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xxlovelynovaxx · 8 months

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Ah. "Animals rights" bullshit okay. Being animals that are not obligate herbivores and eating the flesh of other animals because of it is "oppressing" non-human animals. And they called out my comparing it to anti-choicers because "murder is different than death" okay well anti-choicers think abortion is murder. I don't happen to consider a human killing an animal for food murder any more than I consider an animal killing another animal for food murder, especially when as you pointed out yourself some people can't survive without meat.

Or is it a contract killing/hit on every animal You've ever eaten to survive? Are you just not a murderer because you paid not to get your hands dirty?

Like yeah it's fucking NATURAL. Humans aren't some wondrous ascended beings that don't crawl through the dirt. We fuck and fight and survive and yes, part of that survival for many is KILLING.

And it's good that you don't think people should be forced onto veganism because that would be as bad as the people who want to force all animals to eat synthetic meat and hunt via robots or whatever but my gods can you imagine telling someone who has been a vegetarian by choice for years for animal WELFARE purposes (not rights) who is vegan for disability reasons that they are "justifying the oppression of animals" and "killing animals for food is murder" when you literally can't go vegan for health reasons yourself? Okay murderer. Guess your life matters more than those oppressed animals.

Like sorry I'm going full "you're an asshole and I despise you and I'm genuinely sorry for myself that I thought we could be friends".

Like yeah the anti-choicer metaphor wasn't perfect. But it also got you to cut right to the heart of the matter. You are so divorced from humans as part of the ecosystem and food chain you genuinely believe we have some moral duty to not kill animals (but only animals, not plants or fungi, which are also living and have some measure of sentience) and to hold ourselves separate from the biosphere to the greatest extent possible.

That's just ecofascism 101. Are we gonna do the "any form of hunting or land management, even responsibly by indigenous stewards using traditional practices is bad" next? Or are we gonna avoid that one because you hopefully know better than THAT and simply think that removing humans from ONLY one part of the consumptive chain is ✨different✨?

For reference:

Also where does "choosing to die" come in to this? I wasn't talking about euthanasia, I was talking about withdrawing the life support provided by a human body if the owner of that body stops consenting to providing it, therefore depriving a fetus dependent on that life support for survival of said survival. I'm pretty sure the fetus doesn't have a choice in the matter. (Whether or not it's "alive" doesn't have much to do with anything since it's been made pretty clear that medical autonomy in terms of mandated use of your body's parts or resources is unethical at ANY point. Even if you ARE killing it, we've determined that's the most ethical option.)

Also if we're going to make bullshit oppression claims why don't we talk about transspecies people who are obligate carnivores?

#literally I'm not a fucking legalist but no I don't believe murder in the sense of nonconsensual killing is always wrong #like self defense. hello.#like maybe my moral system is just built different but to call it oppression and make me out to be some kind of bigot?#come on. that's bullshit and you know it.#we're literally not talking about rights being taken away. also this is why animal welfare is such a better concept than animal rights #stop anthropomorphizing animals!! stop treating them like furry humans that can't speak!!#literally somehow both a veganism centrist and an 'animal rights' person at once #go yell at people for literally having a moral-spiritual belief system that encompasses eating animals as neutral somewhere else #oh and btw don't EVER fucking moralize any kind of food related consumption around me again that goes for everyone #meat is neutral. sugar is neutral. artificial sweeteners are neutral. preservatives are neutral. plants are neutral. fish are neutral. etc #some of these may be unhealthy for a given individual and their production under capitalism may be fucking harmful #but conceptually they are neutral and there are ways of making them physically so by changing the harmful systems #you can keep feeling bad about your oppression of poor animals or w/e. or maybe you don't feel bad idk #I happen to find that far more harmful than humans who want or need to eat meat - doing so - will ever be #thanks for the mask off moment where you decided it was actually okay to moralize food and survival #I'm so happy to say goodbye forever #(note: if you know who this is don't fucking harass them. I have them blocked and am being a bit nasty *bc* they can't see it)#(I don't want them to suffer. I just think they're a monumental asshole. gods know I'm one too.)#(let people be assholes 2k23 lol)

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password-door-lock · 7 months

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Mystictober Day 5-- Zombie

Content warnings: guns, minor character death (the character is a zombie believer)

“Hey, toy, you'd better—”

“Oh, thank god,” you cut Saeran off before he’s even finished slamming the door. Under normal circumstances, you would never try to talk over him, and not just out of respect. From what you understand of the hierarchy at Magenta, nobody cuts Saeran off— except, perhaps, for the so-called Savior, but as a general rule, the believers are terrified of him. You, however, have other things of which to be terrified— and now that Saeran is locked in this room with you, so does he. “Listen, I've got good news and I’ve got bad news.” It occurs to you that this might not be the best way to break the news to him, but you’ve already committed. “Which one do you want first?”

“Who the hell do you think you are to interrupt me?” Saeran screams, clearly already in a sour mood. He never responds well when you defy or contradict him, but he doesn’t usually start screaming at you right off the bat. As he crosses the room with startling speed, you can't help but shudder, your mind drawn back to the events of this morning. For a moment, you’re worried that Saeran might try to bite you, just like that believer, but no— all he does is cage you against the wall. You release an audible sigh of relief at the sight of his familiar face, his eyes as sharp as ever. He doesn’t take that very well, as you probably would have guessed if you could still think clearly. “I'm going to teach you how to b—”

This time, he's cut off by an inhuman groaning sound coming from the other side of the wall behind you, followed by banging and scratching that you can practically feel where your back is pressed against the cool plaster. “What the fuck was that?” Saeran demands when the noises have quieted. His breathing is heavy, and his hand is clenched into a fist where it rests on the wall above your head. It wouldn't take an expert in human behavior to deduce that he's as scared as you are.

“I was getting to that,” you explain, fighting to maintain a jovial tone for his sake. Usually, making him laugh is a good way to help calm him down, but you get the feeling that Saeran is beyond that point right now— to be honest, so are you. If he didn't have you backed into a corner, you would probably be pacing around the room, wringing your hands and fretting. “So, what happened is, the believer that came to give me my breakfast tried to bite me, and I was like, holy shit, terrifying, so I shoved him into the bathroom, and now, as you can see, he's making terrifying groaning noises and trying to get out. So, in conclusion, would you mind pinning me against a different wall? I can feel the, uh, pounding and clawing against my back, and the inhuman wailing is pretty loud.” You release a shaky laugh, deciding to omit the part of the story where you sat like a statue on the edge of your bed, praying that whatever was going on with that believer wasn’t contagious through skin-to-skin contact. You also neglect to mention the neon green blood vessels, the glassy eyes, or the frantic, automatic movements, as disturbed as you were by all of that.

“You said there was good news. What is it?” Saeran demands, momentarily distracted by your story. Not distracted enough to let you go, it seems, but he’s no longer threatening you, at least. “Don't tell me you were lying about that, too.”

“I've never lied to you,” you place a hand on his arm as gently as you can, though you’re not sure whether it’s for his comfort or your own. Maybe both. He's shaking, though that's nothing out of the ordinary— Saeran is usually trembling from head to toe when he comes into your room. The only difference now is that he can’t convince you that it’s all from rage, not with the snarling believer locked in the bathroom. “And the good news was that I trapped the guy in the bathroom. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I’m glad all the doors here lock from the outside.” Your bathroom door, unlike many of the others that you came across when you were allowed to explore this floor of Magenta at your leisure, also locks from the inside, but you’ve been betting on the fact that the believer isn’t in the state of mind to figure out the lock mechanism. To be safe, you also pushed a chair against the door, though if your guess about the believer is correct, you doubt that such a flimsy piece of furniture would actually do much to keep him at bay.

“Mhm. Your lovely fairy prince Ray wanted to trap you in here forever,” Saeran informs you, exerting considerable effort to try and look smug under these harrowing conditions. “He would have locked you up and kept you like a doll if you had given him the chance— you’re lucky I'm the one who's here instead.” He is grasping at straws now, trying to wrap his fingers around any control that he can get.

“First of all, you're the one who locked me in here,” you point out, despite yourself. Maybe it would be better just to let him have this one, but in your defense, you’re terrified. “And second of all, there's a scary bitey guy trapped in the bathroom! I don't like to throw this word around, but I'm actually pretty confident that we're dealing with a zombie.”

“There's no such thing as zombies, prince(ss),” Saeran informs you, like he hasn’t heard the very zombie-like groaning and wailing noises coming from the (former) believer that literally tried to bite you. “Are you honestly that stupid? They're made up.” He finally releases you, only to pound on the door to the bathroom. “HEY!” He roars. “You know who I am? If you don't cut out that racket and stop messing with my toy, I'll bring you to the basement and lock you in a cell, instead! Then nobody will listen to you, even if you're wailing or begging or whatever!”

But all he gets in response is garbled snarling and clawing at the door. “That's zombie behavior,” you laugh, beside yourself with horror. You're honestly impressed with your ability to hold yourself together for long enough to get the snarling believer into the bathroom and lock the door.

“I just said it wasn't a zombie!” Saeran roars. Evidently his plan is to take his anger and confusion out on you, which is nothing novel— however, you’re not sure how comfortable you feel with this particular display of strength, considering that it involves pretending that the snarling creature on the other side of a very thin piece of wood is anything other than a zombie. “Watch. I'll get him out here and deal with him myself.” For some reason, Saeran finds it necessary to pull the chair away from the door. Thankfully, the believer doesn’t seem to notice, or doesn’t understand how to use the lock— you don’t care which. All you know is that you don’t like this plan.

You tug on his arm, but Saeran simply shakes you off. You suppose that it's your own fault for hanging off the sleeve of his suit jacket, but in your defense, he's trying to open a door with a literal zombie behind it. In your opinion, you're entitled to do whatever you need to stop him from releasing the fiend— you cling to him with all the strength that your fingers can summon . “You're going to get us both killed,” you protest.

“If he tries anything, I'll shoot him,” Saeran informs you, “Let me take care of it, toy. You don't know what you're talking about.” You might be persuaded by the warning in his tone, were you not so afraid of the real threat on the other side of the door.

As uncomfortable as you are with this situation as a whole, however, you do feel marginally safer knowing that Saeran is armed, and you allow him to reach for his weapon. It might actually be better if he gets rid of the zombie, although… What if there’s a cure for whatever this believer has? “I still don't think you should open that door.”

“Shut up,” he hisses, “I already told you what I was doing, prince(ss). You can't do anything to stop me— haven't you figured that out by now?”

You can't help but roll your eyes. “This is a really stupid idea.”

Saeran scoffs. “What the hell is wrong with you?” He ignores the groaning noises coming from the bathroom and unlocks the door, taking advantage of your shock— you didn’t think he was actually going to open the door— and tugging you behind it with him as he pulls it open and releases the believer into the room.

You’re honestly thankful that Saeran isn’t trying to face the zombie head-on, but that gratitude, like everything good at Magenta, is short-lived. “Hey,” he calls, and the undead creature whirls around.

You feel very confident referring to the believer as such, partly because his eyes are glassy and he's darting around with the the stiff, reflexive movements of a monster from a zombie movie, and partly because he tried to bite you, but mostly because he doesn't seem remotely afraid of Saeran— that's not typical for believers on a good day, and right now, Saeran is shaking with rage and terror while brandishing a weapon. Anybody human would at least stop with the scary snarling noises. The neon green veins really just drive the point home.

“See,” you whisper, “Zombie.”

Saeran's hands are trembling as he raises the gun. The creature charges at you. “Kill it,” you yelp. You can worry about the moral implications later, but you damn well did not decide to stay here so that you and Saeran could live out the rest of your miserable existence as zombies roaming the halls of Magenta. “You have to kill it. Saeran, please.”

He closes his eyes for a split second, but before you can even accept your impending fate, he clicks the safety off and fires just before the creature reaches you. You’re too shocked to say anything. Saeran is breathing heavily, and as soon as his gun is put away, he clings to you with both arms. “What... what... was that?”

You've never heard his breathing so ragged. “It's alright,” you assure him, “It's going to be alright. You did so well— you saved us. It's okay, we're safe.” But you know very well that this assessment is not entirely true— after all, you’re still at Magenta, and neither one of you was ever safe here. In your defense, however, you're just as shaken as he is. How could you be anything else? If he'd hesitated for only a moment longer…

“How did it get in here?” Saeran breathes. Then, louder, “HOW DID IT GET IN HERE???”

You try your best to wriggle around and face him, but to no avail. He’s clinging to you with a vice grip. “You've gotta pull yourself together.” You hate to say it, but it's true— you have a vague idea of how zombies work based on what you’ve seen in movies, and perhaps the only consistent piece of lore is that if there's one of them around, it's probably safe to assume that there might be more on the way. “There could be more of them. Did you see anything strange in the hall?”

He takes a deep, shaky breath. “Yes.” No wonder he was in such a bad mood when he came in— he probably sought you out to blow off steam about it.

He doesn't tell you what he saw, or why he didn't bother bringing it up before, or why he was so convinced that the zombie in the bathroom wasn't actually a zombie. You're not sure you want to know— now that the believer in front of you has been taken care of, it's abundantly clear that he was not the only source of strange banging and groaning noises. You’re fairly certain that if the two of you leave your room, you’ll have more zombies to contend with. “What do we do?” You ask, as if Saeran would know. He might be an imposing figure around here, and he might have a gun, but other than that, he's probably just as clueless as you are.

“I have— I have to make sure my Savior is alright.” You've never heard him stumble over his words this way before. “You'll have to come with me— toy. Since... since I don't want...Well, I can take you wherever I want to. I don’t have to explain it to you.”

You knit your eyebrows. You can deal with the name-calling and the refusal to explain his reasoning— the man just had to kill a zombie, after all; you can't blame him for being all over the place emotionally— but you're not so sure about his plan. “You want to go back out there?”

“I have to,“ he informs you. ”Then…” It's clear he doesn't know what to do after that.

“We have to leave this place, Saeran,” you breathe, “You know that. It isn't safe—”

“It's not safe out there, either, prince(ss),” he spits. He's probably right, and you do see his point— there's no doubt that she mistreats him, but Rika is important to Saeran. You can understand why he would want to check on her, at least. You may disagree with him, but it’s his journey to go on, and you refuse to become just another person telling him what to do.

“Alright,” you relent eventually, squeezing your eyes shut. As always, you will follow this man wherever he goes— whether that means staying at Magenta or walking into a hallway full of zombie believers— against your own best interests. This must be what love is, because it's rattled your priorities beyond the point of no return. “Let's go, then.”

#tw: guns #tw: death #I may have gotten a bit carried away with this concept #And I feel bad that so far for this challenge I've been writing mostly lighthearted fluff #And then all of a sudden out of nowhere Suit has to fight a zombie #MM_mystictober2023 #mystic messenger #mystic messenger fic

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splatoonmaster69 · 8 months

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i mean this in the nicest, jokiest way possible the gay persona polls have convinced me we need to tie every single p5 and p4 fan to a chair with a psp and force them to play through persona 1 and the 2 duology

#sorry saw a 'who is this guy vs homophobic gay man' tag on the philemon v yosuke poll and it made me very angry #cuz the same kind of tags were on the nyarl v yusuke poll #and frankly. lets be honest here. as far as what ive seen and played. persona 2 is the least homophobic persona game #every other one(AS FAR AS IVE SEEN. persona 1 dw buddy you may make me feel sick but i Trust you) has some fucking shit in it #meanwhile persona 2 is over there canon bi protag with canon gay love interest canon lesbian sidecharacter #just off the top of my head #as far as i saw 0 homophobic jokes about any of this unlike what ive heard of from a certain fourth game #no prominent transphobic character as far as i saw. once again looking at that fourth game #no bit where the canonically gay people drag away a straight main character as comedy. unlike a 5th game i know #the only other one with a chance is persona 3 and 1 but i cant play 1 and 3 had the one scene on the beach #so uh yeah every time a persona 2 character loses i get a little closer to unfollowing for the sake of my mental health

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taeyungie · 1 year

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hi ♡ i guess i'm back? 🥹

here's a little life update! i think you guys deserve it after my absence that lasted longer than even i expected it to last ;( i am very sorry about that. i miss everyone here and bangtan so much, you have no idea. the reason for all that is that for the past months i have been going through a lot of things and changes in my life. there were good and bad things happening, time flies extra fast, days melt into one and i didn't even notice the past half a year pass. although i think my absence was unavoidable in these circumstances i just thought that you guys deserve to know what's been up with me for the past months haha i have received a lot messages and reminders that people remember about me and that they miss me and i just want to send all of you my biggest apologies for leaving you for so long with no response, as well as all my love and gratitude! 🥺 i think i've been always fairly transparent on here so if anyone wanted to know more I'll leave some more details in the tags but basically I just hope that soon i will be able to become more active again and respond to messages ❤️❤️❤️ i hope everyone is doing great 🥰

#honestly... it was yoongi's comeback that made it happen. that made me have motivation to come back. i didnt expect it but here we are LOL #because for the past months i have been struggling a lot and i almost lost all the connections with my friends family and bangtan #i lost all my feelings and thoughts #i didnt miss anyone i didnt want to do anything i didnt want to be anywhere. i was completely submerged into my own head #i still am. it didnt exactly get better but.. its just yoongis impact jasbhdjdjd he made me remeber a lot #in october last year i developed a very agressive eating disorder and its gotten a lot worse at the begging of this year #and it has taken everything from me. it sucked me dry and still continues to do so. it made my mental health so much worse on every level #but im still here and thats what matters in the end right ❤️#from the good things - after long unfortunate and very stressful job hunting i finally got a stable job 🥰 and i continue my uni so far #that's why i was absent here most of the time. i decided to focus on my life and on trying to change something and to fight a little more #after jin's enlistment announcement... it was a wake up call for me #and maybe soon i will be back on track but im taking things slow. especially that its not easy for me at all #but i just wanted you to know that theres been a lot happening here so ❤️ im not just getting bored of tumblr and bts haha #i never stopped following the fandom i never turned off my notifications from media i never stopped looking up what they're up to each day #i just didnt have time and motivation to be active. because of my health i wanted to be quiet and away from eveyone and everything :/#even from my comfort people and activities #that sounds sad but. it's alright so please don't worry about me ❤️ I'm holding on just fine. got used to some things ❤️ trying to heal #so yeah i think thats that haha i think its enough and all basically #it may seem like very little but my life has always been very slow when it comes to big actions haha #anyway. love you all so much ❤️ thank you for not forgetting about me ❤️#soon i will try to answer some mesdages from my inbox. please wait for me just a little bit more ❤️ im very overworked right now #but im so sorry that you have to wait so long ❤️

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carolinanadeau · 29 days

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In Praise of Sally Ann Howes

As I've made it one of the purposes of my blog to share photos and songs and general positivity about the wonderful English actress Sally Ann Howes, I thought I'd make a post to talk in much more detail about all the great things about her and why I adore her so much!

This classy English beauty possessed a highly expressive face and eyes, an astonishingly powerful soprano, a great sense of humor, and the world's most charming laugh. One thing I cannot stop saying about Sally Ann is that she did not and does not get nearly enough credit and recognition for her immense talent and prolific career, and it's precisely for that reason that I'm here to do my part in giving it to her!

This overlong rambling post is a combination of biographical information and my personal fawning over her performances... whatever I felt I most wanted to put out there in the world and what I'd like people less familiar with her to know.

Click on Keep Reading and I'll take you on a journey!

As she preferred to work on the stage and didn't really pursue a film career, the catalog of Sally Ann's work that can still be viewed today is unfortunately small - though you can find almost all of her early films on the internet if you look hard! In her early film days, mostly made before she was able to pursue her true passion of musical theatre, her extraordinary singing talents weren't utilized by the producers at all.

However, we were fortunately blessed with exactly one musical film role from her, and it's an iconic one: the aptly-named role of Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), the golden-haired, golden-hearted candy heiress who falls in love with and eventually marries Dick van Dyke's character Caractacus Potts after joining him and his children on a madcap adventure. She's a sweet, intelligent ingenue with hidden depths and one of my favorite sorts of character arcs - the uptight, lonely woman who becomes more and more warm and open as she discovers newfound freedom and joy in life and falls in love.

There is something about Sally Ann that just glows in every scene of Chitty, and it's not only that bright blonde hair! The way she widens her eyes sometimes, the way she raises her eyebrows, her gentle and soft presence in the happiest scenes, and the particular airy lilt she has to her speaking voice are all so distinctive and appealing, and I can't take my eyes off her. And her smile! When I say she glows it's barely even a metaphor, the woman just emits light.

(Funnily enough, I started to realize that many of the laudatory quotes I've found about her also refer to her in this way, like this quote from a 1965 TV Guide article, from playwright Sidney Kingsley: "She's luminous as an actress. I mean that literally. In Brigadoon she really lit up the stage.")

For me, I'm weak for any actress who can do the defrosted-ice-queen trope so incredibly well. Truly starts out as closed-off and prim, and nearly reverts to that state when she and Caractacus have a Big Misunderstanding near the end, but in the scenes where she's happy and carefree, the warmth just radiates off of her.

She also has the most adorable chemistry with Dick van Dyke in an annoyances-to-friends-to-lovers relationship that absolutely shaped my young brain. Whenever Sally Ann and Dick glance at each other, whether with irritation and frustration early in the film or with warmth and affection later on, their chemistry is obvious and natural, and there's so much expressed in each one of those glances. One has no difficulty believing that these characters are going to be very happily married.

(Here's a cute on-set interview where she talks about, among other things, how easily she and van Dyke clicked.)

While I acknowledge that the character of Caractacus Potts was absolutely originally planned to be an actual Englishman, Dick van Dyke played him with an American accent, and to me they will always be an adorable English-American couple. It's a whole part of the charm of this pairing to me!

Sally Ann also had a great relationship with child actors Adrian Hall and Heather Ripley who played Jeremy and Jemima Potts, and did her best to help make them more comfortable and happy during the many very long days on set. Having been a child film star herself, she knew a great deal about how difficult and alienating it could be. The genuine affection the three of them shared is obvious in their scenes together, especially in the extremely adorable "Truly Scrumptious" number, and it really makes the developing mother-child relationship between the characters so believable.

The beach scene, where so much of the relationship between Truly and Caractacus and the Potts children is developed, is incredibly cute and heartwarming, and a lot of that rides on Sally Ann's performance and how her previously prim-and-proper character shows herself to be warm and loving, once she (literally) lets her hair down. We've already seen how happy the Potts family is together; now we see how Truly fits in perfectly and makes them all even happier.

Look at her! Literally glowing!

(One thing I should mention: I think both the plot and the love story of CCBB are greatly improved if one just treats the "dream sequence" as real events, which was possibly the original intention anyway, so just note that is always the perspective I'm coming from here. It's the only way to make some things make sense and for the characters and their relationships to fully develop.)

"Lovely, Lonely Man" is Truly's big solo moment, and was probably the least comprehensible part of the movie to me as a kid (lol), but is now indisputably one of the very best parts to me as an adult. It's an exquisitely beautiful love song, especially the bridge, and I somehow love it more and more every time I rewatch it. Sally Ann's dreamy, graceful movements and the way the whole scene is shot make her look like a princess, and the slow build of the song is masterfully done. She has this distinctive crisp way of articulating her words while singing, especially the closing consonants like N and M, that I just love to listen to. The string section and the building countermelodies are so beautiful it makes me want to weep. Everyone involved in creating this scene and song deserved an award, I'm being so serious. While it's not the highest of soprano songs and doesn't fully show off Sally Ann's astonishing range, she shows an incredible amount of vocal control here through the many diminuendos and crescendos, and she's mesmerizing to watch and listen to. One of her "glowiest" scenes, for sure!

While I've seen people call this song irrelevant to the plot, I strongly disagree - the romance is part of the plot, of course, and while I didn't fully understand the meaning as a kid, this song establishes how much Truly's outlook on life and hopes for the future have already changed since meeting Caractacus, and how much happier she is with the poor Potts family than she's ever been in her life of luxury. Plus, now we know for certain that she's head over heels for Caractacus, but he doesn't know... increasing the dramatic irony of the pining and yearning to follow!

youtube

In the reprise of "Hushabye Mountain", which was sung in a much earlier scene by Dick van Dyke alone, Caractacus loses the will to continue the song because he's overwhelmed with emotion thinking of his children being held captive. Truly comes in to aid him with the final verse - another pivotal moment in the developing romance - and Sally Ann's singing here is nothing short of breathtaking.

And of course, I can't neglect to mention the "Doll on a Music Box" number, where Sally Ann, who was not a trained dancer and in fact considered herself to be "appalling" at it, performs an incredibly precise, incredibly impressive clockwork song-and-dance number while on a spinning turntable! She practiced it so well that she managed to successfully complete the shot in a single take, prompting the stage full of extras to burst into applause.

This is another important character moment for Truly, though it's disguised in a diegetic performance: though it's another thing that went over my head as a child who only got to see the movie once, the lyrics about being trapped up on a music box and longing to be freed by love pretty clearly symbolize how trapped the real Truly's high-society life makes her feel, and how she yearns to break free from class restrictions and live happily-ever-after with Caractacus, as it's only with him and his family that she really feels free.

Then there's that incredibly warm romantic look that Truly and Caractacus share at the end of the song when she silently acknowledges the love confession he's just made while singing in counterpoint with her, though they're still in a dangerous situation and can't give themselves away by appearing too human and breaking their disguises... sadly this vital moment is cut off on all the Youtube videos of the scene I can find, because none of the people who clipped it understand that that's the whole point of it all, apparently. But here's a gif!

The character of Truly doesn't exist at all in the original (quite different) book by James Bond author Ian Fleming - surprising, I know, given her name! - and, honestly, the fact that Truly and the romantic subplot of this movie exist are why it had such a strong impact on me as a child, and very much why I fell in love with it again as an adult. Even though the score is wonderful anyway and the story is charming and magical, I can confidently say that I would not have become as completely enchanted or had such a strong desire to revisit it again and again if there'd been no Truly and no love story. The fact that Sally Ann's performance makes Truly so loveable is, obviously, a pretty crucial factor there.

Sally Ann's delivery of "Well, Mr. Potts... now you'll have to marry me!" after Caractacus kisses Truly... that slide from prim mock-outrage to the playful, warm, you-can-hear-the-smile-in her-voice conclusion is flawless. Not even exaggerating when I say that this was the moment that made me into a hopeless romantic as a 9-year-old child. Sure, this wasn't the first movie I'd seen where two people fall in love and live happily ever after, but I distinctly remember that this was the first romance story that had me in a giggling, kicking-my-feet, "I ship it so hard" state of mind. And after revisiting it as an adult for the first time last year, I have confirmed that yes, child me already had great taste in fictional romances!

Oh, I could say so much about the difference in her body language between the two scenes where Caractacus carries Truly out of her car that's become stuck in a pond. The first time, Truly is affronted and extremely embarrassed by the situation, holding herself so stiffly and awkwardly to avoid an accidental embrace that she causes him to nearly lose his balance and drop her. The second time, when they're in love and they know it, she snuggles right up into his arms without hesitation and it's the cutest thing ever. Sally Ann was 5'6" but looks so tiny in that scene!

(And that kiss! Maybe I'm getting off-topic here in terms of strictly focusing on Sally Ann's contributions, because Dick van Dyke deserves tons of credit for making this kiss so good... but wow, the kiss. Several times I have called it "the Most Kiss they could have gotten away with in a children's movie." Again, giggling, kicking my feet etc.)

While Truly's costumes and hairstyling are rarely historically accurate (the film is set around 1910), the stylized nature of her fashion is iconic and memorable in itself. Sally Ann also completely pulls off playing a fresh-faced ingenue who is 12+ years younger than her actual age - and I do wonder if the aging-down of Sally Ann is at least part of the reason why Truly wears her hair loose throughout most of the movie! Either way, it works perfectly and I was shocked when I first learned how much older she was than her character. (If you watch her in The Admirable Crichton, where she is also in Edwardian costume and was closer to Truly's actual age, she really doesn't look all that much different. If anything, I think she looks even more glowingly beautiful in Chitty!)

Also, as for Truly wearing her hair down... it may just have been an intentionally anachronistic stylistic choice, but in-story, I think it actually contributes to her character by showing a willingness to flout convention and pursue whatever will make her happy instead of what's expected of her, which happens to be a key theme of her character arc.

Another thing that led me to adore Sally Ann as a person as I learned more about her over the last year: in the 1960s, she appeared as a panelist in quite a few episodes of the game show To Tell the Truth (as well as a few episodes of Password), and these can be found on Youtube. I really adore how her personality shines through - she's unfailingly bubbly, witty, self-deprecating, and a bit quirky. Just listening to her speak is a delight and she has one of the best laughs I've ever heard. Here is one of my favorite little moments that I clipped.

By all accounts, she was a delightful person to know and work with, witty and clever, very professional, and very serious about her craft. She also always maintained a great affection for and pride in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and her role as Truly, which is always a wonderful thing to know about an actor in a beloved role.

Another bonus: here is a super charming interview with her after a backstage disaster at What Makes Sammy Run? on Broadway.

She was also, along with Twiggy and Diahann Carroll (as Julia Baker), one of the first three celebrities to have her likeness made into a Barbie doll.

Two of her earlier films I recommend are the comedies Fools Rush In (1949) and The Admirable Crichton (1957), if you can find them (hint-hint, you can.) You may also be able to find the 1966 TV movie of her reprising her Tony-nominated role of Fiona in Brigadoon with Robert Goulet, and although I feel like the oddly close-up way the film was shot kinda does a disservice to the actors at times, it's still amazing to be able to see and hear her in a role she performed on Broadway.

Richard Rodgers once called Sally Ann "the greatest singer who ever sang on the American musical stage." Now, I don't quote this to claim this superlative as some kind of objective fact. If you know anything about me, I am very, very strongly opposed to pitting women against each other and all the Golden Age sopranos are absolute queens who deserve crowns, no matter how much mainstream success or present-day name-recognition they have/had. I just think it's phenomenal that she received such high praise from a man who worked with many of the best musical theatre singers who ever lived... and to think, many people today have never even heard her voice. Without her performance as Truly Scrumptious, it's possible almost nobody would in the future! I am so glad that Sally Ann's lasting legacy was ensured by such a beloved film role.

Sadly for us, many of the theatrical roles which she originated (and thus, for which cast albums featuring her exist) were in shows that either flopped quickly or at least did not enter the theatrical canon, so she never achieved the level of mainstream recognition she clearly deserves. But Sally Ann also played such legendary and challenging roles as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Fiona MacLaren in Brigadoon (for which she received a Tony nomination), Maria Rainer von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Anna Leonowens in The King and I, and, much later, Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music. She received great acclaim for all of these performances and, judging by what we know of her process on My Fair Lady, was excellent at making roles distinctly her own and never merely imitating another performer.

Even in her iconic original role of Truly Scrumptious, you don't get to hear the true full power of Sally Ann's extraordinary soprano. For that, I highly recommend listening to "Another Time, Another Place" from Kwamina (1961), and "Something to Live For" from What Makes Sammy Run? (1964). I'm always sad that we don't have any recordings of her in her "fiery" star turn as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, but you can at least hear her do a Cockney accent, be silly, and sing "With a Little Bit of Luck" with Bing Crosby here!

If it weren't for the enduring success of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, few people might have even heard of Sally Ann Howes today, and that would be a terrible loss. I cannot overstate that I am so grateful that we all know who she is because she played this role and we get to see her give this radiant performance of a character that's all her own. Maybe this sounds strange, but I think the fact that this was Sally Ann's only musical film role (and the ONLY role most people will ever see her in) makes it even more precious, and makes everything she brings to the character that much more distinctive and unique and special.

Both for all of the talent and charm she brings to the role itself, and everything else that I and many other fans have been able to learn of so much of her otherwise-obscure work because of it, the world is incredibly lucky to have the lovely Sally Ann Howes immortalized as our Truly Scrumptious, and I wouldn't have it any other way 💖

#*mic drop*#sally ann howes #chitty chitty bang bang #and that's why you should vote for... wait there's no poll involved? I may have gotten carried away ;)#ok so I doubt anyone will even pay attention to this post but if you are going to tag or comment on this BE KIND AND POSITIVE ABOUT HER #like this is obviously a labor of love on my part here... don't be weird or backhanded. I don't need to hear how you disagree or whatever #and no pitting women against each other on my posts I am so serious #this is a fan post! this is a stan post! this is a celebration! do not derail!#I feel like I need to sprinkle holy water on this post before I release it out into the world #oh Sally Ann we're really in it now #also parts of this are poorly written I know. it's literally just an infodump about my Special Interest English Lady what do you expect lol #the switches between formal tone and informal fangirling are intentional btw #this is what I'm using my degree for apparently #I know I mixed in a lot of character/story analysis here and maybe that's slightly off-topic from lauding her performance but hey #it's not like I'm getting graded on this. and I mean you can see these things in her character BECAUSE of her performance #take my hand. love her with me. life could be a dream #you know the lyric in Hamilton - 'I wrote my way out'? that's what this was for me. I wrote my way out of a mental health crisis with this #when I came up with this idea I was going to save it for her birthday but that is sooo far away. so I'll post now and reblog it then!#I'm shocked tumblr can even handle whatever I'm trying to do here #I wouldn't have put SO many photos except that I needed to use multiples so I could make them smaller!!#my original post #long post

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