Jason Jepson Is Literally Everything The Fandom Wants Max To Be (kind Of Dumb, Gets Redeemed And Turns

Immediately bought the new VHSCCs album cause I’m obsessed with the new version. Ngl I kinda wish they’d release a version with A.J. As Scrooge cause I like to make playlists that have the same songs different singers side by side, but beggars can’t be choosers so I’m going to be blasting this playlist until new years.

Here’s a sad thought about Princess Jasmine in Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier, courtesy of listening to the soundtrack again and feeling the feelings about her and Ja’far: this version of the Sultan must be a really bad father.

We never see him interact with his stepdaughter. He already seems rather senile when he steals Scheherazade, and that’s sixteen years before the present day. His sanity may well have completely gone in that time. Even if it didn’t, he makes it clear in his one appearance that he considers everyone in his power to be objects defined entirely by how they can benefit him and remorselessly will torture, enslave and murder them on a whim. I doubt that he’d be sensitive or nurturing toward his child. Now, I think Scheherazade would be a great mother - but she never got to try.

The Sultan has evidently been very neglectful and distant, failing in his duties to teach the Princess how to be both a good person and a good member of royalty. Despite her being his only heir and old enough to marry and rule the kingdom, which apparently has no problem with a female sovereign, he’s let her grow up to be extremely sheltered and not at all adequately prepared for responsibility and politics. It doesn’t even occur to her that having her tiger assault a neighbouring country’s visiting prince might have consequences. The Sultan, and on his behalf the Captain of the Guard, don’t let her know important news and royal decrees: neither what a menace Aladdin is, leaving her vulnerable to him, nor the Sultan’s mass execution of the 2D Department, since for as insensitively egocentric as she is at the beginning, she’s still deeply sentimental and quick to empathize with the homeless peasant Aladdin, so I can’t believe that she wouldn’t be at least a little upset with the Sultan (or more likely Ja’far) over so many lost human lives.

More than that, her immaturity speaks to bad parenting on the most basic level. She hasn’t internalized the Sultan’s cruelty, but has learned his selfishness, entitlement, impulsiveness and poor emotional regulation. Her social skills are notably clumsy and underdeveloped (not picking up on Aladdin’s numerous red flags, “No high five”, “At least Abdul had a family who loved him!”, even cringing herself at the last one). The Sultan’s passed down absolutely zero wisdom of any kind.

Instead it’s Ja’far with whom she has a familiar father-daughter dynamic (“What’s up, are you mad at me?” “Where are you going?” “There she is!”). It’s him who shows concern when she runs away and gives the order to find her before all else, notices that she’s upset and talks her through her feelings, warns her about sexual predators, appreciates her idealism and effort. It’s him who provides the gentle but firm, healthy guidance and challenge that she needs to grow. Who sees her potential, respects and believes in her. Who loves her. However, he is ultimately in her service. Between the imbalanced power dynamic making him wary of treason (after all, the last time he had a stronger relationship than the Sultan with a woman the Sultan called his, it didn’t end well) and his other responsibilities taking away from their time together, he can’t be as influential a presence in his life as he’d like.

Maybe this why she’s initially so resentful of him. Subconsciously she does see him as a father all along, but he hurts her and lets her down sometimes. Like the Sultan, her only official parent, always has. That stings. The differences are that the Sultan hurts her much more, more consistently and without her best interests at heart… but Ja’far is the one she can lash out at and complain to and be a messy adolescent around, because firstly, he’s her subject instead of her ruler, and secondly, he’s actually involved in her life. He cares, and therefore yelling or halfheartedly trying to poison his wine will make an impact. The Sultan is untouchable. We know that she conflates the two in her head as unjust authority figures keeping her trapped and crushing her aspirations (“All the people who say I’m just dreaming, like Father and Ja’far”, one of the only times she mentions the Sultan). It’s easier to blame your problems on an employee everybody else hates than accept that your parent is a bad one.

Maybe this is the root of her discontentment as well, her yearning that she can’t articulate for something more than what the life she’s been given. The joke of “Everything and More” is that she doesn’t need anything besides what she has… but she does. She needs a competent, reliable parent. One who she can trusts loves her the person as her parent, not a servant of her bloodline, and she knows to love as such in turn.

No wonder she falls for “Orphaned at Thirty-Three” hook, line and sinker. She’s never known her mother. Her relationships with her paternal figures range from terrible to complicated. Having unconditionally loving, supportive parents and then suddenly losing them must be the worst thing she can imagine.

But in the end, the Sultan dies and her dad has to leave her. Although he found a way to live forever, it wasn’t enough to save her from the pain of being orphaned at sixteen.

Lautski Week: Day 1 (Warmth)

This board is for Day One of Lautski Week. It’s pretty simple for this day.

Pete and Steph spends a rainy, Fall day in front of the fireplace with hot chocolate. Pete reads some of his favorite books to Steph. Cuddling ensures.

This may have worked better for the Fall Lautski week but this first came to my mind with the theme.

(I do not own anything.)

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5

I’m sorry, I may just be a bit oblivious but I don’t actually get what you’re trying to imply here 😅 especially because in my mind these are two very different characters.

Mainly because from point one it’s obvious Jason doesn’t want to be doing the things he’s doing which contrasts with max who seems to revel in it and so has a much more stark difference between his terrible behavior and his redemption.

I think it should also be mentioned that (imo) Jason isn’t really a character who gets “redeemed”. (Hear me out!) From my understanding redemption is when you do something truly truly bad, make up for it, and learn to be a better person. Jason barely fulfills the truly bad thing by hanging with max and doing his bidding (but as I said above he doesn’t want to be doing any of it in the first place) but his “redemption” is a bit overshadowed by the fact that he tells Richie that if max ever came back he’d go right back to bullying. Now even though max’s redemption is also overshadowed by a return to his evil doings I think it’s really important to mention that Jason just randomly says he’d return to bullying if max ever came back. Whereas max has a more character reason to make his decent back into evil (mainly getting hurt, and pissing his pants. Which are both embarrassing things and we know he has a problem with his dad humiliating him)

In your tags you mentioned that you didn’t think screen time had to do with this, but I actually think it does. And the reason I think this is because of Kyle. Now idk about anyone else but I often don’t remember much about this character. (I had to look up his name just now.) and to me that’s because he hardly does anything in the show. So it would make sense to me if Jason, who is in the show less than max but more than Kyle, would get less attention from the fandom than max, but more than Kyle. And while I know that people love taking random background characters and making them the fandom favorite. I don’t actually think that Jason really fulfills what a typical fandom wants to see which is mainly toxic sad boys. (Which Jason is not imo. Other than the whole “we’re gonna return to bullying” he’s pretty healthy and happy)

I’m sure there are more in depth reasons but that’s the one that came up to me.

Sorry, not trying to be rude or anything. Just kinda hoping to start a conversation because I’m really curious about this topic! 😊

(edit: I looked back at your tags and saw that this is about race, which is totally fair. I’m not going to claim that isn’t what’s happening here since I haven’t really looked at the fandom from that point of view. Feel free to disregard this entire reblog 😝)

Jason Jepson is literally everything the fandom wants Max to be (kind of dumb, gets redeemed and turns out to be actually really sweet, cares a lot about his friends, makes up with the nerds he bullied, hell he even likes Grace). But yet the fandom still favours Max more. I wonder why that is! Hmmm, I wonder what the difference between these two could be!

THERE'S A CASTLE ON THE HILL, AS THE STORY GOES...

As promised, some initial thoughts on the things I loved about seeing this show. Spoiler free, since most of us haven't gotten to see it yet, and under the cut since I do wax a bit poetic...

Cinderella’s Castle is, in a strange way, an exercise in irony. The show is a retelling of an ancient story that is beloved and recited throughout so many cultures, and yet somehow feels completely fresh. The modern take on glam-punk lighting, a score infused with styles from 80s synth to anime, a high fantasy set with the costumes to match, the spirit of Jim Henson lingering through both the puppets and some larger and intangible vibe, a script combining that Starkid humor and Hatchetfield darkness with a whole different style of speaking… all of these beautifully executed elements melted together into something that I’ve never before seen. To take a tale as old as time and make it unique is no easy feat, but Starkid did so with magic and charm to spare.

Like any good Starkid show, Cinderella’s Castle is relentlessly dynamic: fun and tragic and exciting and just-plain-silly, with many twists and turns and character moments will make you gasp or cheer just as often as you laugh. It simply rollicks. The story clicks right along, especially in act 2, but the characters are so distinct and fun that I found myself almost wishing the Langs had sacrificed their plotting and pace just to spend more time hanging with every single member of this ensemble of personalities.

And that’s also a tribute to the actors themselves. Jeff is David Bowie reborn as the impish and fabulous narrator. Jon and Joey bring Hop A Lot and Crumb to life with so much charm and presence that they practically had the audience eating out of their hands from the very first second. Like, seriously, you will not believe how invested you will immediately become in these talking animals. Kim’s Fairy Queen is as radiant and terrible as promised; her portrayal of immortal inhuman power compels and commands and stands fully distinct from the Lords in Black. Lauren and Mariah are delightfully disgusting as the vile but deeply lovable troll step-sisters; you can feel the fun they’re having practically radiating off of them. Curt’s Tadius is dryly funny and put-upon, but also provides a vitally grounding and centering presence in the larger-than-life world of the Lands That Are. His big scene with Bryce is probably my favorite part of the whole show. James Tolbert is nothing short of an absolute STAR as the Prince, stealing scene after scene after scene with ease and charm and more jokes about genitalia than I think any of us expected. Angela once again displays a completely different facet of her never-ending range, exuding such elegance and control even in trollish filth that I do fear that the kids on the internet are going to start calling her “mother” with greatly increasing frequency. "Facade" was an absolute highlight of the night. And of course Bryce anchors, propels, and heightens every scene she’s in with such apparent ease you forget she’s been rehearsing for weeks and isn’t simply Ella herself. Ella is this world’s bruised, brave, and angry heart, and you will absolutely root for her every step of the way as she wrestles with who she is and learns what it means to claim her own power.

This was Starkid’s biggest budgeted show to date, and you could tell. This group of Michigan Wolverines and friends have accomplished incredible things since the Very Potter days of a single door and some cardboard columns, and I’m so proud of how far they’ve come. And yet Cinderella’s Castle, the fifteenth musical in the fifteenth year, still retains some of that core Starkid magic that I’ve always believed boils down to love. You can so often see that love emanating from the performers on a Starkid stage: love for the show, for their friends, for their craft, for the audience’s energy pushing them through. And the sense of love and support and community radiating from the audience is just as palpable. The man sitting behind me last night was at his first ever Starkid show, and afterwards he remarked in awe how that was the best audience he’d ever been in. And all that love isn’t unearned—it is built and it is nourished by a proud history of creativity, of song and of dance and of laughter and tears. And Cinderella’s Castle, I think, is going to prove an installment worthy of both Starkid’s past and future.

Starkid family, Bogs Hollow grants thee Starlight.

Lautski Day 5: change 👗

@lautski-week

Full spoilers review of Cinderella’s castle

Ok so now that I’ve had some time to ruminate, I really want to share my thoughts on Cinderella’s castle

First of all, I think the song that has stuck with me the most was “I want you to watch” (I’m pretty sure that’s the name) I think it stuck with me so much because of the insane vibes. It was such a banger song, played to the chorus of Cinderella being tortured to death. The song was so haunting and insane. And just that one line “I want you to watch” has been stuck in my head all night.

That being said I wish we had access to the cast recording because I already miss the rest of the songs. Like I remember the song about starlight being so beautiful but I can’t even remember it (Cinderella moment amiright)

In terms of costuming it was the sort of thing that felt like it worked so well you didn’t notice it until suddenly Cinderella came out in her Led starlight dress and suddenly it hits you how amazingly accurate all of the clothing has been.

The actors were all amazing. Idk if there’s more to say than that. Everyone slayed, and Jeff was serving cvnt the entire time.

The characters were absolutely amazing. I feel like Nick lang looked at the moment from NPMD, where Richie says “I love being alive” and the audience started crying, and just made a whole play about it. There were so many immediately beloved characters that died (some brought back thank goodness) that the audience were sobbing about loosing.

Honestly I think the show is amazing. I can’t wait for the digital ticket and if I had more money I’d probably go see it again.

Oh also I saw Curt Mega before the show and all of my friends missed him except my mom. I was shaking so hard just from him walking past us. It was nuts

“Strange… When I picture her in my mind I see naught but fire and starlight…”

Lautski Week: Day 7 (Morning)

For the last day of Lautski week, I have a pretty simple Werewolf AU.

Steph is a werewolf and it’s the morning after a full moon. She’s tired and weak after a long night. Pete, being a good boyfriend, prepare some breakfast for her. They then cuddle in bed with Pete reassuring Steph that she’s safe. This leads to them sleeping in late.

Funny how my boards started the week with cuddles and is now ending the week with cuddles. Hope everyone had a good week.

(I do not own anything.)

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

I keep seeing posts like this

HFHWISI THE TEMPTATION