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dollsome-does-tumblr · 4 months

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2023 Fandom Year in Review

I'm a bit late on this because I kept being busy, but here! I probably forgot a bunch of stuff in my answers - c'est la vie.

✨Dollsome’s Fandom Year in Review!✨

Favorite new (to me) shows of the year:

Rectify

Joe Pera Talks With You

Reservation Dogs

Dave

The Righteous Gemstones

The Gilded Age

The Buccaneers

Beef

Somebody Somewhere

Vice Principals

Feel Good

Creamerie

Colin From Accounts

Poker Face

Favorite shows with new episodes this year:

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH!!!!!!!!!! 🏴‍☠️💘

Good Omens

Succession

Ted Lasso (kind of? 🫤)

What We Do In The Shadows

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

The Great

Abbott Elementary

Sanditon

The Nevers

Black Mirror

Some favorite TV show episodes watched for the first time this year (one per show! Just for a challenge!):

Our Flag Means Death - 2.04 “Fun and Games”

What We Do in The Shadows - 5.05 “Local News”

The Great 3.07 “Fun”

Succession - 4.09 “Church and State”

Ted Lasso - 3.10 “International Break”

Good Omens - 2.05 “The Ball”

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - 5.06 “The Testi-Roastial”

Beef - 1.10 “Figures of Light”

Dave - 3.10 “Looking for Love”

Reservation Dogs - 2.04 “Mabel”

Black Mirror - 6.05 “Demon 79”

Joe Pera Talks With You - 2.01 - “Joe Pera Talks With You About Beans” and 2.04 “Joe Pera Guides You Through The Dark” (Cheating and picking two because the episodes are so short!)

Favorite books read this year:

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Favorite song, album, or artist to listen to this year:

I discovered this album a few years late because I got tickets to a concert by them this year, but Bitter Better by Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards! I also loved Guts by Olivia Rodrigoooooo.

My favorite song is “Misbehavin’” from Righteous Gemstones, a bop like NO OTHER.

Favorite movies of the year:

No Hard Feelings, Saltburn, Barbie, M3GAN, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Rye Lane, Next Goal Wins, Quiz Lady, Eileen, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Cocaine Bear 🤣

First fandom of the year:

In January I had a major Jurassic Park/World resurgence wherein I watched all the Lego Jurassic World shows about Claire and Owen on Netflix and also read all of Tess Sharpe’s tie-in novels, while also feeling nine zillion feelings about Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler on the side because they are THE movie otp. I regret none of this, it was fun as hell.

Best new fandom discovery of the year:

The Gilded Age. I can’t believe I was living without Bertha and George Russell, and Julian Fellowes’ extremely stupid yet incomparably enchanting writing, for so long.

Biggest fandom disappointment of the year:

Ted and Rebecca not happening and also not getting nearly as much significant screentime together as I wanted. 😭 That one hurt me real hard, even though I always kind of saw it coming. I somehow just knew all the way back in season 1 that it was too wonderful and refreshing to happen. But even more disappointing to me was Keeley and Roy not getting back together. (And the fake-out of them seeming to get back together and then not really doing so. Ouch!) I wish they hadn’t broken up at all! That whole plotline gets a million thumbs downs from me. It made me feel so, so bad inside, a badness that never healed.

Honorary mention: Roman and Gerri’s last ever interaction getting deleted from 4.09!!!!!!! FERAL SCREAM!!!!!

I also really didn’t like what they did with Orlo’s character in s3 of The Great.

Biggest squee moments of the year:

(I can’t possibly narrow ‘em down well but let’s try.)

Like the entirety of OFMD season two, but I’ll narrow it down with great restraint to Mermaid Stede, the conversation on the sofa in “Fun and Games,” and the “You wear fine things well” redux kiss.

Roman watching Gerri recite the limerick and being besotted! Gerri caring about Roman with her eyeballs at the funeral! Roman’s Gerri tribute martini! Gerri smiling at Roman making fun of Greg that one time even though he didn’t know she was! It was a rough season, okay!

Guillermo dancing in the Pride Parade episode! Nandor always knowing that Guillermo didn’t have what it took to be a vampire and helping him become human again! The vampires doing the news!

Old ladies Midge and Susie making each other laugh at the end of TMMM! What a perfect way to go out.

Rebecca spitting her tea in Ted’s face in an act of fond vengeance. I really thought we were so happening after that one, mates! (And that moment in the hallway! And the Ted’s A Work In Progmess scene! Everything that made it feel like it might be happening!!!)

I also squeed during the Morning After Ted In Rebecca’s Kitchen Fakeout until I was dashed back down upon the rocks of cruel reality. Congratulations, show: I 100% fell for it. (Though part of that was because the people watching with me were like, “Wow, congratulations! It happened!” as if I had somehow personally willed it into happening. And you know I would have if I could have!)

Crowley and Aziraphale’s big scene at the end of Good Omens. It was a squee moment tinged with terrible pain, but such a squee moment nonetheless!

Also, Aziraphale’s “Smitten, I believe” lil’ look/remark. Will delight me forever.

Gregory and Janine kissing on Abbott Elementary! The flowers!!!!!!

Kelvin and Keefe’s first kiss (finally!) on The Righteous Gemstones!

Also on The Righteous Gemstones: Judy and BJ walking into the party to “Dance Hall Days” while BJ is rocking his shorts-romper ensemble. A moment that simply stunned me!

The end of the first episode (I think?) of Beef where “The Reason” by Hoobastank is playing specifically in the context of, I just found my nemesis whose life I’m going to make a misery. That made me so happy.

Seeing the Doctor and Donna Noble together again!

Favorite Main Character of the Year:

Catherine from The Great. Season three was such a tour de force for Elle Fanning, and I just loved every note of her character’s journey! I’m so bummed that we won’t get to see what happens to her next and I’m going to miss that performance and that character so much. 😢 She is INCREDIBLE!

Favorite Villain of the Year:

The briefly-seen Logan Roy, and the way he haunted his kids and kept tearing them apart after he died, and yet they still stared at him with such love and fondness and longing in that video in the finale and then proceeded to try to tear each other to shreds because that’s what he raised them to do. AAAH!

Favorite m/f couple of the year:

Gotta be RomanGerri. Good lord, what a time we had!

Runner-up: George and Bertha Russell, the morally questionable marrieds of my dreams.

Favorite f/f couple of the year:

I loved Midge/Susie with all my heart and rambled weirdly about them being Luke/Lorelai in (slightly) different clothes for the entire run of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, from the pilot being in that pilots contest onwards (remember that??). So it was just so wonderful and satisfying to have their relationship so loved on in the last season. And to get some canon ‘Susie is in love with Midge’ vibes going on, aaah! (Midge is in love with Susie, too. To me.)

Runner-up: Anne and Mary on Our Flag Means Death. I know they were only there for one episode but I’m god damn obsessed with them and will always dream of seeing them again in hypothetical s3. Staying at Ed and Stede’s inn? Swashbuckling into their lives on the high seas, possibly wearing other people’s faces? I will take ANYTHING!!! They ARE love and romance!!!!!!!!

Favorite m/m couple of the year:

Ed/Stede!!!!!!!! They came back to me!!!!!!! They were so in love and so deranged about it in so many moments that were absolute bangers!!!!!!!!! It was a total dream come true and I will never love another season of television quite in the way that I love season two of OFMD!!!!!!!!!

Also Crowley and Aziraphale, hoo boy. Don’t think I’ve forgotten what season two did to us as a society!!!! It was spectacular and I loved every minute of my deranged feelings.

And Nandermo always always always, and more with every season. Sorry, WWDITS showrunner dude!

Favorite fictional friendship of the year:

I really enjoyed getting to see Mabel and Oliver and Charles again in Only Murders in the Building season three! And the Rez Dogs in Reservation Dogs, which I finally watched! And the return of the Doctor and Donna to finish off the year!

Also, this doesn’t totally count as friendship per se, but George obstinately pretending to be Catherine’s bestie for self-preservation reasons in season three of The Great was riveting at every second and I was obsessed with it.

Your fictional boyfriend of the year?:

Edward Teach, going through every single human emotion and being so god damn beautiful doing it! 🥹

Your fictional girlfriend of the year?:

Gerri Kellman, my love, my light, THE stone-cold killer bitch of all time. 👑👑👑

Fandom that you never expected to get into:

I guess I never expected to get AS into Succession as I did. But somehow that final season really hit the exact vibe of ‘Your dreams could come true but they never will’ that absolutely and lastingly obsessed me.

Fandom that made an unexpected comeback:

Community, I guess? I’ve been really fixated on Community since our rewatch was begun! I always forget exactly HOW obsessed and emotionally invested I am until I am watching it again. And then I’m left in an abyss of feelios.

Fandom that inspired the most crack:

Oh, it’s gotta be Succession. That’s the only way to engage with Succession.

Last fandom of the year:

As mentioned: I am currently very in my Community feels due to my rewatch! Oh, does this show ever dwell in a tender and sweet place in my heart.

Overall favorite fandoms of the year:

Succession, Good Omens, OFMD

Your main fandom of the year:

Oh, gosh. Is it Succession?? I feel like the three above all got some major attention, but Succession might have been stretched out over the longest amount of time. Just, y’know. All that trying to recover!

The most missed of your old fandoms:

My year was definitely too Gilmore Girls lite for my liking! I also already miss Ted Lasso and simply insist that they make a fourth season. Even if they have to do it without Ted anymore 😢, I could dream of Roy and Keeley getting back together and see Rebecca and Nate and Higgins and Beard and the team and all my buddies again. I just feel like season three did not feel like an ending season and there’s still so much more juice in that ensemble.

Fandom resolutions for next year:

Just keep having a jolly time! Maybe watch less TV. Be more discerning in choosing which TV shows to watch so that there are more free hours in my day.

Fandom predictions for next year:

I predict Ted Lasso is going to come back in some form. It wasn’t over! It still isn’t over!! (I know if this happens it probably won’t include Ted, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if the desperate dream of Ted/Rebecca was suddenly back on? And by ‘hilarious’, I mean ‘everything to me’?)

I’m still quietly predicting the Killing Eve fix-it movie. I know it won’t happen, that Jodie and Sandra have moved on, but I’m dreaming of it anyway. And dreams can come true!

I predict that Jeff and Annie will finally get to be in love in the Community movie if it comes out. I am just choosing optimism and sweetness in this moment. I am choosing to believe.

In that vein: I predict that OFMD season three will exist!

I predict that Hugh Grant and Colin Firth will finally make a romcom together as the love interests. WHY NOT. IT'S TIME.

#dollsome's deep thoughts #year in review

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agnezluf · 1 year

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its really weird but it's one of the few love action yanderes I've come across. It's called disco pigs, it's an Irish film written in slang so you will have to have subtitles on. I'd love to hear your thoughts

Disco Pigs

Actors : Cillian Murphy, Ellaine Kassidy

Director : Kirsten Sheridan

Year of release : 2001

Verdict : 7/10

Since watching Cillian Murphy in the zombie apocalypse movie “28 Days Later”, I have been looking forward to his works, like Inception, The Dark Knight, a Quiet Place 2, my all time fave sci fi Sunshine, and his latest role as a mafia leader Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders. We don’t doubt his acting with how eager big directors like Nolan to cast him in his/their movies, and he is clearly very easy on the eyes. His face is just too pretty for words.

Now, this is what I love about review request. From time to time you see something absolutely new. An unheard of yandere movie staring Cillian Murphy? The Cillian Murphy as yandere??? I have always been having a crush on him. Heck, I paid a subscription on a wellbeing app featuring his soothing voice that I listen almost every night to sleep. I can do nothing but bumping this title up in my ultra long review wait list. Hehehe!

The two main characters in the movie are Darren “Pig” and Sinead “Runt” who are twins in every sense except birth. They were born on the same date, in the same hospital, live in a house side by side in Cork and living an almost identical life. They are two souls connected to each other, bonded and completely dependant of each other.

However, things started to change, when Runt is starting to connect with the world outside of the boy, and Pig is having a sexual awakening and green with jealousy to see the girl gets too close with another boy.

On the surface, this looks like a tale of obsessive love, spiralling uncontrollably into destruction. However, the whimsical atmosphere of the movie brought me to interpret Pig and Runt as psyche structures within the same person. Pig perhaps is closer to represent “id” and “ego”, where he is more influenced by the human instinct and primal desire. Runt is more of a “super ego”, who is more aware towards their surroundings. When Pig’s primitive instinct and Runt’s awareness clash, they must find a middle ground where they can coexist or subdue one side for another.

I am no psychology major, and this is definitely not an in-depth analysis, so take it with a grain bucket of salt. Lol.

The dialogue and directing style resembled a play, and surprise not, this movie indeed was adapted from a theatre play. To be honest, I am not a fan of theatre style in a movie, so this took much of enjoyment when watching this movie. But it is Cillian Murphy, so I powered through. I like the Irish-English accent a lot, it is one of the highlight of the movie.

Disco Pigs has the perfect set up: Cillian Murphy as a yandere man. It is a pity that it is more of an artsy type of screenplay rather than straightforward drama. While trying to interpret the meaning of the movie, for me, the yandere aspect lost its punch. I was busy second-guessing the believability of the story. Perhaps the dram version is much more enjoyable!

#male yandere #yandere boy #yandere boys #yandere male #yandere #yandere recommendations #yandereboy #maleyandere #yanderemales #yanderemale #nez movie review #disco pigs #cillian murphy #yandere rec

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mediamixs · 3 months

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Gacy: Serial Killer Next Door: a horror movie based on a true story

Gacy: Serial Killer Next Door is a 2024 horror movie about a teenager whose life changes when John Wayne Gacy, a notorious serial killer, becomes his neighbor. The movie is directed by Michael Feifer and stars Ryker Baloun, Shelby Janes, and Mason McNulty. The plot follows the teenager's curiosity, which leads him to uncover dark secrets and embark on a frightening journey from innocence to a dire clash with the infamous serial killer. The movie is inspired by Gacy's life and crimes, but it is more "inspired by" than "based on" his story. The movie has received mixed reviews, with some criticizing the amateurish acting and dialogue.

John Wayne Gacy, also known as the "Killer Clown," was an American serial killer who murdered at least 33 boys and young men in the 1970s. Born on March 17, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, Gacy led a double life, appearing as a sociable and charitable member of the community while hiding a sadistic and violent nature. He was known for performing as a clown at charitable events. Gacy's criminal history included convictions for sexual assault, and he was imprisoned for his crimes. After his release, he continued his heinous acts, luring his victims to his home, where he assaulted and murdered them. The true extent of his crimes was uncovered in 1978 when the police discovered the remains of his victims in and around his house. Gacy was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994. Gacy's heinous crimes and the shocking nature of his double life have made him one of the most infamous serial killers in American history.

#horror #movies #true story

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andrewmoocow · 1 year

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Little Homeworld Life chapter 20: Famethyst Reunion (originally posted on May 8, 2023)

AN: For almost three years now, I've basically made Holly Blue Agate into my personal punching bag whenever I need a member of the Rutile Rebels to suffer, and frankly I made the right choice. Yellow Diamond says that an Agate must terrify, but Holly takes it to a whole new level with her abuse of the Famethyst. While it was amusing to see nobody give her any attention in the original Future now that she's been stripped of her privileges, Holly Blue was part of my initial roster of enemy Gems teaming up to get revenge on Steven that I came up with in the lead-up to the movie's release, so that's where she landed herself in the world of Alternate Future. But now, just like what Two Birds on a Wire was for Aquamarine and Eyeball, this chapter shall decide whether our favorite abusive Agate still has a place in Black Rutile's inner circle or if she should try making a change.

Synopsis: The Famethyst want to enroll in Little Homeschool, and Cherry Quartz is nominated to show them around. Desperate to be as far away from the Quartzes as possible, Holly Blue Agate tries to spoil the tour.

Cast:

Christine Pedi as Holly Blue Agate

Kimberly Brooks as Cherry Quartz, Jasper, Superfan Rose, Hippie Rose, Shy Rose, Skinny Jasper, Carnelian, Angel Aura Quartz, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper, Dalmatian Jasper, Flint

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst, Famethyst, Blue Lace Agate, Ocean Jasper, Crazy Lace Agate, Tiger's Eye, Chert, Lace Amethyst

Noël Wells as Black Rutile

Della Saba as Aquamarine

Charlyne Yi as Eyeball

Casey Lee Williams as Cat's Eye

John Mulaney as Flipso

Estelle as Garnet

Deedee Magno Hall as Pearl, Volleyball

Tom Scharpling as Greg

Cristina Vee as Jay-Ten

Lamar Abrams as Wy-Six

Shelby Rabara as Peridot

Jennifer Paz as Lapis

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth

Lauren Ash as White Topaz

Zehra Fazal as Zoisite

Toks Olagundoye as Mayor Nanafua

"Okay, class, now that we've reviewed proper pressure point techniques, I'd like one of you to come up and demonstrate what you've learned," Jasper said to her self-defense class one summer day in Little Homeworld. "Who would like to go first?"

"I do, I do!" Cherry Quartz eagerly said while raising her hand. "I've been listening the whole time!"

"Ah, Cherry Quartz, good to see such an attentive student." Jasper grinned at the spotted quartz as she walked up to Holly Blue. "Now then, remember what I have taught you and go from there."

"Okay, Cherry, remember what Jasper taught you." Cherry repeated to herself while examining the Agate turned unwilling training dummy, who was already sweating in terror and breathing shakily.

"Please go easy on me." Holly Blue whimpered pathetically before Cherry struck her in the chest, the knees, the eyes, and between her legs in short order. When Cherry decided to finish her off with a neck pinch, Holly had been the reluctant teaching assistant long enough to know something was wrong. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm giving you a neck pinch, just like Jasper taught us," Cherry replied innocently.

"No, no, no, stupid, you've got it much too high." Holly corrected while pointing to where her neck should be pinched. "It should be down here, where the shoulder meets the neck."

"Like this?" Cherry asked as she followed Holly's instructions.

"Precisely," Holly replied before she collapsed from the damage taken to her form. "Oh, someone just poof me now."

"I'm surprised you didn't after taking that many hits," Jasper observed the collapsed Agate before turning back to her class. "Okay, everyone, next time I'll teach you how to poof a Gem with just a few hits! That's all; now get out of here!" As the class began to leave, Jasper turned back to Holly Blue. "And that goes for you too. The thought of seeing you lie there makes me sick."

"No, you make me sick," Holly grumbled as she got up and trudged away from Jasper. "I hate everything about this planet so much."

"And you know what was worst about today?!" Holly Blue complained to Black Rutile as soon as she got home to vent her frustrations, even though she was hardly paying attention and was more focused on looking at Yatter on her computer while sipping some coffee. "Cherry didn't even get the neck pinch right, so I had to remind her how to do it!"

"Yes, yes, boo-hoo-hoo, woe is me and such." Black Rutile replied coldly. "I guess that's what happens when you've been abusing Quartz gems for thousands of years just because the Diamonds told you to."

"Yeah, I have to agree with Rooty on this one." Flipso agreed with his Gem partner while Black Rutile gave him a confused look for the nickname she was given. "I mean, were you always like this, or did you get so far up your big blue butt that you stopped caring for anyone else but yourself and your status?"

"What are you trying to do? Get my life story?" Holly Blue asked confusedly and tried to walk away, only to turn around and discover Flipso giving her puppy dog eyes. "Ah well, since you seem so insistent, I'll tell."

When Holly Blue first emerged in the Kindergarten from when she was created on the planet Glados, she was given one purpose alone. To train Homeworld's Quartz soldiers to be perfect warriors, no matter how rough she may be. However, Holly was a bit tougher on the Quartzes she taught than expected; the Diamonds believed it was a necessary evil to create the soldiers they wanted for battle.

Eventually, when Pink Diamond was shattered and her human zoo was left without someone to watch over it and the Amethysts, Jaspers, Carnelians, and other Quartzes within, Blue Diamond needed someone to keep them all in line so they don't slack off on watching over the humans they kept prisoner. So naturally, she selected Holly Blue Agate for the job.

"I promise you, your grand clarity, I will not fail you!" Holly Blue eagerly declared, starting a career that would define her for the next couple thousand years. However, everything changed once the Crystal Gems infiltrated the zoo, and they ruined her life within just a few short hours. Because she was more focused on the Sapphire among them to notice that the Pearl didn't bother hiding the star on her chest, the Crystal Gems played her for a complete fool. They made their escape with the latest human prisoner while she was left to become a plaything of the quartzes, or the Famethyst, as the minuscule Amethyst called them.

Era 3 made things worse as not only did Steven convince everyone that Pink Diamond was his mother, he conned the entire Gem race into abandoning the caste system altogether, leaving Holly without anybody to take orders from as the Famethyst continued bullying her with no repercussions.

"I have to get out of here and fast!" Holly Blue panted harshly as she hid from some boisterous Amethysts in the containment area of the zoo. "Curse that Steven! He took advantage of my loyalty and played me like a total idiot! Now I have nothing else except for those off-color Gems always picking on me."

"Hey, Holly, you still want to play tag with us?" Carnelian giggled as she and her skinny Jasper friend searched the containment area for Holly Blue. "Come on; we'll let you be it!"

"Eh, I say we let her run." The skinny Jasper responded coolly, unaware that a shadow with half-shaven hair was looming before her. "Makes it more exciting that way." Just then, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder, and she turned around. "Uh, can I help you? How did you get here?"

"You left the door open." Zoisite coldly answered before socking Skinny Jasper in the face, knocking her out cold. "I had to fight through dozens of your friends to reach my target."

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" Carnelian yelled as Zoisite pulled a destabilizer from her gem to stab Carnelian with, the intense electric shocks making the little red Gem shriek in agony before her physical form gave out and escaped to her gem.

"The big idea is that I'm looking for someone," Zoisite replied before she began calling out to Holly. "Come on out, Holly Blue Agate, you're safe now!"

"What, who said that?" Holly Blue asked meekly while peeking out of some bushes. "Zoisite, is that you? Where have you been all this time?"

"Oh, you know, fighting Gem criminals before a certain someone changed everything." Zoisite proclaimed. "That is why I came here and took down all those off-colors. I have a friend who is demanding that you come with me, and she won't take no for an answer."

"Now, just a second, Zoisite." Holly Blue stated. "You can't just barge in here, take down all these unruly Gems and expect me to do as you say! As much as I love taking orders, I refuse to listen to a mere assassin!"

"Well, you should because this assassin is your only chance at returning to your old life!" Zoisite began arguing with Holly Blue when she heard her communicator going off. "One second, I have to take this." She muttered before pulling out her communicator to talk to her partner Dalmatian Jasper on the other end. "Hello?"

"Zoisite, I got another Ruby and an Aquamarine." Dalmatian Jasper declared on her end of the call. "How are things on your end?"

"Not great," Zoisite replied glumly. "This Holly Blue is really grating on my nerves."

"You take that back!" Holly Blue yelled, starting another argument while Dalmatian Jasper kept watching.

"I can still hear their laughter when I close my eyes." Holly Blue whispered in terror. "Their insults, their cheering, the breaking of valuables. The horror, the horror."

"You can have PTSD in front of me later; I'm working here." Black Rutile said while reading from her psychology book. "Or maybe you're just being overdramatic because you refuse to accept change."

"Says you!" Holly Blue yelled back at Black Rutile. "You nearly destroyed the Earth because you refused to accept change!"

"Yes, but I believed that Steven would be a detriment to our society, that he was no better than Pink Diamond!" Black Rutile argued. "My utter Brobdingnagian hatred for Pink and how she wanted everything her way extended to her wretched spawn and how he actually succeeded in making everything his way!" Just then, a loud rumbling came from outside, followed by casting a large shadow over the Rutile Rebels' house. "What was that?"

"Either my mother-in-law is coming, or we're due for a plot development." Flipso answered as Black Rutile and Holly Blue looked out their window to discover the human zoo descending towards Earth. "I'll have you know; my mother-in-law is one of the most dangerous beings in the omniverse. Rumor has it she once made the One Above All cry."

"No, not them, anyone but them!" Holly Blue shrieked in terror and began breathing rapidly while reliving traumatic memories of losing everything because of Steven. "Why did they have to come back?!"

"What is happening here?!" Cat's Eye yelled as she, her cat Blake, Aquamarine, and the Rubies stepped into the living room to see Holly Blue curled up into a ball, having a panic attack. "And what's up with Holly?"

"No need to alarm everyone; she's just having a panic attack." Black Rutile assured her subordinates while looking through her psychology book again, even though Holly Blue was too shaken to hear her. "We'll just need to give her some space until she recovers."

"Wow, what a realistic portrayal of a panic attack; someone calls the film buffs on Yatter!" Flipso laughed as Holly Blue continued panting sharply and grabbed at her chest. She couldn't deal with them again or even think of them again. Nonetheless, it was the fate she was forced into the moment she was banished to Little Homeschool.

"Hey, I think she's coming back!" Aquamarine exclaimed as Holly Blue's panic attack subsided, and she was helped to her feet by Cat's Eye.

"So what was that all about?" Cat asked a panting Holly.

"My apologies, just some bad memories of my first encounter with Steven," Holly stated while hugging Cat's Eye tight. "Please don't ever abuse me like those rowdy Amethysts did, promise?"

"Well, look who's talking?" Flipso sneered at the touching scene before him. "We all know you're just making stuff up as you go along to make people feel sorry for you. Like my distant cousin, for example, they're like a child of the stars who claimed not to know diddly squat about death even though he gave a fascist Puritan dictator the means to commit magical genocide!"

"I'm not even going to bother comprehending what you're talking about." Black Rutile muttered in annoyance as she walked outside to see the Crystal Gems helping a large group of humans out of the zoo. "Wait, are those the zoo humans? What are they doing here?"

"Oh, is this that Black Rutile we keep hearing about?" one of them, a curvy blonde with green eyes, asked as she got awkwardly close to Black Rutile. "Hello there, my name is Jay-Ten; it is nice to meet you."

"Charmed, I'm sure." Black Rutile nervously greeted Jay-Ten with a handshake. "Now, can anyone care to tell me what is going on right now?"

"As part of atoning for their atrocities, the Diamonds have decided now is the time to dismantle the human zoo and relocate everyone in it to Earth," Garnet answered. "So we implore you and your friends to be on your best behavior, Black Rutile."

"Eh, behave this, you guys!" Amethyst cried as she turned to face her fellow Amethysts emerging from the ship. "Yo, Famethyst, welcome to Earth!"

"8XM!" the massive array of Amethysts, Jaspers, and one Carnelian yelled in delight as they began stampeding towards Amethyst, while Holly Blue could only stand and watch as her worst nightmares were now here on the same planet as her. The only thing she could do was collapse from shock.

"Amethyst, it's been ages!" Carnelian shrieked while grabbing Amethyst and spinning her around. "How has Little Homeworld been?"

"Been doing great lately." Amethyst laughed happily. "I am so glad you guys are going to stay here; we got so much on Earth to show you."

"So, you must be Jasper, eh?" Skinny Jasper said to Jasper. "Have to say, I guess the stories about you were true."

"A defective Jasper, huh?" Jasper nodded to her defective, skinnier counterpart while the other Quartzes of Little Homeworld were reintroduced to the Famethyst. "Never would I see the day."

"Hey, Holly Blue!" one of the Amethysts shouted to the passed-out Agate. "Something the matter?"

"Oh, don't mind her; she's just too traumatized to interact with you." Black Rutile said while picking up Holly Blue and shaking her awake. "WAKE UP, YOU WORTHLESS DRAMA QUEEN! DON'T YOU DARE HAVE A MOMENT OF CLARITY THAT WILL CONVINCE YOU TO CHANGE YOUR WAYS ON MY WATCH, YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Give her a bit. She'll come to." Chest Rose answered relaxedly. "Oh hey Pearl, long time no see, babe."

"Ehehehehe, hello Rose Quartzes." Pearl laughed nervously, pulling at her shirt collar while surrounded by the three Rose Quartzes who accompanied her, Steven, and Volleyball to the Reef, along with dozens of others. "It's a pleasure meeting you all again."

"Well, if all these Quartz Gems want to know more about Earth and Little Homeworld, then it's only logical that a Quartz shall give them the tour." Peridot stated. "Any volunteers?"

"I'll do it!" Cherry Quartz accepted the proposition. "I call dibs!"

"Hey, I saw them first!" Tiger's Eye added competitively, followed by Blue Lace & Crazy Lace Agate, Ocean, Zebra & Biggs Jasper, Lace Amethyst, Angel Aura Quartz, and Flint & Chert crowding around Cherry.

"Good to see you're all so eager," Lapis responded as the human zoo Quartzes all gathered around the Little Homeworld Quartzes, and they began showing them around Little Homeworld. "Now then, while Cherry and Tiger's Eye is giving them the tour, let's try and get these humans situated here."

"Just as long as Ga-Reg doesn't show his face and refuse to choose us again!" Wy-Six added sourly.

"You know, we should start thinking of expanding the place soon." Bismuth pointed out. "I mean, with this many Gems excited to move in, I'm not sure if Little Homeworld can fit all of them without having to move some out."

"Uh uh, no, thank you!" Holly objected to the notion. "Only a few Quartzes causing trouble is enough; imagine how much chaos even more of them could cause!" Unfortunately, nobody was listening to her, much to Holly's anger as she growled and stomped away.

"Hehehe, look at him go!" Flipso chuckled as he played a video game about running cookies. "Go, little Earth snack, run from that witch!"

"You there, jester!" Holly Blue yelled as she barged in on Flipso's gaming session, interrupting the chaos god's train of thought and giving him a game over. "Help me with my problems, now!"

"I was in the middle of something, lady!" Flipso complained as he switched off his game and stomped up to Holly Blue. "What do you want?!"

"I require your assistance because I'm currently facing a crisis." Holly Blue answered. "These Amethysts that have menaced me in my time as overseer of the human zoo are moving to Earth, and they're sure to make my life a living nightmare once again. Are there any spells you have that could just poof them away?"

"Oh no, sistah, I may be a psychopathic wielder of all-powerful chaos energy, but I got a specific set of rules I made for myself to follow!" Flipso stated as he presented a large purple book with 'DA RULES' written on the front and opened it to read its contents. "Rule #24601, my powers are not to be exploited for petty gain. Any attempts at that will result in me stabbing whichever schmuck tries to do it in the back and possibly preventing them from ever existing. Depends on my mood, though, so consider yourself lucky."

"Wait for a second; you have a set of rules?" Holly asked, trying not to laugh at such a concept. "Since when?"

"I've been causing chaos for so long; even I keep forgetting." Flipso remarked while putting the book away. "Which reminds me, would you care to hear how my powers have influenced human history? I once destroyed Pompeii after using Mount Vesuvius as a barbecue pit. There was also a little game of pigskin with the boys where someone threw the football a little too hard, and that became the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. Ooh, I also once caused that earthquake in east Japan followed by that tsunami because I was in the bathroom after eating some bad taquitos. And I also once had a cold, and I sneezed on some rats who started spreading the Black Plague. Also, do you want to know why Pluto is no longer considered a planet? That was me!"

Holly Blue could only stare in shock at the audacity of this being as he cheerfully reminisced on the death and destruction that he played a part in over the centuries. This was different from what the Diamonds formerly did because it was their duty; this creature acted like this was a hobby he indulged in every day. No wonder Black Rutile wanted to free him; he was just as ambivalent towards the safety of others as she was!

"So, let me get this straight, Crystal Gems." Mayor Nanafua Pizza said to the Crystal Gems in her office. "These humans are from a space zoo owned by the Diamonds, but now they want nothing to do with the zoo anymore and have handed their humans over to you."

"Yes, that is exactly what we're doing here; we wish to have the Zoomans officially recognized as citizens so they can start a new life here, free from captivity." Pearl nodded before finding Wy-Six trying to eat a book off the shelf. "Hey, that's not food!"

"Then why does it look so delicious?" Wy-Six innocently asked as Pearl cleaned up the drool-covered book and returned it to the shelf.

"Some things just aren't meant to be eaten," Pearl advised Wy-Six. "Unless you're Amethyst. She once ate a cloud and became inflated like a balloon."

"I got hit by an airplane!" Amethyst laughed while remembering that event.

"Well, do they have any birth certificates we can find?" Nanafua asked.

"Not that we know of," Garnet replied. "As far as we know, the Zoomans are all descendants of the humans that were brought to the zoo, and no other human has been captured for millennia before Greg."

"Hey Gems, heard you guys were doing something about that crazy zoo up in space." Greg declared as he stepped into the mayor's office as if someone made him appear by saying his name three times. "You know, I'd be more than happy to help; you just need to say the-"

"Look, everyone; it is Ga-Reg!" one of the Zoomans yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Greg, who was left wide-eyed in shock at seeing them again. "You should know we refuse to forgive you for rejecting us!"

"Look, I said I was flattered that you wanted to choose me or whatever, but I just wasn't feeling it!" Greg nervously laughed. "Maybe we could start over?"

"Get him!" another Zooman commanded, making Greg run for his life from the stampeding Zoomans as they began chasing him across Beach City.

"I think someone has a ton of explaining to do." Jasper growled as she, Garnet, Lapis, and White Topaz followed the Zooman horde outside. "The rest of you take care of things here. We'll go save Greg."

"Figured he would've shown up at the wrong place at the wrong time." Garnet declared morosely.

"Though I must admit, it was pretty funny how they ganged up on him." White Topaz laughed.

"Oh, extremely funny!" Jasper chuckled before the four Gems set off to save Greg from the angry mob.

Back at Little Homeworld, Holly Blue was now digging a hole in the ground with rigorous tenacity, all while Cat's Eye watched with bemusement as she stroked Blake. "Uh, what are you digging a hole for? Are you planning to dig to China or something?"

"No, this is but a trap that I shall you to imprison those off-color Gems and finally get them out of my hair!" Holly Blue cackled. "Once they fall into the pit, I'll refill the hole and make sure they never find a way to get out!"

"Or you could just calmly tell them that their mistreatment of you has caused you extreme stress," Cat advised. "Seriously, I get that you're stressed, but this is a little much."

"Ooh, I got an even better idea!" Holly cackled evilly. "I'll get them all poofed, and then I'll put them in a box! Then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, I'll smash it with a hammer!" She let out another insane laugh, signaling to Cat's Eye that she has officially gone mad with either revenge, trauma, or, most likely, both.

"Holly, my dearest friend, your mouth is moving. Words are coming out. This is not good." Cat's Eye firmly stated as she grabbed Holly by the wrist and dragged her out of her hole. "Seriously, what did Dr. Sucrose say about this? Learning to stand up for yourself by being fair but still a little stern at the same time?"

"Do you really think that'll work?" Holly asked nervously. "For real life?"

"Yeah, whatever you just said, darling." Cat gave the Agate a sweet, feline grin while Blake let out an innocent meow.

"Fine, if it'll make you happy." Holly sighed as she walked away before stopping to turn her head. "Oh, and uh, Cat? You're a pretty good friend."

"You're too kind," Cat smirked as Black Rutile appeared. "Oh, hey, BR."

"What is Holly Blue doing?" Black Rutile asked the former lawyer. "I wanted to give her a new assignment."

"Oh, she's off to finally call out that Famethyst for their abuse of her." Cat revealed to her leader's shock.

"Oh no, am I in danger of losing yet another minion?!" Black Rutile asked fearfully as she tried following Holly Blue. "Well, I won't allow th-AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Before she could walk any further, the Rutile fell into the hole that Holly had dug. "WHERE DID THIS HOLE COME FROM?!"

"You should've watched your step," Cat smirked at the Rutile's expense.

"NOW YOU TELL ME!" Black Rutile complained as she tried to climb back up.

"And right here, you have the best view in all of Little Homeschool." Cherry Quartz declared as she took the zoo Quartzes to the top of the whirlybird tower, where they all could see Beach City from miles away. "Pretty impressive, huh?"

"Killer." Chest Rose replied in amazement.

"Wow, it feels like I'm flying!" Shoulder Rose cheered in excitement.

"Don't get too excited, Rosie; I wouldn't want you to fall." Tiger's Eye said, trying to calm the super-eager Rose down. "We may be invulnerable, but we can't be too careful."

"She's right. We're really high up." Navy Rose agreed with Tiger's Eye, looking down at the ground way down below.

"Hey, wanna see who lands first?" one of the Amethysts suggested just as Holly Blue managed to find the Famethyst on top of the tower. "Let's use Holly Blue as a test!"

"Stop." Holly Blue firmly said, stopping the Amethyst where she stood. "Just stop."

"Whoa, she's not screaming in our faces for once." Skinny Jasper whispered to Carnelian. "She must be really serious."

"It's time we had a talk." Holly declared calmly, despite looking so enraged. "For nearly three years since the Crystal Gems came into our lives, you've treated me as nothing more than a punching bag because you think I deserved it for all the horrible things I did to you."

"Well, you do!" Carnelian exclaimed. "I mean, all the yelling and screaming and blaming us for stuff we didn't do! It's called karma, HB; get used to it!"

"And that is why I'm sorry!" Holly Blue finally shouted, much to the shock of the Famethyst, that she would say such a thing and without a hint of mockery too. "I'm sorry that I was so horrible to all of you; I only wanted to follow my orders to the letter, and look how that turned out! And I'll only follow through with this apology if you promise never to abuse me again! As of this moment, it's over. I'm finished being everybody's butt-monkey!"

"Wait, are you serious?" another Amethyst murmured in shock at Holly taking responsibility for her actions for once.

"Well, this got intense real quick." Navy Rose added.

"Hey, can I talk with the gang real quick?" Skinny Jasper asked as she and the rest of the Famethyst huddled to discuss Holly's apology. "So what do you think? Should we forgive and forget?"

"Look, guys, I know Holly seems like she genuinely wants to change, but I'm having second thoughts right off the bat." An Amethyst whispered her two cents. "Last I remember, she got in trouble for falling in with Black Rutile, and we all know how much of a liar she is. Why don't we just cut our losses and leave her up here?"

"Well, we should just keep an eye on her, just in case." Carnelian agreed before turning back to Holly. "Listen, Holly, just because you apologized to us doesn't mean we'll just instantly forget all the bad things you did to us. But if you really want to make a change for the better, unlike some Gems we've heard of, that's okay with us."

"And we promise to try and go a little easier on you." Skinny Jasper added, making everyone laugh while Holly Blue let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you all for understanding," Holly said gratefully. "It felt so good to just get that off my chest at last and maybe grow as a person along the way."

"There you are; I've been looking all over for you!" Black Rutile yelled as she reached the top of the tower to confront Holly. "Come with me now; I have a new assignment for you!"

"Wait, really?" Holly asked as she was pulled away from the Famethyst.

"I knew she'd still hang with her." Skinny Jasper muttered.

"Oh well, hopefully, she keeps her end of the deal." Cherry Quartz replied. "Now then, back to the tour!"

"What do you want me for?" Holly Blue asked Black Rutile as the two rebels against Era 3 walked to the bottom of the whirlybird tower. "I was just about to have a moment of clarity and possibly redemption here!"

"Not on my watch, Holly!" Black Rutile stated. "I'm not about to let Steven strip you of your ability to think for yourself because I have a new job for you!"

"What kind of job?" Holly Blue asked before Black Rutile presented her with a hologram of the Seer to the Void and Rasputina's grimoire from her visor.

"Just a little breaking and entering." Black Rutile answered. "The Seer to the Void and Rasputina's grimoire are currently located in the Burning Room in the Crystal Temple, and Garnet can only access it via her gems. If you convince her to let you in, you can take both those items and be home free."

"But what do you need them for?" Holly Blue asked again.

"It's finally time to unleash Flipso." Black Rutile declared before she let out an evil laugh. "I've kept him waiting long enough, and now his godlike power will be mine to control!"

"Everyone, please calm down!" Garnet yelled to the Zoomans as they continued trying to hunt Greg down for his transgressions. "Just listen to Greg, and we can work things out!"

"I'm starting to think this was a bad idea!" Greg exclaimed as he locked himself in his van to hide from the Zoomans. However, that didn't stop the rampaging humans from trying to knock it over. "The universe must have a really twisted sense of humor right now."

"This is going to take all day." Jasper groaned in disgust.

"No, feels like we were chasing them from eleven to thirty minutes now." White Topaz replied. "Lapis, got any ideas?"

"How about I just stick them all in a big bubble?" Lapis suggested. "That should keep them from running around town like crazy?"

"That sounds utterly crazy!" Jasper objected to the idea.

"Well, sometimes crazy works." Garnet disagreed with Jasper. "Go for it, Lapis." At Garnet's command, Lapis summoned water from the nearby shore to wrap the Zoomans in before turning it into a big bubble to contain them. "Nice one."

"Oh, thank you, Lapis, you're a lifesaver!" Greg sighed in relief. "So gang, ready to hear me out now?"

"Okay Ga-Reg, we apologize for our recklessness," Wy-Six replied.

"We just still can't stop holding a grudge," Jay-Ten added. "Hopefully, you can forgive us for trying to hurt you as you hurt us."

"Aw, I can't stay mad at you guys." Greg chuckled.

"Well, that leaves that plotline finally tied up." Garnet sighed in relief. "Time to see how Pearl and the others are doing."

"Hold on a second!" Holly Blue cried as she raced up to Garnet. "Garnet, could you perhaps spare a moment of your time to show me the Burning Room?"

"Well, this is very sudden and quite suspicious," Garnet remarked. "I hope you don't have any ulterior motives."

"No way, I just want to see how empty it is and whether you still have any corrupted Gems left over!" Holly lied through her teeth.

"Guess I got some time to kill." Garnet agreed, making Holly smirk at how the fusion bought her fib hook, line, and sinker. "Come with me. I'll show you around."

"I got a bad feeling about this." White Topaz declared fearfully as Garnet and Holly Blue departed for the Crystal Temple.

"Ooh, I love what you've done with the place!" Holly Blue gasped in amazement at the emptied Burning Room, which still had a scant few bubbles containing valuable objects floating around. Two of them, in particular, were just the ones she needed. "Ooh, what are those two?"

"That's the Seer to the Void that we confiscated from Black Rutile, along with the grimoire that belonged to the sorceress Rasputina," Garnet explained to the Agate, who was getting inordinately close to the two bubbles. "I'd like to know why you're so interested in them." Just then, her future vision clued her to Holly's true intentions. "Oh no!"

"Thank you so much for the invitation, Garnet!" Holly Blue laughed heartily as she raced out of the Burning Room onto the Warp Pad. "And the goodie basket was a nice surprise too!"

"Wait, stop!" Garnet cried as Holly Blue disappeared, no doubt returning to Little Homeworld to see Black Rutile. "I have to warn the others and fast!"

Holly Blue reappeared on the Warp Pad at Little Homeworld, where the Rutile Rebels eagerly awaited her arrival. "I got them, my Rutile." She said while handing the bubbles over to Black Rutile and taking a bow. "Now, he can be free to smite worlds as he did in days long past."

"Excellent work, Holly Blue." Black Rutile smirked deviously as she patted Holly Blue on the shoulder. "I knew you wouldn't give up on me."

"Finally, let's get this party started!" Flipso cackled in triumph.

The time has come for Flipso to regain his physical form and wreak all sorts of havoc on Little Homeworld, Beach City, and perhaps beyond if the Crystal Gems don't stop him! But is he really on the Rutile Rebels' side or has Black Rutile been cooperating with a force that she cannot control? What could this mean for her relationship with the Crystal Gems at large? We'll find out next week when Flipso takes the scene at long last! Wow, I can't believe we're only six chapters left already.

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bowtiesnmusicals · 1 year

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Here is my recap of the Gaga for Gaga (Theatricality) episode of the podcast.

Today we are getting Gaga. We are getting into it. We are really going for it. You thought this show as gay before get ready.

Jenna loves this episode. Kevin said this episode is so much fun.

Kevin says he an audio memory of this episode. When he thinks of this episode he can hear Jenna before seeing her walking through the stages with those plastic bubbles.

This episode aired May 25 2010. It's episode 20 or 22. They are almost at the end of season one.

They still on the first tour at this point. Kevin remembers Ryan walking backstage and telling them they were going to swap the order of two of the episodes.

They shot Fun first and then Theatricality. They ended up swapping them when they aired. They wanted Theatricality to air earlier for some reason.

Jenna said Funk is not her favorite episode.

Ryan showed them a trailer for Theatricality and they were very excited.

The #1 song is still OMG.

The #1 movie is Shrek Forever After.

On May 25 the were performing in Chicago. They got a police escort to and from the theater. Kevin said he felt like the Obamas. He felt important. Jenna said it was legit. It was pretty crazy.

This was the time of Thomas the stanko private jet. It was like one of the small planes you take when you have a short connecting flight.

During the second tour on the Chicago stop they split into sprinter fans and someone always had to pee. Harry had to pee and they were stuck in traffic. Jenna thought he was going to pee his pants. He somehow made it. Jenna had to pee on the side of the road in Michigan. She said their was a lot of having to stop and pee durinig the tours.

Ryan clearly wanted Gaga. We got Idina Menzel in this episode.

There is no Jessalyn, Jayma, or Jane in this episode.

Poker Face is one of Kevin's favorite covers in the history of the show.

Will encourages the Glee club to express themselves using the music of Lady Gaga and Kiss. Meanwhile Rachel confronts her mom Shelby.

Jenna was so excited to do this episode. She was so happy. Jenna said she thinks Ryan knew how much she loved Lady Gaga. Ryan had really started to listen to the cast and what they wanted and loved.

Lady Gaga responded to this episode.

Tim Stack did a review for EW. He said tonight's Glee was definitely one of my favorite hours of the entire season. I had no idea it would so emotion or that i would be so emotional. Seriously how many of you gleeks shed major tears during Theatricality but the episode also had several shiver inducing performances and laughs. I think that is why it was so phenomenal. It does what Glee does best which is combining comedy, music, and emotional truths.

Lady Gaga said I love Glee. I love the cast and the creativity of the writers. I went to musical theater school and used to dream that someday the students would be singing my songs. She tweeted out glee was so amazing.

Kevin said this was before Jenna actually became friends with Lady Gaga. Jenna said this was foreshadowing. Kevin said Jenna would come home when they lived together and tell him stories about hanging out with Lady Gaga. He said why didn't you invite me on these trips. Jenna said it was the best. The highlight of her life. It was season two so they willk talk about it more later.

Tina is goth. Figgins thinks vampires are real and is afraid of them. Kevin says they are. Figgins is concerned that Tina's look is going to be an issue. Will defends her and says this how Tina expresses herself. This is where he gets his theme for the week. Mr. Schue has never planned out a plan ever.

Kevin asks Jenna to say the line about Twilight, "My parents won't even let me watch Twilight. My mom says she thinks Kristen Steward seems like a bitch." Kevin says its so good. Jenna said she got ptsd bringing Tina back into her mind. Kevin said you are welcome fo that and then thanked her for doing that for him.

Tina has to basically do nothing goth and wear a sweatshirt and no makeup. She said it was very wild to see her look like herself on screen. Ryan said no makeup for Jenna. So Jenna gets to set and Ryan said your wearing makeup and she said she wasn't wearing any. Kevin said it's that natural Korean glow. Jenna said it's that 23 year old face. Kevin said she's always had good skin. Jenna said this was fun for her because she took zero time in the makeup trailer and she got to wear comfy clothes but Tina looked so sad.

Mr. Schue comes up with the idea that they are going to do Gaga when Rachel spies on Vocal Adrenaline and finds out they are doing Gaga. He tries to use it to help Tina find a new look and way to express herself.

Kevin said the red lace costumes are absolutely diabolical. They are a singing group and you can't see their faces.

Sort of like Madonna when Schue pitches the Gaga thing to the club the boys except Kurt have a problem with it. Kurt says, "Lady Gaga as a woman is only the biggest pop act to come along in decades. She is boundary pushing. The most theatrically performer of our generation and she changes her look faster then Brit changes sexual partners."

This was another reason Artie and Kevin were not the same. Kevin wanted to do Gaga.

Finn goes to Mr. Schue and basically says this isn't fair and you haven't been listening to the guys. He lets them do Kiss.

Kevin said dressing up like Kiss was wild.

Naya and Kevin tried on each others outfits.

Jenna started having fittings for the bubble outfit pretty early on. When they first fit her in a nude leotard. They basically took measurements and sewed the bubbles on by hand. They were arylic bubbles in different sizes. Jenna thought it was so cool when she put on the outfit, wig, and shoes.

She thinks the first scene they did was when Tina gets pushes by Karofsky.

Jenna thinks it's just because she was walking down the hall it was making a bunch of noise. They asked her to walk less noisily. She starts to walk and a bubble rolls away. They had to sew them back on between takes. She had to hold her arms up to try to keep the bubbles from falling off.

In the choir room when Rachel comes in in her stuff animal outfit they call hold for sound and Jenna couldn't breathe because every time she breathed the bubbles would move against each other.

The dance numbers were a whole other thing. At the end when she was on the top riser you can see a ball roll down the stands. It's towards the end of the song. They probably couldn't find a take without a ball falling off and rolling off somewhere. She would yell out when a ball fell off to warn everyone so they wouldn't trip over it.

Kurt was Alexander McQueen. Tina's bubble dress was like something Gaga wore in Sydney.

Kevin texted Chris to ask him about the shoes. They made Kurt's shoes to look like the real Alexander McQueen shoes.

Chris left a message saying Lou made the heels. They used red high heels they got a drag shop. They were 10 inch heels. They put fabric around them to make them look like the Alexander McQueen shoes. He was walking around New Orleans when he left the message. They also go them a separate pair of what Chris called training heels so could walk in around so he didn't fall and break his ankle.

Quinn's dress is inspired by the orbit dress designed by Armanii that Gaga wore to the 2010 Grammys. The original dress is on display at Park MGM.

Jenna said Lady Gaga has had so many freaking looks it's wild. Cut to her wearing a black t-shirts at the Oscars. Mad respect. That is the boldest thing you can do.

Mercedes was wearing a dress inspired by the live performance of Poker Face. Brittany was inspired by the lobster hat designed by Phillip Tracy which is also at the MGM Grand. Heather did not like it. It was not fun or comfortable.

Santana was inspired by an outfit Gaga wore going out in Berlin.

Jenna said even when she would hang out with her and go to a bar she never knew what Gaga would be wearing. Usually it was a black dress and an oversized platform boot.

Bad Romance and Born This Way were so big for Glee.

Kevin asked Jenna if the girls had fun doing Bad Romance.

Jenna said they loved rehearsing together. Zach also loved working with them because most of them are dancers. They didn't have poor Cory having to ask which foot.

Jenna said being able to go into a recording studio in Hollywood and record Gaga songs felt like she was here. Jenna felt like she was in her element.

Jenna loves this song. She forgot how much she likes this song to just listen to on spotify. The costumes took that way for her.

The boys do Kiss to express themselves. This was one of the first time the boys minus Kurt has to wear full makeup and costume.

Kevin said he was happy and it was about damn time. The girls and Kurt were getting to have all the fun. He said he remembers the boots were so tall sitting in the wheelchair was sort of an issue because his knees were basically up to his chin.

He remembers recording the song and the only reason he knew who Kiss was because of his then boyfriend at the time who is Brazilian. Apparently Kiss is still big in Brazil. He didn't know what the song Beth was and his boyfriend being like are you kidding me it's one of the best songs.

It was fun to get to scream and shout. He loved getting to see everyone go crazy and getting to see Cory wail on the drums.

It was fun having the girls getting to cheer for them.

Kevin kept rolling his ankles when he walked in the Kiss platform boots.

Puck does Beth because he wants to name Quinn and his daughter Beth. Quinn wants to hear none of it. Puck said, "while Jackie Daniels is a great name for like a powerboat or something its not right for a baby girl."

Kevin says the best part is Tina gets to do an incredible scene. Tina figured out Figgins thinks vampires are real. Tina scares Figgins into letting her dress goth again or the vampires get him. They shot this at the end of the day. She got to wear really dark goth makeup and an awesome vintage cape. The vampire teeth were made like a flipper. Some guy came to her house to do a full impression and made her a porcelain set of fangs. She got to keep them but they don't fit anymore because she did Invisalign.

Ryan kept laughing in the middle of the take. Jenna said when he laughs like that you knew you were doing something right. Iqbal would come out from around the corner and say something different. It killed her and she would have to keep a straight face. It was so much fun.

Another thing going on in this episode is that Rachel goes to spy on Vocal Adrenaline. She sees Shelby do Funny Girl. It's kind of an ironic 360 moment. She did a beautiful job. It was fun to see Idina do an Broadway number.

She shows Shelby her sad Gaga outfit and Shelby gives Rachel her Paparazzi look.

Both Shelby and Rachel are like what do we do with this information. She tells Rachel it's too late for them to have a relationship. She gives Rachel a commemorative glass with a gold star on it.

Poker Face was kind an inappropriate song for the situation. It brings you back to the satire of the show. Jenna says it sounds so good and that makes it okay.

This balances out the serious stuff going on with Finn and Kurt.

Burt and Carole announce they are moving in together. The next scene they are living together. Kurt offers to redecorate and does it. He reveals it to Finn. It's crazy and absolutely psychotic. It's a bit much. Finn starts to crack as Kurt explains the room. He then goes on a tirade calling objects in the room the f word.

Burt bursts down the stairs and into the room. Finn and Burt have one of the greatest scenes. Burt goes in on Finn. He puts Finn in his place about what the word actually means. Finn tries to say he wasn't using it that way. Burt says I was like you. When I said that word I knew what it meant and you know what it means even if you aren't saying it to Kurt. Burt then kicks Finn out. He told Finn you can't live here. He is showing Kurt that he comes first. It's been several weeks of Kurt feeling threatened by Burt and Finn's relationship.

This is where we get to see the acting chops we love from Chris and Mike O'Malley. They tug at your heartstrings. It was done so beautifully. All three of them took such care in what they were saying how they were saying it. Jenna said these scenes really blow her away. She remembers Ryan commending Cory, Chris, and Mike for the work they did in that scene.

Kevin said it's not easy for someone like Cory who is the complete opposite of that scene to have to go in there and start shouting that stuff at your friends and coworkers. He said when you are in safe hands like Ryan's you feel supported. He wants you do what's right for the scene and Cory did that.

Mike O'Malley walking out and saying room looks great was so good. Kevin said it had to be an adlib. (I am pretty sure it was an adlib!)

Kurt keeps getting harassed for walking around the school in the Gaga outfit. Finn tells him to cut it out.

At the end of the episode Finn and Kurt are both missing from the choir room. Kurt is being harassed by the football players again. He stopped the from punching Kurt in the face. The rest of the Glee club rolls up to back Finn up.

Finn's outfit is inspired by an outfit designed by Kudo that Gaga wore when she met the Queen of England.

Tartie Takes:

Cringe Moments/Ouchies - Jenna said there weren't a lot of cringe moments in this episode. Kevin said he gets cringy when Puck is talking about keeping the baby and Quinn says no. Also some of the Rachel and Shelby stuff.

Best Dance Move - Bad Romance

Best Song - Kevin: Poker Face Jenna: Bad Romance

Best Prop - The bubbles

Best Line - Kevin: Burt's whole speech to Finn. Jenna: Nosferatu.

Shit We Found On TikTok:

Someone posted an edit of the opening to Six the musical where the girls introduce themselves with the Glee girls. It's so good and a beautiful edit. Kevin would now like to see it for real.

This episode was one of the most fun episodes.

Next week is Funk.

#and that's what you really missed #atwyrm #jenna ushkowitz #kevin mchale #theatricality #glee #podcast

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readreadbookblog · 1 year

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Books that I’ve Read

Here is all the new movies that I consumed in the year of 2022. I only put here the new items that I previously never have experienced before. Listed in the order that I saw them in. Lets hope that 2023’s list is greater.

Books

Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, DC by J.D. Dickey REVIEW

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata REVIEW

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown REVIEW

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson REVIEW

To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy REVIEW

The China Mission: George Marshall’s Unfinished War, 1945-1947 by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan REVIEW

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning REVIEW

A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don Winslow REVIEW

Nights of the Living Dead Anthology edited by Jonathan Maberry and George A. Romero REVIEW

Goosebumps Slappyworld The Dummy Meets the Mummy by R.L. Stine REVIEW

Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II by Robert Matzen REVIEW

The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800 by Conor Cruise O’Brien REVIEW

Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron REVIEW

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix REVIEW

63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read by Jess Ventura and Dick Russell REVIEW

Follow Me Down by Shelby Foote REVIEW

Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power by Garry Wills REVIEW

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham REVIEW

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson REVIEW

Trotsky in New York 1917 by Kenneth D. Ackerman REVIEW

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis REVIEW

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis REVIEW

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

The Burning Edge: Travels Through Irradiated Belarus by Arthur Chichester REVIEW

Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix REVIEW

Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long by Richard D. White Jr. REVIEW

Best Movie Year Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery REVIEW

Lost in a Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can Do for Us by Pete Etchells

Conquistadors by Michael Wood

Humanity: How Jimmy Carter Lost an Election and Transformed the Post-Presidency by Jordan Michael Smith

The Captured: A True Story of Abduction of Indians on the Texas Frontier by Scott Zesch REVIEW

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Pimp: The Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim REVIEW

1920: The Year That Made The Decade Roar by Eric Burns REVIEW

The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry by Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osborne REVIEW

Black Cop’s Kid: An Essay by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar REVIEW

The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell REVIEW

Maestro Mario: How Nintendo Transformed Videogame Music into an Art by Andrew Schartmann REVIEW

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan REVIEW

The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay REVIEW

#2022 #year in review #year in reading

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mdpthatsme · 2 years

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I was tagged by @mrs-mquve ♥

Rules: Tag 9 people you would like to know/catch up with.

Last song: ...I’m not sure, but Save Your Tears by The Weeknd has been in my head for the last week. Last movie: The Northman, I give it several negative stars in review. Currently watching: My cousin (xxmisswolf6767xx @twitch) play through The Quarry. Currently reading: Celestials: Stars Begin to Burn by Shelby Elizabeth Current obsession: lawtube streams

I tag...anyone that hasn’t played this yet.

#tag 9 meme #meme

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thegreaterlink · 2 years

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Reviewing Star Trek TNG - S4E1 "The Best of Both Worlds - Part 2"

PREVIOUSLY ON STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION...

...Just read my last review. Or watch the episode for yourself.

And now, the thrilling conclusion!

WHAT'S IN STORE IN SEASON 4?

...A few of the producers left…

…Jeri Taylor joined as a supervising producer and part of the writing crew… she co-created Voyager a few years later… I guess that’s kind of important…

Okay, how about I finally review this fucker?

MY REVIEW

"Mr Worf... fire."

The energy beam fires… and has no effect.

Four months of waiting well spent.

It turns out that assimilating Picard into Locutus added his knowledge and experience to the Borg's hive mind, so they know every possible move the crew is about to make. With the crippled Enterprise no longer posing a threat, the Borg continue on their course to Earth.

Admiral Hanson tries to reassure them that there's no way Picard is helping the Borg - despite significant evidence to the contrary - and gives Riker a field promotion to captain.

One of this episode's biggest strengths is its tension, since at the time audiences had no guarantee that Picard was going to make it out of this. It seemed entirely possible that Riker was going to take over as captain, with Shelby as his first officer.

Obviously said tension is now practically nonexistent with the knowledge that Picard went on to appear in four more seasons, four movies, an episode of Deep Space Nine and a three-season spinoff series with his name on it, but I digress.

Nevertheless, morale is running low throughout the entire ship, with the crew scrambling to repair the ship and find new means to combat the Borg and Riker feeling immense pressure to perform in a position he was unprepared for. Sensing that the crew is overwhelmed, Guinan comes to visit him, in an interesting parallel of the scene from part 1.

Guinan: When a man is convinced he's going to die tomorrow, he'll probably find a way to make it happen. The only one who can turn this around is you.

Riker: I'll do the best I can.

Guinan: You're going to have to do something you don't want to do. You have to let go of Picard.

To clarify, she means that they can't let the loss and influence of the captain hang over them, and that Riker has to let him go and be his own captain if he has any hope of defeating Locutus.

Before Riker can give it any more thought, the Enterprise arrives at the battle coordinates at Wolf 359.

Somewhere out there, Benjamin Sisko is incredibly pissed off at how his character arc has started.

More than forty ships, thousands of Starfleet personnel, destroyed in a matter of minutes by a single Borg cube. It gets even worse when we learn that one of these ships is the USS Melbourne, the very ship which Riker had been offered.

Riker seems to recover from the news pretty quickly (though it's more likely that he's just as horrified and hiding it for the sake of the crew) and orders them to move to intercept the Borg using Shelby's original plan of separating the Enterprise's saucer section. Picard may be expecting that (remember how Shelby had briefed him on it?) but Riker is counting on it.

Both halves of the ship fail to do any damage and evade any of the Borg's attacks. But that's not the point of the attack.

Riker had anticipated Locutus' reactions ahead of time. Earlier, he took Data and Worf aside to brief them on a special assignment. While the Borg are distracted by the two Enterprise sections, they fly a shuttle through the cube's electromagnetic field, allowing them to beam aboard and recover Locutus.

Don't you just love a happy reunion?

The saucer section may have been crippled, but with the threat seemingly being neutralised, the Borg continues on course to Earth, apparently being 100% fine that their incredibly high-value prisoner who was meant to act as the liaison between them and humanity has just been recaptured.

"You underestimate us if you believe this abduction is any concern."

Okay... I mean, I guess he wasn't exactly essential to the invasion.

"Oh shit... how much did I have to drink last night?"

Locutus says that he will do them no harm, and will continue to speak for the Borg as they continue on their course towards Earth.

And everyone is apparently okay with this? Having a Borg drone on board feels like a recipe for either disaster or wacky comedic hijinks. And they do deactivate him, but not before he gets a chance to talk shit about how he'll assimilate all of the crew.

They'd previously discovered that a series of subspace signals have been emanating between Locutus and the Borg cube, and theorise that these signals form the basis of the Borg's collective consciousness. Way back in Q Who, they witnessed that the Borg would self-destruct when separated from the hive mind, which would kill Picard, so their plan is to have Data connect his brain to Locutus' while Dr Crusher performs microsurgery to restore Picard's humanity.

Finally, some treknobabble that actually makes sense to me. Only took us four seasons.

Just as Data gains access to the Borg's neural net, Locutus realises what they're doing and tries to stop them. Data responds by removing Locutus' deely-bopper hand thing which all the Borg have for some reason, so now he just looks like he has his arm stuck in a high-tech Pringles tube.

They realise that the Borg are unable to sever their link to Picard, so Data attempts to implant a command in the Borg's consciousness to disarm their weapons.

Think of it like that Robot Chicken night crew sketch where getting one Borg to party convinced them all to party, except we're supposed to take this completely seriously.

I'll be honest, I was hoping for an ending that was a bit less... anticlimactic.

To the credit of Michael Piller (who wrote both parts), he probably realised this and tried to ramp up the tension by having Riker almost resort to setting the Enterprise on a collision course with the Borg cube, as well as the uncertainty of what will happen to Picard, but of course the Borg are disabled, the cube is destroyed, and Picard is returned to normal.

Riker: How much do you remember?

Picard: ...Everything. Including some brilliant strategy from a former First Officer of mine.

Hoo boy.

Even later, when Picard's implants have been removed, Shelby disembarks and Riker reaffirms his confidence in his own career path, we get the sense that he still hasn't entirely recovered.

Looks like someone's going to need some

Shore Leave Therapy!

7.5/10 - Not quite as strong as the first part, but still a worthy conclusion.

There. It's over. Now onto the rest of the season.

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