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#miss minchin
lemaldusiecle · 5 months
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Actors from A Little Princess : 1995 vs 2023.
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autumnrose11 · 4 months
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I brushed through A Little Princess today.
It was one of my favourite books when I was younger, and I still quite adore it! I took it down from my bookshelf today and skimmed over it. It was lovely to meet them all again because I’d forgotten the little things, like Melchisedec the rat, Ermengarde, and Lottie. It has been a while since I last read it, and I noticed so many things I didn’t before!
One of the more heartbreaking moments is Sara finding out her papa is dead on her BIRTHDAY. Imagine the pain of an eleven-year-old having to deal with her world turned upside down and losing the only family she has left on her birthday :(
Much as I hate to say it, some parts of the book are a tad racist, although I suppose it’s reflective of the time period in which the book was written (1905).
  “It’s a’ Nindian gentleman that’s comin’ to live next door, miss,” she said. [...] He worships idols, miss. He’s an ’eathen an’ bows down to wood an’ stone. I seen a’ idol bein’ carried in for him to worship. Somebody had oughter send him a trac’. You can get a trac’ for a penny.”
Sara is really good with languages (she is shown to be multilingual), which is a trait I adore because I love learning languages too! She speaks both French and Hindi, and it shows up in two very different situations in the book. One to Monsieur Dufarge, the French teacher, and the other to Ram Dass, the Indian servant. The descriptions of both men’s reactions to hear a child speaking their respective languages are strikingly similar.
“Monsieur Dufarge began to smile, and his smile was one of great pleasure. To hear this pretty childish voice speaking his own language so simply and charmingly made him feel almost as if he were in his native land - which in dark, foggy days in London sometimes seemed worlds away.”
“She thought she had never seen more surprise and delight than the dark face expressed when she spoke in the familiar tongue. The truth was that the poor fellow felt as if his gods had intervened, and the kind little voice came from heaven itself.”
As someone who speaks passable Hindi and is currently studying French, this is so sweet and touching! To be in a foreign land and feeling like an outsider, hearing someone speak the same language as you must be so inexpressibly comforting, like you have a comrade and a friend.
Miss Minchin is literally abusive and has a heart of stone. She puts Sara through hell. She also shows severe insecurity and covers it up with projecting her feelings of inadequacy (on a 7 year old!) The scene in Chapter 2 where she concludes that Sara does not know French is especially telling.
“One of Miss Minchin’s chief secret annoyances was that she did not speak French herself, and was desirous of concealing the irritating fact. She, therefore, had no intention of discussing the matter and laying herself open to questioning by a new little pupil.”
I have met quite a few adults like this, who are in the wrong and know it, and unwilling to admit it. They are nice and willing to praise kids and make them their golden child as long as things are going well. The second they are contradicted or called out in the slightest, they turn NASTY. So Miss Minchin, horrid as she is, is written very realistically. Excellent characterisation, and I always like reading the bit where she gets her comeuppance at the end.
My absolutely favourite passage in the book is:
“If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it. There was Marie Antoinette when she was in prison and her throne was gone and she had only a black gown on, and her hair was white, and they insulted her and called her Widow Capet. She was a great deal more like a queen then than when she was so gay and everything was so grand. I like her best then. The howling mobs of people did not frighten her. She was stronger than they were, even when they cut her head off.”
This is off topic, but I read this book right around the time we were learning about the French Revolution in school. So I’d come across Marie Antoinette, but she was portrayed in a very negative light in my history textbook, with the infamous quote: “If they don’t have bread, let them eat cake.” So my initial notion of her jarred completely with what I read here. And that was how I ended up reading and researching more about Marie Antoinette, and got to know that she was an Austrian princess married off very young to a French prince, and mocked for her foreignness. She had several miscarriages and fertility struggles, and she loved kids and adopted a few! True, she did spend rather extravagantly, but she was not quite the villain I took her for. That’s when I realised that history textbooks, more often than not, show only one side of the story.
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medea10 · 2 years
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My Review of Princess Sara
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And now I return for more World Masterpiece Theater.
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Today’s classic is something I’m somewhat familiar with. The series is loosely based on the novel titled, “A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. There were several adaptations for film and television throughout the past several decades including a Shirley Temple film in the late 1930’s, an Americanized version in the 90s, and about a bajillion Filipino adaptations. The one I’m most familiar with was the one that came out in 1995. I remember this film very well as it was played a lot in my youth and as an adult, I would come across it from time to time on HBO or some other station playing it. It was fine and all, but I knew that this film took artistic liberties and changed around a lot from the novel.
After watching several of these World Masterpiece Theater animes, I’ve come to realize that these series are pretty damn accurate when it comes to capturing the original source material. I mean yes, Les Mis took a lot of liberties to remove several characters from being killed off, but it was still top tier best version. All of these animes have to take a few liberties as they are all G-Rated. But they’re still very good nevertheless. I was curious about this particular story for the longest time and thought it was high-time I sit down and watch the anime version.
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Sara Crewe and her father arrive in London from India. Back home, Sara was treated a lot like a princess and she acted like one. Not the bad kind, the Princess Diana kind, she’s a sweetheart. Sara is about to be admitted to a boarding school, Miss Minchin’s all-girl’s boarding school that is! Once at school, Sara was beloved by most of the students and praised by teachers due to her academic skills. On top of which, her father is loaded! Yeah, her father is in the diamond business back in India and so he has enough money to keep her daughter happy.
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Unfortunately, when Sara’s father dies news also comes that the family is bankrupt leaving Sara without a penny to her name. Surely Miss Minchin will care for the poor orphan girl, right? Ha, I already know this story. Miss Minchin strips Sara of her education, clothes, and housing. Even though she tossed around the idea of casting the orphaned girl to the streets, Miss Minchin takes pity on the girl. Sara will live in a cold attic and work as a scullery maid. Sara is to do as she’s told by her higher-ups, never talk with the other students, and must work until she pays off her debts to Miss Minchin.
BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: As I’ve mentioned in the past, only a few of the World Masterpiece Theater animes were dubbed into English. And this was one of them…sorta! Our good friends at Animax did one. And if you’re unfamiliar, this is the company from Southeast Asia that dubs anime into English. And if that still doesn’t ring a bell, look up the Cardcaptor Sakura dub and you’ve got your answer. As usual, this anime has made its way across the globe to many different countries and territories. Apparently, it was a big hit in the Philippines. So much so that there’s a plethora of memes surrounding this one series! As for the cast, it’s a mixture of veteran voice actors that are still voicing today, lesser-known voices, and one-timers. And as this is a part of the World Masterpiece Theater collection, some voice actors here were heard in other works throughout the years like Naoko Watanabe and Eiko Yamada. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.
*Sara is played by Sumi Shimamoto (known for Okita’s sister on Gintama, Kanata on Lucky Star, Ishizu on YGO, and Flora on Berserk 2016)
*Becky is played by Teiyuu Ichiryuusai (known for Masao on Crayon Shin-chan)
*Miss Minchin is played by Taeko Nakanishi
DISLIKED CHARACTERS: Oh-ho-ho, I knew going in that I was going to hate two specific characters! Those two are Lavinia and Miss Minchin. Though when I watched the movie, it was more of a hatred for Miss Minchin overall and Lavinia was a passing thought. Has this anime changed my thoughts on these two?
Right from the starting gate, they are both detestable and will continue to be that.
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Lavinia is a snot-nosed brat who gets jealous every time Sara gets attention from the teachers. But the greatest injustice done to Lavinia was that Miss Minchin took Lavinia’s role of class rep and gave it to Sara. So the bitch was butt-hurt. But when Sara’s father died and she loses her wealth, Lavinia showed absolutely no sadness. In fact, she was the only person in the room smiling. What a bitch! And when Sara became a scullery maid for the seminary, Lavinia made sure to screw around with Sara by any means necessary. She gets a kick from making the poor girl suffer or get yelled at. Seriously, every time you see this snot-nosed brat glare at Sara I’m screaming, “JUST LEAVE THE POOR GIRL ALONE!”
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Thank God there was a second of peace. Lavinia’s father learned that Sara was once a student but is now a scullery maid and Lavinia being so insistent that Sara become her personal maid. He slapped the freckles off that bitch’s face. Give that father a cash prize and a trophy! Mind you I said one second of peace. The next episode she was right back giving Sara (and Becky) a hard time. Lavinia does so much to Sara that I can’t believe Sara managed to remain civil throughout the entire ordeal.
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And as for Miss Minchin, she’s had it out for Sara from minute one. But because her father was wealthy, she decided to use Sara to show off to high society people. And the brewing point for Miss Minchin to vow vengeance against Sara was because Sara hid the fact that she was fluent in French. The audacity of this bitch! But again, because of Sara’s father, she sucked up. Miss Minchin’s true colors came out in front of Sara when it’s learned of her father’s death and failed diamond business. No pity on the girl who just lost everything. She was ready to throw her out on the street, but was begged by others to keep her as a maid.
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Miss Minchin would be terrible to Sara. She physically abused her, starved her, forced her to live in unlivable conditions, and had the other workers (Molly and James) work her like a slave. One of the worst moments was when Sara got severely ill. Never mind pushing Sara to the point of illness, this woman had to think for a moment to get a credible doctor to look at her. She got the cheapest, drunkest doctor they could find who misdiagnosed her. Miss Minchin even thought about sending Sara to a sanitorium if this persists. Bitch, I can’t even with you! At least in this version, Miss Minchin never sent the police on Sara. Of the three versions to this story I’ve watched, I think this Miss Minchin was the cruelest. Only because we do witness her slapping Sara several times!
SHIPPING: I know I shouldn’t be shipping anyone with anybody. Most of the people in this story are young. VERY YOUNG! As for the adults, there were no romantic interests for anyone here. It’s plainly clear that Miss Minchin is going to die a spinster. None of the teachers had secret relationships with some guy like in the Shirley Temple version. And Miss Amelia didn’t run off with the milk man like in the 1995 version! None of that went down in this adaptation.
With that said…
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Peter x Sara is cute! I would support the hell out of this even though it probably isn’t canon.
ACCURATE OR NOT: So let’s see if Princess Sara really stacks up to the novel “A Little Princess”.
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*Oh-ho-ho, time to nail my childhood to a wall. As you know, I’m well familiar with the 1995 rendition of A Little Princess. If you’re like me and know this film from start to finish, get ready to have the balloon pop. Becky’s not black. The story takes place in London, not New York City. The story really takes place in the late 1800s, not World War I times. Ralph Crewe didn’t leave his daughter to fight in a war. And finally the most important fact, Ralph Crewe remains dead. Most of the things I mentioned here were used correctly in this adaptation.
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*There are some new characters added to the series. And quite frankly, I’m not entirely sure who these people are. Except for the animals! With the exception of Ram Dass’s monkey, I don’t think Miss Minchin’s cat Cesar nor the family of rats exist.
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*Most things in this anime are pretty accurate to the original source. But there’s a good chance that most of the episodes were either fabricated or stretched out to fit the running time. You know, fillers! Call me crazy, but I don’t think the book had chapters involving a Halloween party. Same goes for that episode where Amelia opens up to Sara about her past with her sister.
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*It is unknown how long this experience for Sara lasts anime-wise. In the book, Sara’s time at Miss Minchin’s seminary was approximately 2 years. The way I see it, I don’t think Sara was a scullery maid for more than a year in the anime. If she were, we would have probably gotten an episode of Sara celebrating her first birthday without her father.
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ENDING: Around episode 30, the home next to Miss Minchin’s seminary was sold to a gentleman from India named Mr. Carrisford. He was able to survive a gnarly bout with Jungle Fever, although now he’s confined to a wheel chair. But Mr. Carrisford has an overwhelming sense of guilt due to how things went down in India. See, he convinced his long-time friend to go into business with him involving a diamond mine. But the friend died from his Jungle Fever, leaving behind a daughter and a whole legal battle involving bankruptcy.
In case you’re not keeping up, Mr. Carrisford’s friend is Ralph Crewe, Sara’s father. Sara is just several feet from the gentleman who can save her from the living hell of Miss Minchin’s seminary.
But Medea, we’ve got over 15 episodes left!
Correct, dipshit! Mr. Carrisford doesn’t remember a lot, probably due to the Jungle Fever. He doesn’t remember Ralph’s daughter’s name. And he forgot where Sara was sent for her education. In fact, he was way off. Mr. Carrisford had his friend travel by boat to France in search for this girl. So I’m sitting here episode-after-episode screaming at the screen, “SHE’S RIGHT THERE, YOU IDIOT”. But because of Sara’s friendship with Ram Dass (Carrisford’s caretaker), he saw to it to repay Sara for her kindness. Ram Dass would spend days and nights going to the attic to give Sara warm blankets, clothes, and food. Sara thought it was a magic spell or a guardian angel looking out for her. It wasn’t long before Miss Minchin saw these special items in the attic and threw Sara out to sleep in a horse stable.
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Things only get worse from here when one night the stable catches on fire and Sara almost burned to death. And then she gets blamed by Miss Minchin for starting the fire! This is the one and only time I’ve ever seen Sara stand up to Miss Minchin as she was not at fault. I know it’d be asking too much to have Sara tell Miss Minchin to fuck off, but this was big for Sara to stand up for herself. In actuality, Lottie accidentally dropped a candle when she was scared by (you guessed it) Lavinia and her friends. But no, Miss Minchin jumped to every wrong conclusion and threw Sara out of the seminary. Fortunately, Sara was taken in by Peter and his family and she was even able to get a job like many of the other children in the area.
Sara’s going to be a little match girl!
This anime hurts to watch. This anime hurts a lot.
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Thankfully Sara’s stint as a little match girl was short-lived as Miss Amelia came looking for her and brought her back to the seminary. The only reason behind that is because there was a big care package addressed to Sara. Miss Minchin made it very clear that she still despises Sara. But Minchin flips her light-switch when she sees the care package contained beautiful clothing and such. Because she thought Sara was being watched by a wealthy and anonymous family member, she allows Sara to live in the attic and attend classes instead of doing chores with Becky. She goes back to kissing her ass. Again, the audacity of this bitch!
Moving back to Mr. Carrisford’s dilemma! He sent his solicitor to France in search of Ralph Crewe’s daughter. He returned with no such luck of a daughter. Then, they decide to hone their search to right here in England because this is where Ralph was from. Thankfully, fate intervened before they start another grand search as Sara came by the home to return Ram Dass’s monkey. Here it is, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Sara meeting Mr. Carrisford! He learns Sara knows some Hindu and grew up in India. He put 2+2 together and realized the girl from next door he’s been secretly helping was really Ralph Crewe’s daughter all along!
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When Miss Minchin went next door to retrieve Sara, she was in for the shock of her life. Carrisford is going to adopt Sara. The diamond mine that was rumored to be a bust, was really fortuitous. Sara’s debts are wiped away. Not only is she inheritor to her father’s share, but she will also obtain Carrisford’s share when he passes (he has no heir of his own). And to top it off, he knows about the abuse of Sara so Sara is going to live next door instead of a creaky attic. You know, it’s not nice to kick people while their down. But fuck that, this bitch has needed a royal-ass beat down since episode one. Time for Miss Minchin’s sister to have her say!
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MISS AMELIA: Throughout these 40-odd episodes, she is seen as the submissive sister, doing whatever Miss Minchin says. Amelia just stands there looking concerned every, single, fucking episode and does fucking nothing! She sees Sara suffering in silence with a smile on her face and says nothing to her sister. She even goes a step beyond that by begging Sara to forgive her sister several episodes prior to this very moment. We do get some light shed on Miss Minchin and Amelia’s past about how Miss Minchin worked odd jobs to take care of Amelia due to lack of parents. Not sure if this is really true or not, so I’m leaving it off my accuracy list. When Miss Minchin returns to the seminary and tells her sister what went down with Mr. Carrisford, Miss Amelia let her sister have it.
It was a long-time coming and I can understand a person like Amelia letting loose. Some people hold it in for so long until they’re filled to the top and explode. I’m one of those people, so again, I can relate in a way. Amelia spent this whole time contemplating whether to speak up about Sara’s abuse by her own sister or to shut up and do what her sister says. Hearing about Mr. Carrisford taking Sara snapped Amelia and she had a total breakdown. And all I can say is, “Bravo”! Amelia was absolutely right and I’m glad Miss Minchin heard it. It was all her fault. And if the seminary closes because people hear about Sara’s abuse, it’ll be all her fault.
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BACK TO THE CONCLUSION: Fortunately for Miss Minchin, Sara is kind and forgiving. She had Mr. Carrisford give a sizable donation to Miss Minchin’s seminary. Miss Minchin was a notorious penny-pincher, so this should settle her. Sara gets quite the happy ending as she gets to live with Mr. Carrisford and still go to school. She has Becky become her personal maid. All of Sara’s belongings that were taken away when Ralph died are returned to her on Christmas. A little starving girl she helped early in the series has a happy ending as well. And we end with Sara and her new family go back to India. It’s for 4 months to settle things on the Crewe estate, but she’ll be back.
At least when she comes back, Lavinia won’t be there. Good riddance! At least they come to some sort of truce.
No matter what version of A Little Princess you watch, it’s always going to be a tough watch. Because of the size of this series, it can sometimes be too hard to watch. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good story where a character takes on adversity and struggles. But there comes a time when struggle just becomes borderline torture-porn. You know those stories where the hero has to go through so much pain and agony and eventually get some sort of satisfied conclusion. The anime The Rising of the Shield Hero and the movie Precious comes to mind. Thank God Sara never had to endure what Precious did. Still bad though! At least with the movie adaptations to Princess Sara, we only watch Sara’s struggles for like, what, an hour or maybe less. This is over 30 episodes of watching this girl get abused. That’s 23 minutes per episode, mind you! Not just from Miss Minchin, but the cooks and one smarmy brat who has a vendetta. All the while, you’re telling yourself, “Dude, you know this story and it’s going to get better”. But it’s not an easy watch! There are scenes where you just wish they’d leave Sara alone or just wish for things to get better.
Is this my favorite adaptations of A Little Princess? Hmm…I don’t know! I really liked this version of the story, but I still have an attachment to the 1995 film. Granted, the animation is always a bit of a drawback when it comes to these animes. But I have to cut some slack as this was mid-1980s here. If you were a fan of this story, whether you saw the 1995 film, the Shirley Temple film, or any of the other adaptations out there, I give a recommendation. Track this down and give it a watch.
Okay Randomizer-kun, I’m giving you another shot. Please don’t give me an obscure hentai to watch in place of this.
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Oh thank God, another Nippon animation!
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ponysbooks · 1 year
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A LITTLE PRINCESS
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Frances Hodgson Burnett
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (out of five)
Format: Hardcover
It is the story of a very resourceful girl named Sarah, who has to live in a private boarding school for girls, because her father had to go to war. As soon as she arrives, she is admired by the other girls, since she is very intelligent and has a lot of money; even the teachers praise her and she help the other girls. But everything changes when her father gets lost in the diamond mines, and Sarah has to survive on her hard work and ingenuity.
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I (like almost all the children of my generation), saw the 1995 film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, and I loved everything, the actress, the location, the story, the memories of India, the doll and the ending.
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When I read this book it was January, it was quite cold and everything fitted into the atmosphere of the story. I liked knowing that Sarah has brown hair, she is so much more witty, kind, charitable and fair than in the movie and although I prefer the ending of the movie, I really liked the ending of the book.
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estherwordnerd · 1 year
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Matilda (2022): a summary
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(image description in alt text)
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runawaycarouselhorse · 5 months
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“As to answering,” she used to say, “I don't answer very often. I never answer when I can help it. When people are insulting you, there is nothing so good for them as not to say a word—just to look at them and think. Miss Minchin turns pale with rage when I do it. Miss Amelia looks frightened, so do the girls. They know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage and they are not, and they say stupid things they wish they hadn't said afterward. There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in—that's stronger. It's a good thing not to answer your enemies. I scarcely ever do. Perhaps Emily is more like me than I am like myself. Perhaps she would rather not answer her friends, even. She keeps it all in her heart.”
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twinkjomarch · 1 year
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“Even in the fiercest storm, I am warmed by a small but stubborn fire”
Could not recommend the Matilda movie musical more. Lashana Lynch’s performance as Miss Honey was STUNNING!!!!
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andrewknightley · 1 year
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I understand they might need to cut songs on musical movie adaptations but did they had to cut 2 whole Miss Honey solos ??  😭 😭 😭 😭
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tooquirkytolose · 2 years
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Yooooo that comic was sick, love the way you tell your stories
Thank you!! I love telling them :)
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neil-gaiman · 2 months
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Not much better or even equal to than Good Omens (hence the massive rewatching). Do you have any tv shows you are currently watching? Also, what are you reading? I’m off to buy your purple vinyl record! Have a great day! Mish
Upright. Not sure how I had missed it, but I grabbed breakfast with Tim Minchin in Melbourne on my last day in Australia, and he mentioned it, and it was on the Qantas TV station on the way home...
Half way through the first season so far and loving it.
(I love that the middle aged male protagonist is basically just Tim Minchin if his life had gone wrong.)
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coquette-club · 3 months
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A Little Princess (1995)
When young Sara (Liesel Matthews) is sent to a boarding school by her well-meaning World War I-bound father (Liam Cunningham), the imaginative girl makes the best of things by entertaining her friends with fanciful tales. After running afoul of the strict headmistress, Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron), Sara receives some heartbreaking news, and is forced to work in servitude. As she struggles to keep her spirits up, she makes some remarkable discoveries that may change her seemingly bleak fate.
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that-bi-bitch-writes · 10 months
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Paid in Kind
Pairing: Yuuji Itadori x Male Reader
Word Count: 2,053
Warnings: Infidelity, Swearing, Murder, Mentions of suicide. Angst, Major Character Death
Requested by: No one i just missed writing oneshots
Storyline: Yuuji and the reader love each other until death do them part
A/N: I’m bad at angst but I’ve been wanting to write some for years. Nearly a year ago I asked @dont-minchin-it​ who their favorite jjk character was and they said megumi and mine is yuuji so I wrote this. I didn’t finish it until just now.
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[Name] [L.Name] considered himself to be lucky.
When he was a child and the monsters would come out from underneath his bed, he’d close his eyes and grab onto his blanket tightly chanting ‘please go away’. When he’d open his eyes, they’d be gone.
When he’d ask his mom for ice cream before dinner, it’d only take a little bit of prodding for her to cave in. After he failed his first test he’d begged his teacher for an extra credit assignment only to end the semester with an A. He got free lunches when he forgot his, and people would get him a drink from vending machines because they just happened to get an extra one.
When he was 14 he met Megumi Fushiguro. Fuck that guy.  
Megumi was one year his junior and an unlikely bully to many, when he first saw [Name] talking to Tsumiki, he made a mental note to check [Name] out and kick his ass.
Megumi learned that [Name] was a normal kid with normal parents and a pretty normal routine. He went to school, he hung out with friends on most days and four days out of the week he took taekwondo classes. Okay maybe Megumi couldn’t quite kick his ass.
“Tsumiki. Who’s that kid you keep talking to at lunch?”
“Care to be more specific?”
“The annoying one who’s oddly lucky. He hangs around those nerds who bring him soda and he gets free lunches sometimes. Is he bothering you?”
“[Name]? No, he's really nice. And he doesn’t make his friends bring him things, he just asks them to get him one if they happen to get an extra. I think sometimes they use their own money to buy them and tell him they hit the jackpot. They call him their own good luck charm”
“Ooh Tsumiki knows him by first name.” Gojo interrupted. He ceremoniously sat closer to the two who were eating dinner. “Tell me more about this [Name] Megumi”
Megumi rolled his eyes but continued “Like I said he’s oddly lucky. I thought he was pulling some strings at first because I couldn't understand why everyone’s always breaking their necks for him but Tsumiki says he just asks. That’s what everyone else says too. He asks nicely and they can’t help but do whatever he wants. He’s charming”
Gojo let out a short and curious hum before Tsumiki and Megumi moved on. Long after the conversation had been over Gojo piped up and asked Megumi to keep an eye on [Name]. Megumi just nodded. He’d already planned to do that anyway.
Nosy Megumi Fushiguro was the worst thing to happen to teenaged [Name]. Adult [Name] paid him back in kind.
[Name] had the worst luck with romance. As in he’d only had two successful relationships–both ending miserably. The first time he was dumped at a wedding. It wasn’t theirs luckily. But it was his childhood best friend’s wedding and he had to stand there and smile like he didn’t get dumped five minutes before the bride walked down the aisle.
PIcture it, a dashing groomsman nursing a wounded heart as he listened to his closest friend promise eternal devotion to the sunniest, most reliable partner anyone could ask for. And the open bar wouldn’t be open for another two hours. Two hours of the perfect couple being fucking perfect. At least when he shed a few tears he could pass it off as being moved to emotion.
The relationships after that, if you could call them relationships, were doomed before they started. [Name] liked sex but adamantly refused to allow himself to get attached to anyone. His excuse was that he was just getting out of a long term relationship and wasn’t looking for anything serious. Unfortunately for him the only person that believed [Name], was himself.
Sex with strangers started to bore him before long but he wasn’t quite done with his avoidant lifestyle so he found himself conjuring excuses to break up with any partner with real potential. He once broke up with someone because they smiled too much. Apparently it made him feel like they were faking their happiness. The cliche avoidant behavior all came to a head when that one person snuck his way into [Name]’s heart.
And then the fucker had to die.
[Name] spent months pretending to mourn. He honestly just felt empty.
Once again: Fuck Megumi Fushiguro.
Not too long after Megumi wormed himself into [Name]’s life Gojo made his first appearance. Wearing sunglasses inside, bright smiles and loud laughs, the man commanded attention and called into doubt everything [Name] knew about himself, the world, and his luck. All of a sudden his life wasn’t in his hands anymore and his luck, which could’ve gone unnoticed, was sorcery. Sorcery that required studying at a boarding school away from his friends, family and the sense of familiarity that felt more like belonging.  Sorcery school was a crock of shit.
He didn’t need to learn how to kick ass, and he certainly didn’t need to learn jujutsu techniques considering the fact that he’d stopped noticing curses as a child and hadn’t seen one again until he started channeling cursed energy throughout his body and into his eyes. He could’ve been normal, accepted the illusion of control and gone off to be unfulfilled in a less meaningful way.
I mean who would give up luck and blissful ignorance to risk their lives as teenaged soldiers fighting a war no one else knew about. And his dating pool shrunk before he even got to step foot in the waters. Marrying a sorcerer would only guarantee that his life or even his kid’s life would be ruled by the thing he hated and he couldn’t get out without learning to cope with the lives he could have saved. He had to face the fact that he would grow up to be Satoru Gojo.
Fuck.
Yuuji Itadori was practically a lifeline. Of course with his appearance brought on a whole bunch of other shit but he was the only one who could really understand [Name]. They fucked up his life too. There was no previous exposure to curses, no obvious fucked up origin story, he was at school and met Megumi Fushiguro and boom his life was on the line every day. Yuuji could not enjoy the simple things in life, he would watch friends die, he would not come to terms with the new life he was living. Try as he might.
Yuuji and Megumi were friends. It was hard not to be friends with Yuuji, he inspired people, made them laugh, made them want to live despite the odds. And [Name] was both lucky and stubborn, he would not let go of the one person that could understand him. Not for Megumi, or Gojo or the higher ups, he wouldn’t even die before Yuuji. That’s the promise he made to himself. He’d live for Yuuji. BFFs.
The first time they had sex [Name] was terrified and exhilarated. He was 20, Yuuji 19 and they’d both narrowly avoided death. Neither one of them wanting to die a virgin and just buzzing off of adrenaline. It happened again two more times before [Name] turned 21 and they’d stopped to preserve their friendship. Then they both got into relationships.
Yuuji got married at 26. By then [Name] had already been dumped and thus refused to be one of Yuuji's groomsmen. He showed up early, gave Yuuji his best wishes and then sat in the back during the actual service. The reception was nice, he and Yuuji danced. Itadori’s arms wrapped around [Name]’s waist, [Name]’s arms resting lazily on Yuuji’s shoulders. It was nice to pretend for a while in their little corner of the dance floor, foreheads touching and not a single eye on them. They separated with a grim smile and Yuuji was off to mingle with the rest of the guests. [Name] danced with Yuuta, remained cordial with Gojo and stayed away from Megumi Fushiguro. He didn’t even look at the cake.
Three years later [Name] and Itadori had sex again. It was exhilarating, they worked well together. It was a familiar dance; their eyes closed, forehead touched forehead but they never kissed. Not once. Yuuji was still married after all. Both too selfish to let go of each other, but neither selfish enough to avoid the guilt of what they’d done. What they were doing.
They lasted two weeks without seeing each other. Without ever mentioning it, everything was business as usual. They facetimed each other once a week to catch up and sent each other funny videos to say ‘this reminded me of you’ or ‘have you seen this’.
Yuuji’s marriage fell apart. But it wasn’t just the secret that did it. Getting married at 26 isn’t a death sentence but it is stifling when you’ve known nothing different since you were 15 and all Yuuji’s resentment towards jujutsu society and all the fucking people who died and then 3 years of marriage to a wonderful wonderful partner who just reminds you of all you lost and what could have been. Not even love could save his marriage. So he turned to what he knew best, what felt good no matter what. He turned to [Name].
Four months later Yuuji decided he wanted a divorce and he wanted to be with [Name] who was willing to throw it all away if Yuuji really wanted to. And he did want to. But [Name] didn’t want to put Yuuji in the same position again and told him to go to therapy. Apparently Itadori thought that meant couples therapy. Two months of couple’s therapy made Yuuji want to try and be better.
He had a plan-a good plan. He was going to leave. He was going to leave [Name]. They met on the rooftop of [Name’s] building to discuss the future. Facetime calls reduced to 20 minutes once a month. No more outings alone for the foreseeable future. They would be joined by Fushiguro.
“Kiss me” [Name] begged “If you’re going to leave me for good kiss me once and i’ll let you go. Forever.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea” Yuuji looked hesitant. His eyes glanced down to [Name]’s lips and his jaw clenched
“If you’re afraid kissing me will break your resolve then you shouldn’t be leaving me in the first place.” [Name] said resolutely. His eyes steeled with determination as he said “Kiss me. Kiss me my love and i’ll let you go for good”
Yuuji stepped closer. Once he bridged the gap [Name] launched forward and returned the kiss with a bruising passion. Yuuji pulled back for air just before the two of them got lost in it. They touched foreheads panting, breathing in each other’s air.
[Name] pulled away first and stepped toward the edge looking over.
“Don’t.” Yuuji panicked and inched closer hand seeking [Name]’s
[Name] looked up and let out a hollow laugh “I’m not gonna do anything” he said smiling as if anything about his behavior would reassure Yuuji.
“You just told me you’d let me go forever and then stepped toward the edge of your 15 story building i’m sorry if i’m a little worried”
“Come here” [Name] said, pulling Yuuji closer. Yuuji could see tears in his eyes “I’m not gonna jump.” Yuuji gripped [Name]’s shoulders and stared into his eyes only finding truth. He sighed and relaxed, letting go of [Name] who briefly kissed him on the cheek and smiled solemnly. He took a deep breath and finished his thought aloud: ‘i’m not gonna jump yuuji’
“I’m gonna push you”
Megumi Fushiguro ruined [Name]’s life. So [Name] killed Megumi’s husband.
This was a kind of sorrow [Name] could bear. Megumi took everything. His friends, his freedom, his childhood and the love of [Name]’s life. And he’d known it all along. How [Name] resented him long before Tsumiki got sick. As he consoled the grieving Fushiguro, the only thing [Name] said was “I forgive you”
Fushiguro thought it was odd that [Name] forgave him for ruining his life, as if the death of Yuuji washed away all their hatred and sin but no.
[Name] had already repaid him in kind.
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colemckenzies · 10 months
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Groundhog Day Musical, West End 2023
after six years i finally saw my favourite musical of all time in person 🥰🥰 so here is my write up of the staging, lyric changes, general commentary etc.
it's worth noting that i imagine the staging is more similar to its original west end run than the broadway version, but i didn't see it back then and couldn't find any footage so I'll just be comparing to the broadway ver. it will also all be based off of the One west end performance i saw and One broadway performance that was filmed cus yk live theatre and all that. i'm also only one person so this def won't be comprehensive. if there's anything you particularly want to know that i haven't mentioned please ask!!
for major overarching changes, there was no turntable which significantly affected the staging, especially for songs like night will come. it's also a much smaller space and much more condensed cast than on broadway.
anyway without further ado lets go woodchuck chuckers 😎 in chronological order
the opening video is completely changed. rather than showing phil interacting w his producer, it just shows his forecast segment in full. he explains more about what groundhog day is as a holiday and that this is his fourth year attending. also includes the line 'we can't all have good weather because we're not all good people'. banner along the bottom read 'up next music: white wine in the snow' as a little tim minchin ref :)
only one person sang the 'i was born on a punxutawney dawn' opening section of there will be sun, pretty sure it was buster. lot of solos for the rest of the song as well but not specific townspeople i think
everyone came out of the mist as in broadway version, but everyone was dressed in the top hat costume. they stood a line across the stage and took a group selfie w a selfie stick
phil turns off the radio after 'that's right woodchuck chuckers, it's groundhog day' so there's none of the subsequent lyrics/banter. i'm also 90% sure the radio recording was from the soundtrack
FIRST LYRIC CHANGE. there's an extra line in day one that goes 'their dumb superstitions and vacuous chat, their total unawareness of the fact their trapped, perhaps you don't miss it if you don't know you lack it, I'm sure there was a pack of xanax in this jacket' (EDIT - thank you for the correction @jackhkeynes )
^not a huge fan of this change tbh but only bc the original rhythm is one of my favourite parts of the song.
there's no hallway in the b&b, the kitchen set is the back end of the bedroom set. this means jonathan is downstairs the kitchen rather than meeting phil in the hallway, so the scene ends up as him, phil, and mrs lancaster. the tourist couple do not come in (or exist), mrs lancaster says the popsicle line.
there's a couple of extra new jokes in the dialogue. lmk if you want to know specifics lol
since mrs lancaster comes straight into this scene they skip the 'think i'll lose it all together' little bit of music
all the dancers are part of the marching band and they all join for the selfie with phil
phil getting hit in the head by the groundhog guy is because the hot dog guy (here played by one of the newsies i saw LOL) yells 'GO PHIL!!!' every time so the groundhog turns around to wave
buster uses an alt melody for his announcement - 'prognostication' goes down rather than up for the last note
they get punxsy phil out on the 'this brown log' line, so they skip the 'the finest specimen you will find' section
nancy sings the 'kinda both but not quite either' line over buster, which i actually really like because she does it in this really peppy cheerleader :DDD way that adds to her being a Prop. she even has pompoms.
wilbur in this version is sooooo good he's a lot more physical and really leans into his megaphone
when phil comes back from the blizzard rita seems a lot more genuinely concerned about him than just laughing
she accidentally orders her drink with a 'tryst' before 'kiss' and finally 'twist'
NEW LYRICS in day two - since there's no radio chatter in this version, after 'how many days is this holiday?' phil sings '[something] clearly failed to mention the owner showing signs of early onset dementia, one groundhog day is surely more than enough, even hicks must get sick of this stuff'
rest of the song continues as normal, again rita seems more concerned about phil, shouts 'maybe i can help!' when he leaves the diner
she then sings her diary section quite differently, like alt melody AND alt rhythm, she seems flustered
actually she also has a lot more variation between days than a lot of the townspeople, like she's more responsive to phil acting differently
LYRIC CHANGE in stuck - 'rhino foreskin' is now 'monkey foreskin'. lyric changes that push me dangerously close to googling 'do rhinos have foreskin' (EDIT - tim apparently said this was because white rhinos went extinct so it made him sad - thank u anon!)
the enema takes place behind a screen, a bit like the silhouette technique used for the shower in hope
at the end of stuck when everyone lists their thing again (karma/toxins/etc), phil says no!! after each one until alcohol and then he goes 'oh thank god'
nothing hugely notable to say for nobody cares, just that it skipped over some of the dialogue at the beginning just to make the scene tighter. i will say that ralph and gus are Exceptional in this version
the staging is mostly the same, except jack and wilbur get their own little cars to follow the truck in :)
in philandering, phil tells nancy he's a war correspondant rather than working for the nyt
again the dialogue throughout the song is a lot more streamlined
the little pillow fight section is replaced by a party in phil's room where you just see everyone going in and out of the door that's set up like when he slept w nancy. he gets his big fur coat from a coke dealer.
in one day, rita doesn't comment on phil's choice of drink, so there's nothing about 'frou frou lady drinks', she just orders right after him and the day restarts
not a new thing but. i forgot about the soixante neuf line and it made me choke
rita and phil sit on a bench to the side of the stage after the snowball fight, not on the floor
joelle's voice is extremely pretty in this ver:) I think the harmony may be slightly different?
LYRIC CHANGE. in arguably the most bizarre lyric change, jonathan is no longer addicted to fried chicken takeaway, but rather camembert. which you may notice does not rhyme with 'day'. the full line is: 'one day, i swear, i'll kick my addiction to camembert. my doctor said one day my heart will stop beatin', if i don't ease off this cheese eatin'.' (EDIT - changed due to this track being played by a black actor, though the one i saw was white - thank you anon!)
the diner waitress doesn't exist in this cut down cast, so it's debbie who can't sing. fred is very supportive :)
something cool they do in lieu of the turntable is for Larry's repeated 'ok phil we're on in 5...' they have multiple larrys, similar to the body doubling in hope, who keep running up to phil and fading away
ACT TWO
the act opens slightly differently - since nancy is kind of part of the marching band in this ver (tho not in full uniform), it opens with a quick section of who is that! who is that? emerging from his burrow -. nancy sings her 'kinda both but not quite either' line, and then drops one of her pompoms on 'until we hear it from old punxsutawney -' and then as she goes to pick it up that music stops and playing nancy begins
LOVE that it cuts off just before 'phil' bc it has the same effect as even choosing to open w playing nancy anyway. she was an incredible nancy as well she's not got many credits yet but oh my god? this was so striking and moving irl and it's already one of my favourite choices of the show
there's a lot more use of Red Lighting when phil kills phil. rip.
staging for hope is almost exactly the same, but minus turntable, so it doesn't have the part where lots of Not Phils are dying simultaneously, just the three main deaths
the scene where phil exposits about everyone in the diner goes jeff -> debbie -> freddie. there's a great exchange that goes 'you're welcome jeff.' / 'do you two know each other?' / 'no???' / 'that's jeff.'
also phil doesn't insist debbie wants a diamond (since she ends up w a doorknob anyway), he just goes CLOSE THE DEAL FREDDIE!!!
since this version establishes this is phil's fourth year covering ghd and debbie and fred met on ghd four years ago, there's a pretty good reason why they're such big fans of him :)
not a difference but the 'i'll never have a birthday' line always hits so hard
if i had my time again is THE single most different song between versions. the musical arrangement is quite different to my ear, different harmonies, and there's alt melodies and rhythms as well as some extra lyrics
as i have already seen noted on tumblr, 'and one dude when i was bored' has been upgraded to SOME dudes. also rita goes 'sure..!' she's like ok u bi bitch. also they're still on the benches at this point but she's jumped onto his.
even when they are on the move there's none of the stuff w the townspeople hounding phil for photos/autographs, they're just hanging out
the section where phil 'shows Rita his hometown' has actually been moved to near the end of the show, so they just get on the tilt-a-whirl immediately. also they share a car rather than having separate ones.
the staging for this part was so beautiful it actually made me cry lol. w strings of lights coming down
LYRIC CHANGE - 'i daily eat a dozen donuts' is now 'i eat a dozen donuts every day'
FURTHERMORE, the second 'why' is actually directed at rita's 'i would learn piano', and she replies by singing 'why?? I'd just give everything a try' and then their 'these revolving rides' section is a completely different tune going into a brand new ending where she's lying on his bed and he has a balloon, with:
NEW LYRICS - rita: 'go to all the parties that i missed, kiss all the boys i was too afraid to kiss (why am i not surprised you have a list?), try to have more days that end like.. this :)'
the next couple of scenes play out as in the bway ver
the order of vignettes leading up to and in night will come are switched - phil brings jenson the thermos of soup on the second day and takes him to the hospital on the third day as the song begins, with the scene w the nurse taking place after the first verse
obviously the staging is quite different without the turntable, ned wanders about between verses and then stands still/sits to sing
ned has a lot more of an 'annoying' exaggerated nasally voice in this ver
in his post-song broadcast, phil pronounces 'phi' like 'fee' instead of 'fie'
in philanthropy, phil saves jonathan from choking rather than the tourist, which does end up feeling a bit random since he also gives mrs lancaster a new coffee pot in this song iirc so along with the sheriff and debbie it's established he's solving the problems from 'one day', and jonathan is clearly Not choking on camembert lmao
the singer at the party at the end is debbie!!!
during seeing you, when phil takes rita up to the observation deck, she calls it 'romantic' sarcastically after the toilets/garbage/etc, and then That's when he points out the duck pond, school etc, and she says it's like he's showing her his hometown
MORNING OF FEBRUARY 3RD EVEN MORE DEVASTATING FROM THIRD ROW OF STALLS.
ending is the broadway one, watching the sunrise :) except it's just phil and rita and no one else
so yeah IT FUCKED andy karl I would die for you. as i say lmk if you have any other questions and i will do my best :)
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iweon · 9 months
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A Little Princess (Sara and Ram Dass).
Up: A scene from the film in 1995.
Down: Illustration from Sara Crewe; or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's (1888)
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torosdottir · 2 months
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sometimes i wonder if i missed the lesson when they teach you how to show affection when they teach you what to do when you've got so much love in you
tim minchin deep cut a beloved friend managed to dig up on youtube after he played it live last year and made me bawl like the biggest fucking baby you've ever seen <3
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When young Sara is sent to a boarding school by her well-meaning World War I-bound father, the imaginative girl makes the best of things by entertaining her friends with fanciful tales. After running afoul of the strict headmistress, Miss Minchin, Sara receives some heartbreaking news and is forced to work in servitude. As she struggles to keep her spirits up, she makes some remarkable discoveries that may change her seemingly bleak fate. (Starring Liesel Matthews, Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham, Vanessa Lee Chester, Taylor Fry, Heather DeLoach, Kelsey Mulrooney, Rusty Schwimmer, Arthur Malet, Errol Sitahal, Camilla Belle, Rachael Bella, Vincent Schiavelli, Peggy Miley, and Alison Moir)
Released May 10, 1995
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