#The director/writer commentary

[emrys-merlin]

Look i love this fandom, but the fact that so many people still believe Merthur was queerbaiting makes me so mad. And the fact that these posts gets trending in the main tag is even worse.

People just don't seem to understand what "queerbait" means.

#merlin #merthur #bbc merlin #arthur pendragon #merthur was not queerbait #the writers and the actors knew #they never mocked the ship #they never mocked the fans #they welcomed it #at no point were we promised a queer love that wasn't fulfilled #they never said it was going to become canon #no jokes about it #no fanservice #the canon ship was Gwen x Arthur #Merthur was a whole seperate beautiful relationship #and shippers were happy because they saw an unforced and wonderful relationship between two men #merlin remained true to itself and its fanbase #btw the director's commentary literally goes over this #this is my second post about merthur queerbait nonsense sigh

[un-pearable]

Civil War (2024) is a mechanically good film but the commitment to not stoking real world political tensions in a movie about the potential consequences of those tensions leaves a gaping hole in its worldbuilding and reduces its impact to just. a series of melodramatic images of “what if the bad war happened here”. completely declawing any potential impact it could have had for the sake of not being controversial

#literally saw an interview where they were talking about the shot where the lincoln memorial was blown up s #with the host saying jokingly that the message was ‘don’t blow up the lincoln memorial’ bd the director LAUGHED #and that just summarizes the whole movie #like yeah it’s a joke but the commitment to not explaining WHY there was a secession movement and WHY everyone was divided meant it really i #is just a toothless ‘don’t make the country at war 🙂 because then all those scary war crimes we see in other countries would happen here. #wouldn’t it be scary if someone bombed the white house :0’ #text✨ #like the moment i heard that the main conceit was texas and california teamed up bc the writer/director didn’t want to make the conflict #‘too real’ i knew it would be lackluster. dude you clearly do not understand the cultural divide there. #AND THE FLAG????? BOTH THOSE STATES ARE TOO OBSESSED WITH THIER OWN FLAGS AND HOSTORY AS FORMERLY INDPENDENT REPUBLICA #THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE A SINGLE FLAG let alone one as boring as that. it shows that the dude is not from here #for this kind of political commentary you need to understand the cultural context and history to our politics not just the recent years of #ooooooo political division scary :( #:/ idk man. the character parts were good but the message is nonexistent bc they didn’t want to do the one thing political movies should do

[the-bus-called-graveyard-8]

6 times Madagascar didn't say hell + 1 time they did

#madagascar #dreamworks #dreamworks animation #animationedit #dreamworksedit #alex the lion #fun fact: the actual lyrics to the song alex sings are 'it's a helluva town' and the writers were very close to having him sing that #but they ultimately decided to change it to heck #source: mada3 director's commentary #another fun fact: this gifset has been on my idea list for FIVE YEARS #source: the snapchat picture i wrote down the scenes in that came up in my memories a few weeks ago and prompted me to finally make this #also i don't know why some of the 'hecks' look yellow and some look orange #it bothers me but not enought to figure out why it did that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #films: mada1 #series: ahkj #ep: 1x06 eat prey shove #ep: 1x08 viva mort #ep: 5x06 one more cup part 2 #series: tpom #ep: 2x53 byte sized #films: mada3 #ch: alex #ch: ted #ch: becca #ch: kowalski #ch: karl #grvyd8.gifs #parallels of the mcu (madagascar cinematic universe)

[mercurygray]

Ah, yes, the Eagle's Nest. We couldn't film there, obviously, so we re-created it on a soundstage at Pinewood. There was a very famous magazine article about that visit - it's very well documented. What's fun about that scene is that we also managed to find several photos that didn't make it into the spread, from the personal collection of the photographer. Joan could be very particular about who she had photograph her, and Jo Brandt was part of a very short list. She liked to use women, whenever possible, and, in Joan's words, Jo "could be very discreet. She knew when to keep her mouth shut - what was a secret and what could be shared."

Now, Brandt took a lot more photos at the Eagle's Nest than the ones that Life published, and several of them are of Joan and Dick Winters, whom she, of course, would marry after the war. Their relationship at the time would have been a huge secret - he was still her commanding officer - but in these snapshots, they know that they're alone, that they're among friends. They're really lovely, quite intimate pictures of two people who are in love, and Joan had never seen some of them before we brought them up. It was really touching, watching her remember that time. And we worked some of those into the way we staged the scene.

-Directors Commentary, The Darkening Sky Series Extended Box Set

feat. @shoshiwrites' Jo Brandt, who you should all go read more about.

#and on saturdays we write fake directors commentary to get us out of writers block #the darkening sky #director's commentary #tds miniseries

[chayscribbles]

THE GEMINI HEIST ☆ a writing excerpt

i've reached 10k on this draft so it's time for a little holiday gift: an excerpt!!!

for some context: this is from Gabi's POV. she, Leo, and Euna are at a stolen parts dropoff. while Leo and Euna are inside a room talking with their client, knock-off droid maker Oke Larue, Gabi is stationed outside, poised to hack into the security system, which includes a bunch of security droids, if anything goes sideways, but has been specifically instructed not to do it unless Leo gives the order.

and then... this happens.

words: 1379

gemini heist wip intro

“I’m afraid I can’t give you your money, Callisto.”

Gabi’s attention snapped back to the discussion she was eavesdropping on at Larue’s words. She paused her typing.

“And why is that?” said Leo. The video feed on Gabi’s datapad was too grainy for her to make out Leo’s facial expression, but if this turn unnerved her in any way, it didn’t show in her tone.

“As much as you value the integrity of your business practices,” Larue said, “I value the integrity of my droids.” He stepped up to the droid beside Leo, examined it, then turned to the captain. “And I do not appreciate your attempts to undermine that.”

Leo cocked her head slightly. “I believe you are mistaken. No attempts are being made on my part to undermine anything of yours.”

“Someone remotely connected to one of my droids the moment you arrived at the facility,” Larue went on, pacing in front of Leo and Euna. “You’re trying to hack into them, aren’t you? To take control of them?”

Gabi froze. Shit, she thought. Did he detect me? But I haven’t even connected to anything yet—

“I am your most trusted parts supplier,” Leo argued. “I have been nothing but honest with you in the past. It truly hurts me that you would accuse me of such a thing despite many pleasant deals between us.”

“I’ve been hearing whispers about you lately, Callisto. Things that make me question your reliability. Tell me—” Larue stopped pacing in front of Leo and stared her down. “Would more than half of your crew desert you if you were as trustworthy as you claim?”

Leo visibly stiffened. Whatever composed reply she had prepared immediately dissolved. Instead, she snarled, “The internal affairs of my crew are none of your business, and have nothing to do with our arrangement.”

Gabi held her breath as Larue stared the captain down. Leo was taller than average for a Tharekkani and knew how to use that to make herself look imposing, but the droid-maker’s words had clearly rattled her enough to make her shrink. Her arms were now crossed over her chest, and she almost seemed to lean away from Larue as he stood over her.

Larue said, “Seize them.”

Gabi had no time to fully register the two droids in the room pouncing on her crewmates when clunking footsteps sounded in her direction from the door. She jerked her head up from her datapad. 

The droid stationed at the door was storming towards her.

“Shit!” 

She scrambled to her feet and backed away, only to slam into the wall behind her. Her hands shook so much that she nearly dropped the datapad—

The datapad!

Remembering the device in her hands, she rapidly scrolled through the code and found this droid’s section. With shaky fingers, she punched in the sequence to access its commands. Red text chided her. One of the symbols was wrong. 

The droid was closing in on her now, casting a long shadow. With her back fully pressed against the wall, Gabi frantically rewrote the code. This time, new lines appeared in green. She scanned them for a specific sequence— “loyalty protocol”— and didn’t bother double checking that it was the right one before selecting the entire block.

The droid raised its arm.

Gabi sucked in a breath and deleted the code.

The droid stopped in its tracks.

Heart pounding, Gabi peered up at it, still not daring to move. It loomed motionlessly over her, standing at what she estimated to be about six feet tall. It was so close that she could almost hear the whirring of the drives in its torso. Only after a moment did it dawn on Gabi that it was waiting for her to speak.

Her eyes sought out the unit number painted on its chest in bold white letters.

“B-34?” she read aloud.

Its eyes lit up in a soft blue with some kind of recognition.

“I-I’m Gabi,” she went on.

The droid cocked its head like a curious animal, emitting two short tones that almost sounded like it was saying her name. “Bap beep.”

“You’re not… you’re not going to attack me anymore, are you?” she asked.

It shook its head with a series of incensed beeps as if the idea of it attacking her was preposterous. Gabi let out a sigh of relief and awe. It was so strange to have this massive killing machine under her command, and she couldn’t quite believe she had been able to reset its loyalty so thoroughly.

A loud crash from inside reminded her of the situation at hand.

“Can you help me?” she asked the droid, pointing at the door. “My crew is in there, and I have to help get them out. They’re the two humans being attacked by two droids like you—”

Without hesitating, B-34 whirled around, stormed to the door, and bashed it open. With the clinking of its metal parts swiveling around its joints to reposition themselves, one of its hands swiftly transformed into a small laser cannon, and it opened fire into the room.

Clutching her datapad, Gabi ran after it, making sure to stay in the shelter of the door frame, and peered inside. Larue had two droids protecting him in the corner of the room with plasma shields as he watched the chaos unfold. B-40 had the struggling Leo grappled, dangling her a few feet off the air. Not too far away, Euna was fully engaged in a fist fight with B-92, both throwing punches so fast it made Gabi’s head spin. When Euna fought, it wasn’t as much a battle for dominance as it was a performance. Her movements were graceful despite her build. Every manoeuvre looked calculated, choreographed, executed not only with power, but with style and finesse.

“Don’t hit the humans!” Gabi hissed as one of B-34’s laser shots narrowly missed hitting Euna in the thigh.

The droid fired again, this time getting B-40 squarely in the shoulder. It ungracefully released Leo, who ungracefully ended up on her ass on the ground. At this, Euna managed to shove her own opponent far enough for her to fire at B-34 with her cybernetic arm. The droid shuddered and stumbled back as the blast of pink energy hit its torso.

“Don’t shoot it!” Gabi screeched. “It’s helping us! I hacked into it!”

“So you are messing with my droids!” Larue yelled, his voice distorted by the buzzing of the semi-translucent shields. “All of this talk of being honest—”

“For fuck’s sake,” Leo growled, scrambling to her feet. She made a dash for the door. “Li! Leave the droid alone! Let’s get out of here!”

But Euna was too absorbed in the fight to stop. Or maybe she was having too much fun. A wild grin threatened to tear her face in half as she pummeled the droid with hits, plastic clashing against metal. Her jacket had come off somewhere in the fight, and her broad shoulders glistened with sweat and oil smears. But B-92 was just a bit faster and stronger than her. It grabbed her wrist mid-swing and threw her onto the ground, then pinned her there with its heel and bent down to finish the job.

Gabi urged her new droid, “Do something!” 

B-34 raised its canon, aimed, and fired.

A hole appeared in B-92’s neck. Euna crammed her fingers into the jagged opening and tore its head off with a guttural yell. Sparks flew out of the wires sticking out from its neck. The droid’s decapitated body jerked, stiffened, then keeled over and collapsed with a clatter.

Gabi’s breath hitched in her throat as Euna tossed the droid’s severed head aside, then effortlessly leapt to her feet. Chest heaving, she shoved her dampened hair out of her face with one swift movement of her chiselled arm and surveyed the room for any more foes. Catching Gabi’s eye, a triumphant smile spread across her face. Gabi suddenly felt a little dizzy.

“Li!” Leo, who had joined Gabi by the door by now, barked. Her gruff voice broke Gabi out of her trance, and only then did she notice several more of Larue’s droids coming alive along the wall, much more than they could handle. “Let’s fucking go!”

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing community #wip gemini heist #gh excerpts #okay but keep in mind i've been writing this on and off for months now so it's not like i've torn through 10k in two weeks kjdfkjs #anyways: AR1 handshake GH: starting with a botched stolen parts dropoff #DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY TIME #i used dnd combat (specifically with the star wars 5e system) to figure out the actiony parts haha #that's how Leo ended up grappled #and Gabi taking over the droid was not planned until she rolled a really good technology check to reset the droid's loyalty protocol kjdf #so i guess she has a pet killer droid now? lmaooo

[throttlegainwell]

Not to get too self-indulgently deep into meta for my own series, but, like, what's tumblr for if not giving director's commentary on our fics? (Also, hey, if anyone else wants to share some director's commentary of their fics, I would love that.)

One of the things about pdwm (particularly in Iconoclast) that's just really heartbreaking, to me (the person choosing to write this, I realize), is that Joyce is constantly devaluing her efforts. She keeps feeling like she wasn't there for Jonathan when he needed her and she let him down and she wasn't enough, and sometimes that's true, but what I really hope comes through in the text (maybe it does?) is that she absolutely was, sometimes.

Like, okay, she doesn't know what happened in when there's fire on the ground, but she does catch that something is wrong, and she does what she can to make him feel a little better in that moment. She works with what she's got: physical affection, company, food. They're not all winners, but he gives her basically nothing to work with there, and she still manages to be there, in some way, that makes him feel less alone, even though his trauma isolates him from her somewhat. The bar is pretty high, here, for what she'll notice--it takes literal blood to wake her up a little, and she focuses on the basic, pragmatic, and more easily remedied physical issues, like food, sleep, and wound care--but once she does, she's in it. (And he's not just passively sitting there waiting for her to notice, the way he might have as a younger kid; he's actively hiding his distress, though not as effectively as he thinks--it's more like she can see that he's actively doing this and decides to respect that boundary because he's not a little kid anymore, so what can she really do, force the truth out of him?)

In nightlights in the daytime, she changes her plans just to cook for him and make sure he eats and (very temporarily) relieve some of that burden of looking after Will, just to give him a break. She pushes back her pretty devastating anxiety and very legitimate terror over sparking a custody dispute to reach out to Lonnie and convince him to back off. She downplays this a lot, but that's huge.

She's looking out for him a lot, in little ways, that she brushes off because she knows they're not enough to make up for everything she's asking of him, but also because she can't really see it. She's too close to it. One of the reasons she's so gung ho about the camera is because it's something that she can see is really good for him, so she encourages that, but another is that it's one of the only connections she really has with him. There are no lines of communication; they do not see each other, they don't talk, they're just a functional operation more than a family by the time we meet them. She has no idea what he's doing or what's going on with him. But she sees in his photographs what he's been up to, what he considers important enough to document, hints of who he is even though he's pulled so far away from her and she's not available to him. There's something very intimate, to her, in seeing through his eyes that way. I tried to sneak in a bunch of other details in Iconoclast to that effect, smaller things that absolutely go right over her head but show that she is invested in his health and happiness (he's struggling with reading people? practice with him; he's kind of a loner in school? guess she'll keep an eye on that), just not sure how to provide those things.

Anyway, I dunno, I feel like Iconoclast really beats up on Joyce pretty bad. But Joyce did the best she could with what she had. I just didn't want it to seem like she woke up one day and suddenly noticed that her kid was a mess and she'd never looked out for him before. Because that's not the case at all. So that was my biggest goal, I think, and one of the reasons that it had to be from her POV, but also one of the things that makes her POV so much more painful than Jonathan's would have been.

#please don't wake me series #joyce byers #jonathan byers #director's commentary tag #honestly i would love to see director's commentary from other writers #anyway don't mind me i took the day off (special occasion) and i'm determined to chill

[island-in-the-shadows]

Me to me: Don't engage with the ones who don't get it. Don't do it. It's a losing battle, you'll get an aneurysm, itsnotworthit...

#the hivemind knows what i mean #wah wah wah it's about class commentary #pls #literally writer director says desire and obsession but some people out here thinking its a treatise on the rich vs the slightly less rich #like ok in subtext if we go into deeply interpreting it however the fuck we want #and you use you know who as a representation of that and want to for some reason be a dick and go into a basic ass lit class about it #like going on and on about wuthering heights being about wildness and class and blah blah blah #yeah again subtextual but face value BOTH stories are toxic rich people obsessed with each other and being violent #like why just... #get off your pretentious asses with that bs #what's next? og gossip girl is class commentary? #can some shit just be hot and fucked up and a lot of fun? #is hannibal about the hunger of the masses and the fucked up behaviour of true crime people? NO!

[thegingergal]

listening to the commentaries for HBO ROME and god!! my kingdom for the shooting scripts.

#they don’t seem to be available on the internet that i can find #but god. #i just. #would give anything to look them #cos i have. questions. a couple of suggestions. #i’m just glad that the commentaries are on the dvds #cos they’re really interesting #and they help explain some of the thought processes and changes that they made and why #that shit is just. fascinating to me. #god. i love tv. i love writing. i love story telling. #i love it alllllll #let me listen to the actors tell funny stories or their Process or gush over their costars #let me listen to the directors deep dive into blocking choices #let me listen to the writers examine and explain their choices #please and thank you. #and also. lend me your scripts. #hbo rome

[luna-rainbow]

Park Jihoon (actor for Dojun's chauffeur Ha Inseok) interview:

What type of actor is Song Joongki? Very…very good. He will never treat any scene lightly. If he feels there are things that can be improved upon, he will explore this in a discussion. In order to emphasise my character, he will even suggest sacrificing some of his own time. He's a very warm guy, and looked after many of us well. He is very good.

What is the most common question you've been asked? The most common question is…is Song Joongki really that good-looking? Yes, he's very good-looking!

#song joong ki #reborn rich #park jihoon #i just love how a lot of the smaller actors (eg in vincenzo) gush about how much sjk looks after them #to the point of giving up his centre role to increase their exposure #it's just such a nice trait to have in that cutthroat business #i don't know what he was like when he was younger so whether this is intentional growth or just an innate trait #although i do remember people from his school saying that he was very good at looking after people as a class captain #i am still annoyed about (mostly chinese) antis harping on about his acting #if they watched bts of reborn rich you can see how much back and forth went into every single scene (not just for sjk but all the actors) #everything was very calculated in that show #they'd rehearse several times the way people moved and their positions during arguments #just so they can get the tension right #and a lot of the captions (on bts commentary) for dojun said 'he gave an unreadable smile' #'he gave a cute disarming smile' #that is literally the director/writer's intention and sjk did so much more

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

like i get why ppl put actors on panels to talk abt shows/movies like they're the face of the show and they're who we see performing. but man i rlly wish i could watch commentary from the behind-the-scenes team aside from the director(s) and like, one head writer. a good actor obviously elevates the role and is gonna have a lot of insight about their character, but i rlly wish we got to hear more from the people who actually like... wrote the actual story.

#mine #our flag means death #<- this is the show im thinkin abt rn but it goes for WAY more than just ofmd #like i love hearing taika and con and nathan and vico and rhys talk abt their characters and how they think abt the show #but they didnt WRITE THE SHOW. even taika only directed one episode #i want to hear more from the writers. more than just david too i want a panel with all the writers #i wanna hear what their intentions were and what changed from script to screen and and and #i want a fucking. play by play of the whole goddamn show with each episode having commentary from the director + writer of that ep #txt #og

[katnissgirlsmakedo]

bbc merlin writers ranked

ben vanstone number one no question

howard overman. he has committed horrible crimes but we forgive him

unfortunately. julian jones. who should kill himself btw

lucy watkins. has ALSO committed horrible crimes. but did so with a little girlboss swag

jake mitchie. objectively committed less crimes. however he didn’t do it with enough swag

richard mcbrian. who also committed horrible crimes and should kill himself. i guess he did it with a little flair tho. not as much as lucy

can you believe there’s only six of these motherfuckers. and yet their show is still so tonally inconsistent and badly written overall. crazy <3

#i’d rank the directors but i don’t actually know all of them #i would just put jeremy and alice at the top and call it a day tbh #and honestly tv directors don’t really have the impact film directors do. like not many shoes even have consistency with directors #tv is really not the director’s medium. they don’t impact the show on the level the joint writer/producers do #not to say they have no impact it’s just. like tv is not a medium where directors really stand out #they make for excellent episode commentary tho #beth.txt #merlinposting

[ghost-proofbaby]

⭐️ Directors Choice⭐️

jooooo how dare you 😭 alright so i don't think i've talked about it in depth before (i've mentioned it in passing), but the shire is burning was 100% supposed to be an enemies to lover fic, especially when i was still writing the first ten chapters and hadn't posted it online yet. but at some point, in a denny's at like one am, i just realized that was not happening. same vibes as in new girl when they accidentally let nick and jess get together too early; i was writing those two idiots, and everything that was pouring out of me was just too much sweetness. i just knew there was not a single mean bone in shire eddie's body, and it clicked that he definitely had to have liked/noticed willow prior to their deal, so i just... gave in. which was nice because at that point, my only reader was me and audrey. the actual turning point can be pinpointed for me: when she approaches him originally outside of the gymnasium, and he assumes she's asking for free drugs, and the entire thing happens with him walking away as she tells him to fuck off and that it wasn't about drugs and he makes his smart ass remark about his jacket and steve's hold on her. my brain just malfunctioned and was like "nah, why did that man give her his jacket and not experience steve's reaction first hand?"

and thus, enemies to lovers was officially scrapped, and good old-fashion friends to lovers/two idiots in love trope filled that wonderful space. <3

#and thus my fluffiest fic to date was born! #forever happy i made that decision #it makes me so much happier than forcing those two to hate each other would have #also gave me a chance to grow as a writer before i gave enemies to lovers a real chance *cough*24*cough* #jo <3 #thank u ily <3 #director's commentary #did i do this right? i think i did

[writer-and-artist27]

⭐

Thankie for the star, Carim <3 What to comment on...

In Morgan's chapter of Passing Days, Day 65, the "Tonelico" name she used for disguise was actually written in on purpose. I was really surprised when playing through the NA translation of Lostbelt 6 to find her past self's name had been changed to Aesc, but since Morgan chose to come to my Chaldea on NP3 in the name of violence, it felt like she would also choose the name mainly to throw off any remaining Fairy Knights/Tam Lin and Oberon when trying to guide Chaldea.

"Tonelico" was the original name JP used for Morgan's past self as an Avalon Le Fae in saving Britain, so why not honor that when trying to play herself off as Arturia Caster's predecessor faerie? It works out. :)

#partialdignity #fanfic director's commentary #passing days #vy says something #writer thoughts #ask game #asks #friend things #nice things #thankie friend

[mitspeiler]

Director's Commentary Ch. 7

A couple things to talk about here.

Henry's attitude in this chapter is perhaps unusually cheerful. This is due to a few reasons. Firstly, he has made a decision, even if it has hurt him, and feels a bit of that post-big-decision euphoria. Secondly, he is putting up a front to appear strong in front of Ayane, who, despite the problematic aspects of wanting to court someone with whom you have a parasocial relationship, he still wants to think he's cool.

Secondly is the matter of Henry's arm. Henry has gone through a great many iterations, though few of them saw print. This is the third major revision of Henry's character; in his second iteration he was out for revenge against the man who killed his family, and in an unreleased fic, lost his arm in the attempt. This would result in him getting a mechanical arm built by Neville,(1) the start of their friendship. I had intended to keep that in Filmverse, but even though I had thought of the entire plot at the inception of the story, the details kept changing. He lost his arm much earlier in the timeline and a new arm became an important plot point. It went from being fully mechanical to a skeleton arm animated b magic, inspired partly by the Cradle series (from which I also borrowed the absorption ability).

I had also intended in Henry's second iteration for him to have some spider-manesque qualities, swinging about on steel cables somewhat like the police in Legend of Korra. He still has an association with steel cables in this story, but he has not yet swung from one. His new liquid metal arm has the power to stretch and change form, though he doesn't use it much in this story. Importantly, I imagined him stretching it out to swing like Spider-byte in Across the Spiderverse. A lot of these things wound up just not happening onscreen, so I feel free to bring them up here.

Mention is made of Henry's "gross little boy hair"; this is a deep cut reference to the original version of the character who shaved frequently as soon as he started puberty, because he was vain and did not want to have a single-hair beard like many pubescent boys do.

#filmverse #original writing #writers on tumblr #henry sinclair #director's commentary

[sokkas-first-fangirl]

Do you have any director's commentary about what happened with the cracks during the big blowup argument between Bruno and Alma?

Ooh man, it took ages to decide how far to take the cracks! I knew I wanted the mountains to open, but did I want Casita to fall too? All I knew for sure was that the courtyard still needed that dramatic crack in the centre and it still needed to stem from Alma. Eventually, I decided to keep poor Casita standing; after all the stress I've put that sentient house through in this story, I owed them a break

I knew I wanted the "final" argument to be between Alma and Bruno, but I also debated having Pepa or Julieta step in. In the end, it felt more fitting to let Bruno have his say by himself. It's one more misunderstanding, one more crack so to speak; Alma and Bruno once more not understanding each other. It's the moment Alma finally understands that she has to confront her own trauma, because she's hurting her loved ones by lashing out. Pepa and Julieta have both asked her for explanations that she wasn't ready to provide, but this? Nearly losing her home and the mountains opening? Bruno blaming himself and Mirabel blaming herself? It was the wake-up call that Alma needed.

The crack in the courtyard is still there! It is clumsily hidden under a rug while they try to patch it 😂 Currently, no one but the Madrigals are meant to be allowed into Casita, lest they comment on it (besides the Rojas's of course, because they wouldn't know to question it and the Madrigals are best suited to help them) The crack(s) will be discussed again in the next chapter! We're nearing the end of the story after all; the cracks have to heal somehow 👀👀

#answers #asks #writer's commentary #director's cut #ask game #how bright you burn (how brave you've been) #encanto fanfic #my writing #la familia madrigal

[yourstreetserenade]

Tonight I watched They/Them on Peacock and I have to say I don't understand why the film was so poorly received. Is it perfect? No. But why does it have to be perfect? Can't it just be?

It follows a group of LGBTQ+ teens at a gay conversion camp while a killer is on the loose and a primary complaint I see is that it's just not scary and to that I can agree...sort of. Your killer isn't scary and the kills don't really start till more than midway through but no doubt there is horror here. The horror isn't brought on by the slasher's presence but by the very real physical and psychological abuse that these anti-gay programs commit to traumatize and harm kids.

That's the horror. It isn't supernatural or far fetched or out of this realm, the horror is that these are real things that happen to real kids in the real world. And that is what's most terrifying.

The slasher isn't hunting the kids. The slasher is hunting the people running the program. You see what's coming a mile away, it's not a shocker, but I was okay with that.

I saw one post about this movie complain about how they didn't think a single gay person was consulted for the movie but like...it was written and directed by a gay man, who probably understands the experience and did his research. Does They/Them reinvent the wheel? No. But neither do the countless slasher fics released every year. Why must this be perfect or wholly original?

I've also seen some remarks on characters being stereotypes and again, I can understand this to some degree but here's the thing, most horror/slasher movies deal in stereotypes. Pick any five big slasher flicks and compare them, you're going to have your jock and your weird kid and your self involved princess of a character why? Because slashers aren't deep cerebral pieces of media, they're not meant to be. You use stock characters because your audience is already familiar with them to a certain degree because we've seen them before. We can't spend an hour learning who this or that character is in a slasher film, we need to know who these characters are within the first few moments so that we can quickly progress.

Also, I found all of these characters to be interesting and easy to root for. Stereotypes perhaps, but are they harmful stereotypes? Not at all. We see each teen character have some sort of arc, we see them support each other and protect each other and fight for each other - not against the killer on the loose, but against the people trying to get into their heads and tell them who they should be.

An anti gay conversion camp is horror and one that feels very real world. I enjoyed it and recommend it but I doubt it'll be popping up in my rotation very often simply because the kills aren't scary but the fucked up stuff these anti-gay counsellors say and do to these kids is and that isn't something I'd want to digest every year.

#they them 2022 #i watch stuff #im going to look up writer and cast interviews for this #i love behind the scenes stuff and i hate that streaming doesn't have features like directors commentary and etc #i want to know if they/thems killer is named after Angela from sleepaway camp #ive only seen the first sleepaway camp but watched dead meat's coverage of the sequels #plus ive listened to development hell's sleepaway camp episode #apparently some queer folks have reclaimed sleepaway camp and celebrate it #while others dont want to acknowledge it #i honestly feel nothing for sleepaway camp myself it was way before my time #but again the behind the scenes stuff fadcinates me #when the killer said her name was Angela i was like 'sleepaway camp reference?' #idk idk #maybe im reaching