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filmmakerdreamst · 3 years

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How Xena: Warrior Princess Allowed Me To Accept Myself

I was living in a city all alone and these two characters showed me that it was ok for two women to love each other.

In order to understand the following story, there’s something you need to know about me. I have always loved fiction. From the age of about 5 to 11, I loved books more than I loved people. I was a shy child who found it easier to emotionally engage with fictional worlds than the real one around me.

See, fictional worlds are created for your brain’s enjoyment. Their rules make sense. Events happen for a reason. The narrator tells you why characters behave the way they do, allowing you to empathize with them on a deep emotional level. Easy to understand, easy to identify with, easy to love.

But real people are complicated. The real world is complicated. And things are seldom laid out nicely in a coherent narrative format for you. Real things are much harder to love.

This emotional disengagement continued from the age of 11 onwards, although it was no longer as pronounced. My habit of retreating into fiction would fade during good times and come back in force during difficult or stressful periods. During the stressful periods of college, the rise of Netflix allowed me to become certifiably obsessed with my favorite TV shows. And naturally, I joined Tumblr in order to more easily fangirl with people who shared my interests.

Only for some peculiar reason that I didn’t care to examine, my interests were slowly gravitating towards girl-girl couples. Soon I was shipping, reblogging, and reading fanfiction almost exclusively about female couples. But I, who had always considered myself straight despite lacking interest in the boys around me, didn’t think this meant that I was gay. I probably just found female couples more emotionally satisfying. I was friends with mostly women, I was a woman myself, so it was natural that I just understood them better. Yeah, that was probably it.

Fast-forward to nine months ago. I was living in Boston and incredibly depressed about it. My job and my boss were making my life miserable and I had very few people to socialize with. I was making the rough transition from the constant socialization of college to the isolating pressure of a city where I had few connections. My days and nights were some of the loneliest I had ever experienced. I looked for something, anything, to lift the heart-crushing emotional silence.

My solution was the same one I always chose when I was dissatisfied with the real world; obsession with a new TV show. And thanks to my femslash-focused tumblr community, I knew just what my next feel-good show was going to be.

My tumblr friends had told me this: Xena: Warrior Princess is an action-fantasy show that enjoys a cult status, much like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (which I watched and loved). The two shows were made in the same mid-to-late 90's era, with similar bad special effects and endearing campiness. But XWP is much… MUCH… more gay.

That was about all I knew about the show going in. And amazingly, that was all I needed to know to be excited about watching it. You’d think that fact would have told me something about myself, but no. The mental walls of denial were years in the building and needed more force than that to be shattered.

For anyone unfamiliar with the show’s premise, Xena: Warrior Princess is about the title character and her quest for redemption. You see, Xena did some bad things in her previous life on another show (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys). In her storied career as a warlord, she committed such petty crimes as genocide, the slaughter of innocents, that kind of thing. But now she has seen the light and wants to atone for her crimes. Except she can never undo the terrible things she did. All Xena can do now is help people on a day-to-day basis and hope that it’s enough for someone to show her mercy.

Which is already fantastic from a character standpoint. But there is a secret mirror to Xena’s journey that is not reflected in the show’s title, and that is Gabrielle and her character arc.

Oh! Gabrielle! When I met her in the very first episode, I loved her straightaway. She is a feisty, naive, talkative small-town girl who accompanies Xena on all her adventures. Her character quickly assumes paramount importance in the narrative. Gabrielle is Xena’s only friend. She comes to know her better than anyone else and love her for who she is, all the while believing Xena can reach redemption. Yet Gabrielle is not just a support system for Xena; she goes on her own heroic journey. The two character arcs intertwine and co-develop in a way I have never seen in any show before or since.

As each episode rolled by and their relationship grew in complexity, I found myself more and more engrossed. And I came to realize: this was something I wanted. The day I accepted my own desire was the day I accepted myself. What could be more strangling than denying the existence of your own feelings? Yet I had been doing this to myself for years — cutting off the possibility of being attracted to other women — without even realizing.

Before beginning the show, I thought the fandom had read in between the lines to construct a romantic relationship between the two characters, the same way as femslash shippers do in all other TV shows. Except not this time. This one is mind-blowingly different.

Not only does the narrative place utmost importance on the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle, but the actresses bring such multi-dimensional love to their parts. When I saw Lucy Lawless (Xena) and Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle) interact, I could so easily believe that these two women loved each other beyond friendship. Xena and Gabrielle display every kind of love you can think of. They protect and sacrifice for each other. They tease and flirt. They cuddle and console. They have inside jokes with each other. They dance sexily. They play pranks and drive each other crazy. They sweetly kiss. They come back from the dead together. They bathe together. They raise each other’s children. They meet in alternate timelines and fall in love all over again.

I could have left my mental walls of denial in place. I could have said to myself “oh yes, I want this. But with a guy.” But no. Lawless and O’Connor’s incredibly attractive faces and bodies broke down the door of my mental closet. Precisely because they were fictional, I felt safe to admit my attraction to them. One of the key mental blocks I had always had towards accepting any attraction towards other women was the thought that I was being creepy. That since they could not possibly feel the same way about me, it was wrong to feel the way I did. But in my mind, that barrier didn’t exist with fictional characters. They couldn’t feel anything for me. Therefore, it was fine to feel whatever I want about them.

The walls cracked. The water came rushing in. Oh my god. I am attracted to other women. Like, every day of my life. Those flickers in my stomach when I talk to an attractive female coworker suddenly make a whole lot of sense now. I now saw my historical awkwardness when talking to beautiful girls, which I always dismissed as “me being weird”, for what it was. All those short-term girl crushes on older girls throughout high school. How was I so sure they were platonic? That heart-aching infatuation I had with my best friend that lasted for years? Yeah, add that to the ‘definitely gay’ list.

Since then I’ve realized that my feelings are valid regardless of what others feel for me. Just because feelings are unrequited doesn’t mean they aren’t real. That’s what Xena and Gabrielle taught me. Their fictional example was the final blow to my rapidly-crumbling resistance to the idea of homosexuality.

In our culture today, so many forms of media reinforce heteronormativity. How many commercials have you seen that assume attraction between a man and a woman? How many billboards tell women that they need to look sexy for the men in their lives? How many times has a movie ended with the guy getting the girl? It’s the combined action of a thousand small rocks shifting to make a cultural avalanche. You can’t move against it. All you can do is stand still and try to maintain your footing against the current, to maintain your identity in the face of a world where you and people like you are often swept away by the mainstream.

Xena: Warrior Princess is one of those rare stories that dares to go against the grain. It celebrates a romantic relationship between two women as the most natural thing in the world. And in doing so, it provides a mirror for me and people like me to recognize themselves in. There we are. Look at us fly.

This story isn’t over yet. I still have a lot of work to do to accept myself, but thanks to Xena and Gabrielle I’ve taken one huge step towards living the open life I want to live. I moved on from that horrible job and lonely city, but in the end I’m grateful. Grateful that circumstances pushed me to the depths of loneliness necessary to bring down the prison I had built in my own mind.

- How Xena: Warrior Princess Allowed Me To Accept Myself by Lyra Hall

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soysaucecas · 3 years

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oooh for the ask game 24, 30, and 44!

MAGPIE MY BELOVED HELLO

24. What are your favorite episodes?

The only episodes I've really watched are TMWWBK (which is my favorite episode and I'm certain would still be my favorite if I watched every single one because it has the only SPN character and the only SPN line), The French Mistake (which was funny enough but honestly in the Just Okay category for me, which makes me pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy actually watching SPN if this is one of the funniest/highest-rated eps), and Reading Is Fundamental (my best friend was watching it and asked me if I wanted to hop on Discord, I thought it might be fun to see Kevin's first introduction but instead this ep found the two of us taking like 90 minutes to get through it bc we kept pausing and screaming (derogatory) as the model minority stereotype jokes piled up and up and up... Unfortunately not a favorite even if we got Meg AND the "pull my finger" joke AND the "Sorry" shot). Other than TMWWBK, from clipping and transcript-reading, I like Wayward Sisters (who doesn't?), The Things We Left Behind (Claire!!!! Cas trying to be a dad! The diner scene aka my favorite destiel scene of all time bc being in love just looks so good on Cas! Also the parallels between Claire and Randy and teen Dean and the adults at that club in his story... woof.), Golden Time (Eileen gets to be HERE and be sad and loved and fight people with ghost powers and Cas gets to do a cool speech and a stabbing and do the Asian community a favor), and Lucifer Rising (just immensely sexy on all counts for Ruby, Sam, Cas, and myself). Also I am SO fond of Steve!Cas so I'll add Heaven Can't Wait even if I barely know anything about it.

30. What is an unpopular opinion or headcanon you have about the show?

Ooh okay hm I think. So I adore confession scene, but I don't think the "I cared about the whole world because of you" is like. The Objective Truth the way that most bloggers seem to take it. Cas was lobotomized tons of times before he met Dean, he was described as coming off the line with a crack in his chassis, he's always been the weird little angel who likes humanity too much! I don't think Dean came first, and although gay love was part of what helped Cas invent free will, he *Ruby voice* didn't need the feather to fly, Dumbo! I do think Cas believes what he says in the moment, but I also think he sorta... made himself believe it? This is probably just me deciding that cas-coding should go both ways, but like. I very much crush as a coping mechanism and I very much overascribe my actions to love because it simply seems more noble/poetic to do so. Being miserable because school is hard is cringefail but being miserable because of unrequited love is Good Shit. And I have been in unrequited love with my best friend for at least 7 years (probably 9 but I didn't realize it earlier) and if you asked I would 100% say that she taught me love and defined love for me and that she will be my first and last, but I also know that that is not entirely true; it's just the narrative that I like for myself. And I think that being in an Empty deal contingent on whether or not he LETS himself feel happy would lead Cas to do plenty of mental maneuvering, which I think involved intentional self-poor-little-meow-meow-ification via overascribing his choices and happiness to Dean (and I also think he'd already been doing that for a while just because of personal self-worth issues and because it's a nice narrative). I know as Cas's last Moment on the show it was probably written to be The Objective Truth, but I am perceiving him and I say no.

44. If you could write an episode of Supernatural, what would happen?

Oh scream okay! This is a fun one! I am going to start out with two ideas from other people:

1. Months ago Nate from the pocnatural discord had the idea of an episode from the "monster"'s perspective where the Winchesters are just clearly the antagonists while not doing anything different than they usually do. I think the idea was that all these supernatural beings live in a self-regulating community together and we have one Very Likable pov character who's a member of this community, but one of the newer members messes up one day and kills someone and the Winchesters come on a case and wreak havoc on this Very Much Functioning (there was going to be a whole rehab and reparations thing for the new member who messed up!) system and kill pov character and in the end you just HATE Sam and Dean for it.

2. It's hard to adapt anything from bad moon rising (aka my favorite spn fic) very well because the point of an Arab Winchesters season 1 rewrite is that it doesn't really work with the white characters we have now, but I think I could see a version of chapter 2 adapted as long as Haley (an Ojibwe hunter who lives in the area affected by what Sam and Dean are hunting) takes the lead. I'd especially like to see this section:

Dean laughs, a little disbelievingly. The question has never crossed his mind. “Do you like it?”

This gives Haley no pause at all. “Yeah,” she says. “I mean, it’s not really about killing monsters, though, for me. Or, it’s not always about killing monsters. It’s about community. Not violence. It’s a spiritual thing to build a home, you know?”

“Oh,” Dean says. He can’t think of anything else to say. It has never crossed his mind before that hunting could be compatible with a community.

I don't have any original episode ideas to add to the hunting discourse, so we're on to my ideas about character-driven eps. I think I would like to see a version of my sastiel possession fic (ty again for beta-ing that! you're a real one) as an ep around the time of 9.11 because Sam deserves to work through their trauma, but idk what the Dean plot should be for that. Another thing I would like very much is TFW drunk history storytime (so like. Tall Tales bass boosted), where for some reason they all need to go over what they were doing during Stanford era but each of them is telling someone else's story. It's gonna be either Sam->Dean->Cas->Sam or Dean->Sam->Cas->Dean. It starts out very funny (they all have terrible wigs and makeup in the flashbacks. Cas is Jimmy wearing a giant mask with googly eyes on it.) but as it goes on it gets increasingly sad how much these three don't really know each other.

In the Sam->Dean->Cas->Sam episode, Sam's telling of Dean's past veers wildly between "crushing pussy and killing things" and "feels like absolute shit all the time" and it's funny but Not Right and afterwards Dean goes "I didn't know you thought of me that way" and Sam says "... I am basically reading off the voicemails you left me back then" and Dean has to sit there and contend with the mythology he himself wrote for Sam to believe in. Dean->Cas provides the comedic beats for the episode as Dean awkwardly narrates Cas's Life As A Weird Little Guy who watches trees grow and heals babies and in the end Dean goes "so how did I do" and Cas is like "well actually I was either getting lobotomized or murdering people so like 3/10?" The moral of this plot line is that Dean is bi. Cas gives a fairly faithful retelling of Sam living her trans little life at Stanford and veering between trying to be Normal and being a total weirdgirl and feeling guilty and angry and happy and free. It becomes clear that Cas admires Sam a lot (but also feels like. guilt and some self-recrimination for not being that) for rebelling from their dad and exploring their queerness during a time Cas was still to his knowledge in total soldier mode, and Sam is having an a_good_soldier's Thesis 5 moment about how she failed the kid she used to be and how very sorry they are about all the things that happened to them, and Dean hates that this is the first he's hearing about so much of this but is also quite emo about the parts where Sam is struggling. The ep ends with them all in the same room not looking at each other and not knowing if they want to group hug or never talk again.

Dean->Sam->Cas episode is similar but the storytelling dissolves a lot faster as it becomes clearer way faster how much their own emotions are getting in the way. Dean is upset that Sam could leave their family so easily and probably swing a normal life, Sam keeps wondering what it would be like to live millennia just KNOWING that you were right and good and clean, and Cas is gay and veering between fitting Dean's life into a larger Righteous Man narrative and just being very tender (and sad and angry) about Dean's pain. Episode ends in a rather cathartic shouting match where they all end up apologizing to each other for many things.

Oh also I would like to see Cassie again but I don't have an episode in mind there. Also would love to see Kaia adjusting to life in Sioux Falls and befriending the others and dealing with Bad Place trauma.

tysm for the questions sorry for taking so long!

(ask game)

#ask #long post

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tessatechaitea · 4 years

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The Ray #6

He's still fighting his father, isn't he?

For a kid who had a dad, this fucking kid sure wishes he had a dad. I don't fucking get it. He lived 18 years with a man who was his dad but then that man died and said, "I'm not your real dad! There is another!" and this fucking kid is all, "I want my daddy!" Man, I only have the one dad and I couldn't give a fuck! Just go out and get a dog, you needy bastard! Also get a fridge. You fucking still need a fridge, you stupid asshole. Have I cursed at The Ray enough? It's not like he deserves it; I've just grown bored with this series and I'm acting out. Luckily this is my last The Ray comic book before I get to move on to Kid Eternity written by Ann Nocenti. Fuck yes! Who knew I'd read Ann Nocenti before her run on The New 52 Green Arrow?! I wish I could remember what younger me thought of it. Three kinds of comic books exist in my past: those I loved so much that they became an integral part of that chapter in my life (Elfquest, Transmetropolitan, and Shade the Changing Man), comic books that I thoroughly enjoyed and can still remember a good percentage of plots and themes (Suicide Squad, The Demon, and Justice League) and comic books I read in five minutes and completely forgot about (apparently The Ray, Kid Eternity, Scarab, and so many more that I can't list because I completely forgot about them). I could probably break those categories down further into dozens of other categories but you were probably already bored at the beginning of this paragraph so I'll just move on.

The issue begins with Black Canary penning a letter to Justice League Human Resources.

The Ray decided to take a day off from being an adult and also a super hero to explore the underwater wreckage of a 1940s cruise ship. This brings up so many questions! How did he know it was there? Did he stumble upon it by accident? Is he exploring the Bermuda Triangle?

How does an 19 year old in 1994 know about The Poseidon Adventure?

Okay, that last question was unfair. I was barely twenty-three when this comic book came out and I'd watched The Poseidon Adventure at least a half-dozen times on local stations during rainy Sunday afternoons. But you also have to wonder, "If he's familiar with the movie, why is he comparing himself to Shelley Winters?!" For a fad disaster movie of the time, I'm surprised how it was able to blow my mind. Sure, I was super young and everything was fucking blowing my mind every Goddamned day because the universe is a fucking LSD trip full of unexpected miracles (at least until you've pretty much seen them all five million times and you slowly sink into the mire of bored cynic (I wish I'd known enough in my youth to not sink slowly but to rage, rage against the dying of the wonder. Fucking stupid kid me)). But there's that moment in the movie where the protagonists are going toward the back of the ship and they pass by another group of passengers going the other way. And it's like, "Whoa. Holy shit. We could be watching their story! They could be the ones who survive! Why are they any less important than the people whose stories we're watching?!" It's a fucking great cinematic moment that not only ratchets up the tension by suggesting the protagonists might be heading the wrong way but also introduces the idea that the "protagonists" are only that because we're focused on them (and because some of them are the ones who will live, I suppose. But as an inexperienced kid, you're secure from the cynical understanding of narrative choices). If we root for our guys to be going the right way, does that mean we don't give a fuck that the other people are heading to their deaths? And why does the movie's point of view dictate to us who we care about living and dying? It's a lesson that stayed with me for a long fucking time (and one you'll see I apply occasionally when reviewing super hero comic books) and probably why I fell in love with the writings of Kurt Vonnegut. Because Vonnegut might have a "protagonist" but he's also constantly aware of the idea that the other people in the story aren't just window dressing. They're other people with stories of their own and they shouldn't be treated like just another prop. Again, it's one reason I almost always despise big action movies, especially natural disaster kinds. Because the plot always boils down to "a whole lot of fucking people are going to die on screen and it's going to be horrible but this person the camera is following will live so that will make it seem like a happy ending." While exploring, The Ray is attacked by Death Masque. What?! But how?! Death Masque was only a computer program! What is going on?! So unexpected! The Ray barely survives and then just chalks up the attack to some quirk in his program. He flies home to debug and to also think about how strange it is that Black Canary has yet to write him back. Cue a scene change to see what Black Canary thinks of his advances! Spoiler: it's the best part of the comic book so far.

Now I'm paranoid that every woman I've ever had an unrequited crush on has a note like this in her journal about me.

Hell, I'd be lucky if the women I've had crushes on noticed me enough to even mention me in their journal! Their entry would be more like, "Saw that creepy fucker staring at me in the library again. Fucking going to get a punch to the throat if he doesn't knock it the fuck off." Black Canary's currently trying to save a young girl taken hostage by a terrorist. But when she goes into the building to save her, she discovers a portal to another world with laser-wielding demons and increased gravity. Being that she's just a martial artist with no real powers (even if the artist depicts her flying in one panel but I think that's a mistake, right? She could never fly (and, no, it's definitely not a depiction of her "flying" by using her sonic scream. I don't think she even has the sonic scream at this moment in her history), she fucks right off to get help (probably from The Ray, right?! Green Arrow won't be any use in this situation). Back in wherever The Ray lives (Philadelphia, I think? Site of one of my all-time favorite books, The Boomer Bible (which I should reread again since, thematically, it couldn't be more relevant to our current political woes)), he's busy buying his fridge! Except this is only Issue #6 so you really didn't expect that plot point to be resolved so soon, right? Because it's not! Instead of buying the things he needs (being an adult and all), he buys a life-size Superman cardboard stand-up and a stereo system. Who needs a fridge anyway? I don't imaging there's anybody in America who buys a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and saves some for later! The Ray gets a message on his old school voice mail machine from Dinah and he instantly zips off to Seattle to help her. Is she taking advantage of his feelings toward her or does she actually think he's the best person to call in this situation? Maybe she didn't want to call Superman because he'd get all the credit. Or maybe he's dead. And Batman has a broken back. And Green Arrow, you know, uses a stupid bow. Turns out Black Canary called in The Ray because he has light-based powers and she surmises he can open closed portals that have disappeared from reality. It turns out she's right because what kind of shitty narrative choice would Priest have made if she were wrong? The Ray arrives, can't open or find the portal, shrugs and then Black Canary breaks down crying because she didn't save Mercy. Oh wait. That's not a crappy narrative choice at all! The Ray could have comforted her and they would have bonded emotionally and Green Arrow would have walked in on them bonding and flipped the fuck out. Sure, Mercy would be dead, but who is Mercy anyway? Nobody I give a shit about! She should have thought about readers caring about her before she chose to be a background character. The Ray turns into a raging Hulk version of himself as he passes through the portal, flying off and leaving Black Canary alone. Apparently Black Canary suffered some trauma recently in her comic book or Green Arrow where somebody pointed a gun at her and said, "I'm not afraid of you!" Now everybody keeps pointing guns at her and she imagines they aren't afraid of her. But she's super afraid all the time, even when she's being sexy.

This is a depiction of female masturbation, right?

The issue ends with the hostage taker pointing his gun at Black Canary and screaming, "I'm not afraid of you!" He's holding a young girl who is probably Mercy. And it appears younger me cared so little about Mercy's welfare that I decided I wasn't going to purchase the next issue. The Ray #6 Rating: C. I'm vaguely disappointed that I don't have the next issue. While I'm not curious about what happens to Mercy, I do sort of want to see the final confrontation between Black Canary and The Ray where she tells him she loves him like a younger brother and he's never going to see her tits. Maybe younger me knew seeing that confrontation would be too emotional for him as he pined over somebody who probably just wished he'd leave her the fuck alone.

#The Ray #DC Comics #DC #Christopher Priest #Robert Jones #Howard Porter #Black Canary

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newstechreviews · 4 years

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There are many reasons you might be familiar with Jordan Fisher. Gen Z-ers might remember him from Disney Channel’s Liv and Maddie and Teen Beach Movie. Broadway fans know him for his role as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton in Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s hit musical Hamilton, and for appearing in Grease Live! and Rent: Live. Nearly two million video gamers have watched him stream Fortnite with the gaming platform Twitch, and audiences watched him sparkle and shimmy his way to victory on Dancing With the Stars in 2017.

Now, with a role in Netflix’s To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You as a love interest for Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor), Fisher can add bonafide heartthrob to this growing collection of varied credits. That’s as long as viewers don’t revolt when his character, the suave and intellectual John Ambrose McClaren, steals the spotlight from Noah Centineo’s Peter Kavinsky.

When To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before hit Netflix in 2018, it quickly became a breakout among Netflix’s slate of romantic comedies like Set It Up and The Kissing Booth. Though the streamer is typically tight-lipped about its metrics, Netflix cited To All the Boys as one of its “most viewed original films ever with strong repeat viewing,” according to Variety. Lara Jean and Peter’s budding romance is at the heart of the film, which is based on Jenny Han’s YA novels of the same name. The two enter into a faux relationship to make others jealous — specifically, Peter’s ex and Lara Jean’s older sister’s boyfriend. Shock of all shocks, the “fake” relationship eventually gives way to something real, and the movie’s swoon-worthy, knee-bending final kiss is one for the rom-com books.

John Ambrose McClaren is the ‘marrying type’

To All the Boys 2, out Feb. 12 ahead of Valentine’s Day, has the tough job of convincing viewers that Peter might not actually be perfect. In an early scene in which the couple has their first date at an upscale restaurant, Peter explains that fancy place settings have two forks in case you drop one. He then knocks one of his forks onto the ground, the wrong move at a moment when Lara Jean is earnestly excited about her first-ever real date. Cringe.

This establishes an opportunity for Fisher’s John Ambrose to swoop in. In an unexplained coincidence, John Ambrose — one of Lara Jean’s former crushes who mistakenly received a private love letter in the first film — starts volunteering with her at a nursing home, after Peter blew off his girlfriend’s volunteer work to go elsewhere with his jock friends. As it turns out, Lara Jean’s unrequited crush on her childhood best friend wasn’t unrequited at all. Though Peter may be a popular athlete with charm to spare, John Ambrose loves Model U.N., hanging out with elderly folks and playing the piano. It’s the perfect love story…or isn’t it?

Fisher, 25, has a certain level of respect for John Ambrose, whom he sees as a different kind of prospect for Lara Jean. “Peter Kavinsky in high school and college is pretty great, but John Ambrose is the marrying type,” the actor, who is himself engaged to his longtime childhood friend, told TIME in an email.

Viewers seemed to agree with that sentiment. Within hours of the film’s release, Twitter was ablaze with John Ambrose fever.

think it’s safe to say, the world is now in love with john ambrose mcclaren AND jordan fisher now #ToAlltheBoys2 pic.twitter.com/47V3hjMcat

— cynthia⁷ 💌 psisly spoilers (@bcrstens) February 12, 2020

As fans inevitably debate the pros and cons of the great John Ambrose vs. Peter Kavinsky match-up, Fisher will be focusing his attention on another love story unfolding in front of a live audience, in his third week starring in the Broadway blockbuster Dear Evan Hansen at New York’s Music Box Theatre.

‘The whole idea as an actor is that you disappear’

In Dear Evan Hansen, Fisher plays an extremely anxious high schooler who gets caught in a web of lies that threatens every relationship in his life. The show’s plot, which involves teen suicide, is devastating at times. Evan Hansen and John Ambrose are entirely dissimilar characters, as are the tones of the two projects. Fisher says that challenge is part of his passion as a performer. “That’s film and that’s Broadway and that’s acting and that’s creating. The whole idea as an actor is that you disappear,” Fisher told TIME, hours before taking the stage on Wednesday evening. “If anybody gets to see both the film and Dear Evan Hansen, yeah, it’s going to be a bit of a culture shock for them, but that’s the goal as an actor to create that separation.”

Nathan JohnsonJordan Fisher as Evan Hansen in ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ on Broadway

“The complexity of this boy is akin to climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro,” Fisher said of playing Evan Hansen in a press release ahead of his opening last month. His casting also makes history as he is the first person of color to headline the Tony-winning show in its titular role, which Ben Platt originated in 2015.

Fisher considers himself a ‘renaissance man’

Before his big break (or breaks, depending on whom you ask), Fisher moved to L.A. from his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., quickly earning roles on Nickelodeon’s iCarly and ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager at 17 years old. Fisher admits that in the years since, his varying resume of work on TV, in theater and the music industry (he began releasing original music in 2014 and is featured on the Moana soundtrack) have positioned him as “renaissance man.” Just take his Twitter bio, for instance, which reads: “actor. recording artist. gamer. streamer. songwriter. lots of other things.”

That he’s a “gamer” is perhaps the most renaissance-man-like trait of them all, in a very modern sort of way. Like 2019 TIME 100 honoree Ninja, Fisher is among the most well-known faces of the rapidly growing video game streaming industry, which is essentially the gamer’s version of online influencing. He is partnered with Twitch, a live stream service that allows fans around the world to watch their favorite celebrities play, and is known to use his singing and dancing skills to his advantage online, entertaining with more than just his gaming skills. Fans pay for a monthly subscription to watch Fisher’s streams without advertisements and for some other perks.

Epic Games, which owns Fortnite, clearly noticed his wide appeal. Last month, Fortnite created a new “emote,” a dance that characters can do within the game, based on a dance he had posted on TikTok. The company also tapped him to host the first Fortnite World Cup last summer.

Dropping into Emote Royale with my new emote! Enter the contest and you could get your own emote too. #EmoteRoyaleContest @FortniteGame @tiktok_us https://t.co/7ECMjAF5Ed pic.twitter.com/N6rgxcZfJB

— Jordan Fisher (@Jordan_Fisher) January 18, 2020

Though he will be plenty busy during the rest of his 16-week run on Broadway, gaming remains a huge passion and important benchmark of his career. “To me, art is art, and entertainment is entertainment, and I have crafted a world in the last 16 years of doing this where I’ve never really had to pick one thing over the other, and thankfully I love all of the things that I do,” he said.

Sitting at this curious and unique intersection of fame, Fisher said he’s enjoyed bringing together all of his interests. And the fact that all of his pursuits include people from such different backgrounds — the video gaming, musical theater and rom-com communities don’t typically overlap — is especially exciting for him. He asks: “Where video gaming is concerned, it has always incorporated art, film, acting and music, so why can’t that belong in the same space as Broadway and rom-coms?”

Fisher hopes that by refusing to pick one art form, he can pique different interests within his varying demographics of fans. “The fact that the gaming community is actually interested in what I’m doing in all my other spaces, whether it be music or Broadway or film or television, it just helps with the narrative and it’s exciting for me, especially as somebody that’s a fan of all of it, as well,” he said.

#Blogger

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tinkiisms · 7 years

Text

TIME TO DROP SOME OPINIONS....about the popular fairy fanbase ships.

yes i am. be prepared.

okay im not genuinely meaning to ship-bash, these are just full honest opinions

fawn/nyx

far from the worst, it’s actually quite a nice ship to build off of the antagonistic-beginning-turned-to-love trope. but there is a very real criticism to be made of “legend of the neverbeast” in that they changed fawn’s personality drastically from all the previous films/books/games/canon. from her abandoned tomboyishness to her ill-advised curiosity and willingness to break rules. her attitudes are much more akin to tinker bell in the earlier films.

remember when fawn hesitated to help tink try out new talents, or to understand tink’s curiosity about the winter woods, or humans...yeah, imo “neverbeast” would have made more sense for their characters if tink had been the one to approach a dangerous animal out of curiosity and gone to fawn for help, idk what they were thinking. “let’s give fawn a rounder face, a spiky dress and tinker bell’s personality, no one will notice!” (except tink herself. she invented that look.)

while fawn/nyx could definitely be it’s own thing and a unique dynamic, i think if you’re shipping fawn/nyx based on fawn’s personality in the last film you’re practically shipping tink/nyx at heart. which i do. fawn is already in love with rosetta, too, read the book.

tink/vidia

unlike fawn and nyx’s antagonism which was born of a specific situation/set of circumstances, tink and vidia’s began by vidia simply being extremely, unnecessarily rude and cruel to tink simply for being annoyed by her. i do enjoy this ship based on...headcanons, idk. but the way they interact really does not lend itself to a healthy basis for a relationship. i know everyone adores vidia’s change of heart after the events of “great fairy rescue,” and i too appreciate the sour/sweet dynamic, but it still doesn’t convince me that they’d be compatible on a real level besides the easy banter of friends.

what happens when they get into a fight again over one of their major differences and have the stakes of a relationship involved? meanwhile in the book series, we see that they absolutely still cannot stand one another, and maybe it’s just ‘cause i’m a book purist but i enjoy that dynamic more? i find it more interesting. tink/silvermist and vidia/prilla are much better, healthier starting places for a loving ship.

zarina/james

i don’t think i should need to explain why it’s messed up. he emotionally manipulated her for an entire year and then literally tried to murder her. but i don’t see people exploring this intrinsic and toxic part of their relationship, i see them glossing over it and romanticizing them, pretending james actually had feelings for her so they can ship it, while the only canon we got says otherwise...

tink/zarina is so much healthier, tink literally traded everything for zarina and supported her and wanted her to come home the whole time, z admired her from the beginning, there is so much room for both fluff and angst in their plot and it’s just wonderful.

tink/bobble

the fanbase makes the ship ugly. it didn’t have to be like this. it could be a cute tinker/tinker ship and i enjoy the possible shenanigans. but i’ve seen so many fans that seem to ship this specifically to spite the fact that tink and terence were implied by the narrative, and they hate terence for no good reason. i can’t count how many people say he has no personality, boring is “just a pretty boy” etc like??? that’s their prerogative to think so, but they then ship her with bobble who perfectly fits their “cute nerdy” stereotype, but do they ever ship her with clank? hmm? (spoiler alert: no. he’s not the right kind of nerdy attractive for them.)

they also ignore that bobble and clank literally live together and are...imho probably gay-coded with the way they’re always together, hugging, even acting like an old married couple. but that’s speculation. so i don’t Hate tink/bobble but i have my Feelings.

clarion/milori

this ship isn’t really a problem, but i just personally find it really boring. it came out of nowhere--there was no such thing as a lord of winter before “secret of the wings“ because there was a minister of winter who took care of that season’s duties. replacing the female minister with a male to push the contrived love story seems a little unnecessary but obviously disney does what it does.

i think queen ree was a fine character NOT to have a romance, having so much more to occupy her time and interests, and lord milori is an interesting character enough on his own bc of his broken wing subplot. the “forbidden love” aspect to mirror tink and peri’s would have interested me more if clarion had her own sibling, not a romance. “we were born of the same laugh.”

but again, it’s not a bad ship, it’s just not my personal preference. i’d have liked clarion with fairy mary or one of her actual ministers if they were going to do a romance, so it was hinted/built over more time.

rosetta/sled

again not bad, and i love that they both have that southern charm and like each other which i find adorable, but i have preferences over this. sled is a gentle but fun-loving animal talent--he takes rosetta on an owl ride in one comic which she doesn’t enjoy. reminds me of the frog-riding fawn did with rosetta once, only sled didn’t seem to notice ro’s being upset while fawn was very concerned in her case. imo sled/ro just feels unnecessarily heterosexual* when basically the same (if not better) dynamic could be achieved with rosetta and fawn.

ro and fawn also have clashing personalities in what they’re interested in, but it’s not like tink/vidia where they have deep ideological differences, they’re both loyal and loving and already best friends. that said, i do enjoy rosetta/sled, it’s just not the best option for me.

*unnecessarily heterosexual could describe rosetta’s character lol she’s had the most romances of all the characters, all boys, and yet i’m like “rosetta likes girls??? yes???” that’s just my fault for trying to force every character i like to be gay.

tink/terence

there are definitely aspects of their relationship i can see being reasons people wouldn’t ship them. the fact that terence is overbearingly “helpful” toward tink when she’s working, the fact that tink doesn’t communicate that she’s annoyed to him before exploding, the fact that they both held a grudge over the fight for a while at least. but that’s also something i find interesting that makes their relationship realistically imperfect--they’re never intentionally cruel to one another but they have some communication issues and pride to deal with, which they both work through by the end of “lost treasure” and come out the other with a stronger friendship/bond. in the end, they both make mistakes but they’re best friends and love each other.

in the books he’s hopelessly in love with her and she intentionally suppresses her own feelings for a long time which is also a little messy, but it’s never presented as terence being “friendzoned” and feeling like he deserves tink’s love even if he wants it, he is happy to be her actual friend, and i think that itself is a healthy portrayal of an unrequited-best-friend-crush that people ignore for some reason.

i think silvermist and tink have an equal amount of chemistry and best-friendship but the world is too oblivious to see it. one day you will all know.

#⊹*⋅✧ | ᵒᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵏᵉᵗᵗᶫᵉˢ (ooc)#i have strong opinions and theyre unnecessary but i like to share them anyways #plus im a hypocrite because im like 'i theoretically do not ship this based on canon goodbye'#but if the chance to ship it with someone else is hinted im like 'YES HELLO I LOVE IT IM DOWN LETS GO'#i just love shipping

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itsfinancethings · 4 years

Link

John Ambrose McClaren is the ‘marrying type’

Viewers seemed to agree with that sentiment. Within hours of the film’s release, Twitter was ablaze with John Ambrose fever.

think it’s safe to say, the world is now in love with john ambrose mcclaren AND jordan fisher now #ToAlltheBoys2 pic.twitter.com/47V3hjMcat

— cynthia⁷ 💌 psisly spoilers (@bcrstens) February 12, 2020

‘The whole idea as an actor is that you disappear’

Nathan JohnsonJordan Fisher as Evan Hansen in ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ on Broadway

Fisher considers himself a ‘renaissance man’

Dropping into Emote Royale with my new emote! Enter the contest and you could get your own emote too. #EmoteRoyaleContest @FortniteGame @tiktok_us https://t.co/7ECMjAF5Ed pic.twitter.com/N6rgxcZfJB

— Jordan Fisher (@Jordan_Fisher) January 18, 2020

#IFTTT #Blogger

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itsfinancethings · 4 years

Link

February 12, 2020 at 10:07PM

John Ambrose McClaren is the ‘marrying type’

Viewers seemed to agree with that sentiment. Within hours of the film’s release, Twitter was ablaze with John Ambrose fever.

think it’s safe to say, the world is now in love with john ambrose mcclaren AND jordan fisher now #ToAlltheBoys2 pic.twitter.com/47V3hjMcat

— cynthia⁷ 💌 psisly spoilers (@bcrstens) February 12, 2020

‘The whole idea as an actor is that you disappear’

Nathan JohnsonJordan Fisher as Evan Hansen in ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ on Broadway

Fisher considers himself a ‘renaissance man’

Dropping into Emote Royale with my new emote! Enter the contest and you could get your own emote too. #EmoteRoyaleContest @FortniteGame @tiktok_us https://t.co/7ECMjAF5Ed pic.twitter.com/N6rgxcZfJB

— Jordan Fisher (@Jordan_Fisher) January 18, 2020

#IFTTT #Blogger

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