stars fading but i linger on dear @sweetdreams-sunbeams - Tumblr Blog

So I haven’t actually seen “The Pitt,” just get lost in the Twitter sphere and read Kingdon & Mohabbot fics, BUT someone posted a picture of Nurse Jesse for the first time, and 38-year-old me was like “Oh hello!” And then I was like “Oh- hello?”

Anyway, found these pics that I had uploaded on my Facebook, from freaking 2008. I had a pink digital camera, my phone had 2 games, I didn’t get text messages because they cost too much. It was a great time, honestly.

#the pitt #nurse jesse #rooney

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Reylo Author Appreciation: Dankobah

My first introduction to @dankobah (Ao3: dankobah; Twitter: @ dankobah) was their fic provocateur . If you haven’t read it, it’s a modern AU (currently WIP!) featuring college student Rey and sugar daddy CEO Ben, and it is incredible. You may have caught their musician/model modern AU WIP i only lie when i love you, their modern political arranged marriage AU WIP i’m winning so they had to dump the gatorade (i don't give a f*ck about my family name), or their wicked intense modern camgirl/camboy AU WIP f*cked my way to the top.

I must confess here, because I know this sounds like a lot of WIPs: I used to be scared of WIPs. I was afraid of getting invested in a story that might not be finished! I did not read them at all in my previous fandoms (what’s up, Sterek and Darcyland?). I didn’t even read them in Reylo fandom- until a moodboard for provocateur crossed my dashboard, and I was hooked. Yes, I stopped filtering Ao3 for completed works and learned to love the WIPs. Do you know why?

Because Dankobah is an amazing writer, full stop, and I would rather read a never-finished story by them than go without reading her ever (luckily for us, Dankobah speaks with great frequency about working on their fics!). They’re full of details- not just the fabulous clothes in provocateur, or the music in i only lie when i love you; but little brow furrows when a character is concerned about something or a fluttering hand grasping another’s to gain confidence in a new situation. I’ve re-read their fics over and over, and I find something new every time.

They’re a master at keeping you invested in these characters, taking canon facts and turning them into modern flaws and self-doubts. I can recognize our canon Rey in their modern Rey. I can see both our Kylo Ren and Ben Solo in their modern Kylo. The settings and set ups might be different, but these are the same characters as on the big screen, no doubt about it.

If you haven’t explored the awesome worlds that Dankobah has created yet, I recommend you get on that right now. They’ve got incredible range, and I get unreasonably excited every time I get a notification that one of their stories has updated.

I’m talking “woo!” in public and seat-wiggling excitement, people. I become a Woo Girl, and I’m okay with that.

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Okay, so in my non-fandom life, I am quite well-known for being obsessed with Disney. OB. SESSED. I come by it naturally, my parents loved Disney too. And so I consume as much behind the scenes info as I can, to have a better idea of the inner workings of the Disney machine.

A few years back, I read an article about why Princess Giselle, from “Enchanted”, didn’t end up on the official lineup of Disney Princesses©️, even though they announced it. Why? Because Amy Adams did not want to sign away liferights to her image. “But its only for the animated Giselle, not the real-life one.” Ah, but the animated one is, in the movies, officially the real-life one. Either way, she would only agree to using her image, photographed or animated, to market and promote the movie.

After I started reading Reylo, and learning more about Adam Driver, I started wondering why there wasn’t more Kylo Ren merchandise without the mask. (I can’t speak for Galaxy’s Edge, but there are 2 items with Kylo’s face on it at Disney Springs- a mystery box pin that you have a 1-in-10 chance of getting, and a ticketholder pouch for a lanyard.) I was confused.

Did Disney underestimate how popular this character would be, and this was a mistake?

Did Disney plan on saving the maskless merchandise for the final movie of the series, and this was firmly planned?

Did Adam Driver have a fantastic agent who limited how his image could be used, a la Amy Adams?

I didn’t really have anything I was leaning towards, until this new comic came out, and someone tweeted this:

I’m now firmly in the camp of “Adam Driver has an amazing agent.”

There is no way these artists haven’t been given the directive “Draw Adam Driver as though you are looking at him through a piece of glass that is heavily warped, and you’re also maybe a little drunk.”

This is intentional. This is Adam Driver declining to let his face be used in perpetuity, or even in items not directly marketing the films. He’ll let them vaguely use his likeness, probably for whatever amount of money will let him live comfortably while he does another risqué Broadway play- but it’s very clear that it isn’t REALLY him.

King of Hollywood, y’all.

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My prediction, come this Force Friday when all the new merch will be online for me to peruse: anything featuring a realistic depiction of Adam Driver’s face as Kylo Ren will be (1) labeled specifically with “The Rise of Skywalker”, or (2) be a high-priced collectible action figure.