Professional Book Hoarder

Cal / 26 /  they/them  / leo / asexual biromantic / nonbinary; Bruce Wayne slander not tolerated; met Wil Wheaton and will cry about it. I also really like horror.  

[noknowshame]

people in fiction are always making plans like "how about tuesday?" and then leaving without elaborating. what time? where? do you even have each other's numbers? deeply stressful

[d897gyhaujfkedw7r9euwijkjfkdl]

what if she was called chappell bone and instead of a singer she was a necromancer who raised strong as fuck skeleton warriors

[d897gyhaujfkedw7r9euwijkjfkdl]

dont apologize. skeletonomenon is beautiful

[geekeryisafoot]

Anyone who knows anything about comics knows Constantine is one of the OG queers. But I think I assumed he was made canonically queer the same way many modernly-queer comic characters were: slowly over time by the dedicated work of multiple authors until one finally gets to put an undesputable label on it. So I'm surprised at just how texturally queer he is from the very start of his first run. Like this isn't a modern development, but intrinsically there from the start.

I'm only 7 issues in to Hellblazer (1988) and so far:

Issue #1: he's haunted by the ghost/memory of a friend he got killed, who is dressed in gay leather

Issue #3: he visits a friend, Ray, who he calls "this outrageous fag [...] That Ray- camp as Christmas. Good as gold though."

Issue #6: he sees a group of neo-nazis seemingly follow a gay man to attack him and he intervenes, narrating "I hate violence. But you can't pretend it isn't happening, can you? After all, it could be a mate getting the battering, like Ray."

Also issue #6: when a lover/friend is attacked by a Christian fundamentalist cult, he takes her to Ray as a safe place to rest and hide. He then learns Ray has aids and is suffering discrimination because of it

Issue #7: the lover/friend asks if Constantine and Ray had been a thing, and Ray casually says no

Just in general, Constantine uses very gender neutral language about sex and desire. It's always "lover" or "someone", never a specifically feminine word

Again, I am only 7 issues in to this 300 issue run, and Constantine is already so undeniably texturally involved in his queer community. It fascinates me since I was so not expecting it, and it's so different from how characters like this are written today

[giiyus]

moments that i find interesting in next to normal

the chaoticness of the choreography matching to the lyrics the cast sings here really speaks to the dancer part of my brain

gabe touches diana's hand up to her wrist because he's offering her a way to join him (by having her cut her wrists)

dan repeatedly tapping his phone at the tap to pay device while singing "and me, i'm just tired, tired, tired, tired" is such a unique modern detail that i really like

gabe's silhouette lingers behind this screen until im alive reprise to show that he's always in the back of diana's mind even if he's not present which is such a good blocking decision

dan reaching for diana while diana reaches for gabe will never not hurt

the emotional difference between henry smoking his apple while the whole goodman family goes through it downstairs during superboy and the invisible girl will always make me giggle a bit

i just love the counterbalancing diana and gabe do here. they are both on the edge and only holding on because they need each other to survive

[skod3n]

something i noticed on my thousandth rewatch of the next to normal pro shot that made me absolutely feral

also fair warning that this might be spoilery

right after just another day as diana is on the floor making sandwiches cause ya know

dan is there standing between their kids and their mom and natalie goes “dad?” and then jack wolfe goes “mom?”

dan turns and seems to make eye contact with his son and he fucking gasps/flinches and turns sharply away. he even shakes his head no once. there’s a beat of him hands on his knees *hurting*

and then you can see that dan literally has to take a second before putting on his facade of everything’s fine the *forced calm* before gesturing with both hands and saying “go.” but who goes? it’s his son who listens! he leaves first ! it’s his daughter who lingers.

and this reaction is so early in the show! but it’s not so incredibly subtle that if you look for it you can see it !

i just think it’s so neat and contextualizes the complexity of the reveal later. dan has always been able to see gabe. he just refuses to acknowledge him. it’s natalie who never does and maybe only gets a glimpse at the end when gabe says goodbye

really in love with the idea that dan is reacting to gabe’s presence/force and hiding it all to keep up “a perfect loving normal family”

anywho this might already be well known and examined but i just noticed it today and found it so neat

[glasshalfmost]

Next to Normal is a wacky family comedy

[zephzephyrus]

“everything okay? i heard voices.” VOICES. VOICES. I DIDNT CATCH THAT BEFORE OH MY GODS.

[pureanonofficial]

I tried pretending that I don't give a damn.

NEXT TO NORMAL (2024) - Wyndham’s Theatre

[thelillypad]

dan: let’s not get discouraged

diana:

[cabeswatersedge]

"Feeling like this feeling never goes away"

watching Just Another Day from another angle and the framing gave this line a whole new meaning to me.

In the proshot when Natalie sings her line it's a closeup on her, and I always figured the "feeling" she talks about to be referring to the overwhelming-ness of her home life.

But look at the wideshot during her line:

"Feeling like this feeling never goes away."

What she's feeling is her brother looming over her! The feeling that will never go away is the feeling that he will live forever, shadowing everything she does. That no matter how much she overachieves she'll always be inferior to his memory.

The staging shows us that Natalie's been haunted by him too, from the opening number.

Bonus:

And then the feeling finally goes away.

[dontyouknowemma-itsyou]

Sometimes we hold on to guilt or grief because its the last thing we have that ties us to the person we miss.

[pawnyouoff]

casting went CRAZY with these two

[chaoticandsleepdeprived]

One Diana and Natalie parallel I don’t see people talk about

In How could I ever forget

”My black coat thrown over my blue nightgown”

When Dan and Diana drives Gabe to the hospital

And later during I’m alive reprise

Natalie wearing a black coat over her blue prom dress driving her mom to the hospital

It’s such a small thing but I can’t stop thinking about it

[quinnfebrey]

uncensored moments from the next to normal pro-shot because i simply cannot live with the fact that some people will never see a non-sterilized version

[musicalgifs]

When the world that once had colour fades to white and grey and black. When tomorrow terrifies you, but you'll die if you look back.

[procrastinationaccount]

[nerd-at-sea5]

the fact that diana knows gabe’s entire schedule - a schedual that doesn’t even exist - and doesn’t know natalie’s is a detail that absolutely guts me