Picture A Cake. Even If You Don't Really Like Cake, Just Picture Your Favorite Flavor Of Cake. Now, Picture

Picture a cake. Even if you don't really like cake, just picture your favorite flavor of cake. Now, picture your favorite frosting. Pretend it's the most amazing frosting in the world. You absolutely love it. When you put your favorite cake flavor together with the most impeccable arrangement of the frosting, it's the best cake in the entire world. But here's the thing. The frosting, no matter how amazing and delicious, is always going to be lacking something without the cake. The cake is the backbone of the confection. If the cake is terrible, dry, and disgusting, the frosting is going to suffer because of this. If the cake is made with crappy ingredients and hastily slopped together because of a time crunch, it's not going to be a good cake. And maybe that's not the baker's fault, but the people telling the bakers to cut costs and bake faster. And maybe the people in charge are trying to use more and more machines so that the cake is mass-produced...but not nearly as good as the phenomenal cake that the baker could make with the proper ingredients and time.

Now replace the word cake with the word script.

The writers are the backbone of a show or movie. No matter how good the acting, CGI, special effects, music, etc. are, it's going to be not as good because of the lack of a good script.

The writers are quite literally the reason that these big movie corporations are able to make money. And, as an actor myself, I can say firsthand that crappy scripts are the worst to act with, because it's hard to connect with the characters and phrases when it's just not flowing properly or has depth.

Don't replace writers with AI. Don't pay your writers minimum wage.

They are the reason that TV shows and movies are good.

Actors, CGI artists, composers, set designers, costume designers, we are the frosting. We build off what the writers have made.

Appreciate writers.

For Fic purposes...

Link to prequel fic I'm writing:

Before We Fell Apart - Chapter 1 - Canon_Can_Go_Away - The Owl House (Cartoon) [Archive of Our Own]

TDP SEASON 5 RELEASED EARLY THIS IS NOT A DRILL REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Well, as I have mention before I have an AO3 account and this is basically my invitation for all of you TOH obsessed people to go and check it out. Ao3 is the best! The Owl House definitely needs a prequel series so this is my attempt at writing one. Can you guys check it out? Hits, Kudos, and Comments are the best thing ever. Of course, if it's not your style, that's fine. Unfortunately I probably won't be updating more than once a week. The summer might see more posts, I don't know yet. Filler chapters will be a thing but they all will have an actual plot. Of course, Raeda will be the main ship, as well as Aladarius. Raine is the biggest flirt with Eda and I will not be convinced otherwise. Harvey and Gilbert Park will appear too! I've also put Steve in the fic but he might be a little too young. Dana did such a great job with this show I'll never get over it. Disney screwed us over with the shortened season 3. Eda's backstory is so fascinating and I want more of it. Needless to say, I hope that I'm doing this character a good job of representing them accurately. My writing schedule is so chaotic though. Eda is my favorite to write, I'm getting all of the chaos I never dared to do out through her. Sometimes Lilith is my favorite though, I really relate to her. Steve is a cinnamon role, and I will always love him. And Darius puts up with so much in this fic it's amazing. Generally, it's a hilarious fic but does have a lot of angsty drama, mainly between the Aladarius and Odalia situation. Eda's curse is a big deal too. So, are you going to read it?

MWAH!

Love you guys!

Comment if you figured out the puzzle!

This is why I absolutely fucking love Rick Riordan. Uncle Rick to us all!

Rick Riordan’s response to the racism and hatred directed at Leah after she was cast as Annabeth:

“Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase”

“This post is specifically for those who have a problem with the casting of Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase. It’s a shame such posts need to be written, but they do. First, let me be clear I am speaking here only for myself. These thoughts are mine alone. They do not necessarily reflect or represent the opinions of any part of Disney, the TV show, the production team, or the Jeffries family.

The response to the casting of Leah has been overwhelmingly positive and joyous, as it should be. Leah brings so much energy and enthusiasm to this role, so much of Annabeth’s strength. She will be a role model for new generations of girls who will see in her the kind hero they want to be.

If you have a problem with this casting, however, take it up with me. You have no one else to blame. Whatever else you take from this post, we should be able to agree that bullying and harassing a child online is inexcusably wrong. As strong as Leah is, as much as we have discussed the potential for this kind of reaction and the intense pressure this role will bring, the negative comments she has received online are out of line. They need to stop. Now.

I was quite clear a year ago, when we announced our first open casting, that we would be following Disney’s company policy on nondiscrimination: We are committed to diverse, inclusive casting. For every role, please submit qualified performers, without regard to disability, gender, race and ethnicity, age, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other basis prohibited by law. We did that. The casting process was long, intense, massive and exhaustive.

I have been clear, as the author, that I was looking for the best actors to inhabit and bring to life the personalities of these characters, and that physical appearance was secondary for me. We did that.  We took a year to do this process thoroughly and find the best of the best. This trio is the best. Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase.

Some of you have apparently felt offended or exasperated when your objections are called out online as racist. “But I am not racist,” you say. “It is not racist to want an actor who is accurate to the book’s description of the character!”

Let’s examine that statement.

You are upset/disappointed/frustrated/angry because a Black actor has been cast to play a character who was described as white in the books. “She doesn’t look the way I always imagined.”

You either are not aware, or have dismissed, Leah’s years of hard work honing her craft, her talent, her tenacity, her focus, her screen presence. You refuse to believe her selection could have been based on merit. Without having seen her play the part, you have pre-judged her (pre + judge = prejudice) and decided she must have been hired simply to fill a quota or tick a diversity box. And by the way, these criticisms have come from across the political spectrum, right and left.

You have decided that I couldn’t possibly mean what I have always said: That the true nature of the character lies in their personality. You feel I must have been coerced, brainwashed, bribed, threatened, whatever, or I as a white male author never would have chosen a Black actor for the part of this canonically white girl.

You refuse to believe me, the guy who wrote the books and created these characters, when I say that these actors are perfect for the roles because of the talent they bring and the way they used their auditions to expand, improve and electrify the lines they were given. Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth, assuming you give her that chance, but you refuse to credit that this may be true.

You are judging her appropriateness for this role solely and exclusively on how she looks. She is a Black girl playing someone who was described in the books as white.

Friends, that is racism.

And before you resort to the old kneejerk reaction — “I am not racist!” — let’s examine that statement too.

If I may quote from an excellent recent article in the Boston Globe about Dr. Khama Ennis, who created a program on implicit bias for the Massachusetts Board of Registration for Medicine in Boston: “To say a person doesn’t have bias is to say that person isn’t human. It’s how we navigate the world … based on what we’re taught and our own personal histories.”

Racism/colorism isn’t something we have or don’t have. I have it. You have it. We all do. And not just white people like me. All people. It’s either something we recognize and try to work on, or it’s something we deny. Saying “I am not racist!” is simply declaring that you deny your own biases and refuse to work on them.

The core message of Percy Jackson has always been that difference is strength. There is power in plurality. The things that distinguish us from one another are often our marks of individual greatness. You should never judge someone by how well they fit your preconceived notions. That neurodivergent kid who has failed out of six schools, for instance, may well be the son of Poseidon. Anyone can be a hero.

If you don’t get that, if you’re still upset about the casting of this marvelous trio, then it doesn’t matter how many times you have read the books. You didn’t learn anything from them.

Watch the show or don’t. That’s your call. But this will be an adaptation that I am proud of, and which fully honors the spirit of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, taking the bedtime story I told my son twenty years ago to make him feel better about being neurodivergent, and improving on it so that kids all over the world can continue to see themselves as heroes at Camp Half-Blood.”

(x)

This is the only day you can reblog this.

On this day, May 21st, Philip Wittebane started recording his journey through the Boiling Isles.

"My journey through the Demon Realm is far from over. But today I humbly donate my journal to the ages. Entry One: May 21…I think. My Name is Philip Wittebane."