realizing I never dumped the rest of the Poe Party headshots here!!! pls enjoy Nicolette as Poe, Me as George, Michael as HG, Alexei as Mary, Shelby as Eddie, Tu as Ernest, Emily as Emily (ha), Mariah as Oscar, and Lara as Annabel
I spent the morning giffing Lenore in the first episode of Poe Party because… reasons. And I accidentally ended up with 50+ gifs so these are just ten of the best ones (it was so hard cause honestly all her facial expressions give me LIFE)
I have a specific answer that leads to a more general, overarching answer. Hopefully you won’t mind. It’s long (of course), so here’s a cut.
Specific answer: It was the point after I’d arrived, and circled the block to try to find parking, and ended up at the Vons across the street, and done the long crosswalk one way, and then while waiting to cross the second long crosswalk to the theater had a group of young women walk up behind me, including some doing cosplay, and in particular @suchspiritedwords, with whom I’d messaged earlier in the day about the event, and who I immediately recognized from her awesome HG goggles, but they were having their own conversation, and I was dealing with the big scary crosswalk, and the even scarier prospect of all those people on the far side of it, and since I was there by myself and feeling even more awkward and out of place than usual I didn’t say anything or introduce myself, but just did my best impression of a normal-dude-not-at-all-awkward-just-standing-here-all-calm-and-normal, and the light changed, and I crossed, and there was a short line to buy tickets at the ticket table, and ohmygod MK was behind the table selling tickets and Sean was standing there in an adorable bowtie and there was Sarah and there was Sinead and oh look there’s Joey and there’s David Cater (with whom I’d also corresponded earlier in the day about coming to the event) and just be cool it’s no big deal and then David came over and went up to the group of cosplayers who were standing behind me and said, “I just wanted to tell you how much I love your HG!” and @suchspiritedwords said to him “Oh! Are you Lies?”
There was a lot more after that. But in playing it back in my head that’s the moment that stands out.
More general, overarching answer: It was how the evening reminded me of my mom. Which needs some explanation.
Later in her life she got really into Star Trek (in particular Captain Picard). It was a neat thing to be able to share that with her. One time we had a family get-together to go to an early showing of one of the movies, and I think it was during the trailers, with the geeky and enthusiastic crowd really getting into it and laughing and shouting at the screen, when my mom turned to my brother and said, “Oh, Davey. These are my people.”
We still talk about that moment. I think it was my sister who mentioned it at the memorial, and then just a few months ago we had a reunion in honor of her birthday when we all went to see Star Trek Beyond together, so it was on my mind. And it’s this thing about how a fandom can feel sometimes. I had some negative experiences around the issue of family growing up; nowhere near as bad as many people, I realize, but there were a lot of divorces and disruptions and just a general feeling of being shunted around, of being a kid waiting alone in bus stations. And some of that (maybe a lot of it) is just me, how I am, but it’s connected to those memories.
So I knew I was going to feel awkward and out of place at the Poe Party screening. But I really wanted to be there anyway, to be part of it. And at least for me it’s more the anticipation of the awkwardness that’s scary. It’s like when you’re standing on the edge of a pool and you know you should just jump in but you need to screw up your courage to do it.
So when David Cater came up and spoke to @suchspiritedwords behind me, and she said, “Oh! Are you Lies?”, that was my moment. Because it felt like the universe was conspiring to help me screw up my courage and take the plunge.
“Um, no,” I said. “He’s David Cater. I’m Lies.”
And she said, “Oh, Lies! Hi!” and David spun toward me and said, “Lies! Hi!” And as it happened that exact moment was when it was my turn to buy my ticket, so I sort of just blushed and waved and turned toward the table, and MK was already grinning at me, and she said, “Lies! You’re real!” and Sean shook my hand and it was the best thing ever. And the rest of the evening was the same; a little awkward, sure, but exciting and surreal, seeing all these people, creators and fans alike, people I’ve followed for years who are legitimate celebrities to me, even if the larger world hasn’t necessarily figured out how awesome they are yet. And sitting in the theater, chatting excitedly with the woman next to me (who it turns out is part of @betwixtproductions, working on a webseries called Horizons that I hadn’t heard of before but totally will be checking out now), watching Poe Party together with everyone, laughing at the jokes and holding our collective breath when Wells and Lenore looked at each other in the attic and applauding like crazy at the end, it made me think about my mom, and about family. Because these were my people.
This is the face this person made after he did all of his first two episode lines at the head of the table (by himself, mind you), and I yelled “I love you!” in front of the whole room. I couldn’t be prouder of this, the most wonderful Poe. #poeparty
Okay. Okay, I can do this. Okay. I’m not saying goodbye to Poe Party or anything because I hate goodbyes and also you can’t really say goodbye to a concept and also we have lots of things like bloopers and other Shipwrecked work to look forward to so I’m not going anywhere.
But I have so much to say but I also have work in the morning so this will have to be quick but you guys should know by now with me these posts are never quick
Last year, my friend @pansexual-link-larkin aka Daisy, showed me Her Thing: it was a web series called 12th Grade or Whatever. It’s a contemporary version of Twelfth Night which is Daisy’s favorite Shakespearean play. And let me tell you, Daisy loved this web series. She was obsessed with it. Still is. She made gifs all the time, she forced me to let me watch it with her so we’d understand all the jokes, and she posted theories about it constantly.
And I looked at that and thought, Wow. I wonder what it’s like to have something that is so Yours, so For You.
And then.
We can all guess what happened next.
When this dropped, I texted Daisy and I was so excited, I was incoherent. Finally, after weeks of mild depression and anxiety and panic attacks and ickiness, I had something that was not only My Thing, but was also a lot of other people’s Things too! So I had both a new obsession and a new community to share that obsession with. And that’s been the best part of this whole Thing, y’know?
To put it another way.
Most of my friends grew up with Harry Potter. But being Catholic, my parents weren’t too keen on the books until I was older. So I didn’t get to wait for it to update. I arrived late to the poe party, as it were. I couldn’t write any theories because everything was pretty much already canon, and even if I could’ve written theories, I wouldn’t have been able to because everything that I was thinking had already been said. The gifs had all already been made and re-made and made to death. And as for fanfiction, well, I just didn’t have enough umph to write anything that was actually original.
But then, Poe Party happened.
And I wrote my very first ever fanfiction based off of this.
And I made my first gifs of this.
And I wrote my first fan theories about this.
And I got to watch this update, and wait with baited breath with a bunch of internet strangers who are all really cool and fun.
And I got to write about this. I got to connect with the creators of this. I got to watch this firsthand, be at or near the front lines of it all. And it’s been like having my own Harry Potter.
A lot of people have stories about how their favorite Things have brought them out of dark places, and I’ve said this before, but Poe Party is that Thing for me, and you’ll never know how much it has meant to me–– to all of us.
So on behalf of the whole fandom (if I may dare to even consider myself the voice of the fandom) I want to thank the entire Poe Party cast, crew, and little world for everything you have made and will make for us. And to have made it so quickly and so well and so wonderfully is truly amazing. I’m so proud of all of you and I love what you have made and I just ugh I have no words.
This is definitely not the end. We’ll all still share stuff and make stuff and it’ll be wonderful but I just wanted to give you guys a little finale post.
also i was just watching the livestream and Mary Kate and Sarah gave me a shoutout and guys it made my whole life ugh i cry i love you guys okay i have to go now.
Much love.
Yes! We’ll continue to love and support Shipwrecked Comedy. Whether it be fan fiction, gif sets, cosplay or fan art! Heck I tell my friends to watch it all the time@
I have a lot of feelings. Being in several fandoms that are over but still very much alive, I know we can do this.
There’s also this: Unlike some bigger sorts of creations, which are really more like short-lived businesses than anything else, where a team comes together to make their thing and then ceases to exist, there’s a decent chance that Shipwrecked will “keep the band together” (more or less) in moving on to their next thing, whatever that turns out to be. In which case there’s no reason why the fandom would need to go away, or limit itself to swapping stories around the campfire. We can be fans of the new thing.
The last episode is this coming Monday, October 31, at 9 am Pacific (4 pm UTC, I believe). It is very much possible, and highly recommended, to watch all the show so far before then.
There have been 10 episodes of about 7-20 minutes’ length each. Warnings for (mostly comic/cartoon-y) live-action depiction of murder.
http://ift.tt/2cCyec7 is the canonical starting point for the show itself, with the playlist.
After a cut because possibly spoiler-y but let’s be honest mostly because I always turn out to be wrong. Concealment will save me embarrassment later.
None of the chapters so far have been named for “The Raven”, so I’m predicting that’s going to be the final chapter’s title.
We know from the podcast that in addition to playing Guy, Curt Mega was their “fight choreographer”, so I’m expecting some kind of choreographed climactic battle in Chapter 11. I think Poe will be central in that battle. Will he be fighting for his own life? Fighting to save the life/lives of others? Will Ernest use a knife? Will the pet rock/muffin be involved? No idea.
I’ve gone back and forth on dead Eddie. When we learned of Anne’s existence I initially thought that meant Eddie really was dead because we no longer needed him to be alive for Charlotte to have a secret accomplice. I’ve gone back on that now: I again think he’s alive. We need a strapping opponent so there can be that climactic battle with manly fisticuffs/knives/rock-muffins. Also, Anne doesn’t seem big enough to have overpowered Annabel on the bridge or known-to-her enough to have caused her to walk forward as if she knew him/her. Also, Krishanti looked _up_ at her killer as she was being strangled with the phone cord.
Deaths/resurrections:
I loved the theory that all the deaths are fake, an elaborate prank the guests have foisted on Poe, and they’d all pop up alive again in the finale. Alas, I think we’ve come too far for that. At the same time, some resurrections may be in order. Besides Eddie, whom I suspect of being alive for important plot/antagonist reasons, bringing one or more characters back would help create the happy ending a comedy wants to have.
As much as I’d love endgame Wellenore to be a thing, I don’t expect HG to return. They laid enough groundwork with the time-travel references for it to happen, but I feel like it would undercut the story’s focus on Poe to bring HG back at this point. Hm. Except it’s Lenore’s story, too, and she deserves resolution. Okay: 10% chance of Wellenore, either via time travel or ghostly incorporeal HG. If it happens, 100% chance of precipitation on my side of the monitor.
I’m more hopeful for Annabel. The story has worked hard lately to set up Annapoe. Poe was distraught at her death; how carefully did he confirm it? He carried her back and laid her down just so on that divan; I’m nursing a hope that after the big battle there’s going to be a stirring and a faint “Edgar?” And then a shot of Poe’s realization-face, and not a dry eye in the house at the midnight screening.
That’s all I’ve got! Looking forward to being wrong one last time!
Oh, actually, one final prediction: There will be surprises I didn’t see coming _at all_, but that are perfect and awesome and oh-man-I-should-have-seen-that after the fact. And I’ll love it and it will be awesome.
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees by Edmund Dulac
(French, 1882-1953)
from The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe, 1912.
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained;
They would not go – they never yet have gone;
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since;
They follow me – they lead me through the years.
Possibly spoiler-y discussion of deciphering the clues in the PoeParty YouTube descriptions after a cut.
So, if you’ve been following along, you know that if you take all the capitalized letters from the author quotes toward the bottom of the Poe Party YouTube descriptions and string them together, you get the following string as of today’s Chapter 10:
VWNADK KWS
If you rotate that forward 8 characters, it turns into:
DEVILS SEA
…with one character remaining.
The following are all the words in a standard Unix dictionary that are 4 characters long and begin with “sea”:
seah
seak
seal
seam
sear
seat
seax
Of those, “seal” and “seat” seem like the likeliest possibilities. Interestingly, the Poe short story “The Gold Bug” features a detailed account of a parchment that uses a similar substitution cipher, where the deciphered message ends up being this:
A good glass in the Bishop’s hostel in the Devil’s seat – forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes – northeast and by north – main branch seventh limb east side – shoot from the left eye of the death’s-head – a bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.
Later, a character in the story figures out that “Devil’s seat” refers to a particular local landmark:
While I was busied in reflection, my eyes fell upon a narrow ledge in the eastern face of the rock, perhaps a yard below the summit upon which I stood. This ledge projected about eighteen inches, and was not more than a foot wide, while a niche in the cliff just above it gave a rude resemblance to one of the hollow-backed chairs used by our ancestors. I made no doubt that here was the ‘devil’s seat’ alluded to in the MS., and now I seemed to grasp the full secret of the riddle.
I’m not sure this is going to go any further, or if I’m even on the right track, but that’s what I’ve got so far. Anyone with ideas, please share!
