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alittlefrenchtree · 3 months

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"I have a new fascination for model!Taylor and how it defines some parts of him but I might have to do a whole different post about it 😅"

Aaah do it please I'm curious to hear your every thought 😊

Haha thanks for indulging me with your sweet asks 💜

For a little bit a lot actually of context: when I stumbled into a fandom, I usually spend the following 6 months using every second of my free time consuming every second of media of the said fandom for a dozen of times and then I immerge on the other side slightly disoriented and feeling a bit drunk, hangover and with withdrawal symptoms all at the same time.

It didn't happen this time for a few reasons: 1) almost being a responsible adult and having less free time than before 2) having stumbled in the weirdest way in this fandom so not really following my usual path and 3) after 5937498204 fandom experiences, having learned from my previous "mistakes" and knowing that even if something feels absolutely beautiful it might not be the healthiest thing for me to do and that there's value in maintaining some kind balance in my daily life.

So all of that to say that there is probably a million things in this fandom, about Taylor, about Nick and even about RWRB that I don't know or haven't read/watched yet. And I love it. Knowing that at random times, I can find a interview of Nick from 6 years ago and learned who he was at 22, or jump into a 1hour rabbit hole of youtube video of Taylor and fall in love with him all over again (or for the very first real time).

And that what happened last Sunday (or Monday? i don't know. less than a week ago at the very least). And honestly the videos that made me go Oh. were the most random things you could think of. Here they are :

youtube

If you don't feel like watching, it's the youtube channel of a photographer who makes video to explain how he works, give tips to other photographers and tutorials or whatever. As much as I'm a knowledge whore, I'm not exactly the target audience and I didn't think I would be fascinated by anything. But, as you can see in the thumbnails, he sometimes works with Taylor (who happens to be his friend as well) so I was curious enough to click on a few things. First, Walid Azami (the photographer guy) is quite interesting and easy to listen to. And then, I don't know. I watched these three videos without giving much thoughts to Taylor at first but immediately after, I realized that I kept thinking back about what I saw?

The version of Taylor that had lived in my head before that was mostly the extrovert, open, outgoing and social guy. Even if I knew that was only a part of him, the part he shows when he's on, I had never stopped long enough to think about the other parts of him. So after watching these videos, my mind was a bit fascinated and kept going back to this new knowledge.

I don't know. Seeing him like that, being quiet, centered, focus, patient, calm, not talking, being this quiet presence on the background, doing the same things over and over again and in full model mode was deeply mesmerizing to me. And very quickly after processing all these new feelings, I knew this was my Oh. moment. So I definitely have way more feelings now that I had one week ago.

Another thing I loved finding out with these video is how good he seems to be at not being the main character. Which is a lovely trait to find out about him given 1) how radiant he is and 2) being used to being the one with the all attention as a actor and a model. Obviously there's a lot of edit and things cut in these video but. He lets his friend do his thing, doesn't try to steal the spotlight at anytime, doesn't even speak when he's filming near by? First it's very thoughtful but again I feel like it shows something very peaceful about him, not trying to prove or over-prove anything to anyone. It's really enticing (and now that I think about it, probably the result of growing up with 7 siblings as well).

That's... a lot of words. But I guess I've said most of what was cooking in the back of my mind over the past week. Thanks for asking! (you should ask to be paid as my therapist, probably) 🙏💜

#alft asks #taylor zakhar perez #tzp

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isekai-crow · 3 months

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Delicious in Dungeon / Dungeon Meshi Episode 1

WOW the pacing on this is great. That was my first major impression of this entire episode.

Overall Score so far: 8/10

Dungeon Meshi hits several sweet spots for things I like in a manga/anime - cooking and well drawn food, and fantasy and dungeons. But I never took the time to try out the manga. Maybe the art didn't stick out for me? I tried reading it before the anime came out, just to get a feel for it, but it couldn't keep my attention.

The anime however.

Episode 1 handled all of what I could get through in the manga, and ITS. SO. CUTE.

The food is gorgeously drawn, the characters are adorable, the D&D vibes are immaculate, and the monsters and the food they become are fascinating!

I've only given it an 8/10 because it remains to be seen just how many hooks this might snag in my heart if what I've overheard about the manga being 'soul healing' is true.

The first think I can tell is that this is from a slightly older manga, with Marcille being a very classic/traditional tsundere (and/or possibly tsukomi character?). She is the tsundere type that future tsunderes were based off, and so TO ME she's both somewhat annoying and also more bearable than today's tsunderes.

Sorry Marcille.

I actually didn't like her all that much in the parts I read of the manga, and while her reactions are realistic and serve a purpose to counter balance Laios' nonchalant ability to eat the monsters that try to kill them, her reactions also annoyed me. The 1st anime episode made them much more bearable, and I grew to like her! I hope future episodes do her justice and that she's not delegated solely to being the one to dig in her heels when they eat something new.

Laios is adorable and just really really really wants to share his special interest with his friends, and I love him. He is a cinnamon roll that most be protected but can probably protect himself. I love that he has a cookbook and has just been WAITING to try out some of these recipes.

Chilchuk is Liam O'Brien from Critical Role and you can't tell me otherwise. Specifically his halfling character, Orym of the Air Ashari, with a bit of Vax'ildan thrown in for good measure. I'm excited to explore his story.

Senshi is goals. I wanna but a tough old dwarf roaming a dungeon for food.

I know it will likely get compared with what Capybara and I jokingly call "The Amazon Anime" -- Campfire Cooking in Another World -- and that will always hold a special place in my heart because I stumbled across the light novel when the manga only had about 2 or 3 chapters scanlated online, and never in a million years thought it would get an anime. Where as this is a big name manga that's been running since 2014 and finished last year in September 2023.

They're both cooking animes that deal with fantasy food, but Campfire Cooking is an isekai and all the animation budget went into making the food look D E L I C I O U S, and Dungeon Meshi is going to be far more well rounded story even while being a gag anime.

It's also got some fun Voice Actors!!

Laios, our hungry knight is voiced by Kumagai, Kentarou, who mostly plays supporting roles in a few popular anime and lots of smaller animes, but has spent most of his career voicing BL Drama CDs >o>

Marcille, our elven mage and tsundere, is voiced by Senbongi, Sayaka - Shuna from TenSura, Mumei from Kabaneri, and Haru from Beastars!

Chilcuk, our cute little halfling rogue, is voiced by Tomari, Asuna who, I IMMEDIATELY HEARD GOBUTA FROM TENSURA. She also play Kyou Souma from Fruits Basket. She has a very cute voice.

Senshi, our fearless dwarf, is voiced by Naka, Hiroshi who is best know as Garp from One Piece, Luffy's Grandpa, as well as Gamabunta, Naruto's giant frog.

Anyways, I'm excited for the next episode! Episode 1 was a good introductory episode, with cooking, hunting, and laying out their goals for the coming journey.

ep2 ep3 ep4 ep5 ep6 <- these will eventually become links, I hope.

#delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi #anime winter 2024 #ダンジョン飯 #marcille donato #laios touden #chilchuck #campfire cooking #campfire cooking in another world with my absurd skill

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glisiccc10100 · 1 month

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♪ Kurahashi Yoeko – Tomodachi no Uta.

yippeee finally i can show you my new character. in fact, he's not that new, i just drew the exterior for him quite recently.

meet Lars (full name is Larcelot). the young humanoid from the capital hex, the son of the influential figure of the criminal world there. the youngest child in his family, the only son, and the rest of kids are daughters. despite his blood connection with crime, he is not that keen on building up authority, he prefers to hang out at a club or casino, or just stay at home (he lives in a huge mansion with the whole family), although he is always happy to take advantage of the accompanying privileges. it's too early to talk about the his place in the world, but i have something to say about his image. /inhales-exhales/ there will be a lot of words...

personality: Lars, despite his small age by the standards of the setting, is already charismatic and charming, like some talented comedian or actor. cheeky, confident, quite open, but also very conservative relative to most of the youth in the capital. he will try to stick to manners even when he is drunk to the bone, but he still has a lot of audacity. phlegmatic by temperament. he values his comfort above everything else, always knows what he wants and is used to getting desired thing without any trouble, but this does not make him too conflicted or childishly moody. maybe just a little harmful.

speaking of which, his father raised him to a man who is able to get out of any scrape, easily navigating the sensory aspects of this world, the aforementioned manners and much more. and now we have a person who is always relaxed, completely unafraid of the world. blissful...

he rarely gets close to other creatures, also rarely hangs out with men, but the company of beautiful ladies is a comfortable zone for him. he can be called a womanizer. in relation to people Lars is very frivolous, communicates superficially, through the prism of logic, jokes, interests and/or impressions, and carefully stores most of his experiences inside.

appearance: tall, slender guy, physically well developed, but a little exhausted, possibly due to frequent alcohol consumption, dark circles around the eyes, strong teeth and bones, excellent sense of smell. the left arm is missing, replaced with a prosthesis with highly sensitive sensors (smooth movements, in fact, not much different from a real limb) with different attachments.

in public, he almost always appears in a neat state, even despite his deliberate negligence. he dresses relatively modestly for his budget, but still has a certain amount of expensive accessories.

features: i already mentioned above that Lars drinks quite often, but he rarely allows himself to get drunk to the state of a deranged vegetable, especially in front of someone. he loves champagne and wine, but also likes to indulge in "girly" cocktails, often drinks the same thing that his one-evening-friends chose.

he loves gambling and at first glance he may seem like a fool who is about to lose his family, house and entire fortune in some stupid slots, but this is more typical of the desperate, and i can't call him that. in addition to gambling, he is also fascinated by ordinary board games and computer step-by-step games. so his desire for adrenaline is simply caused by boredom.

he also loves jazz improvisations, especially fast incendiary melodies. he often jokes that he would like to buy a personal orchestra so he'd be able to listen to live music whenever he wants.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW. I DOUBT THERE'S EVEN HALF OF WHAT I'VE BEEN INVENTED. well, these posts are probably read by a minority anyway, so whatever.

write me how do you like it, i am always glad to receive your feedback!

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spicybylerpolls · 2 months

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giggling at 'would finn and noah practice kissing off set' anon.

i have wondered about this, less for fantasy's sake and more because i have intern experience on film sets and know how odd simulated sex scenes can be. but i've never worked with an intimacy co-ord, and i really wish i knew what that process was like. apparently it includes filling out forms literally naming which body parts you are comfortable with your scene partner touching, with which parts of THEIR body. film regulation means no genitals are allowed to touch each other, but im sure this rule was ignored in the olden days/depending on the director (no way can i see this happening on ST tho. it's got too high a profile and lets face it, the duffers arent exactly avant garde auteurs who push the boundaries of cinema.)

im fascinated by this discussion because theres really no way to know what a sex scene might be like until we see s5. sometimes the duffs knock it out the park with originality and vibes (s1, the van scene) and sometimes they're lazy and cheesy as hell (jopper's kiss? arms everywhere, terrible angles and lighting).

but anon's q is most interesting because of finn's anxiety. i am not even a huge st fan before s4, but even i noticed this in his body language. its also apparent in-show if you know what to look for - his little ticks even in s1.

so with a love scene, it's gonna be nerve-racking as hell. i love what prev anon said about him knowing noah well. hopefully that would help them in a hypothetical love scene. they'll have had meetings and discussions with the directors and intimacy co-ord. it'll be awkward but funny, and if theyre passionate about the scene, it could be fantastic. noah esp seems very invested in this storyline. this could calm finn and make him less self conscious.

i think to practice actual kissing off set could spark a lot of press if anyone found out, and it would also say a lot about the actors as people, esp because noah is out. theyre not really old enough yet to reallyyyyy know who they are, so that would probably cause some confusion. (sorry minors reading who think 21+ people have it all figured out, lol. especially artists/people in showbiz, theyre a mess lol)

that said, if they were super comfy with each other, trying special techniques to break the ice, or rehearsing officially (testing for lighting/camera etc on set), they may well kiss as practice. i just can't see this happening in someone's trailer or something. i mean, that's a great fic idea if you're into finn x noah. but scenes like these can really get under an actor's skin, even experienced ones. it all depends on their mental health and boundaries.

i will say that they would doubtless spend a lot of time blocking the scene, meaning getting in position for technical/camera reasons to make sure nudity is kept to the agreed rules. if scenes like this happen in s5, by the end of shooting, finn and noah will probably be closer than ever and well-acquainted with each other's bodies and selves. its very intimate, but when youre acting with someone you really understand and connect with, your job feels magic - it's amazing. its art.

great question anon! and sorry to burst anyones bubble who just wanted to imagine finn and noah getting it on in someone's trailer and it somehow ending up on noah's tik tok lmao

'guess he's more like mike than i thought'

very interesting points!

#byler #spicy byler #will byers #mike wheeler #finn wolfhard #noah schnapp #potentially controversial spicy byler discourse #foah #<- block that tag if you don't wanna see anything on this topic #spicy byler meta #no poll

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junk-thrillz · 5 months

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I wanna hear you talk more about Cody because he makes me insane.

Anon, I would LOVE to talk about Cody. He makes me insane too, he's been one of my favorite pnat characters since I first got into the comic (he was my ultimate favorite until Violet shoved him out of that spot a few months later). Putting all of this under a Read More because it got to be a LOT

It's hard to say what his initial appeal for me was. I think I mostly loved his whole theme of masks and actors and mysteries! The school store scene and its surrounding scenes was my favorite part of pnat basically from the moment I first saw it, and I was DELIGHTED to find out that all of these background characters had insane, hidden depth to them. Cody was especially delightful because him being a dhampir is a crazier fucking reveal than even the school store's existence itself, and once that was revealed it was like a layer of his character had been peeled away. Suddenly his status as the nice, responsible boy was turned on its head, revealing an underlying personality that's a million times more jaded and hurt than was ever previously comprehensible and FUCK it was just so!! Good!! I don't think it was ever about him being a monster, I think it was about the reveal and the intrigue.

I've always loved digging into his character. Before Chapter 8, Chapter 5 was the majority of what we had to go off of for his characterization, and what was in Chapter 5 was already a goddamn goldmine of information. There's a reason why Chapter 5 is my favorite pnat chapter (though my favorite page in the whole comic is in Chaper 4 lmao)!

In the centuries-old past of late 2020, your local weirdo Junk was incapable of separating Cody and Violet from each other in aus, analyses, headcanons, etc. They used to be tied for my favorite character, and it was because I was (and still am) fascinated by their dynamic, the way their respective complexes and insecurities and emotional walls cause problems for them... their argument in Chapter 5 was my favorite scene-within-a-scene for a very long time. All this to say that there's a reason I keep bringing up Violet in a post about Cody; it's still really hard for me to consider one without the other. I love the way they're both protectors (knighthood theming goes crazy in this comic), and I love the way they differ so fundamentally in why they're protectors and how they approach that sense of protectiveness. I love the way Cody jumps to revenge during the Hijeff situation, and I love the way Violet counters that with appalled confusion.

God, can we talk about the revenge thing? The way Cody behaves is fascinating. He's very clearly picked up certain behaviors from his dad, but he thinks that makes him some sort of evil rather than understanding that everyone is a product of their environment. Compared to his dad he's just so... fundamentally kind, with his heart in the right place, but he can't see that because he's 12 years old, in a horrible situation with a horrible parent, and a complicated social situation at school and and-

I'm really glad that he has nice things he can cling to. I can't imagine the nightmare it must be to live in that house. He's got fun clothes he can wear at home on the weekend, he gets to go over to Jeff's house, and those might seem like small victories but they are still victories. I really hope he gets out of there soon. Jesus Christ

Oh oh oh, let's talk about fancontent! I'm going to talk about my own stuff, because there are a lot of very old ideas that will probably never see the light of day otherwise. In the post I'm assuming you came from, anon, I mentioned how I'd mischaracterized my way into the right characterization, and by that I mean both my earliest and most recent interpretations of him really played up his cutesy, smiley demeanor. Very anime girl esque vibe, very over exaggerated movements, very 'actor in a play' type energy. I would often come up with au's that would shove him into some sort of magical girl role, often paired with a healthy amount of body horror for the tonal dissonance. It was, of course, also an excuse to put him in cute, fun outfits. To this day I struggle to draw him in normal outfits that don't make him look like the leader of a magical girl. (If you want a funtastic magical girl au that was actually made for me, check out astralibrary's AU over here.) One of my favorite au's I've ever made was one in which Cody was a magical warrior from another world who fell through a portal and ended up in an ordinary, spirit-free Mayview, where he then had to rely on Violet to get him through the day normal-guy-style. Looking back it's one of my favorite au's in part BECAUSE it involves so many shenanigans revolving around Cody trying to be normal and failing miserably. I believe it to be accurate to canon LMAO

I have so much more I could say about him but I think I've hit the point where I can't put my thoughts into words. To wrap it up, here's a compilation of my favorite Cody panels and bits of official art;

^Chapter 8 Page 44!!

^Chapter 5 Page 44!!

^Chapter 5 Page 58!! I love the way the blur makes his ear look pointy!! You can even see his fangs, a bit!!

^Chapter 5 Page 57!! I love Zack's expressions for him so much

^Chapter 5 Page 165!! "So embarassing", he says, as if he isn't VERY invested

^Chapter 5 Page 167!! Top ten panels that permanently altered my brain chemistry

^Chapter 5 Page 283!! This panel made me nauseous the first time I saw it. Kill your dad, Cody

^Chapter 1 Page 33!! A classic. I love his Chapter 1 look a lot. I love how he's climbing on his chair/desk

^I have an emotional attachment to his old cast page photo.

^CHAPTER 5 PAGE 48. This panel inspired the tiger spectral cody au (not my au, if you haven't heard of it before), and thus made me insane

I think I might have hit the image limit. I got carried away. Here are the honorable mention pages

Anyways. Thank you, anon, for giving me an excuse to go absolutely insane about Cody. I did NOT know this post was going to get THIS long, but once I started it was like I couldn't stop LMAO. I hope you enjoy this thought dump, feel free to send in more asks if you want to ask about something specific/want more lovingly crafted Cody content. If I ever manage to upload a fic to Ao3 with Cody in it, it'll be dedicated to you in the author's notes or something LMAO

#paranatural #pnat #cody paranatural #violet paranatural #<- for the mentions #anonz #i wanted to respond to this earlier but i spent a LONG time writing this LMAO #puzzlethrillz

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katalina27ua · 8 months

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Перше інтерв'ю зі Стелланом Скарсґардом після виходу "Андора"

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Take me back to the beginning. How was this character pitched to you?

STELLAN SKARSGÅRD: Tony Gilroy pitched it to me. He himself was a very great reason for me to take it. He pitched it and said he was going to make a story that is more real than the others. I know him and his writing, and every scene has an urgency to it. Every scene has a great tension to it. I got to read the first three or four episodes, so it was not a big question. And I said yes.

Luthen is a fascinating character. He's so driven and committed to the Rebel cause, at the expense of everything else in his life. What was it about him that you found interesting?

As an actor, it's interesting to play this guy who lives a double life and to make two different characters out of one. That was interesting for me, but he's interesting as well because he is extreme. He's like Che Guevara or the Rote Armee Fraktion in Germany or any terrorists, really. But also, as a revolutionary, he is like George Washington. So, he's got all those ingredients that make him very exciting. He has this conflict between doing the right thing and also being able to kill for the right thing.

You talked about how he lives this double life, and he really is a shape-shifter. We see him put on his wig, and he can suddenly become the shopkeeper from Coruscant. What interested you about the way he literally transforms?

Well, it was very funny. It's a great thing for an actor to do, to be able to play two characters at the same time. But I also love wigs! [Laughs] I think it's fantastic to put a wig on and be someone else.

One of my favorite moments in the season is that speech that Luthen gives, where he talks about why he does what he does. There's that incredible line about burning his life to make a sunrise he'll never see. What do you remember most from filming that scene?

I mean, of course I knew I had a speech that was very well written, and it was probably one of the best scenes in the season. And I worked on it. When we shot it, somehow I was tense. I think I said, "Let's go again, let's go again." I think I did it 10 times in a row, very fast, right on top of each other. 10 times, like "Go, go, go." And then it was good. Then, I was satisfied, and the director was satisfied.

Oh wow. It really is this intense moment.

Yeah, it was very intense.

I've spoken to Tony Gilroy and some of the cast, and they've all talked about the production design on Andor and how big the sets are. What was it like for you to walk around those sets and be in the Star Wars universe like that?

Well, I was very happy to be in that kind of Star Wars universe and not like in many films, where you're just in the world of green screens. Because it affects you physically when you have the set. You can't deny that. It was the same thing with the sets on Dune. They are physically there, these enormous sets, and you feel it in your body. You move differently. We had all of Ferrix built up as this city. It's very exciting.

Was there a day on set where you really felt like, "Oh my gosh, I'm in Star Wars?"

No, but I was happy that I had my own spaceship. I've lacked that in my career so far.

What's that like to get to pilot a spaceship? What's it like behind the controls?

[Laughs] You're like 10 years old when you sit down behind the controls. You become serious, and you turn the wheel and push the buttons and stuff. You become very silly, but it's very fun.

Tell me a little bit about working with Diego Luna on this. There are some really beautiful, intense scenes between the two of you.

He was also a reason for me to take the job. We met several years ago. We were supposed to do a film about football, but it didn't happen — not with us. It sort of broke down. So I've been waiting for him to do a film with me again. And I love the fellow. He's a true actor, and he's a true man.

I also love the scenes with you and Genevieve O'Reilly, where Mon Mothma comes to Luthen's shop. What do you remember most about filming those scenes with her?

I'm playing the Coruscant character there, which is much more flamboyant. But the first scene she entered, she came with this great limousine she has, flying in. She was much more sexy and beautiful, and she took over the space much more than I realized than she had ever done in the films. And then, of course, she has a great humor, so we had a lot of fun doing that.

There's a lot of really great actors that I met all the time there. It's so well cast. I had a lot of fun.

I know season 2 is in the works. How's that been going?

That's going great. I mean, Tony Gilroy has gone on strike, as of the first of May. He finished the scripts right on the day, and then he shut off the phone and disappeared into a picket line somewhere. So, we'll see. He claims that the [series] is director-proof and actor-proof, which means that it can't be destroyed. [Laughs] We'll see if it works.

Well, I can't wait to see what you guys have up your sleeves and where this story goes.

It'll be lovely. But I can't tell you, I'm afraid! [Laughs]

For more from Skarsgård, as well as exclusive interviews with Tony Gilroy, Diego Luna, and more, listen to EW's Star Wars podcast, Dagobah Dispatch.Lu

#Star Wars #Andor #Luthen Rael #Stellan Skarsgard #18 июня 2023

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variousqueerthings · 6 months

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Got my DW magazines (including the latest where all those brainmelting quotes are coming from) and there really is so much loveliness in them, including a letter from RTD:

"The First Great Seismic Shift in Doctor Who was in 1966 when the lead character slumped to the floor and... what? He did what?! He changed into a different actor? For good?! Can you imagine that happening unannounced now? in 1966, there seems to be comparatively little record of the reaction. Did we question less, then? Did we just... watch?

I've got clearer memories of Seismic Shift 2, 1970, the move into colour. Though that didn't mean much; we didn't buy colour TVs overnight, I was still watching in black and white until, ooh, Planet of the Daleks...?"

[...]

Things happened, and we simply kept on watching. We might complain about today's online world, but aren't we wiser now? Less passive, more engaged?

[...]

You probably know the later Seismic Shifts. The return, in 2005. Steven Moffat's astonishing, brilliant, glittering Doctors from 2010 onwards, with the Master becoming Missy. And with a slinky Seismic Shuffle, the Eighth Doctor, who'd disappeared off screen in 1996, finally got to regenerate in 2013 but only on the BBC Red Button! And then Jodie Whittaker fell through the roof of a Sheffield-bound train with an impact so great, it bumped the entire show on to Sunday night, and then she stood up in the wreckage and smiled a smile so bright, it changed the Time Lord and television drama and the whole bloody culture for good and for better.

It really is the most fascinating show because it changes, changes, changes... and yet, it stays the same. 'Doctor Who is all about to change!' say the fans, but I sit here planning the next story in which a police box lands and the Doctor steps out and foils an invasion of Earth thinking to myself, well, is it? But I know what you mean. The feel of the show changes, the essence. Jo and the Doctor and that silver car are a different world, a different style, almost a different genre to Clara facing a Raven on Trap Street.

And now, in 2023, that high-wire-tension of approaching change is in the air. The Doctor mysteriously has a face he's had before. And by the time December rolls around, he'll have yet another new face, in a show that now drops worldwide on a vast streaming platform -- new and old at the same time, as it still stays cradled in its Saturday night home of the good old BBC.

But as I said. Voices are louder this year. Shouting and rage and horror sometimes circle around Doctor Who. And often, that's not about Doctor Who itself, it's expressing anger and fear about life, about love, about self. And I get that! These discussions are us, growing up. In the old days we'd sit in our bedroom and work out the world all on our own. We could only sing along to pop songs to express our lovely,lonely hearts. Now, we type it out, and that's always going to be clumsy. Because expressing yourself isn't easy. Even birthday cards are hard work! So trying to say what you think about life and love and sex and telly in the form of words typed on a page and read by strangers, oh, nightmare! No wonder it goes wrong. But now...

I think there's only one way to meet the changes to come.

With joy.

I'm not asking for good reviews (I've got myself for that, I think these episodes are FABULOUS!) But if you don't like the something, don't exhaust yourself. Just smile and be glad that some people are happy and wait for the next Seismic Shift to come.

Because this programme has trained us well! We have embraced flying cars and the Red Button and the Watcher and the Garm and hey, maybe 'granddaughter' is Gallifreyan for 'friend' (though I don't think so) which means we can delight in anything. And right now, the TARDIS is heading for Skaro, and a wounded spaceship is heading for London, and Shaun is taking an extra shift in his taxi cos he's short of money, and Sylvia is delivering a curry and Donna Noble's daughter needs to go shopping for eyes -- for eyes?! -- and as all these things converge, hold on tight, clutch those tins of beans, cos the next earthquake is rumbling away on the horizon.

Here we go again!

#russell t davies #rtd #doctor who #dw #those last few lines are teaser for the first episodeeee #long post

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thelibraryiscool · 10 months

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Mid-Year Book Freak Out 2022

I was tagged by the wonderful @dauen, thanks!

1. Best book you’ve read so far this year I'll do a few. Coreggidora by Gayl Jones was beautifully written and very tough, Way Station by Clifford Simak was delightful and hopeful in that particular midcentury SF way, and Daria Serenko's Girls and Institutions [Девочки и институции] made me cry on the bus.

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far this year Like Amy, I haven't read too many sequels, but I loved the last installments to Connie Willis's Oxford Time Travel Series: Blackout and All Clear. I read over 1000 pages in under a week.

3. New release you haven’t read yet Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions for You. I'm in a long line for it on Libby...

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year I don't really keep track of new releases? But if you know of a book you're excited for, let me know!

5. Biggest disappointment The Court Dancer by Kyung-Sook Shin. I'd heard great things about the author and the translator and I'd expected it to be right up my alley, but it just fell really flat for me.

6. Biggest surprise Probably Into the Planet by Jill Heinerth. A memoir about cave-diving isn't the sort of thing I usually read, but perhaps that's why I enjoyed it so much -- her life is so different from mine, and it was endlessly fascinating to discover underwater caves with her and her crazy fellow divers.

7. Favourite new author (debut or new to you) New-to-me, to name a few: Penelope Fitzgerald, Gu Byeong-Mo, Elisa Shua Dusapin. I'd like to read more from each of them.

8. Newest fictional crush/newest favourite character For a fictional crush, almost certainly the elderly actor Sir Godfrey in Blackout/All-Clear. For a favorite character.. I really found the whole family in The Five by Vladimir Jabotinsky very interesting. And I enjoyed the titular demon and angel in When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb.

9. Book that made you cry I already mentioned Girls and Institutions. I think Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh might have as well.

10. Book that made you happy Christopher Isherwood's The Memorial. Not because it's a happy book, really, but because he can always be relied upon to be good. It's like visiting an old friend, reading a novel of his I haven't read.

11. Favourite Adaptation Well I've just discovered that my beloved Silo Saga by Hugh Howey has finally gotten an adaptation, and I've only seen 2 episodes so far but (though I have some qualms) I'm overall liking it quite a bit! Y'all should read first though.

12. Prettiest Cover This one's pretty good:

13. A book you need to read before the end of the year: There's a lot. I guess top priority (not counting what I'm already reading) would be Cartes postales by Chantal Spitz, At the Edge of the Woods by Masatsugu Ono, All Our Yesterdays by Natalia Ginzburg, Greek Lessons by Han Kang, and How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Saša Stanišić.

I'm going to tag @queenofattolia, @colorwheels14, @nonbinaryjomarch, @oldshrewsburyian, @sleepanon, @teacademic, and anyone else who feels like it!

*For a lot of these questions I could have also said Дiм для Дома [A House for Dom] by Victoria Amelina, but I accidentally took a break from it so I haven't finished it yet -- though so far it may end up being my favorite book this year. It's warm, and poignant, and feels very true. Victoria Amelina was killed earlier this summer.

#tag thing #books

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fereldanwench · 1 month

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so i finished my lost rewatch last week, but i have this problem in which i often cant just let a show end and i have to immediately restart it, which means I'm watching s1 again lmao

s1 i think will always have comfort show status in the spirit of the x files or roswell--i had the box set in college, and i pretty much always had it on when i was chilling in my bedroom. plus the star wars RPG i was really involved with at the time also had a lot of lost fans (soooo many face claims were actors from the show), which added to a fandom coziness

anyway, i just really like having it on in the background

but this also means i have Thoughts of varying import and controversy so under the cut it is

there have been a lot of jokes over the years about how oceanic flight 815 had a ridiculous amount of hot people on it, which is true, but i feel like shannon and boone are like a time capsule of early aughts hotness which i find kind of fascinating. shannon especially--tall, skinny, blonde, tan, square face--she is like the epitome of what was supposed to be hot for young women in 2004. which, uh, as a curvy brunette teen i thoroughly resented and probably contributed to some of my disdain for the character at the time lmao

still not really a huge fan of her character, though, even with that envy and contempt long behind me. and i will never understand what sayid sees in her--sayid has always been a fave, and i liked the scenes with him and shannon bc he's such a romantic and i love that about him, but i just have a hard time believing he'd be attracted to her personality-wise

i actually noticed there seems to be a little bit of chemistry between him and kate early on, which, yanno, she's obviously got her hands full with jack and sawyer, but i was like hmmm, that could be an interesting dynamic to explore. I'm not invested enough to read lost fanfic but if i was, that'd probably pull me in

i've also found myself liking claire a lot more now, although i will always find emilie de ravin's voice SO grating. and it's not the accent--her (bad) American accent in roswell didn't help either. she just sounds like she's always 3 seconds away from sobbing and i just wanna tell her to take a deep breath

i was always on the fence about charlie, and while there are things about his character i find sympathetic (namely his struggle with addiction), I've decided i don't like him lmao I've teared up quite a bit during my rewatch, and i remember crying when he died in s3 when it aired, but it did nothing for me this time around

you know what does make me tear up every single time despite knowing it's doomed (or maybe bc i know it's doomed)? the scene when they get michael's raft into the water in s1. hits me every time

i watched a video recently that showed the top googled shows over the past 2 decades or so, and while i was never super involved in the lost fandom, it did occur to me when i saw it listed as the number one show for a while that i think lost was probably the last major fandom to enjoy a pre-social media community. i mean it was like right on the cusp of web 1.0 and 2.0: a lot of the social media juggernauts like facebook and twitter would launch while it was on air, but i think most of the community still existed on personal sites and forums

#t: wench watches stuff #shows: lost

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gaypiratebrainrot · 2 years

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Man. I have SO many thoughts about the secret fic. I am utterly fascinated. I read it all last night and want to reread to get my head around it. But just initial thoughts here:

I've seen in some of your responses to questions that it is partially an exploration of your own discomfort with RPF and that the backlash is part of the art and like - bravo. Yes. I can't help but see all of the outrage on Twitter and remember that these are the same people who:

•Harass and bully Rosie Darby constantly and screenshot/post her tweets to be mocked for the people in the fandom she has blocked

•Create and pass around nasty memes of Rita Ora

•Speculate about Rita and Taika's sex lives/assume he just uses her for sex

•Openly talk about the sex acts they'd like to do to these two actors

•Incorporate details about real actors into their fictional versions constantly

•Ship Anton/Viago because they're played by the same actors as Stede/Ed

•Draw graphic porn of these actors using references of their real bodies with their real faces

•The list goes on

And I don't bring this all up to play the blame game or justify RPF (although I think the shit with Rosie and Rita is insane and so embarrassing) because in my old age - I think I deep down am not comfortable with RPF even though I have not shaken the temptation yet. I bring this all up to say that the righteous outrage seems to be coming from a lack of self-awareness and just a lot of folks who are really clinging to the idea that their version of fandom is Right and Good. I guess my point is that I think all fanfiction/fanart/fandom is somewhere on the spectrum of invasiveness and most people refuse to accept that about their own art because we're all convinced we're the good guys in the story. And it doesn't help that this fandom seems particularly hellbent on finding bad guys.

ANYWAYS

Amazing job. Totally original and fascinating. Truly. Really proud you published it and are weathering the storm. If you need to talk about anything or are having a tough time w/ the backlash, feel free to message me <3

hi!! thank you so so much for this amazing message!! i'm so delighted that people besides me are able to appreciate the bonus meta built into the backlash, it's giving me insane brain vibes lol.

i did about fifty million meta levels of analysis on my own discomfort while writing this fic and am full of thoughts. i have no desire to say that fiction about real people is good or bad because i honestly just don't think about the world that way anymore. what i can say is that fiction about real people exists, has existed probably as long as language/storytelling, and will very likely always exist.

human beings talk about each other. we tell stories about each other. gossip is probably as essential to humanity as dance or music. it is an incredibly uncomfortable reality that every single person who knows you has a version of you in their head that you have no control over. that we all exist as our own embodied experience AND as all of the ways we are perceived. one of the more challenging aspects of being a human, i'd say.

to be a celebrity, or have any kind of audience, is to increase the number of heads you exist in, and as i am presently experiencing for the first time on a small scale between the last fic and this one, this comes with all sorts of uncomfortable, messy problems.

however, the other function of this fic is as a free speech tool. let's say we decide the uncomfortable mess of real person fiction is harmful enough to ban it from being published, either on Ao3, or within our legal system. would you ban this fic and why? and if you would ban this fic, how much of what parts would i have to change before it would be allowed? who would get to choose the "correct" answer to those questions, and who would be reading the fic and deciding whether or not it fits the "correct" guidelines? do you want to give someone else the ability to make that choice for you?

people would have been more pissed off if i'd used taika's kids actual names. but what if i'd named his kids sasha and malia obama? what if i'd used the trump kids? cause if you're banning real person fiction, all three gotta go.

ultimately, i think the parts of me that are really uncomfortable with what i've written feel like i've been horribly rude and disrespectful to the people i love, and honestly, i feel like there's some truth to that. it's just one truth among many, many, many other simultaneous truths, including my belief that the wrestling i did in writing this is important and worthwhile wrestling, and i'm absolutely ecstatic to see i was able to inflict that wrestling upon so many of you <3

#asks #water flowing underground #thank you so so much!!

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navree · 1 year

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Have you watched Rome (HBO)? If yes what's your opinion on it?

I've watched some of it, but to be honest I didn't really like it. They got things like how society operated in that time, and I think Ciaran Hinds is an incredible actor and did his best with the material he had, and if you just want a good drama and don't know anything about the period and the actual history that went on, you'll probably like it. Plus, James Purefoy was genuinely perfect casting. It's why I wish that the show was better than it was.

Problem is, I do know the history. I know the history quite well, because the general fall of the Republic and rise of the Empire is an incredibly interesting time and Augustus is one of my favorite people to read about, from a historical perspective he's fascinating. And the show bungles a lot in that regard. I've never been a particular fan of "we're going to invent these fictitious characters and make them important to the historical narrative" type things, and the combining of characters caused some major problems for me personally (combining Atia Balba with Fulvia to create the show's version of Atia was very annoying to me personally, considering how at odds it is to the historical Atia Balba), and just in general a lot of the characters felt very shallow and like they were crafted more out of a pop culture understanding of who these people were rather than actually examining them historically. Like, ooh Cleopatra is a sexually voracious and seductive minx and Octavian is a monstrous little viper, how incredibly novel, never been done before. Not like the reality of Cleopatra as someone who wasn't very attractive but was so intelligent and charismatic that she seemed leagues better than any other woman, but still prideful and stubborn enough to let it be her downfall is more interesting than cokewhore but make it Hellenistic. Not like Octavian as an incredibly smart person and brilliant politician whose complicated family life created a situation that had him latch onto Caesar as a father figure (and Caesar himself having lost a child shortly before they started getting close allowing that latching to be entirely mutual) and who started his journey to power as a personal revenge quest and whose litany of personal tragedies at a young age created the circumstances that allowed him to make colder and colder decisions for the betterment of himself and his family and his country is more interesting than wimpy deviant who can't fight. IDK, they made Livia marginally more two-dimensional than most other pop culture portrayals of her (I, Claudius your sins are numerous and shan't be forgiven), but that's about it. From someone who's read a lot about all of these people and has consistently found that who they actually were is leagues more interesting and creatively inspiring than anything anyone could actually make up, the show being composed entirely of preconceived notions with some sprinkling of "this is what I remember from Shakespeare's Roman plays" just did not do it for me at all.

Also, Agrippa/Octavia is a fucking cop out and anyone who writes it is a genuine coward. Like, you cannot tell me that out of the two siblings, the relationship you find the most interesting is the one he had with Octavia, when Agrippa and Octavian were friends since they were twelve and were completely and reciprocally so incredibly devoted to each other that it almost defies description and beggars belief. Agrippa never once tried to grab power even though he absolutely could have and was perfectly happy being nothing more than Octavian's right hand man until the day he died. Octavian's first ever political act, the thing that kickstarted his entire career, was asking Caesar of his own volition to not kill Agrippa's brother (it's complicated) and Caesar saying yes entirely because it was Octavian who asked, not only showing how loyal Octavian was to his friends but also essentially binding the two of them together for life. It was a forty year relationship of the most insanely codependent friendship of all time, either get with the program and make it homoerotic or just admit you have no talent and wanna hetify it.

#personal #answered #immortalthunderstorm #i do also acknowledge that the show got cancelled before they were able to do everything they wanted #which is why the second season is so rushed #from my understanding i think they wanted to end it with jesus which would have been cool #but yeah the julio claudians are kinda my roman forte #so this show is uhhhhhhhhhhhh not my favorite #as i meant for this response to be significantly shorter than it was before i started ranting #there's a reason why i have ideas in my head about a period drama prestige tv show for this era #it can be Really Good if you just let it and don't rely on your pop culture understanding of these people

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im-no-jedi · 6 months

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3, 6, 13, 15, 16, 24, 29, 33, 39 for the Star Wars ask meme! GIVE ME ALL OF THE INFORMATION~!

aaaaaaaah so many numbers!! but I will GLADLY answer everything! 😁

3. Favorite character from the prequels: ANAKIN OF COURSE. I had a HUGE crush on him (and both of his actors) when I was younger. he quite quickly became my favorite character of all time after watching the original trilogy, so I have to say him for this 💙

6. Do you have any ships?: a few, yes!! mainly the ones that are canon, like Han/Leia, Cut/Suu, and Anakin/Padme, or ones that were semi-canon like Obi-Wan/Satine and Rey/Finn (despite what anyone says otherwise!!). there's also some that I wouldn't be mad about like Fennec/Boba and Din/Bo-Katan. my OTP though? Kanan/Hera. by FAR. like legit, that is one of my top OTPs in general. I love them so much 🥺💙

13. Would you want to be a Force user?: YES. VERY MUCH SO. being an empathetic and neurodivergent person, I often feel like I have "special powers" like Force users do. and who wouldn't want to be able to make stuff float all the time? (also, just sayin', if anyone has read any recent MLWTBB stuff, then this answer shouldn't be any surprise 😜)

15. Did you play any Star Wars video games?: yes!! I've played all the LEGO games and still play the newest one to this day 😁 also, the Podracer game for N64, Rogue Squadron for Gamecube (didn't care for that one though 😝), Battlefront 1&2 (2 is better!! and I LOVE the story for that one!!), and Squadrons! we owned both of the Force Unleashed games at one point, but I never tried playing them cause my bro said they were bad LOL. also, we own Fallen Order, but my bro said it's basically unplayable due to loading times, even on our PS5 😩

16. Have you read any Star Wars books?: only a few. I've read Phasma (my longest sigh ever 😞), Before The Awakening (the Poe story is the best!!), and some of the Breakout Squad books! I also have the first Poe Dameron comic, and LOTS of visual guides 😌

24. Would you want to be human, or from another species?: well I kept myself as human in MLWTBB so 😬 my favorite species are Devaronians though, so if I could be anything else, it would be that 😋

29. Which character doesn't get enough credit or screentime?: there's honestly a lot of characters I could put here, but I'm going to be completely biased and say Phasma and Crosshair. as much as I had... feelings about the Phasma book, herself as a character was one of the only interesting things in that entire story. she absolutely fascinates me and is such an interesting villain; that story really drives home just how cruel and selfish she is. also I just adore her and want to see more of her 😩🙏🏻 and I shouldn't even have to explain myself for Crosshair. he's one of the most interesting characters EVER created for SW. I want an entire series about that man. GIVE ME MORE OF HIM DANG IT 😤

33. Which movie have you watched the most?: honestly? it's probably The Phantom Menace. I've watched the original trilogy several times, but overall I'd say TPM has all three of those movies beat. mainly cause my bro liked to watch it as a kid haha

39. If you wrote a 'fix-it fic', what would you write about?: funny you should ask! I actually already am writing a fix-it fic! 😌 this isn't spoilers cause I've already talked about it before, but I'm changing Plan 99 for MLWTBB. despite wanting to keep that series as close to the show as possible, I simply can't remove Tech from the story. despite whatever might happen in season 3, Tech is making it out of Plan 99 in one piece. I've actually already written several chapters in this far-off future fic and have most of the rest of it planned out. idc if I have to completely alter the events of season 3 because of this, I refuse to lose my favorite nerd tyvm 😤 honestly, at this point, it's not even so much me condemning the choices of the writers, it's me showing grace and love to the character. Tech literally changed my life in the absolute best way possible, and I can't let anything bad happen to him because of that 🥺💙

#thank you for asking friend! 💙#this was fun 😁#star warz #powerovernothing #ask

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singofsolace · 1 year

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This is a fascinating interview with Catherine Zeta-Jones all around, but the part that stuck out to me the most is that this is the only interview I've seen (and having been down an endless YouTube rabbit hole, I've seen a lot), where Catherine admits that the infamous story of how she and Michael Douglas met was actually a scary situation for her, and not the lighthearted, romantic thing that they usually present it to be when they talk about it in live interviews.

Here is an except of what I'm talking about:

What were you doing when you met Michael [Douglas]?

I was shooting “Entrapment,” and I was promoting the European release of “Zorro” at the Deauville Film Festival. I did the event on a Friday night, and I was going to fly to Scotland the next day to meet Sean [Connery] on the Isle of Mull. Michael was there promoting “A Perfect Murder,” and he asked to meet me. I remember I walked through the door of the hotel when I arrived, and he walked right past me with his golf bag on his shoulder. I went, “O.K., guess he really wants to meet me, he just walked right past me.” He knew Antonio [Banderas] and Melanie [Griffith] for many years, and he joined us all for drinks and dinner. That night we found out we have the same birthday.

And it moved pretty quickly from there?

Well, he said he was going to be the father of my children.

What? He said that the first night he met you that he wanted to be the father of your children?

Yes! And I went, “All right. I’ve read a lot about you. I’ve seen a lot about you. I heard a lot about you. Good night.” And I went to bed and got up at 5 a.m. I went to London, changed planes, went to Aberdeen, got on a ferry across to the Isle of Mull. And there was a big bouquet of flowers saying “I’m sorry if I scared you. Love, Michael Douglas.” He always says whoever was the florist who got those flowers to the Isle of Mull saved his life. I will say if somebody says they’re going to father your children when you’ve just met them, it is a little scary. Unfortunately he was right, again.

~~~

While journalists like Hota Kotb have occasionally pointed out that it was incredibly bold of him to say this to her on a first date, it has always been played off on live tv by both Michael and Catherine as a lighthearted story, because he wound up being right about being the father of her kids... but clearly, from this 2021 interview that's in print, it's not a wholly light-hearted memory for her...?

I just feel like a 53 year-old man doesn't frantically send flowers to a 28 year-old woman with a note saying "I'm sorry if I scared you" unless it was incredibly apparent at the time that that's exactly what he did...? She said "good night" to him in a way that very much implied finality. She said no. The apology flowers only add to the creepiness, in my mind.

I know everyone probably has an "it's all well that ends well" attitude toward it, because they've been married 23 years, and I admit that it is absolutely none of my business, and not my place to judge, etc., but having watched so many interviews where they happily bring it up unprompted, I had started to feel like I was going crazy, thinking "does no one else think that is an incredibly creepy pick up line, or is it just me?"

They always tell the story like people are meant to laugh with them about it, like we're in on the joke, and maybe most people are, but this interview of Catherine's is the first time I've felt validated in my shock at the pure audacity that someone would say this to a woman on their first date, and that instead of it being a low point they would try to downplay or forget, it is recalled fondly, because it "worked."

#czj #md #czj x md

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tomwambsmilk · 2 years

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“And has a tendency to want to be good in this world. And she can be pretty harsh on Tom and I think Greg’s gut would be like, “You know what, leave her you’ll be less tortured.” taking out the buzz worthy quotes, i don’t think morality always has to be an overall picture of the world. maybe it can just be that he wants to see his friend have better. i just feel like that is a valid theme for both tom and greg, they tend to be the most open and probably think with their hearts because they don’t have to be as guarded or are as traumatized as the roy siblings

So I didn't answer this right away because I wanted to roll it around my brain for a bit. I don't necessarily entirely agree, but at the same time, you are kind of getting at some interesting ideas so I want to break it down a little.

But first - I'm going to drop the screenshot just so we're clear on what Nich actually said in its full context. Because he did say Greg was "on the side of morality in the show”. We don't have to talk about it but that did come out of his mouth, and if we take it at face value I do think it's a questionable statement:

Nich Braun is really the one who brought morality into this particular conversation. Yes, we can absolutely analyze the end of season 3 and Greg's potential response to Tom's actions through other lenses, but the reason we're talking about morality is that Nich started talking about morality, and his explanation for why Greg would be supportive of Tom hinged on the idea that Greg "wants to be good in this world" which… is a position that implies that either Greg sees himself as a moral actor or Nich sees Greg as a moral actor, depending on whether we take this at face value or assume Nich was implicitly speaking from a “Greg headspace”. (I do think there’s some real ambiguity in that.) And that's a really fascinating statement given how rarely his actions seem to reflect that on the show, hence the other post I wrote breaking down what we can assume about Greg's understanding of morality and what it means to be good from this. I do think a lot of people are overly fixating on the “Greg is on the side of morality” and “Shiv can be a real bitch” without considering the wider context - but we also can’t discount that he said those things just bc they’re kind of uncomfortable.

(And now that you mention it and I've been chewing on it for a while, it's extra interesting that Nich decided to bring up morality when he clearly didn't need to... He could've just said "Tom is Greg's friend and he wants better for him" and that would've been true and valid. So his need to morally justify it - or his reading that there is a moral dimension to this - is extra fascinating. But I'm getting sidetracked.)

So. Depending on exactly what it is you mean by "I don't think morality always has to be an overall picture of the world" I'm not sure how much I agree with that. I do agree that morality isn't the only lens through which to analyze the Succession characters and their actions and motivations, although it is one I keep coming back to because it is interesting to me personally. That being said, I do think it is an omnipresent dimension, even if we aren't actively analyzing the show through that lens. Most actions do have a moral dimension to them, and that's especially true on Succession. It's not always a clear-cut dimension - there are a lot of nuances involved in the choices the characters make - but I do think the questions of "are these choices morally good? are they morally bad? are they somewhere in between? what does this say about the characters?" are inescapable. It's very valid to have a conversation about "was it morally justifiable for Tom to betray Shiv, and is it morally justifiable for Greg to support him in that", even if the characters themselves aren't using that as a decision-making framework, because there is a moral dimension to those decisions, even if the characters don't think of it that way. And that conversation is especially valid because it is a complex question, and while I do have my own opinions on the subject there are a lot of different viewpoints that I think have some degree of validity to them.

It's also perfectly valid to say "tbh I don't really care and that isn't a lens that's super interesting to me personally". Morality is only one of the issues Succession grapples with, and you aren't required to hold an equal interest in every single facet of the show.

I also want to touch very briefly on the end of your ask because the idea that Tom and Greg are "thinking with their hearts" is REALLY interesting to me. I think you probably aren't gonna like the rest of my answer, so I'll say upfront that I do think analyzing the end of Season 3 through the lens of Tom and Greg's particular relationship, and the ways in which their lesser degree of attachment to the Roys proper allows for a greater degree of openness and emotional intimacy is absolutely a valid take. That's a very real thread, and holding the two of them (and I think Tom in particular) up as a foil to the Roy siblings is certainly interesting. But... I do think you have to go a bit deeper because while that idea is true, it's definitely not quite as straightforward as all that, and I don't think it can be entirely divorced from the question of how you're approaching morality.

On the one hand, you're right that they aren't as guarded as the Roy siblings are... On the other hand, they are still very guarded. Tom isn't very guarded with Shiv in season 1, but he is pretty guarded with Greg - at least in terms of actually expressing affection for him, hence all the bullying (that and the power trip involved, of course). By season 3 this has flipped somewhat, and we see him being more guarded with Shiv and more open with Greg, which is a really fascinating development in the Tom-Greg power dynamic - by being more open with Greg, Tom is effectively giving him a degree of power over him. But it's not as simple as Tom being open so much as - a) Tom seems to have a greater capacity for openness than Shiv and the Roy siblings do, likely as a consequence of not being brought up in the Roy family, and b) who he is open with and when is contingent upon a myriad of different factors. (On top of that - I don't know that Tom is all that open with Shiv at the beginning. We see him eating his emotions quite a lot - in the fight with her at the beginning of 1.06, on their wedding night, Ternhaven - hell, most of Season 2. There's a selective openness there which could be a whole point of analysis on its own.)

And I think I actually would characterize Greg as being pretty guarded, but he's also desperate for connection and affection, and that desire is constantly at odds with his fear of vulnerability. He's anxious that he's going to get burned by Ken, but he gives Ken the papers anyways. Tom is his best friend but he still feels the need to have leverage over him. So yeah, comparatively speaking Tom and Greg are more open than the Roys are, but they are still in the same cutthroat world, and so they can't really be all that open and unguarded. But there is a very interesting arc in terms of how their relationship with each other evolves in this context.

The idea that they think with their hearts is interesting, and if you weren't on anon I'd probably DM you to get some clarification on what exactly it is you mean by that because there are a couple of possible interpretations that come to mind for me. On the one hand, if you're talking about being driven primarily by a desire for love rather than being strategy minded, you're absolutely right - but in that case, this definitely is a trait they share with the Roy siblings. Every single character on this show is primarily motivated by love, even if they aren't admitting that to themselves.

(Another reason that's interesting to me is that I'd actually characterize Tom's arc as learning not to love, as becoming increasingly calloused and self-serving and strategic rather than prioritizing the people he loves. We see that death knell hit his marriage first - understandably, to be sure. I don't think it's going to stop at his marriage, though. I don't think Tom and Greg's relationship is coming out of this unscathed. I think Tom is increasingly starting to think like a Roy, and I think his new partnership with Logan is only going to enhance that, and I think that Greg has proven himself slimy and untrustworthy in the past and that he may end up as collateral damage because of this. But those are just my personal predictions, so who knows how it will actually play out.)

Anyways. To circle back, the one way Tom and Greg are different from the Roy sibs is Logan has spent the Roy kids' whole lives pitting them against each other. That means that in their pursuit of Logan's love, they have no choice but to go after each other. That's why they're only able to unite at the end of Season 3 after they've each individually despaired of receiving Logan's love and approval. They can either have Logan's love or they can have each other's, but not both.

Whereas Tom and Greg aren't stuck in that kind of dichotomy. Tom also wants to be loved, but his primary target is Shiv, and she isn't asking him to sacrifice any of his other relationships. She does ask him to sacrifice his career ambitions, which he does until he realizes it likely still will not result in the kind of marriage he wants. Greg wants to be loved by anybody, frankly, and Tom is the one who's most consistently validated him (as Nich pointed out), so by Season 3 Tom is the target of Greg's affections. And by the end of season 3, we get the sense that Tom does love Greg and will continue to do so even if Greg continues to try and fuck him over (although obviously, he'd prefer for that not to happen), if only because he doesn't hold Greg's momentary jaunt with Kendall against him. So yeah, in a sense both of them are able to pursue love more freely and openly because they don't have Logan pitting them against each other. (I do think this is likely to change at some point, but again, we're wading into my predictions here).

There's another dimension to the idea of them "thinking with their hearts" though, which is that it could also refer to the idea of them thinking with their desires. And this is where we circle back to the question of morality, I think, because... It sounds lovely and romantic to think with your heart, but if you want to be a good person you also need to think with your actual head. You kind of need both. Yes, I think a general state of willing the well-being of other people (which can be characterized as 'thinking with the heart') is important, but the thing is you also have to contend with the fact that your desires and your emotions can mislead you. In the course of your life, you will want things that do harm to others, or to yourself. This is part of being human. Your emotions, if not properly managed, will cause you to misread situations and react inappropriately. Desires and emotions are tools, important tools, but that can't be all you're running on because you will get into trouble.

And that's where I think you've kind of hit the nail on the head, albeit possibly accidentally if your end goal was to examine this through an amoral lens. I think it's one of the reasons why people struggle with the relatability of the Succession characters. They aren't good people, they keep doing things that are morally reprehensible, and yet... we find them compelling because we get it. We understand their desires and we recognize them in ourselves. We understand their emotions and we relate to them ourselves. What they're doing is wrong but we see how they got from point A to point B. The extent to which this is true for you personally for each character depends on your particular personality and traumas and issues, but I think it is true for everybody and that's part of why there's so much rancid discourse in the fandom. You see a character that's relatable and you either become a blind apologist for them, or you despise them because they remind you of what you hate in yourself. And I do think that instinct is there for everyone, even if you've learned to temper it, and if you don't think it's there for you that might be because you're lying to yourself just a bit. (Or maybe you're a normal well-adjusted person who finds all the characters abhorrent, but I think most people who are part of the Tumblr succession fandom don't fall into that category.)

To bring it back to Tom and Greg - yeah, I think they might actually be "thinking with their hearts", and I think that's part of the problem. They're being driven by their emotions and their desires, and they aren't thinking about the moral qualities of their actions, and that's why they keep making morally dubious choices, and it's why they're likely to continue making increasingly morally dubious choices. I think on some level that goes for all of the characters on the show, it's just that "thinking with their hearts" looks different for each of them.

(TBH there is a little more to it than just that, if we're going to analyze the moral dimension of these characters, but I'm saving that for a different post because that'll be the tangent to end all tangents.)

I imagine this is a manifestly unsatisfying response because it is basically the opposite of how you want to analyze the show. And at the end of the day - yeah, I do think "Tom is Greg's friend and he wants better for him" is an accurate assessment of the core of what's going on. Where the morality discussion comes in is a) Nich Braun positioning this as a morally good act, or at least a morally good act in Greg's mind, and b) the wider context of Tom betraying Shiv. Because it is possible to say that yes, Tom should leave Shiv, and yes, Shiv has been terrible to him, and no, betraying her like that was not a morally justifiable thing to do, depending on what your moral framework is (side note: personally I do think there is one convincing argument for it being justified, which I don't see laid out very often, but I am restraining myself from getting into it here). So the fact that either Nich or Greg (depending on what Nich Braun actually meant in the interview) thinks what Tom did is morally justified tells us a lot about Greg's moral framework (or possibly Nich's), and if, like me, you already spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about how the Succession characters approach the concept of morality than that is exceedingly fascinating.

#asks #anon #I do see what you’re saying. I do #and you aren’t necessarily wrong… but the morality conversation is a very valid one #especially because nich brought it up #which is kind of haunting me now bc your ask is what made me realize that he didn’t have to make this a moral question. why did he do that #also I didn’t get to this in the piece bc it would reiterate a lot of what I said yesterday. but Greg’s primary motive being #‘I want what’s best for my friend’ does tell us a lot about how he approaches moral situations #so the two themes - morality and their relationships - are very linked

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holdooutforahero · 9 months

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Ginny & Georgia recap - season 1

Spoilers for season 1 of Ginny & Georgia!!

This show is so fascinating to me. It's playing off several different tropes and themes of TMS (teenager murder shows), parent/teen dramas (does this need an acronym lol?), YA as a genre (whoops that's an acronym), etc. Everything is put into a blender and then WHIZZ out comes Ginny & Georgia!

I have a thought... you know how one of the rules of the romance genre is the happy ending? I wonder if one of the rules of TV more broadly is a neat ending. Where there are maybe 1-2 loose ends but for the most part everything gets buttoned up. Of course, neat endings are prevalent in a lot of other mediums, too. And with G&G, the neatness of the ending is only really related to Georgia not going to jail for financial fraud and murder. Who knows what is going to happen to the kids!

Anyways.

I was hoping for more murder, and we got one more body, so that's fun. I was kinda hoping that Carolyn would get more maligned. Losing the mayor's election... eh. That wasn't enough for me! But I appreciated the extra depth with the scene at home where we saw her husband.

I've been thinking more about the appeal of TMS and I think part of the no responsibility bit involves financial freedom, which means either 1) the characters start off rich, 2) the characters do crime to get rich, or 3) the characters are around people with some semblance of stability and they can do crime/do drugs/be fuck-ups and still eat and all that. In G&G, it's mostly 2 - do crime to get rich. And WOAH there is so much crime. I was honestly shocked by Georgia stealing from the city. That's so risky -- and frankly implausible, unless your city is truly incompetent and not reviewing the financial books regularly?? I enjoy the way the show mixes different types of crime. It makes you constantly question your sympathies for Georgia!

There's more to say... I'll just fire things off now:

Austin is probably a psychopath... hate to say it as he's just a little kid, but good god there are red flags everywhere with that one

The voiceovers give strong Veronica Mars vibes, which I appreciate

Ginny is a bitch but I feel bad for her, her friends are forgiving but even she pushed them too far. Running off with your brother is questionable.

Side note, I am reading a novel right now where the lead says you shouldn't use gendered insults b/c they're lazy... I dunno.

The proposal scene between the Mayor and Georgia was fantastic, really took me by surprise! Also, I loved when Zion was looking into this camera during the rally/community fair scene and realized what he was looking at. Maybe too on the nose, but if you're going to be that sincere about something, might as well follow through!

Poor Hunter. He was absolutely a great boyfriend.

Marcus is borderline creepy, like the love interest whose name I forget in... that movie with Winonna Ryder where the school blows up? It was turned into a musical? I'm not going to google. Also, I appreciate the efforts to make Marcus look like a 15 year old where the actor is in their mid-twenties. They did a good job, though I'd still peg him for late teens.

What's the name for a woman who consistently murders her husbands for money? I swear there's a distinct name for it but I cannot remember if for the life of me.

MANG is fun. Abby breaks my heart! Maxine is a delightful mess. Norah avoiding her friends b/c her mom betrayed her to hurt Ginny's family/the mayor was interesting.

This show is such a soap opera!

#ginny and georgia spoilers

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