Gaah, Treasure Planet is such a beautiful movie. It really is a shame it never got any sort of sequel.
(*Whispers hopefully*: Treasure Planet live action sequel?)
“Why, look at ya. Glowing like solar fire. You’re something special, Jim. You’re gonna rattle the stars, you are.”
Treasure Planet (2002) dir. Ron Clements, John Musker
I should probably mention the main reason I was in a space pirate mood today: Skyvault. As a kickstarter backer I got to preview the pilot yesterday and today, and I am feeling all of the hype--I want to binge it but the show doesn’t even exist (beyond what I’ve seen) yet!
[I ramble at length about my experience of and feelings about Skyvault below, with somewhat of a pilot review mixed haphazardly in. There shouldn’t really be spoilers but some may consider some of it as such so read with caution.]
I mean, to be fair, I knew a great deal of the pilot’s plot before seeing it, mostly from watching all of the Q&A’s Door Monster’s already done on it, and also partly from the audition scenes I got to read when I auditioned for it... a year ago already I guess, wow. Time is weird. (I didn’t get a part in it, if you were wondering, but looking back on my audition tapes, they were kind of a train wreck and I have definitely come a ways as an actress in the past year, though of course I have a ways to go.)
But yeah, it’s pretty cool having the forbidden knowledge of the audition scenes--obviously I won’t say much, but when Ian mentioned in the Q&A that Truman’s favorite soup would become a plot point down the line I actually had a pretty good idea what he was referring to, and (assuming I’m right) that was 100% my favorite scene to read for (even though I wasn’t actually in the age range of the character I was reading and so in terms of professionalism I probably shouldn’t’ve included that in the audition, but pretending to be that old woman was also the best acting I did so there were pros and cons.)
But yeah, that’s just to say I did already know a significant portion of what the pilot would be before watching it, which is probably why I must admit I felt like not a ton actually happened in it plot-wise. There were also definitely things I wanted to see developed more in depth--Jay’s relationship with his friend and worldbuilding stuff in particular. It did feel like it moved a little too quickly, although as Kyle explained in the Q&A the pilot isn’t going to be exactly how the first episode will be if/when they get picked up but rather a summary of the show which they’ll use to help sell it, which is reassuring. So, its main weaknesses for me were plot depth, pacing, and world-development, and I have confidence that those were either influenced by my knowing too much ahead of time, or among the things that they’re already planning to fix going forwards, so I think hopefully my current critiques of it will dissolve with time. It really just deserves to be a longer first episode than it was so it can develop itself better.
The best thing about the Skyvault pilot, I’d say, was the characters. I fell instantly in love with both Jay and Truman. At one point I referred to them both as “shards of my soul”. Jay is delightfully enthusiastic about everything and addicted to adventure; he is far too happy in the face of potential death. He’s the hero who has completely idealized and romanticized adventure and is just so deeply in love with it that he plunges headlong into danger and grins in the face of death traps.
The only character I may love more than Jay is Truman. I said right away that he reminded me of a live action Milo from Atlantis, and in the Q&A they told us that Milo was one of the main inspirations for the character other than Ian (acknowledging my comment while doing so, which always feels great). Being deeply in love with Milo and all awkward adventurous academics, it was inevitable that I would love Truman, and he certainly did not disappoint. I don’t want to spoil it, but there’s a reveal with him that is brilliant and hilarious and beautiful. I also love how they’ve already displayed his internal conflict between earnestly wanting adventure and discovery versus his tendency towards fearfulness (“I’m done being safe.” vs. “The things we do are extremely dangerous.” “How extremely?”).
To put it in Harry Potter terms, Truman is my inner Ravenclaw and Jay is my inner Thunderbird, and I love them both dearly.
I will admit I don’t relate to Kat nearly as much, but I’m sure I’ll come to love her as time goes on. There was already a moment when she and Truman touched hands and I’m such shipper trash that I’m already fully prepared to ship it, haha. I mean I’m still flexible on ships at this early stage, but like, I’m ready.
They’ve also done a great job with kickbutt female characters and diversity. There are already several women who display a range of strengths in different ways but who are all capable of handling themselves, and it bodes well for an epic series.
It also has, of course, that signature Door Monster humor. The actors have done a good job of being characters based on the Door Monster cast but not exactly them, and the whole thing has DM’s signature inventiveness and I am so ready to find out more.
And, yes, as I stated, this is primarily what caused me to go on a space pirate bingeposting spree today.
Anyways, this review, like my Skyvault audition tapes, is a bit of a trainwreck, but I am now too tired to edit it properly so for now I’m just going to toss it into the merciless void of the internet.
New official poster for Skyvault as the pilot enters post production
Before Olaf ever officially met Bertrand, he had heard stories about him. Bertrand’s chaperone thought he was an amazing, model apprentice. But that chaperone also ranked last out of all 52 VFD chaperones. Who coincidentally was also Olaf’s nemesis Snicket’s chaperone, and that was where things got interesting.
Someone who Lemony Snicket was unfavorably compared to? Olaf hadn’t even met this guy, but he decided that he’s going to like him.
When they finally met for the first time, Olaf discovered that Bertrand was quite unlike the usual VFD theater teens he encountered. Bertrand wasn’t much a literature guy, nor was he invested in poetry or theater. He didn’t quote classics in everyday life (not even wrongly or sarcastically or anything) like the rest of them. (Perhaps that was how he got assigned to lowest ranking chaperone, Olaf thought.)
Despite his differences with the theater teens of VFD, they all turned out to like Bertrand a lot. He was pleasant and easygoing and because of his interests were different from them, they didn’t feel the need to compete with him. But the best thing was, he was great at building sets and props – everything the theater people needed on stage – and every fancy, overly dramatic equipment they probably didn’t need off-stage but he was nice enough to make for them anyway. (One day, the working wings of a dragonfly costume might turn out surprisingly useful for an actress, but that was another story.)
And Olaf liked him too, just like all of them. Bertrand was the only person who wouldn’t tear his Al Funcoot plays apart, and as much as it was fun bickering with Beatrice or R about the literary references in his plays, it was great to have someone who he could spend time with that didn’t care about all those and would be glad to help make the props for the play. (Although he did have to fight the other theater majors for his time – as if Beatrice’s bat-styled hot air balloon or Esme’s martini glass dress was more important than his demands.)
And perhaps that was why Bertrand’s part in his parents’ murder came as the most surprising of them all. After being friends – if he could call them that – with Beatrice for so many years since their childhood, he’d known, grudgingly that she was capable of a lot of things. Mostly in the name of drama, but sometimes for things more sinister too. He’d seen her darker sides that sometimes he wondered if Snicket realized. And Kit – she followed VFD’s orders in a way nobody else could, she planned coldblooded schemes in the name of necessary evil better than anyone else. (It probably said something about their relationship that he wasn’t that surprised when his girlfriend played a part in his parents’ murder.) But Olaf never expected it from Bertrand.
Bertrand, who got along with everyone, who was always helpful, who didn’t argue much but not in a Jerome kind of way.
He’d long known ago he shouldn’t trust actors, but perhaps the biggest lesson was to not trust the polite and practical engineers either.
In retrospect, maybe he should have known. After all, Bertrand was the one with the craftiest hands out of them all. And if he could make theater props for them, who knew what else he was able to make?
A handy little device for aiming poison darts, as it turned out.
I can’t say I’ve ever really been in a fandom at the end of its show, either, but I feel like there will always be something here. I mean, realistically, I would guess that the fandom will go on at full strength for at least a few months to a year after The End as we all digest and respond to it. After a while, I imagine it will taper off some, but I don’t think it will ever go away entirely. I suppose it varies from fandom to fandom, but there are plenty of old fandoms out there that keep lingering around. After all, when you love something hard enough to go full fandom over it, I think it will always hold a special place in your heart, and you’ll come back to it, and that will probably include a fair number of us in the fandom. I feel like the Gotham fandom is a particularly tight-knit community, from what I’ve encountered.
I feel you, though. I just binged Gotham this summer so I’m still sort of new here, too. It’s kind of weird just jumping into a fandom at the end, but, well, I guess it’s also an exciting time to be a fan? It’s so strange feeling this secondhand sadness as we watch the cast and crew say goodbye to the show a month before the end even starts for us. At least we won’t be able to binge this last season, so while I watched four years worth of Gotham in two weeks this summer, season 5 will last over two months. So there’s still a lot to look forward to, and I for one don’t plan on leaving right when it ends :)
Ive never been in a fandom to watch it end. Whats it like? Do people just kinda leave if theres no new content? I really hope not because Im pretty new to the gotham fandom and im gonna stay here after it ends so I was hoping most people wpuld do the same but again, I dont know.
You’re never too old to get cuddles from Momcat, no matter how much bigger than her you get! :)
Shoot I don't even have time to let this one steep in my drafts. I have to reblog it right away like a wild person.
So I started watching Wandavision tonight, and I do already know some spoilers just from being around on tumblr when it first came out, but we just got through episode 3 and it's hitting me. Basically, this is Storybrooke and Wanda is Regina.
Except instead of taking away everyone else's happy endings, she's just trying to give herself her own. But really, that was what Regina was trying to do too, and it's definitely seeming like Wanda has also taken away the happy endings of others, intentionally or not. So in its essence, this is like Once Upon a Time for comic book characters (but without everyone turning up being related somehow ;) lol).
Shoutout to Long Face by the Vampire Lestat for being an actual real song that actually made it onto my top 100 songs this year btw. Do you think Lestat will make one of those little "thank you fans" videos to thank all of us who streamed his music?
So I just went through the new Gotham promo at .25 speed, as one does, and I don’t have any discoveries quite as significant as my Selena one last promo, but I still thought I’d share a few screenshots and speculations. Probably the best is this first one, where I managed to pause on this funky bird-masked person in the night vision goggles. Is this that Magpie who’s supposed to be coming in this season? I thought she was the silver-haired girl? Well, perhaps this is her wearing a mask.
Also, this looks disturbingly like bones in a furnace--see the ribs? Is this a cremation or something? Well... I’m spooked.
Speaking of bones... someone is collecting teeth? Is... is there a tooth fairy themed Gotham villain? Or is this Zsasz or Strange or someone keeping trophies? Actually I’m not completely certain whether they’re teeth but I also don’t know what else they’d be. For the most part, they look too smooth, but the gold ones definitely look like false teeth.
On a less spooky note, look, a random child. While I have no more information about this beyond it being a random child, my heart is already saying that this is another orphan like Martin for Os and Ed to adopt.
And here we have Bruce presumably looking down at Jeremiah falling into the vat of Joker-juice... Either that, or this is before the fall and he’s just gazing down at the glowing green chemicals and brooding as Jeremiah monologues. It didn’t feel like there would be a lot of time for monologuing and brooding before the fight breaks out, though, so my gut is telling me this is post-fall. It’s an interesting mix of emotions on his face, to be sure.
And, lastly, I know plenty of people have screenshotted this without the frame and some have even giffed it, but I had to throw in this lovely Nygmobblepot moment :) Mostly I just wanted to say that that bit where Ed is confronting Oswald and he overhears that Os named his dog Edward is basically everything I’ve been hoping for from season 5. I laughed so hard while my mom and grandma were watching wheel of fortune. It’s not exactly the “not you, we named the dog Edward” exact Pirates of the Caribbean parody I was hoping for, but it’s darn close and I’m deeply excited to see the rest of that scene.
Aaaaa you guys, Gotham season 5 is almost here!!!!!!!!!!! *screams fangirlishly into the night*
And I suppose I’d be remiss if I didn’t also reblog the lovely part 2! Dancing, romance, political drama, Kylo Ren with a flower in his hair, and my gosh this art style. I love it :)
A Reylo story Art by @selunchen Story by @selunchen and @destinieswritten
(Part 1) - (Part 2) - Epilogue (Friday 23rd of November)
Keep reading
I guess I wasn’t alone in wanting to see the Nygmobble-family doing Christmas together <3 Aaaah they’re so cute! Their happiness is just so precious. I love the flashing lights, and all the little hats they’re wearing--Martin even has one of those little crown things like British people wear for Christmas (which I only know from the Doctor Who Christmas specials, haha). Hehe and the antlers on Ed and the little origami penguins on the tree and... ugh it’s too cute and sweet. I love it so much. I just want them to be happy and together as a family, and whether or not it turns out that way in the show, I’m grateful that that future exists in the fandom.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! :D
Nygmobblepot decorating the Christmas tree it is! 🎄🎅🎁🎄
Welcome, dear traveller, to our fantastical lande shrouded in swirling violet mists. Here we study how stories shape our lives, how words weave wonders before our eyes. Here we are enamoured of love and the connections betwixt people. Here we seek daring adventures in our wild lande, delving into the unknown at every turn. But mostly, here you'll find my obsession with any number of things, like Doctor Who, the Vampire Diaries, or any number of others from the ever-shifting tide of obsessions through which I cycle. My more-used sideblog is blagueofchaos if you ever wish I posted more :) She/her, 28
298 posts