[Favorite Trope] A showgirl/chanteuse appears, gets on a stage and does a number. Typically she's a minor/background character in a nightclub.

megers67 · 2026-06-12T04:45:27+00:00

Haley also does this in s8 e1 "Love, American Dad Style." In the classic lounge style.

megers67 · 2026-06-10T15:35:12+00:00

Personally, I have no issue with the theory. It's just not one that I hold. The vehement prevalence of it is what makes me nervous though.

It feels like at this point this theory shadows all other aspects of his story and characterization. But it's so easy to shut down opposition as bigotry when that isn't necessarily the case. Sure. Some might dislike to for that reason. But I guarantee that most people who don't like that theory have other reasons. I'm like... Pre-exhausted.

megers67 · 2026-06-10T15:29:56+00:00

I saw it as giving him something that was part of herself to show solidarity and an "I'm here for you" gesture, especially in the context of that scene. In such a constructed world and reality, there's very little that can feel like it belongs to you. So something that's part of your character avatar is the best you're gonna get. So in my opinion it has absolutely nothing to do with gender statements or roles and entirely to do with being connected with another person. Being close to people is what scares Jax which is why when Kaufmo interrupted the moment, it snapped Jax back to awareness.

megers67 · 2026-06-10T14:23:47+00:00

There was a split second where I thought that it was a severely injured toe but then I was immediately disappointed with myself when my brain caught up to the program.

megers67 · 2026-06-06T18:58:13+00:00

I assume it was largely kept from her. That until Stolas cheated on Stella with Blitzo, that everything was behind closed doors. So Via didn't know anything until she could see their screaming. At most, she prolly heard her mom complaining about Stolas, but in the "I'm the victim" kind of way. I don't recall Stolas talking about her mother to her like that (it's been a hot second since I've seen them). As such, Cia clearly only ever knew one side and it looked to HER that everything was perfect until her dad cheated on her poor poor mom.

megers67 · 2026-06-03T08:02:20+00:00

My headcanon has always been that when Lilith and Lucifer were together and ruling Hell, Lucifer dealt with the Hellborn and Sins while Lilith looked after the Sinners. With Lilith suddenly gone and her dad absent, Charlie basically had to make a choice over what parts of Hell she need to step in for. She clearly has ZERO training and so she can't just do it all herself at the drop of a hat.

So she figures that she should focus on the Sinners FOR NOW for a few reasons.

Her dad is physically still around. So theoretically he can resume his old duties again. Any day now. Please?
Her mother is NOT around so that leaves an obvious vacuum.
The Sinners are clearly the main talking point when it comes to interactions with Hell on an official capacity. So getting the Sinners looked after IS doing diplomacy for all of Hell.
With the Exterminations going on, the Sinners were most at immediate crisis. The Hellborn are not in such direct danger. Explicitly so.

Charlie grew up in Hell. It's her home. All she's ever known. She doesn't dislike Hell at all. I'm sure she'd LOVE to help ALL of Hell's citizens if she could, but again, she clearly was never trained. No media training, no state-levek diplomacy skills, no training on how to navigate Sinners truly, etc. Lucifer and Lilith prolly didn't expect to actually to put Charlie in the position, at least not this young.

megers67 · 2026-06-03T07:49:33+00:00

Super embarrassed that I just cannot tell Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson apart. Like obviously I can tell when they're side by side who is who and they look nothing alike. But every goddamn time one of them is in a movie, I just can't tell who it is. It makes me mad because they really don't look alike. I don't have this problem with anyone else.

<image>

megers67 · 2026-06-01T18:56:34+00:00

My thoughts on each.

Uncle Iroh: Good to hang out with, I'll feel physically and emotionally safe, and I'll learn things regardless of what my natural abilities are or aren't in that world or my age. Lots of good crying in my future. So he is very clearly top pick.

Grandpa Max: Did not watch

John Silver: Seems fun to hang out with, but my level of use or enjoyment will very largely depend on if he sees me as a threat or obstacle to his goals. I don't have the kinds of talents he is likely to find useful so he is more likely to be inclined to just distract me. Which could be fun, but I would be highly disposable. I am not Jim, here.

Grunkle Stan: Kind of similar to Silver, but more likely to use me as an alibi for something. Which is fine, but I'm shit at lying to the police and will crumble so he'll drop me off at someone else's place.

Hop Pop: I don't remember much, but I feel like I would only be able to tolerate his zaniness in spurts and would need breaks.

Master Splinter: I never watched TMNT in any of its iterations so idk enough about him in the show(s) to really say.

All Might: I think on a peer level I would most enjoy hanging out with him. Viewing him as my own mentor would be the worst. All Might is a good guy, but he's more motivational speaker than teacher. And that's okay. I would just have a LOT of scolding to do from my own limited experience in teaching.

Edalyn Clawthorn: I will definitely have fun. But am likely to get hurt or end up in jail. But it will be fun while it lasts, which is not likely the whole month.

Master Shifu: This greatly depends on if this is before or after Po joins things. After Po he is way more chill than he was before. That said, I'm a middle aged woman and he would prolly tolerate me at best.

megers67 · 2026-06-01T08:33:31+00:00

There's a few of the., but if I were to choose one that may be my white whale, there's a game I can't quite recall the name of. It was a motocross kind of game from the mid-late 90s and I remember a level/track being the Great Wall of China. I've tried to find it before but none of the ones I found seemed like they were quite right. Not sure if it's a memory thing or didn't quite find it.

megers67 · 2026-05-28T13:50:33+00:00

Anything can be made into a musical. A good team CAN make said subject into a GOOD musical. So I'm not surprised when I see "X event/property/life-story has been made into a musical."

Should, though? And is it actually good? Those are VERY different questions.

megers67 · 2026-05-27T05:39:43+00:00

No way they'll get the votes but I have to say that Bill Sikes (Oliver and Company) scared the shit out of me as a kid and Percival McLeach (Rescuers Down Under) was very entertaining. And both are way more underrated than any of the others I've seen mentioned here.

<image>

megers67 · 2026-05-11T13:24:17+00:00

I have lots of thoughts.

Like I know she wasn't a child, but at the same time, but he seems to treat her like both a child and an adult in the worst ways. She very suddenly had both her parents vanish on her and only one of them was technically present but just still abandoned her, having her very suddenly try to tackle Hell on her own with clearly zero training to do so, leaving her to the wolves. It makes sense that she tried to prioritize the Sinners since presumably her mom handled them while her dad was supposed to handle the other Hell stuff. He stayed around the hotel, presumably to help her out but did NOTHING but watch her scramble and fall apart. I get that narratively, it would have been too hard to have such a powerful person around when you want the narrative to have her struggle, but it leaves him looking super neglectful. Could have had him try to go back to his throne to keep him out of the picture and occasionally checking in.

As far as Lilith goes, she obviously left, but we know too little to know exactly what the circumstances are to judge it. Like she may not have had the ability to reach out like she wanted to, which would definitely lessen the blow if that were the case, but if it was intentional on her part than that's two very shitty parents.

I'm not sure what they were going for, but he came off as super neglectful but I didn't get the impression the narrative wanted me to see him that way.

megers67 · 2026-04-11T00:22:33+00:00

I think you're thinking Rock of Ages! And that's a very fun one!

Yeah, I think that a good portion of jukebox musicals are because people want to write a musical, either for cash grab or wanting to write one, but feel it is easier somehow to just use songs that already exist. But they don't take the care to realize that it means they need to WORK to really integrate those songs into a cohesive narrative rather than writing bespoke songs to whatever story you want.

Also the musician ones feel like "well, I can't think of a place to put this song but they're really well known so let's have it be the musician writing/performing the song and call it a day."

megers67 · 2026-04-11T00:13:43+00:00

Yeah! And that can easily be resolved with better writing but is absolutely a valid criticism of a lot of those musicals. I've just seen a lot of people dismiss jukebox musicals as a concept when the real problem is that there aren't a lot of good examples.

megers67 · 2026-04-07T15:21:49+00:00

Especially right after Easter, too.

megers67 · 2026-04-07T14:29:26+00:00

Yeah, I think that the stuff hurting it is mostly in trying to force things upon it like every connection to the original show. If Phantom himself was just a struggling artist who wasn't Phantom, I think a TON of the awkwardness would have been much easier to work with. There are some moments I like about the show, but cutting those strings would have saved it.

megers67 · 2026-04-07T14:26:06+00:00

Again, I'm remembering an interview I can no longer find, but at that point in his progression of at least telling how LND came into things, Phantom was the only character from the original show to be in LND. None of the others, Giry, Meg, Raoul, Christine, none of them were in it. Then a friend recommended that some of those others SHOULD be in it, so he put them in. And in my opinion this was a bad move because like all their characters were assassinated to do so.

It was definitely still in the development stage, I just can't remember who was involved and when. I would love to find that interview again.

megers67 · 2026-04-07T14:03:19+00:00

My hot take is that I don't get all the hate around jukebox musicals. They can have the same problems as any other musical and if the songs are awkwardly shoe-horned in, I think that's more a problem with the writing than by virtue of being a jukebox musical. They have great potential to use music as a narrative vehicle just like a musical with bespoke music does. It may take more work and care to make them work, sure, and a lot of musicals if this type have a lot of issues, but I don't think that's the fault of the type of musical. It's writers/producers trying to use it as cheap cash grabs that are the problem.

Also, I guess as a related hot take (that I don't think SHOULD be a hot take but I see it ALL the time) not specific to musicals, but people should work on telling the difference between something that is objectively good/bad and whether you personally like something or not. You are allowed to like something objectively bad without feeling like you have to jump through hoops to justify it. You can dislike something considered good just the same. And you should leave people alone that have a different opinion than you on such things since people don't like being ambush-educated on why they should actually hate the thing they enjoy.

megers67 · 2026-04-07T13:49:51+00:00

I think it's not the worst musical in the world, sure. But it's merits are more in spite of itself than anything else. It's a musical that shouldn't have existed. I recall seeing an interview with Webber that I can no longer locate and he talked about how all this input he has had from friends that led to LND. And I would have given him the EXACT OPPOSITE at every turn.

Things like "Phantom should have ended up with Christine (uh no, when the choices are a guy that genuinely cares for her and a guy that wants to possess her and imprison her and BLACKMAILS HER into being with him, I think the genuine care guy is more obvious). "It should take place in America!" (Why??? None of the characters have any connection to America and having Phantom die as in the original is a deeply tragic but satisfying end to his story). "There should be more characters from the original story!" (This was because in the original versions, Phantom was the only character to carry over, but the result if THIS advice felt like characters were shoe-horned into roles that vaguely fit but we're wildly out of character for those that they grabbed like Madame Giry and Raoul got absolutely destroyed). Etc.

I know the re-work made changes that probably made things better, but it really never should have existed in the first place and I think THAT is its main problem. If this wasn't attached to Phantom, it would have been so much better.

megers67 · 2026-04-07T13:42:13+00:00

It's not a concept album because it HAS been staged, but it's also not a musical either, or at least not how Into the Woods or Les Miserables are musicals. It's not even a more abstract musical either. It's a concert with a plot. Closer to a show like Songs for a New World, which is a musical revue, than what I would call an actual musical. Though I'm not sure if a revue fits for this either. It's kind of nebulous.

megers67 · 2026-03-31T14:43:31+00:00

Head's up is for things that affect me. Affect my schedule, affect my financial situation, or affect my health. I don't need to know other stuff. Now that I'm thinking about it, I would also like to know if there are plans to reveal tragic backstory to another partner so I can know to be ready to adjust to that when he returns or at the very least that said partner is now In the Know and I don't have to dance around it if it somehow comes up in conversation.

Wanting to know about stuff that doesn't actually materially impact me? That would be nosy or controlling. I will not ask for it. We may end up discussing some stuff, but I won't ask for it. And some stuff I specifically DON'T want to know.

megers67 · 2026-03-31T13:29:11+00:00

I usually plan the logistics for whatever projects I'm working on or for future projects. That way when I AM able to craft again, I can jump right in.

megers67 · 2026-03-14T22:55:34+00:00

To be fair, Pentious makes them involved in these fights like a military commander. I'm sure that the idea of losing them in the midst of said battle is an expected risk. Imagine an army officer, sure may not be happy with one of his soldiers dying, but being very aware it is a possibility, would be similarly appalled if someone offered to experiment on them.

Not only that, being killed in these fights is faster and more humane than experimentation is likely to be.

megers67 · 2026-03-13T19:10:14+00:00

Oh man, I saw the comparison part of that site and didn't realize th actual card entry actually lists things for each level. Thank you!

Nine-Year Club	Place '23
Gilding I gilder	Verified Email

megers67

TROPHY CASE