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praline-elegy · 3 months

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✿ This looks like fun! ✿

[Fandom game post here]

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

Seiji Katayama x Nicholas Cox (Fence)

Draco Malfoy x Harry Potter (HP)

If you want to read my Fence related answers, jump to letters: M N O R S T V or Z

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

Nastu Dragoneel x Gray Fullblaster (Fairytail) - I’m mainly a gruvia shipper BUT I came across this brilliantly written gratsu fic a few years back and it rewrote my brain chemistry entirely.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

I don’t like saying mean things.

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

Shinsou Hitoshi x Kaminari Denki (MHA) - Monoshin has my heart <3

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

I wrote about an established relationship where character A wanted to give character B a gift. A asks B’s bff what to give him. Bff tells A to give B a rock. A proceeds to spend the day meticulously picking out a rock to give to B. A later presents this perfectly picked out rock to B, and B loves this little gift. This story oddly resonated with a lot of people in my old fandom lol. Moral of the story? People love rocks. Give your friends rocks. They will love you.

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

About a decade? I started watching Pokémon for as long as I can remember (still love it!), but I fell out of the fandom when my parents stopped paying for cable.

G - Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? Who was in it?

Zutara. Zuko and Katara were everything to me. Fire and water? Their antagonistic relationship? There was so much tension there. It just made sense to me.

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

The first half of my life was dedicated to TV shows (when I had cable). The rest of my life is dedicated to printed material (books, manga, comics, etc).

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

No. I only joined this platform about two months ago. I haven’t come across any negativity on this side of tumblr.

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

Little Goody Two Shoes (indie game)

Temeraire (book? I think?)

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

Juvia Lockster or Flare Corona (both Fairytail)

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

Can’t think of a character I actively loathe or dislike at the top of my head.

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Sungchul Park (Fence) - He seems cocky and I like that.

Luna Lovegood (HP) - She’s just got the VibesTM you know?

N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Nicholas coming over to visit the Katayamas for winter (or summer!) break.

I want to get severe secondhand embarrassment from something that Nicholas does in front of Seiji. I want to fluster that boy so bad. I want him to feel so embarrassed he could melt into a puddle of liquified Cox. And after all of the chaos I want Seiji to find that Nicholas actually looks rather cute when he’s blushing and flustered :) I’m evil.

‼️ MORE ‼️ BLUSHING ‼️ NICHOLAS‼️

I also want to explore more of Nicholas’ (fandom assumed) fear of the dark.

Would love to see more of Nicholas being vulnerable around Seiji.

I want to see more of the Leventis/Levantis twins (I’m writing something myself, but still. Would love to see others interpretation of the boys)!

Nsfw-wise… I’d like to see more bottom or submissive Nicholas. I think fandom has mostly pegged him for a dominant top lol.

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Kiss Me - Sixpence None the Richer is how I envision Robert Coste and Nicholas’ mother’s relationship to be like in one of my unfinished pieces. An au where Nicholas doesn’t know who his father is and has a loving relationship with his mom.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

Needing to make dinner but the jar of sauce won’t open so character A visits their neighbor character B and asks for help in opening the jar.

Character A is staring at character B while walking down the sidewalk and accidentally walks into a light pole. A scurries away in embarrassment while B finds that kinda cute.

Accidentally blurting out a romantic confession whilst in the middle of an argument.

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’ve abandoned any fandoms, just outgrew them (show finished), left due to circumstances (no more cable or show on hiatus), or lack of inspiration to continue writing. It feels wrong to say “abandoned” because I still love these fandoms and would still go back to consume their content. I’m just not actively involved anymore.

Kuroko no Basuke. Miraculous Ladybug. Fairytail.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

The Leventis/Levantis twins (in my own personal interpretation of them). I have a sibling so I’ve mostly based their interactions on my own. The kind of relationship where you annoy each other but love each other fiercely.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

I think that Seiji would own a dog.

Also!! Headcanon that Seiji runs warm and Nicholas has wonky blood circulation which leads to wearing tank tops and shorts in the winter but hoodies and sweatpants in the summer.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Seiji is a dog person.

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Reese from Scarlet Hollow - I yearn for starving artists. And he likes horror movies? Score! He’s also a little shy but also very cute. 10/10 would romance again.

Sebastian from Stardew Valley - Quiet loner that enjoys tabletop games similar to D&D? And he rides a motorcycle? Brb swooning at his feet.

I can’t pick a favorite from Fence ;v; I love Nicholas but I also love Scott and Thomas and Sungchul and Nate aaaaaaaaa

V - Which character do you relate to most?

In Fence? Nate Spencer. I was originally going to say Nicholas but after further evaluation I realize that I am in fact Nate. The kind of person that brightens up the room but also tends to gravitate to one person in particular despite getting constantly ignored (Aiden sksks).

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

No happy ending. Hurt no comfort. Break-up fics.

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Enemies to lovers. Rivals to lovers. Sickfics. Inexperience (first kiss, first times). Not actually unrequited love. Secondhand embarrassment. Sex pollen/lust potion. Truth serum. Party games (i.e. truth or dare).

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

Call of Duty.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

I’m surprised by the lack of rarepairs in Fence. There’s so much potential with the amount of characters that have been introduced so far, but I guess I can see why. Nichoji are just so throughly entwined with each other it’s almost impossible to envision them with anybody else. Other than that, I would gander that there’s more interest in the main ships than exploring newer characters and even newer relationships. (I aim to change that though, a new rarepair is on the horizon!! Hopefully by Valentine’s day 👀💘)

I’m also rather surprised by how active this fandom is despite the small size of it. It’s nice and cozy here though and I like that.

This fandom is actually making me want to try drawing again. Just speaking out to the void here lol. I was pretty decent at drawing chibis when I was younger. Blushing Nicholas here I come… ✍️♥️✨

#fence comic #praline prattles #comments are appreciated!!

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welcometololaland · 7 months

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Because I suck at originality, I’m going to ask you your top 5 Disney movies in exchange for you making me suffer and pick books! You’re lucky ily 💜💜

oh no i'm sorry for causing you pain lmao! love you!! thanks for the ask!

so i don't watch disney that often, and i need to caveat this by saying i have not yet seen the new little mermaid and i desperately want to! so i'm going to answer this ask with my favourite 5 disney movies from childhood (because it's more unhinged). also, i haven't seen so many of the new disney movies incl. moana, frozen, encanto etc. i know i'm behind! i hope you don't mind!

1. the lion king 2: simba's pride (1998) - it's no coincidence that my favourite animal is a lion, and it wasn't until the lion king sequel that my obsession with big cats became fully realised. now, i hear you ask: 'lola? why would your favourite movie be a direct to video sequel?' WELL. my parents didn't watch a lot of tv when i was young, and we didn't get a vcr player until dvd's were just about to make them obsolete. but the one vcr i had was lion king 2 and i used to take it to my grandparents house like once a week and watch it. i watched it so many times the tape went funny. i could literally recite this movie, and i haven't watched it in YEARS. ALSO it doesn't have an elton john slapper but it does have: he lives in you, not one of us and that zira's lullaby which i can't get out of my head now. certified bangers. don't knock it 'til you try it.

2. the lion king (1994) - i don't know if i even have to explain this. the first seventeen times (approx.) i watched this movie i had to hide in the scary parts because it's so good but also i was probably like 4 and didn't understand that movies are the same every time you watch them. kickstarted the obsession with lions. scar's be prepared song is liked on my spotify.

[interlude for a controversial opinion: i don't like toy story. don't come for me.]

3. lady and the tramp (1955) - a classic movie for a dog lover (not JUST a cat lover, turns out i just love animals). i used to be completely obsessed with how cute lady was and i wanted a dog called lady SO BAD. the spaghetti scene is so iconic. lady's sidekicks are so funny. the pound puppies make me cry SOMEONE ADOPT THEM!!! this movie made my parents regret ever letting me borrow something from the video store because i wouldn't stop harassing them for a dog.

4. the incredibles (2004) - still fucking pissing myself at this movie like why did they make the mom have such a dump truck booty??? the dad is hilarious. the kids are lowkey annoying but i do like them. frozone is my favourite character: 'HONEY, WHERE IS MY SUPERSUIT??!'

5. the parent trap (1998) - lindsay fucking lohan made me want to get my ears pierced so bad and i only chickened out like five times before i finally got them done. this movie made me wanna be a twin. i kept giving my sister sideways looks and questioning whether we could pull it off (spoiler: we couldn't).

thanks for the ask, this was fun!!!

#nice ask day #lola answers #disney movies

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sarrie · 3 months

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Tagged by @ohbutwheresyourheart! Last song: Wild Horses - Bishop Briggs

Favorite color: I was the red-coded kid all my life lmao and that's still true! But I also love purple, and very specific shades of green, like Phthalo green and seafoam. Phthalo green looks so good with copper/brass I am definitely not planning our future kitchen with these colors in mind.

Last movie / Tv show: okAY SO LIKE. We don't really watch tv series so much - we don't have cable so we mostly watch like. a handful of youtubers we enjoy. That being said!! The last movie I watched was Fargo a few weeks ago, because I remember my mom loving it and finding it so funny (and fucked up) because we lived in Wisconsin for several years and The Accent (tm). As for TV show I dunno if it counts but I watched five himbos watch Attack on Titan on youtube (Studio Gek) because I remembered that series and while I Do Not want to support it in any way, I was curious how it ended/the plot.

Sweet/spicy/savory: Why would you pit three bad bitches against each other like this. I GUESS Sweet, because I would gnaw through drywall to acquire, like, ice cream. Or cakes. Story time: growing up I wasn't allowed to have candies because my parents were so worried about my teeth, so I was ONLY allowed to have chocolate. And my parents never really were into cooking/baking and fruit didn't make it into my diet a lot as a kid (too poor in areas where fruit was VERY seasonal, or was very expensive bc import) and I am now discovering the joys of fruit + sweets. Y'all i love blueberries so fucking much?? lmao. I will say I do love spicy food as well, though. And savory. But like. As a pasty ass redhead I got teased in Colorado a lot for not having a spice tolerance so I decided Fuck That and consumed so much spicy food lmaoooo.

Relationship status: In a relationship for six years. Also mentally rotating several blorbos.

Last thing I googled: 'Chipotle' and I haven't the slightest idea why. OH I was trying to sign into my rewards account lmAO. Before that it was 'Celiacs Diet' because I am waiting on bloodwork to tell me if I have celiacs lmao. (I also have a ton of auto immune symptoms that we're trying to pinpoint and I'm like it's this or lupus or something.)

Current obsession: Y'all I am DEEP. into Undertale right now. Which is hilarious to me. Nothing like rolling up almost ten years late to a fandom. Specifically I am obsessed with Gaster - a character that may or may not exist and is pretty much 100% fandom speculation at this point. Next to that I'm always on some Devil May Cry shit.

Last book: Going to be complETELY HONEST with you here and admit very lamely that it's been a minute since I've read and actual physical book and not, y'know, fanfiction. I do have a list of things I want to read, including my copy of Gideon the Ninth that is sitting on the coffee table. I think I'm afraid to commit because I know I'm going to read it in one sitting and order the rest immediately after. The last book I really remember sitting down and reading (that isn't reptile medical journals) is probably Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer. I saw the webtoon advertised a lot, read it, became obsessed, and devoured both books 1 and 2 from Market of Monsters.

Looking forward to: Y'all I have no idea lmao. I really want to try and bleach my hair platinum. We finally got a clutch of ball python eggs on the ground, which is exciting, and we're going to maybe try and buy a house? Hopefully?? Maybe??? Also I am tagging @faridahmalik and @stephanweaverofworlds and @kebbige if any of you would like. No pressure! :)

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 4 months

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Stand-up show I watched this week: Monty Python – Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982)

It’s weird that I’d never seen this before, as I grew up with Flying Circus and the Monty Python movies. In 2015, I went to the cinema with my parents to see the Monty Python reunion live. When I was a teenager and went to England for two weeks, I saw Spamalot live and loved it. I think I tend to gloss over Flying Circus when remembering the British TV shows I watched over and over as a kid, but that was definitely in there, as were Holy Grail and Life of Brian and Now for Something Completely Different. My dad wouldn’t let me watch The Meaning of Life because it was too sexual, so I watched I on my own when I was 19 and was surprised that this got banned, given the other shit my dad let me watch. I’m pretty sure it was the Every Sperm is Sacred song that made me dad not let me see it as a young kid, which I guess is reasonable, or would be if there weren’t dick jokes in at least every couple of Flying Circus sketches as well.

I re-watched Flying Circus and the four movies in 2020, and it struck me that as a kid, I remembered and repeated and recited the best bits. I hadn’t realized before that there is quite a lot of filler in Flying Circus, definitely not every sketch was funny. And there was a fair bit of “funny for the time” humour. Not even because of the stuff being offensive (I mean, there was some of that, but let’s not get into that right now), but because it was a much simpler form of humour that’s been taking so much farther and in so many other directions since then. Stuff that was funny because it hadn’t been done before in the early seventies. There are a few Flying Circus sketches that I’m pretty sure would bomb my local open mic nights. But there are also a lot that were still absolutely hilarious today.

I tried, while I was watching their Hollywood Bowl recording for the first time, to imagine what it would be like if someone did one of those sketches at a new act competition somewhere in 2023. Would the judges instantly recognize it as the greatest work of genius in a generation and be shocked that some ordinary person could do something so funny? Or would it place, like, third? Or would it do badly – not because comedy has gotten better since then, but because the type of comedy that’s in fashion has changed, so it’s not unfunny but it’s just not what judges (or fans) look for these days.

Obviously this hypothetical scenario would have to exist in a world where Monty Python never happened (because otherwise all the judges would just say “You’ve plagiarized this”). But I don’t know if we can imagine how that would go, because if Monty Python never happened, maybe large parts of the comedy industry as a whole would have developed differently, and Python-esque stuff that seems overdone would actually seem fresh in that hypothetical 2023, because all those Python influencees wouldn’t have made that stuff over and over again in the intervening years. Or maybe that’s buying way too much into the Python mythos, the idea that no one on Earth except for these six absolute geniuses could possibly have ever worked out that men in frumpy dresses look funny (again, let’s not get into whether the Pepper Pots are misogynistic and/or transphobic right now).

Anyway, all that aside, whether they’re good because they influenced a generation or whether they could also objectively hold up today even without the mythos and nostalgia (personally, I think lots of what they’ve made holds up great… but definitely not every single sketch holds up), I do have nostalgia from growing up on Python and I enjoyed nostalgically reliving some of that. From childhood hours spent memorizing all the cheeses in the cheese shop so I could recite that whole sketch, to the time I took a philosophy course in university would sing the drunk Philosopher’s Song to myself and giggle during exams.

Incidentally, I recall thinking, when I was a kid, that the fact that they make lowbrow jokes about highbrow things like philosophy means they’re geniuses who are great intellectuals as well as comedians. Now, I see their sketches about philosophers the same way I see Bo Burnham’s poetry about William Shakespeare. It sounds like students learned some basic stuff in English class and then wrote a thing to make fun of it. The Pythons probably know exactly as much about ancient philosophers as I knew from that one university course I took that one time. But it’s still funny. Writing silly songs to puncture the importance of the highbrow stuff you’re taught in school is always funny.

During the Hollywood Bowl show, Graham Champman kept saying “skit”, which I found funny, because surely American audience members who have gone to a Monty Python show know what a sketch is. Or at least could work it out from context.

It’s especially funny because they picked that as the only British thing to translate into American for their audience, and that’s definitely not their most opaquely British thing. They did the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, which requires understanding of what regional accents means. When I was a kid, watching the Four Yorkshiremen sketch was actually the first time I learned about the concept of British regional accents. I remember watching it with my dad and he asked me if I noticed their voices were different, which of course I didn’t, because I didn’t learn to recognize Northern English accents until 2021. But my dad told me they were putting on accents from the North of England, and it’s funny because people from the North of England are more likely to be poor, so then when they grow up, they may talk about how poor they were, but exaggerate the extent of it. And from thence the humour arose.

(Let’s also not get into whether there’s something classist in a group of extremely successful people writing a sketch about how weird it is that all those Northerners reminisce about difficult childhoods, rather than reminiscing about growing up in private school and Oxbridge the way normal people do. But fun fact: The Four Yorkshireman sketch was inspired by a short story by Canadian writer Stephen Leacock. So I guess it isn’t entirely a British story that Americans cannot understand, because socioeconomic inequality exists everywhere, and exaggeration that escalates into absurdity is funny. Fun fact: My dad went to a school called Stephen Leacock Institute when he was a kid.)

It's also interesting to see Monty Python with a live audience, which I’d rarely seen before. A bit weird and at times annoying, the frequency with which they’d whoop and cheer. But I also find that interesting, just as a bit of history. Seeing how wild American crowds went for Monty Python in 1982. It’s interesting to see that Python was so big they transcended the rule that music fans want to hear the old stuff when they go to gigs, but comedy fans want to hear the new stuff. Monty Python wasn’t making new stuff at the time, but if they were, and had done it instead of their classics, I’m pretty sure this crowd would not have liked that. They were very happy to see the classics.

Oh! Here’s another thing I realized while watching it. I have seen that argument sketch so many times, it was one of my favourites when I was young. As kids, my brother and I used to recite it to each other. We’d get into real arguments that would devolve into quoting those characters. But in all that time, I never realized until today that the customer was right. This has nothing to do with comedy analysis or whatever, I’d just missed that part of the sketch before. I’d thought it was a story where a customer tries to get extra time for which he didn’t pay, when John Cleese says his time is up and he argues that it hasn’t been five minutes. But I realized on this watch that it hadn’t. I don’t think the whole sketch lasts five minutes, the argument certainly doesn’t. John Cleese is, in fact, scamming the customer by saying it’s been five minutes and he has to pay again.

So that's my main takeaway from that show. Americans in 1982 went really wild for Monty Python, and John Cleese was scamming the customer in the argument sketch. I've downloaded their 1998 live show too, I'll probably watch that soon and I'll let you all know if I learn anything else important.

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ellcrys · 2 months

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15 questions

Tagged by @itstimetodrew~!! Thanks for the tag!! ☺️

1. Are you named after anyone?

No, I don't think so! I think my parents just went through the list of baby names for girls and settled on Joanna lol.

2. When was the last time you cried?

Uhh... I teared up watching one of the episodes of Blue Eye Samurai a couple days ago but the last time I Cried was on my flight back to Boston last Friday rewatching episode three of The Last of Us lmaoo. (I was like SURELY I won't cry on my nth rewatch... #rip to me)

3. Do you have kids?

*Puts on my meme hat* What am I a child bride?

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

Swimming and soccer growing up. I did ballet for like a year or two also when I was like 5. Since graduating college I haven't really done any sports, just working out at the gym pre-pandemic and then at home since the pandemic, although one of my friends is trying to start a pickup soccer group which I'll probs join if it takes off. Do want to get back into swimming again also. That's on my 2024 todo list. I've tried running as a hobby enough times to know that I suck at it and that I hate it lmao.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Does anyone not? lol

6. What is the first thing you notice about people?

Hmm, probably their outfit; I enjoy seeing people's different styles!

7. What's your eye color?

Brown <3

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings!!

9. Any talents?

Ugh, no?? I can't think of anything lol. Being a procrastinator and the ultimate lazy bum (only half joking). idk man, I used to be proud of my writing and amv skills but I haven't seriously tried to write anything in probably a decade and I don't think I'm ever getting back into making amvs lol. Letting things go/being resilient maybe? I'm at the point in my life where everything is just 'it is what it is', but I think I've always been good at moving on from things tbh. Life's too short to dwell.

10. Where were you born?

Wisconsin of all states lol

11. What are your hobbies?

Nothing creative anymore, that's for sure (#rip). Uh, I love going out and doing things. I'm the furthest thing from a homebody so being trapped at home during the pandemic drove me nuts. Things I do on the regular include visiting independent bookstores, art museums, and seeing shows. I try to travel/see someplace new on the regular, whether that's going out of state/country or walking through a new neighborhood in the Boston area. I love eating, definitely a foodie. I read a lot (more fanfic than actual lit these days whoops) and watch a lot of tv. I also enjoy just walking around and people watching (will frequently walk around the neighborhood/city without any real purpose in mind as I go crazy if I'm cooped up in my apt for too long). I also love sending snail mail and exchange postcards monthly with a friend in London, and send holiday cards/postcards to family/friends when I travel. I guess documenting my interests on Tumblr can also be considered a hobby considering how much time I spend on here lmao.

12. Do you have any pets?

No, but I plan to adopt a cat when I (hopefully) get my own place!

13. How tall are you?

5'4" :')

I'd love another two inches... just two measly inches :')))

14. Favorite subject in school?

Growing up, probably math. I was good at it, and I loved how logical it was. I also really enjoyed chem, probably because it was the most math adjacent science (hilariously though, I hated physics). In college obviously computer science, my major. Though I've always loved my literature classes also.

15. Dream job?

Man I'd love to open and own an independent bookstore/cafe. Dream job for real.

Tagging (if you want!) @lordsardine, @goldshitter, @akechikurusus, @popflythesky, and anyone else who wants to do this!

#this was fun and it's been a while since i've done one of these so thank you for the tag!#only two weeks late lol #tagged

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ultrahpfan5blog · 10 months

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The Flash - a fun but very messy movie...

This film has had a comically long path to release. I remember that The Flash movie was announced shortly after the The Flash tv show had launched in 2014. Its pretty hilarious that The Flash show run ended a month ago after 9 seasons and 180+ episodes, and the movie has only just released. Gives an idea to the amount of issues in the DCEU and for this movie. With all the controversy surrounding Ezra Miller, as well as the extraordinary reactions by the film, calling it one of the greatest superhero films of all time, I was curious to see this. Having seen it, the film's reactions were clearly spin on behalf of DC and WB to mitigate the damage from the Ezra Miller debacle. Judging by the BO reports, it didn't work. And frankly, the film isn't anywhere in the vicinity of the top superhero films. Its not even in my top 5 DCEU movies, let alone DC movies and superhero movies in general. What it is, is a pretty funny movie, with some good performances, but a very messy execution.

The film feels very frantic, a bit like the main character. There is a lot crammed into this movie. It can get a little confusing, the way they talk about time travel and multiverse at rapid pace. As a big comic book fan, I was able to keep up, but I have to believe that a layman might just get lost in the process. I do like the concept of the chronobowl and I like that the film has a new way of explaining the multiverse. The movie's biggest plus is that the humor genuinely works. This is a generally pretty funny movie. There are a lot of laughs spread out throughout the movie. And credit to where its due, Ezra Miller is actually quite good in this film. Its a very Ezra Miller performance. All of his nervous ticks are there, but he is playing opposite himself for a vast majority of the film and he's actually quite good in both roles. The older version is actually a more toned down version of Barry that we saw in JL/ZSJL. The younger version is initially very annoying but that is sort of the point, but Miller does a good job of bringing out the innate goodness of the character. There are definitely some cool moments of action, a lot of them coming from Keaton's Batman. It is fun to watch that version of Batman kick some serious ass. Supergirl is also quite badass, if a bit underdeveloped. The visuals of Flash running, with the lightning, is pretty neat. The movie also manages to deliver a Flash origin story without needing to do an origin story. There are also a few emotional moments towards the end of the movie that really click. There is one scene in particular between Barry and his mother, which is quite emotional.

However, like I mentioned, the film is very messy. The VFX work on a lot of the movie is very substandard. I don't really care for the explanation that Muschietti gave. It sounds like a lame excuse, but if it was a choice, it was a bad choice, because it took me out of the scene quite a bit. The film also isn't focused. The emotional core of the film is Barry and him dealing with the tragedy of his past, but the film doesn't focus on it enough. As a result, the film never has the emotional punch that it should. As someone who watched 9 seasons of The Flash tv show, that was one aspect that they actually nailed. There are moments like that, such as when older Barry vents his frustration on younger Barry about how he takes things for granted, or the above mentioned scene with Barry and his mother. There just isn't enough of it though. The film does feel more interested in handing out nostalgia. While it is great to see Keaton's Batman, he doesn't really serve a purpose outside of being an element of nostalgia. They kind of do a surface level bonding of Bruce bonding with Barry over the loss of his parents, but they never dig into it. Keaton's appearance is just there to delight fans, so we get to see the Batmobile, the OG style suit, the Batwing etc... without adding up to anything specific. They also made him fairly pointless in the final fight because he isn't really able to do anything. Additionally, despite being 70+, his Batman is treated as if he is still at his prime, which felt like a missed opportunity. Supergirl also is an underdeveloped character. It feels like an interest arc is basically snipped into a few scenes for her. It is also difficult to buy her adjusting to her powers so fast, when we saw how difficult it was for Zod. Also, the film kind of brushes over the explanation as to why Zod wants Kara. When it comes to Barry, it does have that very emotional climax with the two Barry's and the old Barry, and then Barry changing the past to let his mother die, but then it also undoes the lesson a bit by changing the history enough to his father goes free, despite the explanation of every change leading to a different timeline.

The film does feel like its coming apart in the climax. The film throws a bunch of cameos at the screen, none of it really works. It got me wondering about who this film is targeted at. The core audience group for CBM movies is under 30, but the cameos in this movie, like Christopher Reeve and Helen Slater, Nic Cage as Superman, George Clooney as Batman, and even Keaton as Batman, are things that only people well over 30 would really recognize and have nostalgia for. Keaton Batman movies are over 30 years old, and even Clooney's Batman movie is 26 years old. I felt that lack of recognition and a general WTF feeling in my audience. I am one of those who is a true CBM follower, so I recognized the call backs but I can't say that most did. I did grin at the Clooney cameo but that one felt like it was almost a joke from the makers, that they know there won't be another movie in this continuity.

The performances are solid. Whatever you may think of Ezra Miller or his version of the character, he delivers a good performance of his version of Barry Allen. Keaton is clearly having a blast on his return and he does go above and beyond what the role would have required. Despite a shortchanged role, Sasha Calle makes an impression. Ben Affleck has one excellent scene which again brings up regrets as to how he was never properly used. It was nice to see Jeremy Irons briefly back again as Alfred, again a case of great casting that got wasted. It may be our last looks at Affleck, Gadot, Miller, and Irons in these roles. Not sure whether Affleck and Gadot have guest appearances in Aquaman 2. Ron Livingston and Maribel Verdu are appealing as Barry's parents. Shannon pops up in the climax as Zod. Doesn't really have enough of a role to make an impression. I think Andy Muschietti does a decent job directing the film. I do film the film needed to either prune some subplots, like the Zod and Kara angle, or it needed to be longer so it could deepen the Barry storyline and give Keaton's Batman more purpose apart from just being there for nostalgia bait. All in all, enjoyable, but overhyped and definitely quite flawed. A 6.5/10.

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monkeydluffy19920 · 2 years

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Review: One Piece tv special 3

That cursed corona stroke on May so decided to spend time watching old One Piece specials and movies for the nostalgia whenever there was energy for that and did scribble a few reviews for fun (i.e: here is quick review for Movie 6) and then left them to the draft pile to wait the queue and here we are, me babbling randomness :D Might contain spoilers and probably will end up being a long post by the way:p

It was written in OP fan Wiki that Oda-sensei was not involved in these older tv- specials or films (he has been active part of production since Movie 10, Strong World). According to this, these specials and Movies until 7 are considered as non-canon since these have individual plots and these happenings haven’t been mentioned in manga (except Movie 9 and 8 which were adaptations of Drum Island and Alabasta) although some of the movies could be placed in the canon timeline, basically.

One of the main reasons why this is one of my favorite from older specials is the humor. One Piece has always had good sense of humor and silly running gags but it felt like there was a bit more of that in pre-timeskip era. Well of course there is lots of going on constantly and I understand that Oda-sensei can’t put everything in these panes so something must be decreased and now it’s the humor part.

Of course there are still classical jokes but somehow it feels that there are not as many old shenanigans like in old days and things have become more serious after Time skip but anyway, back to the humor part. What I really love especially in this tv special is that everyone gets their share of it (instead of focusing on joking with one person only). First we have this part where Chopper gets frustrated when no one replies him what “theater play” means and he goes to his human form and then Zoro needs to calm him down like a old brother.

Then just a few moments later the dork trio casually rushes into the theater and of course pick the “forbidden door” (which is even more amusing that Usopp is actually leading them there instead of Luffy who usually is the “head dork”) and then there are Nami and Sanji who try to keep on track like they were parents or supervisors of those 3 kid hearted bois *laughs*

Nami negotiates with the local staff so that each Straw Hats who wants gets a role in the play (Zoro wants to stay out and is the one who rotates the thingy that rotates the stage) and as expected, things don’t go as expected. Maybe the most memorable part of the special is the actual act and it’s because it’s hilarious.

First there is Usopp who did get one line in the beginning but wanted more so he kept hopping on that stage with various roles. Who knows he might feel home on stage by the way because he has been a storyteller ever since his youth and he delivers them full hearted so the sniper could indeed excel at that work if he only got the chance.

What I find cute is that even a character that is supposed to be serious and stuff like Robin is also thrown into the pit of comedy. Robin is known for her dark humor but this running gag has become more popular after Time Skip and this special aired somewhere around Skypiea arc so her comedic side wasn’t revealed much in earlier arcs if I remember correctly.

So, out of the blue she threw a musical performance in stage and Nami’s comment summed up it well since everyone went like "wtf” (because honestly, I don’t think anyone expected to see her doing that).

One small detail I also liked in this tv special was Sanji’s entrance to the stage. Hard to describe but it was just cute to see such a confident appearing guy having a stage fright. They got those roles literally in a short time so no one would expect they’d do professional performances so his reaction was very human too and therefore relatable (because let’s face it, not many people enjoy speaking in front of a huge audience).

Despite the cheat note he couldn’t stay in his role (a pirate attacking the princess that was played by Nami) aand after that the rest of the play (or should we say remains of it) is history.

So, everyone goes solo (princess gets suddenly shot, Usopp bouncing around, Sanji being mad about Nami getting shot although he was supposed to be the bad guy, Robin keeps singing and leaves when she realizes it’s not a musical etc).

What makes this whole ruckus even funnier is that on of that Luffy comes around with a random monkey costume (which fits him incredible well xD) and when he is asked what is he doing Luffy simply replies “oh I just found it lying around so...” and keeps going which pisses Nami off who was prepared to go according to the script instead of all this chaos their improvising caused.

I think their dialogue they went summed up nicely the comedic side of Luffy’s nakamaships: Everyone knows that Luffy can be the most random dude ever but he still manages to surprise his crew mates with new shenanigans and his crew can’t stop or help his randomness. This is one reason to love Luffy’s character and his chemistry towards his crew in general.

So, Luffy monkeys around, manages to accidentally make a little crash on stage which Zoro (the stage master) misreads as a signal to turn the thingy around and the chaos keeps going but the audience is having loads of fun (meanwhile the Marines are arriving).

Later the Strawhats learn that Rudolph, one of the actors is a retired Marine and having a sad past with pirates which causes him to go face to face with Luffy once he finds out who these new theatre “assistants” are.

Btw, must say that another reason I like the old specials is the animation because it looks hand-drawn instead of animating everything with fancy 3D stuff and don’t get me wrong, I like animation too but there is just something more nostalgic feeling in these non 3D-frames.

So the play is now on the pause and their little battle is interrupted because the actual bad guy is arriving. He is Randolph’s old Navy underling, nowadays a commander (named Governor) who is extremely salty for their shared past and wants to ruin ex Navy’s farewell performance and gets him arrested like he was arrested back then.

Luffy somehow randomly pops up to this Governor’s ship and wants to help Randolph (and for everyone’s suprise, he is not carrying him like a sack of potatoes like he does most of the time) and this makes this bad Navy guy angry.

Luffy orders Randolph to keep on playing the play while Luffy and his crew protects them which is a nice gesture and hereby teaches traumatized Randolph that there are good pirates too (just like Nami mentioned before that she could relate on Randolph disliking the pirates back in the days).

This battle was again one good example of their teamwork. Sanji and Zoro in separate boats battling the canon balls then Robin, Luffy and Chopper helping with the rest and Nami being in the watch tower and helping Usopp to aim with the right canons but they also fight individually at times.

One reason this Tv special’s Navy boss is extremely annoying is that he is basically just a zero with big talks. Usually bad guys (navy leaders and pirate leaders) are known of having some sort of notorious skills (like devil’s fruits or battling like mad) or they are badass just in general.

However, as said earlier, Governor is just a salty guy who keeps on repeating himself but on top of that his army credits are questionable. Seriously being a navy leader and he didn’t even bother to check out whether Luffy was considered a a threat or not (and by that time Luffy already had a bounty).

Frankly spoken, how he did even manage to rise in such a high rank?. It was just a good thing the rest of this Navy group finally realized what was going on and had the bravery to dump their commander. If someone, that guy deserved it.

That bad guy was so actually bad neither the hand writers or the animation crew wanted to waste time or frames on a grand finale (a 1 vs 1 boss fight) so Luffy simply sends him flying once and so the day is saved and Rudolph’s ending speech makes his retirement even more epic.

So all in all, the plot of this Tv special isn’t superior and the main villain is definitely one of the worst ones in OP history but despite that, this Tv special has a place in my heart because it’s one of the funniest specials and reminds of the good old humor most of us fans miss ever since Time Skip :)

#one piece #review #tv special 3 #luffy #zoro #nami #usopp #sanji #chopper #robin #nakama #long post #Protect! The Last Great Performance

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imarawbu · 2 months

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Loneliness is becoming very bad right now and I made the mistake of watching a 90s movie today so I triggered a bunch of memories of my ex husband. The reason why this is a trigger is he used to make me watch a lot of 90s and early 00s movies, that's literally all we did together, especially after the divorce.

I remember I was feeling bad because that guy I mentioned, let's just call him F instead of the "guy whose mom I'm friends with," was clearly not interested in me and I was very stressed by my classes and ended up dropping two. I went to him and we "hung out" during the day, a lot. I realized after a week the mistake I made. His parents knew and wanted him to invite me more for dinners and such. His dad changed the oil on my car. Maybe they thought I'd get back together with him... I was always told I was always welcome in their house. Ironically these few times are the last times I have ever seen them in person. 4 months later I cut him off and I sent a nice text to my former mil that I appreciated her kindness to me. Anyways during the marriage he had us watch more recently released movies because he was pirating them or we'd watch Hulu when he got caught for torrenting. To me it was just hilarious how someone could be so dumb to almost get sued for pirating lol.

Since I can't talk to anyone and can only post anonymously or basically not at all everything is so much more suffocating. There's literally nothing I get much joy out of anymore. I know I have a severe entertainment addiction, which basically I need to have something to entertain me when I'm awake, whether that's watching/listening to the TV, on the phone, or playing computer games (a new thing actually). I can't sit without playing something, doing something, watching something.

I was never into social media much until my marriage with my ex husband, then I was on all the time for hours and it's only gotten worse. Before that I used the Internet to research and learn stuff, which I do still do but it's confined to social media. I'd spend days researching all over the Internet whatever I found interesting until I was basically an expert on it and got bored. My grades of course suffered as a result but I always say I learned what I learned in spite of school and not because of it. As I am a walking encyclopedia to the extreme lol, I memorize everything I read. I don't really blame myself school was unbearable for me because of my social awkwardness and bullying but it was worse from my mother at home and by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was distract myself from the horror of my life. Most of my teenage years are a blur as I had severe dissociation problems back then. When you are basically on a dissociative autopilot most of the day, you have no energy for homework and have to do something to keep yourself from trying to kill yourself. If I'd grown up in a nice, nurturing, caring environment, I would have probably graduated high school before I was a teenager. Instead I'm a 25 year old with no degree, with a kid, who's been through two abusive marriages and homeless if she leaves the abusive marriage now.

Anyways back to the entertainment addiction, it started with books, I got bored in school in elementary school and would read under the desk, this did somewhat continue until high school the books just got bigger to hide under the desk so I had to try other things to not go crazy sitting at the desk. I still wish I was into books the way I was back then. Once I started reading on a Kindle in high school, it wasn't long till I started doing everything on screens.

It's just difficult to see how things have changed the past several years and how I have changed. I was a completely different person before I got married, some changes were good but most were me trying to change myself to fit what I thought the ideal wife was like, which in this case is the woman who F married. And I succeeded. My home decoration is better, I cook better, my home is cleaner and better organized, and my daughter isn't addicted to TV, is cuter, and 20x smarter. Lol I only failed in the skinny department.

I was much more geekier back then, wanted to become a doctor, was always reading research papers, etc. before my previous marriage I was also completely different but most of that was from converting to Islam. I do think back into what life would be like now if my ex had cleaned his life up and grew up like everyone was trying to get him to do. I'd have been married to him for seven years at the end of this year. Wow. I would have been at his brother's wedding celebration that happened at the end of last month and at their nikah in 2022- we'd actually share a pretty close wedding anniversary.

I mean we'd have been very poor, I'd be working retail and he'd be working retail, we'd probably be living at his parents. If he was the person who I originally met when I was sneaking around and before he got off of meds, things would have been probably ok in marriage life. But yeah he was an abusive and crazy piece of shit so too bad. Now he's 37 years old, living with his parents who are in their late 60s now, and probably can't take care of him much anymore. He can't hold a job for more than a few weeks. His health has probably caught up with him, he was a heavy smoker, never took his contacts out, eats junk food like crazy because he smokes weed all the time.... Anyways I don't care. Probably the only good thing he did in his life was somehow being a part of helping someone become a Muslim.

I just wish there was somewhere I could go something I could do to erase those years and go back and start over. At 25, I already feel too old, since my first marriage I've always felt 20 years older than my age, before that it was more like 5. It's impossible to relate to people, especially those my age.

It's becoming very clear that I am quickly falling into depression. Which makes sense when Im on burn out all the time, overworked, unsupported, have no one to talk to, and now also physically sick and no where close to getting better.

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valerie · 7 months

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TWITL - week 40 - middle of fall break

It's day 5 of my long weekend aka the last day of my long weekend. I've been off since Thursday because I wanted to be home on Thursday to watch the New Zealand play Uruguay in their last match of group stage in the Rugby World Cup. The All Blacks won 73-0. SWEET! Now it's on to the quarter finals, where they will face Ireland. Yikes! I think I'm pretty much cheering for the southern hemisphere teams at this point but most especially for the All Blacks. Of course. https://flic.kr/p/2p7DaAg cheering on the All Blacks LUNCH WITH THE FESTIVAL CREW https://flic.kr/p/2p8cA9a Festival Crew - October 7th (photos by HP) Saturday afternoon, we headed out to Livermore so that I could meet up with some of my friends from my movie theatre working days. Decades ago, we all worked together at a place called Festival Cinemas in Hayward. The theatre is long gone but we're all still around and whenever we get the chance, we meet up for a meal and conversation together. (Thank you, Sam!) It's always so lovely to see old friends and catch up. Social media only tells a little of our stories, eh? I look at our faces in these pictures and I still see how we looked back in our uniforms, behind the concessions stand or sweeping up in the auditoriums. I'm thankful that we all see each other now and again. We met up at Sauced. The food was good but it was pretty loud there. We all sort of had to yell a bit to talk but it was still fun! My food was delicious and everyone seemed to enjoy their choices for the most part. Later on, I realized that I was the only one without kids. They're all parents. Hmm... https://flic.kr/p/2p7QoKT I'm pretty sure no one knew I was taking this shot... TV & MOVIES Ahsoka - I liked this show well enough but if I hadn't watched all those recap videos on YouTube, I would have been a little confused. I think the show suffers from drawing much too much from previous shows (Rebels and Clone Wars), which is great for those folks who watched those shows but not so great for casual viewers. I think a show or a movie, no matter how connected it might be to a larger story, should be a good story in of itself. For me, Ahsoka missed on that mark. And the way it ended made it seem as though the season was just an in between moment, part of a larger whole. Do I care what happens next? I don't know if there was enough in the show for me to answer yes... Loki - I am so glad this show is back. I hope this show sticks to the character moments and twisty plot points like the first season. The first episode of the second season was good! It was exciting and funny and had me on the edge of my seat. I cannot wait to see what happens next! Strays - This movie was silly but hilarious. It's fun watching dogs talk and go on crazy adventures... https://flic.kr/p/2p7goMP the work desk companions in vacation mode... SOCIAL MEDIA Honestly, I will only slightly mourn the final demise of Twitter (@walelia). I am staying there until the bitter end but most of my posts are Wordle or telling people where else you can find me. :P I don't post much else there and I don't spend a lot of time there either. I don't see a lot of the weird crap that is apparently there because I have fine tuned my feed and no one cares enough to try and antagonize me. I do, however, see things from a few people I follow that just make me sad. So how am I faring on the three new networks I'm using? Read on... Threads (@kiari) - I do like how this one is tied to my IG account. Of the three that I'm using (mostly) daily, this one is the one that has more people I care about following. A lot of the YouTube tech folks I follow seem to use Threads more than the other two I'm checking out and it's fun to get replies or likes when commenting on their posts. Threads is honestly pretty chill though there are those folks who think they need to tell their followers about what's going in the world as though they're not smart enough to look elsewhere for that stuff. I do want Threads to succeed and even if it doesn't, I think I will keep using it. Spoutible (@valerie) - Honestly, this one is the most stable of the three I'm using. The people there have started to chill out a little and there's more balance. I follow a good group of people of differing backgrounds but similar viewpoints. They are the most "real" and it honestly feels like the early days of social media networks-- people finding connection in their differences and exploring new perspectives. The folks behind the scenes are working constantly on new features and rolling them out when stable. I think Spoutible is a sleeper in the new social media realm. Also, how can I not love a place where I get to use my actual name as my handle? Bluesky (@kiari.com) - This one feels the most Twitter-cloney. I don't say that as a bad thing and it could even be a good thing except they are suffering from a super slow rollout to users. I try and look for users to follow but when I try the "discover" or "popular with friends" feeds, they end up being mostly posts of people I already follow! I was so excited to get my invite that I just started using it but it's a little boring. I put in the effort because that's what I like to do-- I like to try new things. Things that make my eyes roll when reading at different socials about other socials: - "Is anyone using this?" - This is a familiar refrain on Threads. Why are you posting on Threads yet asking if anyone is using it? YOU ARE USING IT by posting! Lord. - "The other platforms aren't as good as this one..." - Or something of the like. This one seems to happen regularly on Spoutible. I roll my eyes and refrain from saying, "Just focus on this social network and don't worry about the others. They can all exist together." - "The place formerly known as Twitter is a cesspool and using it means you're supporting EVIL." This one happens everywhere. People post thought essays with this thesis and I just shake my head. If you don't want to post on Twitter, then don't. But just because people still post there doesn't mean they're supporting evil, etc. STFU on that. - "All these social networks needs to support real time news." No they don't, people on Threads who keep belaboring this point. Social networks are supposed to be about people. If WE want to share news, then let's post a link to a legitimate news site. But I don't need my social media to be constant news. There are other networks for that AND legitimate news sites. If those news sites want to have profiles on the different social networks, that's on them but I should have a choice on whether or not to follow them. https://flic.kr/p/2p8bRmw As mentioned at the top, today is my last day of a long weekend. I got up early, got ready, and was on the road to Kaiser to get my COVID and flu shots of the season. I was at the right place before 8:45 AM and waited along with mostly older folks. It was funny listening to a couple of those older folks: Older man: Is this where I get my COVID and flu shot? Staff member: No, you'll line up over there. Older man: Over where? Staff member: Over there. OM: So I get my shots over there? SM: Yes. OM: So what is this place? SM: This is adult injection. OM: So I get my COVID and flu shot here? SM: No, you get in line over there. OM: So what what is this place? I thought I had to check in here. SM: No, you don't have to check in here. You wait in line over there. This is where you get other shots. OM: I want my COVID and flu shot. SM: You'll wait in line over there. OM: The sign says COVID and flu shots here. SM: Yes, over there. Or something like that. It was excruciating to hear and amusing too. The staff member was SUPER PATIENT and I thought, "Damn, I don't know that I would have that much patience!" I ended up sixth in line for my shots. They took three people in at a time and OMG, I had to listen to the nurse tell the patient in her chair that they only have Pfizer, they don't have Moderna yet. The patient had only ever gotten Moderna before and must have asked the nurse if she should take the Pzifer. The nurse told her that she couldn't make the decision for her, that she could only tell her that they had no Moderna. The patient ended up getting the Pfizer. When it was my turn, I had my card in hand, answered her questions, then had to wait for her to get the vials. It was over soon after and I walked out to a line longer than when I got there. I was so glad to get it done! https://flic.kr/p/2p87nwC I drove back to Brentwood and ended up at Mabuhay to order the longsilog and pork adobe plate. I had to wait for the longsilog! But I didn't care since I didn't have anything else to do. I went down a few shops and bought some Starbread as well. I actually had my longsilog for breakfast as opposed to dinner, like I usually do. Breakfast for breakfast, what a concept! ;) I only have to work three days this week so I'm not too sad about my long weekend ending. Hopefully the work days pass peacefully enough. Maybe I'll watch a movie on Friday... https://flic.kr/p/2p8b1fL I'll end this here. Get your shots when you can! Let yourself feel those little moments of joy. :) Read the full article

#COVID-19 #FestivalCrew #movies #socialmedia #tv

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existentialterror · 3 years

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I regret to inform my followers that I've fallen headlong into Dream SMP lately, and it’s one of the wildest media experiences I’ve ever had. Some of it reminds me very much of the SCP Foundation experience.

It previously existed in my consciousness as "that fandom that shows up on my dash as either a very weird textpost, or fanart that's 50/50 about Dream SMP or Homestuck." The actual media delivers on inexplicability. I think of it as the Untitled Goose of fiction, because every aspect of it radiates chaos and it causes problems everywhere it goes.

In brief: The Dream SMP is a private multiplayer Minecraft server. A bunch of Twitch/Youtube streamers roleplay on it regularly. It grew a “plot” based on improv which later became somewhat scripted in advance. There are arcs, seasons, worldbuilding, factions…

Some meta reasons I love it and compare it to the SCP wiki:

Non-linear.

If you want to get into it, your best bet is starting with a list of youtube videos on a carrd. Or watch 20 million hours of livestream vods. Or summary videos / “movie” edits made by hardworking fans. Either way, you will miss some stuff.

Everyone is literally the protagonist of their own streams.

The in-character/out-of-character line is blurred.

It didn’t actually become a roleplay until a while into the first “season”. Only a few events are scripted, and I get the impression the “script” is pretty freeform.

Obviously this sometimes becomes kind of a problem for, like, inappropriate fan interactions, which is tough and which I don’t want to trivialize.

Anyhow the line is very blurred within the universe too.

E.g. Technoblade canonically hears his Youtube livestream chat as voices in his head. Nobody else does, except for when they do.

Decentralized ownership and storytelling.

Canon is a spectrum – some things are clearly comedic “bits” and some things are well-established worldbuilding – but there is so much leeway in there.

E.g. At one point, there’s a marriage. The streamers in the marriage now disagree on whether the marriage was canonical or not. But it's not a big deal.

This is real SCP wiki "there is no canon" energy.

You can watch the same event from various character's perspectives and get totally different takes on the same event. (short non-spoiler example)

Unusual delivery format.

You don’t expect emotional depth or great creativity or horror or etc out of a Let’s Play… but my god, you will get them here.

Fun exercise: Grab your boomer parents and try to explain your latest interest to them.

Amateur storytellers.

I mean, they’re making a living from it, so they’re professionals now. But the average server age is 22 and it grew out of a casual hobby, and you can tell.

Every single stream, including the very dark introspective ones, have a bunch of chaotic banter and dick jokes.

There are these really serious bits except that the characters are named things like “Quackity” and “BadBoyHalo”.

This is the polar opposite of a polished narrative.

Many of them – and I say this with great, great love – are not amazing actors. It still works. The vibe is more “a bunch of friends fucking around” then, like, "watching a professional TV show.”

Mechanics are integrated in interesting ways.

Sometimes for plot:

Ability to gather resources – skill, the amount of time they spend digging for material, cool builds and contraptions, etc – do influence how much power they have.

But also sometimes for storytelling or expression - this is Minecraft, you know, the Blocks Game - the actors don’t really have access to normal body language. But it turns out you can fit a lot of meaning into crouches, gentle hits, jumping, looking around, what item you’re holding, what you’re wearing.

Sometimes this is hilariously dissonant:

E.g. Someone saying “look at me” to make emphasis, and the streamer has to look at… the expressionless minecraft head of the person? It’s such a vibe.

Sometimes it’s delightfully innovative and format-specific.

E.g. There are no chairs in minecraft, but there are a lot of occasions in real life where people sit, so people will use staircase blocks as dining chairs, couches, etc, and then either crouch or stand on the block to "sit". In a recent stream, during a conversation, one character went to a crafting table, made a staircase block, put it on the floor (of the other character’s house), said “you’re going to want to be sitting down for this one,” and then refused to proceed until the other character was standing on the staircase block.

A lot of these players are really good at the game, among the best in the world. Some aren’t, or at least aren’t on that tier, which is also endearing.

So if you know Minecraft, then there’s a lot of competence porn, but it's interspersed with a lot of very familiar gameplay.

They also do some non-Vanilla-Minecraft elements. They’re not common, but they keep you on your toes.

And most of them are subtle but also, like… for characters living in a minecraft world, if you’re familiar with the game, the phrase “canonical access to Creative Mode” will and should strike fear into your heart.

#light writes #I don't think I'll be reblogging a ton of DSMP stuff but the tag I'll be using is:#the LEAST comfortable streamer #so ready your blacklists etc :P #dream smp #dsmp #mcyt #scp foundation #< uh since I compare it to that #scp

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revenge-of-the-shit · 3 years

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Writing Chinese characters set within Western worlds

If you don’t want to read it on tumblr, go check this out on medium or go follow me on instagram at @annessarose_writes!

Alright. You know what. I’ve seen plenty of stereotypes in fiction (and in social media) that are so incredibly pervasive I’ve seen many Chinese people within the western world internalize it themselves. So here’s a rough guide on writing Chinese characters in an English-speaking Western setting, written by me, a Chinese Canadian woman.

If you’re here to say something racist fuck off. Otherwise, welcome! This is not a comprehensive guide by any means. This is merely a brief overview based on my own experiences. My experience (as someone in North America) will differ from someone living in, say, Europe or South America. I’m not representative of every Chinese person because everyone’s experience is unique. So here were are.

1. Our names

Chinese names are usually written as follows: [family name] [name]. Let’s take a Canadian historical figure as an example: 黃寬先. In Chinese, it’s pronounced “Wong Foon Sien.” On Canadian documents — which are written [First name] [Last name], he’d be called “Foon Sien Wong.” He went by “Foon Sien” for most of his life. That’s his full “first name.” Nobody would call him Foon because that’s just half of his name (unless given permission). It’d be like meeting a stranger called Alex and calling them “Al” right off the bat. Sure, they could go by Al, but you don’t know that.

For those of us living in the Western world, some of us have both a Chinese name and an English name. In these cases, our Chinese name becomes our middle name in English (e.g. a character could be called John Heen-Gwong Lee).

For some people who immigrated to the Western world but were born in China, their legal name would be their Chinese name. Some choose to keep that name. Some choose an English name as their “preferred” name but keep their Chinese name on legal documents. It varies.

2. Parents & Stereotypes

There’s two stereotypes which are so pervasive I see it being used over and over in jokes even within Chinese (and, to a larger extent, asian) communities:

The [abusive] tiger mom and the meek/absent dad

Both parents are unreasonably strict/abusive and they suck

I have yet to see any fiction stories with Chinese parents where they’re depicted as kind/loving/supportive/understanding (if you have recommendations — please do send them my way). Not all Chinese parents are tiger parents. Chinese parents — like all parents — are human. Good god. YES, they’re human! YES, they have flaws! YES, they are influenced by the culture they grew up in!

That isn’t to say there aren’t parents like those tropes. There are. I know this because I grew up in a predominantly Chinese community where I had many a friend’s parent who was like this. Parents who compare their kids to the best kid in class. Parents who force kids into private lessons and competitions that the kid despises because the parents think it’s for the best. Parents who have literally called their kid a disappointment because they didn’t get 100%.

But please, also consider: there’s parents who support their child’s goals and who listen. Not all parents force their kid into the stereotypical trifecta of lawyer/doctor/engineer — I know of a good number who support their child in choosing the path they want. There’s parents who make mistakes and learn and try their best to support their child. So please, for the love of god, if you write a Chinese character, don’t reduce their parents to stereotypes.

3. Language & Learning

When I first read The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, I was so excited to see a Chinese Canadian character in Frank Zhang. Finally, there was someone like me. Finally, there was representation in well-known western media.

While I do appreciate that RR added in Frank Zhang, it’s pretty obvious that he didn’t really know how to write a Chinese Canadian character. One of the most glaring examples: in The Son of Neptune, Frank reveals he can’t really read Chinese. In like, the next book (I think — it’s been a while since I read it), Frank is suddenly able to read Chinese because he “learned” it in two week’s time.

Nope. Nuh-uh. Learning Chinese is a pain, let me tell you. There’s thousands of different characters and it is something you need to devote a lot of time to learning (especially if you’re progressed past the best childhood years for learning a language). So if you’re writing about a Chinese character living in the western world, here’s what you need to know:

A character who was born and raised in the western world does not necessarily know how to read/write in Chinese.

If they were raised by their own family, the character would very likely know how to speak their own dialect. They’d be able to understand the language used in movies/TV and they sound like a native speaker, but they may not know how to use language outside of certain contexts (the term for this is heritage speaker).

They probably went to Chinese school. They probably hated it. Chinese school is usually universally hated and does not teach you jack shit other than a hatred for the place and a vague memory of learning how to read the language without actually retaining knowledge of what you learned.

Most of my friends who know how to read/write in Chinese learned from tutors, parents, or were born in China.

There’s two main types of written Chinese: Traditional (used by Cantonese speakers) and Simplified (used by Mandarin speakers).

There are MANY other dialects (which I don’t know much about). The most common ones are Mandarin (usually spoken by people from the mainland), then Cantonese (usually spoken by people from Hong Kong).

4. Fitting into the community

Usually, the story is one of two things: they’re the only Asian kid in the entire school, or they grew up in a predominantly East Asian community. Things to consider for both of these when you’re writing:

Growing up the only Asian kid

They’re “that Asian kid.” They’re different. They walk into a class and feel weird and out of place.

They bring food from home (usually ethnic cuisine) to school. Other classmates stare at it, make fun of it, demand what that strange food is.

“Where are you from?” “Here.” “No, like, where are you really from?”

“Your name is funny.”

People literally never getting the character’s name right.

And that horrible, horrible feeling: wishing that they were white so they could avoid all of this.

Growing up in a predominantly East Asian community

It’s not uncommon for Chinese cuisine to mix with other east Asian cuisines. For special occasions (or just for a casual night out), your character could very well go out to get some sushi, or go for some KBBQ, or get some Vietnamese noodles.

Screaming “AIYAA” at/with their friends unironically if they’re annoyed (I’ve done this a lot with Cantonese friends. Less so with Mandarin friends).

Slipping into Chinese for like, two words, during a mostly-English conversation to talk about food or some other topic that can’t be adequately conveyed in English.

Reading books by white authors and learning about white history and growing up thinking white names, white books, and white history is the norm and standard even though the community is surrounded by East Asian people.

When the character leaves this community, there’s a brief culture shock when they realize how sheltered they’ve been.

Things in common for both of these:

The character has grown up on ethnic cuisine. Yes, Chinese people do eat rice with many of our meals. Yes, boba (bubble) tea is extremely popular. No, rice isn’t the only thing we eat. No, not all Chinese people love boba (though as a Chinese person I admit this sounds sacrilegious to say…)

The character likely grew up watching film/TVthat originates from East Asia. It’s not uncommon to watch Studio Ghibli films. It’s not uncommon to watch Japanese or Korean shows with canto/mando dub (examples: Ultraman, Kamen Rider). If you want to see a classic Chinese film from Hong Kong that’s fucking hilarious, watch Kung Fu Hustle.

The character has felt or been told that they’re “too westernized to be Chinese, but too Chinese to fit into the western world.” They’re torn between the two.

5. General portrayal

It’s quite simple, really. We’re human. We’re regular people. We have regular hobbies like all people do. We’re good at some subjects and bad at others. We have likes and dislikes like all people do. So here’s a list of stereotypes you can avoid.

STEREOTYPES TO AVOID BECAUSE WE’RE REGULAR HUMANS AND WE DON’T FIT INTO A SINGLE COOKIE CUTTER SHAPE, DAMMIT.

The character is a maths whiz and perfect at all things STEM.

The character is a straight-A+ gifted/IB/AP student.

The character is the next coming of Mozart and is amazing at piano/violin.

The character’s free time is spent only studying.

The character is insanely good at martial arts.

The character is either meek and submissive or an explosive, dangerous force.

I’m not going to mention the other stereotypes. You know, those ones. The really obvious ones that make fun of and demonize (sometimes through multiple untruths) how we look and how we live our lives. You should know.

Of course, there are people who fit into one or more of these. That’s not the point. The point is: molding all Chinese characters to these stereotypes (which white media tends to do) is harmful and reductionist. We’re more than stereotypes.

—

6. Conclusion

We need more diversity in portrayal of Chinese characters. Reducing us into one-dimensional caricatures has done nothing but harm us — look at what’s happening now. This guide is by no means comprehensive, but I hope it has helped you by providing a quick overview.

If you want to accurately portray Chinese characters, do your research. Read Chinese fiction. Watch Chinese films/TV. Initiate a conversation with the community. Portray us accurately. Quit turning us into caricatures.

#non sw #writing #writing reference #reference #writing bipoc characters #Chinese representation #asian representation #asian characters #chinese characters #stop asian hate #chinese diaspora #chinese american #chinese canadian #writing guide #abuse tw #racism tw #long post #annessarose writes

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hiddleloki · 3 years

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*insert Mushu “I live” gif*

Ok, so I finally watched Loki and I loved it. Loki and Quicksilver are my fav characters and I was really, really mad at Marvel for what they did to my boy Quickie, but I’m still holding out hope that they somehow fix that at some point. I mean, hello, variants? That thing officially exists now.

Luckily Loki seems to be more favored by Feige/Marvel and seems like we’re gonna see lots more of him. Season 2 and possibly even MoM. Season 2 is old news as there were already reports of it actually happening last year, and this year in January Deadline confirmed S2 of Loki with Michael Waldron returning. But I was holding out hope for Loki making an appearance in MoM (I want to see Strange interact with Loki again) and it seems like there’s a good chance of this actually happening.

Anyway, some thoughts about the show:

- I loved the show’s cinematography. It didn’t feel like a tv show at all

- Soundtrack is just *chefs kiss*

- TVA Loki my beloved. I honestly think TVA Loki might be my favorite version of Tom’s Loki so far. This show finally gave us the opportunity to really delve deeper into Loki, who he is as a person, how does he form relationships with people outside his family. It was just so fun to see different sides of him, like making a friend, falling in love? I never thought I’d ever see that. Especially not after IW

- Really liked his reaction to watching his ‘greatest hits’ and realizing his family actually loved him. Loki was always kind of a softie who genuinely cared about his family and seeing his parents’ (and his own) deaths was so emotional

- Infinity Stones being used as paperweights for the TVA will never not be funny. It broke my mind and sent me into existential crisis just as it did with Loki.

- Loki needs to give Casey a fish at some point. Or take him to an aquarium.

- Mobius needs his jet ski in season 2. I also want to know more about Mobius and his backstory. What was his Nexus event, does he have a family, what is his real name?

- I really liked his friendship with Loki and the fact that he’s canonically Loki’s first real friend. Loki needed a friend (the W3 and Sif were never really his friends, Loki just tagged along I guess) and I’m happy he finally has one

- I need to find out more about B-15, who she was, her real name...Wunmi absolutely killed it during “I looked happy.” scene. God, that bit broke me

- Ravonna was sus to me from the start and she’s also one of the characters I want them to explore more. Especially now since Kang and his variants are also involved.

- Sylvie is probably my favorite new character introduced. I knew Sophia’s gonna play Sylvie and she’s gonna have a large role, but damn I didn’t expect to love this character as much as I do. There’s so much more left of her to be explored and I think her arc in season 2 will be amazing

- I saw that Loki/Sylvie romance coming the moment Lamentis episode ended. There were so many hints in that episode, I’m actually surprised so many people viewed them as having a sibling type of dynamic.

- I know that their love story is not a typical straightforward romance, but also serves as a metaphor for self love, but I found the idea of Loki falling in love with someone who is an au version of him, but also isn’t him both interesting and hilarious. Also, it was adorable especially that blanket scene in the void. There’s just something adorable about Loki being a complete softie for someone else. You know what, I’m rooting for them. I hope they get their happy ending, they deserve it.

- Literally every character in this show deserves their happy ending. Like, just the idea of the variants not knowing who they are, being brainwashed and forced to work for this organisation...*happy endings for everyone please*

- Majors’ variant of Kang, aka He Who Remains was everything and is right behind Sylvie as my new favorite character. The guy absolutely killed it and I need more of him and his (many) characters/variants right now. Plus I would’t mind if we see this particular version of He Who Remains again.

- The way they made Loki come out as bi was also so well done and I’m so happy they acknowledged that. Disney is notoriously bad with LGBT+ representation so the fact that the creators of the show managed to put that in was everything. I heard the director was fighting real hard for that to be made canon and I appreciate her effort.

- We were shown more of Loki’s abilities. It was about damn time.

- Alligator Loki is the baby Yoda of the marvel verse. I loved the theory that there’s an universe in which Alligator Loki was adopted by Crocodile Odin.

- Classic Loki.....Richard E Grant stole that episode. God, I wouldn’t mind an episode that focuses strictly on Classic Loki, he was just such a great character and he broke my heart

- I wonder if Kid Loki will travel to the main timeline and join the Young Avengers at some point

- THROG

- I really liked how they established that variants are basically their own people. Their own beings, they each have their own backstories, autonomy, clear differences that make them THEM. They aren’t copies, they’re individuals. And that they aren’t genetically related, but that they share the same soul and role in their universes (basically temporal aura) because that will also clear up some confusion with upcoming multiverse movies, for example Spiderman

- I suppose Loki confirms that all Peter Parkers in NWH are basically variants of Peter Parker, but just like Lokis, they aren’t the same, which explains why they all look different and why they also have different aunts and families. It’s not DNA that makes someone a variant of a certain being, it’s a soul. A role.

- I really hope that that one rumour of various Stephens in MoM actually turns out to be true.

- Strange is gonna kill Loki and Sylvie

- Which brings me to the last take:

- Ralph is totally Peter. I am clowning yes, but lemme have this.

Overall, I really liked the show. I loved it in fact. It was really character driven and didn’t focus much on action, which is a plus for me, because I rather watch characters talk and interact with each other than action sequences.

The bad thing is that now I’l have to wait at least 2 years to see what happens next. And I’m curious if there’ll be a bit of a time jump between both seasons.

#loki #loki series #loki show #tom hiddleston #sylvie #sophia di martino #mobius #owen wilson #ravonna #gugu mbatha raw #jonathan majors #kang #sylki #ralph bohner #quicksilver

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d-criss-news · 3 years

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20 Questions With Darren Criss: How Acting Has Helped Him Make New Music

While Darren Criss has graced our TV screens with a range of characters, from high schooler Blaine Anderson on Glee to serial killer Andrew Cunanan on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, he was last spotted just being himself, on our For You Page on TikTok. “I’m walking to rehearsal with a guitar on my back with a Trader Joe’s bag ... I did not bring an umbrella because I forgot that it was raining. I’m rocking that NYC musician life,” the Glee alum explained in the hilarious clip posted three days ago.

While Criss’ acting work has earned him acclaim and stardom, he leaned into making music during the pandemic. On Aug. 20, he dropped a new EP, Masquerade, featuring five new tracks that Criss says were inspired by the different characters Criss has embraced throughout his career. After Criss wrote songs for his musical comedy web series Royalties and Apple TV+’s animated sitcom Central Park before the pandemic struck the United States, he then used those experiences as a precursor to his new EP. As Criss continues to promote his new music, he answered 20 of Billboard's questions – giving us a peek into how his new EP came together, and how growing up in San Fransisco shaped him as an actor, singer and all-around artist.

1. What inspired your latest project, Masquerade?

Although I would have preferred that it come at a far less grim cost, I finally had the time. Before the pandemic, I had written 10 new songs for my show Royalties -- along with an original song for Disney and another for Apple’s Central Park. These were all assignments in which I was writing for a certain scenario and character. Go figure. It was the most music I had ever written in a calendar year. This really emboldened me to rethink how I made my own music— to start putting a focus on “character creation” in my songs, rather than personal reflection. The latter was not proving to be as productive. The alchemy of having this time and having set a new intention with my own songwriting and producing made me put on a few of my favorite masques and throw myself a Masquerade.

2. How do you think your background as an actor complements your music?

They are one and the same to me. I treat acting roles like musical pieces— dialogue is like scoring a melody; there’s pace, dynamics, cadence, tone. Physical characterization is like producing -- zeroing in on the bass line, deciding on the kick pattern. Vocal characterization is like choosing the right sonic experience, choosing the most effective snare sound, and mixing the high end or low end. It goes without saying that it works in the complete opposite direction. Making each song is taking on a different role literally and employing the use of different masques to maximize the effectiveness of the particular story being told.

3. On Instagram you wrote that “Masquerade is a small collection of the variety of musical masques that have always inspired me.” Which track do you identify with most in your real life?

Everybody absorbs songs differently. Some key into the lyrics, some into the melody, some the production, some into vocal performance. When I listen to songs, I consider all of their value on totally different scales. So it’s hard to say if there’s any track I “identify” with more than any others, since I -- by nature -- identify with all of them. I think I just identify with certain aspects more than others. If it helps for a more interesting answer, I will say I enjoy the slightly more classical, playful -- dare I say -- more Broadway-leaning wordplay of “Walk of Shame,” but that’s just talking about lyricism. I enjoy the attitude of “F*kn Around,” the batsh--t musicality of “I Can’t Dance,” the relentless grooves of “Let’s” and “For A Night Like This.” All have different ingredients I really enjoy having an excuse to dive into.

4. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Beatles audio cassettes: “Help” and “Hard Day’s Night.” I just listened on repeat on a tape-playing Walkman until my brother and I got a stereo for our room with a CD player in it, which was when I just bought the same two albums again, but this time as compact discs.

5. What was the first concert you saw?It’s hard to say, because my parents took us to a lot of classical concerts when we were small. But I guess this question usually refers to what was the first concert you went to on your own volition, and that my friend, was definitely Warped Tour ’01. My brother and I went on our own— two teenagers going to their first music festival, in the golden age of that particular genre and culture. It was f--king incredible.

6. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?

My dad was in private banking and advised really, really wealthy people on how to handle their money. My mom was, by choice, a stay-at-home mom, but in reality, she was my dad’s consigliere. They discussed absolutely everything together. They were a real team, and I saw that every single day in the house. They both had a background in finance (That’s how they met in the first place.) and were incredibly skilled at all the hardcore adulting things that I absolutely suck at. They were total finance wizards together. So of course, instead of becoming an accountant, I picked up playing the guitar and ran as far I could with it. Luckily, they were all about it.

7. What was your favorite homecooked meal growing up?

My dad was an incredible chef. For special occasions, I’d request his crab cakes. They were unreal. I’ve never had a crab cake anywhere in the world that was good as my dad’s.

8. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?

I don’t know if I’ve actually realized that yet.

9. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?

The specifics change every day, but the core idea at the top is to continue being consistently inconsistent with my choices, and to keep getting audiences to constantly reconsider their consideration of me. But I mean, sure, what performer doesn’t want to play Coachella? What songwriter doesn’t want to have Adele sing one of their songs? What actor doesn’t want to be in a Wes Anderson film?

10. How did your hometown/city shape who you are?

San Francisco. I mean, come on. I was really lucky. The older I get, the more grateful I am for just being born and raised there. It’s an incredibly diverse, culturally rich, colorful, inclusive, vibrant city. By the time I was born, it had served as a beacon for millions of creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to gather and thrive. I grew up around that. The combination of that with having parents, who were unbelievably supportive of the arts themselves, laid an incredibly fortunate foundation to consider the life of an artist as a legitimately viable option. It’s a foundation that I am supremely aware is not the case for millions of young artists around the world. I was absurdly lucky.

11. What’s the last song you listened to?

I mean probably one of mine, but not by choice. I know, lame. But I’m promoting a new EP, what’d you expect? But if you wanna know what I’ve been listening to, as far as new s--t is concerned: a lot of Lizzy McAlpine, Remi Wolf, and Charlie Burg.

12. If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?

The Beatles is an obvious "yeah, duh." Sammy Davis, Mel Tormé, or of course, Nat King Cole. I would’ve loved to see Howard Ashman give a lecture on his creative process and his body of work.

13. What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your sets?

I feel like just having a crowd at all, at any one of my sets, is pretty wild enough.

14. What’s your karaoke go-to?

The real answer to this I’ll write into a book one day, because I have a lot to say about karaoke etiquette. I have two options here: I can either name a song that I like to sing for me, for fun, or I can name a song that really gets the group going. The answer depends on what kind of karaoke night we’re dealing with here. So I will say, after I’ve selected a ton of songs that services a decent enough party vibe for everyone else, then I would do one for me, and that would be the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling.”

15. What’s one thing your most devoted fans don’t know about you?

What I have up my sleeve.

16. What TV show did you binge-watch over the past year?

Dave is a stroke of genius. There are episodes that I believe are bona fide masterpieces. Also, My Brilliant Friend is a masterclass in cinematic television.

17. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?

It’s A Wonderful Life.

18. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Get used to sharing everything about yourself and your life now, or more astutely, to the idea that you don’t necessarily get to control how your life is shared. I know it’s not really your thing, but you’re gonna have to get used to it, so start building up those calluses now. And don’t worry, all the stuff you love now will be cool again in your mid-thirties, so keep some of those clothes because you’ll be a full-blown fashion icon if you just keep wearing exactly what you’re wearing. Oh nd also, put money into Apple and Facebook.

19. What new hobby did you take on in the last year?

I’ve always been a linguaphile. My idea of leisure time is getting to study or review other languages. This past year, I took the time to finally dive into learning how to read, write, and speak Japanese. Other than making music, it was one of the biggest components of my 2020-2021.

20. What do you hope to accomplish or experience by the end of 2021?

I hope I get to play live shows again.

#darren criss #billboard #masquerade ep #press #sept 2021

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wits-writing · 3 years

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What’s so Funny About Vengeance, the Night, and Batman? – Two Superhero Parodies in Conversation

Back in 2016, the first trailers for Director Chris McKay’s The Lego Batman Movie hit. A spinoff of the take on the iconic hero, voiced by Will Arnett, from 2014’s The Lego Movie. Those trailers spelled out a plot covering how Batman’s life of crimefighting is turned upside down when Robin unexpectedly enters the picture. It was a funny trailer, promising another insightful comedy from the crew behind The Lego Movie. A promise it handily delivered on when it came out in February 2017 with an animated feature steeped wall-to-wall jokes for the sake of mocking Bruce Wayne’s angst filled crusade that can only come from understanding what’s made the character withstand the test of time.

But there was a thought I and others had from seeing that trailer up to watching the actual movie:

“This seems… familiar.”

Holy Musical B@man! is a 2012 fan-made stage production parody of DC Comics’ biggest cash cow. It was produced as the fifth musical from YouTube-based cult phenomenon Starkid Productions, from a book by Matt and Nick Lang, music by Nick Gage and Scott Lamp with lyrics by Gage. The story of the musical details how Robin’s unexpected entrance ends up turning Batman’s (Joe Walker) life of crimefighting upside down. Among Starkids’ fandom derived projects in their early existence, as they’ve mainly moved on to well-received original material in recent years, Holy Musical B@man! is my personal favorite. I go back to it frequently, appreciating it as a fan of both superheroes and musicals. (Especially since good material that touches on both of those isn’t exactly easy to come by. Right, Spider-Man?)

While I glibly summarized the similarities between them by oversimplifying their plots, there’s a lot in the details, both major and minor, that separates how they explore themes like solitude, friendship, love, and what superhero stories mean. It’s something I’ve wanted to dig into for a while and I found a lot in both of them I hadn’t considered before by putting them in conversation. I definitely recommend watching both of them, because of how in-depth this piece goes including discussing their endings. However, nothing I can say will replace the experience of watching them and if I had included everything I could’ve commented on in both of them, this already massive piece would easily be twice as long minimum.

Up front, I want to say this isn’t about comparing The Lego Batman Movie and Holy Musical B@man in terms of quality. Not only are they shaped for vastly different mediums with different needs/expectations, animation versus stagecraft, but they also had different resources at their disposal. Even if both are in some ways riffing on the aesthetic of the 1990s Batman movies and the Adam West TV show, Lego Batman does it with the ability to make gorgeously animated frames packed to the brim with detail while Holy Musical often leans into its low-fi aesthetic of characters miming props and sets to add extra humor. They’re also for different audiences, Lego Batman clearly for all-ages while Holy Musical has the characters cursing for emphasis on a regular basis. On top of those factors, after picking through each of these for everything worth commenting on that I could find, I can’t say which I wholly prefer thanks in part to these fundamental differences.

This piece is more about digging through the details to explore the commonalities, differences, and what makes them effective mocking love letters to one of the biggest superheroes in existence.

(Also, since I’m going to be using the word “Batman” a lot, I’ll be calling Lego Batman just “Batman” and referring to the version from Holy Musical as “B@man”, with the exception of quoted dialogue.)

[Full Piece Under the Cut]

Setting the Tone

The beginning is, in fact, a very good place to start when discussing how these parodies frame their versions of the caped crusader. Each one uses a song about lavishing their respective Batmen with praise about how they are the best superheroes ever and play over sequences of the title hero kicking wholesale ass. A key distinction comes in who’s singing each song. Holy Musical B@man’s self-titled opening number is sung from the perspective of an omniscient narrator recounting B@man’s origin and later a chorus made up of the Gotham citizenry. Meanwhile, “Who’s the (Bat) Man” from Lego Batman is a brag-tacular song written by Batman about himself, even playing diegetically for all his villains to hear as he beats them up.

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Holy Musical opens on a quick recap of Batman’s origin:

“One shot, Two shots in the night and they’re gone And he’s all left alone He’s just one boy Two dead at his feet and their blood stains the street And there’s nothing, no there’s nothing he can do!”

We then get a Bat-dance break as the music goes from slow and moody to energetic to reflect Batman turning that tragedy into the driving force behind his one-man war on crime. Assured by the narrator that he’s “the baddest man that there’s ever been!” and “Now there’s nothing, no there’s nothing he can’t do!” flipping the last lyric of the first verse. For the rest of the opening scene the lyrics matter less than what’s happening to establish both this fan-parody’s version of Batman and how the people of Gotham (“he’ll never refuse ‘em”) view him.

Lego Batman skips the origin recap, and in general talks around the death of the Waynes to keep the light tone going since it’s still a kids movie about a popular toy even if there are deeper themes at play. Instead, it continues a trend The Lego Movie began for this version of the character writing music about how he’s an edgy, dark, awesome, cool guy. While that movie kept it to Batman angry-whiteboy-rapping about “Darkness! NO PARENTS!”, this one expands to more elaborate boasts in the song “Who’s the (Bat) Man” by Patrick Stump:

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“In the darkest night I make the bad guys fall There’s a million heroes But I’m the best of them all!”

Batman singing this song about himself, as opposed to having it sung by others aims the crosshairs of parody squarely on the hero’s ego. His abilities make fighting his villains effortless, like this opening battle is more an opportunity to perform the song than a life-or-death struggle. Even Joker’s aware of that as he shouts, “Stop him before he starts singing!” This Batman doesn’t see himself as missing out on anything in life, even if he still feels that deep down. Being Batman is the coolest thing in the world that anyone would envy. He’s Batman, therefore everyone should envy him.

The songs aren’t only part of the equation for how these two works’ opening scenes establish their leading hero. While both songs are about Batman being cool, they’re separated by the accompanying scenes. Lego Batman keep the opening within the Joker’s perspective until Batman shows up and the action kicks in. Once it does, we’re shown a Batman at the top of his solo-hero game. Meanwhile, Holy Musical’s opening is about B@man building his reputation and by the end of the song he has all the citizens of Gotham singing his praises with the titular lyrics. Both are about being in awe of the title hero, one framed by Joker’s frustration at Batman’s ease in foiling his schemes yet again and the other about the people of Gotham growing to love their city’s hero (probably against their better judgement.)

That’s woven into the fabric of what kind of schemes Batman is foiling in each of these. Joker’s plan to bomb Gotham with the help of every supervillain in Batman’s Rogues Gallery is hilariously high stakes and the type of plan most Batman stories, even parodies, would save for the climax. Neatly exemplified by how that’s almost the exact structure of Holy Musical’s final showdown. Starting with these stakes works as an extension of this Batman’s nature as a living children’s toy and therefore the embodiment of a child’s idea of what makes Batman cool, his ability to wipe the floor with anyone that gets in his way “because he’s Batman.” It also emphasizes Joker as the only member of the Rogues Gallery that matters to Lego Batman’s story, every other Bat-villain is either a purely visual cameo or only gets a couple lines maximum.

The crime’s being stopped by B@man are more in the “Year One” gangster/organized crime category rather than anything spectacle heavy. Though said crimes are comically exaggerated:

Gangster 1: Take these here drugs, put ‘em into them there guns, and then hand ‘em out to those gamblin’ prostitutes! Gangster 2: Should we really be doing these illegal activities? In a children’s hospital for orphans?

These fit into that model of crime the Dark Knight fights in his early days and add tiny humanizing moments between the crooks (“Oh, Matches! You make me laugh like nobody else!”) in turn making the arrival of B@man and the violence he deals out a stronger punchline. Further emphasized by the hero calling out the exact physical damage he does with each hit before warning them to never do crime again saying, “Support your families like the rest of us! Be born billionaires!” Later in the song his techniques get more extreme and violence more indiscriminate, as he uses his Bat-plane to patrol and gun down whoever he sees as a criminal, including a storeowner accidentally taking a single dollar from his own register. (“God’s not up here! Only Batman!”)

A commonality between these two openings is how Commissioner Jim Gordon gets portrayed. Both are hapless goofs at their core, playing more on the portrayal of the character in the 60s TV show and 90s Burton/Schumacher movies than the serious-minded character present in comics, Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, and other adaptations. Lauren Lopez’s portrayal in Holy Musical gets overwhelmed by everything thrown at him, eventually giving up and getting out of B@man’s way (“I’m not gonna tell Batman what to do! He’s Batman!”) Hector Elizondo’s Gordon in Lego Batman clearly reached the “stay out of Batman’s way” point a long time ago, happy to have “the guy who flips on the Bat-signal” be his sole defining trait. While the characterizations are close, their roles do end up differing. Lopez’s Gordon sticks around to have a few more comedic scenes as the play goes on, where Elizondo’s exist to set up a contrast with his daughter Barbara and her way of approaching Batman when she becomes Police Commissioner.

These opening sequences both end in similar manners as well; the citizens of Gotham lavishing praise on their respective Batmen and a confrontation between Batman and the Joker. Praise from the citizenry in Holy Musical comes on the heels of a letter from B@man read out on the news about how much they and the city of Gotham suck. They praise B@man for his angsty nature as a “dark hero” and how they “wouldn’t want him any other way!”, establishing the motif of Gotham’s citizens in Holy Musical as stand-ins for the Batman fandom. Lego Batman uses the praise of the Gotham citizens after Batman’s victory in the opening scene as a lead in to contrast their certainty that Batman must have an exciting private life with the reality we’re shown. Which makes sense since Lego-Batman’s relationship to the people of Gotham is never presented as something at stake.

Greater contrast comes in how the confrontations with the Joker are handled, Lego Batman has an argument between the hero and villain that’s intentionally coded as relationship drama, Batman saying “There is no ‘us’” when Joker declares himself Batman’s greatest enemy. The confrontation in Holy Musical gets purposefully underplayed as an offstage encounter narrated to the audience as a Vicki Vale news report. This takes Joker off the board for the rest of the play in contrast to the Batman/Joker relationship drama that forms one of Lego Batman’s key pillars. While they take different forms, the respective citizenry praise and villain confrontation parts of these openings lead directly into the number one common thematic element between these Bat-parodies: Batman’s loneliness.

One is the Darkest, Saddest, Loneliest Number

Batman as an isolated hero forms one of the core tenants of the most popular understanding of the character. Each of these parodies picks at that beyond the broody posturing. There’s no dedicated segment in this piece about how these works’ versions of the title character function bleeds into every other aspect of them, but each starts from the idea of Batman as a man-child with trouble communicating his emotions. Time’s taken to give the audience a view of where their attitudes have left them early in the story.

Both heroes show their loneliness through interactions with their respective Alfreds. Holy Musical has the stalwart butler, played by Chris Allen, try to comfort B@man by asking if he has any friends he enjoys being around. When B@man cites Lucius Fox as a friend he calls him right away, only to discover Lucius Fox is Alfred’s true identity and Alfred Pennyworth was an elaborate ruse he came up with to protect Bruce on his father’s wishes. Ironically, finding out his closest friend was living a double life causes Bruce to push Alfred away (the play keeps referring to him as Alfred after this, so that’s what I’m going to do as well.) After he’s fired he immediately comes back in a new disguise as “O’Malley the Irish Butler” (same outfit he wore before but with a Party City Leprechaun hat.) That’s unfortunately the start of a running gag in Holy Musical that ends up at the worst joke in the play, when Alfred disguises himself as “Quon Li the Chinese Butler” doing an incredibly cringeworthy “substituting L’s for R’s” bit with his voice. It’s been my least favorite bit in the play since I first saw it in 2012 and legitimately makes me hesitate at times to recommend it. Even if it’s relatively small bit and the rest holds ups.

That disclaimer out of the way, that conversation between B@man and Alfred leads into the title hero reflecting on his sadness through the musical’s I Want Song, “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight.” The song’s split into two halves, the first Alfred reflecting on whether he played a part in Bruce’s current condition and the second B@man longing for a connection. The song does a good job balancing between the sincerity over the hero’s sadness and getting good laughs out of it:

“Think of the children Next time you gun down the mama and papa Their only mama and papa Because they probably don’t have another mama and papa!”

The “I Want” portion of the song coming in the end with the repetition of the lryics “I want to be somebody’s buddy.”

Rather than another song number, Lego Batman covers Batman’s sadness through a pair of montages and visual humor. The first comes after the opening battle, where we see Batman taking off all his costume except for the mask hanging out alone in Wayne Manor, showing how little separation he puts between identities. Compared to Holy Musical where the equivalent scene is the first we see of Bruce without the mask on, which may come down to practicality since anyone who’s worn a mask like that knows they get hot and sweaty fast. Batman is constantly made to appear small among the giant empty rooms of his estate as he eats dinner, jams on his guitar, and watches romantic movies alone.

Ralph Fienne’s Alfred coming in at the end of this sequence witnessing Batman looking at a photo of himself as a boy with his parents for the last time. Alfred outlines Batman’s fear of being part of a family again only to be met with Batman denying he has any feelings ever. Pennyworth’s role as a surrogate father gets put into greater focus here than in Holy Musical, as we get glimpses of Alfred reading a book titled “How to Deal with Your Out-of-Control Child.” Also shown in smaller scenes of Alfred dealing with Batman’s insistent terminology for his crime fighting equipment, like calling his cowl an “armored face disguise.”

Batman’s denial of his pain contrasts how B@man wallows in it. Though he’s forced to confront it a little as the Joker’s plan ends up leaving him with no crimefighting to fall back on to ignore his issues. This montage gets set to the song “One” by Harry Nilsson and details Batman, unable to express his true feelings, eventually letting them out in the form of tempter tantrums. There’s also some humor through juxtaposition as Batman walks solemnly through the streets of Gotham City, rendered black and white, as the citizens chant “No more crime!” in celebration, while flipping over cars and firing guns into the air.

A disruption to their loneliness eventually comes in the form of a sensational character find.

Robin – The Son/BFF Wonder

Between both Bat-parodies, the two Robins’ characterizations are as close as anyone’s between them. Each is nominally Dick Grayson but are ultimately more representative of the idea of Robin as the original superhero sidekick and his influence on Batman’s life. The play and movie also both make the obvious jokes about Dick’s name and the classic Robin costume’s lack of pants at different points. Dick’s origin also gets sidestepped in each version to skip ahead to the part where he starts being an influence in Batman’s life.

Robin’s introduction to the comics in Detective Comics #38 in 1940, marking the start of Batman’s literal “Year Two” as a character, predating the introduction of Joker, Catwoman, and Alfred, among others. Making him Batman’s longest lasting ally in the character’s history. His presence and acrobatics shift the tone by adding a dash of swashbuckling to Batman’s adventures, inspired by the character’s namesake Robin Hood, though both parodies take a page out of Batman Forever and associate the name with the bird for the sake of a joke. Robin is as core to Batman as his origin, but more self-serious adaptations (i.e., the mainstream cinematic ones that were happening around the times both Holy Musical and Lego Batman came out) tend to avoid the character’s inclusion. These two works being parody, therefore anything but self-serious, give themselves permission to examine why Robin matters and how different characters react to his presence. Rejection of Robin as a character and concept comes out in some form in each of these works, from Batman himself in Lego Batman and the Gotham citizens in Holy Musical.

The chain of events that lead to Dick becoming Robin in Lego Batman are a string of consequences for Batman’s self-absorption. A scene of Bruce barely listening as Dick asks for advice on getting adopted escalating to absentmindedly signing the adoption paperwork. Batman doesn’t realize he has a son until after his sadness montage. Alfred forces Batman to start interacting with Dick against his will. The broody loner wanting nothing to do with the cheery kid, played to “golly gee gosh” perfection by Michael Cera, until he sees the utility of him. Batman doesn’t even have the idea to give Robin a costume or codename because he clearly views the sidekick’s presence as a temporary measure for breaking into Superman’s fortress, made clear by how he lists “expendable” as a quality Dick needs if he wants to go on a mission.

This makes Robin the catalyst for Batman’s shifting perspective throughout Lego Batman. When Robin succeeds in his first mission, the Dark Knight is hesitant to truly compliment him and chalks up his ward’s feats to “unbelievable obeying.” Other moments have Robin’s presence poke holes in Batman’s tough guy demeanor, like the first time Batman and Robin ride in the Bat-mobile together, Robin asks where the seatbelts are and Batman growls “Life doesn’t give you seatbelts!”, only for Batman to make a sudden stop causing Robin to hit his head on the windshield and Batman genuinely apologizes. They share more genuine moments together as the film goes, like Batman suggesting they beatbox together to keeps their spirits up after they’ve been imprisoned for breaking into Arkham Asylum. Robin’s representative of Batman gradually letting people in throughout these moments.

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, B@man needs zero extra prompting to let Robin into his life. Nick Lang’s Robin (henceforth called “Rob!n” to keep with this arbitrary naming scheme I’ve concocted) does get brought into his life by Alfred thanks to a personal ad (“‘Dog for sale’? No… ‘Orphan for sale’! Even better!”) but it’s a short path to B@man deciding to let Dick fight alongside him. The briefest hesitance on the hero’s part, “To be Batman… is to be alone”, is quelled by Rob!n saying “We could be alone… together.” Their first scene together quickly establishing the absurd sincerity exemplified by this incarnation of the Dynamic Duo. An energy carried directly into the Act 1 closing number, “The Dynamic Duet”, a joyful ode between the heroes about how they’re “Long lost brothers who found each other” sung as they beat up supervillains (and the occasional random civilian.)

That song also ties into the contrast between the Batman/Robin dynamic and the B@man/Rob!n one. While Holy Musical is portraying a brotherly/BFF bond between the two heroes, Lego Batman leans into the surrogate son angle. While both are mainly about their stories’ Batman being able to connect with others, the son angle of Lego Batman adds an additional layer of “Batman needs to take responsibility for himself and others” and a parallel to Alfred as Batman’s own surrogate father. It also adds to the queer-coding of Batman in Lego Batman as Batman’s excuse to Robin for why he can go on missions is that Bruce and he are sharing custody, Robin even calling Batman’s dual identities “dads” before he knows the truth.

In the absence of the accepting personal responsibility through fatherhood element, the conflict Rob!n brings out in Holy Musical forms between B@man and the citizens of Gotham. “Citizens as stand-ins for fandom” is at it’s clearest here as the Act 2 opener is called “Robin Sucks!” featuring the citizens singing about how… well, you read the title. Their objections to Rob!n’s existence has nothing to do with what the young hero has done or failed to do, but come from arguments purely about the aesthetic of Rob!n fighting alongside B@man. Most blatantly shown by one of the citizens wearing a Heath Ledger Joker t-shirt saying Rob!n’s presence “ruins the gritty realism of a man who fights crime dressed as a bat.” It works as the Act 2 opener by establishing that B@man and the citizens conflicting opinions on his sidekick end up driving that half of the story, exemplified in B@man’s complete confusion about why people hate Rob!n (“Robin ruined Batman? But that’s not true… Robin make Batman happy.”)

Both Robins play into the internal conflict their respective mentors are going through, but what would a superhero story, even a parody, be without some colorful characters to provide that sweet external conflict.

Going Rogue

Both works have the threat comes from an army of villains assembled under a ringleader, Zach Galifianakis’s Joker in Lego Batman and Jeff Blim as Sweet Tooth in Holy Musical. Both lead the full ensemble of Batman’s classic (and not so classic) Rogues at different points. As mentioned before Joker starts Lego Batman with “assemble the Rogues, blow up Gotham” as his plan, while Sweet Tooth with his candy prop comedy becoming the ringleader of Gotham’s villains is a key turning point in Act 1 of the play. Part of this comes down to how their connections to their respective heroes and environments are framed, Sweet Tooth as a new player on the scene and Joker as Batman’s romantic foil.

Lego Batman demonstrates Batman and Joker are on “finishing each other’s sentences” levels of intimate that Batman refuses to acknowledge. Shown best in how Joker’s plan only works because he can predict exactly how Batman will act once he starts playing hard to get. When he surrenders the entire Rogues Gallery (without telling them) and himself to police custody, he describes it as him being “off the market.” He knows Batman won’t settle for things ending on these terms and tricks the hero into stealing Superman’s Phantom Zone projector so he can recruit a new, better team of villains for a take two of his masterplan from the start. Going through all this trouble to get Batman to say those three magic words; “I love hate you.” Joker as the significant other wanting his partner to finally reciprocate his feelings and commit works both as a play on how the Batman/Joker relationship often gets approached and an extension of the central theme. Batman is so closed off to interpersonal connections he can’t even properly hate his villains.

Sweet Tooth, while clearly being a riff Heath Ledger and Caesar Romero’s Jokers fused with a dash of Willy Wonka, doesn’t have that kind of connection with B@man. Though there are hints that B@man and his recently deceased Joker may have had one on that level. He laments “[Joker]’s in heaven with mom and dad. Making them laugh, I know it!” when recalling how the Clown Prince of Crime was the one person he enjoyed being around. This makes Joker’s death one of the key triggers to B@man reflecting on his solitude at the start of the play.

What Sweet Tooth provides the story is a threat to B@man’s new bond with Rob!n. Disrupting that connection forms the delicious center of the Candy King of Crime’s plan in Act 2. He holds Rob!n and Gotham’s people hostage and asks the citizens to decide via Facebook poll if the sidekick lives or dies (in reference to the infamous phone hotline vote from the comic book story A Death in the Family where readers could decide the Jason Todd Robin’s fate.)

With the rest of the villains under the leadership of the respective works’ main antagonists, there’s commentary on their perceived quality as threats. When Holy Musical has Superman talking to Green Lantern about how much B@man’s popularity frustrates him, he comes down especially hard on the Caped Crusader’s villains. Talking about how they all coast by on simple gimmicks with especially harsh attention given to Two Face’s being “the number two.” Saying they’re only famous because B@man screws up and they get to do more damage. Which he compares to his own relationship with his villains:

Superman: You ever heard of Mr. Mxyzptlk? Green Lantern: No. Superman: No, that’s right! That’s because I do my job!

Lego Batman has commentary on the other villains come from Joker, recognizing that even all together they can never beat Batman, because that’s how a Batman story goes. The other villains get portrayed as generally buffoonish, struggling to even build a couch together and described by Joker as “losers dressed in cosplay.” Tricking Batman into sending him to the Phantom Zone provides him the opportunity to gather villains from outside Batman’s mythos and outside DC Comics in general. Recruiting the likes of Sauron, King Kong, Daleks, Agent Smith from The Matrix, and the Wicked Witch of the West, among others. When I first saw and reviewed The Lego Batman Movie, this bugged me because it felt like a missed opportunity to feature lesser-known villains from other DC heroes’ Rogues Galleries. Now, considering the whole movie as meta-commentary on the status of this Batman as a children’s toy, it makes perfect sense that Joker would need to go outside of comics to break the rules of a typical Batman story and have a shot at winning.

The Rogues of Holy Musical get slightly more of a chance to shine, if only because their song “Rogues are We” is one of the catchier tracks from the play. They’re all still more cameo than character when all’s said and done, but Sweet Tooth entering the picture is about him recognizing their potential to operate as a unit, takeover Gotham, and kill B@man. The candy-pun flinging villain wants all of them together, no matter their perceived quality.

Sweet Tooth: “We need every villain in Gotham. Cool themes, lame themes, themes that don’t match their powers, even the villains that take their names from public domain stories.” (Two Face’s “broke ass” still being the exception.)

Both Joker and Sweet Tooth provide extensions of the shared theme of Batman dealing with the new connections in his life, especially with regards to Robin. However, Robin isn’t the only other ally (or potential ally) these Dark Knights have on their side.

Super Friends(?)

The internal crisis of these Caped Crusaders come as much from how they react to other heroic figures as it does from supervillainous machinations. In both cases how Batman views and is viewed by fellow heroes gets centered on a specific figure, Superman in Holy Musical and Commissioner Barbara Gordon (later Batgirl) in Lego Batman. Each serves a vastly different purpose in the larger picture of their stories and relationship to their respective Batmen. Superman reflecting B@man’s loneliness and Barbara symbolizing a new path forward for Batman’s hero work.

Superman’s role in Holy Musical runs more parallel to Lego Batman’s Joker than Barbara. Brian Holden’s performance as the Man of Tomorrow plays into a projected confidence covering anxiety that nobody likes him. Besting the Bat-plane in a race during B@man’s Key to the City ceremony establishes a one upmanship between the two heroes, like Joker’s description of his relationship with Batman at the end of Lego Batman’s opening battle. Though instead of that romantically coded relationship from Lego Batman, this relationship is more connected to childish jealousy. (But if you do want to read the former into Holy Musical B@man, neither hero has an onstage relationship with any woman and part of their eventual fight consist of spanking each other.)

B@man and Superman’s first real interaction is arguing over who’s the cooler hero until it degrades into yelling “Fuck you!” at each other. B@man storming off in the aftermath of that gets topped off by Superman suggesting he should get the Key to the City instead, citing his strength and longer tenure as a hero (“The first hero, by the way”) as justifications. This only results in the Gotham citizens turning on him for suggesting their city’s hero is anything less than the best, which serves both as a Sam Raimi Spider-Man reference (“You mess with one of us! You mess with all of us!”) and another example of the citizens as stand-ins for fandom. Superman’s veil of cocksureness comes off quickly after that and stays off for the rest of the play. Starting with his conversation with Green Lantern where a civilian comes across them, but barely acts like Superman’s there.

One of the play’s running gags is Superman calling B@man’s number and leaving messages, showing a desperation to reach out and connect with his fellow hero despite initial smugness. Even before the first phone call scene, we see Superman joining B@man to sing “I want to be somebody’s buddy” during “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight” hinting at what’s to come. The note it consistently comes back to is that Superman’s jealousy stems from Batman’s popularity over him. This is a complete flip of what Lego Batman does with the glimpse at a Batman/Superman dynamic we see when Batman goes to the Superman’s fortress to steal the Phantom Zone projector. The rivalry dynamic there exists solely in Batman’s head, Lego-Superman quickly saying “I would crush you” when Batman suggests the idea of them fighting. Superman’s status among the other DC heroes is also night and day between these works. Where Lego-Superman’s only scene in the movie shows him hosting the Justice League Anniversary Party and explaining he “forgot” to invite Batman, Superman in Holy Musical consistently lies about having friends over (“All night long I’m busy partying with my friends at the Fortress… of Solitude.”)

Superman’s relationship to B@man in Holy Musical develops into larger antagonism thanks to lack of communication with B@man brushing off Supes’ invitations to hang out and fight bad guys (“Where were you for the Solomon Grundy thing? Ended up smaller than I thought, just a couple of cool guys. Me and… Solomon Grundy.”) His own loneliness gets put into stronger focus when he sees the news of Rob!n’s debut as a crimefighter, which makes him reflect on how he misses having Krypto the Super-Dog around. (The explanation for why he doesn’t have his dog anymore is one of my favorite jokes in the play and I won’t ruin it here.)

Where Superman’s a reflection of B@man’s loneliness, Rosario Dawson as Barbara in Lego Batman is a confrontation of Batman’s go it alone attitude. Her job in the story is to be the one poking holes in the foundation of Batman as an idea, starting with her speech at Jim Gordon’s retirement banquet and her instatement as commissioner. She has a by-the-book outlook on crimefighting with the omnicompetence to back it up, thanks to her training at “Harvard for Police.” Babs sees Batman’s current way of operating as ineffectual and wants him to be an official agent of the law. An idea that dumps a bucket of cold water on Batman’s crush he developed immediately upon seeing her, though that never fully goes away.

Her main point is that Batman “karate chopping poor people” hasn’t made Gotham better in his 80 years of operating. A contrast to Holy Musical’s Jim Gordon announcing that B@man has brought Gotham’s crime rates to an all-time low (“Still the highest in the world, but we’re working on it.”) She wants to see a Batman willing to work with other people. A hope dashed constantly dealing with his childish stubbornness as he tries to foil Joker’s schemes on his own, culminating in her arresting Batman and Robin for breaking into Arkham to send Joker to the Phantom Zone.

Barbara’s role as the one bringing grown-up attitudes and reality into Batman’s world does leave her in the role of comedic straight woman. Humor in her scenes comes from how she reacts to everyone else’s absurdity rather than anything she does to be funny. This works for the role she plays in Lego Batman, since she’s not there to have an arc the way Superman does in Holy Musical. She’s another catalyst for Batman’s to start letting people in as another character he grows to care about. Which starts after she lets the Dynamic Duo out of prison to fight Joker’s new army of Phantom Zone villains on the condition that he plays it by her rules. Leading to a stronger bond between Batman, Robin, Alfred, and her as they start working together.

The two Batmen’s relationships to other heroes, their villains, Robin, and their own solitude each culminate in their own way as their stories reach their conclusions.

Dark Knights & Dawning Realizations

As everything comes down to the final showdowns in these Bat-parodies, the two Caped Crusaders each confront their failures to be there for others and allow themselves to be vulnerable to someone they’ve been antagonizing throughout the story. Each climax has all of Gotham threatened by a bomb and the main villains’ plans coming to fruition only to come undone.

Holy Musical has Sweet Tooth’s kidnapping of Rob!n and forcing Gotham to choose themselves or the sidekick they hate sends B@man into his most exaggerated state in the entire play. It’s the classic superhero movie climax conundrum, duty as a hero versus personal attachment. Alfred, having revealed himself as the “other butlers”, even lampshades how these stories usually go only for that possibility to get shot down by Bruce:

Alfred: A true hero, Master Wayne, finds a way to choose both. B@man: You’re right, Alfred. I know what I have to do… Fuck Gotham, I’m saving Robin!

B@man’s selfishness effectively makes him the real villain of Holy Musical’s second act. Lego Batman has shades of that aspect as well, where Batman gets sent to the Phantom Zone by Joker for his repeated refusal to acknowledge their relationship. Where the AI running the interdimensional prison, Phyllis voiced by Ellie Kemper, confronts him with the way he’s treated Robin, Alfred, Barbara, and even Joker:

Phyllis: You’re not a traditional bad guy, but you’re not exactly a good guy either. You even abandoned your friends. Batman: No! I was trying to protect them! Phyllis: By pushing them away? Batman: Well… yeah. Phyllis: Are they really the ones you’re protecting?

Batman watches what’s happening back in Gotham and sees Robin emulate his grim and gritty tendencies to save the day in his absence makes him desperately scream, “Don’t do what I would do!” It’s the universe rubbing what a jerk he’s been in his face. He’s forced to take a look at himself and make a change. B@man’s not made to do that kind of self-reflection until after he’s defeated Sweet Tooth but failed to stop the villain’s bomb. He’s ready to give up on Gotham forever and leave with Rob!n, until his sidekick pulls up Sweet Tooth’s poll and it shows the unanimous result in favor of saving the Boy Wonder. Despite everything they said at the start of Act 2, the people want to help their hero in return for all the times he helped them. All of them calling back to the Raimi Spider-Man reference from Act 1, “You mess with one of us. You mess with all of us.”

Both heroes’ chance at redemption and self-improvement comes from opening themselves up to the people they pushed out and dismissed earlier in their stories. Batman takes on the role he reduced the Commissioner down to at the beginning of the movie and flips on signals for Barbara, Alfred, and Robin to show how he’s truly prepared to work as a team, not just with his friends and family but with the villains of Gotham the Joker pushed aside as well. Teamwork makes the dream work and they’re all able to work together to get Joker’s army back into the Phantom Zone but like in Holy Musical they fail to stop the bomb threatening Gotham. Which he can only prevent from destroying the city by confessing his true feeling to Joker

Batman: If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have learned how connected I am with all of these people and you. So, if you help me save Gotham, you’ll help me save us. Joker: You just said “us?” Batman: Yeah, Batman and the Joker. So, what do you say? Joker: You had me at “shut up!”

The equivalent moment from Holy Musical comes from B@man needing to put aside his pride and encourage a disheartened Superman to save Gotham for him. This happens in the aftermath of a fight the two heroes had where Superman tried to stop B@man before he faced Sweet Tooth, B@man winning out through use of kryptonite. That fight doesn’t fit into any direct parallel with Lego Batman, but it is important context for how Superman’s feeling about B@man before Superman finally gets his long-awaited phone call from the Dark Knight. Also, the song accompanying the fight, “To Be a Man”, is one of the funniest scenes in the play. What this speech from B@man does is bring the idea of Holy Musical B@man as a commentary on fandom full circle:

B@man: I forgot what it means to be a superhero. But we’re really not that different, you and me, at our heart. I mean really all superheroes are pretty much the same… Something bad happened to us once when we were young, so we dedicated our whole lives to doing a little bit of good. That’s why we got into this crazy superhero business. Not to be the most popular, or even the most powerful. Because if that were the case, hell, you’d have the rest of us put out of a job!

This speech extends into an exchange between the heroes about how superheroes are cool, not despite anything superficially silly but because of it. Bringing it back to the “Robin Sucks!” theme that started Act 2, saying “Some people think Robin is stupid. But those people are pretentious douchebags. Because, literally, the only difference between Robin and me is our costumes.” The speech culminates in what I genuinely think is one of the best Batman lines ever written, as B@man’s final plea to Superman is “Where’s that man who’s faster than a gun?” calling back to the trauma that created Batman across all versions and what he can see in someone like Superman. So, B@man sacrificing his pride and fully trusting in another hero saves Gotham, the way Batman letting Joker know what their relationship means to him did in Lego Batman.

Each of these parodies ends by delivering a Batman willing to open himself up to a new team of heroes fighting at his side, the newly minted Bat-Family in Lego Batman and the league for justice known as the Super Friends in Holy Musical. Putting them side by side like this shows how creators don’t need the resources of a Hollywood studio to make something exactly as meaningful and how the best parodies come from love of the material no matter who’s behind them.

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