#j&r

AVAST

(cw: Juliet & Romeo spoilers, fake blood)

You are still a Montague, adopted name or not. And one day you'll be lost to us.

Full review:

Well, to begin, the movie started 20 minutes late and I'm convinced it's because no one at the Marcus West End Cinema remembered this was on their schedule. But I'm glad we (and by "we" I mean me and the only other person in attendance) stuck it out, because this is a low-key weird ass movie. A movie that is not very good. Weird? Yes. Good? No.

The timing of this release is wild when you consider the Pope is the movie's unseen, all-powerful Big Bad. The Pope is coming for us, folks. No one can escape his dark shadow or wriggle out of his clutch, it's all very Thanos-coded. And I am all for an anti-Catholic agenda, you understand, but I never would have thought to look for it in a revisionist pop musical adaptation of Shakespeare's most ubiquitous play.

Compliments: I like the sets, the jewel tone Ren Faire costumes, and the superficial chemistry of the two leads. Mercutio is pretty cute in a "fairly anonymous theater department white boy" sort of way. End of list.

The dialogue is strictly modern, save for the occasional nod to Billy's original text - Mercutio puts a plague on a couple of houses and "What's in a name?" gets a LOT of play for some reason. But then we also have Romeo spouting moony nonsense like, "Every thought until now was only an idea." Sorry, what? The friar screams, "Are you KIDDING ME?!" at one point and I'm pretty sure I heard someone shout, "Be cool!" during an early skirmish.

Rebel Wilson plays Lady Capulet.

I would compare the songwriting to the work of Keane, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the Avett Brothers, with just a dash of Starship. The apothecary delivers a Miranda-style number while bouncing about his mad science lab / head shop. In a later scene, he enters holding a pair of steins and says, "I call it ... hot chocolate!" The apothecary is smuggling Jews out of Verona so they can evade the wrath of the Pope. The friar is astonished by this: "You're JEWISH?" The apothecary shrugs: "L'Chaim."

All of this nuttery kind of works until it suddenly doesn't. The traditional story beats are smudged to such a degree that they inevitably turn to sludge, and after a while I honestly had no idea what was going on. A happy ending allows our heroes to live another day, and just before the credits roll, we see the following onscreen text: "To be continued ... in Juliet & Romeo: Book II." Are we for real? Is that actually happening? I need to know.

@sunflowerrosy @urnumber1star @seastarblue @darkandstormydolls @thewritingautisticat

@yolbert @write-with-will @thebookishkiwi @vesanal @an-indecisive-nerd

Avast! An update!

Break a bottle of champaign against the nearest seaworthy thing, because a NEW CHAPTER IS UP, BABY.

Am I better? Nah, not yet. But I had a burst of creativity this week, and surfed the fuck out of that wave to finishing a chapter. Will there be more on the horizon? Fucking hopefully. There are two more chapters at least in the Pirates arc and then exciting new developments in the shipping lanes.

I was wondering if you had any sketches or any inspo pics of Zuko's new prison tattoos?? Poor Zuko has been through so much lately and I'm trying to keep an updated image in mind for him.

Thank you for your ask! I did have some sources that I kept in mind while I was developing how Zuko's tattoos would look. I specifically tapped articles like this one that describe tattooing in Japan and one of its historical uses as a form of punishment (like, I know Fire Nation culture is a blend of more influences than just the Japanese, but for me that is the one that looms largest and the one I am most comfortable messing around with). They are not supposed to be beautiful, but rather distinctive enough to communicate the nature and severity of the crime.

The camellia tattoo on his forehead isn't very big, and probably more closely resembles this chanel logo than what you might expect for a floral design, but fully shaded in red and not a chanel logo. I can't find the image I was originally thinking of at the moment but oh well, we make do.

The dash marks on his arms, etc, don't have a specific configuration or influence. Their purpose is to just be extensive enough that Zuko would have a hard time hiding them, since many Fire Nation clothes are revealing, and the ones that aren't appear to be uniforms (the school uniforms in The Headband, Fire Army soldiers, etc) or status symbols (the royal family, Piandao, Mai's family - the rich can afford cool houses where they can wear out their silks without suffering heat strokes). I guess if you imagined Killmonger's scarification, but blank ink marks instead of raised scars, that would visually be within the same ballpark.

The three-strike bands have rl historical analogs, but those would be higher up the arm instead of starting at the wrists. Same style, otherwise, and serving the same purpose: this guy's three strikes are up, and if you arrest him you can kill him without consequences. So Zuko is in trouble if he runs afoul of Fire Nation law again, and he knows it.

Anyway, punitive tattoos fell in and out of use in the real world, and the same is true in the Pirate Prince. So far Zuko is the only person we have seen who has them, but if he keeps his current standard of company we may see others.

Man, I totally forgot to report that yesterday was update day. My bad.