everyone's bi

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

- 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.

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.

- 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.

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!)

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.

It's hard to be anywhere these days

When all I want is you...

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

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.

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