The future is cancelled but at least we have slash

Multifandomhyperfixationadhdyouknowsit Shetland, HP, The Terror, OFMD, Red Dwarf, British comedy, crack etc

[aurorlaura]

Real talk now. What will fandom look like when society breaks down? I think we’ll still want to experience our enthusiasms amidst the chaos and maybe even have the capacity to do so. How will we find each other? Have you been stockpiling canon, fic and art in a format you’ll be able to access when the internet/electricity is gone/only occasionally accessible? Has anyone already resigned to the loss of almost all shared mass culture within their lifetime?

[steblynka-draws]

This is not your place to mourn

[the73rdhomunculus]

this quote gets me every time…. i cant describe how serious they are to me

[an-alphabetapolothology]

^_^

[aurorlaura]

Courting

[an-alphabetapolothology]

they may be an awful dastardly pair but they had this habit of dancing/waltzing(?) around whenever something good came in their way...

[21yearsinaflannelshirt]

Peter Cook getting lippy with Tim Brooke-Taylor and John Cleese at “The Other Awards” premier of the Secret Policeman’s Ball film.

[parttimesarah]

John Cleese calls out to Peter Cook backstage after the criminal court sketch (questioning a witness in a coffin) in the middle of the “A Poke In The Eye With A Sharp Stick”/“Pleasure at Her Majesty’s” show (I think you can hear Peter reply "Sir?" like he's a little Radley schoolboy again, which is so stinkin' cute). He asks for advice on improving the sketch. This clip is so brilliant because Peter is so sharp and John clearly wants to take advantage of his brilliant mind!

I love that you also hear Peter reference that thinking about the logic of the sketch is something he has picked up from Dudley. You can tell that when this show was performed (1976) he was already missing having Dudley to develop material with. Dudley was the only Fringer to not perform in the show, which featured a number of BTF sketches.

[gruggywoof-blog]

[fuckyeahpetercook]

Get the point? PETER COOK backstage in London, circa 1972

(Source, source)

[psbelectronica]

[cosmic-llin]

This Must Be The Place

A Jimmy/Duncan vid made as part of @festivids 2025.

Also on AO3.

[singlecrow]

fic: slung on the mast, a lantern [m/m, BBC Shetland]

I finally wrote the Jimmy/Duncan slow burn.

slung from the mast, a lantern (6075 words) by raven Fandom: Shetland (TV) Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Duncan Hunter/Jimmy Perez, Alison McIntosh & Jimmy Perez Characters: Jimmy Perez, Duncan Hunter, Sandy Wilson, Alison McIntosh, Cassie Perez (Shetland) Additional Tags: Slow Burn, why is "co-parents to lovers" not a canonical tag Every few minutes Jimmy’s feet leave the ground, and it’s only Duncan’s weight that keeps him down. It’s terrifying, every time it happens. All of this, suddenly, is terrifying.

(Or––Jimmy grieves, Duncan loves him, things work out okay in the end)

[mothman-zone]

i'd never seen red dwarf and knew nothing about it. and then on a whim i read the two grant naylor books. and then something sick and evil happened to me. and now i'm midway through season 4.

(the lack of kryten isn't bc i don't love him, it's bc i didn't get a quick handle on his angles so he never ended up getting doodled while i was watching lol. someday)

[hjellacott]

About Paapa Essiedu's Snape

Those of you who interact with me regularly already know this, but for the newbies: I work regularly in the film and TV industry in Britain. I've done it all. I've been a camera woman, a film editor, an AD, I've worked closely with the Director of Photography, I've carried out auditions, I've acted and auditioned for roles, I've done special effects... It's hard to find a TV or film role I haven't held at some point of my life. Moreover, given my own relationship to the industry, I've plenty of friends and colleagues in the Harry Potter series and even I was around set at a couple points. And I've admired Paapa's work for years. Therefore I want to speak about this as someone who actually knows the hell she's talking about because I'm seeing a lot of racism in one hand, and a lot of plain ignorance in the other.

The task of finding someone half as incredible and memorable as Alan Rickman was near impossible. He was one of the best most emblematic actors of Britain and his talent was undeniable. But so is Paapa's. Granted, you know less about black actors' talent because let's face it, unless you're black, most of you are fairly unlikely to ever watch something filled with black talent, but Paapa's been around for a long time and everyone in the industry knows he's bound to become a legend. In fact, I first saw him as a brilliant Snape years before we even knew there was going to be a Harry Potter TV Series, in an entirely different TV series.

For those of you who simply are racist: This series was envisaged as a project where ethnicity, race and general background was largely not going to be considered, unless it was hundred per cent relevant for the role (e.g. Ron had to be a redhead, and those are, as far as I know, always white, and Dumbledore had to be old, etc.). Therefore, and this is what many of you aren't grasping, Paapa wasn't chosen because they said "let's look for a black Snape". This never happened. There was no specific decision to race swap anybody, among other reasons because when the books don't mention race, you can't swap it. As far as the books are concerned many of the characters could be any race, and the movies don't count because this isn't a movie remake but a book adaptation. So they simply looked for the best person for the job, did not clarify ethnicity or race in the audition calls, so anybody could show up, and Paapa was someone they specifically sought for his incredible talent.

For those of you who have legitimate concerns about race turning this into a white vs black storyline: Calm down and take a million deep breaths because there's just no freaking way that's happening. Colour is never ever mentioned as an issue in the entirety of the Potter books, so in the series, they're going to make sure people understand their version of racism is magical beings vs non magical vs creatures vs animals. Besides, let's not pretend this is a brand new thing. Everybody knows Harry Potter. Everybody knows it's got nothing to do with race. And before you come at me with the goblins crap, I'm sorry, but as a descendant of Jews I have never in my life looked at a goblin and seen Jews. In fact, I was unaware this comparison was ever made, until I came to live in Britain, and an anti-semite said goblins reflect Jews. So unless you're anti-semite, you really do tell the difference between both. Similarly, there won't be black vs white. Also Snape is kind of in the good side of things? So he's in Harry's side. And there are plenty of black and white actors in both the goodies and the baddies. So really, you'd have to twist this a hell of a lot to get the story to be like that.

And I've no doubt some cretins out there will twist things as far as they can, and manipulate, lie, gaslight people until they see racism, xenophobia, cultural appropriation and all sorts of crap where there's nothing to see, purely because these people have nothing in their lives to hold on to but irrational hatred and fear of a writer. So please have some brains and don't fall into that trap.

[aurorlaura]

HBO HP, race and racist reactions

Much of this is in line with my views. So many Americans want to give a hot take about race & casting and it's grim to see toxic US racism brought into this. Here's something that Americans need to learn:

WE'VE HAD COLOURBLIND CASTING IN THE UK FOR DECADES. Onstage, in TV, on radio, on films, it's been normal for DECADES that performers are cast based on their performance, NOT because a character is meant to be a particular ethnicity. We also happen to have awesome actors of every ethnicity, so someone whose parents are from Pakistan, or Nigeria, or Wales or whatever might get cast to play a working class Londoner or Edinburgh solicitor and if they can carry off the accent, body language etc of that type of person then there's no problem.

JKR didn't help matters when years ago she said that from Hermione's description in the books she could be black. That's not the point. A black actor playing her onstage isn't untrue to the character, doesn't change the plot, and it's a bonus that she gives much-needed diversity to the cast.

As for Paapa Essiedu, I also agree with the OP that he's obviously been a rising star for years. He was Hamlet for the RSC in the West End at age 26! I saw that production and though the play usually bores me I couldn't take my eyes off him. He's got charisma in every form of media and he's obviously going to be captivating as Snape. I hate to say this but some folks need it spelling out: the programme makers weren't ticking a box giving a role to a black performer, they found an exceptional actor who will give the life and depth needed for a vital character in the story.

I'm also seeing some discourse that only white actors should play characters that aren't unambiguously good. Actors like to play complex, ambiguous characters and British actors are trained to find a way into sympathy for and self-understanding of even reprehensible characters. In 2026 we've grown up enough as audiences and members of multicultural society that we know that nonwhite doesn't equal evil. At least in the UK we have.

Having said that, things happened in the original films that need to be avoided this time. It's too late for the Irish character to not have a name that seems to signal Sinn Féin, but hopefully the programme makers won't make him an explosives expert. It's likely that this time around there will be a concerted effort to avoid anyone associating goblins with Jews beyond the obvious trope of banking.

[aurorlaura]

Free Zines on Star Trek and Disability!

Star Trek and Disability - Vol 1

Infinite diversity in infinite combinations was not just an in-universe philosophy but it was something that Star Trek shows themselves stri

Star Trek and Disability 2

More examples, building on part 1

[almoststardust]

The Westbury Horse, 1939 by Eric Ravilious

Train Landscape, 1940 by Eric Ravilious

[by-gray]

my rimster mind cannot unsee the physical distractions lister’s giving himself in gunmen of the apocalypse from the fact he can touch rimmer now.

legion gives rimmer a body and so lister’s strapping himself up to a computer game where he can have an excessive amount of sex with digitalised women, which rimmer literally calls him out for.

also not how lister says that his type is ‘moral garbage on legs’. if that isn’t rimmer, then i don’t know what is.