everyone's bi

Webseries watcher. Femslash shipper. Socially anxious Benedick Hobbes enthusiast. Personal: @galwithalibrarycard icon by: @20genderchild

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Webseries Moodboards: Benedick Hobbes & Peter Donaldson friendship, NMTD and Lolilo

"We were like, sworn brothers. We tried to do this blood oath, and... sorry, no, that's a tangent..."

[galwithalibrarycard]

Webseries Moodboards: Beatrice Duke x Benedick Hobbes, NMTD/Lolilo, Post-Canon Happily Ever After

"I'm coming with you. Of course I am." [he holds her]

Happy Nothing Much ToDay! Twelve years since the first episode of NMTD was posted! <333

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AOJE episodes 12-95 thoughts (oops I binged it)

- my feelings about Jane Eyre the novel are that I love Jane as a character but I’m lukewarm about the story she’s in. I feel the same way about AOJE. So… successful adaptation, I guess.

- I’m gobsmacked that they kept Beth/Bertha as the mentally ill secret wife living in a hidden part of the house, and they kept Simon/St John literally asking Jane to marry him and go with him to India. And that it WORKED! You have to suspend your disbelief a little, but I love that they committed to the out-there plot instead of changing the marriage proposals to business partnership proposals and stuff like the LBD did.

- I adore Diana and Mary and I’m so glad Jane has them now.

- it’s always going to make me uncomfortable that Jane and Rochester are white people whose happy ending depends on the tragic suicide of a mentally ill woman of color. It is. But I like that they remind us that Beth/Bertha was human. That she’s remembered as a good, beautiful person who got sick and couldn’t get better. That she was able to have a brief relationship with Adele before she died and Adele will have good memories of her.

- It sucks that Mr. Rochester’s actor left the series early and so Rochester never properly appears on camera again after Jane leaves Thornfield post-failed-wedding. It does. But at least this is perhaps the only classic lit story where you can get away with that, because Rochester only has one more big scene at the end and I do buy that Jane and Rochs would want that to be private and off-camera.

- Obsessed with Jane deciding to live on her own and just date Rochs for a while instead of jumping right back into marrying him now that Beth has died. Absolutely the right and most healthy choice.

- “Viewer, I made a home.” Absolutely beautiful. Dare I say- even better than “Reader, I married him.”

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Something about Jane’s line delivery in AOJE when she’s monologuing to the camera gives such Angela from My So-Called Life vibes. And now I’m thinking how fun an MSCL reboot webseries could be if it was possible for it to be organic and not corporate, Angela Chase would make such a good teen vlogger from 2013. Anyway, LIW peeps- watch MSCL! It’s good! And it’s only one season, tragically.

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Jane: *’cleans her room’ by removing the stack of used teacups that have accumulated on her desk*

Me: *immediately emotional because that’s exactly the kind of thing Benedick Hobbes would do and I miss him*

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AOJE episodes 6-11 thoughts

- Ah, okay, I’m getting a feel for this now. I can’t believe I thought they’d cut the Jane/Rochester meet-ugly, and I joked about him almost hitting her with his car, and then they DID have an episode where they meet and he almost hits her with his car, lol.

- backtracking for a minute, omg, Susan is played by the guy from All For One! I think his character’s name was Xavier? Wild to see him in an early LIW role! I should rewatch All For One sometime…

- Oh, man. The vintage LIW disk horse of “character posts footage of another person online without that person’s permission”. That takes me back. Jane is absolutely in the wrong for putting the conversation with Rochester up, as well as for putting up the Q&A with Adele in it without her dad’s okay to share her image online. But if she didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have a story. I don’t know if the LIW world ever did solve that ethical quagmire to anyone’s satisfaction in any series.

- Jane feels like a real person, very natural and unscripted. Rochester… does not. His line delivery is stiff. I can tell he’s reading a script. The pitfalls of early LIWs with actors who aren’t quite comfortable with the format and their character’s essence yet.

- Pilot the dog is so cute! What a good boy! I love that they had a real dog to play Pilot and credited him by name in the cast list.

- Jane being a photographer instead of a drawing artist is interesting. It makes sense in that getting familiar with a photography camera pre-canon would definitely make Jane more comfortable picking up a video camera to start this vlog.

- Makes sense that Helen died of cancer in this version. I’m glad they mention her and honor Jane’s grief by letting her monologue about their friendship. It’s so beautiful that Helen taught her about photography. And now she’s sharing her photos and videos online.

- I like Jane showing her photos to Rochester and his “were you happy when you took these?” It’s cute that they bond over Game of Thrones, although I don’t want them to be too friendly too quickly, that goes against the spirit of their story.

- Please for the love of god tell me Rochester’s tattoo is not what the comments think it is. I’m not strong enough. You cannot give Mr. Rochester a tattoo from the wizard books. Not only would that have aged radioactively badly, but Mr. Rochester would never get a popular media tattoo. He would get the date he adopted Adele tattooed, and he would get some horribly melodramatic ‘I will never know love’ type design to commemorate his Inability to Get A Girlfriend (Because Madwoman in the Attic) and that’s about it.

- Speaking of. Are we saying he’s 30 and Jane is 21? Are we saying Rochester and Celine Varens had Adele when he was 22? Is he even her bio dad in this series? Many questions.

- Rich man who ends up in a relationship with the nanny is also a concept that has aged radioactively badly. I hope they can make him not a creep.

- I grow ever more worried about the madwoman in the attic of it all. There’s an awful lot of ableism and racism that the original novel throws at Bertha. How can a modernization avoid playing into that? I hope they did avoid it.

- I’m fascinated by how critical the comments sections are on these videos. There were apparently a lot of people who felt very protective of Jane Eyre the novel and reluctant to tolerate changes from the book. But modernization necessitates a lot of changes. The tension between the show and its early audience is so interesting to me.

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Oh thank god, I’m pretty sure Rochester’s tattoo is a paper airplane.

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Mr. Rochester picking up a Series of Unfortunate Events book in Jane’s room like, “This is perfect for me! My LIFE is a series of unfortunate events!” xD

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Starting to watch the Jane Eyre LIW, AOJE, is reminding me of the early-LIW trend of hiding the love interest until well into the series. We didn’t see Darcy until the last third of the LBD. We see Rochester in AOJE, but not his full face- okay, update, we get his face in episode 13, but he still isn’t a POV character. Even Alex Knightley in Emma Approved was not a vlogger, and we only saw him when Emma got the chance to film with him.

I really think in many ways, Benedick Hobbes of NMTD was the first LIW leading man who wasn’t just an often-offscreen love interest, but was a lead point-of-view character in his own right, alongside the female lead. And you couldn’t do Much Ado the story justice if you didn’t let both Benedick and Beatrice narrate and monologue throughout. But still. He was a breath of fresh air, not being hidden from the audience, but right in front of us, for us to spend all series cringing at and falling in love with, just like Beatrice. And that is why Beadick is the best LIW couple of the early days of LIWs, by far.

I can’t help myself, I’m sorry, it always comes back to them.

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AOJE episodes 6-11 thoughts

- Ah, okay, I’m getting a feel for this now. I can’t believe I thought they’d cut the Jane/Rochester meet-ugly, and I joked about him almost hitting her with his car, and then they DID have an episode where they meet and he almost hits her with his car, lol.

- backtracking for a minute, omg, Susan is played by the guy from All For One! I think his character’s name was Xavier? Wild to see him in an early LIW role! I should rewatch All For One sometime…

- Oh, man. The vintage LIW disk horse of “character posts footage of another person online without that person’s permission”. That takes me back. Jane is absolutely in the wrong for putting the conversation with Rochester up, as well as for putting up the Q&A with Adele in it without her dad’s okay to share her image online. But if she didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have a story. I don’t know if the LIW world ever did solve that ethical quagmire to anyone’s satisfaction in any series.

- Jane feels like a real person, very natural and unscripted. Rochester… does not. His line delivery is stiff. I can tell he’s reading a script. The pitfalls of early LIWs with actors who aren’t quite comfortable with the format and their character’s essence yet.

- Pilot the dog is so cute! What a good boy! I love that they had a real dog to play Pilot and credited him by name in the cast list.

- Jane being a photographer instead of a drawing artist is interesting. It makes sense in that getting familiar with a photography camera pre-canon would definitely make Jane more comfortable picking up a video camera to start this vlog.

- Makes sense that Helen died of cancer in this version. I’m glad they mention her and honor Jane’s grief by letting her monologue about their friendship. It’s so beautiful that Helen taught her about photography. And now she’s sharing her photos and videos online.

- I like Jane showing her photos to Rochester and his “were you happy when you took these?” It’s cute that they bond over Game of Thrones, although I don’t want them to be too friendly too quickly, that goes against the spirit of their story.

- Please for the love of god tell me Rochester’s tattoo is not what the comments think it is. I’m not strong enough. You cannot give Mr. Rochester a tattoo from the wizard books. Not only would that have aged radioactively badly, but Mr. Rochester would never get a popular media tattoo. He would get the date he adopted Adele tattooed, and he would get some horribly melodramatic ‘I will never know love’ type design to commemorate his Inability to Get A Girlfriend (Because Madwoman in the Attic) and that’s about it.

- Speaking of. Are we saying he’s 30 and Jane is 21? Are we saying Rochester and Celine Varens had Adele when he was 22? Is he even her bio dad in this series? Many questions.

- Rich man who ends up in a relationship with the nanny is also a concept that has aged radioactively badly. I hope they can make him not a creep.

- I grow ever more worried about the madwoman in the attic of it all. There’s an awful lot of ableism and racism that the original novel throws at Bertha. How can a modernization avoid playing into that? I hope they did avoid it.

- I’m fascinated by how critical the comments sections are on these videos. There were apparently a lot of people who felt very protective of Jane Eyre the novel and reluctant to tolerate changes from the book. But modernization necessitates a lot of changes. The tension between the show and its early audience is so interesting to me.

[violivs]

I’m finally watching The Autobiography of Jane Eyre. 13 years late. I read the novel for the first time at the end of 2025, so of course I have to watch the LIW!

Thoughts on the first five episodes:

- oh my god I’m HOME. 2013 internet, how I miss you. LIW format, how I adore you. No movie or tv adaptation ever made its characters feel as real as an LIW can.

- Jane is so adorable she gives me cuteness aggression. I want to squish her! 🥰

- LBD clip! Jane Eyre looking up to Lizzie Bennet and becoming a vlogger because she wants to be like Lizzie, because she thinks Lizzie is brave. Oh my heart. That is the sweetest and most heart-wrenching thing! And I love an LIW crossover!

- I see we open on a Super Aesthetic 2013 Room Tour. Gotta love that trope.

- all of Jane’s books! Love a bookish girl. I’ve spotted Perks of Being A Wallflower and TFIOS in various episodes already. I am gripped by nostalgia for my high school self who loved and was devastated by those books.

- John Reed, Shitty Facebook Bro. Seems about right for a 2013 modernization.

- Why did the earbuds with the long white cord take me out so hard? Apple, you are evil for making those such a thing of the past that they can make a 2013 setting feel like a period piece. I am so old and technology just keeps sucking. I miss earbuds with cords.

- I am ten years older than this Jane Eyre. Again, I feel old.

- Ah the frustration of Scenes The Character Would Never Film. I wanted to see Jane and Rochester’s awkward first meeting. But it would be hard to adapt the horse getting spooked- you don’t exactly want to start a romance with him almost hitting her with his car.

- Speaking of- Will this be a version where I ship Jane and Rochester? I only ship them in the BBC miniseries. I don’t ship them in the book. Where will this Janechester lie? And is that a thing? Do they get called Janechester? Jedward? Some other portmanteau? I’m rhetorically asking about all versions of the ship, not just this one.

- Combining Mrs. Fairfax and Grace Poole into one character does make sense for an LIW. Interesting though, it means Jane doesn’t have a safe coworker to talk to in Fairfax. She has to be suspicious of Grace all on her own. :(

- Adele drawing Rochester as a faceless Magritte is incredible. Man of mystery even to his own kid.

- Fascinating that the comments think Jane is OOC compared to her book version. I like her. She’s young, but she knows who she is, what matters to her. That’s so Jane Eyre.

- Love the noir feel of the intro music and title card.

- First Bertha Mason cackle, sounded like a Halloween decoration witch laugh. How on Earth are they going to modernize the madwoman in the attic? I have no idea. But I’m interested to find out. (Hope it isn’t ableist!)

- I love LIWs so much. I will never be okay that the YouTube LIW genre’s day has passed. Every classic should have an LIW. And they should all be set in 2013 to 2015 approximately.

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I still can’t believe that when her boyfriend agreed to a set of flat rules including ‘no romantic relationships’, Beatrice Duke’s response was essentially “I think the fuck not, you’re gonna have to do better than that to get out of this relationship.”

And she’s RIGHT.

The rules get incredibly out of hand and still fail to ever actually cause a permanent Beadick breakup. If that didn’t do it, nothing can.

Only in Shakespeare, folks.

[violivs]

Webseries Moodboards: Freddie Kingston x Kitso Harper (Fritso), Lovely Little Losers

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It's hard to be anywhere these days

When all I want is you...

Or, Ben spends Balthday wracked with anxiety and guilt and can't even enjoy his time with Beatrice because it's all too temporary. </3

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Posting this one on its own because I want to put it on the Lolilodaily blog in celebration of TEA but the rest of the set of text post edits it’s from is too spoilery!

[violivs]

Webseries Moodboards: Beatrice x Benedick, Angsty Hookup After Balth's Birthday Party, Lovely Little Losers

Based on the amazing fic "Under Water" by @monstrous-femme .

“Turn off the alarm,” she tells him. “But the—” “No mentioning the rules when I’m on top of you. Turn off the alarm, or I’m finding somewhere else to stay besides the tent.”

Happy Socks Fest, dear friend. Thank you for writing this for me, and thank you for being my cheerleader so I can continue to be Beadick's cheerleader in the fandom. <3

(Warning: NSFW. If you read this fic, mind the tags and rating first.)

[violivs]

Webseries Moodboards: Bill Donaldson x Jane Venter (John's Mother), Pre-Canon, Nothing Much to Do

Based on "you've touched her perfect body with your mind" by @cardboardsean . Happy Socks Fest, Ron!

"He casts an eye at their whiskey selection before actually looking at the girl behind the counter, who vanishes his thoughts entirely. She’s gut-punch beautiful.

Bill and Jane meeting in a London pub in the late 90's." - cardboardsean's summary for this fic on AO3

[violivs]

Webseries Moodboards: Beatrice x Benedick, Travel Year, Lovely Little Losers

Based on the fanfic "More Than A Youth" by LydiaOLydia, which is summarized "Five ways Beatrice and Benedick could have gotten engaged and the way they really did."

Inspired by the whole fic, but especially the two chapters where they go to a Hobbes family wedding in Scotland, which I always think of first when I think of this fic. An all-time fave. Happy Socks Fest, Lydia! :D <3

- Galwithalibrarycard/violivs