Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer...

++ R.I.P. Michelle Trachtenberg. :(

This came as quite a shock to read, it took several rereads of the headline before it sunk in. She was so young, around my age. I grew up with a lot of Michelle's work, from Harriet the Spy to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl, and some other things she made an appearance in here and there. Admittedly I hadn't been following her lately so I had no idea she had been unwell, and while nothing has been confirmed yet it does seem like it was probably due to recovery complications from getting a liver transplant recently, most likely adding to whatever issues she was having with her health. May she rest in peace.

++ Joann, the fabric and crafts store, is permanently going out of business and closing all stores.

I haven't been in there for some time, however I am very familiar with it since growing up I frequently went with my mom to various local fabric stores and Joann was one of those places. It's honestly sad, not just for the employees who are losing their jobs and for the customers who relied on the store for their fabrics and other craft needs, but I just think about all these long time businesses that have been closing in recent years. I feel like we keep seeing news reports of things filing for bankruptcy and then closing, either most locations or just going out of business completely. I know that it's normal with the economy we live in, not everything lasts forever, but it's still unfortunate all the same. Obviously, for those who are able to definitely support your small local businesses if you can. Also, fuck Hobby Lobby.

++ After some rumors, it has been officially confirmed by John Lithgow himself that he will be playing Albus Dumbledore in the HBO Harry Potter television series.

Now, I have absolutely no desire to watch this series for numerous reasons, but I find this casting to be deeply amusing. Mostly because I mainly know him as Dick Solomon from 3rd Rock from the Sun and upon reading this confirmation my immediate reaction was seeing Dick going, "Oh my God! I'm gorgeous!" (among the many hilarious moments of his character in that show, which is very underrated imho). Secondly, it's funny because he's American. I always thought that JKR was very strict on having an all-British casting call for any adaptation. It's just amusing, really. Either way, he's a good actor and seems confident and determined that this will be his last role of his career so, best of luck to him.

This year marks the 20th anniversaries of the premieres of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movie franchises, and some people have been reminiscing when they got into either one of them.

I remember not getting into Harry Potter (either the books or the movies) until after Sorcerer's Stone came out on VHS. My mom had rented it from the video rental store and had it on one night, I came into the room at a certain point and was so captivated by the story that when we had to pause to go to bed I was disappointed, but learning that it was a book series I wanted to read them. Chamber of Secrets was the first HP film that I saw in theaters, and it's around that point that I started getting into the online fandom. That's kind of how I ended up getting into Harry Potter way back when. I wasn't even aware that it was a book series until that point. As for Lord of the Rings, we went to see Fellowship of the Ring when it was still in theaters and I was captivated by the story as well, also having not read the Tolkien books. I remember being confused when the movie left off and then being told that this is just one of three because it's based off of a trilogy, and we would have to wait until the following year for more. I think we saw Fellowship of the Ring several more times in the theater.

In fact, for these franchises we saw each of the films released several times in the theaters, even going to the midnight premieres for a few of them.

Where were you when these franchises first made their film debuts? Did you see them in theaters? Wait until they were available to rent? Were you not interested until much later, or not at all?

++ Word of Honor is now available on Netflix! Much like The Untamed and Heaven Official's Blessing, it is based on a BL novel. Word of Honor came across my radar not too long ago since I've been following a lot of cdrama (and Asian drama in general) fandoms and I watched in real time people live-blogging as the episodes were released, and of course I had to wait until English subtitles were available on YouTube, but I enjoyed seeing people's reactions and seeing the gifs come out in real time as the drama was airing. I'm actually surprised that it got onto Netflix as quickly as it did, then again it has garnered a lot of attention, especially international attention, much like a lot of Asian drama lately, so naturally it would make sense. Of course Netflix doesn't have the greatest track record with subtitles, so I'll have to see what they get right and what they get hilariously wrong. Although it seems like they have only 36 episodes, since there are 37 total, but I wonder if they combined 36 and 37 because the latter is more of an epilogue that was specially filmed.

What's interesting is that Word of Honor got super lucky with passing the censorship laws since they definitely were very bold with pushing the envelope just a bit, since one of the mains is incredibly openly flirtatious with the other main to a shameless degree. And that's not even taking into account the scenes that were cut/altered (the broadcast versions versus the special versions) and the dubbing over their original lines the actors said (there are various videos on YT that specifically focus on lip-reading).

++ To share something happy with you all: Wang Zhuocheng (who played Jiang Cheng in The Untamed) is a massive fan of Harry Potter, and not too long ago he posted a video of him fanboying out over getting a Nimbus 2000 broom (click captions for English subs).

Now I know most of us have become disillusioned a bit by Harry Potter lately, mainly the author in particular, but watching his level of excitement and enthusiasm over getting a toy broom just brings me back to the height of my own fangirlishness when I first got heavily into the series when I was a teenager. I think the last time I had a similar level of excitement over a piece of merchandising from this world was when I bought the Percival Graves wand from the first Fantastic Beasts. And just watching him be so happy with the purchase makes me happy, and it reminds me of that feeling I had when I first started getting into that world and watching the films and reading the books and wanting to go to Hogwarts. I might not have that level of excitement anymore, but that love for the story and the characters still exists. So yeah, I just wanted to share this because it makes me smile, and he's absolutely adorable. :)

++ It's been announced that the last book of James S.A. Corey's The Expanse series is going to be called Leviathan Falls. A perfect bookend title, truly. This is the ninth and last book of the entire series, which will be released sometime in 2021. I know fans are excited for this, and it makes me hope that the show continues on long enough to adapt the entirety of the series.

++ Tatiana Maslany has been cast to be She-Hulk for Disney+. Honestly? Fantastic casting. I love Tatiana, she's incredibly talented (obviously, if you've seen her in Orphan Black you know). I'm just happy she's getting more recognition in general.

++ The trailer dropped for Hogwarts: Legacy, the first open world RPG video game for the Harry Potter franchise that will be released in 2021.

I know that it's been claimed that JKR isn't involved with the game, but the reality is that she still profits off of anything Wizarding World related, whether she was involved in the production of something or not. It's a delicate time right now concerning Joke Karen and her public bigoted antics, with many fans questioning whether or not they should even engage or buy anything HP-related anymore as to not support her, that debate has been going on for a long while now, even more so in recent months. It's a complicated situation where neither I, nor anyone else, can tell people what to do in that regard. With that being said, an RPG game centered around Harry Potter is something many fans have been wanting for years, and it's kind of amazing that we're finally getting it now. Hell, I remember thinking that Pottermore was going to be that and was sourly disappointed when it wasn't. Because let's be honest, the Wizarding World in itself is massive and the possibilities are endless with exploring that world and everything else in between.

So yeah, the trailer certainly looks good and interesting, though I'll have to wait to see footage of actual gameplay since cinematic trailers for video games are often quite different and may not actually reflect the final product itself. So we shall see if it lives up to the hype.

++ Well done with the movie quote meme, I named all the correctly guessed movies along with who guessed them. And here are the reveals of the last remaining ones that didn't get guessed: 01. Saw, said by John Kramer/Jigsaw, 03. Ginger Snaps, said by Ginger Fitzgerald, 10. A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, said by Freddy Krueger, 11. Noriko's Dinner Table, said by Broken Dam, and 12. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, said by Thorin Oakenshield.

Either way, this meme was fun to participate in, on both sides. It made me miss the days when similar fannish memes were posted on the regular.

++ Hearing that a Nashville school has banned and removed the Harry Potter books from the library due to the claim that the spells and curses in them are real and can actually "conjure evil spirits" is terrifyingly hilarious. What is this, 1999? Bringing me wayyy back during the early days when religious/conservative groups would literally hold book burnings when the HP books were becoming popular, using these claims precisely. Forbidding and banning children from reading them in fear that they would be converted to witchcraft or commune with the devil. I have no doubt that people who hold these views have never stopped believing them and that these kinds of "Satanic Panics" will always happen regardless, but jfc, the fact that it's 2019 and people are still trying this? Especially with Harry Potter being one of the biggest pop culture phenomenons for many, many years now? It's just so bizarre. Yes, I know that it's said that it's a Catholic school and all, but still, it's making headlines so seriously, what the hell. But as ridiculous as it is and we all want to mock, it's still very sad seeing these kinds of controlling measures to censor things by those who cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality. It's a dangerous slippery slope, we've seen this time and again with the books that are on the challenged list, educational books that have been removed from libraries because some "concerned parent" wants to control what everyone else reads, or anything else in the media for that matter, instead of minding their own damn business.