dinner when you hear a car pull up and a knock groaning in your hands when you see bill opening the door with your gun pointed at him "You better tell me why you're hear or I will shoot you myself" he tells you to pack and he would be back to get you and b.b. to go to his house. You close the door and immediately pack everything you could for you and b.b. picking her up and loading the car driving straight to a hotel in Acuna running into Esteban along the way letting him know about Beatrix, the next day you finished breakfast and had b.b. watch cartoons while eating when a knock sounded on the door opening it only to see beatrix in all her glory but instead with a sword on one hip and gun on the other with her true smile and tears in her eyes "Esteban told me everything and i don't think i can thank you for what you've done except confess my love for you and we start over together" you nod as tears flowed down your face pulling her in your room and holding each other tightly before pulling her in a kiss, you had told b.b. about her mom only telling her she was hurt and asleep in a hospital but she would come back one day showing pictures of the two of you before and while she was pregnant before hell broke loose "Mama?". You both turn to see b.b. walk around the corner and light up "Mommy!" she jumps in beatrix's arms making her smile and cry more looking at you whispering "You told her about me?" you smile and nod "Of course I did I'm not going to lie to a little girl that had lost so much already" she spends time with the two of you before she leaves going to settle everything with bill, you wait anxiously for her return by having dinner with b.b and watching a movie until she falls asleep in your arms watching tv until you were out like a light until you hear the door open slowly looking to see her turned away closing the door making you carefully get up and kiss her sweetly in relief and joy before she showers and joins you in bed holding you in her arms for the night leading to the next morning where the three of you leave acuna to start over not just as humans but as wives and parents with the little girl you both loved with all your heart.

#beatrix kiddo #kill bill x reader #kill bill #beatrix kiddo x reader

[zodarii-dae]

Just finished watching 3rd Life!!!! I was a bit busy so I couldn't do it as quickly as I wanted to but I made it.

I watched Grian's pov as you suggested and holy fuck was that a ride. I have Thoughts.

Grian and Scar. Scar and Grian. Those two shared a braincell and Grian had it for most of the series.

Grian I think had the most kills out of anyone by the end of it??? Guy really thought he could use Scar as an excuse to satiate his bloodlust without losing any lives. He was 100% correct.

Scar had a lot of kills too, didn't he? Especially in the Dogwarts war. Even if he is the goofy boss to Grian's competent right-hand man, it was nice to see him get down to business as well.

"Your Honor, he pleads /j."

I'm focusing a lot on Scar and Grian here, but I would also like to give a shoutout to Jimmy for being the first person out. From what I hear it's pretty on-brand for him and it makes me think Scott was his Grian. For a second I thought it was Cleo tho.

The Battle of the Red Desert was painful to watch lmfao.... Scar pulled the lever, Grian. Wrong time tho.

Can't be good at building without being good at demolition. Grian really likes TNT, doesn't he. Just pray he never improves at redstone, I think it's best his traps stay broken.

I learned from a comment section that Impulse was killed for a clock that belonged to him in the first place. Rough going, buddy.

Scar's second death had me wheezing.... that's how you know he had some sort of plot armor on, no matter what Grian might say, cuz no way in hell did that guy become the first red name and stay alive for 2nd place.

That was the most Canadian fistfight I ever did see. Scar's muscles did not help.

Grian I see is associated with a bird sometimes? I don't know the reason for that but I find it interesting considering he killed himself by jumping off a cliff.

All in all....... yeah I really liked it!!! I have only watched Grian's pov tho, so if you recommend checking out any other POVs, I could do so. Not sure if I'll be able to watch any of the other Life seasons soon, as I might start dipping into, y'know, Hermitcraft/Empires (thanks to you, really!), but we'll see.

This was long. Yeah. Uhhhh Wings of Fire: A Guide To The Dragon World is coming out October I think I read the excerpt I'm excited ok bye-

nice! glad to see you again :D.

desert duo my beloved. absolutely they are two halves of a whole idiot. grian is the designated braincell holder.

grian kills and maims and we love him for it. i love his maniacal laugh whenever he gets a good kill. like a cartoon villain.

scar is goofy and silly and also bloodthirsty. he's so much fun. he can go from himbo to terrifying red life so fast.

yup, very on brand. poor jimmy. scott is kind of his grian? he's definitely the green to his red, and smart to his stupid, but their vibes are pretty different from grian and scar. they're husbands rather than boss and right hand.

i cannot physically express how disappointed i was when the explosion didn't kill anyone.

the real best duo, grian and tnt.

impulse's death... oh i feel so bad for him. you could hear him starting to say bdubs' name as he died. i had to stare at the wall for like five minutes after that scene.

the only reason scar lasted so long was because of grian. if they hadn't teamed up, he would have died much quicker lmao.

oh the fist fight. oh the cactus ring. oh god.

grian is usually depicted as a parrot hybrid. i'm not sure why, i think it started as a hermitcraft fandom thing that bled into his other stuff. people often fannonized as birds falling to death is one of my favorite things. i can't get enough of it.

if you want to watch more povs, i would recommend martyn or scott. martyn's is good if you want to understand the dogwarts side of things, and scott's is just one of my favorites.

i haven't watched any hermitcraft myself, but i plan to one of these days. empires is one of my favorite smps, and really what got me back into mcyt. if you ever do get around to watching the other life series, i think you'd enjoy them!

i'm also very excited for the guidebook! i haven't read the excerpt though.

#trafficblr #traffic smp #life series #life smp #3l smp #3rd life #3rd life smp #zdae speaks #eggnog asks

[alexissara]

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Quick Review

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury or as we'll refer to it as Gwitch has finally wrapped and I wanted to share my thoughts quickly in the quick review format [written in basically one take with just all the points I feel like bringing up]. This is a show I'd watch with my Gfs and my Metamore every single Sunday for a while now and that's given it an extra special flare. I was captured by the stunning animation, great fights and the blooming of some lesbian feelings.

This 24 episode toy commercial is among the best in the Gundam series and is probably one of my favorite anime. However, it is a flawed series that I feel was really lacking in a lot of ways likely due to executives being worried about both having a woman be the protagonist of their warm crime cartoon and to have queerness be a center of the season.

The shows 24 episode length feels too short to tell the story that was being told, while individual episodes don't ever feel like they waste time there was not enough space for things to have impact and Miorine in particular feels like she is kind of just an object for the plot whose feelings vary depending on what the writers want. She isn't given the time to cook up an arc for her so she ultimately just serves the plot as a "I don't think killing is good" character. Still her romance with Sulleta is compelling even if it's not the connection to Sulleta that is my favorite [Sulleta sapphic polycule all the way really].

The show has good background music but it is mostly the same song. The opening and EDs are all really great songs. The mech designs are mostly super cool and they are in fact, great toy commercials. While I would never put together a model kit, I would and very likely will, buy whatever video games they produce that put Sulleta in the for front. It set up an interesting world I would like to see more stories told in.

The fights are all really amazing but the end does include one fight between broths that really muddles the rest of the plot to sell one more toy and it sucks ass. Still the rest of the fights were really Immculate.

The series does kill off most it's women who can pilot a gundam which is annoying because we see men getting to live. While the show does center a Lesbian relationship the most explicit romantic desires outside of Sulleta are expressed by men about women. In general the show puts a ton of men in the spotlight and keeps them in the forefront. It feels like the show was insecure about women taking the center stage so the rest of the plot is mostly focused on men. Women do get to do plenty of things but it still feels like we could have had more women taking the stage in battles. For gundam though, it's a decent amount of women in mechs. Plus Sulleta does get to be in a mech most episodes.

The show doesn't have a kiss in it, there is no kisses between anyone but the lack of a sapphic kiss feels bad. Like you can say "yuri doesn't do kisses" but you would be old if your saying that because I do quick reviews of Yuri manga all the time here and basically everything I am reading has kisses, a lot also have explicit sapphic lust, and increasingly even using the word Lesbian. This show instead opts to say "Gay Marriage is normal" in episode 1 and then never show anyone being gay who isn't the main couple, there are ships but every single known romantic connection outside of Sulleta and Miorine is a man's feelings towards a woman or a woman's feelings towards a man. Queerness isn't even off handily mentioned by anyone else. Still it is really nice to have them be gay married at the end even if we're not seeing the wedding or a kiss we do know for sure their married, that's explicit and they have matching rings.

Still, the show does offer us a lot of really cute sapphic ships. It also offers us a really good cast of women even if I wish they got to do even more. Chuchu is maybe my favorite gundam character ever, Prospera my beloved I will stan forever my wonderful wife, Secelia  is a bitchy queen, and a lot more are also bangers.

Politically the show nods to leftist politics but it doesn't really fully commit to that as it keeps giant companies around in it's time skip and it seems there has just been some kind of "balance" stuck where captalism is fine again. Even though the government is evil we don't fight it really. I'd like to see a show in this world that takes on the Space Assembly League. I guess the takeaway is buy Gundams, I mean Revenge is bad.

Overall, I really enjoyed the show Sulleta is such an endearing main character she is charming and sweet and strong and she is for sure my favorite MC of any mech anime and in general one of the best anime main characters of all time. I think the show is a great piece of art but short of a master piece. Perhaps these are the limits of a show that is a toy commercial. Regardless, I had a great time and I don't look forward to my wallet running dry on prints from fan art of Gwitch and Super Robot War games and shit.

#Quick Review #Gundam #Gwitch #G witch #gundam the witch from mercury #Anime

[popculturebuffet]

Little Retrospective of Horrors: The Musicals (Monthly Muppets Madness) (Comission for Emma Fici)

Welcome back all you strange and intresting plants to both my little retrospective of horrors AND monthly muppet madness my (usually) monthly look at anything muppet related. And after a blood apptizer or the original corman film, you can find that review HERE, i'ts time to get to the chunks of fileted dentist main course with the stage musical and one of my all time favorite films, it's 1986 film adaptation.

Originally I was going to do the stage version seperate... but when I sat down to watch the best visual and audio quality one I could find on youtube, the 2008 production from the American Musical Theater of San Jose which you can find HERE if your curious.. I found out that in addition to being a great movie on it's own.. LIttle Shop of Horrors is an EXCELLENT adaptation: While there are changes to make it work better as a film, cut songs for time and some changes in Seymours character we'll get to, most of the dialogue and music is exactly as it was in the stage play. At it's core the film is simply the musical as it's best self, taking all the great parts of it, trimming a bit of fat and giving us some knockout performances in the lead rolls. The film has some issues, we'll get to that like everything else... but on the whole even looking past my nostalgia.. it's still just a complete joy to watch and a love letter to the original

So i'll mainly be looking at the movie, but still covering the stage play here and there including the cut songs.

Good then let's dive into the giant man eating plant under the cut and see how it still talks, moves, sings and busts our balls after all this time.

Ya Never Know:

Little Shop of Horrors was the second collab and the brekaout one for the duo of Howard Ashman and Alan Menkin, a lyrcist and composer respectfully. It's , to my shock this very musical that caught Disney's eye, leading to the two composing songs for The Little Mermaid, Oliver and Company, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and of all things Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue, which I covered this 420. Sadly Ashman passed away in 1991, same year I was born, of AIDS, never seeing the finished Beauty and the Beast. His lost is a tragic one and i'ts sad a voice was robbed from us too soon by a disease that might of had better treatment had the goverment not been homophobic idiots. Menken is still working for Disney to this day, often returning for the unecessary live action remakes. Hey if it gets a certified legend a paycheck, at least some good comes out of those.

At any rate, back then the two were theater writers, whose previous show, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, hadn't done well. Wanting a fun project, Ashman thought back to an old play of his about a plant that had a magnetisim about it, a cult of personality.. and then realized it was a ripoff of beloved film from his teen years, Little Shop of Horrors. He pitched the idea to Menken who after seeing the film was absolutely in love, with it's 60's setting giving him plenty of inspiration.

"Howard and I work fairly quickly once we have the handle on what we’re doing. But we did go through a long period of outlines and song styles that we discarded. I decided that I wanted the musical approach to come from some early 1960s music—the girl group sound. It has a very dark, menacing ring. You can almost hear whips and chains in the background. There were two ponytailed teenagers in the movie and we decided to turn them into a black trio that functions as a Greek chorus, commenting on the action.”

Ashman added in the same interview

“People who see our show say, ‘It’s just like the movie.’ It really isn’t. The movie falls apart in the middle and has a weak ending. We added the S&M romance between Audrey and the sadistic dentist. We dropped the character who eats carnations and got rid of Seymour’s mother, who had an iron lung and bitched about everything. Most important of all—the bodies fed to the plant in the movie were accidental deaths, like a bum who is hit by a train. In our version, the deaths are planned by Seymour and he kills off some very important characters. I think our show has a more coherent structure. Once the musical was finished, a major problem was to find someone who could play Audrey II, the malevolent plant that reduces the cast to a minimum.”

This tightend up but still rediculous show was put on at the two's regular theater, the WPA (which they joked stood for "We put on anything). It was soon a success and much like Audrey II grew, and grew and grew, with the play being a sizeable hit with critical acclaim, paticuarlly for it's puppet. Said puppet was done by Martin Robinson, a seasame street vetran who'd play snuffleupaguss, and did a great job making nit really seem alive.

Some Fun Now:

One of the plays producers, David Geffen saw the Film's Potetial, and wanted to make a film adaptation, and got some pretty big names attached: both Martin "Old Genius Yells at Cloud" Scorcse and John "Multiple Murders" Landis were attached at one point, the former wanting to shoot it in 3D

Geffen then offered the film to an at the time rookie director, but one who'd still more than proven himself. Frank Oz. Muppet Maestro extrodinare, co-director of the Dark Crystal who was just coming off Muppets Take Manhattan. Oz turned it down at first as he didn't really have a cinematic approach to it. Once it came to him though he quickly agreed. They had a script.. but Oz wisely noticed it was stage bound.

This is important as some musical adaptations fall flat simply because of staging: for instance a good chunk of the flack the adaptation of in to the woods got.. was that it was shot and staged like a play.. despite being you know a movie. It probably also didn't help it was shot like someone took a baseball bat to all their lighting rigs.

So Oz's first priority being "take this already great script and simply make it cinematic" is one of the very first great things I can point out about the film. Having now seen both while the Stage PLay is excellent as is, Oz takes what's there and elevates it: While most of the action's still in the titular shop, the shop itself is now split level and most musical numbers are taken beyond one of the plays three locations to really make them pop with Skid Row now being a giant crowd number to show how desperate things are, Da Doo being a full flashback that's ironically presented like a stage play, Dentist being mostly set in Orin's office and on the back of his bike, and Suddenly Seymour being taken to a back alley. All simple touches but ones that make the numbers feel a bit more alive and keeps the setting from feeling clostrophobic: we still spend most of the picture in the plant shop but unlike the musical or original film, you don't start to FEEL it. Giffen and Ashman liked what he had and thus we were off to the races.

Casting wise there dosen't seem to have been a lot of drama. The only real bit I got form the interview I used is that Cyndi Lauper was considered for audrey, and while she would've been great i'm sure, I wholly agree with Oz that Ellen Green, who originated the role, was perfect. I can't imagine anyone else in the roll.

A Strange and Interesting Plant:

That brings us to the puppetry and if anything proves this has muppet blood it's the team Frank Oz assembled: To design it he brought on Lyle Conway, the designer for Dark Crystal, to make it he brought on the team from Labyrinth and to move it he brought back Robinson and added Brian Henson. I can't overstate how much Oz was the right man for the job based on this alone: someone else COUDL'VE done it but the effects wouldn't of been nearly as perfect without a team of this level and someone to put it together of Frank's level. It's far from the only reason this film is good, but it's certainly one of the highest.

I can't gush enoguh about the plant puppets: it looks real, the rubbery nature of it resembling the texture of a rubbery plant in real life, the lips being perfect to open and emote and usually resting in a mildly unesettling smile, perfect for the smug manipulator Twoey is.

Something I hadn't really taken note of before but Oz pointed out was the baby versions designed, with it's flowers resembling a bonet, a nice touch to show how harmless it looks at first.. which helps sell the message: just because something or someone LOOKS harmless dosen't mean they can't be dangerous in the right circumstances.

It only gets better with each phase and I notice how Twoey looks creepier at each phase... being fairly mundane in it's first two, a bit unerving when we get to "I can talk and I can move" , and truly terrifying in it's last few phases, with it's teeth growing and growing each time as it's powers grow.

As for getting it to move right that took a trick I"m STILL impressed by and still looks near seamless: so when playing the dailies back, Oz noticed tooey didn't quite move right. It was a bit slow.. but he noticed when rewinding or fast forwarding it Toey moved just as it should. So he had a bit of a bonkers idea: have the actors move slower in scenes with the plant as a puppet, so they could speed up the footage. And to his credit while many a director would just run with this and tell the actors to get over it, especially at the time.. oz genuinely worried about the problems this faced and was sympathetic in pitching it. And to their credit... everyone was game. They saw it as a fun challenge.

Otherwise productoin seemed to go fine... with two big exceptions. The first was after test screenings, the studios wanted to replace Levi Stubbs with Rodney Dangerfield to make the plant less scary

Look I love Rappin Rodney. He's the best. He gave us one of the greatest lines in all of cinema

He's dearly missed.. but while he CAN sing, unsuprisingly, he's just not a good fit for this role. Audrey II is a tempting force, a manipulator, a smooth talker, and Rodney is none of those things. A schemer yes, a loveable everyman yes, a rap god, yes. But he was not Audrey II, Levi Stubbs was and i'm so damn greatful this abomination didn't happen, as hilarious as it would've been.

There was ANOTHER problem with test audiences, one i'm sure you all know and if not your going to... but that's best saved for when we get to the end. For now with all the behind the scenes behind us, for now, let's take a look at the events that started on the 21st day of the month september, in a decade not too long before our own, when the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to it's very existence. And this terrifying enemy suddenly surfaced, as such enemies often do,

In The Seemingly Most Innocent and Unlikely of Places.

We open the film with our title track.. and the stage show too but i'll just be saying "the film" for simplicites sake, though i'll still be covering where the versions diverge, unique stuff to both etc.

The title track is a decent , fun number to introduce it, done over a black screen on stage and in front of Mushniks in the movie.

Regardless of versoin it's sang by Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon, a trio of black singers and local teens who serve as our greek chorus. Their treatment is also one of the bigger diffrences between the stage and screen versions: on stage the three interact with the cast more and are more actual characters, getting a whole number with Seymour we'll get to and trying to get rid of Orin.

In the musical while two of their scenes interacting with the main cast remain, Mushnik shoing them away and the trio recommending Audrey date Seymour, their role as a greek chorus is emphasised, with the three appearing in more places and costumes, like on a roof in evening gowns for "Some fun now' in the dentist office for "Dentist!", in the florist at night for "Suppertime", and in an office in "The Meek Shall Inheret".

I prefer the film version. While they still had to have them as characters.. .after act 1 of the play they mostly vanish aside from chorus bits. This not only gives them more to do, but helps create a nice little question mark: are these three showing up everywhere, is it in the characters heads, artistic lisense, are they magic? We really don't know and I like it that way. The scenes of them as real people are still there.

Tichia Arnold, Michelle Weeks, and Tisha Campbell do a phenominal job in the roll and have a hell of a vocal range. They aren't given as much as the rest of the cast and it is a shame three of the only black performers in the cast aren't given as much to do in this version, but they still make the most of what screentime they have. Fun fact, Arnold and Campbell would later go on to both be on the sitcom Martin. I've never watched Martin, I never really want to, but I figured it was worth pointing out.

It's once we actually get inside the shop, Mushnik's Skid Row Florists that we meet our three leads: Mr Mushnik, the shop's owner played by character actor Vincent Gardenia, shrill voiced and gold hearted Audrey played by Ellen Greene as previously noted and my boy, the man the myth and the legend, Rick Moranis as Seymour Krelborne, Mushnik's hired hand, adopted son in all but legal papers, and hopless nerdy klutz.

The trio are perfectly cast.. granted that goes for everyone. Gardenia is hilariously shouty as the hammy Mushnik, being a worthy sucessor to the original film's equally hammy highlight. Mushnik is made a bit more of a dick here, as instead of being mad at Seymour for simply being really bad at his job he abuses someone whose just a tad clumsy, who he adopted and he basically treats as an indentured servant. He's also bumped down from Deutragonist to main cast.

Audrey gets a huge glow up going from a pretty forgetable character, to a tragically heartbroken one, a woman who assumes, very wrongly, she deserves the abuse her dentist boyfriend Orin gives her. Granted I don't like how Ashman seems to think BDSM is the same as domestic abuse, but Oz does a good job in the film downplaying the bdsm part, instead making it clear Orin is just a sadistic bastard. More on him later. Greene plays audrey perfectly: she has a goofy, perfectly doofy voice for adurey.. but she portrays it with such sincerty and heart. Audrey is a genuinely kind person: you can see why Seymour falls for her even if she can't see it. Audrey is someone who, as I relate to all too easily, hates themselves and sees their not worth it. We also get some nicely sex positive messaging with her, especailly for the 80's: while the bdsm mentions have aged like Ragu on a sidewalk, especially after 50 shades of grey ALSO didn't get what BDSM was and linked it to abuse, the internalized misogny audrey has, that just because she was a stripper (as is heavily implied) once and likes to dress how she pleases she's unworthy.. when really she's fine as is and fine as who she is. It's Orin who deserves to die.

Finally we have Seymour himself, played by the man, the myth, the boy, Rick Moranis. Rick Moranis slaps. He was an icon of the 80's and while he had to leave to raise his kids, he left at the height of his game. Moranis was the nerd of the 80's so he was perfectly cast. What this film also shows off , and thus i've always known about, but dosen't get shown off in say ghostbusters or other awesome roles.. is the fact that Moranis can sing. Moranis has a gorgeous voice, as does most of the cast here, and perfectly captures this version of seymour: someone who like Audrey, dose'nt think much of themselves but wants more for themselves, they just don't see a way out of where they are.

And where they are is DOWNTOWN, aka skid row, one of the best numbers of the musical. While it's decent enough in the original stage, Oz takes it up a notch, making it a giant, impactful crowd number, taking us all around as we hear just how hard it is for the people of skid row and how hopless it is.. and how much both Audrey and Seymour want to escape it despite the odds being against them. it's a beautiful I want song and one of the best, backed by Beatrice Reading's beautiful belting to open the song. A true masterpiece

So after that number we get a fun time passing montage, as with each shot we see it pass... and eventually see Mushnik throw up his hands and give up. They haven't sold anything all day, and he's going to close down the place.

Seymour however has a solution: they need a hook, an attraction. IT's him rather than Dick Miller who has the idea here which honestly... is just plain smart. While they sadly cut the Dick Miller Flower Eating guy out of the musical versions, I get he was suplerflous and he gets a perfect succesor in a moment and it makes way more sense for Seymour to just present the idea of his strange and intresting plant himself.

Seymour brings it up, the Audrey II. Audrey is flattered, Mushnik thinks the idea that this will work is laughable but figures why not... and then a weird man enters. This weird man is played by future comedy legend Christopher Guest of Waiting For Guffman and Best in Show Fame. I.. I can't understate how much I loved this guy even before finding out he was christopher guest a few years ago: his weirdly hammy way of talking, his suit, the way he says "what a stragne and intresting plant" you have to see him for yourself sometime. I also love how he titls his head when everyone says "twice as many"

As for how Seymour got it that leads us to Da-Do, a fun doo wop exposition number that in the movie is turned from just Seymour telling us in frame, to a neatly staged bit that looks like a play in construction. He buys it from Chang (Da-Do), a chinese botnist who sells him weird and intresting plants. Chang didn't make this one though, as TO-TAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN! (ding), leads to the plant beaming in and while neither man knows how it got there, Chang sells it to Seymour anyway for a dollar nintey five.

The strange man almost walks bout but then comes back to buy a dozen roses , then TWICE AS MANY, TWICE AS MANY? (Twice as many?), leading to a flood of new customers and the florist being saved

Problem is Tooey isn't feeling so good Mr. Krelbourne, so Seymour's forced to spend the night trying to fix it. It's then we get another banger, Grow for Me. Spoiler: this entire soundtrack is fucking great in both versions, but especially the film. Oz shows his smart framing again here, having the number in the basement rather than the main area, giving us a bit of breathing room. The number is really just rick singing to the plant while moving around but his awesome and sincre vocals and the hilarious lyrics make it a joy.

When Seymour asks "whaddya want from me blood"... Tooey's response is...

So he opens a vein and the plant grows for him, leading to Seymour getting an interview on the radio

In both versions the interview is off screen, with us only seeing it through Mushnik and the trio (in the stage) and audrey (in the film) listening. What the film adds is a nice extra bit of Seymour actually going to the station. The station bit is really there for one and only one reason: so we can get a John Candy cameo. And frankly every film while he was alive should've been mandated to have a john candy cameo

John Candy is a comedy legend who died too young. He also has a history with Moranis, as the two were on the awesome sketch show SCTV in the 80's, so it was likely an easy ask to get Candy on here. The two also once did a song together on SCTV. It is also not necessary to this review but i'd be doing a diservice if I didn't play it for ya

Even when the man is trying NOT to play good he slaps. if anything the fact he can sing well enough to sing awkwardly on purpose and still have it not HURT to listen to and be funny.. god I love this man.

Anyways John plays Wink Wilkin, a local DJ whose really just there for John Candy to show how hilariously awkawrd it is when a dj does a bit while someone's standing right there watching it. He's also on the Blu Ray cover for some reason

This SCTV character is not vincent gardenia, what are you doing.

Anyways in the stage version Seymour coming back from the interview, after failing to give the adress, leads to "Ya Never Know", our first cut number.... KINDA.

See while the other three cut numbers are entirely gone from the musical, Ya Never Know was simply remixed into "Some Fun Now", taking the last part of Ya Never Know and making it into a slightly diffrent song. This change is for the better as while Ya Never Know rocks, it tightens up the pacing and instead of a random mid day musical number, we get a later juxtopistion of the fun and upbeat "Ya never know" with Seymour giving more and more blood to Toey.

Before we get to Some Fun Now though we have another number as the trio ask Audrey what the heck she sees in Orin. And what I do like is that while most people around Audrey tell her to "Just leave"... the film and stage show make it clear that it isn't that easy. It's honestly a great depection of abuse: while the idea that most victims have low self esteem isn't great, the idea that their abuser chips away at that and exploits that is very clear in how Orin treats her and how Audrey sees herself. Not only that, we get a very VALID reason why she dosen't leave him "If he does this when he likes me imagine what he'd do if I left?". The only people Audrey has in her corner are a kind nerd she dosen't want to see horribly mangled and an old man who would certainly try. No one would protect her if she left, so she can't. It's a horrible and tragic circumstance and a shockingly frank depection of abuse in what's otherwise a pretty light musical, and a hint that this musical.. isn't nearly as light as it appears on the surface.

So all Audrey can do is dream of a house somewhere that's green, leading to our next number. And as a kid.. I hated this one. It was long, it went on forever and I didn't really find the jokes that funny. oh hahaha 12 inches was a big screen.

As an adult... it's heartbreaking. Audrey is so trapped in her situation all she can do is pine for a future she thinks she can only dream about, one she feels deep down she and Seymour will never have and will never live to see. The last part's true depending on the ending, which makes it hurt that much more: knowing what's comign for her, knowing what twisted version of her dream she gets.. it hurts. It tangibly hurts.

Outside of being beautiful, well crafted sad, this sequence also brings an element I really didn't notice before to the foreground: captalisim. The film really takes the screws to our society, how some barely scrape by and can only dream and how some can ONLY get ahead through sheer luck. Seymour only found Audrey II because of a freak TO-TAL E-CLIPSE OF THE SUN! (ding). When your poor.. the world just wants to keep you that way and while working your way out IS an option.. it may not always work out. Mushnik has a nice flower shop for what he can get.. but it's dying simply because he can't afford a place not on skid row, where few people can really afford what he sells. And as the film goes on we see sometimes the way out... will eat you alive in the process.

Anyways, captalizim aside, I also love the designwork here. I used not to register just how much work it must've been to make this sort of thing but OZ and co really went out of their way to make some truly neat sets that feel unreal and plastic. So while it's still not a song I go back to a lot, it's one I apricate a lot more.

So we then get Orin.. and to my shock his intro's a bit diffrent in the stage play. Him riding up on his motorbike while singing on a purposefully crappy green screen is so awesome I hadn't thought "Well yes Jake but that's impossible to do on stage. ". Instead he talks with the Trio a bit. As you can probably guess... I prefer the film version, and once again it's less nostalgia or familiarity and more just showmanship. It's not really a fair contest as Frank made sure this was as film friendly as possible, so each number is him going all out while on stage it's just like any stage musical: it's what you can do on a stage. Dosen't make it any less awesome, my hatchetfield reviews should make that clear, it's just hard to compare to what OZ pulled off.

At any rate Dentist! is one of the most iconic numbers of the film and that's thanks in addition to Menkin's perfect 50's greaser ditty, to the charisma of one Steve Martin. Like Moranis I shoudln't have ot introduce steve martin who at 78 is not only still acting and has never quite stopped, he's also currently starring in the popular Only Murders in the Building with fellow SCTV alum Martin Short. I'd love for Rick or Ellen to pop up on there frankly even if I don't watch the show.

At any rate, Dentist is a gloriously hammy, surpisingly dark ditty about just what a monster orin is and how since "his temprament's wrong for preisthood and teaching would suit him still less" his mother recommended he become a dennnntttiiist and he'll be a sucess. And he is.. somehow. 1960's I suppose. The film gleefully outlines him as a hamm over the top villian, not just from shooting puppies with a bb gun and poimsning guppies when he was done but from little things Martin adlibed, with Orin just flat out socking his nurse in the face and tearing the head off a doll. It's so over the top it's hilarious and the song is so damn catchy and well done you can't help but sing along once you know the words. Add on the fact Steve Martin does a shockingly good elvis and you have one of the most perfect musical numbers and most hilariously over the top villian songs there is.

We soon meet Orin properly and what I love is that while Steve Martin gleefully hams it up with orin most of the time... he tones it down just enough when audrey enters. It's best shown when he meets Seymour. With Seymour he's flashy, happy to see him and recommends he get out of skid row asap. With Audrey.. he's quitely meancing, getting snippy when she dosen't add DDS to his name and snapping at her when she dosen't. But what makes it work.. is that it's kept realistic. Yes Orin is a greaser dentist about to be eaten by a plant, yes he's a bit goofy.. but the actual effect of his abuse and how he does it is played creepily real. He dosen't hit her in front of Seymour, with us only knowing he does because orin keeps leaving bruises, but it's very clear he has a tight control over her and Seymour's deeply uncomfortable the whole time, unable to actually DO anything to stop the guy despite knowing Audrey going off with him will only result in more pain for the poor woman.

Before Seymour can get an out for that we have to go back to the stage for one of the most suplerflous subplots i've seen in some time: So Mushnik is terrified Seymour is going to leave him and take the money and run, so he tries to adopt him. A 25 year old baby boy. Or 30 if you go by the movie which cut this out. We do get a great number out of it "Mushink and Son", where Mushnik tries to convince Seymour who mostly disagrees because he can see the lines but then Mushnik holds his breath for too long and Seymour agrees to become his son. It's entirely stupid and I love it, but I can see why i'ts cut. As a joke it's fine, hilarious and the number is fun. As part of the plot.. it goes nowhere. The florist shop is renamed Mushnik and Sons Skid Row Florist.. and that's it. It has no impact on Mushnik's later demise, the plot or anything but making Seymour feel on top of the world, which he already was. It's a nothing plot point only likely kept in all future versions because otherwise Mushnik's actor dosen't get a song.

So we get back to the main plot from that cul de sac and Seymour has a bit of an issue: while he could feed Twoey himself fine, he's not only tapped from previous feeings.. but Twoey is HUNGRY.. and with a loud whimpering feed me, Seymour finds out his plant can talk, he can move his trap he can demand more food.

With this Audrey's voice actor joins the party, Levi Stubbs. Stubbs was a member of 60's vocal quartet the Four Tops, a vetran singer who to my suprise was one of the inspirations for Hall and Oates. And their STILL active, switching out members as they go. They were such a big deal that Stubbs had to get the rest of the group's permission for this but thankfully he did.

Stubbs is a standout, perfectly nailing Twoey's character, maniuplative, smooth, and sinister. He can slip from threatning to tempting in an instant. One minute he'll be talking up Seymour the other he'll be telling him "does this look inanimate to you punk?" or telling him "Must be blood, must be fresh" one of my faviorite line deliveries from Stubbs as it's just so damn creepy. It underlines what Twoey needs.. someone to die for it. And a line Seymour isn't ready to cross.

So to push him over it we get the best song in the film, Feed Me (Gonna Get It), it's the first of THREE villian songs for Twoey in the film, two in the play, and it's the most iconic, outlining what this plant is right away: A deadly force.. but also a smooth manipulator, offering Seymour WHATEVER it takes to get him some lunch. The iconic "Would you like a cadilaic car, or a guest shot on jack par, how about a date with Hedy Lamar you gonna get it?". The I don't know bridge also nicely shows that Seymour. .isn't sold... this is a lot to ask and it's a high price tag. He sees the dollar signs.. but also sees the blood stains he'll have to clean out.. and the blood he can't ever scrub off his concious.

WE then get my faviorite part of the movie period. Twoey loudly belts out "a lotta folks dessserrrveee to die" a deftly manipulative line: after all it's a bit easier to muder if the person is bad right? One less scumbag right? or rather.. one lest dentist as in both versions Orin hits audrey where Seymour can see it and thus we get one of the best duets there's ever been as the two sing together. a one, a two IF YOU WANT A RATIONALE, IT ISN'T VERY HARD TO SEE NO NO NO, STOP AND THINK IT OVER PAL! THE GUY SURE LOOKS LIKE PLANT FOOD TO ME, THE GUY SURE LOOKS LIKE PLANT FOOD TO ME!

Now (It's Just the Gas0

So Seymour goes to GO GET IT. Cue the dentist office. And the movie adds something back the stage musical took out. While most of it's characters were either excised for serving no real purpose (Seymour's Mom, Dick Miller, The Sex Worker, the Mourning Lady, the Cops), or changed up (The two teeny boopers becoming the trio), Oz saw fit to bring one cut back: the dental mascochist, Arthur Denton in this version.

For this cameo Oz once again casted a big name, this time on purpose: Bill Murray, asshole and comedy legend. Look recent reveals like.. dangling a teenager over a garbage can and rampant sexual harassment may not have me liking him as a person, and it's certainly hurt films I love such as Meatballs. But as usual with these sort of assholes.. I HAVE to give credit where it's due. Murray is, as usual fucking hilaroius, nicely playing off Martin, a pairing we really haven't gotten outside of this one scene, with Orin being disgusted since Denton gets turned on. And like Nichelson Murray has this hijlarious jolly energy, though his is a bit more over the top fitting his style.

Anyways Seymour goes in for his checkup, which like the original film, Orin plans to take WAY too far and fuck up his mouth, giving Seymour ANOTHER reason to want the man dead. And it's there things change... as in both versions the same event happens, if slightly diffrently. It's been shown before this in Dentist! that Orin is addicited to Nitrious Oxide, having made up his own special gas mask to endulge, a weird bubble helmet in the stage and a simplier one on screen that's still JUST goofy enough. Problem is ... the thing works a bit too well and Orin snaps off the knob... just as, in the film at least, Seymour points a gun at him.

HIs death is utterly horrifying in both versions. I like the films as Martin does a fantastic job selling orin is dying and the horror that he's dying as he's laughing, coughing wildly between laughs. I also LOVE the exchange they have, something original to the film that sums things up perfectly

Orin: What'd I ever do to you?! Seymour: It's not what you did to me.. it's what you did to her. Orin: Who? (it dawns on him as the lights start to go out) Oh... her.

It's a simple moment but it shows in one last bit.. Orin realizes why his grave was dug.

The stage version of Orin dies the same way.. but it's extra unerving.. as he SINGS while it happens. Our penultimate cut number, Now (It's Just the Gas). I get why this one was cut: while the others were either reformatted or simply too suplerflous to live.. this one would've been fine. Here's the best live version I could find on it's own. Jake Gyllehal is seymour for some reason

As you can see it's a nice mix... it's horrifying.. and really puts Seymour in a moment of truth: he COULD save Orin... but he ultimately can't bring himself to. This change is also big as it adds more moral greyness to Seymour: BOTH let the man die, but Seymour in the musical thinks it over more. Let's it set in more.

WHile I prefer the theater version... I still love both scenes and for what it adds to Seymour: it's forever a question of "did he let orin die on purpose or simply got too nervous to decide and the time ran out?" In both versions the guy simply.. can't pull the trigger.. but is letting Orin die a horrible death any better? is it REALLY Seymour's right to kill the guy? It makes the world better.. but was that his call? I like that the musical dosen't really answer these questions. Seymour feels GUILT.. but for what, for wanting audrey and clearing the way or for killing someone? For how orin died? All that's clear is there's no blood on his hands.

After this we get a stunning scene of Seymour feeding Audrey II. The stage version is excellent, with shadowed lighting as seymour throws the parts in. I really love the OZ version though, as he throws in a jazzy instrumental of mean grene mother from outer space... and some horrifying laughter as Seymour throws him parts wrapped up. Originally the parts were NOT wrapped up but the MPAA took issue with this.

Can't imagine why.

So with this we enter act 2 and finally get past our last cut full song, Closed for Renovations. It's cute and it exists, that's about it.

So the store's doing better, Seymour's star's rising and he only has nightmares from guilt every OTHER night.

He's not the only one as Audrey has a jolt of guilt from Orin's death. How varies, with the movie version talking to the cops and the musical version getting a far more heartbreaking jolt: Seymour wearing a jacket like his to try and impress her.. only for the ptsd and guilt to get to her. Audrey WANTED him gone.. and thus fears this is her fault. Seymour, who knows exactly who made him plant food comforts her.

This leads to one of the shows best numbers and one of it's signatures. It's also one of the few that's really not that diffrent between versions: Oz simply adds a sunset for a nice cinematic touch. IT's a tender, genuine romantic ballad between Audrey and Seymour finally confessing to one another and confriming their better than their brains give them credit for. Can relate. It's tender, well done and REALLY shows off Greene and Moranis' vocal range. The two REALLY hit the high notes, ESPECIALLY Greene. While Somewhere That's Green let her show off a little this is a whole damn parade of her vocal talents. It's nice, warm.. and very sad given what's about to happen in 2/3 versions of this story.

Though what happens next no matter the version isn't exactly chipper as Mr. Mushink confronts Seymour. And this.. is one of the biggest changed scenes in the whole musical and those changes are deeply important. In both Mushnik has figured out he killed orin the film version saw Seymour hacking and slashing up the corpse, the musical version got a call seymour had a bag there and saw red spots on the linoleium.

While those are still similar enough what seperates the Mushniks is intent: despite his earlier greed, Gravis GENUINELY wants to help Seymour in the play, begging him to come tell the cops his side and part of him clearly not beliving Seymour did it or if he did, he had a good reason.

The film version.. is the utter bastard we're used to. He holds Seymour at gunpoint and offers to let Seymour run away if he gives him the plant.. framing it as helping but really just wanting the money. One is a suprise show of decency.. the other is exactly what you'd expect, but with Garendia still giving Mushnik a nice tinge of clear horror at what his surrogate son has done. Either way it drives home how far Seymour's sunk, with Audrey before this showing the consequences. He killed a man..a nd he dosen't get to walk away.

Or does he? After all Twoey would prefer the more manipulatable person and thus sings to Seymour to feed Mushnik to him What I like is no matter the version, it's ambigious if Audrey II is actually communicating with Seymour.. or it's simply the Audrey II in his head. Mushink dosen't HEAR Audrey II but is that artistic license or is what's about to happen all seymour?

Well how MUCH it's Seymour depends on the version and it's something that hurts the original ending of the film: In the play.. Seymour is fully responsible. Twoey's talking him into it sure.. but Seymour tells Mushnik to look into the plant for the money. Which is stupid, and a nice takeaway from the original film, sure, but he still actively lead Mushnik there.

In contrast in the film... Seymour's at gunpoint, nervous and reluctantly backs him up to tooey, and is geninely unsure of how to tell him how to care, drawing it out.. and once again making it hard to tell if Seymour simply got nervous and Twoey took advantage or Semyour led him.

It's a key part of the film version; Seymour's guilt is way more ambiguous, which makes him more sympathetic. It's hard to tell how much is just making the wrong decision under pressure, and how much is intetnional. He also shows way more guilt.

Where Do I Sign?

What dosen't help is that both versions of the film cut out something important, the bridge of "The Meek Shall Inheret". The Meek Shall Inheret is a number I love, as Seymour's fame rises.. but as shown by Moranis' deft acting, it's eating him alive as the guilt is. And the bridge makes this clear.. but also makes him once and for all acountable.

Now did Oz go a bit TOO hard on adapting this bit? Fuck yes. I don't even know exactly what i'm looking at. There's a good bit or too like the bleeding painting of mushnik.

What's important is the singing and my GOD does moranis fucking kill it. This is easily his best vocal performance in the film..a nd it got left to the soundtrack. A real shame even if I do GET cuting this goofy version, if not you know, simply reshooting it. You don't NEED Audrey hugging a plant. Or plant seymour.. or most of this. The vines are a nice touch tho.

What's needed.. is Seymour's moment of weakness. WIth Orin, he simply acted too slowly and let a bad person die by his own hubris. With Mushnik, it was a moment of weakness or a moment of stress. Both left men dead and both aren't something he can walk back and will always carry with him.

The question is.... does Seymour give into the plant or fight back, does he KILL the beast before it grows and loose everything to do the right thing or selfishly give in? IT's the latter.. that seals Seymour's fate. That little last speck of insecurity and self hatred, that tiny voice that convinces him Audrey loved him for the plant and not who he is. And that's.. how Audrey II wins.

And leaving that out meant he couldn't POSSIBLY win. Which brings us to our finales.

Schrodinger's Audrey

The leadup is the same: with his guilt spiraling , Seymour asks Audrey to run away with him and get married, leaving Audrey II behind. The stage version.. runs on plot contrivance. Up to this point it's well plotted and the actual tragic finale is a heartbreaker.. but how we get there is

Okay so Seymour talks to Audrey about running away.. IN FRONT OF TWOEY. The one person he shoudln't. And it's not like the play dosen't have an alleyway set or they can't just dim the lights so it's implied he's not in the shop. I get the final plant puppet is MASSIVE but you COULD hide it. even just have Seymour throw a sheet over him.

Then while he's getting Twoey some sirloin, Audrey comes by because she can't sleep. That's it. The entire tragic ending.. happens because of stupidity and concidence. And seymor's hubris and weak spine, but the fact the last 15 minutes happen because of this just. .baffles me. The play is so good otherwise, honest, and the rest of the ending is great. But this one part just.. astounds me in both how flimsy it is and how it's never been re-written. WHy wouldn't you?

So Twoey tricks Audrey into getting him some water. She's nervous and senses something's off... but sadly not before Twoey eats her alive. And it's with that action the ending snaps back into the quality of the rest of the show, as Seymour comes in to save her.. but it's too late. His actions have had a consequence and his refusal to try and kill Tooey while he still could... cost him the only good thing in his life that didn't come with strings attached and never had. Audrey, selfless and kind as always, asks to be fed to the plant, not realizing what Seymour has become or what he's done and simply wanting to be with him somewhere tha'ts green. And to their credit while Twoey is a monster... in both this version and the film, he let's Seymour gently place her inside, honoring her sacrifice.

Seymour is left a mess after this, and only snaps out of his suicidal spiral when a salesman offers to make MORE Audrey II's... and thus Seymour gets the picture: The plant wants to conquer the world.As brilliantly put in the film in one of my faviorite parts in the whole thing.

Seymour: Every household in america, thousands of ya eating, that's what you had in mind all along isn't it?

Seymour: We're not talking about one Hungry Plant Here, we're talking about world conquest

Audrey II: And I wanna thankkkkkk youuuuuuu

It sells that this is SEYMOUR'S fault.. and in the play at least.. it's too late. He made the wrong choice... and it's too late to save the world.. or himself. Despite every attempt, despite going into the plant to kill it.. Seymour dies. THe plant gets sold to every supermarket in the world... and as "Don't Feed the Plants" plays, we learn everyday jerks like Seymour bought the deal. The world is doomed... and evne if the chorus tells us "we still have a chance" it dosen't seem likely.

And this ending.. is fantastic. It's a well needed aseop: that ANYONE can do horrible things with the right motivation. It's probably less shocking nowadays in the true crime boom built off that premise, but even then most people watching that stuff think "Naht hat isn't me". The point of the show is ... no it could be. Seymour isn't a HORRIBLE person, he isn't pure evil... but he still let two people die horrible deaths because it was easy and backed down from the hard path... and paid the price. Actions have consequences, and doing horrible things to get ahead just isn't worth it. It's not worth loosing your soul to feed the plant.

So that leads us to the film which infamously has TWO endings. The original was a variant of this one, the other something diffrent Both start the same way though: Frank fixes one of the few problems with the play by.. not having Seymour be a complete putz. He makes the plans to flee where he thinks Tooey isn't watching, in the Alley, and tries to sneak out, then does the sirloin thing as a compromise, clearly planning to leave after that. And rather than hapinstance.. it's Twoey that kicks off the finale. Seymour's going to renege on their deal? Well that's just fine.. then he's no longer of use.. and neither is Audrey. So he calls her over and reveals himself, with a truly nice shot from her apartment across the street as we see the plant grinning. She's certainly feeling uneasy.. but her kindness and trusting nature make it easy to see why she tries to feed the plant some water when asked.... and ends up lunch.

This is where the two endings split. A Schrodinger's Audrey if you will: She's not alive OR dead despite the obvious implications towards the latter while being eaten.. i'ts only when she's pulled out can you tell which ending you have: if her wedding dress is clean, it's the theatrical cut, if it's blood i'ts the original.

So before we talk about the different endings, you have to ask

Most films have test screenings: these are a way for studios to see if they have a hit on their hands or arbitrarily bury a movie, gage audience reactions, see what might need to be cut or what needs to be reshot. These aren't a bad thing entirely as sometimes testing can really help a film.

In this case it did and it didn't. The film was a cinch to get raitings for most of it... laughter, hollering. It was a crowd pleaser... until we get here. Until they kill Audrey then Seymour. Hearts are broken and the bad guys win.. and no one was happy with them getting only 16 percent liking it. Oz suggested another test.. and same result.

So while he wasn't happy about it, as the original ending had a lot of expensive puppets, minitures and fit more aseop wise.. he changed it so the film would get released.

It was then.. that the original ending was lost. All frank had was a black and white workprint which he DID put on the dvd.. till Giffen told him to take it off and said "Oh we'll just put the color one on" now where did I put it..

Yeah he didn't have it and it still frustrates me the ending was mostly lost. Thankfully a fan happened to have the original print and it was restored in 2013, but for most of my life the theatrical ending WAS the ending. I only saw the original one in a lifestream someone was doing around halloween and in the janky workprint.

So on paper it'd be obvious with ending is better: The original, the director's intended vision. But it's just.. not that simple. The hard truth is , as much as I love this film NEITHER ending completely works. Both are good.. but neither COMPLETELY fit the film Oz made

The original is , as said, close to the plays: Audrey is pulled out and Ellen green acts her heart out as she asks to be fed to the plant. If ther'es one big tragedy to this ending not getting in it's that Greene didn't get her oscar for this scene. God damn.

So Seymour decides to unalive himself out of guilt, only to meet the sales guy, realize tooey's plan and go to stop him. We also get one line that isn't in the thetrical cut "Your a monster and so am I" it shows tha tunlike the musical.. Seymour has realized their both monsters.. but only one is getting out of here. He has to do the right thing even if he dies.

He tries his best as we get one of the best numbers int he musical, my clossseeee second faviorite mean green mother from outer space as Audrey II talks about how badass he is in one long, awesome villian song, one of the best in existance. He easily beats Seymour. Ashman and Menkin made this for the film, to get nominated for best original song, which worked. They lost somehow but hey, points for trying. MGMFOS is a banger, and one of the musicals best in any medium, nad i'm glad stage productions added it in as damn is it fun. IT's also a puppetry feast as the giant final puppet moves, grooves and has little backups. it's a truly awesome musical moment and a spectcale for the eys, a deserving finale

And it's also... why this ending dosen't quite work. In the play Seymour goes down swinging and while still likeable, wasn't the best person by the end. His death went down easier. Movie Seymour showed WAY more visable guilt, being wracked with it and while he tried to dodge it it was clear it was eating him alive... and without that bridge, without that one moment of weakness... he comes off less as someone who willingly sold out to twoey after the two murders, and more as somone whose swept up in the tide of all he ever wanted but desperate to escape it as he knows the price tag is caked in blood. And as bad as he was.. some of that blood was his father figures.

As a result a 3 minute musical number where Seymour is humilaited AFTER the guy nearly killed himself AFTER having to give up the love of his life, knowing it was all his fault she's dead... is a bit much. It's karmic overkill. Seymour dosen't deserve to walk off scott free, he has to live with what he's done. But OZ both made Seymour way more sympathetic.. and then piled on way more punishment. I'm again not saying Seymour deserves to get the hell out of this unscathed, he let two horrible things happen and needs to stop the monster he created. But this was overkill

It dosen't help that after Seymour's death, and the plants taking over... the ending drags on for a WHILE. The director's cut does have GREAT puppet and miniture work that's just outright wasted in the theatrical cut, cool shots of the plants taking over the world. It's neat stuff. But it's also not edited like it probably would hav ebeen had it been propertly released, so it's about 30% good content and 70% the plants fucking shit up while laughing a lot. It's cool at first but after a while you just want it to end. And the end of Audrey II bursting through the screen is awesome but I GET why the test audiences hated this: It's not just the bad guy winning, that's a horror staple, i'ts that he basically rubs your nose in it for 15 minutes. The ending isn't terrible and I do get why people prefer it, as THEMATICALLY it's better.. but I wish we could get a cut with it edited down. otherwise while still a LOT of overkill for seymour, it'd flow way better.

So that means the focus group ending is 100% better right?

Yeah while I like the theatical cut ending a touch more... it's far from perfect. It's not bad: Seymour rescues Audrey, realizes what's going on from Jim Belushi (And we get the iconic line "IF you two kids would just stop singing for a minute"), and goes to confront the plant one on one to atone for what he's done. It helps that while we don't get the great your a monster and so am I line, we do get Seymour going in. He COULD run from the thing.. but he knows running is what got him into this. being passive, not helping anyone when he could. It's only actoin that will get him out

Mean Green Mother works WAY better as a villianous last stand than as a victory lap. It's still boastful, still awesome and Seymour is still outmatched.. but it works better when it's not "Someone whose genuinely trying to atone for horrible things getting battered" and more "A hero barely surviving against the beast he created. " Context helps.

It's HOW Twoey goes out that makes this kinda weak, as is Seymour just.. getting away from it. Feed the plants and you can escape the consequences of your actions! You can just bluescreen them to death and get your somewhere tha'ts green..e ven if it comes with a strange and inresting plant.

Thematically the ending dosen't QUITE work, changing it more to "accepting personal responsiblitY" than "your actoins have consequences and you can't just avoid them less they destroy you". But honestly.. it dosen't hurt the film bad enough. The changes to Seymour mean we root for him more. We're probably not supposed to, but Rick Moranis is just too damn likeable and sympaathetic and portrays the guilt too well. But the new aseop "When you do a bad thing, you need to own up to and face it not run away from it or claim you could've done nothing" DOES really hit in an age where many a person will deny they did anything when their ugly past takes root. Seymour did fuck up, but he coudln't exactly tell the cops, and while it took a push risked his life to undo his mistake. Again it's far from perfect, but for an ending that had to be made on the fly it works well and for the film Frank Oz made.. it works perfectly.

So that's Little Shop of horrors... and as should be obvious.. I love both vresions. The movie more, ending issues and all. It has phenominal performances, wonderful numbers and top notch effects. If you haven't seen it and this hasn't convinced you, I don't know what else I could possibly say except.. thanks for reading.

Next Time: We finish this retrospective with the piece of little shop history we all like to forget.

#little shop of horrors #halloween #ellen greene #rick moranis #steve martin #vincent gardenia #audrey II #seymour krelborn #horror #musicals #musical theater

[potato-jem]

NERO MY BELOVED SOULMATE BESTIE!!!!

i’m back!!! i took a few weeks off because life has been a lot and i felt like i needed a little break from everything 🥲

how are you?? what have you been up to in these last few weeks?? i missed you so much!! and i have stories to tell!!

so, i went to paris for a week back in october. i don’t know if you knew this, but paris has been plagued by a bug infestation lately, and the week before me and my friend were supposed to leave they also started having bomb alarms around the city. like the day before we left versailles had been evacuated for a bomb (it was a false alarm in the end) so we were kinda scared and worried. but the city was okay and we didn’t have much of a choice so we went. it was amazing!!! the first two days were perfect, the weather was absolutely amazing, freezing but always sunny, and we walked around the classic spots of the city. we had lots of macarons and croissants too. that was always the best part of the day. then on day three we’d booked versailles. on the day before it had been evacuated again for a false alarm so i thought it would be safe, they checked the night before, but well… after we’d been inside one hour the guards started to talk hurriedly to each other and they led us to the exits, we got evacuated. it looked like they were trying not to cause a panic but it didn’t work, also because there were way too many people inside!! it was crazy and scary, but luckily we were okay and we got safely out. and it was another false alarm, luckily. we decided not to let it ruin the whole trip so that night we went to the eiffel tower and had a nice dinner and dessert. then day four was disneyland!!! it was SPECTACULAR!!! nero have you ever been to a disneyland park?? it is everything you could ever hope it to be. it is pure magic, pure happiness. my friend and i felt like we were outside of the universe, it felt like nothing could touch us, like no problem could reach us. we were kids again. we were singing along to all the songs from our childhood and riding all the attractions and posing with princesses and cartoon animals and we bought so many little souvenirs to keep the magic with us. i got a cheshire cat plushie which is now my favorite thing i own. i have absolutely no regrets even if it costed 30 euros. same goes for my minnie’s ears which had a unicorn horn and a rainbow veil (see attached photograph) another 30 bucks, i have worn them only once, and i love them to pieces 😂 anyways, now is where the fun part really starts. we walked out of disneyland at 11pm after the night show (made me cry for 30 minutes straight, totally would recommend) and we had to take a train to get to the underground. well obviously there was a suspicious backpack at the station so it was closed for about 30 minutes to figure out what it was. it was late and our phones were almost dead so we tried to look for a taxi or bus and they’d put up a special bus service to take us to the closest train station, but as you can imagine it was absolutely packed and when we got off my friend noticed that her bag was open and her wallet was gone. we rushed back to the park to see if they’d had it in the last shop where she bought something but nothing, then we rushed back home to call the police and block all the cards, but of course we only got to the champs-elysées and then they kicked us out of the underground because it was closing. again our phones were out of battery so we didn’t even know if the buses were still running or not or how to call a cab, but luckily a cab passed by like two minutes later and we managed to get back to the hotel. and well, the 24h hotel door was closed. we panicked for about 10 minutes and ringed the bell a thousand times before anyone came to open the door. they were “just in the back for a minute” and i mean, fair enough, but on top of everything it was just the last drop.

anyways, the next morning we went to the police and got all the documents we needed to get back to italy and it was okay, it was just a very long wait for a two seconds job so it pissed me off a bit, but still we had a whole day and a half left so we enjoyed it. we had the louvre planned for that afternoon and it was so beautiful. and it was very heartstopping. pun intended 😂 we actually went and looked for every room we saw in the show and stayed about five hours in each one. this is where elle and tao kiss for the first time, it’s the exact place. can you guess how much i cried??

the only thing we couldn’t find was the painting on the stairs where nick talks to elle. i was very upset about that :( but anyways, the next day we came home and all i can say for this trip is wow. it felt like a five months trip somehow 😂 it was tiring and stressful and it tested my anxiety a lot, but honestly it was kind of perfect. this friend i was with is my opposite and my half in a lot of things and somehow we managed to laugh it all off whenever something crazy happened and we still had one of the absolute best trips of my life. i am so happy, i actually am getting a tattoo for our day at disneyland because it feels necessary hehe

and speaking of tattoos, i have a new one to show you!!! i finally got another heartstopper tattoo!!! and it is perfect and my favorite ever ♥️ i’ve wanted this vignette on my skin forever, and every time i see it it reminds me of everything about this story and it makes me so happy

anyways, enough about me!!! i’ve been away from this hellsite for so long, so how are you?? how is life?? i am very eager to catch up!!

i’m sending you a macaron because i am craving them again now (i’ve tried the marie antoniette macaron and i swear to god it feels like drinking a cup of tea, it’s unreal) and a warm tea to drink as you read because i’ve written so damn much, i can’t tell a simple story i missed you so so so much nero <3333

HELLO CECE MY BELOVED SOULMATE BESTIE!!!

it is so wonderful to hear from you!! i missed you so so much!! i was wondering how your trip went!! tbh i have been very on and off this website just because life is so exhausting :') i'm very excited to catch up with what's been happening with you!!

yes! i did hear about the bedbug thing! i had a few friends in paris around the same time and it was also all over the news here (funny that...) but i did not hear about the bomb alarms, that must have been so scary!! oh i can only imagine how lovely the macarons and the croissants were. nothing would be better than the original! i'm glad it was a false alarm and that you all got out safe. that must have been terrifying. AND DISNEYLAND?! cece i have never ever been to a disneyland but it has always been a dream of mine! i think the closest disneyland to me is japan or singapore 😭😭😭 but that's so wonderful to hear that you had such a lovely time!!! what was your favourite ride? any snacks you would recommend?? i would love to see the cheshire cat plushy, it sounds adorable! and the minnie ears!!! i'm obsessed and you're right: buying ears at disneyland is essential, it doesn't matter if you only wear them for the day! and what an end to a good day 😂😂 that sounds so anxiety-inducing, i audibly gasped as i was reading 😂

literally!!! government documents and officials make you wait so long for something that takes so little time!!! it's so fucking frustrating >:( the louvre!!! that would have been so cool, and it would have had extra meaning because of the show!! and i think i would have died a little, looking at the exact spot elle and tao had their first kiss! i don't blame you for crying at all 😂😂

a positive is that you got to see every other painting and iconic place from heartstopper and that's all that matters!! the trip sounded like so much fun, but yes, very draining with all those things not going to plan!! and i'm so glad you went with a friend who would laugh it all off with you and still make sure you guys had a good time!! that would have been so lovely! oh and absolutely you need to get a disneyland tattoo!! that would be perfect!

speaking of perfect, your new tattoo is so cute!!!! i love that panel too and it's just such a good representation of nick and charlie's relationship throughout the series!! and a really good placement too. ugh you always get the best tattoos!

as for me, i've been doing okay!! i have finished university for the year, and i am currently preparing for my exchange (i go to the uk NEXT MONTH! cece that is so crazy) a part of preparing for my exchange is unfortunately working a lot, but i have been rostered every single public holiday coming up so i should be getting a good amount of money before i leave!

and you'll be happy to know that after the christmas/new year's period, i'm going to stop working and have a few weeks of rest before i go!! i'm planning on just catching up with friends before i leave, packing and just actually getting a good night's sleep 😂😂

oh, also! i know you wanted little updates about what was going on in my love life, sooooooo... in the time you've been gone, i managed to get a girlfriend!!! i'm very happy and i have no clue what i am doing at all times, but it's good :)

i'm going to send you a little pavlova (a meringue like dessert australians typically have around christmas time, loaded with fruit and cream) and a little iced tea to go with, because my god, is it hot in australia right now. miss you heaps!!! <3

#nero attempts to socialise #cece my beloved!!! #<33

[miraculosus]

The question remains whether it is most appropriate/impactful if Emilie’s demise is a moral consequence (negative), a logical consequence (neutral), or statistical inevitability (unlucky chance, also neutral). It could also be a noble sacrifice (positive) but that doesn’t really strike me as consistent so I won’t go into it cuz my brains already spinning too hard.

She’s a plot device dressed as a role shaped like a character so it’s not about her, and Adrien has grieved her remarkably normally— the answer to that question concerns Gabriel.

If her downfall was just then I’d have to recant and say it would affect Adrien further because on top of the base model grief, which is already complicated by the magical coma in lieu of clear-cut death, he’d have to confront and reconcile a loss of faith in not one (and a half? quarter? with Nathalie’s quasi-stepmother/heel face turn situation) parent but both. In this case Gabriel’s whole deal becomes a quest to avoid/erase culpability for every little misstep or major atrocity he or his beloved wife have ever committed (or are currently committing, or will commit, prior to the Wish) actually it kinda warps into this regardless because Gabriel goes out of his way to be evil. This colors the leaked ending super ugly because he gets everything he wants = evil wins(???)

If her death was neutral then it’s primarily about Gabriel’s inability to accept loss and adapt to fundamental changes in his vision of life and the world. This avenue rings less true the harder he leans into the cartoon supervillain role. If ML were a more delicate and mature show maybe that “understandable, though not justifiable” problematic/sympathetic balance would be viable to strike. “Just a man who loves his family” my ass, what the hell do you think the words love or family mean, lol

#thouts #emilie agreste #gabriel agreste #ml leaks #ml salt

[auxiliarydetective]

Evie's OC Nursery

... aka a list of all the OCs I haven't introduced or fully fleshed out yet. Feel free to bully me into fleshing one of them out if you feel like it.

Included in this list are OCs for...

The Legend of Zelda

Splatoon

Lord of the Rings

One Piece (shocking, I know...)

Encanto

The Barbie movie

Disney's Alice in Wonderland / Descendants

Undertale

More Descendants (curse you, Dolly)

Also, revamps/AU versions of...

Jelena (Die Drei ??? / The Three Investigators)

Vicky (Hogan's Heroes)

Evelynn (Vocalization)

Celine (Who Killed Markiplier / Markiplier Egos)

You can find all the avatar makers etc. I used at azaleasdolls.com - pictures that are not meikers were made by me :)

The Guardian of the Deku Tree (The Legend of Zelda Series)

I came up with her when Tears of the Kingdom came out. Because of the whole time travel scheme in the game, I felt like creating an OC that would be there across all time to connect Zelda in the past and Link in the present. A timeless creature, if you will. Also, I fell in love with the concept of the Zonai. She isn't really a Zonai, but still. I then got obsessed with a YouTuber who was playing an Ocarina of Time randomizer, and so I got the idea of making her the Guardian/Sage/Spirit of the Deku Tree, because the Deku Tree is pretty much one of the most eternal things in the series. And also... Wood elves and dryads my beloveds...

The Weapons and Intel Expert of the New Squidbeak Splatoon (Splatoon Series)

This is just my love for Octolings and Splatoon in general and my obsession with Splatoon 3 combined. I freaking love the music, too, my gosh... She's there from the very start in Splatoon 1 because I have a very special connection with the first game. I know it doesn't full make sense but I believe in the principles of Shrödinger's Canon. In Splatoon 2 she definitely uses dualies, but in Splatoon 1 it's still a modified octoshot.

The True Halfling (The Lord of the Rings)

Half hobbit, half elf, this is a true halfling. With her being half elf, she got the choice of immortality and she chose to be immortal. She spends her days travelling and learning about different cultures, specifically their songs and music. Legend has it that she's the last creature still alive who can harness the magic of old.

The Feral Lynx (One Piece)

He actually has a name! His name is Lux Jirou! While he's still with the Black Cat Pirates, he goes by his first name Jirou, but once he deserts from them, he goes by his last name Lux. My boy has a very funky lynx devil fruit that lets him do cartoon logic style things because One Piece is One Piece and, judging by the one canon lynx in the series and other animal devil fruits, Oda couldn't care less about biological accuracy, so... Funky lynx boi. In the live action, he's Kaya's bodyguard and, one time when Klahadore finds Kaya crying to fluffy big cat Jirou, Kaya lies and says that this his her pet lynx named... Bowie! Yes, this is a David Bowie reference. Also, he's a Zoro ship. And he joins the Heart Pirates later :)

The Lonely Daughter (Encanto)

Behold! It's Bruno's daughter. You probably already know what that entails, she develops some issues after her father leaves. Her name is Soledad which means "loneliness" but Pepa thought that name was cruel after Bruno left, so everyone calls her Soles now, which means "suns". Wanna know what her power is? Water. With a hint of clairvoyance/scrying. But we don't talk about that :)

This Barbie is...

still in development. Brought to you by me feeling bad for Ken. Someone get this man a girlfriend because he's a lonely boi. I am someone, I am getting him a girlfriend. Tis her. This picture isn't actually from Azaleasdolls but a picrew that you can find here.

The Princess of Hearts (Disney's Alice in Wonderland / Descendants)

What can I say - I love the animated Alice in Wonderland a normal amount. I created her for a Roleplay like, I dunno, six years ago? Over six years? She's the daughter of the Queen of Hearts and her King and she's a Wonderland citizen through and through. Delightfully whacky and fun but also a little creepy. And she loves her tea, spends a lot of time with the Mad Hatter and his friends at his tea party. I tried to import her to the Descendants universe once or twice but I just never found a faceclaim that fit. Her name was originally Alice, but I don't know if the Queen would really call her daughter Alice or if she even knows the name of the girl who caused a ruckus at her court, and also that doesn't fit the Descendants naming scheme :)

The Botanic Monster (Undertale)

Well, I had a hyperfixation on Undertale when I was young. Like. Really young. And I kinda got hit in the feels about it again. Sans ship, probably. Dryad-adjacent thingy. Lives in Snowdin and is constantly cold. That's it for now. Look at my girl :) Well, my first draft of her anyway. Kinda feeling like making her anthro because what else is new. We create cat girls here sir. Dryad/cat hybrid? Maybe some sort of panther or other tree-adjacent cat?

The Cheshire Kitty (Disney's Descendants)

Curse you, Dolly, why did you have to enable me? So yeah, Cheshire Cat's daughter. Queen of Hearts' daughter's bestie, maybe? Absolute menace. This is also a picrew, you can find it here!

Redux/AU: Jelena, the Auxiliary Detective

The bitch is back. The original bitch. Bitch here being short for boss bitch because that's what she is. What if Jelena were a default part of the Investigators? She and Justus would constantly bicker and I am here for it. Is she an OC? No. Has she gained the title of honorary OC? Absolutely. What a queen.

AU: Vicky, the Resistance Spy

What if Vicky's mum and dad had gotten divorced and her mother had taken her back to Germany? What if Vicky had grown up there, never joined the WAAF and never joined the SOE. And what if she met Newkirk on a night out in Hammelburg, accidentally stumbling into the Heroes' organization and putting her life as a civilian on the line for the love of her life, for as much as he lied to her?

Redux/AU: Evelynn, the Not-So-Human Singer

First concept for Evelynn's non-human form! She obviously wouldn't walk around like this in day-to-day life, but in the magic-ish realm, this is what she looks like. She's a fairy! Picrew can be found here!

Redux/AU: Celine, the Glitch in the System

After watching Who Killed Markiplier, in my YouTube-obsessed mindset, I thought to myself: "Hey, what if Celine had been dragged into Mark's mind along with Darkiplier?" And so, Ego!Celine was born. I don't really know how I'm gonna redo her but I wanna redo her. Or at the very least I wanna revive her.

So, that's it for now! This list is probably gonna get longer, honestly...

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄✼▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

Taglist: @starcrossedjedis @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene - let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!

#oc concept #loz oc #the legend of zelda oc #splatoon oc #one piece oc #opla oc #oc: lux jirou #encanto oc #oc: soledad madrigal #barbie oc #descendants oc #undertale oc #oc: jelena charkova #hogan's heroes oc #oc: vicky brandt #oc: evelynn carter

[anti-workshop]

I AM BEING BRAVE

Ok so I read someone's lovely awesome post about being brave and putting our creative stuff into the world and maybe someone will like it even if it's crap, and to care less about creating crap and really embracing crap, so I GIVE TO YOU MY CRAP!

The Earth is Under Attack

In no uncertain terms, the world is being terrorized by forces beyond the control of the majority of humanity. Pollution threatens the air, the water, the soil, the very core of our living planet. 

The 5 Holy Custodians

Thankfully, the Earth is not defenseless. Decades ago, the planet summoned five children from around the globe, each with a sacred destiny: to come to the aid of all living things. 

As is often the case with prophets and avatars, each of the custodians was rescued from dire and cruel circumstances by their righteous purpose. They were selected by mysterious fate to make manifest a glorious and regenerative future. 

Together, under the tutelage of a wise benefactor and with their magic rings of power, the holy custodians trained for one purpose: to meet all threats to the planet head-on, and to defeat them. They are:

Water — Tabitha Lupescu (Transnistria)

Air — Lee Min-Hee (N. Korea)

Earth — Eudes Muamba (Congo)

Fire — Levi Hoch (America)

Soul — Janu (Tibet)

Through their rings of power, they can each commune with their specific element, controlling the very nature of reality. When all else fails and the odds look bleak, they can join forces to summon the champion of the planet to come to their aid: Gaia Man.

The Final Fight

Now adults, ten years since their last disastrous mission, the custodians of Earth must reunite one last time to face the greatest danger the Earth has ever witnessed.

It will not be easy. Myriad vile forces have convened to hinder their progress and threaten their lives. Despite the odds, and with the help of old friends, the guardians of Earth will gather their significant prowess to take a stand against the forces of evil.

About

Gaia Man is the first in a duology of books, based loosely on a beloved children's cartoon show from the 90's: Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Gaia Man takes the general mythos of the series and spins it on its head, playing with more adult themes and situations. The book postulates that any group of magical children tasked with protecting the planet would inevitably find themselves labeled enemies of the status quo, and asks the question: what would they be willing to do to get the job done?

246 pages. 50,460 words.

SO YEAH...um, there it is, out there in case people wanna read it. I AM BEING BRAVE!

You can download it for free on itch (name your price. $0.00 is totally fine with me, just please let me know what you thought of it if you read it)

#BEING BRAVE #I wrote a book I guess #writeblr? #captain planet

[princessmeepa]

POV: that you are Mads Mikkelsen in a horror setting and you have discovered a woman named RS and her webcomic LO waiting outside.

Note: This is supposed to take everything real and it is just a fanfic, so enjoy.



Mads Mikkelsen: At midnight at my house, I was taking a shower to cool myself from a busy day at work. I hear my phone ringing and thinking it was my beloved wife Hanne. when I pick it up it was some number calling me and it was woman who is from New Zealand. “OMG! Madsly pooooo, Why did you cheat on me and I thought we are going to get married.” I thought to myself, who is this crazy lady and why is She talking to me as if we are in a relationship? I take a deep breath and ask “Who is this?” She answered in an angry voice, “It’s me RS, You’re beloved fiancé and you promised me that you are taking me on a date.” I answered “I am sorry wrong number.” Before I was going to hang up, she randomly ask me “You like romance?” “Yes I do” I lied, “Then what is your favorite romantic movie?”is she coping the line from scream? Is is have to be a troll or something, I thought. I answered “I don’t know, maybe Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, because that is the movie that I’ve played in.” “Ohhhhhhhh I love that one and alll of your movies”She said then answered “My favorite is Lolita, because it is so sweet and romantic of a middle age man is raping a grooming a teenage girl, it is so sweet and I love it and it is one of the best movies out there.” I thought to myself, why would a person let alone a woman who finds a pedo movie romantic, is she deeply mentally ill or is she just kidding? I ask her if she is pulling on my leg and she said no and she that I’ll will be her real life Humbert and she’ll be my real life Lolita. I have fans before who are cool, but this lady is crazy and it gives my stomach upside down, she tells me to look at outside of my window. My heart started to race faster and I am sweating all over my body and hopping it was just a sick jock, when I look at my window and I see a woman who looks like she is in her 30’s and she is wearing a wedding dress and she is standing outside blowing a kiss at me. And she send me a picture, that looks like two cartoon characters getting married.

When I look closely, the Groom looks like me and the bride looks like the same dress that RS lady is wearing, I frozen in shock, and the power turn off and I call the police but there is no single and I hear sexy romantic music playing from our (my and my wife’s) bedroom and I see RS is laying on our bed with candles and roses everywhere, I call my wife but there is no single. “Ohhhh Madsy darling” she said “I have been waiting for you and this is our special night”, how did she get into my house and I see that she just throw alway all my wife’s things and clothes and it is all been replace with something that I have never seen before. I panic and ran all over the house to escape, but all the doors are blocked with wood and when I ran to the kitchen to get the knife, she handcuffed me to the refrigerator just like Hannibal movie that I played in and She says the lines just like in the move and I past out. When I wake up I was laying on the bed with a black suit and I started to follower the classical music just like the Hannibal movie. And see RS is wearing the Black dress Julianne Moore’s character is wearing and I see my wife all tried up and high, Oh god we are doing the Hannibal sense again. “MADS WHY THE F$&& DID’T YOU LOVE ME!?! She said in a childish temper tantrum tone, “because I don’t know you” I answered. She stated saying that I don’t love her or something speech, as she is preparing a knife, She ask me “Do you ever love me at all, if you don’t say it then I’ll cut that homewreaker b$&@‘s head” “I do love you” I said “please let her go, she has nothing to do with it.” RS smiles at me with a sick smile, “very good then” then she cuts my beloved wife’s head and she give me her brain, “YOUR’RE A SICK PSYCHO B$&@!!!” I scream. “I love you” she said running with a knife at me and I don’t know if I will make it out alive or not.

The End?

Sorry if it is too long to read.

#anti lore olympus #anti lo

[natlacentral]

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Boss on Adapting Beloved Anime: ‘It Was a Balancing Act’

Albert Kim needs you to know that he is an “Avatar: The Last Airbender” superfan.

The writer and executive producer of Netflix’s live-action retelling of the Nickelodeon cartoon took on the role of showrunner after creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko exited the series — but he was already part of the writers room and a longtime “Avatar” fan before that.

“I did work with [DiMartino and Konietzko] for a short period, and we overlapped while we were here and I got along great with them,” Kim told IndieWire ahead of “Avatar”s February 22 premiere. “I was excited just as a fan to be able to dig in and ask my own nerdy fan questions about Zuko’s mom and who Aang’s parents might be, and all the fun stuff fans like to talk about.”

Since diving into and immersing himself in all things “Avatar,” Kim may have unlocked a new level of fandom. During a 30-minute chat with IndieWire, he references details both in the animated series and in his own version, specific musical pieces, and the number of rings at the Pohuai Stronghold. But when it came to turning the adventure-of-the-week cartoon into an eight-episode drama, he knew he had to look at the story differently.

“The first thing I did was layout all 20 episodes of the original series on a big whiteboard, and then took a step back and looked at the whole arc and said, ‘What are the elements that can go together? Where the narrative through lines that connect?'” Kim said. “When you take a look at the overall arc, you realize there are certain things that go together just naturally, thematically. You have a character like Jet (Sebastian Amoruso) who is someone who’s pushed to an extreme place because of the war, and then you have a character like the mechanist (Danny Pudi), who is also someone who has been pushed to an extreme place because of the war. They both have good intentions, but they find themselves on opposite sides of the line. In the original, those stories take place in completely different locations, so we thought what if we bring them together? That felt like a natural way to create a thematic throughline.”

That also meant making sacrifices, whether it was because of new story directions (the break in to Avatar Roku’s temple) or for practical reasons like scale and budget. The writers room was a mix of diehard fans and the uninitiated, as was the set (there may have been some “Avatar” tattoos), to create accountability for which story points were essential and which could be repurposed.

“It was more a matter of getting the right ratio — mixing and matching the familiar elements with the new elements, whether or not something felt true to the spirit of the original,” Kim said. “That allowed us to explore new stories, which is also hopefully what fans will expect. They want to see all the familiar stuff, but they also want to be surprised. You don’t want to do a direct one-to-one translation. You want to be able to say this is a fresh story in its own right.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

IndieWire: The show really feels like it’s made for fans. How important was it to you to hit that but also make it accessible to newcomers?

Albert Kim: Well, that’s the whole game, isn’t it? It’s about making sure that millions of diehard fans aren’t disappointed, while also being appealing to a whole generation of new viewers who know nothing about the original — and that was a tough tightrope to walk. Every step of the way we just tried to remind ourselves that we can’t get too caught up in our own cleverness, and had to remember there are some people who don’t know who any of these characters are or what the bending is or what this world is, and we had to make sure that everything felt accessible to them. 

At the same time, we knew there were plenty of people who had very specific things they wanted to see from the show, so we tried to make sure we worked in as many of those as we could. It was a balancing act. Luckily, it wasn’t necessarily exclusive. It wasn’t like including a great action scene involving Aang (Gordon Cormier) and Bumi (Utkarsh Ambudkar) precludes new viewers from getting into it. So the main thing with the diehard fans is making sure that they’re aware this is a new version of the story. As familiar as it might seem, we are telling our version of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” so things will change, things will feel different, but hopefully in a way that also feels familiar. One of the things we told ourselves throughout production is it should be fresh, but familiar.

I would love to know more about the decision to move up some of this season 2 stuff, not only Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) and Azula (Elizabeth Yu) but even some of the Omashu stuff.

It was all part of that same process of looking at the entire arc thematically and seeing what worked best. At certain points we found there were certain elements from later seasons that worked really well in our story. We had the benefit of hindsight; we could look back at a completed series, the three seasons of the original series and knew what was to come and what was going to happen there. So we were allowed to pick and choose a little bit without hopefully disrupting too much of the future seasons. The decision, for instance, to have more Azula and Ozai in the first season, that felt natural to me because I wanted to be able to balance out the story a little bit and show more of the Fire Nation than they did in the original. They are the antagonists so you want to know more about them, we want to know more about what went into Zuko’s (Dallas Liu) makeup and psychology and why he is the way he is, as well as tee up Azula and Ozai a little more for the subsequent seasons. Those felt very natural to me; again, I’m sure some fans are gonna have an issue with that, but I’m comfortable with those decisions. Again, there’s also practical reasons; The Fire Nation storyline gave us standing sets and locations we could cut to, whereas we’re going from different locations with our heroes every episode, so it provided storytelling balance in that sense too.

And then what was particularly exciting or daunting when you got to actually filming and being on set? It sounds like the visual effects and the budget was a big looming factor.

There are things you can do in animation that prove extremely difficult to do from a practical and financial reasons in live action. A sequence like the escape from Pohuai in the animation, which is incredibly epic sequence, is a very challenging one to do live action. We knew we wanted to do it because it was such a memorable thing, but we had to cut some corners here and there. I’m sure diehard fans will notice that our version of the Pohuai Stronghold only has two rings as opposed to three — that was cost savings thing. Hopefully it didn’t affect that sequence or the storyline that much. There were little corners we had to cut here and there to make those things work. It’s about being able to do something in live action that may be a little easier when it comes down to just illustrating.

Who’s your favorite character to watch or to write for — or both?

Oh, that’s always hard to answer because they all feel like my babies. They’re each great in their own way. Who doesn’t like Sokka (Ian Ousley) and his sense of humor? It’s so much fun to write for that. Or Aang and his optimism and childlike sense of hope? It’s incredibly refreshing to be able to write a character like that, and dare I say it’s something that’s needed in this day and age, so that was great. Katara (Kiawentiio) is probably the most emotional of the characters, so that’s catnip for writers. I would argue Zuko is probably the most popular character from the original series because of his incredible redemption arc; I think one of my favorite episodes of our series is all centered around Zuko; the sixth episode may be my favorite of the whole season.

I was really struck by how much Aang really seems like a little kid in this version. Was that conscious or just a byproduct of casting Gordon?

One of the things I’ve talked a lot about as being authentic in the show. That means being culturally authentic, being authentic to the original series, and also being age authentic. Aang is 12-year-old, and I wanted to make sure we cast a 12-year-old — actually Gordon was 11 when we cast him but he became 12, we had his birthday on set — and same with Katara being 15 and Zuko and Sokka as well. I didn’t want to cast a 25-year-old to play a 15-year-old. I know that’s a convention that happens in Hollywood, but that didn’t feel right to me because the journey of these characters is the journey of a bunch of kids, and it’s their outlook as kids that ends up changing the world. So it was very important for me to cast age-appropriately. I think fans will be surprised because it’s one thing to see a 12-year-old as a cartoon as another to see a real life 12-year-old, but I think it’s right for the story and hopefully people will will accept that.

It was very hard to watch him cry! He’s baby.

It makes you automatically feel for him when he’s a live-action 12-year-old kid — not that the original cartoon didn’t either, but there is more immediacy to seeing a live person going through those emotions, especially when they’re a child.

As a fan of the original, do you participate in shipping? I can’t help noticing certain choices in this show… Cave of Two Lovers, no Aang? Interesting…

I know better than to get into that debate. There’s no winning if I start talking about which ships I’m into. Fortunately for me, that becomes a tomorrow or later-season problem as you get into the original series and where those actually start to develop. It’s not something we had to address a whole lot in the first season. There were choices — like you said, with the cave of two lovers, but that was less about any kind of future romance or relationship and more about thematically what worked best for that story. That was a time in our season season where Katara and Sokka were in conflict, and it felt like the right move to have them go through the tunnels and be hit with the message of “Love is brightest in the dark.” It was less about shying away from any potential romance or relationship and more about what felt right for that story at that moment.

Having now filmed and watched it, what is something that has really struck you to see now on live action?

Seeing the final VFX go in and witnessing the epic nature of the story has been incredible, because even knowing what’s to come and having been there while we shot those scenes, it’s still not until you can see it on the screen with all of the VFX in place that you realize the emotional impact of certain scenes. Aside from that, it’s actually seeing the performances of these actors. Having been there on the day in production and seeing them is one thing, but then seeing them on the screen as an episode cut together, it’s just so much more moving. The ending of 106 I’ve watched so many times I’ve lost count, but it still brings a tear to my eye every single time. That’s something that I never get tired of.

Paul’s (Sun-Hyung Lee) performance during the episode with the funeral of his son is another scene that brings a tear to my eye every single time. As great as the original was, it didn’t have that kind of impact on me back then. I mean, “Leaves From the Vine” can make me misty every single time I hear it, but seeing Paul do that scene at his son’s funeral was just shattering.

The finale ends with Zuko recognizing that he has been manipulated by his family, and the comet coming back. Because of those back-to-back scenes, I feel like they’re positioned as equal conflicts, which is another significant change.

The comet was an interesting element in the original because it provided a ticking clock for the story. Aang and the others knew that they had to complete their mission before the comet returned. We didn’t have that available to us for a very practical reason which is that we didn’t know how long it would be before we can shoot a Season 2 or 3. However, I always knew that the looming threat of the comet had to be there, so we added it as that very end scene, to show that we were aware the threat is out there. It’s coming. And as it so happens, it ends up capping Zuko’s arc for the first season as well. That’s what creates that parallel that you’re talking about. That’s another thing that we had to consider in making the transition from an animated show to a live action is how do we account for the time span of the story? In the original series, pretty much all three seasons took place within the span of a calendar year. That was not something we’d ever be able to do, and it’s not something we can even try to do because human actors actually age and grow older and change. We had to account for that going into the first season.

It bookends Zuko’s arc but then you also have the very clear parallel of the comet in the beginning in the comet at the end, which I thought was a nice touch.

We wanted to do that bookend — to your point, new viewers might not even recognize what that is, probably won’t. But there’s that bookend there both for the fans of the show, but also if you go back and rewatch it you’ll see it begins and ends with the comet. Another way we bookended the series is the opening episode highlights Firelord Sozin’s (Hiro Kanagawa) strategy of misdirection and how he used that to attack the Air Nomads; and at the very end you see Firelord Ozai use the exact same tactic and reveal that he used the misdirection to conquer Omashu.

I’m still so curious how people who don’t know this world at all are going to respond. How would you pitch this show to someone who knows nothing about “Avatar,” who is just opening up their Netflix on February 22?

I would say that “Avatar” is this epic fantasy about a group of kids who set out to bring hope back to a world that’s in desperate need of it. Along the way they become a family, and bring that sensibility to everyone they meet on their journey. At heart, that’s what it is to me emotionally. On top of that, there is epic action and adventure with fantastical creatures, incredible environments, and bending effects that will blow you away.

They will airbend you away! Sorry. It sounds like you’re bracing yourself for some criticism, but what would you say to fans after they’ve watched these eight episodes, knowing that Season 2 or 3 may or may not be on the horizon?

I hope that they recognized and felt the love that we all had behind the scenes for the show and the story and the characters. We, like them, approached it as fans first and foremost, and respected what they expected from the show, and hopefully delivered on that. It sounds a little obvious, but I get the impression some people actually question our fandom level of the show itself, so I hope that comes through.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” is now streaming on Netflix.

#natla #atla #albert kim #indiewire #interview #netflix avatar #netflix atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar netflix #atla netflix

[yletylyf]

Rules: list eight TV shows for your followers to get to know you better!

Thank you for the tag @jhalya <3

Tagging @cindle-writes, @atomic-space-babe, @heavy-metal-dick, @ashesandhackles, @givereadersahug, @phantomato

I think I’ll list the shows I’ve watched recently, no clue how I would tackle an all-time favorite list.

1. Shadow and Bone

I never got around to watching season 1 before season 2 came out, so I’ve been binging all the episodes over the past week or so. I did not particularly like reading these books, and I do not particularly like the show. It’s a good production - it’s pretty and I like the actors, who do a great job.

My problem with this verse is that I loathe the main character, books and show alike. I am only in this fandom because I like villains and my friends keep trying to convince me the Darkling is the best villain. And he is a great villain! I’m desperate, however, for content about him that is neither canon nor his popular fandom ship. I’m reading some promising Nikolai/Darkling fics, and slowly trying to finish season 2 of the show.

2. The Mandalorian

I am an extremely casual, not-really-a-fan SW fan. I have like, seen all the movies and the live-action TV shows, and even some of the really bad cartoon, but find most of the content entirely forgettable. So, here I am, dutifully watching the latest in my very casual way. The negative is that I don’t care about the plot of this show (is there a plot in this season?) Positive points in season 3: Elia Kane was smoking hot and also a villain. Wooow! Plus, Bo-Katan is growing on me. Oh yeah, and baby Yoda is the best SW character.

3. House of the Dragon

I thought I would hate this show because I really, really hated Game of Thrones. And there was plenty I did hate about HotD - fuck every single one of those graphic childbirth/dying in childbirth/miscarriage scenes, why do the writers have such a hard-on for women suffering in ways unique to the female anatomy? Fuck off and die. 

I like dragons! I like Rhae and Ali (preferably shipped together)! I loooove Daemon. The settings are so pretty and the action is great and the unhinged villainy and incest is glorious. I kind of hate every single one of the younger characters though and because of it, haven’t really been able to get into the fandom or most ship fic.

4. Rings of Power

LOVE LOVE LOVE. Oh my god! It awoke my teenage love for LotR (I used to be obsessed) and increased it a hundred fold. A delightful and complicated villain-centric story with a smoking hot actor and all the chemistry with the other leads, in a beloved childhood canon? Holy shit, yes please.

5. Wheel of Time

I mean... I watched it. I think these books are terribly written and can’t stand them, but fine, I’ll watch a TV show about a fantasy canon. Loved the big, central role given to Moraine and loved the Moraine/Siuan. The settings and costumes are pretty. I don’t care about this canon at all. I have tried reading fic as encouragement and just cannot muster any caring about these characters.

6. Ted Lasso

Love it! Haven’t started watching season 3 yet, but I loved seasons 1 and 2. I didn’t expect to like it? Happy optimism, relentlessly feel-good, upbeat characters in a modern setting? Not really my thing. (I mean, does it sound like any other show I’ve listed here?) But it was so charming! The writing so funny and the actors so good. Keeley/Rebecca are a fantastic f/f ship and Ted/Trent are a fantastic m/m ship in fandom. I’m very into it.

7. The Witcher

Hmm. I like dark characters and themes but I don’t like jump-scare, horror/tension stuff. So the Witcher was sort of hard for me to watch. I think it’s better on a re-watch when I know what’s coming. Geralt is gorgeous eye candy for sure. The women are annoying (I don’t like children characters much and I hate plots that are like “all I want is a baby” for women, hate hate hate them, please die, Yennifer’s entire storyline). I love the fun monster-hunt plots and Jaskier!

8. Obi-Wan Kenobi

I wish I liked this. I wish I liked Anakin in particular. I ought to; he fits the character archetypes I love most. His relationship with Obi-Wan should be fascinating???? But I don’t care. I honestly can’t remember what happened in this show.

#tag game #a lot of ranting #my bs #eight tv shows

[dsneybuf91]

Other 2022 Recommendations

I often find a fascinating piece of media with at least one Asian or Hispanic/Latin American entertainer prominently involved, but don’t end up blogging about it. Sometimes, I feel too far from the target demographic to properly discuss it. Other times, my admiration doesn’t feel as deep as it does for the likes of Everything Everywhere All at Once. Yet other times, the subject seems too intricate for me to blog about, especially if I check it out beyond its time of relevance. Still, some of this media felt entertaining and/or noteworthy enough for at least lip service. For brevity’s sake, I’ll limit my recommendations to works released this year. Each section lists them by order of release date.

Most of these works have more Asian, Hispanic, and/or Latin American cast and crew members than listed.

Honorable Mentions

Various Disney Channel cartoons: The Owl House (episodes #30-41 aired this year) and The Ghost and Molly McGee (#11-20) deliver charm and emotional appeal, best appreciated when watching the respective shows in whole. The Owl House probably would've risen into the Recommended TV Shows section if Disney didn't force everyone involved to rush the story.

Easter Sunday: Reportedly the first major motion picture with a predominantly Filipino-American cast, this comedy draws laughs from satirizing FilAm family quirks and celebrity worship culture. Unfortunately, while the characters' exaggerated demonstrations of admiration for Manny Pacquiao formed the plot line that I enjoyed the most, they wouldn't amuse viewers who never belonged to his fanbase - as I once did - and/or wish that the movie gave his role to someone non-homophobic.

Toon Makers' Sailor Moon pitches: The long-awaited unearthing of a cheesy, unfaithful, and failed attempt to adapt Naoko Takeuchi's beloved manga for American children deserves acknowledgement in this year-end retrospective, as well as at least one viewing from American Sailor Moon fans.

Recommended Movies

Turning Red: The nostalgic feature-length directorial debut of a future Pixar vice president of creative proved objectively nice enough to become one of my top 10 favorite movies from the studio.  It also became the first Pixar picture from this decade that I would purchase on Blu-ray and digital.

Starring Rosalie Chiang as Mei Lee and Sandra Oh as Ming Lee

Co-Starring several other Asian actors, including Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Priya Manga, Hyein Park as Abby Park, and Wai Ching Ho as Wu

Directed by Domee Shi

Written by Domee Shi and Julia Cho

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: Delightfully expert comic timing and a wide emotional range help develop passionate cinephile Javi Gutierrez beyond a wish-fulfilling self-insert.

Starring Pedro Pascal as Javi Gutierrez

Father of the Bride: Among all the movie adaptations released so far of Edward Streeter's novel, the humor and drama of this one feel the most up my alley, though I felt I needed at least one more viewing to fully grasp the worth of the added divorce-related storylines.

Starring Andy Garcia as Billy Herrera, Gloria Estefan as Ingrid Herrera, and Adria Arjona as Sofia Herrera

Co-Starring Isabela Merced as Cora Herrera, Diego Bonita as Adan Castillo, and Pedro Damián as Hernan Castillo

Directed by Gary Alazraki

Written by Matt Lopez

Bonus Features

Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red: As with Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, Turning Red's most insightful extra feature remains exclusive to Disney+.

Almost Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Everything Everywhere All at Once: The Everything Everywhere All at Once Blu-ray and DVD contain the most comprehensive extras platter I've found in quite a while for a brand-new movie, especially since this 41-minute documentary runs longer than every other documentary I've seen on an A24 Blu-ray.  One of the other bonus features even reached the big screen, when EEAaO's critical and financial successes convinced A24 to theatrically distribute a version of the film with the gag reel tacked onto the end.

Recommended TV Shows

Our Flag Means Death Season One: While not the main character, incognito assassin Jim Jimenez and their vengeful plight form some of this charming show's most intriguing subplots.

Co-Starring Vico Ortiz as Jim Jimenez and Guz Khan as Ivan

Guest-Starring Fred Armisen as Geraldo

Directed by Fernando Frías (#5: "The Best Revenge is Dressing Well"; #6: "The Art of Fuckery"; #7: "This is Happening")

Written by Eliza Jiménez Cossio (#4: "Discomfort in a Married State"), John Mahone (#5: "The Best Revenge is Dressing Well"), and Zaye Ferrer (#7: "This is Happening")

Amphibia episodes #50-58: The most widely-appealing Disney Channel cartoon I've seen with a female lead of color aired its last nine episodes this year, and managed to stick the landing in the finale.

Created by Matt Braly

Starring Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy

Co-Starring Anna Akana as Sasha Waybright, Haley Tju as Marcy Wu, On Braly as Mrs. Boonchuy, and Brian Sounalath as Mr. Boonchuy

Co-written by Jenava Mie (#52a "Sasha's Angels"; #54a "The Root of Evil"; #57 "All In") and Gloria Shen (#50 "Return to Amphibia"; #52b "Olm Town Road"; #55a "Newts in Tights"; #57 "All In")

What We Do in the Shadows Season Four: This offshoot of my favorite Taika Waititi movie deftly pulls off a literally monstrous premise with strong comedy and pathos.  Season Four's changes to the status quo resulted in some worthwhile revelations and storylines, even if not all of those changes will carry over into Season Five.

Starring Kayvan Novak as Nandor the Relentless and Harvey Gullién as Guillermo de la Cruz

Co-starring Anoop Desai as the Djinn and Parisa Fakhri as Marwa

Directed by Tig Fong (#36: "The Wedding")

Written by Marika Sawyer (co-wrote #36: "The Wedding"; wrote "#38: "Go Flip Yourself" alone)

Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World: This miniseries delivers some fascinating insight into various types of South American wildlife, and their relationships with the environment and humans.

Narrated by Pedro Pascal

Starring various South American scientists as themselves

Andor Season One: Due to my preference for Star Wars chronicles that instill a sense of accomplishment and/or hope, episodes in which the Empire inflicts realistic despair only appeal to me if I can bunch them with ones in which Cassian and his peers achieve rousing and immensely satisfying, yet either small or incomplete, victories.  While this condition and the relatively low view counts could call into question Disney+'s decision to release Chapters 4-12 at a rate of one per week, the season's grounded insight into the Rebellion, captivating performances, and high-quality production values still turn this into one of the most exemplary Star Wars TV shows.

Starring and Executive Produced by Diego Luna as Cassian Andor

Co-Starring Adria Arjona as Bix Caleen, Varada Sethu as Cinta Kaz, and Andy Serkis as Kino Loy

Guest-Starring Antonio Viña as Kassa

Whether you agree or disagree with me on any of these works, or if you have any other relevant recommendations, feel free to politely let me know in the comments section.

Plug

Discrimination towards Asian-Americans has reached alarming levels.  I would like my readers to donate to The AAPI Community Fund, even if I personally take no share of the funds.

#turning red #what we do in the shadows #wwdits #the unbearable weight of massive talent #our flag means death #stop asian hate #new year's eve #amphiba #father of the bride #star wars andor #my posts #movie review #tv show review #star wars review