#.anansi

[echthr0s]

just some fun notes about Anansi since most of y'all weren't around for the DAblogging years

he's a necrodancer! Dayir is Yuna-coded and Anansi is reverse-Yuna-coded (dances to bring them back instead of dancing to send them off).

he's [part-]Chasind and knew Morrigan when they were children but then the Chantry got a hold of him and he's been a menace to Circle society ever since

(the other part of his ethnicity is Rivaini. culturally he considers himself Chasind, since the Wilds are where he lived)

his magical affinity is earth-based but in a roots-and-rot way <3

relatedly, he cannot keep plants alive. if Alistair's rose hadn't been magically preserved that shit would have been dust as soon as it touched his hand lmao

he fucked that old man (Uldred. Duncan. Loghain. Seneschal Varel. Orsino. Solas lmao)

he fucked that weird creature (Urthemiel. the Architect. Fade spirits. Corypheus, who really fucking needed it)

his spirit companion is called Clarity. he also has a staff with a Fade spirit in it. Anansi is how Anders and Justice found equilibrium

he's a creation of the dragon god Razikale, which has functioned as the perfect handwave for all the anime ass shit he's able to do

like the fact that he cured himself of the Blight. or the fact that he functionally cured Thedas of Blights in general

he was First Enchanter of the Fereldan Circle for a while but this was incredibly boring to him and so he went to the Conclave primarily as a way to do something interesting (meet up with Morrigan and do some Shenanigans). little did he fkn know

he shot down the "Herald of Andraste" business very quickly -- Andraste was a nice gal and all but his authority comes from... elsewhere -- but this had a rebound effect where people started deifying him. the cult got so out of hand that the Chantry did the ultimately STUPID thing of Exalted Marching during what was obviously pivotal world-breaking moment in Thedas's history and basically signed its own death warrant. <3

considering all of the above, you can probably guess Tevinter is obsessed with him. meanwhile, he thinks Tevinter is cringey as fuck

#.anansi #general oc tag #dragon age #the similarities to dayir are very obvious here lol. like i said they're all emanations of the same entity

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

SFX Magazine Issue 372 - Designing Good Omens ❤ 😊

PRODUCTION DESIGNER MICHAEL RALPH REVEALS HOW THE SHOW’S CENTREPIECE SET, WHICKBER STREET, WAS GIVEN A DEVILISHLY CLEVER UPGRADE FOR THE SECOND SEASON

WORDS: DAVE GOLDER

Invisible Columns And Thin Walls “The new studio is Pyramid Studios in Bathgate – it used to be a furniture warehouse. And unfortunately – or fortunately, because I accept these things as not challenges but gifts – right down the middle of that studio are a series of upright columns. But you’ll never spot them on screen. I had to build them in and integrate them into the walls and still get the streets between them. And it worked.

“There’s all sorts of cheeky design values to those sets. Normally a set like this is double-skin. In other words, you do an interior wall and an exterior wall, with an airspace in between. But really, the only time a viewer notices that there’s that width is at the doors and the windows. So I cheated all that. I ended up with single walls everywhere. So the exterior wall is the interior wall, just painted. All I did was make the sash windows and entrances wider to give it some depth as you walked in.”

GOOD OMENS HAD A CHANGE of location for its second season, but hopefully you didn’t notice. Because Whickber Street in Soho upped sticks from an airfield in Hertfordshire to a furniture warehouse in Bathgate, Edinburgh. It’s the kind of nonsensical geographical shenanigans that could only make sense in the crazy world of film and TV, and production designer Michael Ralph was the man in charge of rebuilding and expanding the show’s vast central set. “I wish we could have built more in season one than we did,” says Ralph, whose previous work has included Primeval and Dickensian. “We built the ground floor of everything and the facades of all the shops. But we didn’t build anything higher than that, because we were out on an airfield in a very, very difficult terrain and weather conditions, so we really couldn’t go much higher. Visual effects created the upper levels.”

But with season two the set has gone to a whole other level… literally. “What happened was that the rest of the street became integrated into the series’s storyline,” explains Ralph. “So we needed a record shop, we needed a coffee shop that actually had an inside, we needed a magic shop, we needed the pub. To introduce those meant we had to change the street with a layout that works from a storylines point of view. In other words, things like someone standing at the counter in the record shop had to be able to eyeball somebody standing at the counter in the coffee shop. They had to be able to eyeball Aziraphale sitting in his office in the window of the bookshop. But the rest of it was a pleasure to do inside, because we could expand it and I could go up two storeys.”

For most of the set, which is around 80 metres long and 60 metres wide, the two storeys only applied to the shop frontages, but in the case of Aziraphale’s bookshop, it allowed Ralph to build the mezzanine level for real this time. According to Ralph it became one of the cast and crews’ favourite places to hang out during down time.

But while AZ Fell & Co has grown in height, it actually has a slightly smaller footprint because of the logistics of adapting it to the new studio.

“Everybody swore to me that no one would notice,” says Ralph wryly. “I walked onto it and instinctively knew there was a difference immediately, and they hated me for that. I have this innate sense about spatial awareness and an eye like a spirit level.

“It’s not a lot, though – I think we’ve lost maybe two and a half feet on the front wall internally. I think that there’s a couple of other smaller areas, but only I’d notice. So I can be really annoying to my guys, but only on those levels. Not on any other. They actually quite like me…”

Populating The Bookshop “The props in the new bookshop set were a flawless reproduction from the set decorator Bronwyn Franklin [who is also Ralph’s wife]. It was really the worst-case scenario after season one. She works off the concept art that I produce, but what she does is she adds so much more to the character of the set. She doesn’t buy anything she doesn’t love, or doesn’t fit the character.

“But the things she put a lot of work into finding for season one, they were pretty much one-offs. When we burnt the set down in the sixth episode, we lost a lot of props, many of which had been spotted and appreciated by the fans. So Bronwyn had to discover a new set decorating technique: forensic buying.

“She found it all – duplicates and replicas. It took ages. In that respect, the Covid delay was very helpful for Bron. There’s 7,000 books in there and there’s not one fake book. That’s mainly because… it’s a weird thing to say, but we wanted it to smell and feel like a bookshop to everybody that was in it, all the time.

“It affects everybody subliminally; it affects everybody’s performance – actors and crew – it raises the bar 15 to 20%. And the detail, you know… We love a lot of detail.”

(look at the description under this, they called him 'Azi' hehehehe :D <3)

Aziraphale’s Inspirational Correspondence “There’s not one single scrap of paper on Aziraphale’s desk that isn’t written specifically for Aziraphale. Every single piece is not just fodder that’s been shoved there, it has a purpose; it’s a letter of thanks, or an enquiry about a book or something.

“Michael Sheen is so submerged in his character he would get lost sitting at his own desk, reading his own correspondence between takes. I believe wholeheartedly that if you put that much care into every single piece of detail, on that desk and in that room, that everybody feels it, including the crew, and then they give that set the same respect it deserves.

“They also lift their game because they believe that they’re doing something of so much care and value. Really, it’s a domino effect of passion and care for what you’re producing.”

Alternative Music “My daughter Mickey is lead graphic designer [two of Ralph’s sons worked on the series too, one as a concept artist, the other in props]. They’re the ones that produced all of that handwritten work on the desk. She’s the one that took on the record shop and made up 80 band names so that we didn’t have to get copyright clearance from real bands. Then she produced records and sleeves that spanned 50, 60 years of their recordings, and all of the graphics on the walls.

“I remember Michael and Neil [Gaiman] getting lost following one band’s history on the wall, looking at their posters and albums desperately trying to find out whether they survived that emo period.”

It’s A Kind Of Magic One of the new shops in Whickber Street for season two was Will Goldstone’s Magic Shop, which is full of as many Easter eggs as off-the-shelf conjuring tricks, including a Matt Smith Doctor Who-style fez and a toy orang-utan that’s a nod to Discworld’s The Librarian. Ralph says that while the series is full of references to Gaiman, Pratchett and Doctor Who, Michael Sheen never complained about a lack of Masters Of Sex in-jokes. “He’d be the last person to make that sort of comment!”

Ralph also reveals that the magic shop counter was another one of his wife’s purchases, bought at a Glasgow reclamation yard.

The Anansi Boys Connection Ralph reveals that Good Omens season two used the state-of-the-art special effects tech Volume (famous for its use in The Mandalorian to create virtual backdrops) for just one sequence, but he will be using it extensively elsewhere on another Gaiman TV series being made for Prime Video.

“We used Volume on the opening sequence to create the creation of the universe. I was designing Anansi Boys in duality with this project, which seems an outrageously suicidal thing to do. But it was fantastic and Anansi Boys was all on Volume. So I designed for Volume on one show and not Volume on the other. The complexities and the psychology of both is different.”

#good omens #gos2 #season 2 #photos #bts #bts photos #interview #sfx magazine #magazines #hq photos #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #michael sheen #david tennant #michael ralph #mickey ralph #bronwyn franklin #anansi boys #the small back room #maggie's record shop #soho #aziraphale's bookshop #dirty donkey #magic shop #aziraphale's correspondence #give me coffee or give me death #fun fact #michael ralph interview #sfx 372 magazine #s2 interview

[theniftycat]

What other Neil Gaiman work might you like?

The biggest thing to know about Neil Gaiman is that each work of his is a mixture of horror, fantasy, and subtle comedy.

That being said, each of his projects is pretty distinct from one another and there might be some that are more up to your tastes than others.

I haven't read some of his newer stuff (because I largely stopped reading as much since the early 2010s), but I'll do my best to remember what matters in other works.

Horror

The Sandman is a great work for horror fans. It's also great for mythology fans and other nerds, but horror is a major push and pull factors.

The comic is probably the greatest body of work Gaiman produced and it's recommended if you're a goth at heart and are comfortable with themes of death and humans being gods' toys.

The Sandman (TV) is a great adaptation, but it's very short so far and doesn't cover the best stories.

Coraline is a horror story for children. It doesn't have anything that's not suitable for kids, but it can be viscerally scary to some people. Both the book and the film are great.

Mirrormask is my personal favourite, it's a low budget film with mindblowing surreal imagery and one of the best soundtracks ever.

It's about a teenage girl who has troubles with her parents (who run a circus, btw) and who gets swiped up by her imagination into a bizarre world that is being eaten by her depression. Not a scary film, per se, but it's disturbing. However, it's a very warm film and it always makes me feel better.

Fantasy

Neverwhere is set in a dimension of twisted London Underground where everything that's straightforward in our world becomes weird and too real.

It really tickled my imagination, I highly recommend the book.

Stardust is set in a more high fantasy setting.

It features kings, witches, ghosts, and a star that fell to the Earth. It has a young protagonist who's not exactly the best or the brightest person, so if you hate such things, stick to the adaptation. In my opinion, the book is just lovely.

American Gods is a darker fantasy that asks the questions: "What if every god people ever believed in became real through the power of their worship? And then what if that worship started fading?"

It's set in the USA and because that country is such a melting pot, there are many gods. And not all of them are happy. This is the book that gave Neil Gaiman his reputation of a writer who loves weird sex scenes.

Humour

Stardust the film is often compared to Princess Bride. It's lighthearted, funny, full of imaginative adventures.

Just a very nice film with an all-star cast.

Anansi Boys is a spin off of American Gods, but it's a lot more lighthearted.

Anansi is a trickster god, so you know things will get funky.

I haven't read The Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane yet, but I hear they're very good as well.

Also, short story collections or Norse Mythology might be a good place to start if you want to get a feel of Neil Gaiman as an author first.

#neil gaiman #book recommendations #neverwhere #stardust #mirrormask #anansi boys #coraline #the sandman #american gods

[thenightling]

For those keeping score here are all the TV shows based on the work of Neil Gaiman from the last ten years. Lucifer - Loosely based on the version of Lucifer who quits ruling Hell and opens a piano bar, from The Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman. Originally aired on Fox and then moved to Netflix for seasons 4 through 6. Neil Gaiman also got to play God in a bonus episode for season 3. The full series can be watched on Netflix. And is available on DVD. The plot deals with Lucifer, the ruler of Hell, up and quitting and moving to Earth where he opens a night club called Lux and takes up playing piano. In the TV series he befriends (and eventually falls in love with) a woman homicide detective named Chloe Decker.

_______________________ American Gods - Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Aired on Starz. The plot deals with a man called Shadow Moon who gets dragged into the strange world of Old and New Gods vying for power.

________________ Anansi Boys - Originally written by Neil Gaiman as a spin-off of American Gods, the TV series version was filmed for Amazon Prime and is currently in post-production (Not yet released.) The plot deals with the sons of Anansi, the African trickster Spider-God.

__________________ Good Omens - Showrun by Neil Gaiman and based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Also Neil Gaiman has a small cameo in the first season. Available now on Amazon Prime. Seasons 1 and 2 are complete. Season 3 has not yet started filming and will very likely be the final season. Season 1 is currently available on DVD. The plot deals with two "differently competent" entities, an Angel and a Demon, who have come to love life on Earth and each other. And now must work together to prevent the apocalypse.

______________________________ The Sandman - First episode was co-written by Neil Gaiman, based on the stories and original characters created by Neil Gaiman with a few borrowed DC comics characters. Currently on Netflix. Season 2 is in production now. Neil Gaiman also voiced a ghostly bird in the bonus episode segment Dream of a Thousand Cats. Season 1 will be available on DVD and Blu Ray at the end of this month. The plot deals with Morpheus, the King of Dreams, who accidentally gets summoned and captured by occultists who had been trying to capture The Grim Reaper. After over a hundred and six years in captivity Morpheus finally escapes and has to track down his tools which had been taken from him when he was captured. He also comes to realize he had made many terrible mistakes in the past and struggles to set those wrongs right.

_________________________________________ The Dead Boy Detectives - First official spin-off of The Sandman. The Dead Boy Detectives were originally planned as an HBO Max series (now just Max) but moved to Netflix after the success of the first season of The Sandman. Based on characters who first appeared in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman is involved in the production. The plot is a pair of ghost teenagers decide to become detectives and are really bad at it. These two characters made a previous appearance in Doom Patrol on Max (Formerly HBO Max) but had been played by different actors.

#Neil Gaiman #Good Omens #American Gods #Anansi Boys #The Sandman #Dead Boy Detectives #Lucifer #Lucifer Morningstar #Sandman #Morpheus #Dream of The Endless

[womenofnoise]

Skin from Skunk Anansie and Björk

#queens 👑 #skin #skunk anansie #björk #bjork

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Skunk Anansie - Weak 1996

Paranoid & Sunburnt is the debut studio album by British rockband Skunk Anansie, first released in 1995, and then re-released in 2005 with a DVD featuring the videos to the singles. The album, featuring a mix of controversial protest songs (mainly about politics and religion), peaked at number 8 in the UK Albums Chart.

"Weak" was released as the fourth and final single from Paranoid & Sunburnt. It is one of Skunk Anansie's well known releases, and often a favourite at festivals. Skin performs a slower, more ballad-like version at many of her solo gigs. The song has also been covered by Rod Stewart on his 1998 album When We Were the New Boys.

"Weak" received a total of 61% yes votes!

#finished #low reblog #90s #skunk anansie

[thelastofthebookworms]

Please reblog if you want others to vote. I'll make polls with other female characters (co)-written by Neil Gaiman, don't hesitate to mention your favorites if you don't find them here.

#polls #gaiman's female characters #sandman #anansi boys #good omens #american gods #the graveyard book #neverwhere #coraline #stardust #the ocean at the end of the lane

[hopeidontgetaddictedtothis]

#neil gaiman #sandman #the sandman #good omens #good omens 2 #american gods #coraline #stardust #anansi boys #tweet #tweets #the sandman netflix #netflix the sandman

[edgylesbiangurl]

They're the IT girls of Nu metal to me

#female fronted metal #nu metal #women in metal #kittie #amy lee #evanescence #otep #sandra nasić #guano apes #rayna foss #coal chamber #skin #skunk anansie #jada pinkett smith #wicked wisdom #tairrie b #my ruin #tura satana #aimee echo #human waste project #shannon harris #spike 1000

[apollos-polls]

#random polls #tumblr polls #my polls #poll time #poll game #polls #bookblr #book poll #neil gaiman #coraline #good omens #the sandman #american gods #stardust #norse mythology #anansi boys #neverwhere #smoke and mirrors #the ocean at the end of the lane

[wednesdayshadow]

Such sweet trauma. But, victimization may be too severe, as I am an all to- willing victim.

#neil gaiman #michael sheen #david tennant #good omens #crowley #demon #angel #aziraphale #the sandman #ocean at the end of the lane #american gods #anansi boys #coraline #stardust #neverwhere #morpheus #tom sturridge #gwendoline christie

[echthr0s]

I don't remember if I've ever said this on tumblr so: Anansi Surana's role is the destruction of old ways but also the rehabilitation of the Blight-ravaged land, which is why (for example) Lothering erupts in a profuse riot of fungal life after he revisits it. the classic fairy-tale trope of a magical entity from whose footfalls flowers grow, just with mushrooms :)

ultimately the Old God Urthemiel also receives this treatment, meaning there is a period where this huge dragon has a bunch of funky mushrooms poking out of him

#it's delightful. well. to the observer. urthemiel himself finds them terribly itchy #do NOT eat the mushrooms though. they are actively absorbing the corruption. you WILL turn into a Creature (bad) #we know this because it happened to morrigan but i digress #.anansi #dragon age #general oc tag

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Neil Gaiman and Roz Kaveney at the British Library event Why We Need Fantasy 20.11.2023 :) ❤

Neil: I don't remember if it was you or John M. Ford, the late Mike Ford, who pointed out to me first that there is a thing that I do that I was not aware of doing. And it was.. and I remember this being pointed out to me at the time of the publication of American Gods. Or possibly even before it was published, when I sent it out a manuscript. Because it was pointed out to me that one way that you can tell that you're entering the third act of a Neil Gaiman story is there is always a kiss that sort of ends the second act. And it's never a sort of romantic kiss. It's always a kiss that is unexpected and a little bit wrong, but it symbolizes where we're going to go next.

Roz: Yeah, that was Mike, it's too smart for me.

Neil: That was Mike. And I remember arguing with him and then him pointing out that all the places I'd done it. And then I did it again in the Anansi Boys and didn't realize that I'd done it. And then I forget about this thing. And I saw somebody on Tumblr had found an interview with me from 2002 where I'm talking about this and the kiss, and they're like, 'Still doing it then'.

:)) Yep, Neil is still doing it :D <3 (this is the tumblr post)

You can watch the whole event here :).

#good omens #neil gaiman #roz kaveney #why we need fantasy #why we need fantasy british library 2023 event #events #interview #neil interview #videos #fun fact #gos2 #season 2 #2ep6 #2i6i15 #ac kiss #american gods #anansi boys #yep :) :D <3 #s2 interview

[fangs-trait]

thanks all for the requests, it was fun ! <3

requested by anon @tricoufamily @itsmariejanel @hekpacubo @alltimefail-sims @kazuaru

#moments extras #penny pizzazz #hugo villareal #gemma charm #victor feng #grace anansi #thomas watson #ts4 #the sims 4 #ts4 cas #simblr #ts4 townies #townie makeover #going back to infinite wealth gaming 🐥see ya

[wheresbenni]

Jacob Anderson sings his own specially composed Anansi Boys song

Source credit: jacobandaily on twitter

#jacob anderson #neil gaiman #anansi boys #i want him #myiwtvedit #raleigh ritchie #raleighrtag

[an-absolute-trainwreck]

I present to you: my collection of the WM mass market paperback Neil Gaiman books (with the amazing covers by Robert McGinnis)

I believe I’m only missing Anansi Boys in this edition, since 4 out of 7 of these were gifts from my mother for Christmas and I really didn’t have the heart to ask her for a book with mostly naked ladies on the cover

I’ve been slowly building my collection of these specific editions, since I love Neil Gaiman’s writing but - frankly - hate the most common editions. The white minimalist covers just really aren’t my style, but I LOVE these illustrated ones.

I’m happy that my collection is almost complete now :)

Thx for tolerating me being a nerd and way too picky about my books

#Mr gaiman I know you’re on this webbed site and if (by some twist of fate) you manage to see this post: #sorry what I said about the white editions. they just don’t capture the right vibe :/ #anyway #neil gaiman #william morrow #robert mcginnis #now I think my goal is pretty much just Anansi boys in the William morrow edition #and I’m also missing coraline and the graveyard book and I’d like to find some pretty versions of those #those are the big hitters that I’m missing anyway #I think I might have to dedicated a shelf just to gaiman books here soon…