Blue M. Hart

So I’ve finished the Amazon Lily and Impel Down arcs in One Piece, and I’m going to write a separate post about each. First, let’s get into Amazon Lily.

Before I do that, though, I want to quickly get to some thoughts on the Sabaody Archipelago arc that I wasn’t able to share because I was so shaken by the way it ended lol. Namely, I can’t believe I didn’t mention the most EPIC scene in the whole show thus far- Luffy punching out the Celestial Dragon!! Like… Yeah, yeah, that ended up being a terrible idea because it brought the wrath of the World Government upon them… BUT GOD THAT WAS SO SATISFYING, I HATED THAT GUY SO MUCH. On one level, hitting that guy was the “right thing” to do. Morally, anyway. Usually I don’t agree with any kind of violence being used to solve problems, but after seeing this guy (I can’t even be bothered to remember his name lol) shoot Hatchan (essentially committing a hate crime, since Fishmen are an oppressed minority in the One Piece world) and then dance around bragging about it… Who’s to say punching that smug little grin off his face wasn’t a totally valid reaction? However… unfortunately, it wasn’t the “right” thing to do, as the Celestial Dragons ended up reporting the assault and calling a fleet of Marines, plus an admiral, on the Straw Hats. (Speaking of Admiral Kizaru… 1. I wonder if his powers have a weakness like how Crocodile’s did, or if the only way to defeat him is by using haki (which is something I’ll definitely discuss later)- I think it would be disappointing if they could only use haki to defeat him, and 2. I don’t know why but his laid-back demeanor bothered the CRAP out of me.) When you think about it, Kuma actually saved the crew by sending them all flying…

I also wanted to briefly talk about the Eleven Supernovas, who were introduced in this arc. I feel like 9 new characters (not including Luffy and Zoro) is too many to keep track of, but several did make an impression, namely the two captains who fought with Luffy, Law and Kid, and my personal favorite so far, Bonney. I think she and Luffy need to meet and get into a meat-eating contest. I know Law is a fan favorite and he seems really cool and interesting so far, so I understand why. I can’t wait to learn more about his powers (and his crew- the bear in particular was super endearing!). And Kid, while he didn’t make a huge impression on me personality-wise, has such a cool power and uses it in such an interesting way that I’m looking forward to eventually seeing more of him. I love how Luffy’s reaction to them was “You guys have weird powers” and they’re like “WTF YOU’RE the weird one!!!?!?!”

Anyway, back to Amazon Lily. I think the only part of this arc that I really had a problem with was that aforementioned scene where the women were washing Luffy, like… *CRINGE* And on a similar note, when the women were all lining up to touch Luffy at the banquet, and how it got so bad that he had to grab his food and escape. Granted, Luffy seemed to be more upset that he didn’t get to eat enough than he was with the women touching him, but it was still disappointing to see sexual harassment (yes, I’m calling it that) being played for laughs, just because it was a bunch of women harassing a man. (Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure if all of them were necessarily trying to touch him with sexual intentions- I think most of them were just curious about his rubber powers- but it sure had those kinds of undertones to me and I hated that.)

What I did like, however, were these things:

-The idea of an island of women where strength is valued more than beauty was awesome, and I loved seeing all those cool ladies in action. And the fact that they weren’t all little waifs, but there was so much diversity in their body types and appearances! That was really pleasant to see considering how much flack this show has (rightfully) gotten for its usual lack of diversity in women’s body types. When I heard that Amazon Lily was an island of warrior women, I was imagining it would be an excuse for scantily-clad, skinny fanservice, but I never felt like the women were sexualized (except for Boa Hancock, and she intentionally sexualized herself- that’s another thing I’ll get to in a moment) and overall, it was more progressive than I thought it would be. (The fact that we were seeing the island/community through the eyes of Luffy, who was so ace in this arc that it hurt, probably had something to do with that though.)

-I really appreciated getting to see how Luffy behaves when he's on his own (vs. when he's with the crew). There have definitely been moments in previous arcs where he's gone off on his own- I remember him being separated from the crew for what felt like forever during the Skypeia arc, and there was also the moment where he stormed Enies Lobby by himself. But those situations were different- the latter was a battle, and in the case of both, the crew was never far from him. In the Amazon Lily arc, however, Luffy was entirely on his own and had to rely on only his skills and what little intelligence he possesses to survive. (Random tangent here- I honestly don't think Luffy is unintelligent, really. I think his bluntness, impulsiveness, distractible tendencies, forgetfulness, and optimism makes him seem that way- but really, aren't those just qualities that many neurodivergent people have, too? (Hmm... maybe Luffy isn't stupid, he just has ADHD, haha. That makes him more relatable to me tbh. Imagine how much more powerful he’d become if he started taking Adderall :P)) Like I said in the previous post, it was really telling how without the crew around to curb his behavior, Luffy ends up acting on his impulses to the point of detriment, as seen when he eats the poisonous mushrooms. It also showed how he's much better at taking action when he has other people around to help him refine his ideas, as seen when he's trying to figure out who to go to to ask for a ship, and decides to go to the tallest building because "important people live in tall buildings." That scene even pokes fun at his inability to make a decision without the crew's input by having him say that his head hurts from doing so much thinking, haha.

Mostly, however, what I thought was most interesting about Luffy's behavior on his own was how his kindness shone through in so many different ways. I highly doubt that he would have fought the Boa sisters with quite so much passion if Hancock hadn't turned the girls who'd helped him into stone. One could say that he just felt guilty for getting them turned to stone on his behalf, but Luffy is also the type of person who will make friends with any random stranger, so the brief time that he spent with the girls was probably enough for him to consider them friends. And even if he didn't consider them friends, and even if he didn't owe a debt, I think he still would have moved them out of the arena after they'd been turned to stone, and choose to have Hancock change them back over getting an opportunity to escape at the conclusion of the duel, because he knew they were innocents who had nothing to do with the fight, and that they didn't deserve Hancock's treatment. And then there was the moment where Hancock was telling Luffy her backstory, and one of her sisters started freaking out having a flashback to what happened, and Luffy started insisting that he had heard enough and he didn't want the sisters to put themselves through reliving the bad memories. This was interesting for me to compare what happened when the crew learned Nami's backstory way back when. Luffy specifically didn't care about hearing it and he only went on to defeat Arlong because he knew he had hurt Nami, without even knowing what it was that Arlong had done. He's the type of person who doesn't care about another person's past. As long as their hearts are kind and true in the present, that's enough for him to trust them and try to befriend them. Without the crew, however, Luffy kind of HAD to pay attention to Hancock's backstory, because no one else was around who could memorize that information for him. So this is maybe the first time he's willingly listened as someone shared their past- and since he isn't the type of person who would have wanted to hear about it anyway, it doesn't matter to him that he doesn't hear the full story. All he wants is for the sisters to be okay and to not hurt themselves for his sake. All in all, I loved seeing all these glimpses of Luffy's kindness, because it shows that this isn't the crew influencing him to be more polite or anything- this is completely 100% who he is, a kind young man who wants to make friends with the world, unless someone in the world pisses him off and then it's every man for themselves. What a fascinating character.

-Like I said above, Luffy was so ace in this arc that it HURTS. I know he's not really canonically asexual in the sense that the creator has labeled him as such, but... The fact that he was immune to Hancock's power (turning people who find her attractive to stone) absolutely codes him as asexual. Not to mention the other scene where Hancock takes off her clothes to show him her brand, and he doesn't even bat an eye when he walks in on her and is just disappointed because he was expecting food. And how he was perfectly okay with being naked in front of all the women (because nudity isn't inherently a sexual thing in his mind- of course, I just call that "having a normal mindset about nudity," so that's not ace-exclusive, but it still fits the profile imo), and how the only thing he cared about at the banquet was getting enough to eat and he was annoyed with all the women trying to touch him because they were distracting him, and really the mere fact that he didn't flirt with ANY of the women on the entire island or show ANY interest in them outside of befriending them... GAAAAH it was all SO good and refreshing to see, and even if you don't headcanon Luffy as ace (but how can you not), the fact that he was so respectful of the women was so lovely.

-Finally… I’m not sure how well I can put this into words, but to state this crudely… I love how the idea of misandry was handled in its application to Amazon Lily. What I mean is… Although Amazon Lily is a women-only island, and they explicitly don’t allow men there, I don’t think they were anywhere near as fearful/mistrustful of them before Hancock came into power. Up until meeting Luffy, Hancock and her sisters had only ever met one man they trusted, and that mindset carried over when Hancock became the Snake Princess. Of course, it’s not just men that Hancock hates and fears- she acts cold and cruel towards everyone. But I do fully believe it’s because of her leadership that the women acted so aggressively towards Luffy after he’d had his little hissy fit about the clothes they made for him, saying that he was showing his true colors. Before, they were only curious about him. Then, after Luffy expresses his anger over the clothes (which even he quickly recognized wasn’t anything serious, and he really was grateful to have new clothes even if the style wasn’t to his liking- he’s just impulsive and blunt, like I said before, and he knee-jerk reaction was to voice his annoyance right away), the women immediately went on alert and lost all their interest in him. It’s a mindset they learned from Hancock, who refuses to trust anyone, and since they all adore their Snake Princess, they can’t help emulating her. This is also shown when Marguerite tracked Luffy down after he had escaped and was talking with him, and she threatened him with her bow and arrows, saying that she’d become attached to him if they kept talking. I don’t think this is how the Kuja warriors are expected to behave. Once again, I think this is Hancock’s influence. Marguerite could tell that Luffy was harmless, and she even found herself starting to like him, but she had to remind herself that she’s not supposed to think that way and she’s supposed to see him as an enemy- much like how Hancock sees every outsider as an enemy. To sum up- I like how this mistrust of men was shown to be detrimental to the Kuja society, and how it likely wasn’t a natural mindset of theirs.

The way Hancock overcame her mistrust, however, is something I’m a little iffy about. Before I started watching this arc, I only knew one thing about Hancock- that she falls in love with Luffy. So I was already resigned to that. And I think it was great to have her begin to trust outsiders and men again because she happened to meet such a nice man who proved that no gender is a monolith. But honestly… did she HAVE to realize this because she was romantically attracted to Luffy?? What’s wrong with her simply befriending him? It became hard to take her seriously after that, when she started acting like a silly schoolgirl around him (while of course Luffy remained oblivious). And I also don’t like that her lovesick feelings were depicted as an actual disease. I don’t know if I was meant to take that literally or not… But does this mean that if Luffy doesn’t return Hancock’s affections, she could eventually die from it?? God, I hope not. I hate everything about that.

I don’t have much more to say about this arc, so I might get into Impel Down tomorrow. THAT is sure to be a long post, so we’ll see!

I'm almost done with the Sabaody Archipelago arc in One Piece, and I'm strapped for time so I'll make this very short, but I just HAD to say:

-I fucking hate the Celestial Dragons, oh my god, they can all burn in hell

-That guy with the music powers... Captain Apoo, I think? NEW FAVORITE CHARACTER IN ONE PIECE. (I say slightly sarcastically, but oh my god, whatever Devil Fruit he ate, THAT'S the one I want. What is it, the Music-Music Fruit? Is he a music man, able to turn his body into any instrument he wants? I remember my old friend who I used to watch One Piece with saying that out of all the Devil Fruit powers introduced in the show, Luffy's power was forever the weirdest to him, but how could he have said that even after watching this arc?!)

-The scene at the amusement park was so nice, I loved seeing the crew having fun with their new friends (especially CAmie getting to fulfill her dream of riding the Ferris wheel :') )

-Rayleigh is a fucking badass. I like him a lot.

-SO. MUCH. LORE was dropped in these past few episodes. I'm having a hard time keeping track of everything. But I'm really impressed by the worldbuilding.

I wasn't planning on commenting on the Thriller Bark arc until I was done watching it, but after the episode I just watched last night, I have to get it out there... I was DYING LAUGHING over everything to do with "Tactic 15/Pirate Docking 3." The very concept (which one of them came up with that? I feel like Usopp maybe mentioned it to Franky as a joke, and Franky was like "hey, let's do it!" and they got Chopper on board because of course he would find that cool, and then maybe they mentioned it to Sanji and Zoro, who both took it as a joke or thought they were off the hook because they figured they'd never need to use that tactic... but I wonder who was originally supposed to be the left arm, because I feel like Robin would have flat-out told them "no" right away if she'd known about it from the very start, and I know they said "Nami never would have left us hanging like that!" but I feel like Nami absolutely would have left them hanging like that, hahahaha. I figure Luffy might have been down to do it, but they probably never thought of asking him because they figured he can handle whatever enemy would require Tactic 15 on his own), the fact that Robin absolutely refused to do it under any circumstances, the way Oars was genuinely disappointed that he didn't get to see the "giant robot." (I love Oars so much. I was sort of hoping Luffy's will would be too strong for him to submit to Moria's will, and Oars would just end up being a huge liability because he's walking around casually fucking shit up without a care in the world. But even after he submitted to Moria and went on the warpath, I do love that he still has some traces of Luffy in him- including the fact that he won't really hurt anyone unless they seriously piss him off. So, just as I predicted, the remaining Straw Hats seriously pissed him off, and now he's going to attack them. I also love that my other prediction- that the remaining Straw Hats would have to fight him all together to take him down- is coming true. I think it's funny that Usopp kept being like "We don't need to take Oars down, we can just wait for Luffy to take down Moria and that'll take out all the zombies!" when 1. you do realize you're talking to Zoro and Sanji, who wouldn't back down from a fight, and 2. Luffy is really getting nowhere with Moria, so this could take a while :'D I honestly don't know how he's going to end up kicking Moria's ass like he wants to- it seems like Moria might genuinely overpower him. But he's got to have some sort of weakness, like how Crocodile and Eneru had weaknesses that Luffy was able to exploit. We'll see what happens...)

Gotta love how the entire crew of Thriller Bark is made up of such pathetic and unlikeable people. Moria would make a terrible Pirate King, seeing as he doesn't want to do anything himself and just forces his underlings to do it all for him. That's antithetical to the idea of freedom that the Pirate King represents. Absalom is... well... he's a disgusting creep whose defeat was immensely cathartic for me to watch. I won't say I hate him as much as I hated Spandam from the Enies Lobby arc, but my hatred for him is somewhere up there. I was happy that Sanji got to beat him up, but even happier when Nami delivered the finishing blow, because fuck him for doing what he did to her. (I also can't wait to see Sanji's reaction when he realizes that Nami saved herself and didn't need him to save her. I mean, yeah, Sanji helped, but Nami was the one to finish off Absalom, and she wasn't even aware of Sanji's involvement either. I feel like Sanji's the type of disgustingly chivalrous person who would be disappointed that he didn't get to rescue his damsel in distress, completely subjugating Nami in the process.) As despicable as Absalom is, I loathe Dr. Hogback even more, even though I feel like his character could be a lot more nuanced and less obviously evil. I would have preferred if he had started out as a genuinely good doctor who wanted to help people, and maybe Cindry could have been his wife or his daughter- someone with whom he had an actual bond, not a random actress he treated once with whom he became obsessed- and after she died, his obsession with bringing her back to life drove him to madness and immorality. Instead, him revealing that he had never actually cared about helping people as a doctor made him too obviously evil and one-dimensional for me. I have a feeling that Oars didn't actually squash him, but I couldn't care less if he did, no one will miss him. (I hope Cindry is all right though, and I hope she finally gets her shadow released and finds peace in death. As great as it would be to see her come into her own as a person in control of herself, I don't think her life would be very happy without a shadow, as she'd never get to see sunlight and therefore could never go outside the Florian Triangle.) Finally, I do have a soft spot for Perona, the cutesy evil ghost girl... but the fact that she's so reliant on her power and FREAKS THE FUCK OUT when it doesn't work for her makes her pathetic in my eyes. I loved the way her fight with Usopp went- Usopp is so much more clever/stronger than he thinks he is, I don't get why he's always so full of self-doubt. (At least his self-doubt and anxiety actually ended up protecting him from Perona, though. That plot twist cracked me up, between Usopp going "I just naturally have A NEGATIVE PERSONALITY!!!" and Perona reacting as if she'd lost all faith in humanity and telling him to cheer up.

I have a little bit more to say, but I may wait until the arc is over to share all my thoughts. For now, I'll say this: Brook is on track to becoming my second-favorite Straw Hat Pirate (I know he hasn't joined the crew yet, but we all know that he will). I mean, a talking skeleton swordsman who sings and plays the violin and makes dumb jokes about being a skeleton all the time? He's so fucking cool!! I also like his backstory. I don't know how he's going to act once he officially joins the crew, though- I feel like he could get annoying quickly- so I'm trying to reserve my judgments for now.

One more thought- I was thinking about how the members of the Straw Hat Pirates who I headcanon as queer (Luffy is aroace, Nami is a lesbian, and Zoro is demi/bi) would interact with that part of themselves, given how different the world of One Piece is to our own, and if it would even matter to them, and I just wanted to say that I think Luffy wouldn't give his sexuality/orientation a second thought (and I don't think anyone else would care that much either), but I think he would be excited once he finds out about pride flags. I can just see him being like "wow, that means I get TWO flags!!" and flying the ace & aro colors on board the Sunny just because they're flags and not because he really feels connected to this part of his identity at all, lol. Also, one last semi-related thought- in the dub that I'm watching, there's a throwaway line when Nami is fighting against Absalom's attempts to kiss her, and one of the things she says is "I'm a pirate! I'm into adventure, not romance!" And that just makes me really happy. I think that's the stated reason out-of-universe why there's no romance in One Piece, and I love that they threw that in there, even if it probably doesn't align with whatever the original line is in Japanese.

I've said previously that the worst bullshit of my life is Ziggyfloyd, and, well, I'm still VERY much on that bullshit. (Hoping to have the first half of Part 4 of SF: ALS posted by November 1st- edits are coming along extremely well.) But now I'm back on the second-worst bullshit of my life because I just started watching the new live-action adaptation of One Piece and it got me chomping at the bit to watch the anime again, so I started rewatching the Davy Back Fight arc of the anime because it's shorter than some of the others, the stakes are lower, and it's quite silly and fun to watch to boot. And once I finish that, I think I'll be ready to ease back into watching One Piece with the arc that I stopped at seven years ago, Thriller Bark. (Yeah... I couldn't even make it to the timeskip... there was a point where I went "I wonder how many episodes I have left" and then when I found out, I just sort of gave up all hopes of ever catching up. Even now, I don't think I'll watch past the timeskip- I might read the manga to catch up, or I might not. (I actually have spoiled myself on a bunch of major plot points just to give myself something to look forward to, but we'll see how I feel when I eventually get to the timeskip if I feel motivated to watch it further to get to those parts, or if reading about them is enough for me.))

Anyway... I've only seen the first two episodes of the live-action adaptation so far, and I'm not sure if I have any real thoughts on it yet. It's been... I think nine years since I watched the corresponding anime episodes for the first and only time, so I don't remember how much was changed. I think so far, it is very apparent that they crammed the plot of several episodes into one, but since Netflix only gave them... I think 10 episodes in comparison to the anime's 20+ per season, it makes sense that they'd have to condense it. I was a little afraid as to how seriously I'd be able to take the story when seeing it in live action, especially where special effects were concerned, since so many characters have weird superpowers that I assumed would be a sort of uncanny valley thing in live action. But I think so far, they've done a good job of portraying things like Luffy's stretching powers and Buggy detaching and reassembling his body. (Also, I can barely take the anime seriously half the time, let's be real... It has its serious moments, but I've always considered it a comedy first and foremost.) Aside from Luffy, who I think was both cast and (aside from a few quibbles of mine) written perfectly, I'm not really sure how I feel about the other crew members yet. I figured Nami's characterization would have to be changed a bit, since her tendency to hit people who annoy her isn't a good personality trait to carry over, but that has the side effect of her not really feeling like Nami to me. Not yet, anyway. I like how they're presenting her, and I especially like the hints of how her backstory affects her (her hatred of pirates and how distraught she was over seeing the village ravaged by Buggy's crew are certainly things that I expect the show to touch on further once her whole backstory is revealed). But I'm having a hard time believing, for the time being, that she's Nami. We'll see how the role plays out, I suppose. (Side note, I'm also terrified, even though I KNOW they wouldn't do this, that she and Luffy might be teased as a couple, which I know would make some shippers happy (including *cough* my past self... it's so weird to look back on fic I've written when I can't get behind that pairing anymore), but I think it would cheapen their actual relationship so much and I'm irrationally afraid that it's going to happen for the arbitrary reason that he's the protagonist and she's the token female character. I also thought their actors had chemistry, not that I want to see their characters act on it. Anyway, Luffy is aroace and Nami is a lesbian in MY head, thank you very much.)

As for Zoro, I like the way his character is being portrayed a lot so far, but I feel like he's maybe a little bit too stoic, although he's had a lot of badass and funny lines so that makes up for it. I think, as with Nami, that his character will open up and become more compelling once his backstory is revealed. I did find it weird in the second episode where, out of the blue, he suddenly announced that Luffy had changed his worldview, after spending what... a few days with him, and for most of that time, he seemed to kind of grudgingly accept his situation rather than be open to befriending Luffy. To me, it made sense for Luffy to announce that Nami and Zoro are his friends at the end of the episode, even though they'd only known each other for a little while, because he's that kind of person who would become instantly attached to people, but it didn't make sense for Zoro to seemingly reciprocate the sentiment. Ehhh... I still have quite a few episodes to go so again, we'll see how this pans out.

As far as other characters go- Buggy is actually creepy and much more powerful than he was in the anime, WTF. I'm not sure why we're spending so much time with Koby- and I also don't remember Garp making any appearances this early- but I guess I'm mildly intrigued to find out where that arc goes. I don't remember well enough what Garp was like, but I do remember his connection to Luffy, so I think it's really funny for whatever reason how dissimilar they are in terms of appearance and voice. What a plot twist that will be when it's eventually revealed that Luffy is Garp's grandson. Finally, seeing Shanks in live action has ignited my crush on that character all over again, yippee! He's so... *sigh*

Overall, the show is fun so far and it's making me laugh a surprising amount. I'd still rather watch the anime, but I'm looking forward to finishing out the first season and seeing how it goes.

(And as for watching the anime for the first time in seven years, all I can say is... 1. I picked the right arc to watch, I was in hysterics all over again as soon as they reached "Long Ring Long Land" and the fun has yet to let up, 2. after all this time, I think the sound of Luffy laughing is still one of my favorite sounds in the world, lol... I do like him a LOT in the live action version (like, they genuinely couldn't have found a better actor for that role), but I really, really miss his voice from the English dub, and 3. it took me no time at all to remember why watching this show is so dangerous to me- because the episodes are only 22 minutes and often end on a cliffhanger, so I can watch like ten of them in one go and not even realize how much I've watched until later. I guess watching for an hour before bedtime is better than four hours in the middle of the day like I used to do, lol.

Haven't been posting much on here because I've been feeling very demotivated lately. To paraphrase Talking Heads: "Nothing strikes my fancy, nothing turns me on." I haven't been in the mood to see people, listen to records, work on SF: ALS, watch shows, go to events, or really do anything other than read and idly work on my music. Those aren't bad things to do, but I do feel a little sad because I do want to see people and go to events, but I just can't seem to muster up any enthusiasm whenever I'm invited out. I also really do want to finish at least Part 4 of SF: ALS by November, so I know I should probably start working on it soon, and I have a couple shows in my watch list lately and I also have set out a few records that I eventually want to play, but I never really feel like doing any of that. All I seem to do lately is work, come home, make dinner, spend a few hours dicking around looking at things on Reddit/Tumblr/YouTube, maybe read a little, and then go to bed. I thought having a day to myself like today would be a good thing, and I did actually manage to bake a pie and spend some time playing piano, but other than that I feel like I need SOMETHING right now but I can't figure out what it is that I want to do because nothing seems interesting. I hope I can find my motivation and desire to do things again soon.

Hi, just stopping by because I need a place to put this article:

https://www.moviejawn.com/home/2023/7/26/vinyl-video-the-neurodivergent-appeal-of-the-sparks-brothers

I want everyone who’s interested in Sparks to read this, especially neurodivergent fans. This makes me incredibly happy. <3

I just saw that plutodetective had made a list of all the projects she wants to write in the future, and I’ve been thinking of making a similar list myself. It’s a bit different, though, because there are two lists. Here is a list of all the spin-off stories set in the Concept Album Multiverse that I either have written or have planned, and following that, a list of music video ideas that I had wanted to film, but it wasn’t in the cards.

Written Stories:

-Ziggyfloyd smut 1: Ziggy & Floyd take a shower together the day after they move into their new home.
-Ziggyfloyd smut 2: A rainy day and a bout of writer’s block won’t stop Ziggy & Floyd from having fun.
-Ziggyfloyd fluff/hurt-comfort: Floyd is there for Ziggy when he feels too depressed to get out of bed.
-Ziggyfloyd angst/hurt-comfort: While house-hunting for a place to live now that they’ve arrived on a new planet, Ziggy finds the last remnant of his people, and comes to terms with the fact that everyone he ever knew from his home planet has died while he was either on Earth or traveling through time and space to find them.
-Short gap-filler between the last chapter and epilogue of Will They Come?: Julie’s introduction to Aresian gender dynamics throws her into a state of questioning, leading her to break things off with Jack.

Unwritten Stories:
-Will They Come? Conclusion: A grand finale for all the characters as they gather in celebration of Jack’s 21st birthday.
-Ziggyfloyd angst/fluff: Ziggy and Floyd agree to separate temporarily after Ziggy witnesses tensions between Floyd and Jack.
-Ziggyfloyd hurt/comfort: Ziggy discovers that Floyd suffers from hallucinations, and tries to help him when he’s experiencing psychosis.
-A look into Floyd & Haushinka’s relationship as they go from mutual dislike to true companionship.
-Wedding fluff! A look at how traditions are rewritten for three different weddings in Hunger City- Mylo & Xyloto, Widdy & Dice, and Jack & Shalaya.
-Possible headcanons that I have, but am not sure if I'll end up writing a full-fledged story about them- Shalaya & Jack's struggle to have children, Jagger finds out what happened to his parents. (Also, I'm going back and forth on whether I want some of the Aresians to have survived the Aresian genocide, if only because I NEED Ziggy to have some sort of closure. If I settle on having some of them be alive, I'll definitely write a story about that.)

I think that's it for the stories... Now, here are some music video ideas that I had to scrap.

-Accompanying a funk song about hooking up at a club: A woman enters a bar/club and notices the band performing, which is my band. After I sing the first verse, I notice her noticing us and come down from the stage to talk to her. We chat, get close, she buys me a drink, we dance and enjoy ourselves. Towards the end of the song, we leave the club and she drives me to her place. As we walk through the main room, the camera pans past wedding photos on the wall of myself and the woman. Hey, pretending to be strangers keeps things interesting in a relationship... Last shot is of the bedroom door closing.

-Accompanying an introspective song about fearing vulnerability in a relationship: A man and I wake up in bed, get dressed, brush our teeth, shower, have breakfast... all while keeping our backs to each other. I don't mean that we just happen to be shown back to back in every shot- I mean that when he turns around, I move seamlessly so that I'm always back to back with him, no matter what. During the first chorus, I am shown following him up the stairs; during the second chorus, he is following me up the stairs (or we're just following each other in some other location). The scenes during the second verse are similar to the first, except we're going through nightly activities instead of daily ones. On the bridge, a slow tilt will occur so that everything looks off-kilter (not sure yet what will be happening in this scene). At the very end, we're walking towards each other from a certain distance, finally looking each other in the eye once we get close enough to touch. I then fall into his arms.

Both of these ideas are too ambitious for me to pull off at the moment, but I'd still really like to make them. The songs are sort of mirror images of each other, as one is about being carefree enough to go out with a stranger (well, she's not a stranger in the video, but still) and have a good time, whereas the other is about being afraid to be open with and trust a person who you've been with for a while. So I thought it would be cool to have a sort of duality about it. I definitely want one of the videos to have a female romantic lead while the other has a male romantic lead; at first it was an arbitrary choice because I wanted a woman to sing backing vocals and I thought it would be fun if she then appeared in the video, but now I just like the idea of having an F/F relationship for this particular video because it's far more typical, in a music video set in a club where one character is pursuing the other, for the couple to be heterosexual. (It would still be cool to have me, a woman, pursuing a man, but I'm pretty solidly stuck on the F/F couple at this point.) The two videos would also contrast because one would be a much more conventional, what you see is what you get type of video- how many music videos have you seen that take place in clubs? Many, I'm sure- while the other one is more conceptual and layered. I would also like to work with a choreographer on it, and maybe that could be a jumping-off point for the song cycle/stage production I eventually want to create, but who knows.

The more Alice Oseman books I read, the more I become convinced that the best way for the people in my life to understand me is to read her books as well. If only I had infinite copies of Loveless, Radio Silence, and I Was Born For This to pass around to people.

Speaking of I Was Born For This, I'm very close to finishing it and will probably make a post about it soon, but I'll just say this so far: and I thought SOLITAIRE was depressing, jesus. (Actually, no, it's not as bad as Solitaire, but it could easily be retitled Jimmy Kaga-Ricci and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day/Week. I feel so bad for him and I want to hug him.)

As mentioned in a previous post, I went to a new bookstore recently. It was a bit disappointing; the shop was small, and they only sold new titles. I bought some picture books for a friend's kid, but as for me personally, I had better luck at a nearby chain store that not only sold books, but records and movies as well. I was hoping to find at least one of these three- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis, or I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman. And I did find one of those three, which was I Was Born For This! I had a fun conversation with the cashier who rang me up, who gasped when they saw the book and said "Sorry, I'm such an Alice person!" They showed me their Heartstopper tattoo and said that they were making a countdown to season 2 with their friends, which was cool. I also happened to buy a strange single record that had a remix of Sparks' "Beat the Clock" on it. The remix is more interesting than good, but I'm keeping it because it's so rare to find anything related to Sparks in the wild. :P

Anyway, after I found I Was Born For This, I also found... AT LONG LAST... Alice Oseman's revised edition of Solitaire! I've been looking for this for quite a while, curious as to whether she changed a few certain things about the story that I felt were problematic. I didn't get to read all of it, of course, but I flipped to certain parts that I felt should have been changed, and here's what I found:

(Mentions of suicide, self harm, mental illness under the cut)

( Read more... )

So I decided to participate in Dracula Daily this year, since 1. a lot of my friends are doing it again, and 2. I've been wanting to read this book for a long time. I remember when I was a kid, I read an extremely abridged version of it, and then during the time of Twilight, I was reading more vampire stories and one of the stories I read mentioned Dracula, naturally, so I started looking for it in libraries for a while after that, but I never found it... And then I forgot that I wanted to read it, so it's about time I finally did. I also saw the original Universal film adaptation at some point, probably when I was in high school.

Here's what I remember about Dracula from the version of it that I read a long time ago (ignoring what I have gleaned from last year's memes and meta): Jonathan Harker is the protagonist and he has a partner, Mina. (I think they're engaged? I can't remember.) Mina has a friend, Lucy. There's another character named Van Helsing, but I remember nothing of what he does in the story despite his character being hugely popular in pop culture. (I take it he's a doctor who treats vampire victims?) Jonathan becomes trapped at Dracula's castle, but I can't remember what he was there for in the first place. I do remember feeling very bad for him. At some point, I think Mina takes ill and eventually turns out to be one of Dracula's victims? But I think this happens to Lucy too? Anyway, that's all I remember. What I remember from the movie adaptation is that Dracula doesn't drink... wine, and he has a lackey named Renfield who eats bugs and is played to excellent perfection by Dwight Frye and is really the highlight of the movie for me. Now that I think about it, I also remember Mina being preyed on in the movie, and Van Helsing showing up to help out the protagonists. But... yeah, that's about it.

Here's what I think about the story so far:

-It's so funny that the first entry has an element of "DUN DUN DUN! The guy he's going to see is DRACULA!!" to modern readers, whereas this probably had zero effect on readers at the time. :D

-I REALLY like the writing style so far. The descriptions of the countryside are great.

-Getting bad vibes from Dracula and his driver immediately, right around the point where the driver grabbed Jonathan's arm in a too-tight grip. (I also got the impression that Dracula was the driver- and Jonathan seemed to think that too for a second- but I’m not sure yet if that will be revealed as true.) That feeling only grew when Jonathan was dining and listening to the wolves howling, and Dracula was all ":D :D :D" about it while Jonathan seemed more concerned. That, and the fact that all of the people Jonathan has met in the area so far seem terrified of the idea of him going up to the castle...

-I can see the potential already in Jonathan's relationship with Mina. It's so cute to me how he makes notes to get the recipes for the foods he's being served so he can make them for Mina (or so she can make them, probably, but the first thought I had was that he wanted to do the cooking), and how he admonishes himself for downplaying his achievements in becoming a solicitor, because "Mina wouldn't like that." I'm looking forward to getting to know the both of them better as this story progresses.

Now I find myself sad that there’s no entry for today… I want to continue the story.

The only thing about Dracula Daily so far that I’m unhappy about is that I can’t really go on tumblr and read people’s posts about it, because a lot of the posts are from people who participated in it last year and they’re coming at it from a position of “this part hits different now that we know [insert thing that I didn’t know about the story here].” I now wish I had done it last year so that I wouldn’t get as many spoilers.